"Why are you so white?"

I definitely stand out here, in more ways than one. My British roommate and I were walking to the pool yesterday and an old man saw us and said to us "Why are you so white?" Really?!? What kind of a question is that? We didn't know what to say on the spot, so we just laughed awkwardly. I know I don't tan very much, but it's only my third day here! Give me a break!

We also seem to have dollar signs on our heads. There are tons of taxis on the street all the time and whenever they see someone who is obviously not a local (ex: me) they will honk and flash their lights, assuming you want to be taken to some resort. Also, they will try to charge you wayyyyyy more than they charge locals.

I had my first day at school today! My 5-year-old host brother goes to the public school across from the Catholic school where I'm working. He and his mom take a taxi every morning from the house, so my roommate and I rode with them this morning. They got out at his school and paid the driver, then he took us just a bit down the rode to our school. We stupidly asked him how much we owed him when we got there, and he really ripped us off. We paid him 3 Fiji dollars for like a 30 second ride! That's only around $1.50, so it may not sound expensive, but compared to the rates they usually charge, that is WAY overpriced. Now we know to negotiate the fare before we even get in the taxi...

Speaking of school, I had a great day! I ended up in the "Class One" (aka First Grade) classroom instead of the kindergarten, which seems to actually be a good thing. There are 44 kids in the class, and they are all adorable. Today was the first day of their Second Term- they just had a two week break. They were pretty rowdy, but I'm hoping that they'll calm down once they get back into the routine of school. There is one very sweet girl with Down Syndrome in the class, so I spent a lot of the day giving her extra help with her work.

At first, the kids were really shy. I introduced myself and asked them if they had any questions for me, but they all just stared at me blankly. By the end of the day though, I practically couldn't keep them off me. I was supposed to lead them in a craft, so we made paper fans and colored them. I think all 44 kids were calling my name at once to come see their fan. My go-to response was "That looks great!" and they didn't seem to notice that I said that to everyone. :)

I expected the school day to be way more structured than it actually is. People say American kids are so badly behaved, etc., etc., but the American elementary schools I've seen are much quieter (in general) than this one! The main Class One teacher would give the kids a short assignment, and so they'd all finish it and have nothing to do but be loud. I'm going to have to think of some good activities/games to have them do because I really think they'd do better with less down time. It's kind of hard to keep a group of 44 six-year-olds happy all at the same time, so it's going to be a challenge!

After we made our fans, the teacher had me take the whole group outside to the playground, which is actually just a grassy hill in front of the school- no slides or monkey bars or anything like that. So I was supposed to entertain and keep track of ALL of them while the teacher swept out the classroom and cleaned up. We played "Simon Says" but it took forever just to get them lined up! One girl had brought a Bob the Builder book outside with her, so I ended up reading that to about half of them while the other half played tag.

All of the girls wanted to hold my hand... at once. It was really cute, but also really hot to have a zillion kids climbing all over you in this weather! One of the girls informed me that I am white. :) Then she kindly changed her mind and said I'm not really white, I'm just "light." Phew.

P.S. My host-father picked some fresh coconuts from the yard for us yesterday! It was pretty exciting. Definitely tastes better with sugar though...