What Do I Do When I'm Alone?

The title is inspired by this little ditty. Grover. Always manages a tearjerker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnw7hNjex_k

Well, I've been working hard, writing applications, emailing principals, wading through school websites.... but that stuff isn't that exciting to read about, so I'm going to show you what I've been doing with the rest of my time. Two words: kids. food.


I'm pretty proud of my cooking skills this year. Just a sampling of what I can do when I'm alone. Portion sizes have been a little tough but... then it just turns into a midnight snack! :)



my neighbors felt bad for me, so they sent over sopa de gallina (hen/chicken soup)



they also sent pupusas :)




This I made myself, and it was delicious! Popcorn chicken and french fries. :)



BBQ Chicken with green beans and onions. Also, some fresh raspberry juice!




Breakfast of champions- eggs, toast, and platanos!!




I gave each kid four lempiras and set out things that they could buy- candy, juice, stickers, bandaids :) It was pretty successful :)



We had movie day- watched Tangled and ate popcorn!



The girls' favorite thing to do is play dress up with my clothes. My shirts fit them like dresses and they always fight over who gets to wear the silver high heels.



I was washing my laundry and Ana Sugey climbed in my laundry basket. Precious :)



They say imitation is the best form of flattery.... Daniela decided to tan after she saw me sitting out for awhile :)



And now.... back to job searching! :)

theologicalizing my life.

Dear Blogging Audience,

There are very few times that I do not enjoy my life in Honduras, so most of my blogs are fun and exciting and full of reasons why all of you should want to live here also! Well... this blog is not going to be one of those haha

1) We have not had water for a week.

2)As I said in my last post, this coming week is Semana Santa, and all the teachers are leaving for the beach. I decided to stay behind to work and save money, blah blah, blah. Well, Friday afternoon, we were leaving school, and one of our neighbors called to say that the electricity company was cutting off our electricity.... And let me explain why.

We haven't always paid for our electricity, but in January, they installed a meter to our house so we started to pay. The way it works is the meterman comes and checks it and prints off a bill which he will either tape on your door or give to a neighbor. Then, you take that paper to the bank and pay your bill there. That was fine for the first month.... the second month, we brought our bill to the bank and the people there said the writing was too faint to read, so we couldn't pay it. We tried to go to the actual electric company, and they said they would just tack it on to our next month. So, next month rolls around. We got the bill, I put it in a special, specific place so that we wouldn't lose it. Of course, we lost it. Don't know how, don't know where, but it's gone. Cue the power company. So, we lost power on Friday night, and everyone left for vacation on Saturday morning. I decided to walk to town and see if I could figure anything out. These walks down to town are always pretty interesting for me because I'm usually walking alone,and I start some deep thinking. This week's topic: Why is this happening? :) Is it because God is trying to tell me to get the heck out of here (another question: would God say 'heck'? :)) and He's showing me reasons to be happy to go? Or is He trying to make it as difficult as possible for me to try and find a job in the States, therefore, I'd have to stay here? :) I decided to call my mom. She's better at answering these questions than I am... and I wanted to vent :) There are some calling packets on my phone, so I bought one. Except that the one I bought didn't come through on my phone. Instead, I got 5 minutes to call Spain (for those of you interested, it costs the same to call Spain for 5 minutes as it does to call the US for an hour...) Now I do know someone in Spain, but I don't have his number, nor would five minutes be enough to fully express my ventilating!

My mom wasn't actually avaiable when I finally figured out the package; I did talk to Olivia for awhile, which was helpful. :) By that time though, I was out of money and even crabbier. So then.... I started thinking, "Now, is God doing THIS because He wants me to figure this out on my own? Do I need to find someone else to talk to? Do I vent too much? Is this the part where I stop thinking about it and trust Him? Or is this the part where I use my resources to figure something out? Is it punishment for not being more responsible? ... and on and on and on.

I got to town, stood in line for TWO HOURS at the bank to get money out of my account (it would be so nice to have an ATM sometimes!), grabbed a few groceries for my week alone, and tried to figure out the electricity thing. Apparently, the only way to pay your bill is to actually have the bill, or to have a code that is printed on the bill- neither of which I had of course. So, I went back up on the mountain and enjoyed the couple hours of sunlight I had left.

Now, the electricity thing doesn't need to be terrible. Maggie and Tyler actually left the keys to their house, so I was able to use their kitchen for my supper and take a shower (their house has water!), but mostly I was worried about the internet and how I was going to get all the work done that I needed. Another of my friends had left the keys to her apartment, so I thought I could just stay in town for the week and use the internet at one of the restaurants there, but then there was the question of trying to have a cheap week, not buying food, not going up and down the mountain... it was just going to be a big hassle. And, that's the part that I mostly didn't understand. Now, I know, people go through this everyday- trying to decide if God cares, or if He's really in complete control, and if He is, why He allows bad things to happen.... I know that everyone goes through those thoughts, and usually they are for much bigger questions than, "What am I going to do in the States next year?" still, I thought them. :) And I really don't get it. What is the point in my power going out, and me having to figure out all these extra things, when I was actually trying to be responsible? I've realized that I always need answers- in my relationships, with my students, in my own head. I want to know WHY someone is doing something. I think that was my issue last night. I tried calling my parents again, still not that great, ate some supper, and went to bed.

