Emy Salad

I don't wanna grow up

2010-03-10T23:48:00.002-03:00

In some of my classes we are reading the book The Little Prince in Spanish. It is one of my most favorite books, and even though my students are struggling to grasp the deeper lessons of the story, I find it very powerful to see them think critically about the language and the words that they are reading as they search for the deeper meaning behind the words. If you haven't read The Little Prince, you need to. In my opinion, if you are going to read a non-Christian book about life, this is the one to read. In the first couple of chapters of the book, the main lesson is that people perceive things differently. With a focus on grown-ups versus children, the author points out the differences of interpretations of a drawing. Children can understand things and see things that aren't explicit or obvious, while grown-ups need long explanations because they just don't get it. Children can find joy in the simple things, and grown-ups need numbers, names, and facts to attribute value to something. When talking about their friends, children focus on things like their laugh, their smile, and the way that they make you feel. Grown-ups focus on things like their age, socio-economic status and education. In my current day-to-day life I am finding myself surrounded by more and more "grown-ups" and fewer and fewer "children". I find myself surrounded by people concerned with appearances based on superficial numbers that supposedly give value to work and to life. Jesus said, "unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven". I think that God is using my current study of The Little Prince to teach me a lesson. I am struggling. I am trying to hold on to what I know to be true, everyday is a battle against people telling me that it isn't real and that there are things that are more important.
Well, people, you're wrong. It's not a hat, and it's not about the box - it's what's inside the box.

One man's trash...

2009-10-08T21:03:00.002-03:00

People often seem to want what they can't have. The grass is greener on the other side, and a lot of the time it doesn't really matter what the grass is, the neighbor's grass is better.
People think I'm crazy, but I want something that I have never been able to have. I have never made a C, and it's due to no fault or "good doing" on my part. No matter how much I slack off, I always make good grades. On one essay that I wrote during my undergrad the professor wrote the following "Everything that you wrote is completely wrong, but I like the way you wrote it." and I got a B+. How can a person make a B+ on an essay in a literature class when they don't even know what the book is about?? When I was applying to do student teaching I asked my very favorite professor, Dr. Brown, for a recommendation. He told me the following "You are an awful student and there's no way that you'll be a good teacher." He wrote the recommendation anyway, and I hope that I've at least sorta proved him wrong. All throughout college I never studied and never worked hard, but I still never made a C. Anyone who has ever had a class with me, sat beside me in a meeting or conference knows that I do not pay attention and do not listen. And there never seems to be any consequence for me.
My time as a student will be coming to an end this summer. I'm tired of "studying", so I decided that beginning this semester I would slack off and make Cs for the rest of my student days. I have been working hard and have been making a conscious effort to do mediocre work. I have only read 1 chapter of over 20 chapters of assigned reading in the past 6 weeks, and that chapter was read during a teacher training when I was supposed to be listening to something else. Last week I turned in a project. I turned in 10 pages stapled together, bullet points instead of paragraphs, and did not include concrete examples that the professor asked for. I have no idea what my classmates wrote, but they turned in binders and portfolios full of papers with something written on them. I was so sure that I had earned my C. Got it back today, and I got a 96. Took a midterm tonight, and I hadn't read any of the books for this class, and had taken no notes in class because I was too busy playing with my pipe cleaners and play doh. I don't know my grade yet, but I knew how to answer all of the 6 essay questions.
People think I'm crazy, but I really want to make a C before my days as a student are over. I'm mad and disappointed because I don't seem capable of doing it, no matter how hard I try. I am really frustrated, and I know that people think I'm just being a brat, but this is something that I really want. What good is making good grades if you have done nothing to earn it? If I got my C, it would mean something to me. Education is nothing if it is not meaningful.

Trip to Europe 2009

2009-08-03T07:19:00.003-03:00

I just returned from a really great trip to Europe, I went to Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Venice. I went with my friend, Becky, and we were gone for a total of 3 weeks. We did a lot, saw a lot, ate a lot, and sweated a lot. It was great!!!

A few things from the trip that I will never forget (in no particular order)

1. Barcelona's nude beach. I think that's really enough said, but the day before we actually went to the beach we had a little extra time, so we thought that we would go check it out. We were in our clothes, and just kind of walking around. We noticed some topless women, but that didn't really come as a surprise. We went down to walk in the water, and as we walked, we came to a part of the beach that was almost all naked people! Talk about awkward. Not really an enjoyable experience...there were some funny moments, but really, most people just need to keep their clothes and swimsuits on.

2. Getting pooped on. in Paris. It's just really hard to forget poop falling from the sky and landing on you.

3. Eating over 17 pizzas. The week that we were in Italy I ate pizza for every meal, and I had a couple before we went. My favorite was hot dog pizza, or pizza viennese, but unfortunately I didn't find it until the next to last day.

4. The crepe man by Notre Dame. By far the best crepes in all of Paris...I think I ate about 7... He remembered me, and one day we chatted a bit and he told me to come back, so I did about a week later and he still remembered me and gave me a free bottle of water!!! I have a huge crush on him.

5. Sagrada Familia. After seeing Macchu Picchu, Sagrada Familia became the thing that I most wanted to see in the world. It was pretty amazing. I'm still not sure what my next travel dream is going to be...

6. Movie theater in Rome. You get assigned seats, and there's a bathroom in each theater!

Of course there's plenty more, but those are the first that I thought of....all the pictures do a better job of telling about our trip!

BARCELONA

2009-07-23T11:46:00.002-03:00

We are still here for a couple more days, but I´d like to share a few thoughts about Barcelona.

1. Catalan is a very intriguing language. It is a mix of Spanish and French, both of which I can understand (well, my French isn´t so great, but I get the gist when I read), but when mixed together it can be a little tricky. They also like to leave the last letters off of words, such as -o, -a, and -n. Examples: informacio, turistic, pa

2. Mullets are cool. We have seen so many!! More than I´ve seen in my entire life previous to this Tuesday. And the best ones are the dreaklock mullets, which are quite interesting. I´m considering growing one myself.

3. Man capris are hott! I am loving the man capris, and I wish that American men would get over their ¨manliness¨and not be afraid of the capri.

4. Midriffs and bras were designed to be shown. It doesn´t matter if you are hugely overweight and unattractive, if you´ve got it, show it!!!

5. Everything costs lots of dinero.

6. There are so many international people here!! We have only actually talked to one other American the whole time we´ve been here. There are tons of French people and I like them.

7. If you get hot, just take your shirt off.

8. Armpits are smelly. You don´t need deodorant, just a little sweat and you´re good to go! It´s most important to stand really close to other people on the subway.

9. Baguettes are very common here. Something that we have noticed is that if you buy one, you shouldn´t cover it or wrap it up, just stick it halfway into your bag and walk home. This is very unlike our need to cover up food to protect it from the unknown environment, but I like the ease of just tossing your bread into an open-air bag and carrying it home. We have also seen a huge head of lettuce sticking out of a bag.

10. This city is amazing. The scenery and the buildings, and the people. Don´t get the wrong impression from my previous notings, I love it here!! There are things that are very different from my culture and things that I am familiar with, but I love getting to observe the differences and realize certain things about myself and the place that I come from that tend to go unnoticed. Although we laugh and kid about certain differences in cultures and places, I think that the most important thing is to notice the differences and appreciate that they exist. I love this place and can´t wait to come back!!

Happy Birthday, Val

2009-07-13T18:06:00.021-03:00

Today is Val's birthday - she's 18 and she's all grown up.
There are many reasons why I love my little sister, but here are just a few....

She loves to be hugged.
She loves Spanish music...well, maybe not love, but she went to a concert with me!

She runs into tree branches...or did once.

She'll let you know if she smells something.

She is always ready for a good time.

She loves to sing very loudly.

She loves animals, especially her dog, Bella.

She lets me come into her bedroom unannounced.

She always listens.

She lets me and Jess try to drown her.

She is always happy...unless she's mad or pouty.

She isn't afraid to try new things...like my bra

She can impersonate statues.

She always tries to look her best.

She loves to match me.

She is good at taking naps.

No matter where we travel she never brings enough clothes and always gets really cold.

Rest of the days in Antigua

2009-07-11T00:02:00.002-03:00

I don't really remember where I left off, but we left the hotel with free internet so I kinda gave up on the blogging, but I figured I'd splurge for five minutes this last night.
We started work with the clinic on Sunday - I again translated for the optometrist and gave people sight, or so I like to think. We didn't see a whole lot of out of the ordinary things.
Monday we went to a rural school in a pueblo about 10 minutes outside of Antigua, it was a Monday, which is market day in Antigua, so the place was deserted. We were literally sitting around twiddling our thumbs for most of the day. My favorite part of that day was the ladies grilling chicken off to the side, it was yum!! Too bad most of our people were too scared to eat it, but I loved it!!!
Tuesday was a LOT more eventful, our line was forever long!!! Even longer than the line for the dentist, which never happens! We saw a lot of people and gave out a lot of glasses, it is so cool to see a person's face light up when you put a pair of glasses on them and they are able distinguish faces and figures for the first time. That happened a lot that day, we also got a lot of people complaining of not being able to read in the dark and their eyes burning when they look at the sun. We laugh and make fun of them a little, but it is really eye-opening to realize that things that we consider common sense are so foreign to these people.
Wednesday was free day - Becky and I went to an old convent, the best cathedral in town, and a boring museum (we only went to the museum because my book said they let you hold guns, but it lied). After that we went to the market then had lunch at Pollo Campero. I spent my last night at Bill's this day.
Thursday I was sick....so I took some Benadryl and Fenagran(sp?) and slept the entire day. I was sad to miss out on the clinic, but I felt way better when I woke up.
Today was our last day and we spent it in Chimaltenango...it was pretty busy, but not as crazy as I had thought it might be. We did more glasses stuff, and overall it was a pretty good day. We just ate dinner and are about to just chill before hitting the sack and heading home tomorrow.
BYe.

