Getting Back on the Wagon.

I made it about two weeks into the new year before my blog became less than a priority. Teaching has a way to seep into every, single area of your life. I find myself laying in bed at night thinking of better ways to present vocabulary words or analyzing my latest attempt at disciplining middle schoolers. After all, my one and only reason for being in Honduras is to work at Agape. If it weren't for my job, I'd be somewhere else having a different crop of experiences. (I just finished my first interview about what I've been up to the last couple of years teaching and traveling wise. Check it out  HERE:)) I also have the blessing of being able to completely focus on my work.  I look forward to my future but I'd be doing my students and myself a disservice if I didn't take full advantage of this time in my life. Alllll that to say, I'm jumping back on the wagon. I have been a champ about taking pictures every day but I never carve out the time to upload them and blog. I'm caught up with school stuff, for this second, so I'm issuing myself a personal challenge to get all caught up.  Here's a little preview. I have to be clocked in at school by 6:50. An ungodly hour by anyone's definition. The silver lining to that yucky, dark cloud is that, when I have time, I can sit and watch the sun rise over the mountains. I stopped straight in the middle of the sidewalk to snap this one. Dropped all my stuff and dug out my camera as soon as I saw it. I'm not a morning person but I don't care who you are....that's just breathtaking.

January 14, 2011

When it rains, it pours.

It started raining a few days ago and doesn't look like its ever going to stop. You would think that folks living in a country where the "Rainy Season" really happens would be prepared. You, my friend, would be wrong. They freeeeak out. Schools shut down. Not mine, of course, but three others that I heard of were flooded so bad that they suspended classes for the day. A field trip was even canceled...All because of some rain. A lot of rain, but still. Craziness.

In front of the preschool.

My Yard. That standing water made it just about to the house.

Waiting at the bus stop.

Simple. Just the way I like it.

I always love to see Wednesday come and go. It means I have a day full of class tomorrow but only three on Friday and then the weekend. This weekend, Rachel and I are headed to our favorite place in Honduras. It may very well be my favorite place on the planet. The Caribbean Coral Inn is this awesome little place about 45 minutes away, right on the beach. More about that later. Nothing super special about today other than I woke up with air in my lungs and was able to get out of bed. I'm a glass half full kind of girl.

My ride home from school. Pictures can be deceiving. This looks like a quiet country road, not the scary death trap it actually is. These people give new meaning to the words "defensive driving".

Somebody showing off with those rays of sunshine on my way to tutoring.

I made a friend a little further down the road. 

A friend who just so happens to like being scratched under his chin. Don't catch yourself coveting my uniform either. I can totally get you a job down here and an ill fitting shirt to go with it.

I tutor Scott and this is his little brother who was all too excited to let me take his picture on his tiny motorcycle

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My mountains at the back of the colonia. Yes, I take full ownership until June. The view never, ever gets old.

 

 

 

 
View down the other side of the street. I live in a really pretty neighborhood. You can't see my house from here anymore because a gigantic house is being built next door. My house didn't know it was tiny until the new one got here.

A Girl's Gotta Eat.

 January 12, 2011
A trip to the grocery store in any foreign country is generally a treasure trove of photo worthy moments. Last night was no different.

This stuff is called mantequilla. That literally means "butter" in Spanish. As you can see, this ain't yo momma's butter. It's this funky mixture of sour cream (even though I canNOT find sour cream anywhere here) and heavy cream. These folks but it on ALL kinds of stuff and its not half bad. Awful for you, but most of the food here is.

Fruits and Veggies.

I really couldn't tell you when a squid tube is. This sign was on the side of a bunch of Butterball turkeys. Whatever it is, you can get it for less than 10 bucks.

The crown jewel of my trip. First, let me say this is the first time I've encountered such a thing here. In Korea, ALL the time. Here, not so much. However, this was, in fact, a whole (stinky) pig just hanging out in the meat dept. Had a USDA stamp and everything. I'd loooove to know how in the heck it came to be here.

I'm thoroughly amazed at these clear, cannish-bottle things.

Just in case I was wondering what "others are doing in the bed" in Spanish speaking countries,

Don't take your work home.

January 10, 2011
Wouldn't dream of it. I have done nothing but blog and mess around on the internet for every bit of the last 4 hours. The Burger King employees probably wish I'd take a hike and blew my "I don't speak Spanish" cover when I ordered dinner around 6. Now, it would just be bad form to walk on a freshly mopped floor so I'll consider myself stuck until it dries. Here's mine and Rachel's makeshift office for the evening.

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

I didn't quite make it to the 9th on the last one. I know myself well enough to know that if I don't get caught up today, and with the quickness, that there are going to be weeks of pictures not making it up anywhere near the day I took them. Bear with me. We're almost there.
January 8, 2011
Our first "do-nothing" Saturday since coming back from vacation. Trips home should never really be referred to as vacation because you don't really rest. There's always someone to see or something to do. I love, love, love it while I'm there but I do need at least one day to decompress once I get back to whatever "real life" is for me at the time. We decided to occupy this one with my newest love. Lost. I must have been hiding under a rock for the last 6 years because I'd managed to never see an episode. I have rectified that and currently have one season under my belt. I sprinkled intermittent bursts of house cleaning, laundry washing, and chocolate eating while watching.  A great day, if I do say so myself.

 Not a cloud in the sky.

 They tell me these are banana trees in my yard but I won't believe it until I see some fruit.

 I just so happen to have told someone I thought being happy looked good on me recently too. My smuggled from the States Dove chocolate agrees.

Ahh....There it is. Season 2 is starting tonight. I have to find out what's in the hatch!
January 9, 2011

Finally! A day with only only one pic. This one just so happens to be of my dining room chair/homemade nightstand that houses some of the things I love the most: my Bible, cell phone, iPod, journal and the new love of my life...my Kindle....And some dental floss. Missionary insurance and third world dentistry are not something I care to experience simultaneously any time soon.

Playing catch up.

My internet, at the moment, is sketchy at best so I'm going to take full advantage of my bootlegged Burger King wireless and try to get all my pictures from the 5th to last night in one post.
January 5, 2011
The view right outside the door of my classroom and please believe it has been in the 80's all week. You will not hear me complaining about the weather until at least the end of February.

 A little piece of the cafeteria and cancha where the little ones play....Oh, and palm trees:)

 Almost all of the cafeteria and the mall in the distance.

The completed first floor of the our newest building,
January 6, 2011
  An average day in seventh grade. Well, the closest to average me and my heathens are ever going to be.

 Diego working way too hard for comfort.

 Marlon, the head behind the Math book, refused to be in my picture. I took that as a personal challenge.

 Ruben helping me with Marlon. Boys will be boys any and everywhere.

Tarek getting busted about to credit card Marlon leaning over his desk. Poor kid would've never seen it coming.
January 7, 2011
Perhaps, the most interesting day yet. My life here is one big miscommunication so it should not have surprised me when our electricity got cut off this past Friday. I thought someone at school was paying it, they thought I was paying it. Turns out, no one was paying it. I now know that the powers that be in Honduras will give you three months before they come and cut it off. Literally. That wire was cut in two places. I had to make a somewhat heated phone call when we got home around 7 to find the power out. Few things get people in motion like an angry Gringa so our lights were back on within the hour. Some say illegal...I say convenient to know people with this kind of equipment.

 One of the good things about cooking with gas. I wasn't going to let a little ol' thing like not having lights stop me from making brownies to go with my Cabernet.

 My two new best friends. The one in the hat spoke the most precious English ever. It is so nice to talk to people who feel your language barrier pain.