Christmas Has Begun!

Hi!  So kinda a lot has happened in the last week.  Besides the count down to being home, which is 13 days!  I forgot in the last blog to mention Thanksgiving dinner from the school.  It was last Wednesday night, before we left for Guatemala.  It was a nice attempt for us, howeverrrrrr, it was more just like a dinner.  I'm pretty sure I had pork instead of turkey, there was turkey, but I didn't get any.  Then I missed the stuffing somehow, BUT they did try pumpkin pie, which made it all better!  It was at one of the student's houses that overlooks Copan a little, so that was nice to see, it was a pretty view over the town.  Everyone got dressed up, so it was a nice dinner with everyone, very relaxing.  So now on to this week.

They have started Christmas celebrations.  I should start with, here they shoot fireworks off for Christmas.  Those they started right around Halloween. They love to shoot them off at like 5 in the morning for some reason.  One night they were shooting them off at like 3am......not pleasant.  So the fireworks now have increased and we hear them all day.  However, they're just like noise ones, never any cool shoots in the air or anything like that.  In class we've started our Christmas songs because the kids march in a parade and carol down the streets, similar to Independance Day Parade; only it's at night and they carry candles.  However, I'll be on an airplane when they do this, so that's kinda a bummer that I won't get to see it.  But I still need to get them ready for it.  It's weird to not be bundled up and have it snow though.  I think once people start putting up christmas lights and such, it'll feel more like the holidays.

Which brings me to my next story.  So every Friday the school has some sort of Christmas thing, so this Friday was Bingo, then next Friday the kids have a play and the chorus sings, then the 16th is the parade.  So last night was Bingo.  We got out of school early to go set up the building it is held at.  It took about 3 hours to set up, well for us, we got down to town a little late, shocking haha.  We basically just blew up balloons (which now I know how they make those giant balloon sculpture things, with all the balloons in a line.)  Then we had to unload the table & chairs from school and set those up.  The only thing was, they were expecting about 300 people, and we ran out of chairs.  So we had to walk around town to find some.  We first went over to a church, but they only gave us 20 (we needed about 80 or so more).  But they wouldn't give us more because Bingo is gambling and they didn't want the chairs to be part of it.....yes, there are crazy church people here too.   So then we went over to a house a few blocks away, one of my students, come to find out, lives there.  Luckily his mom had a ton of chairs, so we stopped a truck in the street and asked if they would drive the chairs over to the building.  They did.  So we unloaded and finished setting up.  While we were setting up, one of my students and her mom saw me, and brought me a cup of coffee and a sweet roll.  It was so sweet, I felt so lucky.  (now I feel bad that she is going to get a progress report next week, eekkkk).  Anyways after my snack we went home to change and shower and get ready.  When we got back down in the evening it was pretty crowded, I would say there were probably about 300 like they expected.  There was also food outside from each of the grades to help bring money in too, so we had delicious, homemade Honduran food and won some prizes!

The American teachers kinda cleaned up.  I was the first winner.  It was only the B,N,O rows, and I was getting close, then I needed one number, when I said that, the number was called and probably a look of sheer panic hit my face because Mandy's the one who yelled Bingo for me.  I was a little embarrassed and don't like those huge groups of people focusing on me kinda thing, but the checker came over to check my card and it turns out I was a winner.  I won a pink, plastic tool box and a free ride to school on the bus for a month.........I don't know how to use tools, and I walk to school haha.......so I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this prize, but it was exciting that I won.  Then Mandy won a necklace.  Another teacher won some pizza.  Then we're getting to the animals.  In Honduras, they go all out...rabbits, dogs, lamps, tables, and sheep!  One of the other American teachers won a sheep! Second year in a row I guess.  So she wants to make some lamb chops, which I'm all for, as long as I don't meet the sheep first.