Day 2: Antigua, Guatemala

2009-07-03T01:17:00.002-03:00

Today was way exciting!!!
Luckily I was feeling all better when I got up (which was way early) so we headed to the volcano. Since our key broke last night, we were having issues and couldn't get out the front door, so our van almost left us, but luckily I ran up to it fast enough once it started moving that we could get on. The hour or so drive to the volcano was pretty uneventful, I ate some granola and fruit snacks. We started the hike up, which was really hard!! I climbed this same volcano a few years ago, and it was way easier. I blame the difficulty on my ever increasing age. Anyway, pretty soon Becky and I decided that we needed help, so we paid these guys to ride their horses up. That was a very smart decision, and fun, since I like to ride horses. I had to pop some pills pretty quick, though, since I am allergic to them. So we rode and rode, and the views were spectacular!! It was really cool to see the other 3 volcanoes in the distance, and we even saw one of them erupt! Once we had ridden the horses as far up as they could go, we got off of them. Becky didn't wanna go all the way to the top, but I did.... I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The climb was extremely steep, and it wasn't a normal path either. It was all the little lava rocks piled up together, and you just had to climb up them. It was hard because every rock that I touched moved, and all the rocks touched by people ahead of me also moved. It was fun trying to maneuver and not sink into the lava, but it was hard, and I got tired and sore pretty quick. As we got higher, we started to be able to feel the heat from underneath, it was such a cool feeling! When we got to the top and I could see the lava it was unbelievable! There it was, right in front of me, red lava actually flowing out of a volcano. It was extremely hot up there, and it smelled sulphury and little ashes and things were blowing in my eyes. As awesome as it was, I didn't linger long because my body just couldn't handle the temperature, smell, and ashy eyes. So began the descent....which was a lot like the ascent, except 100% harder. It is very difficult to climb down a steep mountain of little lava rocks that move and start to roll down as soon as you touch them. When I could I just scooted down on my butt, for a few minutes I tried going down backwards like it was a ladder but that was too hard because I couldn't really see below me, so I mostly just climbed down like a normal person. I slipped and fell several times, and ended up with a pretty big scratch on my wrist, and it hurt, but I didn't really mind because I at least had a battlewound. When I was about halfway down, I heard cries from up above yelling "Watch out!", in both Spanish and English, and I looked back, and a huge boulder, about half my size was rolling down the mountain straight towards me. I didn't know what to do, there was no way I was going to beat it down, so I did the only thing I could do and caught it. Yes, I caught the boulder, and used my body weight to hold this giant rock. And so I was just standing there, because I couldn't really move or it would crush me and push me down the volcano. Eventually a few strong guys caught up to me and held onto the boulder from above, and said that I had to move over to the side as fast as I could because they wouldn't be able to hold onto it from above for very long, so I let go and jumped to the side as fast as I could. The boulder rolled on down and I was saved. A few more slides and I made it down. And so we hiked back down and arrived back in Antigua.
We went to Pollo Campero for lunch and ate fried chicken and mashed potatoes, and had an amazing dessert that Krispy Kreme needs to get...it was a glazed donut with ice cream on top. Talk about delicious. Yum. Next we came back to the hotel and rested for a couple hours because we were very tired.
We headed back out and went to see an old Guatemalan movie about the Cold War and stuff. It wasn't very good, but I'm glad that we saw it.
Next was very fun. We went to this restaurant that had live Andean music - we LOVED it!! Not only was the music cool, but the food was delicious - we had a brownie with ice cream for dessert. This is also where I met my Guatemalan crush, Bill. Bill is 70 years old, originally from Nashville, but moved here to Guatemala to open the restaurant and play the drum in the band. He is awesome, and so cute when he's dancing, singing, and playing his drum all at the same time.
I can't wait to see what adventures await us tomorrow!!

Day 1: Antigua, Guatemala

2009-07-01T23:31:00.002-03:00

I know, I didn't finish the South American trip yet, but maybe later.

Becky and I left this morning, and the flights were pretty uneventful, but at the airport in Houston and drunk man found us and wanted us to carry his bag, but we said no and got away as fast as we could.
We landed around 1, and got a taxi to take us from Guatemala City to Antigua. Again, uneventful transport. We were a little unsure when we arrived at our hotel, because there wasn't a sign on the outside, and the door was locked, but our nice taxi driver rang the bell and asked, and yes we were at the right place. As soon as we walked inside, we fell in love. The lady greeted me by name, and they took us right to our room, before we even signed anything! It is a beautiful hotel, with a nice courtyard and a splendid view of one of the volcanoes. And the room is great too - and it has the hugest bathroom that I've ever seen!! Another cool thing is that there is a journal in the room that all the people write in that stay here and write about all the things that they did here in Antigua. It was really cool to read about all the trips that different people from around the world have had in the same room that we are staying in.
After relaxing a bit at the hotel, we set off for the main square in Antigua. We stopped to peruse and shop a little bit on our way, got some money, and booked our tour for the volcano tomorrow. By that time we were pretty hungry so we stopped for dinner at Frida's and had some yummy Mexican food. We did a little more shopping, then stopped at an ice cream shop that we had passed earlier.
We then headed back to the hotel...we made a couple wrong turns, but we finally made it! As guests at our hotel we have 3 keys: one to the front door, one to our room, and one to the big gate in the back that is only for emergency use. So, when we got to the hotel, I stuck in the key for the front door, turned it, and the key broke in the door. Yes, it broke. Fortunately I was able to pull it out so that the door isn't ruined for everyone. We tried knocking and ringing the bell, but no one answered. So, we then considered our situation an emergency, so we used the big gate in the back. Success! We made it in. Becky is now in charge of keys.
At this point I am already sick, and I'm mad because we just got here!! I'm not surprised to be sick, it happens at least once every trip, but really, on the first day?!? I am drinking manzanilla tea right now, Becky says that's the Mexican cure, so we'll see.
We depart at 6am tomorrow to climb an active volcano - Volcan Pacaya. I am so excited - I went a few years ago and loved it, so I can't wait to do it again.
Yay Guatemala.

Trip to South America: Day 8 Colonia, Uruguay

2009-06-27T00:16:00.003-03:00

On this day, which was a Monday, we took the Buquebus (which is a ferry) from Buenos Aires to Colonia. We uneventfully boarded the ferry, and in order to sit by windows, the four of us split up on different rows. Some guy ended up sitting with me, which was fine, he was very enthralled with the books that he was reading. When the boat landed, everyone was lining up to get off, and like all other passengers, I got my stuff together and was ready to leave. The guy was a little awkward at this point, he knew that I was ready to get off, but he just kept sitting there reading and I couldn't get out. Eventually Andrea saw me stuck and yelled for me so that he had to let me out. So we landed in Colonia, and were supposed to meet up with a tour bus. We couldn't find the right bus, so we left the ferry terminal and walked a ways and didn't see anything, so then we walked back. I found someone who looked official and asked them about our tour, and our bus had already left, but there was a "Spanish" bus of the same tour, so we got on that bus, and got dropped off at a restaurant for lunch. Lunch was pretty good, I had chicken and mashed potatoes, one of my favorite meals. After we finished eating we had a little time before we were supposed to meet up with the "English" tour, so we walked down the street and went into a couple shops. Finally it was time for the tour. We boarded a bus and went for a drive. We saw the old bullfighting ring and made a stop at the beach for about 10 minutes. Next we went make to the main street, and got off the bus and walked towards the old city. I love the old part of Colonia! There are cobblestone streets, and there is a city wall, and you can walk through the gate. So our tour continued, and the guide pointed out the oldest street, the lighthouse, a museum, and the church. We went inside the church, the guide kept talking and I stopped listening. Eventually the tour ended and we had a couple hours of freetime. We meandered our way back the way we had come in, stopping in every shop that we passed. I bought a bookmark, and I have no idea what everyone else bought. I really wanted to climb the lighthouse, so Grisham went with me to climb the lighthouse and when we got half up we yelled to Colette and she joined us. We then climbed to the top, which had a good view of the town and the river. When we climbed down, we kept walking and went in some more little shops, ending up at the first shop we had gone in after lunch. There I bought some post cards and crosses for Jess and Lanae - normally crosses are easily found, but these were the first ones that I had seen so I just bought them. At this point we had about an hour left until our ferry left to take us back to Buenos Aires, so we went to a cafe to have a snack. I had some alfajores and hot chocolate...the hot chocolate was good, the alfajores weren't really all that spectacular. Grisham and Colette got a meat-olive-chip board, and fed some of their stuff to a dog that was lingering at our table. After our snack we met back up with our bus, boarded the ferry, and headed back to our hotel in Buenos Aires and went to bed.

Trip to South America: Days 5-7, Buenos Aires

2009-06-25T17:02:00.002-03:00

Day 5: Overall, this was not a fun day. We awoke fairly early in order to eat breakfast and head to the airport for our flight from Rio to BsAs. We got to the airport on time, without a hitch, and found out that our flight was delayed by a minimum of 30 minutes. Ok, no big deal.... we all had a few reals (Brasilian money) left, so we spent a little time in one of the shops. I didn't see anything that I wanted to buy, so I sold my reals to Grisham for $10. I am happy with my decision. We sat at this little table for a while, but our chairs were in the way and people kept trying to get by, so we finally moved to our gate, and our minimum 30 minute delay eventually turned into a couple hours. However, for our entertainment, there was a large group of Hell's Angels from Germany waiting with us...a few of them were pretty scary, but it was fun to watch them. One of them opened up a coke and it exploded, but Lanae wasn't there to clean it up. We finally made it to Buenos Aires around 3 or so, I think, and made it through immigration and customs. We went to our hotel, and we were all pretty tired and cranky, so we stopped at the reception desk place and booked a tango/gaucho show for that night and made reservations for our trip to Colonia, then napped for a couple hours until time for the show. There was a shuttle that came to pick us up for the tango show, and we got on. Grisham and Andrea sat in the front, and Colette sat in the back with me. Eventually the little shuttle filled up, and we convinced a couple guys that I was Colette's daughter. It was a fun game. We arrived at the show place, and we had dinner, which wasn't bad. Colette ordered bread pudding, but it turned out to be flan with raisins sprinkled on top. This was funny to everyone, but I don't really know what bread pudding is, so I just laughed along with everyone else. The show was ok...the tango got a little old after a while though. The best part was the gaucho guy.

Day 6: This was sightseeing day in the city. First we went to El Caminito in La Boca. We walked around, went in the little shops, look at the artist stuff, and hungout for an hour or two. From there we took a taxi to Plaza de Mayo where we saw the Casa Rosada, and then we had a great conflict. Colette really wanted to ride the "hop on-hop off" bus, and Grisham and I didn't. So Andrea went with Colette and me and Grisham went off on our merry way. The first thing that we did was go to Calle Florida, which is a pedestrian street with shops and restaurants. We made our way along, stopped at McDonald's for lunch, and kept going until we reading Plaza de San Martin, which is my favorite place in the city. It's n0t just a plaza, it's like a little park. We walked around for a bit, then we took a taxi to Recoletta Cemetery. We had a crazy taxi driver - he was really into music and kept playing songs for us and telling me about them. He was funny. We went to the cemetery and saw Evita's grave, once we found it after getting lost in there. Next we went to the Evita museum, which wasn't too spectacular. A delicious thing happened next - we stopped at a bakery and bought Alfajores - my favorite cookies!! It was funny because the lady wrapped mine up like a present and tied a ribbon around them, and they just put Grisham's in a bag. They were so yummy!! We walked to an art museum, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They had a couple paintings by my favorite artist, Botero, who paints all the fat people. Our last stop of the day was the obelisco on avenida 9 de julio. We took a couple of pictures, walked and took a picture of Teatro Colon, then made our way back to the hotel. We met up with Colette and Andrea and went our for pizza and sangrias.

Day 7: This was my day by myself because the other 3 went to Iguazu. I didn't go because I have been before, and that little jaunt cost them about $400 for the day. So, I saved my money and stayed behind in Buenos Aires. It was Sunday, so I made the long walk to San Telmo to the famous antique market. It was pretty cool...there was some neat stuff. I didn't buy any antiques but I bought a sign painted by an artist there. After walking through the market, I stopped at a small cathedral and attended mass. I then made my way back to Avda 9 de julio, had lunch at a restaurant at a good locale for people watching, then headed to another pedestrian street that crosses with Calle Florida. I walked past a move theater, and thought hey I'll see a movie, so I saw Up, which I really liked. After the movie I hurried to Plaza San Martin so that I would have time to hang out before it got dark. On my way I stopped for ice cream, then I just spend some time enjoying the ambiance at the plaza. It was fantastic!! When it started getting dark I walked back to the hotel and met up with the others and we went to dinner. This was probably my favorte day of the trip.

And so was our time in Buenos Aires.

Trip to South America: Days 1-4, Rio de Janeiro

2009-06-21T20:47:00.002-03:00

Day 1: We weren't actually in Rio on this day, it's the day we left Dallas...flew to Atlanta, ate Chinese food and a McFlurry, then 9 hours to Brasil. I don't remember anything funny from this day.

