Reflection #15

Last week was one the most stressing week for me. I have been busy catching up on my assignments and it makes my life suck. So far so good though. I have come to know that waiting for the last minute is not a good thing for students like me. Doing all assignments at one time caused me no good. Now, I know that I should not wait till the last minute and do my assignments.
In class, the shyest student in our class made his class activity. From what he did in class, I know that shy students are capable of doing things. It is just that they are shy. When the boy did his class activity, I didn't believe that he'd do it. But because the in class activity worth his grades, he went on and did it. This makes me think that even the shyest kid can do whatever that active and talkative kid can. What he did in class left us audiences in pause and wonder. For me, I was like, what have gotten into him today? He is so energetic. This is what I want every other shy students to do and should aim for.

Holiday Spirit

Humming of the birds, there goes the singers. It was late when I got home from work. As I was walking down the street, cars and all other kinds of vehicles were gather near a church. I could hear the sounds of instruments played distances away from the church. When I got closer to the church, many people was surrounding the church. I went forward and see what was going on inside the church that the people were looking from outside for. There, I saw a punch of youth in line performing a dance. I stopped for a while and watched. As they were done dancing, they sang songs. Wow! There songs were amazing. I haven't heard the songs before and they made my night. The songs made me wanted to stay longer but the worst thing is, when I looked at my watch, it was already 11 pm. I then walked straight home. When I was two blocks away from my home town, I heard musics. They were also practicing. All around Majuro and I guarantee the outer islands too are busy rehearing for Christmas and all the other upcoming events. It is great to see that the people of the Marshall Islands are in the spirit of the holiday season.

Reflection #14

Just this week, on the Monday, I did my in-class activity. I prepared 5 types of poems for the class. I started off by letting them write a prompt that I saw on the internet and thought it was perfect to give them. I gave them five minutes to write on the prompt. After I called out the time, I wrote the 5 types of poems on the board with their meanings. Some of the poems were familiar with the class. I read out poems related to the 5 types of poems I gave them. When I was done reading out  the poems, I made the class to write two poems  out of the 5 types of poems. I gave them 10 minutes to write acrostic and free verse poems for class activity. When the 10 minutes were up, I asked them, actually I did not ask, I command them all to read out loud what they wrote. Of all the students, one of them did not share his work. The reason I did not ask but commanded them to share is I wanted to point out to them that there are times that they would not know the instructor or the teacher gives credits. As I was observing them while they were writing, I could see that they were studying hard and most of all writing to their very best. I was not surprise to see that of all, one of them did not share. I was expecting the person. I think that everyone to participate in class activities and discussions, there has to be more of a talking with mates. This is my goal for next week, make everyone participate in class.

Christmas

Yaaay! It is almost Christmas. People around the island are busy making loans for Christmas. Yesterday, I went to down-town. It was 6 in the evening and the Bank of the Marshall Islands was still open. The bank was fully full. There were many people inside as well as the outside, staying maybe waiting for their names to be called. In the Republic of the Marshall Islands, people celebrates Christmas as it is the day Jesus was born. They would not pass the event. Christmas is like their most important event of all events. Just last night, I heard musics from the other side our village. I wanted to know what were all the musics for so went to look. There, I saw a punch of people dancing along while the music was playing. They were studying for Christmas Day. Christmas is such an important event for the people and they just can't stand not doing something to celebrate it. That is how religious the people are.

Reflection #13

This week has been a good one. On the Wednesday, as usual, our instructor gave us prompt. The prompt was a picture. Whenever there's picture prompt, I always find it difficult to write. I don't know what's happening in the picture. Sometimes, I write picture prompts and ends up with non relating sentences. I find this one of my weaknesses; It not just happens to me but also my classmates. Sometimes when I looked at them, they stick their mouths and ears with their pens or pencils. I think that the reason why they are doing such thing is because they can't think of what to write. There are others ways that I see them doing. I think that for us in the classroom not to think and act like this, we should just write. Just write about what you think of the picture even if it may not be related. What's important is for our hands to move faster than our brains.

I think that for my picture prompt to be improved, I just have to go with the flow. Just go on writing without thinking about what's going on in the picture. This is my goal for next class if there is going to be one.