So Bingo is dwindling down and only a few prizes are left.  Mind you, we're getting into like the 5th hour of sitting, playing this game I thought I wouldn't even last an hour at.  So Mandy's card is filling up, and filling up, then she screams Bingo.  Not only is this her second win, but she won the same. exact. prize. Only her tool box was green.  People already think we're married, and then we go and win the same prizes in Bingo.  However, since we are both real handy with tools, we gave our prizes away.  She kept her necklace, it was a $70 prize, almost a third of what we make in a month lol.  But my tool box went to one of the 4th grade students and hers went to one of the teachers for her art supplies.  Our free bus passes will go to a student in each of our classes who need the money.  But overall it was a really fun night!  It was definately an experience.  So that's just the start of our Christmas celebrations, I'm sure there's more to come.  As soon as I get pictures I'll try and get them up.  Right now I'm just more focused on coming home, I'm like my students, I know break is right here, so I'm pretty much checked out, so hopefully I keep that in mind as I'm telling the kids to focus haha.  See you all reaaalllll soon!

A Honduran Thanksgiving!

Hi! Happy Thanksgiving (late, sorry)!  I hope everyone had a nice holiday and are getting ready for the big one! I missed home and all the food, but my Thanksgiving break was AMAZING! We did so much cool stuff in such little time, but it was all worth it!  Ok, bare with me, I have a lot of stories! I'll start by saying we (6 teachers including me: Mandy, Marin, Love, Ashely, Kristen, Me) so that's the we I'll refer to, went on vacation to Guatemala this weekend; Antigua and Lake Atitlan.

Thursday (Thanksgiving in case you forgot):

So as you were all tucked in your beds waiting for the food to start cooking, I was getting up at the crack of dawn to make our 6am bus out of Copan.  Well we made it, and the first hour or 2 were pretty crowded, but then people got out so we had more space.  The ride was about 6 hours to Antigua where we had to get another shuttle to the lake. The bus ride was gorgeous!  The scenery was spectacular and it helps that it was a beautiful day! 

So the building got in the way, but I left it cause I thought it looked pretty cool...and then the other is just of the mountains.  So we got into Antigua at like 12, and our shuttle out to the lake (the town was called San Pedro) was at 2, so we had some time to kill.  We just sat in the sun and hung out in the main park until 2.  O, first we ate Burger King!  It was delicious!  Then we just sat around....it's a cute town though, old, reminds me of Guanajato, Mexico.

P.S. that mountain is a volcano! My first real life volcano!

So we got on the shuttle to the lake, they told us about 2 hours, welllll it was closer to 4.  So in total we traveled for about 10 hours Thursday.  But when we got to the lake it was literally something out of a scary movie.  People bombarded us right when the door opened and I kept saying no, no we can find our own hostel.  But this man was very persistant and worked "for the town" and said he could show us a hostel.  I was very uncomfortable but everyone else said to just go check it out.  Well I went along because I wasn't about to stay somewhere alone.  So it was getting kinda dark and he took us down this street then up a creepy set of stairs.  Then there was doors.  I was throughouly uncomfortable, especially because there were about 3 other Honduran men watching us look at the room.  However, my vote was outnumbered and we stayed.  It turned out ok, otherwise I wouldn't be writing right now haha.  We only had to sleep in it for like 6 hours anyways.  Because we signed up to go up to see the sunrise over volcanoes! So this "tour guide" also did tours up to the volcano and told us to meet him at 4am in town and we had to pay 50 quetzales up front.  Well, he saw us coming because we found out another group only paid 75 quetezales total and we paid 125 which is like 16 bucks and 75 is only about 11.  But whatever, it was gorgeous!  Ok, so first Thursday ended pretty normal, we ate at a little shack, not the Thanksgiving we were used too, no pies or over eating, but I wasn't in boots and jeans, so that makes up a little for it.  So we went to bed around 9 I think so we had plenty of sleep.

