The Queen of the Cul-de-sac

My first time driving in Kauai, I knew something was up. I had just climbed into the driver's seat of our van and Sister Janet warned me: "Watch out for Kitty!"

Sure enough, I saw Kitty with enough time to swerve around her on the way to Morning Mass. Over the past several months, I have watched other vehicles do the same. Our neighborhood has an unwritten understanding that Kitty rules our road. We all drive ever so slowly while she lays in the middle of the street, barely paying attention the the likes of us. 

When I took this picture, she didn't flinch once. She pretended that I wasn't even there. 

One morning, I woke up to a terrible noise. I could tell that some animals were fighting outside, and it sounded scary. Sister Janet was already awake and witnessed the whole thing. She told me that a rooster tried to enter our property, and Kitty charged after her, leading to the fight. It almost goes without saying that Kitty won, and I haven't seen another rooster in our yard.

In other news, there's a ton of news: Teaching has been fun. I just finished a science unit with my students on Force and Motion. It culminated in a cooperative learning activity in which they worked in teams to build carnival rides out of (cleaned) rubbish from their homes. They needed to show me which simple machines they were putting together for their rides. Everyone did well and grew in their abilities to problem solve, compromise and work together on a project. Today, we dismantled the carnival, and we carried out six kitchen-size garbage bags to the dumpster.

We also just got back from Spring Break today. My dad and stepmom spent a week and a half with us, and we had a great time! The Sisters enjoyed having them around, too. Dad, Ginny and I did touristy things around the island: snorkeling, visiting the gardens, and going on a whale watching tour were among our favorite things. Actually, one of my students' parents had given tickets to us Sisters, so Sister Janet and I were already planning on going. We ended up getting separated from Dad and Ginny, but we had fun. The boat was rocky, but we had taken Dramamine, so we were able to enjoy it.

This is the best picture I could get of the whales.

Oh, and naturally, I am overjoyed about Pope Francis! I could write another blog entry just on that, and I probably will! He's a pope after my own heart. ¡Viva Papa!