Day 8

Captain's Log, Supplemental. Today I got to mow the lawns with the riding lawn mower, awesome(not sarcastic). I don't know why I get so much joy out of riding that thing but its pretty fun. The only problem is that there are very strategically placed holes in the grass that had to have been placed by some intelligent creature. I was told that cows come on occasion and they leave foot prints that fill with rain water and get bigger, but I know cows aren't doing this. It is way too easy to get stuck in those holes! For example, I was driving along and I see a hole up ahead so I move a little to avoid it. Well that sent me straight into two concealed and perfectly placed holes exactly the shape of my front tires! That doesn't just happen, and it gets worse! To free the gigantic riding lawn mower I had to pick up the back and swivel it around so one of the tires would come out of its hole, but right when it did there was another hole waiting for it right behind the first! Its a trap! A well thought out, strategic trap, that was set for me long ago by a tribe of hole people. I'm sure they're still active on the island, those holes seemed fresh. I might have a stakeout tonight to try and catch them digging their holes. Anyway, I played my first song on the cello. It hurt my ears so I stopped. We also have visitors at the school, they will be in for a week which will be very helpful considering its the first week of school!  Archer out.

Day 7

I full week! So today was the designated day of rest. I like rest. We had our meeting this morning then Betsy, Elizabeth, Judy, and myself went to a nearby resort were Betsy had a massage schedule, she was hit by a car a while back and has had neck problems ever since.  So we went along to hang out at the resort for an hour. We had Starbucks and relaxed for an hour, it was nice. Then we went back to the school and I grilled steaks to celebrate the new school year. After that we watched the original Arthur, its not bad. After the movie Betsy gave me my first cello lesson. Its not as easy as smart people make it look. It is very fun though, and on the way back to my room there was a very large toad sitting on the cement. Speaking of strange animals there is a bat that lives behind the storm shutters in my bathroom window. I see him every night all alone, I named him Billy. I'll post a picture of him someday, maybe when I'm not tired, if I ever see the day. Over and out.

Day 6

I had a pretty cool day today. It started with the normal staff meeting where I invited myself on a trip I knew nothing about. Betsy was talking about going to Kevin's house. Kevin is one of my deaf friends who attends ESD so of coarse I wanted to go. Well what I didn't get was that Betsy, the school's principal, was going to Kevin's house to translate for Kevin and his Mom so they could work out some problems that they were having. So we get to the house and sit down with both of them, and Betsy starts signing to Kevin while saying what she was signing out loud in Spanish... Ya, sounds complicated? Try doing it. Sign language is her second language, and Spanish is her third, so she is using her second and third language at the same time, and i'm sitting there trying to understand any of it, and failing. I ended up just praying for Betsy that this language miracle that was happening could continue so that Kevin and his Mom could resolve their issues, and they did. So we ended up bringing Kevin with us to go to Pizza Hut. There is a Pizza Hut and a Sam's club on the island, and while they are very near each other neither of them is anywhere near us. So it was kind of a special occasion that we went. Nonetheless me and Kevin were very excited, and since I knew I wouldn't get Pizza Hut again for a long time I order a large ham and pineapple to bring back to my dorm to eat later. After that we went to Sam's where I had my first grocery shopping experience on the island, i think it went fairly well. The adventure continues we were only back for a short while before we left again for church. Ya on thursday, i don't know why. Anyway at this church you have to dress formal! Formal equals heat stroke in Puerto Rico, at least they had good air conditioning. This church was also in Spanish. Luckily the pastor was from Mexico so I could almost understand him, the Puerto Rican accent is impossible to understand. The service started to Betsy playing the piano, ya she does everything. then she translated the entire sermon into Sign Language for Kevin! Craziness. Today was a Language overload, and its only just the begining.

Day 5

Well the school will be taking care of 5 girls this year! They will be dorming with us the entire time. At this point I'm pretty sure non of them know any language so they have all sorts of behavioral issues so they will need constant supervision starting next week! So I can say good bye to my free time. School starts on Monday. I don't think any of us are going to be prepared. I have to learn at least 15 songs and like ten skits in sign language by then, and I have to translate the skits myself. Hopefully I can get some help with that. God is definitely putting this school to the test this year.

Day 4

Sorry I had to skip a few days, our wireless router went down. We got a new one though! Its crazy powerful so I get all the wifi I can handle. I had a pretty good day today. I woke up at 8:30 and went to the staff meeting at 9. After that I reorganized our toy closet. Well its more like a huge walk in hurricane shelter that we use for toys it took forever. After that I continued to work on the book shelf that I am resizing. Then I eat lunch and went to the beach with Betsy, Elizabeth and Laura. When we got there they left me with two deaf guys and went to the nearby pool. It's all good though, they were pretty nice. I would love to include their names but all I remember is their sign names, sorry. Anyway once we got board of the beach we went to the pool and the girls left me again! They went back to the school without me. So after we swam for a while the guys gave me a ride back to the school. After dinner we went to Office Max and got the new router which I set up and it works great. I cant believe its only been 4 days!

Day 1

Wow! Crazy start. So I left for the airport on Friday at around 9pm, got there, said my good byes and got on the first plane which took me to North Carolina. I was excited for the flight because I like talking to people on planes because you'll never see them again and their usually interesting. Well I got on the plane and I ended up next to a Korean couple that didn't speak English, and the guy was really loud! People kept shushing him. When I finally got to North Carolina I was pretty hungry but my next flight was already boarding. So I eat my meal bars that my Mom packed(Thanks Mom) and got on the plane. Then I sat in the plane an hour before we even took off because the loading ramp was broken. Then a three hour flight. When I arrived in the San Juan airport I went to get my bags and to meet up with Betsy, the school principle. I got my bags but Betsy was nowhere to be found. I cancelled my Verizon service but I can still audio Skype on my phone when there is wifi. Well SJU, as it turns out, is the only airport that doesn’t have wifi. In fact I asked an employee if there was a place nearby that had wifi, and he didn’t know what wifi was... welcome to Puerto Rico. I eventually found a pay phone but it was broken and eat the only change that I had. After asking several people, one lady from Texas let me use her cell phone! I called Betsy but she wouldn't pick up her phone. I felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, stuck in a new country, alone. After that I wondered all around the airport for about an hour looking for wifi or Betsy. I finally got a lead on when I could find the mystical wifi, across the street at a hot wings restaurant. So I carried on with my 50+ pounds of luggage across the street. I had to take a cross walk that forced me into a parking structure that the restaurant was up against. I got next to the restaurant but I was on the wrong level. So I found an elevator and went down one floor. It was again the wrong floor but there was a Wendy's so I decided to go in and take a break. As I walked in the door I saw someone that I recognized from the school's website! Before I could say anything she finger spelled my name and I signed "Yes! That’s me!” We had both been at the airport for two hours looking for each other, and she didn't even know what I looked like. She was walking around the airport asking anyone who fit my description and looked lost if they were Chris Tingley. What a champ. I would have given up 1hr 45mins ago, but she stuck with it and found me. I was expecting Betsy Hoke, but Jen Johnson came to pick me up. We got to know each other on the 45min drive to the school. I thought it would be longer than that but it wasn’t. When we got to the school the electricity was out so I couldn’t text or call anyone so we eat a delicious meal at the school in the dark. After dinner we went to a festival were there was going to be food and music and a parade but the power was out there too so there were just a bunch of upset people standing in the dark so we went to the grocery store which had a generator and got groceries and went home. Sweet first day!