...and I thought my brother was bad!

Whew! First full week of classes and I am wiped! I do feel a lot more prepared and natural than last year though. I'm not as nervous for classes that I don't feel prepared for and the kids no longer scare me. Yes, you heard me right. My first year of teaching I had a very real fear of children. Not of all adolescents in general or anything, just any adolescent that had the detriment of taking my class. Maybe I had first time jitters, maybe it was worrying about acceptance, maybe it was repressed memories from my past about how hard elementary and middle school was, I don't know. I just know that entering the school campus and being around high school kids, even during my student-teaching experience, kind of made me have a little shortness of breath. The thing is is back when, when I was younger, that kind of fear would paralyze me whereas now that kind of fear fuels me to continue on and gives me the energy to be the person that I am today. I'm one of those freaks that likes scary movies for this reason. They give me energy and make me so much more excited about the world around me.

So, like last year, at the beginning of the year is when the students that don't have English names get to choose their English name. This is a very important part of the curriculum because to a teenager a new name is a very exciting and identifying moment so I take it seriously as well. I usually give them some sheets of paper that list different English names, whether they are boy or girl names and what they mean to facilitate this activity but only a handful of the students actually use them. Mostly the students will think of names of things that they have heard in the media that define popular and/or in-style feelings that make their name unique to themselves. Now we do the same thing in our culture when we choose names for our children. My brother and his wife I thought were numero uno when it comes to inventing different exotic and inventive variations on a name to name their kids which I have mocked them for in the past. But my kids make them look like mere amateurs! I will get names like Apple, milk, milk tea, chocolate, double-egg, hot, sugar, and coffee. If you thought that those were weird though, I'm just getting started. Just this year I have students named Prada, Nike, Adidas, Kappa, Fire Truck, Coach, a girl named Converse and a guy named Chanel (as in #5). I even had a girl that wanted to be named Victoria Secret but I talked her down to the name Secret. But at least those are actually real things. Then we get into the names that are just noises. In one class alone I have the name Lu-lu, mu-mu, Yo-mo, Mo-mo, Schmo-mo, Nichun (pronounced Nick-yun), and Ilo (prounounced YO!). I mean every time I think that they have gone over the line and I should tell them that that is not a name I am brought back to my dear brother and others in America who are likewise as creative and I think, "I've heard of rappers being named worse." The one student that takes the cake though, that I finally did interject and tell her that she could not have this name, was a sweet little girl who wanted to be named Pee-pee. That's right, PEE-PEE! I lost it right in the middle of class and almost fell over I was laughing so hard. The truly horrible thing is that when I explained to her that her name was the name for urine she didn't seem at all phased. I made her change it to Emily instead.

On a more serious note, I have really enjoyed coming back to this island. I have so many people here that I love and have made so many friends that it was hard to be away in America for that short two month period. I'm starting to feel what it is going to be like when I have to leave here and I don't like it. I might be setting myself up for not being satisfied with any job that doesn't either have some kind of traveling out of the country or makes me enough money that I can travel out of the country as much as I want. Now I can see why some people don't want to really venture away to live too far from home, because then the people you develop relationships with can be close enough to go and visit frequently. This having good close friends in countries halfway across the world kind of sucks. Maybe this is Heavenly Father motivating me to be successful in anything that I do so that I can have the freedom to stay close with all of these amazing people. Whatever does happen I've seen that no matter if you are or you aren't near those people that you really love, Heavenly Father takes care of them for you. I'm so grateful for his guiding hand, not only in my life but in the lives of the friends and family that I care about a lot. Heavenly Father does answer prayers of protection as long as we pray with faith.