The Me That Would Be

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

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!!

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

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."

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??

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

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

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

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

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

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??

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.

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.

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.

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

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...