Now Friday:

So we wake up at 3:30, and go outside to meet the guide at 4.  Again, I thought I was walking into a horror story.  It was pitch black, and no guide around at 4.  He finally shows up at 4:20ish and says we have to walk to get the bus.  It was dark and cold and theres 6 of us american girls, and 2 Australians.  Luckily it was a couple so at least we added a male to the group, but it was still pretty scary.  We got in the van and it was maybe a 20 minute drive.  So when we get there the guide asks who has a flashlight.....wellllll we didnt bring a flashlight on vacation because who would do that? But some of the girls had phones with lights, so thank god for that; otherwise we'd be walking up a moutain in pitch black.  Did I mention the first part was through a corn field? Yes, this is the part where I was literally saying a prayer haha.  But we made it!  It was legit!  The view was SPECTACULAR!  Here's some pictures:

 4am San Pedro

 Up the street here is our hostel.....looks pretty shady in the dark

 we made it to the top pry around 5am....after hiking up the mountain in darkness

 So as some of you were out shopping for sales, this is what I was doing...you can see the puff on the left from the volcano

 It was chilllllaaayyyyy!

 my first experience seeing volcano smoke! The sun is starting to pop out too!

 We weren't the only ones up there either, which made us feel muuuuccchhhh safer haha

 I'm pretty sure that first town in front is San Pedro where we stayed, but then again I'm very geographically challenged.

 This was going to be my Christmas present to you all baahahahaha, gorgeous!

 A beautiful view

 that's not snow, it's a town

 Waited for this!  Definately worth the wait!

 Best Black Friday EVER!

This is what the mountain looks like in the day.....and yes we went through that corn field, now can you imagine my worry?

   

apparently in Guatemala they have a thing with loose cows?  Never seen a cow tied to a tree

So we accomplished all that before 9 haha.  Then we took a bus back to town, where we got ripped off paying.  However, it was worth it because we had the most amazing breakfast!  It was so American.  Pancakes, fruit, eggs, it was awesome!  We decided it was  Thanksgiving breakfast since we didn't eat much on Thanksgiving.  So after breakfast we did a little shopping before the boat across the lake to Panajachel.  It was a cute town, San Pedro, but not much to do so we took the boat over at like 11:30 and got there about 12.  But our shuttle wasn't til 4 so we had alot of down time.  We decided to first find where the shuttle would pick us up and then explore & shop.  However, we found the hotel where we would get picked up and went in to ask if we could leave our bags and I found this gorgeous pool!  So of course we lucked out again, Ashley Mandy and I always find the coolest pools.  So the 3 of us paid about 6ish dollars to use this pool for 4 hours.  It was worth it!  We put on our suits while the other 3 went out in town.  We needed it because we had been traveling so much I just wanted to hang out and get tan.  Because we're gonna look silly when we get back not being tan and having been in Central America haha.  

So we swam, got sun, napped and got back on the shuttle to Antigua.  The ride from the lake was much shorter, only like 2 1/2 hours.  However, there was traffic in one of the towns and that was super annoying.  But we made it.  In Antigua, we had reservations at a hostel that was supposed to be the best.  Little did we know, the fun was about to start haha.  So we finally found the hostel, note it's dark because its about 7pm and we had been awake since 3:30 with only a little nap in the day.  So the hostel tells Ashley (who made the reservation) that they didnt have the reservation.  We were supposed to have our own 6 person room because otherwise it would be a 20 person room; which turned out to be an unfinished attic with 20 beds laid out.  So they supposidly didnt have the reservation and said we could stay in one of the 20 beds; this is when we found out it was in an attic.  I was not down for this, neither were the others.  So Ashley pulled up the conformation email and showed them.  Turns out the front desk guy was in Decemeber so he missed our reservation.  So we got the manager and she was rude and wasn't going to give us a free night, which was the only way we woulda slept in the attack.  So as this is going on, Marin & I decide to go out and find another hotel.  So we stop in at a store and ask where a reasonable priced place was.  We get the name and go.  Well we get there and it's a hotel.  Usually that means pricey.  But we check it out anyways.  IT was a cute little place, but as soon as we start talking to the lady, we knew it would be too much.  We ask how much a night was and she says $65 for 3.  Wellllll that's wayyyy outta budget.  However the good thing about Guatemala, that's different than Honduras is the bargaining.  So we said that was too much and she brought it down to 100 quetzales which is like 12 bucks a night, but that's still too much.  So she asks our price, I say $10 and she says too low, so Marin goes into the poor volunteer teacher story, so the lady finally agrees!  So we paid the same price for our own rooms, 3 per room, than what we woulda paid at the hostel.  So Marin and I are so proud of ourselves because we were the least 2 aggressive people on the trip.  When we went looking we were like uhhhhh neither of us like confrontation, how are we gonig to do this?  But we went back with the news and we left that hostel and the rude lady and dumb guy who messed up our reservation.  So by this time its almost 9pm.  We still hadn't ate.  So we change and go eat at this "Italian" place.  It wasn't that great, well I had a salad that was good, but everyone else had pasta or calzones and they said it wasn't great.  So that was kinda a bust of a day.  We were wiped out.  We were up since 3:30, had to travel and laid in the sun all day, so we called it a night. And the whole not having anywhere to stay at first kinda took alot out of us.

