Just Another Week

Hi!  So nothing really happened out of the ordinary this week.  Everything is kinda just becoming "normal" now.  It was a short week, which we have alot of this fall.  Next week is the only full 5 day week we have for like a month, so that's pretty awesome!  It's a little surreal still that we've been here a month.  The kids are starting to get better and into the swing of things (finally!)  Friday was by far the best day at school we've had!  I was so impressed with how well behaved they were, I think they have started to catch on how annoying they are haha.  The one thing that was different, was we had our first birthday, teacher's birthday.  It was the other 5th grade teachers birthday.  She was going to bring in cake for her class and have a little party for it, but little did she know her kids, yes, just her kids, planned this whole fiesta!  It was so cute!  I had both classes (because we switch for math and science) sign a big poster to put on her door so when she got there in the morning it would be a nice surprise.  She was surprised and very thankful, and some of her kids gave her gifts, which was so nice. So I asked them what they were planning for her because I know someone brought in a pinata, and they said "Miss Ivy took the party away, she's mad at us."  I said that's too bad, I guess you guys will have to be nicer, it's her birthday!"  I guess she took time from their Lunch because they weren't behaving all day.  But when we got back from our planning period (which is right before lunch) her kids took all her stuff and took her away from the room.  Then some of the other kids decorated and a mom brought cake in, and it was really cute.  I think my class was really jealous, they kept telling me my birthday will be so much better and that her class doesn't know how to plan a party, etc.  I laughed at them and said that her class did a nice job and it was really thoughtful, but I am a little excited to see what my class comes up with!  The only thing I hope that's different is, they put a pie to the face for Ivy and I would rather just eat it haha.  I guess they did the pie because it is customary to splash water on the birthday person when they wake up, and she was so nervous this was going to happen, but the pie I think was a wayyyy better touch.  So we celebrated her birthday at her house that night, it was a nice get together of the gringos.  Then Friday came along, best day ever, like I said before, at school, and then it was time for the welcome party!  We were all excited and heard great things, but it wasn't at the house of Miss Nora, the founder of the school, which was disappointing because we heard how pretty it was.  But we still went to a cafe that her or someone in her family owns.  It was cute, everyone dressed up, it was the Honduran teachers and the gringos all together.  We had so much fun!  The food was DELICIOUS!  I love the food here, but they made chicken and grilled onions and vegetables, and tortillas, homemade pico, baked potatoes, o mannnn, my mouth waters thinking about it!  Also, desert was tres leches cake!  If you've never had tres leches, you need to, it's so moist and rich, practically just melts in your mouth, and it had fruit with it, and I could probably write a novel on the food.  It was a great mixture, everyone was dancing and talking, it was nice to finally talk to some of the Honduran teachers outside of school.  One of the teachers from last year said that it was a much better party than last year because we were all mingling and staying after dinner, I guess they didn't do that last year, and talking.  Then last night we celebrated Ivy's birthday again, we got her a pinata and just had a nice, pretty small, gathering.  It was a great weekend!  And today the Bears play the Packers, and the pizza guy knows were coming, he's ready for us, and I'm ready for some pizza.  Progress reports are due this week, so I have that to complete, but because we have fewer kids than in the states, it's not too difficult.  O, finally, I got coffee!  I found some pretty cheap coffee and have my little filter and am able to make coffee on the weekends which is awesome!  I get my caffeine addiction fed.  Alright, back to workkkkkk.  Have a good week! Go Bears!

This is a beach?

