My Birthday!

Sorry, sorry, sorry!  I am sooooo behind on informing you of how awesome it is down here haha.  I was going to do it yesterday, but there's a sickness going around and I'm pretty sure it hit me yesterday.  I was burning up, but freezing at the same time.  I didn't think I'd make it through school today, but the more I moved around, I felt better.  My throat is pretty sore and I have a pretty bad cough, but I'm tough.  I think it's from the weather changing so drastically.  I was wearing shorts and a tanktop one day and the next I had to wear a coat to school.  So anywayyyyysss......This week was AWESOME!  It started with the spelling bee Monday.  We were supposed to have special activities and what not this week, with Friday off, but with our random week off cause of the road, that didn't happen.  So we had the spelling bee, which took up the morning, so that was nice.  It was pretty cool.  The kids were really into it.  Our 5th graders I would say were the most supportive of their classmates, yelling and cheering when they got the word right.  It was my first spelling bee to watch and it was fun.  After, they had native games and fun things that the students got to try out.  So it was like a fun day, but then the last hour or so the administration wanted us to go back to class and have classes.....yea, good one.  The students were so hyped up it was difficult, so we pretty much called it a wash of a day and watched a movie haha.  here's some pictures of what a spelling bee looks like down here, it was all outside just around the library:

 This was all the kids watching

Kids in the bee (2 from every class, 1st grade-12th grade, they all had their own words appropriate to their age, a 2nd grader won!)

Then the fun came Wednesday forrrrr My Birthdayyyy!  I knew the students were planning something, 1. because they had a donation box on my desk and 2. they kept telling me it was going to be better than the other 5th grade teachers birthday.  So they surprised me in the class when I got there, and gave me a sash and had food and cake all set up for the day.  The first grade class made me a crown and a cute card.  Then after lunch I came back for the real pie.  They got me good.  It was up my nose and all over.  Pretty much a dream come true though haha.  Here's some pictures:

So that's me with pie all over.  After I cleaned myself up, we had food they brought in, some more snacks, which were cookies haha, and they wanted to dance, so I let them.  Then after cleaning we had cake (yes, they had 2 cakes, one for the face & 1 for eating (which was delicious!)) and then we did the pinata.  It was a really awesome birthday, and my kids planned it all, they gathered the money and everyone brought stuff in.  Then for dinner I got to have delicious baleadas!  They are my favorite food here!  They're just large tortillas with beans and cream inside, but this one place puts eggs and avocado in them, so we ate there, and it was delicious!  It really was a great birthday, I felt lucky to have met such wonderful people down here.  On Friday we had a birthday party here for me.  I made sure no one dressed up because that's a nusance, so everyone came in their pjs!  It was such a fun night!  Especially when my land lady showed up with a mariachi band!  It was totally unexpected but so cool!  She's such a cute old lady, but she reminds me of my nona and popi and grandma that I miss from homeeeeeee.  Here's some pictures of the mariachi band....

So it was pretty awesome, and we had cake and awesome food that everyone brought, loveeeddd it!  Then Saturday it was another teachers birthday, so we went zip lining!  It was kinda like a shared birthday outing haha.  It was amazingggg!  I was a little scared, but it was waaayyy better than I expected it was going to be! We went over the mountains, the river, jungle, we saw the entire town, there were 14 lines.  Some of them were right after the other, so there wasn't even time to prepare, but those were the best, so thrilling!  Here's some pictures of that:

Sooooo then that takes us up to yesterday, where I didn't even get out of bed.  But today we're making homemade soup, well Mandy's making it, I'm just gonna eat it like usual.  Grades and year long plans are due in the next week or so, so it'll be busy, but I'll definately appreciate the weekend alot more!  Hope you all have a good week!  Miss you, less than 2 months til I'm home!