Day 2: We arrive in Rio. It was really exciting because I just had 20 new pages added to my passport because it was all full, and I got my first stamp on one of my new pages!! Copacabana beach was right around the corner from our hotel, so the first thing that we did was go to the beach. We took our shoes off, walked in the sand and it was wonderful! We still had our clothes on, so we didn't actually swim, but as we walked along the shoreline, a huge wave came and got Grisham pretty good - she was soaked!!! If you don't already know, I don't like museums - and where did we go next?? National History Museum. But don't worry - I made sure that we ate lunch before we went inside. This museum was very boring...I don't think anyone liked it. Next we wandered about downtown....saw a couple churches....and then ate a very large amount of meat. It was pretty good, but my favorite part was the french fries. I had wanted some at lunch, but even though they were on the menu, they didn't have any :(. Everyone was tired, I was the only one that slept on the plane, so we all went to bed at 6:30. Oh! And before bed we stopped at a pharmacy and bought drugs.

Day 3: This was the day of awful, boring tours. Before the tours, we had breakfast, which was very yummy!! My favorite thing was waffles, with warm chocolate syrup. The first tour was to Corcovado, better known as the big Jesus statue. Not much to mention there...we rode the train up to the statue, took some pictures, used the facilities, and went back down. Then our tour guide took us to the shop with the "best prices in town", but I think that it should be better known as the "smallest shop in town". It was so tiny that you couldn't even move in there!! Lunch was included in the tour, and it was okay, but nothing to really write about and describe here. After we finished eating, we walked down to Ipanema beach, which was just a couple blocks away. As always, I was in the mood for dessert, so Grisham and I went to a bakery and bought a snack. I had a nutella tart, and it was oh so yum, I ate it as soon as we got on the bus! For the next 3 hours or so, we rode on a bus all around Rio - I think that the tour guide was showing us stuff, but I'm not sure because I slept the whole time. Finally we made it to Sugar Loaf, which is a mountain-hill place that you ride a cable car up to the top so you can see the whole city. By that time it was starting to get dark, so we didn't have much of a view. Also, when we got to the top, it was super windy. And since we were on a tour, we didn't really even get to hang out and enjoy it because we had to rush back to the bus. We ate dinner at this place where you fill your plate up with food at a buffet and then pay by the weight of your food. This place also had all you can eat pizza. The lady there liked us, so she gave us a special deal and let us eat all the pizza and all the buffet that we wanted for pretty cheap. She didn't even charge us for our drinks. And we went to a market on the beach. I bought a really cool map of South America that's on leather...Grisham got one just like it, only hers isn't as cool, because mine has blue on it. We both liked the blue one best, but luckily for me, Grisham is nicer and let me have it. So it's mine now.

Day 4: Last day in Rio. Two more tours, but these weren't as bad as the day before. The first tour was a Jeep tour, which took us to the Tijuca National Park, and I love parks!! It was raining at first, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. We saw a little waterfall, and some other stuff, then we went to a big waterfall. It was pretty fun playing with these little velcro balls and just walking through the forest. Our Jeep tour was a little late returning, and we didn't have much time before our next tour, and lunch was quite a pressin matter - I refused to go without!! So, Colette and I decided to make a run for McDonald's, which I thought was only a couple blocks away down the beach. We had exactly 30 minutes to go, get the food, and get back. We walked really, really fast for about 20ish minutes, and still not McDonald's. We had no choice but to go back, and at this point I was really hungry, and felt like I had burned a lot of calories, so I really wanted to eat. On our way back, we stopped at this place Bob's Burgers to get food, everything seemed okay, so we rushed back. We opened up and began to eat, but we were one burger short. Poor Colette, being the kind souls that we are, Grisham and I tore off a small piece of our burgers to share. Then our next tour began. This was my favorite of the tours, I think...we went through the favelas, which are the slums there. The guide told us some pretty cool drug lord stories, and I found that to be pretty interesting...the drug dealers pretty much rule society in the favelas and do whatever they want.

And so were our days in Rio. Overall, a pleasant experience, although I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the city in general. I'm not really sure what I was expecting or looking for, but it definitely wasn't a favorite city. I did love the the beach and the rainforest, though.

Trip to South America: A Brief Description

2009-06-20T18:34:00.002-03:00

I just returned from a trip to South America, and there is so much that I could say about the pas 12 days, I don't even know where to start. I travelled with three other ladies - all of them older than me...they were approximately 20, 30, and 40 years older than me. I had the privilege of being part of several conversations about bowel movements and bladder control, something that I generally don't talk about all that much, so it was a new experience for me. I ate a lot of food, and didn't work out once, and from what I can tell by pinching my tummy, I didn't get a whole lot fatter, just a little.
The things that we saw were pretty amazing, even if we had to see most of them on guided tours while riding buses...and I didn't even see everything because buses generally put me to sleep.
I have lots of stories, and I hope that I will share them later on, but right now I'm tired.

The Me That Would Be

2009-02-01T12:45:00.006-02:00

I think that the 25 things that everyone are writing are like the best thing ever, and ever since I wrote mine, I keep thinking of things that I wish I would've put on mine, but that I just forgot about when I was writing it. So, I'm just going to make 25 more, only this time I'm writing 25 things that I wish were about me, but really aren't. In an ideal world, this is the me that would be.

1. I live in New York City. Everyday I walk to Central Park and eat a hot dog with lots of mustard on it. I meet all kinds of weird and interesting people everyday, and I can't get enough.
2. My little sister, Valerie, also lives in New York. She is studying biomedical engineering at NYU and we share an apartment. Sometimes we get on each other's nerves, but we have lots of fun together.
3. I have travelled to all 7 continents. Yes, that means that I have also been to Antarctica. Believe it or not, that was my favorite trip. It was amazing to see such broad expanses of "land" that are uninhabited by people. If I had to label a place as spiritual or mystical, that would be it.
4. I have small boobs. Sometimes I can't even find them.
5. I am fluent in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, and Turkish. I am working on Swahili.
6. I have 3 tattoos. One on my ankle, and two new ones on the insides of my feet. On each foot I have a map of half of the world tattooed, with little stars marking each place that I have ever travelled to. I update it everytime that I take a trip.
7. I have a medical condition, and my doctors tell me that I must eat one piece of cake or brownie everyday or I will die. I truly do eat chocolate to live.
8. I have never in my life seen an entire movie.
9. I commute to the Bronx everyday and am a teacher at a school there. I used to teach high school Spanish, but now I teach a curriculum that I created entitled "Expanding your worldview".
10. Even though we went through a tough time, I have a great relationship with my parents. They accept me for who I am and I am able to be myself around them. They never yell at me or chastise me for not being exactly what they expected, instead they praise me for being who I am.
11. Last year Val and I competed on the Amazing Race, you probably saw us. It was the most amazing experience of my life. And, now we have a million dollars, which helps us to afford living in New York.
12. Jess and Hamilton still live in Texas, and we go and visit them a lot, mostly so we can play with all eight of our nieces and nephews.
13. One spring break when I was in northwestern Canada I spend the night in an igloo.
14. I have an unfaltering faith in God.
15. I have been to Pamplona to run with the bulls three times. It's not as easy as it looks.
16. My job allows me enough time to be able to make all of my own clothes. It's awesome, and I also look very cool. I was finally able to upgrade to a new machine from the one that my mom got me in high school, but I still use my grandma's old serger. When I'm not busy making clothes, I like to quilt.
17. I have decoupaged all of the walls in our apartment, except for Val's room (I'm not allowed to touch that). Each room has a different theme, most of them travel related, except for the "family room", which is decoupaged with thousands of pictures of us with our family. It's pretty cool.
18. Once I had a non-speaking role in a Lifetime movie. I didn't say anything, but you can definitely see me. I have never seen the entire movie, only the parts that I am in.
19. I am very good about telling people that I care about them. I like to express my feelings, and I'm even an ok hugger.
20. Even though people think that I color it, I have naturally red hair and it's curly. I look just like little orphan Annie.
21. I don't know what people are talking about when they talk about having allergies, I have never experienced it myself, not even around cats.
22. It's a good thing that I live in New York, because I love pizza!
23. Next summer Val and I are travelling to Greece for 2 months.
24. I am a published author. I have written two novels, both of which are on the bestseller list. Right now I'm working on my memoirs, and hope to have them published within the next 3-5 years.
25. I am completely spontaneous and carefree. I don't worry about things before they happen. I just have faith in God and trust that everything will work out in its own way, and I live my life the best that I can.

I Fall Down

2008-12-16T21:07:00.004-02:00

I am the kind of person that trips and falls a lot. I am quite a clumsy walker. I have had several memorable falls in all my years, and somehow I never really get hurt. I have never broken a bone or had a serious injury, just skinned knees and bumps and bruises.

Some of my most memorable falls - either because they were funny or just hurt a lot:

Spring of my sophomore year in college, when I was studying abroad in Montevideo, we had spent the afternoon at the beach, and were leaving and walking to the bus stop to head home. We were stopped at the street, and right in front of the sidewalk where we were standing was a gutter. As we waited for a couple of cars to pass before crossing, someone said, "Watch out for the gutter." When the traffic cleared, I was reared up and ready to go, so I stepped out to make my way across the street. Yes, I stepped into the gutter and fell flat on my face, landing in the middle of the street, and had to jump up rather quickly to avoid getting run over. The saddest part of this fall was the fact that I ripped a whole in my favorite candy pants - which were comfy capris that I had made for myself out of candy printed material.

Also in college, I liked to stand on chairs and sing along to music. One night my roommates joined me and we all stood on chairs in the living room to sing along to my ATeens cd. As we sang, I was using my ladle microphone that I had made for myself. I don't remember the specifics, but I do know that I was standing on my swiveling desk chair, somehow fell onto the ground, and hit myself in the head with my ladle. It hurt a lot. Probably safer, but it sometimes makes me sad that I no longer sing while standing on swiveling desk chairs.

When I was in the 4th grade, I had quite an embarassing and tragic fall. My class was standing in line by the door to our classroom to go to lunch. Being me, I made sure that I was close to the front, and I wouldn't let anyone in front of me. So, kids started pushing. I continued to stand in the way, got pushed, and landed face first in the classroom trashcan. For a few days, I had a line from the rim of the trash can across my stomach. You would think that I learned something from that, but I still make sure that I am at the front of any food line. Luckily, I haven't been pushed into a trash can since.

The last of the falls I will recount for you happened today. There was some sleet last night, and as result, there was some ice on the bottom steps of my apartment. Last night, I made a comment to Victoria about how if I slipped on the steps, she might have to come save me. Yes, as I left for work this morning, I slipped on the steps. Not only did I fall and hit the back of my head on the concrete step (which REALLY hurt), I was carrying an uncapped smoothie, which ended up covering the front of my coat, splattered my khaki pants, went inside my purse, and ended up coating half of my face and my hair. Needless to say, it was a lovely morning. I now have a bump on my head, but have finally tken enough Advil to laugh at the situation, and the smoothie that covers our bottom steps and handrail.

The End

Grad School....more like Bad School!!

2008-12-03T23:12:00.005-02:00

We are the hero of our own story. - Mary McCarthy

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?

If you don't know, I am currently in grad school working on my Master's in Bilingual Eduation and I'm also teaching full time. And I have to say, it sucks. I feel like all I do is work - whether it be writing papers, grading papers, reading, studying, lesson plans, and all kinds of other boring, necessary stuff. I think that right now I would give just about anything to go back in time a year and not start the whole grad school thing. I'm halfway done now, so it's a little too late to quit, but seriously, I hate my life right now. I work so hard, and for what??? So that I can have another piece of paper at the end with my name on it, and maybe, just maybe, get paid an extra $100 a month??? It just really doesen't seem worth it, and there are many days when I really feel like it is going to kill me. I hardly ever get to have fun anymore, and I hate it. I love my job, and I would never do anything else, but it is very draining work and I am always tired. Grad school was a huge mistake. It is sucking all of the life out of my life.