Hi!  I'm soooo happy to be back in civilization...welllll almost like it, back in Copan!  We just didn't have internet  or an outside connection to the world pretty much for the entire weekend.  It was very relaxing and calming to not be so connected, but then coming back it's so much to catch up on in the news, my celebrity friends lives, the Bears and what was probably an embarassing game to watch because reading about it was not eventful.  So we went to a place called Omoa this weekend!  It was on the Caribbean Sea, in case you missed that on facebook because you didn't stalk me for that hour baahahaha.  Ok, so by "we" I mean all the teachers, minus the couple with kids and two of the older teachers.  There were 16 of us total, great people for a great weekend.  So we left right after the parade Thursday, like 2 o'clockish.  Sorry, I'm giving a background, gotta get through the boring to get to the good stuff.  It took about 5 hours to get there.  We were lucky enough to just rent a van, so we had our own and didn't have to worry about getting robbed.  We also then got to stop when we needed to use the bathroom, of course I was the first who had to go on the way there, we were only like 2 hours in, but luckily others went, so I didn't feel so bad.  Side-note....just like in any Central American city/town, it was just like Mexican "rest stops/gas stations", the bathrooms are outside, no toilet seats or toliet paper and you have to pay to use them.  However, me and another teacher were the first to go in and kinda just bolted out and were so confused with what was going on, we didn't pay, oooo well.  Even though they are pretty crappy bathrooms with creepy people all over, the local food you can buy at one is amazing! You think gross, but you've never tried it.  We bought these fried plantains, which are like potato chips, only wayyyyy better.  Also, it's cheap.  We bought 3 little sandwich bags for 20 lempiras ($1).  It's pretty awesome.  So after that we're on our way, passing through San Pedro Sula, which is great during the day, big city, it was nice to drive through it and see many people.  Then we get out by the coast and only got a little lost looking for the hostel.  Yes hostel, don't worrryyy there's plenty about that.  So we pull up, it's like 7 and we have to check in.  There's 3 couples who each get a seperate room and then that leaves 10 of us, so me and Mandy want our own room because the others are put into a shared room with bunk beds, like a room you think of when you think hostel.  So we want our own, less bugs and theres a lock.  So we get our own, which we were a little disappointed we wouldn't be with everyone, but on the other hand, we controlled the bug population, which was zero and could sleep without being disturbed.  So we throw our stuff in, pay for one night and of course the only thing on my mind, for about the past 3 hours, was eating.  We go down to a restaurant to eat, it's all open air everywhere at the restaurants because, duh, we're on a beach, the weather is always nice except the few rain showers.  The food was mainly seafood, obviously, but I was still a little weary of eating it because I was still living by the rule of Mexico, don't eat anywhere that doesn't have a table cloth.  Welllll most places don't down here, and I still eat there, but I usually get something safe, like fried chicken.  Which is exactly what I got, dedos de pollo. (chicken fingers, of course!)  I haven't had any since I've been here!  Just like my chicken nugs in the states, only not as fried, they were delicious! and fairly cheap. So dinner was nice, then we went back to our hostel, and to kinda unwind, which meant we doused our room and the area outside with bug spray.  One thing no one took into consideration in this tropical climate we were in was mosquitoes.  Luckily some of us, like me, managed to throw in the bug spray.  So we covered the place, and ourselves.  Also, the owner brought out these coils to help with it.  We didn't do much the first night, we did walk down the pier to look out, there were locals fishing, probably for our dinners, but we couldn't see much.  So we went back and pretty much just all crashed, it was a looonnggg day of marching in the heat and being crammed in a bus.  So the next morning we wake up at about 8am.  Which is sleeping late compared to our 5:45am wakeup calls for school each morning.  The first thing I want to do is find coffee.  The plan for the day was to relax and go to a beach.  We find a resturant that's open and they give us a decent price for breakfast, couple eggs, beans, cheese, tortillas, nice and hearty for like $3. O, plus the best coffee I've had since I've been down here, I think it was chocolate coffee or something.  So after breakfast we figure out where a nice beach is.  Well Mandy and Ashley go to a hotel we heard would let us use their beach if we bought drinks or food, however, when they go check it out,  it is crap.  Garbage, which I forgot to mention, this town was probably a great great getaway like 10 years ago.  But now it's run down, looks like maybe a hurricane or just really bad storms have battered it up, and they also have a gas company that put a barge into the ocean and a plant right there, so I bet it ran alot of people/tourists outta town.  Anyway, so the beaches we see from the pier and at the hotels are filled with garbage and small, nothing we could use.  So we go for a walk to another beach we heard about that's like 15 minutes away.  We get there and are verryyyy disappointed/shocked.  I thought some people were going to cry (I'll put some of the pictures on here later, but most will be on facebook because what, you think I have all the time in the world to just sit on the computer? Some of us work for a living) The beach was covered in garbage.  There was like a row of garbage between the sandy part and the actual Sea.  Also, there was a nice view of the barge that has gas or oil things in the water, one of the other teachers told me what it is, but I can't remember the names.  So we're all bummed out about this, and most of the teachers decide it's not worth staying and decide to go back to the hostel and do something else.  But Mandy, Ashley, Kristen, and Me figure what else are we going to do all day?  There was a little part of a beach we could lay out at and there was a restaurant right behind us, and  I didn't plan on going into a big body of water anyways, just another little quirk of mine, so we figure, let's stay for a while, we brought our books and want sun.  Here's a view of the beach......