Lost in the Bushes

It was a Saturday that me and my friends went on a picnic for our Reunion. Over slept and was rushing for breakfast. I was afraid that my parents would cancel my going because it was already late, almost 10 o'clock. Getting my things ready, my phone rang. "We are outside your house, come out,' the phone caller said. I looked outside my window and I saw my friends waiting in the car. I hurriedly pack my things and said good bye to my parents.
On our way, we encountered a traffic. There were two cars that bumped into each other so we had to wait for signals from the police officers for us to pass. It took us half an hour to pass. Deeply inhaling from the long wait, I got out a bottle of water and drank. We drove off and stopped at a grocery store. We went into the grocery store and bought some vegetables and fruits to add to our lunch. When we reached our picnic place, I got out of the car and looked for woods to start the fire. I went into the bushed and looked for woods. I was by myself. With all the woods I was holding, I didn't know where I was heading. I became scared. I shouted for help but nobody came. I was really far from where we left off.
I looked at my watch to check the time and it was 3 in the afternoon. I forgot that my cell phone was inside my pocket. Waited and waited but no refuge. It was already dark when I was touching and smelling my clothes if they smelled bad for staying up long under the sun that I felt something in my pocket. I slowly put my hand into my pocket and slowly pulled up the thing inside it. It was my cell phone. I thanked God I had something to call for help from. When I looked at my phone, its battery almost die so I hurriedly called my friends. Maybe because I was staying in the woods, signal wasn't really cooperating. But, I tried and tried. Finally, my friends understood what were I saying. After few minutes, they showed up. I cried when I saw them. They were crying with me too. "We didn't cook our food for we were searching for you" one of them said. "What happened to you?" another one said. I didn't really answer them for I was crying too hard.
They took me into the car and we left. On our way, I asked them not to say anything about my disappearing. If my parents knew, they wouldn't let me go out with them again. It was nice of them the didn't say anything. This is why it is important to have friends. They are there for you 24/7.

Reflection #12

This week was an awesome week. In class last Monday, I saw that many of my classmates did their homework. I did not expect them to do theirs because they don't usually do their homework. But, from what I saw that day, I kind of knew that they are respecting the class. The homework and class assignments that they are not doing, they might have done them but did not want to share it to the whole class. This is what's driving me nuts. I want to directly tell them to share their works but I don't want to hurt their feelings. I have seen students who would cry in class for it is her/his part to speak so I didn't want to do the same with my classmates. I just felt sorry for them. But, as I was saying, they did their homework for the day. I was surprised that majority of the class read out loud. I want them to continue doing their assignments and taking parts in class discussions. I know it is hard to take part and speak up in front of a group of people. Though, we just have to.

For reading, I just finished reading the assigned pages from last class and whosh, many new things. As I was reading the book, Writing Down the Bones, I learned new things. I now know that writing can be done with partners. Also, writing session can last 'till 3 PM. When I saw a line in the book that said this, I was surprised. I didn't know that writing session could take this much time. Other than this, I also found out that what our homework on page 133 is to write 10 short poems. Ten? This is too much for me. Even if this is too much for me, I will have to try to finish them before class Thursday. This is my goal for next week.

Last Saturday

            Woke up in the morning, getting ready to roll. It was a good day. I was all prepared for lab on the Saturday at Arrak Campus but didn't get the chance to bring along a machete. As I was waiting for our transportation, many other students were also getting ready to head to the other side of the island for picnic and community service. It took a while for us to really get to our transportation. On our way, the rain fell on the bus. The rain was unexpected so it lasted early. There is a saying where they say, “When it rains, it is blessed day.” As I was looking out, I saw the other students who were heading to Laura all wet for they were sitting at the back of pick-up. I felt sorry for them. It was really a good day for us Agriculture Science 101 students. We had one of the brand new school’s buses.

            It took us an hour and a half to reach our destination. When we were at the Arrak Campus, the rain started to fall again. We hurriedly ran to the cafeteria and waited for the rain to stop. As soon as the rain stopped, we all went straight to the school’s garden. Whish! The garden looked old to me. Though, many of the plants were ready to be harvested. There were different kinds of plants which I never knew of.  I was amazed by their bearing and how huge their fruits were. Despite all that I saw at the garden that were grateful and colourful, our instructor moved us to another garden but it was at the far right of the campus. There, the plants looked so wary and needed help. We, the students, had to bring them all back to life. We did a lot of work.

            Being exhausted from pulling up grasses to make spaces for the plants, our instructor told us we were going to the Taiwanese Farm at Laura. At the farm, it was like a miracle to me. I never knew that pigs can grow huge to how huge the pigs I saw. Their balls were as big as my head. Dang! As I was still didn't believe how big they were, one of the co-worker climbed into a pig’s room and took out a dead baby pig. They said maybe the mama pig might have been sitting on it for a long time. When I saw the dead baby pig, I almost vomited. I took a rest after I saw the commotion.

            All dizzy and tired, we headed back home. I didn't do many chores at home when I arrived for I felt dizzy and tired. I went straight and changed. I slept from the time I finished changing my clothes until the next day at 10 AM. Never slept like that ever before. It was just because I was tired. That’s all.