Saturday (our only non-traveling day!):

Mandy had seen online this cross over Antigua, where the tourism police take you up cause it's shady to walk, and the tour left at 10.  So we go sign up and have an hour to kill. So I need a cup of coffee but no one was picking where to go so I led them to McDonalds hahaha.  It was only Mandy Marin and Kristen with me.  Well were we in luck!  This was a fancy McDonalds, with a court yard!  We order from the McCafe side, and they brought us our food!  And I got my milk in a heart shape in my giant cup of coffee!  I did all I could not to take the cups because they were so cute!

So a nice breakfast to start our day, then we were off to another mountain.  However, this time we didn't have to walk, we got driven!  It was a short ride, but nice.  Then we were looking over Antigua, with the volcanoes behind the city.  It was another breathtaking sight.  I had been on more hikes before noon this weekend than in my life.  However, after we were done we had the whole day.

So the rest of the day we walked around, bought some stuff, bargained at the market, so the prices were right.  Then we decided it was our only non traveling day, so we found a nice Mexican Restaurant and watched a soccer game and had some food & drinks.  It was a nice relaxing day.  Then for dinner me and Mandy wanted something more authentic, not like Burger King or Subway, we found a hole in the wall.  They made pupusas.  Those are like stuffed flour tortillas with cheese.  (or anything you want, I got beans in mine).  They were awesome!  We ordered one just to be sure they were good, and they were so we got another!  It was amazing, made right when we ordered, so fresh, we actually saw the lady pounding out the tortilla.  It was really cool.  Then we went to an Irish Bar in Gutemala, which was a nice change because it wasn't just the same 10 people we always see in Copan.  Ended the night early because our bus was at 4am.  So it was a short, packed, awesome, vacation! I am so glad and grateful I had the opportunity to do all this.  This was the best Thanksgiving Break I think I've ever had.  And now it's only 2 and a half weeks until I'm home!  I am getting super excited to come home and see everyone.  As much fun as this was and how much I love teaching down here, I am started to miss home and everyone, so I am getting pumped for a 3 week break!  

Anyways Antigua/Lake Atitlan was one of the best vacations ever!  (Mexican towns are still number 1 on my list) but this is up there.  It was action packed, many great stories, that will be better when I obsess over talking about it when I'm home.  I had many firsts this weekend, first view of volcanoes, first 4am hike, one of the first times being up at 4am haha, traveling probably about the same amount of hours as being in one place, first time staying in a "real  hostel", trusting a stranger with our lives, hiking more in one weekend than in my life.  It was all worth it!  Here are more pictures I stole from the others (and there's more on facebook):

 My giant reward after the 4am hike...all that fruit, sausage, eggs, pancakes, toast....it was great!

 definately got stronger this weekend lugging all that crap around....decided I'm probably not made out to backpack around, I need hotels and suitcases haha

 looking over Antigua

 Authentic Guatemalan's .....they all wore think skirts that tied above their waist

 I don't know how they do it, I give them so much credit! That thing is probably a good 50 lbs

 before sunrise

 L-R: Marin, Love, Mandy, Me, Kristen, Ashley

 Perfect morning: sunrise over volcanoes & watching it with a cup of coffee!