   So you might have guessed, storm clouds rolling in, and after about 30 minutes of sitting on this nice view of the garbage, beach, we decide to wait out the storm in the restaurant behind us.  Well, obviously someone above us was watching and praising our patience of the situation because we discovered the most amazing thing!  A POOL!  Yes, it was a nice little lounge, with a hotel behind it, and this lounge had a pool!  It was gorgeous!  Well gorgeous for where we were!  The 4 of us were soooo happy!  We waited and for once in my life I was rolling with what was given and it turned out to be a glorious pool, with no one else around!  So even though we came across this miracle, it's still raining, pretty hard, so we go sit under the restaurant and get a drink.  It cost 100 lempiras for the day to swim, we find out, which is roughly $5.....sold!  We had the most amazing, relaxing day!

 We layed out, got only a little sunburned because we practically bathed in sunblock.  We literally walked 15 min and already had a tanline.  But we are close to the equator so the sun is that much hotter.  We also met 2 new friends, of course they were 8 and 14 haha.  They were sisters from the capital and go to a bilingual school.  They were sweet and full of questions for us.  They helped us with Spanish and we with English.  Overall, after the start to our day, it turned out to be probably the most relaxing one I've had here (in Honduras), not a worry in the world.  So after a day of baking in the sun, one of us coming out literally like she was cooked, it looked so painful, we made her sit in the shade the last hour we were there, we walked back to the hostel to see what everyone was up to.  Everyone was down at this pizza joint so we showered and went down there for dinner.  They said the pizza was awesome, so we figured it's gotta be good food. Wrong.  Mandy and Ashley got a burger, which was terrible and I got a burrito which had beets inside.  Who puts beets in a burrito?  This place, it was awful.  But we were starving, so we ate it.  Deciding we probabbbllyyy wouldn't be back there.  So Saturday we planned on going to this waterfall we heard about.  It was a hike, which I was super excited about.  We get up, have a nice hearty breakfast because then we didn't have to spend much during the day for lunch, I get my delicious coffee, and we're off.  All but one couple go on this hike, and Kristen who has a torn ligiment in her foot.  So 13 gringos (americans) walking around these back roads, looking for the path to the waterfall.  We finally ask some locals and find it.  It's literally a hike.  We're climbing over boulders, crossing the rivers and small rapids, through this jungle-esk forest to find this stupid waterfall.  And remember back last week I wrote how I totally wiped out walking into a place? Well apparently all this up and down bending is not good for a tailbone because it hurts like I've never felt before.  I've had bruised tailbones I'm sure, but the pain was rough, luckily I was in the front of the pack so we had quite awhile to rest.  Might I add while resting, I was tending to some red ant bites on my foot.  Yup, definately stepped in a patch.  It didn't hurt like I though, they just itched like mosquito bites.  However my leg was starting to turn rashy and it felt funny, so of course I start to get panicky because we're in the middle of this river/rapids in the the jungle, and I'm going to need a leg amputation.  I'm sure it was all a figment of my imagination because everyone else said my leg was probably just sunburned because duh, we were in the sun, so why would I put on sunblock?  So we're sitting waiting for everyone, then when everyone catches up, they tell us one of the girls stayed back to wait, she couldn't make it any farther, she didn't wear the right type of shoes.  Well, this was a grand idea leaving her in the middle of nowhere, by herself, while we all were still white, in the jungle, with wild animals and locals with machetes.....  So I decide to call it quits, we have no idea where this waterfall is, we've been walking like 45 minutes, and a few others jump on board, so we go back, grab the girl and head back to the hostel......to take a nap.  A much needed nap, because we're in a hostel, so I was lucky enough to sleep 4 hours in a row the first two nights.  I kept waking up because 1. The pillows were terrible. 2. I drank so much water my blatter couldn't handle it, which was fine, at least I didn't get heat stroke or dehydration 3. we were IN A HOSTEL, ever see the movie? Yea, you try sleeping, even though we had a pad lock on our door.  For being our first hostel though, it wasn't terrible.  So, after waking up from our nap, everyone was gone, thanks.  But whatever, we just asked the creepy other white foreigner, not from the states, he was from Ukraine or Bolivia or something European it sounded (side-note, he wassss, different...we went on a hike, we all had water, hiking clothes/shoes, cameras, you know..he was barefoot, had a large hat on, and brought his mini guitar, not a yukelayli, and not a guitar, I have no idea what it was, not to mention he was a true backpacker and didn't like showers or deodarant).  So he told us they went to Henry's, the pizza place.  Well we weren't too thrilled because that was what we had for dinner last night, and it wasn't good, and we wanted to try something new.  So we went over and the power was out, this was the only day and it was only for like an hour, that the power went out, pretty awesome.  So it was getting dark and almost dinner, we were hoping people had other plans for dinner, and luckily they did!  They wanted to get seafood from this place we saw on the way to the hike, that had table cloths!  I was stoked!  We obviously said yes, and we went back to pick up others who had gone to shower.  Now we hadn't showered all day, and didn't want to, but everyone else put on nice clothes, so we conformed and put on bathing suit coverups.  We didn't want to stand out, duh.  So we go to dinner and I get shrimp and it was probably the best meal most of us had....on the trip and definately my top 3 of my entire time down here.  It was soooo good!  Afterwards, we just go back because like I've said before, you don't want to be a gringo out late, well you don't want to be anyone out late unless you're a drug lord or prostitute, but we are probably the bad peoples first target.  It wasn't late, but it was dark, pry like 8, so we just went back to hang out and play cards.
So our last full day, Sunday, we need to see the oldest fort in Central America, and go to a beach.....a real beach.  So we decide to go early to the fort.  It was really cool.  It was the only fort with 3 walls built down here.  It was to protect the coast...wellll because it's right on the coast.  Here's a picture, but most of them will be on facebook because I got things to do, like I said before.

