France

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Man Runs to Child's Rescue

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!!

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

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

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.

...

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

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....

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.