It's the weekend! It's February!

On Friday, I had a minor meltdown because I couldn't find ANYTHING to wear. I brought 3 pairs of navy pants and 2 navy skirts to use for my uniform... most of them were slightly bigger than I would normally wear clothes, but they were super cheap and I figured I'd wear a belt. Well, I walk up and down a mountain every day and have started running after school with some of the other teachers which has resulted in losing a little weight-- which I know is a good thing, but not when your clothes don't fit and there's no place to buy them in Gracias! Friday, my only option was the pants I'd been wearing all week and they were covered in dust and dirt so I was very frustrated. Luckily, Sarah lent me some of her pants, but parent teacher conferences are this coming weekend so I knew I'd need to figure something out so I didn't look like some unprofessional, young girl who didn't care how she looked! I talked to one of the teachers, Ana, and she said we could just go to Santa Rosa this weekend and she could help me find something. So, that's what we did! Ramon, Ana and I travelled about an hour to Santa Rosa on Saturday morning and spent the day shopping. We went into several stores and the market and eventually I was able to find a pair of pants and a skirt I liked. It was an interesting experience. Women's dress clothes here are made of really thin, really clingy material. So that was the first problem. Second problem is that Honduran women are TINY. We went to the market and tons of stands were selling navy dress pants but hardly anyone had bigger than a size M and no one had over a size L. Apparently in Honduran pant size, I'm an XL so that was discouraging, especially because the reason I was shopping was because I've lost weight!! :) There were a couple funny moments though. At the market (which is just rows and rows and turns of stands inside a big building), they let you try pants on behind their stands and someone would pin up a towel in the back corner. One place, they had no back area and no way to pin anything up, but they did have a big baby bassinet that could block one side of me and a lady that could hold up a blanket on the other side of me. So, I tried on pants with a baby looking up at me the whole time from one side, and a lady looking at me from the other. :) The pants were buttonable but certainly not wearable- you know what I mean, when your stomach just pushes itself out all over the sides of your pants? yeah... not something I'm going to be wearing to school. I showed Ana and said they were too small, and then the lady selling me the pants lifted her shirt up and showed me that's how she wears her pants! :) It's actually how most women wear clothes, which I find so odd. The tighter you can wear something, the better, even if it means you have shirt buttons popping and pant tops folding over. Very attractive, but not the look I'm going for :) Eventually I found what I needed - I got both the skirt and pants for about $22, or 450 Lempiras, which I thought was really expensive but... necessary purchases! Ana was so helpful and brought us to a sweet little coffee shop where I had some delicious chocolate cake! I ended up spending the evening with Ana and my neighbor Mrs. Laureles- we made some Valentine's for our kids, gave ourselves pedicures and watched a movie!

Today, I had an extremely productive day. The girls all went to town but I just couldn't get myself out of bed, so I stayed there until 10:30 (!!!!). Then, since there was no one around, I got bored and started to clean. I cleaned our kitchen, swept and mopped the floors and did all my laundry (including my bedsheets!) all by myself! Then, I burned some trash and by that time Jacki and Sarah were back. They bought some flowers in town, so we planted those in front of our house- it's so pretty! So, now I'm covered in sweat, ash and dirt and our water is off :) Hopefully I get clean before our Super Bowl party tonight! I think we are having PIZZA, and Kirsty and Rachel are making puppy chow right now! I don't think I care who wins, but last year John Elway was on one of the commercials so.... cross your fingers!!!