 Here's a picture of our room and another room and the bathroom.  our door is on the right, the middle one is the bathroom, and the left was one of the couple's room's.  It looks small, but it was quaint.

 Where we ate the first night, everything was open at all the restaurants, cute...and buggy!

 a view from the pier by our hostel....GORGEOUS!

 inside the room, two twin beds and a shelf to the right....but we had a light & ceiling fan

 The fort

 picture in the museum

 model of the fort

 Here's some sinpits explaining some of the fort stuff

I thought it was interesting to learn that the curved roof of all the rooms was because it stands against hurricanes and terrible storms.  Never knew that......probably because I've never had to build something to withstand a hurricane.
So the fort was pretty awesome, we got a tour guide that cost about $1 each.  He told us the history and little stories about the rooms.  Which most had bats, so I didn't go in very far to some of them.  But it was awesome to see, and now I have more random facts to add to my list!
So after the fort everyone was in desperate need of seeing a real beach.  So after asking around, we figure out the bus to take.  We get on, it's about a 10 minute ride and only cost 32 lempiras each, which is roughly under $4 bucks.  The bus drops you off on the highway, it looks like the middle of nowehere, so I'm not expecting anything.....again.  So we walk down some roads, for like 7 minutes.  We then see these buildings and hear noises.  There's people....in the water!  Not surrounded by garbage!  There's a nice, new looking, pier to jump off.  There's restaurants! We were sooooo happy!  We were in heaven.   Here's a picture:

It was another nice, relaxing, day!  A really nice end to the trip.  When we got back, we all went to the seafood place again to eat.  Why not?  It was delicious and priced very well.  This time everyone was with, which was nice, we played a little duck duck goose while waiting for the food.....mind you, we're all sober.  We're getting good at coming up with things to do while waiting for food, since it takes forever to make 16 people food.  So the food comes, we're all enjoying it, everyone really liked it, except one girl who got the a mix of seafood for soup.  There was a whole fish in it, she didn't mind that but, she said the broth was tasted weird......probably because there was a whole fish in her soup.  After dinner we walked back, in the dark.  If it was light, we probably woulda been able to see the 2 random cows/possibly bulls, walking down the street.

