Thursday, June 03, 2010

Odds and Ends Thursday 54

News came through this afternoon: next Monday is a national holiday to honor the World Champion Manu Samoa Seven. The Term That Wouldn’t Begin continues to elude. Teachers from my school met this morning to begin the process of compiling grades. It went well, and we’re almost done, but classes won’t start before next Wednesday—a week and a half after the scheduled start of the term. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:
  • After Tuesday morning’s parade, I jokingly mentioned hitting up breakfast at McDonald’s. As it turns out, Maengi is a big fan of McDonald’s breakfast. So we went. Maengi and Thanpuii both ordered bacon egg McMuffins; I went for the sausage egg. The cashier got the order backwards, apologized, and gave us a free sandwich. I was happy.
  • Dustin introduced me to “Freaks and Geeks” while he was here. I like it a lot. Funny to see how the Apatow gang got its start.
  • I was pretty pumped when the lady at SouthPac Rentals told me the car was a manual. Although I was a little nervous the steering wheel would be on the left. Would the gears on the gear-shift be in the same place, or would they be mirrored? That is, would first gear be on the upper left or upper right? Fortunately the car was left-hand drive. Later in the week I was in a right-hand drive taxi, and his gears were not mirrored.
  • The Curry House is probably my favourite restaurant in Samoa. And that seems to be a common sentiment among Peace Corps and Peace Corps visitors. If you’re planning a trip here, make room for it on your itinerary.
  • Speaking of Peace Corps visitors, there are a lot in town right now. Blakey’s family, Cassie 82’s family, and Kaelin 82’s sister. Koa’s brother just left on the same plane with Jordan’s brother and my friend Dustin. Phil’s family was in the week before that. There’s a bunch I’m forgetting.
  • For some reason my laptop’s CD/DVD drive is refusing to load the driver CD so I can print from my school secretary’s computer. But then I plugged in the printer cable anyway, and it worked anyway.
  • I fell and cut my knee pretty bad Tuesday night. It’s not a big deal except for I’m supposed to run a 10k on Saturday, and I’m worried my bruised knee won’t be functional. I brought a nylon knee support sleeve from America, so I’ll probably use that. I’ll be fine.
  • The scroll wheel on my mouse doesn’t work anymore. You don’t know how integral that scroll wheel is until it’s gone.
  • I downloaded Jack Johnson’s new album “To the Sea” yesterday. I like “From the Clouds”.
  • Supy and I stopped and chatted with a guy named Ti who works at Aggie Grey’s on our walk home tonight. The kid was funny, talking up women from his village, Leauvaa, and enquiring about the women of Fiji when he noticed Supy wearing a souvenir t-shirt (Claire bought that shirt for me, says Supy. Give her a shout-out.)
  • While we were in Hawai’i my mom bought a cat carrier that I’ll eventually use to bring Scout back to America. I’ve set the box out, and the cat’s taken quite a liking. She often uses it as cover, so when you walk by she springs out and attacks your ankles. Ambush.
That’s all I got for this week. I hope you’re well. Pictures below.


The Siva Afi Fire Dancing Competition is going on now. I went tonight with Supy, Jordan, Rachel, and Lily.


Fire dancer.


There was an American from North Carolina in tonight's competition. He wore an American flag 'ie.

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