Back in the motherland

Yello!

It's been about 2 weeks since I've been back, lemme fill ya in on what I've been up to.

Well the first obvious thing is WORK. They've been kind enough to give me MORE hours to make up for the weeks I've been out. Today was no exception. While pretty much everyone else on base is out -celebrating Memorial Day, I've been chosen to work at the Teen Center! What teen is going to come to the teen center? I ask myself and lo and behold, not a minute after I think this, in walks two boys -ready to play PS3. The teen center is actually pretty cool. I don't really have to DO anything! I just gotta hang around and make sure they don't do anything bad -like play Halo (apparently playin' it will getcha kicked out of here) or making-out (you know teenagers and their "raging hormones!") Plus if I get bored just sitting around, I can play pool, check my email or type up my blog! ;)

Anywho I gotta tell ya about how it's been at work lately with the littler kids. You know, the kids I USUALLY work with. It has been surprisingly GREAT! And I'm not even being sarcastic! On the day I got back, the kids were all shouting, "Yay! Miss Maggie's back! We missed you!" They even fought with eachother to hug me first! haha silly kids. Oh, and they've been REALLY easy to manage! What's up with that?! I dunno if my trip gave me new perspective or the kids have just started to really trust me and are no longer trying to challenge me, but they've been great! I mean sure, they still misbehave at times, but it's like not a big deal anymore. All I need to do is be really straight up with them or just give them "the look" and they straighten right out! wow. Who knew I had that ability! It's a trip, even if I have to be "unsweet" to them at times, they still like me? Everyday they want to play a game that I make up or request me to help them with their homework! weeeeird.

But then I started wondering about that marketing job. How come they havent called me yet? Did the position get filled? Then I thought, man, I'm really going to miss these kids if I DO get that job!

After about a week, even Daniel started asking me what the deal was with the marketing job. I had no idea. I even emailed the HR lady (who also happens to be from hawaii) asking her if I needed to adjust anything on my application to just get SOME kind of response! But apparently she was on vacation.

Then a couple days ago, daniel suggested I get started with my own little t-shirt design collection and try selling them around town. I thought this would be a great way for me to still be able to do a little design work (and make some extra monies) while I'm working at the youth center. But sure enough, that same day, I finally got the call from marketing.

They wanted me to interview THAT DAY. More precisely, in 1.5 hours! I calmly and happily agreed. Then I hung up and flew about the house like a tornado. I had to quickly gather whatever (dated) portfolio work I had, take gir out to go pooping, took a quick shower and dive into my closet -to find the most interview-worthy clothes I could find- and make it to the interview at LEAST 5 minutes early (cause it just looks better that way, don'tcha think?) I made it there 10 minutes early and walked slowly up the steps to the building so that I wouldnt be out of breath when I introduced myself.

The interview went pretty well, I'd say. We talked and discussed my (again, dated) work and talked sommore. The interview lasted for an hour-fifteen. Two people were there to interview me. Alisson, the lady from hawaii, and the accountant guy, Dan. I've heard a lot about Dan. I heard he was kind of a jerk. But I guess I was lucky, he seemed alright to me! I think he tried to stump me a couple times tho -with technical questions and such... but psshhh whatever, ain't no thang! ;D

After it was over, I asked Alisson how many other people they were looking at, she said they had 10 other applicants to meet. But an hour-fifteen long, that's a good sign right? But hey, I didn't have time to think about that, I had to get work! I had 15 minutes to grab lunch and speed over to the youth center. I didn't have time to change clothes.

When I walked into work, Miss Ruth and Miss Yoko took one look at my "get-up" and knew right away where I had been. "Why are you dressed up? Oh, I know, you went to an interview huh? Waaaah." They're so funny. For every sign, decoration or idea I come up with, they'd say, "See? why do you haftu leave?! we need you here! maybe you can work both places?" I told them that I don't even know if I got the job yet, but they seem pretty certain that I did. :\

New Subject: Asian Pacific Heritage Month.
So apparently that's the theme for this month. Last Friday, a bunch of teachers and staff dressed up in their "cultural" best. Miss Yoko and Miss Seika wore japanese yukatas. They looked REALLY cute. Miss Ruth wore a pretty chinese dress. Miss Anita wore a traditional filipino outfit and Miss Crystal wore this fantastic indian outfit (bindi-on-the-forehead kine). A bunch of teens and other staff dressed up too. They even had a bunch of Hawaii people dressed up! It was then, that I was faced with a decision to make. Dress Japanese? or dress Hawaiian?

After discovering that my japanese yukata was practically an advertisement for Asahi Draft Beer, I had but no choice to wear the bright flowery pareo/sarong/lava lava (whatever you want to call it) that I had bought on a trip with the girls in Maui years ago. Boy, did I look weird. I, of course just HAD TO topped it off by placing a pair of bright orange and yellow, fake, easter lilies on my ear. Cheeehu! Strangely, the outfit was well recieved by japanese AND hawaii-folks alike! whew!

There were a bunch of neat performances there too. They had some Hula dances, a tahitian dance, the Ukulele club (yep! an ukulele club! -daniel is thinking about joining it) played "Surf," a Filipino stick dance, a Morrocan (I think?) dance and a couple others. They had a bunch of yummy foods too. I brought mini spam musubi -they were well recieved (especially by the hawaii folk!) I focused my apetite on the pancit, spring rolls and kinako mochi!

And now we come to this weekend. Kayaking class! The weather was really shitty this weekend. Overcasty all day and frequent showers. But even with the crappy weather, they didn't cancel the class. Although we pretty much already know how to kayak, over here, you need to be "officially certified" in order to even rent them. But even with the cruddy weather, it was SOOO much fun! At the edge of Sasebo, there are all these little tree-covered islands scattered about along the coast. We weaved around these little islands and took in the sights. The sky was like a light gray/white so the scenery looked lush and kinda dreamy. Plus it was nice and cool since there was no sun beating down on us. The first place we kayaked to was a little bay-like area surrounded by three islands. There, we were trained to recover from capsizing. I in particular was pretty proud of myself since I was ahead of all these buff, macho military boys. But of course, after we had our lunch on one of the islands, my wimpyness kicked in, and I trailed behind everyone on the way back :( But Daniel was sweet enough to hang back with me and cheer me on so that I wouldn't give up. Whatta guy! But man, my arms were like cabbage! A quarter of the way back, I started thinking about the yummy bananas-n-creme flavored Muscle Milk I was going to reward myself with when we got home. I'm such a dork.

When we finally made it back to port, the instructer guy, Walter (who, by the way, has to be like in his 60s, blew us all out of the water -he was SUPER fast and had to stop a bunch of times for EVERYONE to catch up! dayum.) Anywho, Walter picked up a jellyfish that happened to be floating by and said that these were pretty harmless. He then handed it to one of the guys. It was slimey... there was all this gooey mucusy stuff dripping from it -ew. But I wanted to hold it too! So I eagerly put my hands out. He plopped it in my hand. Weeiird! Felt like what a silicone boob would feel like! About the same size too... but slimey :\
But then, after a few seconds I felt a bit of a tingle! A prickly, rather stingy kind of tingle! EEEK! I told Walter, "Uhm... I think this thing CAN sting! cause uhh.. I feels it -it's not nice!!!" He replied, "Oh, well then, I guess you have delicate hands! Yeah, some people say they can feel a little tingle!" Guhreat. So I gently tossed it back into the water and watched it drift away.

That's it for this maggie post! Catchu later!