So after getting by them, verrryyy carefullyyyyy, we get back, play some more cards and hit the sack.  In the morning was departure time and mandy & i got up early to go see the pier in the  morning and get some pictures.  It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend.....and we were all ready to come home, which we thought was kinda weird because home is Copan, which still seems like a vacation to me. Wait! Before we got home, we stopped in San Pedro Sula.  This is a bigger city, I would compare it to Guadalajara, remember when I studied abroad in Mexico?  That's the city I stayed in.  It was a city, it had a mall, fast food, stores, grocery stores...and all the prices to come with it.  Most stuff was priced with US prices.  We bought a few things, like chocolate chips and crushed red pepper and brown sugar, things we can't get here, but for the most part I figured if we've gone a month with out it, we don't really need it.  I almost caved and bought dunkin doughnuts bagged coffee, buuutttt  I figured I can wait and bring some back at christmas, it's not a neccesity.  After the store people were done, we met up with people who just went to the mall.  It was time to eat!  Immediately walking in the door, there is a Dunkin Doughnuts/ Baskin Robbins.  I sprint over, of course.  I have my first sip and it was amazingggg!  I loved every drop.  I had to get some doughnut holes too because, well I couldn't get dunkin and no doughnuts.  So I drink and eat that as I'm waiting in line for Wendy's.  I got a double cheeseburger, which I have never had a cheeseburger from Wendy's, not to mention never a double from anywhere (except big mac's but they don't count).  It was like heaven in my mouth going down.  I forgot how much fast food is just delicious!  (If you think just those 2 are bad, this other teacher went to 4 or 5 different fast food places in the mall, she went crazy.  Pretty sure she'll be paying for that this entire week).  After a nice little lunch, back on the bus we went to home.  We got back around 5:30 and since we had stuffed our faces, we didn't need to eat dinner, but went to bed because today was back to reality.  I had a wonderful weekend, but don't worry, if you come visit, I'll hunt for a nicer beach place to go!  I hope you all had a good weekend and aren't tired from reading this novel!  Have a good week!  (Look at facebook for the whole album of pictures!)

Dia de la Independencia

Hi! So we haven't left yet, we first had our parade for Independence day this morning.  I have been in alot of parades in my day, but this was by far the best/longest one ever.  We got to sleep in, which was nice, and met everyone at 8am close to town.  After getting our kids lined up to walk, we went into town to a like ceremony type thing with pretty much the whole town.  There were politicians and dances in front of everyone, it lasted about an hour.  Mind you, it's the only morning this week that hasn't been overcast, and it was probably about 90 degrees outside.So all the kids had to sit around and listen to these politicians and watch the dances, it only lasted maybe an hour-ish, but it was just loooonnngggg.  Then it was pretty much mass caios again.  We had to get onto the street and get the entire school lined up.....amongst about 5 other schools, I think.  It seemed like alot, maybe just 3 though.  So once that happened we started to march......throughout the entire town.  Now, we could probably walk the town in about a half hour?  Maybe 45 minutes, like every street.  So it's a pretty small town, however, the parade took about an hour-ish.  Which doesn't seem long to you people sitting in air conditioning right now, but outside, amongst a town of people, no breezes because all the buildings pretty much block it, there were a few at intersections, but it seemed like for-ev-errrr!  It was a nice morning though, the dances were nice, I think they were authentic dances?  I'm not sure, I was sitting not really paying attention and then I heard music haha.  Here are some pictures, it doesn't really do it justice, but you'll get a little glimpse of my morning.

 The town was all decorated, as you can see all the people surrounding us on the streets.  The girl with the watch has a bag of water, yes that's what many people drink out of, it's rather tricky to do.

 These girls are representing all 18 districts in Honduras.

 5th and 6th graders who weren't part of anything special.

 the band

 our band

 one of the schools was representing Israel

 in the town square trying to get everyone situated to listen to politicians and watch the dances.

 just mass caios pretty much

 she's a 5th grader in the other class, her dress looked like Belle's! The girls looked so pretty

 Israel group again

 All the flags of the different districts.

 the dancers before dancing, in their authentic dresses.

The town with all the flags and our school


Soooo that was a little peak into today, overall it was pretty awesome to see everyone all dolled up and proud of the school.  Now we're off to the beach, woooo woooooo!  Have a good weekend!

"Hurricane Humberta"

So plain and simple we were flooded today.  Here's the story....