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice.

Going back to the whole grad school thing - there are lots of not so smart people in my classes. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm really smart, or they really aren't, but seriously, get a clue!!! I'm an intelligent person, and I catch on to things really quick, and I hate being treated like a dummy. This happens at work sometimes, and it drives me nuts. Don't waste your time and energy telling me things that I already know and have already figured out - focus on the less fortunate people that really need you, and let me go home early if I don't need to listen to you - because, really, all I'm doing is texting and drawing pictures anyway.

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

I really like to win. I am a sore loser and a sore winner. When I lose I pout and manipulate the situation so that I actually end up winning. When I win I gloat and make the loser feel bad. I'm not sure why I'm this way, I just am. I guess that it's just too bad that for me to win someone else has to lose. Lately I feel like I've had a really hard time winning and losing graciously. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be successful and live up to my own expectations, and with everything that is going on, I am not okay with mediocrity. Yes, I know that this isn't always a bad thing, but I definitely take it too far. I'm sorry if I ever tried really hard to beat you and hurt your feelings or made you feel dumb or took all of the fun out of whatever we were doing.

I don't really like life right now, but happiness is on its way. Tomorrow is my last class of the semester, and I'm only taking one in the spring, so I will be able to have a life again. I will be less tired, less stressed, and I will actually come out of my apartment sometimes. Watch out, world, Emily is finally free again!!!!!!

Grandmotherisms

2008-08-08T20:22:00.002-03:00

I love my grandmother. She is probably the funniest, craziest (in a good way) person that I know. Here is a small sampling of the things that she says that make me laugh.

"Brownies and ice cream....you eat a brownie with ice cream, I guess."

"I was drunk this morning." Note: she was not actually drunk
"I'm not going to a movie with this drunk head."

"I thought you said that coffee wasn't any good."
"It ain't."
"Then why are you drinking it?"
"I need something to do."

"Cheese is so good. And yogurt, frozen yogurt."

"She's reading about vampires. Cheers!"

"Do you have a garbage disposal?"
"yeah."
"That's good. I love a garbage disposal."

And my favorite grandmother moment of all time from a few years ago. Jess and I were in her bedroom as we were getting ready to go to church. Grandmother was looking everywhere, in all of her drawers, and couldn't find the pantyhose that she was looking for. She started freaking out, like completely going crazy as she ruffled through her drawers. All of a sudden, she started chanting to herself, "Calm down, now. Just calm down." After a few minutes, she was finally able to calm down. I was laughing too hard to notice if she ever found the pantyhose.

There is also a story that my grandmother tells about me that I find a bit humorous. When I was like 2 or 3 I was at her house, watching her make brownies. She had them in the pan, ready to put in the oven, and I asked, "Aren't you gonna put any nuts on them?" So, in compliance with what she assumed with her granddaughter's wishes, she covered the brownies with nuts, and put them in the oven to bake. When they were done she asked me if I wanted a brownie. I said, "No, I don't like nuts."

2008-06-04T19:49:00.002-03:00

I'm sitting in class at SMU right now, wallowing in my hatred of being a student. I do not like to listen to lectures. I do not like to take notes. I do not like to read textbooks and articles. I do not like discussions. I do not like listening to presentations. I do not like to ask questions. I do not like to study. I do not like to take tests. I do not like to do homework. I do not like to have to leave happy hour early to go to class. I do not like to wake up at 8 AM on Saturday mornings because I have class.
I could go on forever.
Why am I here?

New Yorker??

2008-02-24T23:55:00.002-02:00

About 3 years ago, I developed a five year plan that would take me to live in New York City by 2010. The plan was pretty simple, it basically consisted of living off half of my paycheck, and developing my resume in such a way that would allow me to easily find a job teaching in the Bronx. That was my dream, and for a few months, that's what kept me going. I hated my job, and that dream is the only thing that got me to school in the mornings.
However, after a while, I forgot about my dream, my plan. I began to love my job, and my life here in Dallas.
This past weekend I returned to New York for the first time in 3 1/2 years. I don't know why I stayed away for so long. It sounds so cliche, wanting to live in New York City, but when I'm there, I feel like that's where I'm supposed to be. As I walk down the street, with hot dog in hand, I feel comfortable, at home, and Central Park is heavenly.
All this to say, the five year plan is back on. I've started grad school now, and I'm a bit committed to things here, but I feel recharged and ready to tackle my dream. I don't know if I'll make it by 2010, but I will make it. Not only do I plan on moving to NYC, but I plan on becoming a bonafide New Yorker. I'm going to start small - I am going to learn to drink coffee and wear high heeled boots. That's the plan today, anyway, but I'm no fool - I know that I will probably wuss out by tomorrow. But at least for today, I have a dream, a plan to get there, and a happy heart.

My Holiday

2008-01-01T16:18:00.000-02:00

When I first learned that my family would be going on a cruise to celebrate this holiday season, I thought that all my dreams had come true. I was finally going to make it to Costa Rica, a place that I have been longing to go for a while now, and that made me so happy that I just had to sing aloud. None of us had any idea what we were getting ourselves into. Sure, we've been on cruises before, but never for 10 days, and NEVER with the world's densest population of senior citizens.
Ten days on a boat is a long time. I don't recommend it, and pray that I am never forced to do it again. It is boring. I have read a stack of books, taken lots of naps, worked on my rubiks cube, watched movies, every boring activity imagineable - well, I actually those things most of the time, just not when forced to do them for ten days straight. Everyone always talks about cruise entertainment, and I suppose it has been entertaining, if you're 80 and can't see or hear. Maybe I'm just bitter, I don't know.

There have been highlights, though. We rode horses through the ocean in the Bahamas, hand fed sharks and stingrays and giant turtles in Curacao, ziplined through the rainforest of Costa Rica, and saw the magnificent Panama Canal. And the funny old lady, who on Christmas Day, wore a Santa hat, and red swimsuit, and clear plastic high heels - that I will never forget, or forgive myself for not having my camera with me.
We've had lots of sister togetherness time. Maybe too much. We have all been made aware of our each and every flaw at least ten times, and never in a loving way. But we have enjoyed making fun of people together.
The food here was not created with a picky eater in mind. I have eaten lots of bread and lots of desserts, and had some small tastes of other things in between.

Ten years from now I probably won't remember most of this trip, but I will remember the fantastic memories and the dreams that became reality for me. I will remember laughing with my sisters, and that has been worth every second of this holiday aboard the Ship for Seniors.

An Alpaca Adventure

2007-11-23T18:14:00.000-03:00

I have had a lot of fun in Peru so far, we went to Machu Picchu, saw some other Inca ruins, hung out in Cusco, and have spent the past day and a half in Lima. Not too many funny stories, but one that I would like to share.
On Tuesday, we (Leslie, Leslie, Matt and I), were eating lunch at some place in some town outside of Cusco. It was a place just like any other, with 2 alpacas sitting outside. If you dont know, an alpaca is kind of like a llama. Anyway, I really wanted to have my picture made with one of the alpacas. So, I picked up a big piece of grass from what i assumed was the food pile, and proceeded to try and feed the alpaca. All of a sudden, the alpaca looked at me, started gnarling its lips, and before i knew what was happening, he spit at me!! It was disgusting, and there were little pieces of grass all over me that had previously been in the alpacas mouth. From what Leslie tells me, I looked quite frightened, and truthfully, I was.
Needless to say, Ive been steering clear of the alpacas.

2007-09-21T20:16:00.000-03:00

It's been a while since I've written...it just kind of occurred to me that I haven't posted anything since I've been home from Honduras. The past two months have been absolutely insane. I have never been so busy in my life as I am right now. School is brutal, there's no other way to say it. I need help! There's a certain other teacher at my school who pulled an awesome prank last year and hid my candy bucket and sent me on a crazy hunt to find it. I'm trying to think of a way to get back at him, but it has to be good. If you have any ideas, PLEASE share.

I wish that I had a good story to share, but these fun pictures will just have to do.

2007-07-17T11:52:00.001-03:00

If you want to read more about what the interns are doing this summer, check out these blogs that Jarrod is making us do:
Clinic: http://lazarusclinic.blogspot..com/
Schools: http://missionlazarusschools.blogspot.com/
Ranch: http://missionlazarusranch.blogspot.com/

2007-07-17T11:50:00.000-03:00

Wednesday morning as several of us were enjoying a nice cake for breakfast, Jake relayed the exciting news that some of us were going to be able to help him try to harvest honey from his bees. When I heard this, I was as happy as a fat kid in a candy store. I love adventures, especially once in a lifetime type ones, an I just knew that this was going to be one to remember. So, Shanna, Natosha, and I piled in Jake’s truck and make the long trek up to the coffee plantation. It was a bumpy ride, but, as always, full of beautiful scenery. Fortunately, I was sitting in the back, so I didn’t have to open any gates J When we made it to the top, we were kind of waiting a few minutes for Jake to get everything ready, and I was standing on this thin concrete curb type thing, and almost fell off the mountain. Bit of exaggeration, but I did almost fall. I was also excited because I was wearing my cool boots, and that’s probably why I tripped, because I’m not used to wearing things with heels. So, it was finally time to don the bee suits. There were only 2, so we had to take turns. Jake got to wear one, of course, and I was lucky enough to be the first of us girls to put on the suit and play with the bees. I had to put on a full body suit, gloves with sleeves that went all the way up my arms, and the head net. I felt quite protected, which is a powerful feeling. I was in charge of the smoker, which was a high responsibility. As Jake opened the first hive, we discovered that there was no honey!! Apparently there aren’t really any flowers in bloom, so the bees have been eating the honey themselves. Anyhow, we continued to venture into the depths of the hive, and what did we find?!? Well, we found a fat ole lizard at the bottom of the hive. Jake picked it up by the tail, and then it tried to bite him, so Jake flicked his tail and the lizard’s body flew off, with the tail jiggling in Jake’s hand. Meanwhile, Shanna and Natosha were waiting patiently to put on the bee suit, so as I went to go let one of them have a turn, disaster struck!! Jake had a hole in his suit and bees had gotten into his head net!! I ran back to try and grab the smoker, but it was too late…Jake was being stung over and over again. We could hear his wails of pain echo through the woods. I eventually caught up to Jake, shot him a little smoke, then started taking off my suit to give it to Shanna. As soon as I had removed my gloves and head net, bees started swarming Natosha’s head. They were all stuck in her hair, so we had to use the gloves to remove the bees. As soon as those bees had cleared, I noticed Jake’s hole and went to help him fix it, then the bees started attacking me. I could feel them fly by my face, and I could hear nothing but the buzzing, so I did the only thing that I could, and I started running. As I ran, I could feel the bitter stings of these killer honeybees. Natosha was running with me, and we didn’t know where to go, we were surrounded!! All of a sudden, Don Perfecto seemingly popped out of nowhere to save us. We ran to the house at the coffee plantation, but the door was locked. We were getting desperate and time was running out. Finally we got the door open and were able to make our way inside. Finally we were safe.

