Christmas Shopping

Friday:
I don’t think that I will ever complain about Christmas shopping ever again. Shopping in the islands is so much different then in the states. First off everything is outside and the shops that you want to go to are so far away from each other. And it is hot outside and you are always walking, so Marla and I went Christmas shopping…we had Joan drop us off and then we started walking everywhere…we went to Kapinga and looked at the shops there…I got something for my mom and sister and a Christmas gift for Tim. Then we met back up with Joan and she dropped us off in the middle of town and we walked down to a little shoe store that is like a mile or so from the drop off point…down a hill towards the road to the airport, but instead of turning left on the road we went right and walked along…we didn’t find anything in the shoe store and kept walking in the hot sun. Then we happened upon two adorable old ladies and their skirt shop. The skirts were beautiful so I picked one out for Felicia and one out for Jenny her housemate. (They are so beautiful) Then we walked past Yoshie’s and headed back up another road towards town…we had to go to a T-shirt shop. We were also getting Mitch and Jay something for Christmas…I got a T-shirt for myself and then I got one for Mitch (same design as mine…only a different color…he wouldn’t look good in pink), Marla got T-shirts for her family, one for herself, and one for Jay (which was the same style as her’s, but a different color). Then we headed to the store next door to look for something for Becky, we got her a big purse (she stuffs so much into the one that she has now…and we decided that she needed a new one) and then we looked around and saw two blue purses that were exactly the same…they were just two cute so we bought each other the same purse for Christmas. Then we headed off to Palm Terrace. We got the boys slippers that say Pohnpei on them, they are also like the best slippers ever…then we headed home. Oddly enough the pastor stopped his car and asked if we wanted a ride…the boys were in the car, but by then we so hot and sweaty and probably smelled just wonderful that we declined and told them that home wasn’t that far away…Once back at the apartment Marla took a shower while I got photo copies made of the grade form, then I took a shower and tackled my grades…they had to be in by sunset. Redoing 18 grade sheets that were actually almost done the day before is such a joy. But after 3 hours of hard work, I turned in my grades with 30 minutes to spare…Marla gave me a back rub and then we got ready for vespers.