So not only was it pouring rain today, the first day it rained all day.  So we walked home, almost made it without a tuk tuk (taxi) splattering us, I think I did ok, but Mandy definately got hit.  So we were pretty much soaked when we got hom, and immediately we see water on the balcony outside the door.  We were very anxious, like maybe we forgot to close the back door or our windows were leaking, we were just unsure.  So we open the door....to about 3 inches of water....everywhere.  In our rooms, the bathroom, kitchen, living/dining room.  Our entire tiled floor is under 3 inches of water.  Well we walk in and inspect the damage, it takes about 30 seconds, I look in my room, there's floating shoes, luckily, my shorts shelf was unharmed.  So I put my backpack on the chair and go find our landlord because we have a waterfall coming out from under our sink.  I guess the pipe, that we were going to ask them to fix today, had completely busted and water was just rushing in.  We can't even get a bucket under to catch it.  So I go out in a panic to find the landlord and he comes out and I just start rambling, all I remember saying was mucho big problema en nosotros cocinera! With my arms out huge, look of pure panic on my face I'm sure.  He thought it would be a little water I think because when he walked into the waterfall I'm pretty sure he was in complete shock.  He tried fixing the rushing water under the sink, but then he ran out to find I think the plumber of the town?  Or whoever he was, he managed to turn off the water and fix the pipe.  We by now, we had the land lord, his mom and dad down here, the teacher from upstairs, me and mandy just kind of being like, weeellll what do we do?  So everyone starts sweeping/mopping, just trying to get the water out.  Thankfully, we have great landlords who helped us and awesome teachers around us to help "bail" us out.  So after everything had calmed, well the water was drying, everything was up and drying, I just needed to clean.  So our entire house is clean, floors, bathroom, rooms, towels got washed, everything that was put off is now clean.  So as I came back in from washing towels, Mandy went out to wash a towel and I was finishing up getting wet stuff dry, and I go outside and say (mind you, I'm still a little "p.o.ed" and just trying to make light of the situation so we don't lose it) I say, "wellllllll, I don't wanna compare this to Katrina or anything, but it's definitely like an Irene, this is what it's gotta be like, we'll call this hurricane Humberta, and we got hit hard" .........now, I didn't mean it in a mean way or anything, those are way worse, we didn't lose our prized possessions or heirlooms or anything like that, just papers and a couple books, but it was still very overwhelming at the time.  We were eating dinner and everything has passed, we're ok now, looking back it is pretty funny, and the fact that we kept putting off cleaning and washing kind of is ironic, but I did go to church last night and God coulda just subtlety told us in a nicer manner to stop procrastinating.  As for church last night, real quick, well not the service, but the story.  It was nice, power stayed on, I figured I'd go and see what it was like.  Weeellllll if you thought some priests sermons in the states are long, just sit at a Honduran mass.  It was nice and I was kinda following along, but once I saw other natives starting to doze and look bored, I   was a little relieved that it wasn't just me.  I'm pretty sure the whole congregation was clueless as to what was going on, I didn't time it or anything, but it was pushing 30 minutes that the priest was talking.  Ok, hopefully we can make it 2 more days until our long weekend and we're off on vacation to Omoa!  Please don't judge me based on my hurricane references, they were just in the moment and looking back, hilarious.

Dia del Ninos

Hi!  Happy Saturdayyyyy!  So we only had a 4 day week this week because of dia del ninos.  Basically a day for the kids, all over Honduras and maybe Central America?  The kids just come to school in their street clothes and we play games, like lime on spoon.  Yes, just as it sounds, you put a lime on the spoon and put the spoon in your mouth and walk, its a race.  Unfortunately my 5th graders didn't get to play.  Then there were games like bingo.....

try and zoom in, the picture 1st column, 2nd one down is el borracho....for you non-Spanish speakers, that means drunk and yes, he's leaning against a street lamp, I beleive puking but I can't remember.  and next to it is el corazon, heart, withhhhhh arrows going through it.  When el borracho was called the kids didn't even think twice.  So they played games and then we went to the class to trade gifts.  It was like asecret santa and I did it, so I got a coffee mug because they know I love my coffee and earrings and a little change purse.  It was cute.  Then of course it wouldn't be a party without pinatas.  But here they move them up and down so it's alot harder, they're not blindfolded though.

 This is the girl who had me as a secret friend

Why wouldn't you have a snowman pinata in Honduras?