2007-07-17T11:48:00.000-03:00

To everyone who thinks that baby cows are not to be feared, you are quite mistaken. We went to feed the baby cows their bottles the other day, a quite innocent activity, until we were ravagely attacked by the older, more mature baby cows. At first, I thought that I was going to be eaten alive by a cow. As I was holding a bottle, a cow came and clamped down on my arm….I screamed, and feared for my life, I didn’t know what was happening. I tried beating the cow off with my arm and the bottle, but nothing worked. (That's Natosha above beating a baby cow over the head with the milk bottle to keep it from attacking me.) He came back and got my arm again, but this time I noticed that he was biting, but merely sucking. I was being mistaken for an udder. Eventually we were able to fight the cows off and give the babies their milk. We were terrified at first, but eventually we couldn’t stop laughing at the cows and their desire to suck on us.

2007-07-02T16:00:00.000-03:00

Valerie is coming to Honduras today. And I am way excited!! I´m patiently awaiting her arrival. I am at a mall in Tegucigalpa sitting in an internet cafe to pass the time. I came to town on a bus that left town at 6am. It was a fairly cheap bus ride, only like $2.50 in dollar terms. The ride took about 4 1\2 hours, which isn´t too bad, I suppose. Although, it was hot and unairconditioned, and I was sitting by a man who was carrying a large paint bucket in his lap. We had a nice talk, mostly me just nodding and wanting to take a nap, but being polite and staying awake to nod. I´m tired now, and am greatly wishing that I had just fallen asleep while Nestor talked. Oh well...bedtime will come in about 8 hours, hopefully.

Drip Irrigation Seminar

2007-06-29T11:45:00.000-03:00

In cooperation with Healing Hands, this week Mission Lazarus hosted a drip irrigation seminar for some men in the area. The guy teaching works for Healing Hands and has travelled to over 85 different countries. He was pretty interesting, and knows a lot about irrigation. Anyway, this guy is from Tennessee and doesn't speak Spanish, so I had the privelege of translating for him a few days this week. I learned more than the average person would probably ever want to know about composting, digging raised beds, and drip irrigation.
For example: To build a compost heap, there are several principle things that you need, such as organic materials, water, bacteria, heat, and pressure. To start, you build your base, about 2 meters by 2 meters, and build your first layer with coarse materials, such as small sticks or bamboo or something like that. Then, you cover with a layer of palm leaves, or some such thing. Pour on a layer of water, then continue to cover this with some type of large leaf, like a banana leaf. Continue with some mud, perhaps with a little manure mixed in, throw on some food scraps, maybe a little more water, some light material like green grass, or sawdust, add water, and continue to add layers...alternating between heavy layers like mud and manure, and light layers like grass and sawdust. It's important to remember that green grass is better than yellow because it's still alive and still produces certain bacterias that help the heap to decompose.

And that's leaving out the details.....

Trip to Copan Ruinas

2007-06-29T11:33:00.000-03:00

Last weekend, the other interns and I decided to travel up to the northern part of Honduras and go see the infamous Copan Ruinas. The trip was quite an adventure from the get-go.
We started out with 12 of us trying to ride, along with Jarrod, in his truck. We quickly discovered that wasn't going to work, so we split up and some of us crowded into some vans with the group. We we got to Tegus, where we were stopping over for the night, we only had two hotel rooms reserved for 12 people. 5 boys in one room, 7 girls in the other. We waited for over an hour at the Marriott to see if they had any rooms, they didn't, then we went to another hotel, and they didn't have any rooms either, so we smooshed. Sure, we could've found some other place to stay, but we wanted to do it the difficult way. We woke up bright and early Friday morning, to catch a 5:45 bus...but it was already full by the time we got there. So we went and ate donuts, and came back for the 10:00 bus, but it was delayed due to a school riot in Tegus, and the bus couldn't get through to come get us!! Finally, about 11:30 we were off. At the next stop, San Pedro Sula, we missed our connecting bus, so we went downtown and ate at McDonalds, then caught the 6:00 bus to Copan. We finally reached our destination about 9:30. Oh, and on the bus they played 3 Bruce Lee movies in a row...with full audio....the "hi-ya"s overpowered all of our ipods.
The rest of the trip was a little less eventful, but fun nonetheless. We saw the ruins and reinacted some human sacrificing and mayan ball playing. It was pretty fun. Sunday morning we woke up really early, caught a 5:15 bus out of Copan, made it to Tegus about 12:30 to find out that the next bus for San Marcos didn't leave until 4:30. So, we went to the mall and ate at Fridays, then went back to the bus station to find that there was an accident in Choluteca that was delaying our bus indefinitely. So, we waited, in the smelly bus station with no water in the bathroom (yuck!) and finally we pulled out about 6:30.
Needless to say, it was a long day......but don't you just love Central American timeschedules??

2007-06-15T11:36:00.000-03:00

Well, another week has come and gone, only 6 more. It's hard to believe the way in which time passes here. Things here move pretty slowly, and it's amazing the speed at which hours can pass and you have no idea where they've gone.

This is Glenda. She is in 3rd grade, and is simply precious. Glenda has trouble recognizing her numbers, so I've been working with her one on one, and some days I actually feel like we're making some progress. Hopefully by the end of the summer, Glenda will know her numbers backwards and forwards....Don't you just love those big brown eyes??

This is going to be the first home at Refugio Mision Lazaro. Ten children, along with 2 tias will be living in this house. It's not all the way completed, but they're working on it, and if I understand correctly, there will be children living here hopefully by the end of the summer!!

Well, due to lack of transportation, I did my first bout of hitchiking yesterday. It was really exciting....I had never done that sort of thing before. Two other interns and I stood out in the street, waved a truck down, told him where we were going, and hopped in the back. Unfortunately, the tire that I chose to sit on was wet, so I had a wet bottom for most of the morning. We arrived in San Marcos safely, ready to "pedir jalon" again next week!!

Last Saturday morning, as I sat in a rocking chair on our front porch, I looked to my right, and what did I see? Well, I saw this horse, with a huge tree limb tied to its tail, being forced to ride around in circles, doing what I can only assume was plowing. As a non-animal lover, even I felt bad for this horse and his pulled tail.

2007-06-11T19:04:00.000-03:00

So, today for lunch I had the most amazing tacos. Well, not really the most amazing, but the best tacos that I've ever had outside of Mexico. And there was this salsa verde, that was creamy, just like my all time favorite salsa in Mexico City.

2007-06-08T11:15:00.001-03:00

If you haven't ever travelled to Honduras, you should try to make the trip sometime. It is simply a beautiful country. Especially now, during the rainy season, everything is so green!! I love it...it is very calming to be able to look around and see nothing but green grass and trees and mountains. The above picture is my front yard. Yes, it is quite big and beautiful, and our house is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but it's great - especially if you love bugs and mice. We also have recently discovered that we have a fairly small water tank, which adds an extra element to the Honduran Adventure. Just the other day, after a torrential downpour, we all arrived home to discover that we had no water - that means no drinking, no showering, no flushing, nada. So, another intern and I set out on a search of the guy that turns on the pump (we found out later that we can turn on the pump ourselves, which makes things a bit easier). Anyway, everything was muddy and slushy and, of course, living on a ranch there was lots of horse and cow poop mixed in with the mud, so you don't know what you're stepping in. First, we squeezed through a narrow opening in the barbed wire fence around our house, then headed down alongside the chicken and turkey coop, which had a nice aroma, and then we slid down a muddy slope to the gravel road. We went about 20 feet, then had to wade through a river, up some more road, and we arrived at our destination. Needless to say, at that point we were smelly, wet, and muddy, but we had a great time!!

I'm back helping at the school, and I'm having a great time. Having a great time, but glad everyday that I don't permanently work in an elementary school. The kids are really fun, and they love us gringos. The other day we left school to walk into town to make some copies, and when we came back the kids were at recess, and when they saw us coming, every single kid in the school ran to the gate...it's the closest thing I've ever experienced to being a famous person. Tuesday I teach my first lesson - I will be teaching kindergarten about water - where it comes from and how we use it. Also, on Tuesday we start English classes with the teachers.
Something really exciting happened this week. There's a little girl at the school named Andrea, who is about 4, and she has some sort of birth defect or something (sorry, I'm not very medical). Anyway, she doesn't have any ear canals, so she has a hard time hearing, and a doctor was here from Nashville and he brought her this headset thing that vibrates, converting sound waves into something, so that she can hear sound. It was so cool!! Right now they're working on fitting the headband so that it will fit her head. Above you can see Alli showing Andrea the headset for the first time.

2007-06-04T18:25:00.000-03:00

Well, I just finished my first weekend and first day at school. So, the weekend was kinda boring. Friday night, Jake came over and made pizzas - they were yummy, it was just unfortunate that we didn´t get to eat until like 8 and we were all starving. Saturday we did absolutely nothing. The plan was to go swimming at Tres Pilas but it was cloudy and raining so that didn´t really work out. Saturday night we ate some really yummy, cheap Chinese food. Yes, it was yummy, even to me who doesn´t eat Chinese food.

Sunday was a bit more exciting. First of all, as part of my teaching Spanish to the interns, we are having Spanish Sunday every Sunday, which means that on Sundays absolutely no English is to be spoken, only Spanish. That made the day pretty fun, and everybody had a pretty good attitude, except for one, but I´m sure that things will be better by next week:) In addition to that, we started out the morning with horseback riding, which was pretty fun, it´s just a shame that I didn´t think to put any sunscreen on, as now my arms and face are now a nice shade of rouge. We went to church in the afternoon, and then to a place to eat some yummy hamburgers.

Today was a school day. I like school, I guess that´s why I´m a teacher. The kids are tons of fun to play with, and they love to tug and pull on us....sometimes it´s a bit much, but it´s cool that they are so excited for us to be there to help them. No real exciting stories there yet, but I´ll try to stage something tomorrow.

¡Hasta la vista!

Honduras

2007-06-01T10:43:00.000-03:00

Well, I arrived in Honduras on Tuesday and it's exactly like I remember it yet completely different. This country is the most beautiful place that I have ever soon, it's so green and so beautiful, and the people just make it that much more special. I am so happy to be back here and I think it's gonna be a great summer!!
I did my first batch of Spanish lessons with the interns yesterday, and it went really well. I was very impressed with their knowledge, and I think we're gonna have a lot of fun, I just hope that I don't run out of things to teach them - some of them seem to know as much or more than I do!!
We are staying at a house on the ranch, literally out in the middle of nowhere, which is cool, until you start thinking about all of those scary movies out there about people staying out in the middle of nowhere. There are these giant toads that come up on our porch every night, and I'm talking huge, and they have really big poop. There's one intern who's gonna teach us how to "gig" the frogs - meaning kill, clean, cook, and eat them. I'm kind of excited.
Wednesday night I was reunited with my favorite beans - the red refried beans out of bag. I think maybe that's the real reason I came back :)
No real exciting stories so far, but I'll be back...

2007-05-21T23:36:00.000-03:00

Recently at a Superintendent's Advisory Council meeting in my district, where representatives from each school have the opportunity to bring up important issues with the superintendents, this was addressed by one such representative:

"In a bilingual school, where there is English speaking as well as Spanish speaking teachers, why do some bilingual teachers speak Spanish in the lounge and in the halls? It makes me feel very uncomfortable that they speak Spanish when we are all English speakers in America. I feel that this should be done in the teaching environment with the teachers and students but not on casual time. I think this should be addressed."

I was appalled when a fellow teacher brought this to my attention. I still don't really know what to say about it, but really, how could anyone think that this was an intelligent comment??

p.s. i will post a picture of my prom dress someday...

2007-04-23T23:35:00.000-03:00

I bought a prom dress on Saturday. Not a formal, poofy dress, but a nice cocktail dress that I will wear to chaperone prom this year. It was quite an ordeal to find something to fit my oddly shaped body.