This morning, I was doing laundry over at Maggie and Tyler's, and one of our neighbors said that Samuel (a guy that lives up here on the mountain, and has been flirting with me quite a bit ever since my usual boy protectors, Ramon and Tyler, have left for vacation..) anyway! Samuel said he could fix our electricity and turn it back on because the office won't be open all this week because of Semana Santa. Now, I'm not sure if he just did this to try to make it so I'd have to pay him back somehow... but he fixed it. It's also possible that it was fixed illegally, but here I am, typing a blog from my house with my refrigerator running and my lights working. So, did God use a boy's possible immoral motives, or very probable illegal activity to answer my prayer? .... no idea. And, it kind of hurts my head to think about it all, but I'm probably going to continue thinking this way for awhile, right? Maybe all of this was just to scare me a little to insure that I DO work tomorrow and Tuesday and however long it takes to apply to every school I can find. :) And yes, maybe it's naive to think that all the little problems that were happening to me were all a part of God's plan but... that is what I believe don't I? That God has everything happen for a reason? even if it's something silly like causing a bill to just disappear randomly just in time for everyone to leave on vacation and then have the power turn off so that I would have to deal with it and figure it out and learn something.....? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Let me know your thoughts :)

Sincerely, the always rambling,

Laura Beth

I've been keeping myself busy....

In the last month, I have....

~~had a visit from my mom and our friend, Jennifer!
~~reorganized how I run my classroom
~~crashed my computer
~~stayed up past 11 on at least 5 occasions during the week
~~discovered a sweet new podcast
~~completed my third quarter grades 2 weeks ahead of time (and I only have one
student failing!)
~~gone to Santa Rosa on a girl's weekend (also new hair cut debut!!)
~~planned out my Semana Santa
~~started thinking about going home

First of all, my week with visitors. It was such a good time, but it was so fast! My mom and Jennifer came in on a Friday, we stayed the night in San Pedro Sula, and traveled to Copan Ruinas on Saturday. I have a mototaxi friend named Jose who was super helpful in showing us around and finding a hotel for us. We visited the Mayan Ruins and got some souveniors. Saturday night, we slept in Copan, and then came to Gracias on Sunday. We had a birthday lunch with Paola, had naptime, and went to the hot springs. On Monday, Jennifer and my mom came to school and observed my classroom. They were able to give me lots of great tips because unfortunately my kids decided to act the exact same way they always do, even with visitors in the room! It was actually really helpful though, because I haven't really had a lot of teacher feedback these last two years of teaching. Monday evening, we hung out at my house and met the neighbors, as well as the other teachers. The comedor made us a typical Honduran meal, which we enjoyed with the other teachers, as well as Shelly's family! Tuesday morning, I went to school, and my mom and Jennifer headed back to San Pedro Sula (yes, they braved the buses by themselves!). Like I said, it was a great week, but quite a whirlwind!





So, because of my heart-to-hearts with my teacher visitors, I decided to move things around in my classroom. I reorganized the desks, stacked up boxes, and changed my behavior management tactics. I've also been spending a lot of time on YouTube, listening to lots of Love and Logic seminar clips. I realized that I have missed two years of professional growth, so I'm trying to catch up. I do a lot of self-reflection in everything I do, and so I have always done teacher-reflections of myself but.... that's about the extent of my growth. :) The things I've added to my teaching methods in the last month have helped a lot, and I hope to continue until the end of the year! ... We'll see :)

About two weeks ago, I wrote a very, very long email to my sister, Emily, and then tried to send it and nothing would happen. So, I closed my computer and waited until I was back at my house. When I opened my computer again, it was completely blank. My computer had completely crashed, and I had no idea why. I asked around, and one of our teachers has a nephew that fixes computers. He offered to take a look at it. Eventually he figured out the problem, and it was not a problem that could be fixed. However, he said he could pull as much off my computer and then redo all my programs and start over. He charged me 20 bucks and was able to give my computer back with all the programs on it still! They're all in Spanish, I lost most of my word documents, and have no pictures saved from my last two years here, but.... I still have the internet and a webcam that works haha. So that was kind of crazy, kind of sad, but ultimately definitely not as bad as it could have been.

I've been staying up later. I think it has to do, in part, with the next 'bullet'

I found a free podcast from HowStuffWorks.com called 'Stuff You Missed in History Class'. I'm minorly obsessed with it- which is fine, because I downloaded like
200. So, that has been entertaining, and also nice to listen to when I'm grading or things like that.

I'm just always proud of times when I don't actually procrastinate. :) And, last quarter, I had 7 kids fail, so only one is pretty great!

Catelin, Paola (our 5th grade neighbor), and I went to Santa Rosa to celebrate Paola's birthday. We met Ana there, got pedicures, had some delicious food, went to a concert, and stayed at a hotel. It was fun!






Next week is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Everyone is going on vacation, but I'm staying home to work and save money for a trip at the end of the year. So.... I'm going to be job searching like crazy! I made up a schedule for each day and all the things I need to accomplish before I lounge around for the day. :) It should be pretty interesting, being by myself, with nothing to occupy my time except work, internet, movies, books, cooking, and the great outdoors. It's obvious what I would choose if left without a schedule.... check lists really are magic for me :) Wish me luck!!

Finally, we're about two months away from finishing the year. I have slowly started making myself think about 'the end'. I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the most difficult things I've done- leaving this place that I've come to really love- but I hope I will be able to enjoy these last couple months while giving myself some closure! again... wish me luck :)