The boys and girls had different pinatas because the boys get really intense.  Then after games and pinatas we went into the class to eat.  Well the teachers serve the kids cheeseburgers and pop and cupcakes, we got to eat in between serving them.  It was a fun day though because we didn't have to teach and were home by noon.....to lay out and have a drink haha.

They got little goodies bags too with candy and an orange.  So nothing really exciting this weekend, except after a big rain fall I've found out wearing my Old Navy flip flops is not a good idea, definately wiped out walking into a bar last night, just flat out slipped and landed right on my tailbone, it hurt like heck.  It still hurts today.  Last night the power was out and the other day when it was pouring and we found out today our tank can't fill unless the power is on, so we didn't have water last night or this morning, but it's back now, thank gosh.  Tonight we're going to another dinner with everyone, we were gonna make guacamole, but avocados are 2 for 25 lempiras, so like 1.50....in the states thats not alot, but here its wayyyy too much to spend, so we're going to bring cilantro lime rice.  Mandy makes it really good though, so whatever.  I found a coffee filter finally, but coffee is pretty expensive down here, so I have to wait til we get paid again probably.  Which I don't understand because there are coffee plantations all over the place, but it's ok I sweat like 3 gallons of water a day so I figure a coke on the weekends when I can't get coffee from school will be fine for now.  And then tomorrow is the Bears Game!!!! We are super pumped about it, so pray the power stays on, usually during the day we don't have a problem with that, but just say a little something, it will make our month to get to watch the game.  O! and we decided on a trip for next weekend!  We're going to Omoa.  It'll talk like 5-ish hours to get there, but we found a cheap hostel, that was reccommended by friends of friends and the bus will cost like $20 there and back, and most of the teachers are going so it should be a good time.  It's a tiny town on the Caribbean Coast, we'll get to kayak and see an old Spanish fort from like the 1500's!  Some people will snorkel, I probably won't, it's the big bodies of water and I'm not a fan of fish touching me, I'll probably just lay out instead or maybe go to the waterfall?  So check back next week for pictures of that.  We're going because we have a 4 day weekend because it's Independence Day down here, so Thursday is the parade and then we leave Friday morning.  Wellllll that's pretty much it for now, hope you're all doing well!  Have a good rest of the weekend!

Laundry Adventure

Hi! So real quick, I did my sheets and towel today in the wash.  Wellllll remember how I have that pila to wash my stuff?  It's about the size of a sink, maybe.  So I decide to catch up on my laundry because I'm finally planned through next week and have nothing else to do.  Well the sheets took FOREVER.  I am not even sure if they're completely clean, probably not, but they smell clean so whatever.  Anyways, besides taking forever and my muscles getting jacked, it was pretty uneventful.....until I hung them up.  So I'm a freak and won't leave my towels or sheets outside to dry.  I don't know why so don't ask, I had freaking "nap" pillows in college and wouldn't sleep under the covers unless I had taken a shower right before, it's my little OCD trait........it's just something about the air and dirt everywhere that makes me think things aren't completely clean when they're hung up outside; and towels/sheets are the one thing that I use when I'm clean and would like to use a clean towel and crawl into my clean sheets after my shower.  Anywayssssssss, I rig my laundry line in my room, like I've done before, well the sheets and towel are too heavy, duh.  So the line moves along the rod until it somehow manages to knock the rod off its hooks and fall to the floor.  I know what you're thinking, she flipped out and quickly ran to wash everything again because it touched the floor.  Well, only half of that is true, I did freak out and run and grab everything, 5 second rule applies here, and it was probably literally 5 seconds, my panic instinct hit right away, it was nice because I heard it before it fell.  So no big deal, right? WRONG.  As I go to put the rod back up, I find our geicho friend, right there, above my window, inside!  Nowwwwsss the time I flip out.  I was a little in shock and didn't really say anything and then about 30 seconds passed and I scream to Mandy the gecho's in my room!  She freaks out a little but comes to check it out.  (sidenote: I hadn't seen it in my room before because my curtains hid it, and it's beige so about the same color as my wall).  We don't know what to do, in a panic I decide I can put it in something with a lid and bring it outside a fling it, far far away.  Well the stupid thing pulls a Houdini and we couldn't find it.  I looked EVERYWHERE.  No joke, moved everything, looked through my shoes, EVERYWHERE.  No idea where it went.  We are still puzzled to where it went.  If I find it in my clothes because somehow it managed to jump to them, you will probably hear me screaming from down here (it's only 3005.40 km to Chicago, found that out today because my students are learning place value).  Sooooo hopefully I sleep tonight knowing that thing is in my room, haunting me and my clean sheets/towel.