I'm An Alien

2007-04-04T18:29:00.000-03:00

So, today after school a student asked me if I was an alien. At first, I was kind of taken aback and didn't really know what to say, so she proceeded to explain to me her reasoning. Basically, she said that I am probably the strangest person that she has ever met, which, if I'm honest, is probably true. Then, she started explaining how she always feels like I'm looking at her, even when I'm not, and sometimes she can feel me try to read her thoughts and see what she's thinking about. Once she finished this explanation, I took a deep breath, and told her that I think that she's an alien trying to convince me that I'm an alien. As she walked out, I promised that my kind would bring her no harm.

Friendship

2007-04-01T23:35:00.000-03:00

I hate that how sometimes the best things in life are also the hardest, most painful things in life. But, I guess that's the way that it has to be so that you appreciate it when it's good. Being a true friend is hard. Way harder than I ever thought that it could be...and just when I think that I've been a friend to someone at rock bottom, it seems that God always takes it one step further. I love my friends, and I would do anything for them, and I think that I am a very, caring, selfless person - I am good at being a friend, when I want to be. But it's hard. It's hard being there when you'd rather be anywhere else in the world. I think that it's hard because I know that I am voluntarily putting myself in a sad, depressing, painful situation. It hurts to watch someone that you love feel pain and sadness - in a lot of ways I think that it's worse than feeling the pain and sadness yourself. There are days when it would be easier to say "Screw it, I don't need friends"...but then what happens when I need someone?? You have to be a friend to have a friend...When it gets hard, I just try to think about how awesome it is to be going through something painful and to have someone else to share the burden with - it makes a world of difference just to know that someone cares. I like being cared about, and I also like caring about other people. I've had a hard day, but it was a good day. I spend a good day with a friend going through a hard time. And I thank God that I have a good enough friend to have had such a hard day.

France

2007-03-20T22:35:00.000-03:00

Well, I just came back from spring break in France...well, actually I came back Sunday, but who's counting?? I had a great time travelling with 4 other teachers from my school. It was quite an experience, as there is about a 40 year age difference between me and the oldest lady that went with us. In the picture you can see my travelling companions having lunch at the beach in Nice. I definitely learned a lot about growing old, and learned to appreciate my ever fleeting youth. French people were interesting, I still haven't really decided what I think about them, but I found the old people intriguing. The old men walking around hunched over with a cane carrying a baguette always caught my eye, and I couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking and why on earth such an old person would want a baguette so badly as to face the crowds and uneven sidewalks and steps in a city like Paris, France. I bought a baguette one day, and it was the coolest feeling ever. At that moment, I feel like maybe I sorta started to understand those old men. The bread is just so good, and it's just a matter of enjoying the carbs and relaxing, and not paying attention to the busyness around you. You just get your bread, and live in the indulgence. Maybe that's not at all what it's about for the Frenchmen, but that's what it was for me. If I move to France someday in the future, I will be an old lady hunched over with a cane carrying a baguette. And maybe some naive American will wonder about me.

My Mom

2007-03-03T00:51:00.000-03:00

I love my mom, she's great, and often says funny things. For example:

As we are leaving a restaurant, "Does anybody want a napkin to take with them?"

Valerie is wearing green shoes, and I say, "Nice shoes." My mom says, "You should get some. Maybe they come in green."

I can't think of any other examples right now, but I'm sure that there are tons.

CrimeStarters

2007-02-05T11:12:00.000-03:00

Last week was quite a busy week - the new CrimeStarters club at our school had me, the CrimeStoppers sponsor, running crazy trying to follow clues and find my stolen candy bucket. Luckily I'm a good detective and I found the missing goods. Here is the trail that I had to follow....

The candy jar has been liberated by the CSC (CrimeStarters Club for all you CrimeStoppers floozies). You want it back? You better do the leg work to track it down. Follow the clues and you may get it back before we eat it all...

The first clue lies with the teacher who was born the 9th day of the 12th month.

Call me Ishmael. 111

Go to Hamlin's computer lab, your next clue lies under a computer.

Your next clue lies in China. Be nice, though. Their culture requires respect for elders. Maybe you should bring a peace offering like an apple.

Next clue was written in Chinese, unfortunately I don't have a keyboard capable of tying that one.

.hturt eht rof gid ot evah ll'uoy denrawerof eB ."knits teef ym" ,yas dna rialB .rD ot og ot is ksat txen ruoY .uoy rof dooG .tuo ti derugif uoY

I was then given a pie.

(found this inside the pie) You dug down to find the truth. We are all cheering for you! Hope you find the next clue!

You found this one, good for you. Now you have to figure the next one out: Start Home.

It ended up being my friend, Matt Shomer. When I got my bucket back several jolly ranchers were missing.

Centro Recreativo

2006-11-04T01:58:00.000-03:00

Here's a fun school day quote:
"Donde esta el centro recreativo?"
"Esta en mis pantalones."

For those of you who are as bothered as I am, I haven't yet figured out how to do the accents and upside down question marks and stuff on my laptop yet....If you have any tips, please share.

Facial Expressions

2006-10-26T19:21:00.000-03:00

I have been told that I have certain uncontrollable facial expressions that reveal my thoughts of "that's stupid" or "you're an idiot". I'm aware of this, and sometimes I try to control it, but it's like a reflex and just happens. Tuesday in class, a student asked me why I always made faces when students made comments or asked questions. Today, a student asked me why I always make a face at him when he asks a question because it makes him feel stupid. I apologized, and told him not to take it personally, that I do it to everyone. I now feel that I should take extra care not to make kids feel stupid with my facial expressions.
My natural sarcastic tone of voice is also causing me problems. Kids don't know when I'm being sarcastic and when I'm being serious because things always come out in a sarcastic tone.
I think that I need a class in personal relations, or maybe just social skills.

Murman Wedding

2006-10-15T19:24:00.000-03:00

Well, it happened...my friend Karyn got married and is now a Murman. The wedding went pretty well, and I had an all right time, I'm just in great need of a long nap. A couple little anecdotes...
Friday night I drove over to the Motel 6 to meet Pete and Kay and the kids so that they could follow me to the church for the rehearsal - I walk in their hotel room to find Ryan and Lauren playing in the toilet. Gross, yes, but even moreso than that it was funny! Especially when I went outside with Rhylyn and Ariel and Ryan came walking out with wet hair and a wet shirt. Gotta love those kids!!
Saturday when getting dressed, we realized that my dress was too big and wouldn't stay up. We didn't have any safety pins, so Karyn's aunt had to sew me into my dress.
They ran out of punch at the reception. I was thirsty.
One of my bridesmaid jobs was to make sure that Karyn's stuff got from the dressing room to the car before it was time to for them to leave. I thought that I was doing real good and got everything into the car. But after it was all over, Feydra found Karyn's make-up...anyone who knows Karyn knows that is a big deal...so, in a frenzy, I tried to call her to let her know that she was about to go to Costa Rica for a week without any mascara, then I remembered that I had put her phone in the trunk, so then I called Chris, and luckily he answered...yes, this was awkward, and I so did not want to be calling them at this time, but what was I to do?? I was faced with a dilemma, and I made a choice....anyway, they were just over at the house cleaning up the superb mess that we made with the car, so it wasn't that big of a deal and I just drove the make-up over.
That's it. No more fun wedding stories. Ha! Just kidding, there's plenty more, I just don't feel like writing them.

2006-10-08T18:31:00.000-03:00

Well, I finally finished the wagon. I think it turned out pretty nice.

Man Runs to Child's Rescue

2006-10-03T18:38:00.000-03:00

I am tired and busy and I just want to take a nap. I have now agreed to be the sponsor for CrimeStoppers as well as the new United Nations International Club. I'm excited about both, especially the international club, but I just feel like this is such a busy time right now. School is crazy, and I have a big wagon project that I'm working on for Karyn's wedding.
The other day I was at the mall with my sister, and I saw the parking spot that I wanted, so I slowed down and even turned my blinker on to make sure that I got it. As soon as I was ready to starting pulling in, this EXTREMELY slow kid starts walking in front of me, so, being the good driver that I am, I stopped and waited, and waited and waited, then all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see a man start running, and I mean he was sprinting towards the kid, as if he was going to try to push him out of the way as I ran over him. It was so funny....and it would have been even funnier had he actually tried to push the kid out of my way, but he just kept running past the kid. Val and I got a good laugh out of it. You gotta love funny things that could've been funnier.

2006-09-18T19:18:00.000-03:00

School makes me tired, especially the suck-up kids. They are always asking questions and bothering me, they won't ever just leave me alone. It's funny that they bother me so much...well, not really, I've never really been a huge fan of people talking to me and bothering me...maybe I should give the kids a limit to the amount of times they may raise their hand or approach me during a given week...hmmm...it wouldn't be so bad if their questions weren't so tediously ridiculous.

Que Viva Mexico

2006-09-16T20:11:00.000-03:00

El dieciseis de septiembre - Independence Day in Mexico. I hope that everyone is celebrating and paying homage to la patria, I know that I am, for as we all know, my heart is Mexican, Uruguayan, Honduran, Guatemalan, and just about anything that speaks Spanish and eats beans. Sometimes I wonder why I am here in the United States, but I know the answer...I am here as a teacher, to teach the youth of our country about the people and places that I love so dearly. And this United Statesean purpose of mine works out quite well, for in it I am able to spend about 2 months of the year travelling and fulfilling other dreams in other places. One day I would like to leave this place, perhaps permanently, but I just don't think that it's time for me to go yet, I definitely feel God working me here.

Does anyone know anything about existentialism?? I am on a mission to find out more about it.

The other day I was at the McDonald's playplace with Ryan and Lauren, climbing up in the little tubes and going down the slides, and having the best time ever - except one thing was missing. It took a few minute seconds to figure out what it was, but it came as no surprise to me - I was missing my dear friend, Becca, my soulmate and playmate. I would have invited her to McDonalds, but she is in South Africa and I do miss her.

Passing Gas in Class

2006-09-14T14:37:00.000-03:00

Well, I guess I'm not very good at keeping up this whole blog thing, but I'm here now, so that's all that matters, right?? School is in session and I'm already pining away for my next summer vacation. There's a kid in my class right now and he keeps burping. Yuck!! I can't get him to stop...it is so gross!! I asked the principal about kids passing gas last year, and he said that you can't really do anything about it because it's a natural body function. The burping isn't so bad, last year a kid always farted a lot when he came back from lunch and it smelled so bad!!! It was horrible, some of the worst smells that I have ever smelled. Sometimes it was funny, because the kid would walk right by one of the pretty foo-foo girls and let one out and they would get all excited and sometimes start to cry, but it was hard, because as the teacher, I could not laugh. But I did laugh on the inside and when no one was looking.

Mi Amiga Antigua

2006-07-09T20:43:00.000-03:00

Well, I'm in Antigua, Guatemala right now...things are good..it's rainier here than it was in Honduras, and I didn't think that was possible!!! I had a yummy breakfast with beans and eggs and stuff like that. We went to a very long church service this morning and started working this afternoon and it poured on us!!! I got to sing my favorite song with the kids, so that was fun..Nothing funny has happened yet, which is quite unfortunate. A kid, Sean, called me in the hotel a bit ago and he talked in a girl voice and I thought that he was room service calling me, apparently it was some bit from Tommy Boy, which I don't think I've ever seen...I felt kind of dumb, but not really because I don't buy into that whole pop culture mess, unless it's something that I like...we're fixing to go eat dinner at Mono Loco, which when translated reads Crazy Monkey...tomorrow we travel across the deepest lake in the world to work with mudslide refugees..what excitement!!!!! Hasta la vista....

