Shaking my thang for my students...

Two posts in a week! It's insanity!

I realized I never posted about the rest of Spirit Week or the Halloween Showdown, so allow me to write briefly (for me) on that. I left you on Tuesday of Spirit Week, so let us pick up with Wednesday, which was Prom Day. Which meant that the guys and girls got all gussied up and came to school in prom-like attire. And some of the girls went all out. Case in point:



And some of the boys:



The boy all in black is actually not one of my students...he is just Abby, Quinn and I's biggest fan, for reasons unbeknownst to any of us. He get really SUPER excited to see us, and always in our rooms. I enjoy him immensely.

I should also mention that it was pouring down rain, which made it all a hot mess.
Thursday was Jersey Day, which was great fun. In my first period class, every single on the kids wore a jersey, so I took a picture. If you’ll recall from previous blogs, first period is the devil class, full of misbehaving students that have somehow wormed their way into my hearts regardless.




Friday was multicolor/rainbow day, aka in the States as Gay Pride day. Although the Samoans do not automatically make the association between rainbows and Pride, so it was pretty much just me that was amused by the whole thing. I went all out, as did a bunch of my students.








Friday was also supposed to be the MTV Showdown, featuring “music videos” and skits from each class, but it was moved to Monday because there was a family funeral in the house next to the gym. Because Samoa is awesome, they postponed the MTV Showdown out of respect for the funeral.

Then. It was Monday. Halloween, and the day of the MTV Showdown. Did I mention that the faculty advisors for each class also had to perform? Oh, yes. And guess who was one of the teachers selected to represent the sophomore class? Yours truly. So, after the kids got done shaking it to Beyonce and doing their skits that had to feature Michael Myers, Jacob Black and Nicki Minaj (that was insane), the teacher had to get up on stage and shake their groove thang to…the Pussycat Dolls.

So, picture the scene. A gym full of teenagers, and me, strutting my stuff with two other advisors to the dulcet tones of a mash up of “Dontcha” and “Buttons”. My solo dance was to Dontcha, so there I am, dancing completely inappropriately in front of my students, to lyrics that include, “ Dontcha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me” and “Loosen up my buttons, baby.”

The thing is, despite their somewhat conservative nature, Samoans are pretty much the most sexually outrageous people ever. So, teachers doing a sexy dance for their students? The students freaking love it. My big moment was when I had to literally loosen up my buttons, take of my (outer) shirt, and throw into the audience, stripper style. The kids went wild. It was so hilarious. And so inappropriate. And since we all know I pretty much have the dirtiest mind ever, I fit right in here. I am not even going to lie to you. I thought the whole thing was great fun.

And I would just like to mention: which advisors got first place? My group! Apparently, we were a big hit. And I wasn’t even the most outrageous one in my group. One of the fa’afafines (google it) I was dancing with literally stripped down to this crazy negligee, and the other one freaking dislocated her shoulder, she was dancing so hard. It was chaos.

Here are some pics from Showdown day. And no, none of them are of me doing my thang. Those are classified.





The thing about Samoan assemblies/pep rallies, is that they are absolutely impossible to describe unless you’ve actually experienced one first hand. Because when you try to describe what happens at these things to people in the States, where every school event is so prim and proper, it doesn’t seem like what happens here could actually be real. Seriously, if a teacher in the United States ever said half the things the teachers here say to the student, that teacher would be fired so fast. And the things the students say are just as outrageous. For instance, the days following my triumph with the Pussycat Dolls, multitudes of teenage Samoan boys were high fiving me and saying things like, “Miss AMBER! I didn’t know you could shake it like that,” and “Miss Amber, I could watch you dance like that all day long.” I was kind of like a Rock Star for a few days.

Pretty much what I’ve decided is that after teaching at Leone, I’ll never been able to teach in the United States. I’d forget I wasn’t in Samoa, say something inappropriate to someone, and be fired and charged with sexual harassment.

As one of my coworkers told me the first week I was here: “There’s no such thing as sexual harassment in American Samoa.”

Which: if it were really serious, they would do something about it. But in general, that is totally true.

This is probably why I fit in here so well.

Disclaimer: If you are not my friend or family, and are just some random person who stumbled upon this blog, you probably think I am some sort of pervert or sexual deviant. I swear, that’s not really true. Or maybe just a little bit true.