My Apartment! And the third week!

Watch this one first!........

Now watch this one!........

Hi! So I finally got a video of the apartment!  It's only taken all day to try and figure out how to upload.  I hope you enjoy it.  I had a great week!  School is getting a little easier, the kids are calming down a little, I'm trying to get them into a routine.  They still talk all the freaking time though, but it makes me feel better when the secondary teachers talk about how their students always talk, so at least I'm not the only one.  I met the parents Friday night.  Besides it being so hot, that I was basically drenched in sweat, it went well.  Ivy (the other 5th grade teacher) and I were put with a Honduran teacher to help translate.  We thought the parents would be really intense and we were a little nervous, but it went well.  We were one of the first groups done with our meeting, so that was a nice feeling.  Then we went for happy hour again.  It was a fun night.  However the power was out, shocking, so everything was lit by candles.  We wet to some other fun places, and we went to one "dance club" which was just like salsa music, so some of the girls got to salsa....I however did not because I salsaed in Mexico, got it out of my system, don't need to do it again haha.  I just enjoyed watching the night life culture.  It was a fun night.  Saturday night just me and Ashley, a girl from Deerfield, went out.  To went to a place called ViaVia where we kinda knew people.  Well now we know them better, it was awesome to talk to Hondurans and practice my Spanish!  It was a low key night, but probably one of the best because it's exactly what I wanted to do, meet locals and practice Spanish.  Well we obviously had to stay til close because we really went to see the one bartender she danced with Friday night, so when we were leaving, the owner of Via Via said to wait inside because there was a fight next door and guns were being waved around.  You can probably just imagine the look on my face, I stayed behind a door while everyone went to check it out.  I guess it was just a drunk fight, but the owner still gave us a ride home anyways because it's not very safe to walk home. Our land-lady, Nila was supposed to show us how to make tortillas this week, but it never happened because our schedules were different, but she did make us chuchitos, they're like tamales, and delicious!  She is awesome, very protective, she is happy I speak Spanish and that Mandy wants to learn, we think she likes us best out of the 5 down here, she gave us 2 chuchitos and the others just got one haha.  So really this week was kinda boring, we're practicing marching at school because the Independence Day parade is coming up.  Tomorrow we're marching at 1, I think we're going to die, but that's just my opinion.  We marched at 7am last Monday and we were all drenched in sweat, I can't even fathom how hot it's going to be tomorrow afternoon.  I'm excited for the parade though, I heard it is just awesome because the whole town is pretty much involved and it's just so cool to see the customs they have.  I will definately take mucho pictures!  Let's seeeee, what else....we don't have a full week for like 2 months, so I'm pretty phyched about that.  This week is Children's Day, we celebrate at school, but we're done early and all we do is play and eat cake all day, my ideal day I must say.  Then next week is a 4 day weekend, I think we're gonna go to El Salvador, it's Independance Day weekend pretty much all of Central America so it'll be cool to see other countries celebrations. We had a nice, free, breakfast this morning.  It was at a Bed & Breakfast a little out of town.  The aunt and uncle of one of the students owns it, they pretty much wanted to show us it, so when people come visit they stay there, it was really cute and not in the noisy part of town, so if you visit it would be a nice place to stay.  The food was great too and the view over there is even better than the one from our house! We also found out San Pedro Sula has a Dominos and a Denny's so that will definitely be a weekend trip we take.  So I should probably get back to lesson planning, I'm trying to figure out English/Reading for them because they have random books that don't mesh, and did I mention my class hates to read?  Ivy got all the readers, so I've been trying to pump them up by reading everday but they're not really having it, so if you have ideas to get kids excited, besides like candy incentives, let me know.  I hope you liked the videos!  Now you can start planning your trips to come visit me!  Even though it is a poor country, there are still regular things like fridges and running water inside!  Byeeeee have a good week!  O, P.S.!  Since I have alot of time on my hands I read ALOT.  I've already finished 2 books, one being the second Tucker Max book, genius I must say, just so hilarious, and I'm going to start trading with other teachers, but I feel by Christmas we'll all have read each others books, so if you know of any good books let me know so I can bring them back at Christmas!