Back in the U.S.A.

2006-07-07T16:27:00.000-03:00

Well, I did it - I came back!! I've been home for 7 days now...it is so hot!! I miss the rain and clouds of Honduras. Tomorrow I get to go to Guatemala and I am so excited!! Last year, at the hotel that we stayed at, they had incredible breakfast - with beans and tortillas and other stuff.

2006-06-29T11:15:00.000-03:00

Well, just to let you know, that me, being as responsible as I am, let my password on my school e-mail expire, so if you haven't heard from me, that's why...I'll try to take care of that next week. I am at the office in Choluteca right now, in an hour or so we're leaving for Tegucigalpa where we'll spend the night, and then tomorrow we head home.
It has been a great week, I spent my days at school...all three days after school I gave English lessons to the teachers at the school, and it was so much fun!! Those girls are so funny, I laughed more in those 3 lessons than I have the whole rest of the time that I've been here...On Tuesday we did our rotation of teaching in all the classes at the school...it was mildly disastrous, but the teachers say that they learned a lot from us, so I guess that's good...Yesterday, my last day, the kids did a goodbye show for me...it was really cool, but it made me really sad...two kids did solos in English, and some other kids did interpretive dances to these really sad songs, and all the teachers gave me presents and stuff...and the whole school was standing outside and they sang me the Barney song in Spanish, it was so sweet!! They also sang my favorite song a couple of times, it was great!!..and it really made me not want to leave....but here I am, leaving...

Whoops, knife slipped!!

2006-06-25T21:23:00.000-03:00

Well, I had a bit of a knife accident on Thursday morning...we weren´t going to leave for Tegus until like 11, so a couple of us decided that it would be nice to make cinnamon rolls...we had some of the canned dough kind in the freezer, which was a bit odd, but whatever...so, of course, when we got the can open, they were all frozen together, so I started cutting them apart...in our apartment we have no butter knives, only sharp ones...so, I got them all apart except for the last two, and since I was hungry and in a rush, I didn´t re-adjust my fingers, and slash!!! I lost part of my left index finger...it´s not really as bad as all that, but I did cut off about the upper right quarter of my fingernail and good chunk off the side/tip of my finger...a couple of us looked at it and decided that it was just a big chunk of skin, so no real damage done.....it was really bleeding a lot and blood was running all the way down my arm, so I held a washcloth on it and elevated it and after about half an hour, the bleeding stopped, and we bandaged it up..it was really hurting so I took a super large dose of motrin....when we got to Tegus, I hit it really hard on a plastic tub and it started bleeding again, so I re-bandaged it...as of right now, the chunk is in place, I didn´t completely cut it off, and the fingernail piece is still there too...I´ve been told that the finger will re-attach and the fingernail bit will eventually fall off, so we´ll see what happens..I guess I´ll just have a nasty looking finger for a while, but it´s mostly still usable...

Protest in Tegus

2006-06-25T21:19:00.000-03:00

On Thursday when we were checking into the Marriott in Tegucigalpa, there was a huge protest..all of the government city workers were on strike and were marching in protest...being curious, I went outside to see what was going on, and I saw a TV camera man, and was like, oh cool, this is on TV...so, being the tourist that I am, I pulled out my camera and took a few pictures, then I turn my head, and the camera man is standing right behind me videoing me...I get a little excited/freaked out and move so that the guy isn´t right behind me, and he followed me!! It was crazy...I guess that I made it on TV, they were shooting live, but I wasn´t watching TV, so I don´t really know...then Heath came out and had the brilliant idea that I should march with the protest so that he could take my picture...so, I walk out in the street, and all the people started cheering for me!! Heath took my picture, then I left the protest, but it was really exciting!!! And, we went shopping and I bought a Honduran flag.

Copan Ruins

2006-06-25T21:09:00.000-03:00

Well, we finally made it to the Copan ruins this weekend...Thursday morning we left San Marcos for Tegucigalpa, spent the night there, then departed for San Pedro Sula on Friday, and travelled to the ruins on Saturday. Today we travelled all the way back from San Pedro...it was a lot of bus time, but it was a great trip. The ruins were really cool, some of the best ones that I´ve seen, except for Teotihuacan in Mexico...Me and a few of the other kids went and climbed around on these little houses that the Mayans used to live in, it was so fun!!! It´s really hard to describe the ruins without pictures, but they were really cool, and I´ll have pictures when I come home.
We stayed in San Pedro Sula, and that was pretty exciting...they have a really cool plaza in the center of the city with a really cool fountain and a big catholic church...probably the best cathedral I´ve seen since I´ve been here. We had fun walking around and eating at Cinnabon.
We stayed at a neat hotel, Hotel Gran Conquistador, it was a little shady, but it was all right.

...

2006-06-21T18:51:00.000-03:00

Well, today was a really exciting day at school!! A group is here from Houston, and they´re doing a VBS...and me and Samantha got to lead the songs for them this morning!! It was great, we sang for a really long time....I really enjoyed it, and all the Hondurans were impressed that I actually had learned the words to all of their songs. Also, today I talked to Carla about the teacher evaluations, as well as different classroom management strategies for the teachers to implement in the classrooms....we had a great discussion about methodology and different educational theories, I really enjoyed it!! Also, tomorrow is Matt´s birthday, but we are leaving for Tegus tomorrow, so the teachers presented him with a gift today....a cupcake with a giant candle and a hamburger!!! It was really funny...
Tomorrow we depart for Tegucigalpa and then on to Copan...at first I was the only definite to go to Copan, but I convinced 8 others to join me!! That really boosted my confidence in my persuasive abilities...

School Days

2006-06-20T19:12:00.000-03:00

Well, the medical brigade is still here, but I am spending my days at school, trying to get some stuff done while I´m still here. On Monday Rachel and I started teacher observations...since they don´t ever really get evaluated or monitored, we are observing the teachers, and then I´m writing up reports on each one so that the director of the school can go over them with her teachers. Also, next Tuesday, I am teaching a lesson, a different lesson, in each of the 4 classes, so I´m preparing for that...Rachel is helping with preparation, but I will be giving the lessons...There is also a group doing a VBS at the school, so it´s pretty crazy this week....

2006-06-18T20:20:00.000-03:00

Today, Sunday, was a really fun day too. Church here isn´t until the afternoon, so some of us spent the morning horseback riding at the ranch that Mission Lazarus owns. It was pretty fun riding through the mountains and grass and mud and little bitty creeks...I had a pretty nice horse, so nice in fact, that Heath´s man horse had a little crush on her...we tried to keep them separated as much as possible to avoid any awkard circumstances...
I´m a little sunburned from the past couple of days, but it´s really not that bad...I will survive.

2006-06-18T20:17:00.000-03:00

Well, Thursday night I called to Jarrod to talk about our weekend plans, and needless to say, things didn´t exactly pan out as I had planned...a few of us got the idea that we really wanted to go to Nicaragua, so we went through a travel book and got online and got the whole trip planned out, but Jarrod didn´t really want us to leave the country...so, next weekend we´re going to Tegucigalpa and Copan, and yesterday we went swimming at a place called Tres Pilas. It was a really neat place with big rocks, waterfalls, and nature made pools - 3 of them. We had to climb down these rocks to get the water, and I slipped, but a rock caught my fall and I didn´t really get hurt...There were also rocks that we had to walk on in the water, and I again fell, and kind of got hurt, but not really..I¨m just a little scraped and bruised, but it was worth it - we had so much fun!!

Clinic in the Mountains

2006-06-15T17:36:00.000-03:00

Well, the medical brigade from Kent´s church in Indiana also arrived on Sunday, and began their brigade up in the mountains at a hacienda in a place called San Juan. Monday I was at the school with Rachel, but I went up on Tuesday morning...I was assigned to translate for Nurse Julie...we saw many patients, most of whom suffered from headaches, stomachaches, diarrhea, etc...all caused by parasites... it was pretty interesting, since it was my first time to actually be working with patients...We were through seeing patients at about 3:30, so everyone left to return home except me, Bethany, Nathan, Samantha, Rebekah, and Kent...we decided to spend the night at the hacienda...I was previously told that we would get to sleep on hammocks, but there was only one hammock and it was pretty cold outside, even for me, so we set up army cots and slept on those. At about 4:30 our dinner was ready - eggs, beans, tortillas, and some sort of weird cheese, which none of us except Kent ate, and he paid for it at about 4 AM...inside the house it was pretty nice, except none of the inside walls went all the way up, eliminating all forms of privacy - mainly you could hear everything that went on inside the bathroom...I think that we all bonded a little that night...we just stayed up talking and playing cards, like a real campout, except we were inside and had cots and running water and an electricity generator...Wednesday I again translated for nurse Julie, and we saw more of the same thing...he wasn´t our patient, but there was a man who had a really large tumor growing on the side of his neck, sadly we couldn´t do anything for him, but a surgical team is coming in August and hopefully they will be able to help him..We came back down last night...it was a bit of an adventure - the intern mobile, called la tortuga blanca, died....so Leonardo had to drive us back in some other car....Today I went back to school and Milson´s house, it was so much fun!! They let the kids out of school early because they ran out of water...This weekend we are either travelling to the ruins at Copan or maybe San Salvador, El Salvador...

New Kid Arrived

2006-06-15T17:32:00.000-03:00

Well, the new intern, Rachel, arrived on Sunday...she moved into the bed above mine, yes, we have bunk beds....it has been an adjustment now having 3 girls share a room/bathroom, but we are adjusting nonetheless...On Monday I took Rachel to the school in San Marcos, she is also a teacher, but speaks no Spanish, so I accompanied her to the school so that she could talk to Carla, the school director...they are planning a health fair to do at the school in July, so I helped them kind of get their ideas aligned....we also finished painting the mural in the cafeteria that we have been working on...Rachel is a nice girl.

2006-06-11T15:52:00.000-03:00

Well, I just posted my beach story in little bits...start at the bottom and read your way up....I´m still having a blast and loving Honduras...I´m off to the ice cream shop!!

2006-06-11T15:46:00.000-03:00

Finally, we made it back to the mainland, and once again loaded up in the truck...of course, it rained a little bit, but not too much...as we were driving, and getting fairly close to Choluteca, we saw a gas station, and Samantha asked Kent if he thought we should stop for gas, and he was like, ¨nah, we can make it¨...right as we made it to the driveway of the gas station, the car died, out of gas...luckily we made it to the pump, and filled up...the truck was also overheating, so Bethany generously gave her drinking water to the truck...we finally made it back, and went to Pizza Hut for dinner, which isn´t my favorite, but I was starving!! By this time, it was dark outside, and little foggy and rainy...as went further and further into the mountains, it got foggier and foggier, until Kent couldn´t see anything!! It was crazy and impossible to see...it was like there was a cloud wall...it seemed like we would never make it back, but we finally did.....it was quite an adventure!!!

2006-06-11T15:42:00.000-03:00

Well...once on the island, we went up to the only restaurant that was open to get us some lunch...they had 3 basic choices of food: shrimp, big fish, and giant fish...we never did figure out what kind of fish that they were....not being a seafood eater, I joined Bethany and Nathan and ordered only a plate of rice and beans, like any crazy gringo would do...after we ate..we went for a nice stroll along the beach, then it started to rain again, so that didn´t last too long...we hung out for a couple of hours, then boarded our trusty sea vessel once again...the waves were even bigger than they had been earlier and it was raining again, so none of us felt too safe...we even almost capsized once, there was a giant wave, that almost completely overturned the boat...once the waters calmed down from that one, the boat man decided to tell us about all the sharks that were in the water...we were all terrified for our lives, and began planning whether or not we would try to swim with our backpacks and shoes on.....

