Refrigerated Toothpaste

This will be a hodge-podge declaration of self, basically. More or less an update, if you will. Internet has been shoddy (gasp!), so keeping in touch with Clean Life is slightly challenging, but I'm in PC. I eat challenge for dinner, along with my root crop and homemade bread.
--I'm doing some intense budgeting, and I would love to see the look on my parents' faces right now! I've never been a needy spender as far as tons of clothes and purses and cosmetics and such, but I'm an impulse-spender. A bulk-buyer. Though I'm not a fan of Clean Life shopping, I LOVE grocery shopping. I immediately walk to the produce section and inhale all that produce poetry. Beautiful. Lord, I'm nearly tearing up just thinking of that fresh, cool, producey section of Kroger I'm so fond of. In college, it was my Happy Place. Anyway, in American dollars, I'm spending about $10 a week.
--I keep my toothpaste in the fridge now. And my toothbrush, too. At first, I did it because no matter how tightly wrapped in a bag was my nighttime essentials, the ants were ruthless in finding it and feeding off my saliva, I reckon. I refused to throw away another toothbrush too early (the first one I threw away because a crazy insect crawled in there and made me nearly pee myself... it looked like a molokau, but not so many legs.) And now, I'm rather fond of cold toothpaste. It makes my gums feel nice. :D
--I had a pretty rough week last week. Stress erupted on my face, in my brain, even in my food. Usually I'm a stress-eater, but my appetite was pretty roller-coastery. Luckily, my Medical Officer is amazing. And I have great friends.
--It's getting hard to exercise. An ex-police officer drove me from the wharf to my village last weekend and told me to stop running by myself because of safety issues. He's not the first to tell me. So now my alone-time-stress-reliever must be shared with the youth of the village who can actually log in 20-30 minutes of running barefoot on broken-pavement-and-trench-induced road in the bush. Awesome.
--I LOVE literature and miss school like crazy right now. I've contemplated more international teaching after PC (big interest in Japan), but I don't know if I can stay away from school that long. One good thing about the stress is that I really poured myself into books, and it was WONDERFUL. God, I miss being in that academic setting where you can talk on the fly, listen to criticism, contemplate interpretations.... ohhhh, coffee-and-literature culture. How I wish to indulge thee.
--Portland, Oregon. My newest fascination.
--Crime and Punishment rocked my socks. Dostoevsky makes me want to learn Russian just so I can read that book in its original test. (Plus, I'm also a Nabokov beginner, so it'd be cool to read him, too.)
--I am becoming a pretty darn good cook. I think it's because I have to make do with a limited selection. But I made a mean stuffed eggplant last night, and my homemade bread is getting better and better. And a nice stir-fry is always fun.
--I have a ripe papaya waiting at home, begging me to turn it into jam. :)
--Tomorrow I am heading off to the island's capital, 'Ohonua, to spend some time with my new friends, two Japanese volunteers. They are so tiny and adorable. But quite amazing, too. I luckily saw them in the midst of my terrible week, and they were wonderful. Plus I'd like to learn the basics of Japanese-- especially counting to 10. Every Wednesday for PE, my students and I stretch and count in English, Tongan, Dutch, and Spanish. They love when I throw in a random phrase from a different language. It's fun for me too, but I like to use it as a seed, planting in their minds that there's a huge world out there. And I love hearing one say, "O leva (wait, in Tongan), Jame. Mas despacio, por (sounds like poll) favor." (which is please slow down, in Spanish.) It's totally awesome.
--The latest song I taught to my students was "Holiday" by Weezer. When we finished they said, "My Girl! My Girl! Then Youdondonme!" Translation: My Girl by the Temptations, followed by "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. Also known as "You done done me."
--I walked to a beautiful lookout, about a 20 min walk from my village, that looks over the cliffs and the beautiful ocean. Quite high up, and the wind was really forceful. Two of the girls had NEVER BEEN! They LOVED it. "LOOOOOOk, Jame! Ohhhhh Beautiful! You see, Jame? Sio mai! Sio mai (Look at me!) Ohhh, Jame. I LOVE diss. LOVE, Jame. LOVE."

I probably seem a world away to you. I'm half of one, anyway. A tiny little freckle on the face of Earth. I'm far away from my first 23 years of existence, and Lord knows Mr. Stress bares its ugly unbrushed fangs at me. But it's my love of literature (which I will indeed romanticize in my next entry), the entertainment I get from my hilarious students, my increasing desire to cook, and refrigerated toothpaste that I hold up to those stressful moments, those plaquey unbrushed, foul breath of threatening-failure. It's not so different from home, in theory. Only a few more ants and cockroaches, a few more coconut trees, and a slightly decreased produce section at Kroger.