Spring Break

I've obviously got some blog backlog here since spring break happened about a month ago! Better late than never, though, as I often tell my students. Spring break was pretty relaxing and low key. I spent most of it in American Samoa just doing things I can't normally do during the day. Quinn and I hiked up to Aloao which is where the Snow Boyz hail from. I think I mentioned them in a previous blog. It's a pretty long walk up there, but there are really great views. And it does seem to be a little bit cooler and the air is a little bit crisper, although it might just be that it feels good to finally get to the top and not be trekking up a steep hill in the sun anymore. From the top you can see down into the villages and all the way out to the water. It would be an awesome place to have a zipline.

Panoramic view from the top of Aloao

The view across from our hotel room in Apia

Quinn and I then had plans to travel to Western Samoa for 3 nights, leaving on Tuesday and coming back on Friday. We made reservations for the flight on the phone about a month in advance, as usual, but didn't play for our tickets until we showed up at the airport on the day we were supposed to leave, also as usual. However, the women working at the desk told us our reservation had been canceled. Why? Because we hadn't paid for our flights 48 hours in advance. This was strange because we had done this exact same thing, same airline, same destination, at least twice before, and we knew for a fact that friends of ours had also done the same thing earlier that morning so it wasn't like it was just a new rule.

So this was a pretty frustrating, but also not a very surprising turn of events. After talking to woman at the desk some more (this was only her first week working which also seemed suspicious) about how this could have happened and asking what our flight options were now, and after several shouted phone conversations through bad connections to change hotel reservations in Apia, we were pretty sure that we could do the same trip but move it back 2 days. We would now be leaving on Thursday and coming back on Sunday. Then we got on the bus and went back home. On Thursday we grabbed our already packed backpacks and headed back to the airport to try again. We made it onto the flight this time!

The highlight of our trip was probably all our visits to the huge markets of Apia. The market in Pago Pago is nothing compared to the markets in Apia. There are endless aisles of fabric, lava lavas, dresses, earrings, fans, necklaces, kava bowls, and anything else you could imagine could be made out of either coconut or fabric and sold to tourists. Quinn and I had a great time, if a bit overwhelming, trying to pick out gifts for all our friends and family back home.

The turtle-shaped swimming pool

As I said, the main point of this trip was to go to the markets and to relax. We enjoyed swimming at the pool at our hotel. This was the first time we had been able to wear actual bathing suits in a really long time. We were very cautious at first, checking to see if anyone else was at the pool, what they were wearing, if they were samoan. We had a long conversation about whether it would be better to be seen wearing a bikini if it was inappropriate, or to be seen swimming in shorts and t-shirts (the Samoan bathing suit) if bathing suits, were, in fact, considered normal. Either way we would turn out to be the stupid tourists. Thankfully there weren't very many people at the pool.

Another essential part of our relaxing was delicious food. Actually we ended up eating at the same restaurant 3 times in a row! But we ordered different things each time and were always more than satisfied with the food, the prices, and the atmosphere. It was located right next to our hotel and had a great view of the harbor. We also enjoyed some local beer! Valima is popular here, too, but for some reason it tasted infinitely better while on vacation. It's really not very good so we hardly ever drink it, but it's cheap and we're on a budget!

Some banana fritters we shared for dessert!

Our lunch one day: giant coke and banana bread

Also during our trip we ended up seeing 2 movies at the theater that was within walking distance of our hotel. There's not that much to do at night or on Sundays so we thought we might as well enjoy the theatre while we could. One of the movies we saw was 21 Jump Street which was hilarious and I highly recommended it.

On Sunday afternoon we met up with one of Quinn's Samoan friends whom she might while studying abroad in New Zealand. She gave us a little tour of Apia in her car and took us to get ice cream at a little place near the harbor (I had passion fruit, yum!). She was really cool and it was nice to meet her and I'm sure it was great for Quinn to see her after 3 years.

View of American Samoa from the plane

We had such a nice, relaxing time that we didn't really want to come back and start teaching again the next day, but, of course, we did. It was pretty hard for me and the students to get back into the swing of things after break. A lot of students just check out after spring break and think that school is pretty much over. As the fourth quarter continues, I am seeing where this attitude comes from. We have so many holidays, special events, standardized tests, and other things that there really aren't that many instructional days left. Only 6 more weeks to go!