Ok, have a great week!  There's a bunch of Christmas stuff coming up I'll write about, but probably nothing too exciting.  And Go Caleb & the Bears! woo woooooooo! See you all in 2 1/2 weeks! :)

Honduran's really do throw the best parties!

So it's Sundayyyyyy, boooooo.  Parent Teacher conferences went really well!  I was nervous for some of the parents to see their kids grades because some of the kids who are smart and have the potential don't apply themselves.  But I think I'll be having a whole new group of kids starting tomorrow.  I hope they focus more to make my life easier lol.  Anywhoooo, I didn't get as much done Friday as I wanted because they let us leave 45 minutes earlier than expected.  And now kids will be doing recuperation exams this week so I'll be at school later, but only this full week & next week it's Thanksgiving!  We have a 3 day week!  Which will be filled with nonsense stuff I'm sure.  So I survived my first parent teacher conferences!  Then Saturday we kept it pretty low key.  Didn't do much, the neighbor teacher made chili for mandy me and the teacher upstairs, Hannah.  It was delicious!  We saved some money because we're traveling Thanksgiving weekend!  We still haven't decided where we're goinggggg, but who needs details?  There's a group going to Guatamala, and a group going out to the beach.  After the gorgeous, like 75 degree day today with the sun, I'm leaning toward the beach.  Speaking of today, that's the best part of the weekend!  We went to one of Mandy's students birthday parties.  I was nervous to go because I wouldn't know the kids, but it turns out some of my students were there, and I know a couple of Mandy's first graders.  It was definately one of the coolest parties I've ever  been too.  The family is part of one of "The Families".  So there were some men packing heat, which was a littleeeee uncomfortable, but at the same time, we kinda felt like we were at a Mafia Family party.  There was a blow up jumpy thing, clowns, face painting, hair spraying, waiters to bring food and drinks.  We also went with Mandy's aide, Ffarah, (her and her sister came for dinner with Megan, her daughter),  She was so funny, kept asking the waiters for more things, saying the "teachers need it".  She kept saying my name too because I would get embarassed, so she kept doing it, but it was a good lesson in Spanish, talked more than I usually do in a day haha.  We also sat by one of the other moms.  Anyways, the kids all got these awesome goody bags too, and Mandy got called up to get one, but as we were leaving the mom gave me one too.  It was awesome! We also had free tuk tuk rides because a friend drove us and the one mom and son we sat by her husbands a driver, so he drove us home.  So it pays to be awesome teachers haha.  All in all, the mafia family party was great!  Definately when you think big, Spanish family party, this was it, all the "shibang" to go along with it.  If Mandy puts her pictures up I'll try and snag some to make you all jealous.  Ok, have a good week!  And Go Bears!  Even though we can't watch them because we're jinx, so we've vowed not to watch them play (unless they somehow lose a game, then we can start watching again) but if they keep this streak up, it's going to be a sad season for me because all I can do is read the blogs. O well, at least they're winning! Woo!  o and 33 days until I'm back in a fabulous city for a visit!

Couple Pictures:

Surprise Visit at School!

So quick thing.....today at school the scholarship coordinator for the kids on scholarship at the school came in and told those kids at 9:40 to go to the office. We had no idea what was going on.  So at 9:40 the kids went down, and it turned out "Caminado con Amor" aka TOMS shoes were there to give out shoes to the kids.  We had thought it was only going to the scholarship kids, but then about 10 o'clock they asked all the classes to come down for an assembly because all the kids in school were getting shoes!  It was so awesome to see!  Some of the kids were so grateful!  But then there were some who have money and they just kept complaining.  But for the kids who don't have much, they felt so blessed, and the looks on their faces to have this new pair of shoes was priceless.  Then the volunteers had a school dance party with the kids.  It was such a great day!  Also, it was about 73 & sunny, so just to make you even more jealous bahahaha.  Here's some pictures from the day.  Check back this weekend, we have parent teacher conferences, so it should be interesting!

"Walking with Love" ....most of the students at Mayatan