Sunday, January 23, 2011

RETURN OF THE BUGS

Last year, I experienced a daily battle with insects and arachnids (that's spiders!) because they liked the taste of me a little more than I liked the taste of them. This year, I've been pretty lucky in the fact that my legs are not always covered in bug bites. However, I came back from Christmas and have been attacked ever since. I thought I'd use a little visual aid. Every where there is an arrow, I have been bit. And, it's not just one bite, it's like a four or five bite cluster. Pretty sure it's spiders. In my bed. Don't worry, I've Raid-ed and changed the sheets, but it might be a lost cause. So, my new catchphrase for things that don't quite go how I want them to... "At least it'll make a good blog!" :)




Wednesday, January 19, 2011

embarrassingly enough....

This is the part of the show where Laura Beth comes out and tells about her embarrassing happenings.
Enjoy.

So first of all, I had a great time being back in the US for awhile at Christmas (sorry it took awhile to get back into the blogging rhythm..) There were a few things that happened over break that were slightly embarrassing and I just blamed on culture shock, but one thing I definitely noticed was my lip pointing. APPARENTLY that's a Honduran thing :) If I want you to notice something/someone I just purse my lips in the direction I want you to look. The first time I realized it had no results at home was when I 'pointed' at someone at church asking Natalie who they were. She said, "Who WHO is?" a few times and I just kept 'pointing', thinking, I'm showing you! Why aren't you paying attention?? :) AWESOME.

Round two. Back in Honduras. I don't know what it is about traveling in groups, but I would most definitely take travel companions over sitting by myself in airports for 30 hours any day! Plus, for some reason when I'm with other people, I don't have quite the same bad luck I do when alone. :) Anyway, we got into San Pedro Sula and stayed at a hostel for the night. Most of us teachers met up and stayed together (Shelly, Jennifer, Catelin, Maggie, Tyler). The next morning we got up early-ish and got ready for our day of traveling. We'd hired a private bus since we had a big group and LOTS of luggage, and the driver was supposed to be coming at 9. I went to the bathroom at 8 and came out at about 8:35. No, I didn't eat anything bad. The door just stopped working. For the first 5 minutes, I thought Tyler was trying to play a trick on me and keep it closed with his foot but... no. The lock just stayed locked and turning the knob did nothing to unlock it. My friends ran and got the people at the hotel who then proceeded to try and pry the door open... nothing. They told me to kick the door from the inside, so I started kicking the bottom of the door really hard.... until I heard everyone yelling at me to kick towards the doorknob...something about physics.... whoops :) The guy then decided to take apart the whole doorknob.... still didn't work. Finally, they pulled something or pried something ... I'm not even really sure what happened, but I made it out alive and our bus driver was like two hours late so everything worked out. :) There's a video on my Facebook page of my miraculous escape if you'd care to view it. :)

Another embarrassing moment happened the other day involving my skirt. I have a few navy skirts that are allowed for our uniform, but there's one that I've just never worn because the fabric is super wrinkle-prone and I don't have an iron. However, I (well actually the laundromat) did laundry this week and it was clean and not wrinkled yet, so I threw it on for Monday. Mondays are a pretty easy day for me; I have a few classes with my kids and a music class in the morning, but after lunch I don't have anything. I walked around, feeling cute in my cute unwrinkled skirt all day before heading to the bathroom at the lunch recess. I have 'hall' duty (outside halls) every day at recess, so I ran to the bathroom before starting my duty roll. When I was checking myself out in the mirror I realized something quite terrible: THE SKIRT WAS COMPLETELY SEE-THROUGH. So, not only had I been walking around all morning in it, but I now had to pace around the entire SUNNY courtyard for twenty minutes before I could do anything about it. (Because I was pretty sure the one day I left the kids alone because of a wardrobe malfunction would be the one day that someone's head would get cracked open). So, I tried to hug the walls and be inconspicuous about everything, but it was the longest 20 minutes of my life. After lunch, since I had no classes, I just sat at my desk and worked on things, so there were no skirt worries. However, at the end of the day, I had to run to the computer lab to print some things off, so I quick slipped on my work-out shorts underneath my skirt and headed out the door. I walked past the office and all the kids lined up outside, waiting for the buses... I smiled at a bunch of the kids, waved bye, continued on my way, and ran into Matis, one of the women that cleans our school. She said to me, "Miss, your skirt is up".... I panicked for a second, reached my hand back, and realized my skirt was tucked into my little short shorts. WORST MOMENT EVER.... and after walking past all those kids!! ahhh. I decided that I was just going to donate that skirt somewhere. I will never wear it again. :)

Finally, today one of my kids came up to me and was looking pretty intently at my face before finally asking, "Miss, why haven't you just ((squeezing a zit motion on his face because he didn't know the phrase "pop that zit")) .... awesome. Thank you sixth grade. And yes, I know you're just supposed to leave zits alone, but I most definitely went to the bathroom and popped that zit as soon as that period was over. At least today I didn't get stuck in there for half an hour or realize my clothes were see-through. :)