2006-06-11T14:50:00.000-03:00

We stopped in Choluteca to drop off Rebekah who was going to Tegus to pick up a new intern that´s coming in, and we picked up Osman, who was to accompany us on our journey to Isla Amapala...we finally made it to the port where we were to board the boat to the island...the boat was quite small and scary looking, but we all piled in...The boat driver handed us life jackets, which we gladly put on...So, we rode through some smooth waters and were having a nice time for about 15 minutes, then the waters became very choppy as it started to rain again....the rain didn´t last too long that time, though...we we chopped for about an hour to the beach that we wanted to go to, Playa Negra...however, it was very choppy and stormy near this beach, and the waves kept tipping the boat and it was too dangerous to get close to shore...By this point, the boat was filling with water, so we gave trusty Nathan the bucket to start bailing water out of the boat...turns out, Nathan isn´t so trusty, as he threw the bucket out with the water, so, in the midst of wind and waves, we went back for the bucket in hopes that we wouldn´t sink...we got the bucket, and made it to another beach, Playa Grande...by the time we reached sore, we were all a bit queasy...but we made it alive!!!

Isla Amapala

2006-06-11T14:45:00.000-03:00

Well, yesterday, Saturday, was beach day. I awoke with alarm at a brisk 7AM..and laid in bed as I waited for Bethany to finish in the shower...I kept hearing these gurgling sounds, and was curious, but continued to lay in wait, soon I heard a desperate shout for help...Help!!!...I went to see what was the matter, and the water in the apartment had run out...you see, the power was out, and we had used up all of the water in the pressure thing...anyway, Bethany was covered in shaving cream, without any hope of water, so I brought her a cup of our precious drinking water so that she could rinse off...needless to say, I did not shower yesterday morning...we couldn´t flush the toilets either, but luckily the water left us at a time when no one was plagued with diarrhea...So, we all got dressed and loaded the truck to go to the beach...we have quite a weak vehicle, I think it has to do with horsepower or something, and with 10 of us piled it, it was slow moving...and with about 5 people riding in the back, it started to rain!! Oh, what a glorious start to our beach day!!

2006-06-09T17:01:00.000-03:00

The other night in our house we had singing night, and I was all excited, ´cause sure, I like to sing, who doesn´t?? I was all ready for a fun night of karaoke style fun...but, oh boy, was I wrong...turns out, I´m the only intern who hasn´t had a formal singing education...Like, seriously, it was like being in the middle of the best world chorus, and I was the kid that they just let in because they felt sorry for me...I tried to have fun with it, but after like 2 hours, I was bored, and feeling very inadequate...they all took the singing so seriously, and weren´t really seeming like they would appreciate me busting a tune with my lovely vocal talent...it was kind of disappointing, but what do you do....
Yesterday we were walking to Milson´s house, and I tripped on the rocks like at least 5 times...
I´m having trouble thinking of more stories right now, but we´re going to the beach tomorrow, so I´m sure something fun will come of that...
Chau, que les vayan bien...

Frijoles

2006-06-09T16:54:00.000-03:00

Guess what?!? Today when I was at the pulperia I was asking if they had any beans that I could cook for dinner, and they did...and they came in a bag..oh, you may be thinking, ¨what´s the big deal, beans in a bag?¨...but they were refried beans, in a bag..it was so neat!!
Yesterday I went to the clinic for the first time and helped sort pharmaceutical items, like pills, that was fun if you like counting...
At school we are now painting a mural in the cafeteria...Matt and I traced it on the wall on Wednesday and yesterday some of us starting painting it...it is so much fun, I love the creativity of it all..and I love getting to go to the school, it is really fun, and the kids are incredible..they are so sweet, and they can´t really remember my name, so they keep calling me ¨Gringa¨...it´s fun, I like it...Also, in the kindergarten class, the teacher has kind of made me her special helper, so I get to help pass out papers and crayons, and tell kids when they´re drawing their letters and numbers wrong..it may not seem like that big of a deal, but I´m loving it...
Next week a medical brigade is coming and I get to go camp out in the mountains and sleep outside in a hammock...I am so excited!!

2006-06-09T16:35:00.001-03:00

Well, here I was, about 5 hours ago, typing away for like 30 minutes, and BAM! entire system goes down...so I´m back, but instead of writing a million words then trying to post, I think I´ll try to break it up a bit...
Today has been a weird, but relaxing day, a few of us woke up early this morning and went to a fruit market - I know, you´re thinking, but you don´t eat fruit, and yes, as a general rule that´s true, but I´m trying to branch out and partake of nature´s goodness while I´m here...we bought some bananas and pineapples, and avocados and potatoes and onions and cucumbers and carrots...now that I list that stuff, I guess it was more like a vegetable market...anyhow, it was fun, I suppose...
After that we went back to the house to wait for our ride to Choluteca, but due to circumstances, it never came, so I wandered out to the internet cafe, where I have again wandered, and some other stuff....went shopping for a toy car for this kid Milson, and when we were walking back with the car, a whole bunch of kids starting following us asking if the car was for them...it was crazy!!

Oh, to be in Honduras

2006-06-06T10:41:00.000-03:00

Well, yesterday, Monday, was my first day on the job. I went to the school in San Marcos- it´s little kids pre'k-2nd grade. When I first got there, the kids were just playing until the bell rang, then they all lined up according to their class-each class had one line of boys and one line of girls. Then, they stood in their lines for probably like 15 or 20 minutes and sang a bunch of songs...I can´t wait until I actually learn the songs, that is going to be a lot of fun!! When they were done singing it was time for breakfast. Each kid got a pack of cookies and a glass of milk - the milk was warm and had some sort of rice stuff in it. After breakfast the kids went to class. Samantha(another intern) and I took pictures of all the kids for a bulletin board that we are going to make. When we were done with that, we went to the preparatoria (kindergarten) class and helped them write. These kids had to write the word papa like 50 bagillion times...it was crazy!! Some of the kids were having trouble so we got to guide their hands and help them try to make all the papas. It was insane, after they finished a whole page of writing the word papa over and over again, the teacher would take it and give them another one!! I thought that it would never end, but finally it did, and they got a sheet to make the letter -I- a thousand times. After a while it was getting close to time for lunch, so we went to help the cook, Cristiana, get lunch ready...guess what we had to eat..rice and beans! It was good, we also had homemade corn tortillas...it was incredible, well, not really, it was school food, but it wasn´t too bad. Recess was after lunch, so we got to go play outside, that was pretty fun...after recess I went back to the kindergarten class, where we listened to this cd that they supposedly listen to everyday..it was crazy..the kids were like yelling-singing along with the cd..it was so loud, but it was pretty funny to watch them all because they had the entire thing memorized. I had a pretty fun day at school, it wasn´t what I was expecting, but it was still fun.
Today I am assigned to the office, where there is absolutely nothing for me to do except sit at this extremely slow computer and play. I have been here since 7 this morning and there´s a possibility that I may not get to leave until 4 this afternoon...I just wish that they had a couch so that I could take a nap.
This trip has turned out to be nothing like I expected it would be, and I´m still not sure how I feel about that. That´s all for now, I may be back before the day is over...

Honduran Arrival: A Success

2006-06-04T17:05:00.000-03:00

Well, I made it. I survived the flights, and a 2 hour layover in Miami. While in Miami I ran into my dear engaged friends Bethany and Nathan.
We arrived in Tegucigalpa without a hitch....all bags and people made it through customs and immigration. We had a fun 2 hour ride to our destination town...there wasn't enough room in the truck, so Nathan and two other interns had to ride in the back of the truck...it's rainy season down here...so I guess you can figure out what happened....It poured for probably like an hour...man, those guys were soaked!! Everyone seemed so concerned, so I kept my laughter on the inside, I didn't wanna be the mean girl. It was funny...and all our suitcases got soaked!! But, they eventually dried out, so it was cool....
I met the other interns, they're all nice so far, but we'll see as time goes on.....
I'm sharing a room with Bethany, we have another roommate arriving next week. Hopefully she won't get on my nerves, I hear that she's a teacher too.
I had some beans today. They were awesome!!! They were a type of refried-black beans. I ate some on a tortilla, and some by fork.
I had fun playing with Sol today....we pretended to call Tia Boo on Sol's flip flop, it was way fun getting to talk to my friend through a little kid's nasty shoe. By the way, Becca, Sol's face lit up when I told her that Tia Boo was calling on the flip flop. And, I gave Jarrod their presents this morning.
That's all for now, we are about to go grocery shopping, yay fun!!!
It's really pretty and green here, and rocky and awesome.

2006-06-02T16:59:00.000-03:00

Here I am, excited and ready to go!!

Green Beans

2006-06-02T16:51:00.000-03:00

Well, friends, I have decided to start blogging again, mostly for my own ease and convenience. Tomorrow I leave for Honduras, and this is where I will be filling you in on Honduran happenings. I'm hoping for lots of funny stories, I aim to keep you all entertained. Also, please leave comments or shoot me an e-mail so that I'm not completely out of the loop when I get back.
Departure is tomorrow at 6AM...I eagerly await the ascent into the skies....

No Toilets

2005-12-24T14:36:00.000-03:00

I was just reading the New York Times, and it never fails, anytime that I read any sort of news about Africa, it breaks my heart. This story was about how schools in sub-Saharan Africa have no toilets, and therefore when girls have their periods they basically either skip school for those few days or drop-out. I only wish that I could send them 4 of the 5 toilets that my parents have in their house. Also, the teachers, who have no access to toilets, are forced to urinate out in open fields, for all to see. Not only is it unsanitary, but there is no privacy.

What is a blog?

2005-11-28T15:55:00.000-03:00

Here I am, with a blog, yet I have no idea what a blog really is. I hope that I'm doing it right. Maybe I'll do it a lot, maybe I won't. Do you even do a blog? Or do you just blog? Or do you work on your blog? Maybe write on it? Is the blog the website? I really have no idea, but everybody else is doing it, and I have nothing better to do, so I figured, hey, why not? Sorry if you find me boring, but I don't really care, because I think that I'm fascinating. Just the other day I took a 2 hour nap.

Beans

2005-11-28T06:45:00.000-03:00

I love beans. I mean, they're like the perfect food, shaped just like a smile. And there are so many different kinds, it is unbelievable. And just like potatoes, you can mash them, cream them, refry them, or retry them. They are they do all food. Beans beans they're good for your heart it's impossible to stop once you start. Did you know that beans don't give Mexicans gas? They don't give me gas either. My body has adapted to the digestion of beans so that I can do it without the gas formation. Isn't that neat? I first came to love beans in Mexico. I always liked them, but love only started last March, I think it was, in Mexico City when I met Italian Leonardo and ate beans. They were black, and with a little salsa verde added in, quite heavenly. I love pinto beans, whole or mashed. Black beans, whole, or especially mashed. Pork and Beans. And all other beans, those are just the best. My very favorite of all is refried black beans. I could eat them always. They are just so good, even though the tend to look like poop sometimes. Beans are just the best food, better than donuts, ice cream, chocolate, hot dogs, pretty much anything else that you can think of. I love getting to go to restaurants and be like hey, forget that rice, I want double beans!!! It also seems that I have a funny way of pronouncing the word beans. People laugh at it sometimes, but I don't care, because I love beans! I decided to write this because I'm sitting at school thinking about beans.