21 de octubre

Well, today is the first time I forgot to bring the key to my classroom to school. Two months of responsibility! That's a record! Don't you even worry, the office had a spare. :) Just some updates...



We didn't have school on Thursday last week because the national Honduras futbol team won their game on Wednesday which qualified them to go to the Mundial (World Cup). They have only gone one other time in 1982ish and so it's a really big deal (obviously- they practically declared it a national holiday and no one went to work or school!). So, that was fun but the kids have been CRAZY ever since. I actually had a pretty tough week with them because they've started getting a little snotty... I know, I shouldn't complain... it's sixth grade which is like automatic-snottiness year but my class has been so good for me so far! This week though, they've started muttering things under their breath (usually in Spanish. cute.) or rolling their eyes or not staying seated and talking all through my lessons. So, that's been fun to deal with. Oh well. I guess that's what I get for wanting to be a teacher. :)



We have a three day weekend this weekend so us teachers are going to go to the Copan Ruins. These are some Mayan ruins about four hours from us so I'm really excited. It will be a nice chance to relax before things start getting crazy. We have first quarter grades due in a couple weeks as well as a Tipica Fiesta to plan. I won't write too much about that right now because I'm sure I'll have more to say when it's over, but basically we all dress in typical Honduran clothes, sell food and have a program. They've been pulling kids out of my classroom for about two weeks now to learn the dance so... they better be good! :)



Just some other random things that I always think to put in a blog but never have a reason to- I don't think I've talked about them before but if I have, sorry :)

~ everyone here loves Michael Jackson. I was working on a language lesson on proper nouns and asked the students for some famous people, thinking they would list some futbol players or a president or something- first person? Michael Jackson. Boys are also constantly showing us that they can do the moonwalk- Eduardo is a third grader that likes to moonwalk down the bus aisle when we ride into town with them!

~ We use peanut butter in everything at our house. Cereal, stir-fry, on our favorite Intenso cookies, sprinkles and coconut, leftover birthday cake, leftover Chinese, pancakes, on a spoon with chocolate frosting from a can... seriously everything. It's funny. and a little sad haha

~ We come to Guancascos every week to use the internet. There's always really loud music playing, and the last few times of coming, the Spanish version of "Piano Man" has been playing. Reminds me of home...

~ I realized after a few weeks of coming that all the games I brought to play are not very good for inviting our Spanish speaking neighbors over to play- Scrabble, Taboo, Scattegories... all games that include a great deal of English language knowledge. I brought Twister too but... haven't used it yet. Luckily, there were some Uno (that means One! :)) cards left at the house so we've used those as well as regular playing cards

~ I don't know if I've talked about our shower yet but we have a hot (electric) shower... slightly dangerous sounding but not as bad as having to take cold showers. We had a mini debate with the Honduran teachers this week about if hot or cold showers are better. Us spoiled Americans decided we would rather go dirty than take a cold shower and the Honduran teachers insisted that they would always choose a cold shower over hot. I might try it one of these days but... probably not :)

~ Speaking of hot showers, they've been much needed on these 'freezing' cold days. It was about 60 the other day- I think the coldest it gets here in the mountains is 45. The kids came to school wearing three layers, hats, gloves, and complained all day how cold it was while I stood in the front of the classroom sweating :)

I put some pictures up on facebook- some are repeats of pictures on here, but if you'd like to look, feel free! :) Well, I don't have much else to add. Thanks for reading!

LB