I'm not one to run to update this thing, but today was too weird of a day to pass up.

Okay, so it was buisness as usual during the day at school. Afterward at 3 we were going to have a party for one of the Honduran teachers, Ms. Linda, who, as we understood it, was recently engaged. So we have all this food for what we thought was going to be an engagement party (small tidbit of information, i openly have a crush on this woman).

False.

She got married today at 12 o'clock and it was her wedding reception (heart broken). What! We seriously found this out 10 minutes before her arrival. So we all sat in the computer lab with with the food and of course Pepsi.

*Small note on the Pepsi in Honduras. I'm not sure Honduras would continue without it. Whenever you visit a home, for the family not to serve you Pepsi is unthinkable. If you're walking in the front door, a child is running out the side to the pulperia to buy Pepsi.

As I was walking in the gate earlier today the vigilante/gate attendant, Don Francisco, gave me a tug on my shirt and kinda... raised his eyebrows at me with his eyes wide. Didn't really know how to handle the situation.

I was told a soccer game was happening in the field next to the school at 4 so I had taken my cleats. I was keeping an eye out. At around 5 I saw some guys playing so I grabbed my stuff and headed over. Turned out I didn't know any of the guys playing but they let me play. There were a few guys who were just sick, but I didn't just embarrass myself. They said they play everyday at 5 so I'm going to start playing with them. After we had finished they asked me if I would buy the Pepsi for today, so I obliged.

I walked back to my apartment then over the main house. Upon arrival I found one of the student's parents pulling up with a truck full of grapefruit, all for us.

By request from Todd

Next week we're heading to Belize. We have to leave the countries that formerly comprised the united central american states... or whatever it is called, for 3 days every 90 days for visa renewal. So next thursday we're headed to Belize. Saturday I'm heading to the mall in San Pedro Sula. Papa send me an amazing message earlier in the week that said that he would pay for a good meal in San Pedro Sula every once in a while. It may be hard for you to grasp how excited I am about eating at Tony Roma's. I will drink a soft drink, with refills and watch Florida play the Vols on CBS.

3 weeks in.

Well, we're three weeks into the school year. Last week we peaced out of Cofradia and went up to Tela in northern Honduras. It's a beautiful coastal town. We hung out on the beach for two days, building fires and swimming in the water. On Wednesday we had Dia del Nino. I don't understand the concept of this day as there are 364 days a year that celebrate children. The day was all about the kids running wild around the school. There was a parade today through the streets as it is their independence day. For the last few days we have been practicing at the school with the kids, having them march. So today we marched through the streets with the kids. Yesterday Tim and I went into the mountains with a local family who owns a farm up there. We picked wild lemons, tangerines, sugar cane, bananas and coffee. We roasted some coffee and grounded it.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. I think it went pretty well. I only saw 7th and 8th grade today but the kids did alright. The class period flew by. I have each of the classes for an hour and a half. The lunch we were given at the school was good too. I think I can eat it for a year. I'm teaching P.E. to the 4th grade tomorrow in the first period, should be a good time. I didn't take this picture today, but I wore that same shirt today... so there you go. If I had taken a picture of me today, it would have looked a lot like this.

Chilling on the Big Friendly Bed

So this past weekend we headed down to the lake for some relaxation. We caught a bus to the bus terminal outside of San Pedro and then down to the lake. We stayed at a hostel called D & D Brewery. We got there Friday and spent the night just kinda hanging out. We pushed our beds together in our room (Me, Tim, Jenna, Tyler and Alison) and formed the Big Friendly Bed, equipped especially for some great late night pillow talk. Saturday was an awesome day. We woke up and caught a bus down to a waterfall. For 100 Lemps we go a guide who led us down into the waterfall. We jumped rocks and into a pool. The guide took us in two groups. The water was pounding so hard it was difficult to see at times. We climbed rocks behind the water once under it, and then proceeded to climb into a small cave. I honestly couldn't keep from smiling the entire time it was going on. It was an incredible experience. We spent the rest of the day swimming. The next day we walked down to the lake. We ended up swimming in a section of the lake that had this old bridge that Tim and I jumped off of. It was a great day. We came back monday. If you follow this link you'll see a video we put together of us having some fun on the Big Friendly Bed: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=567124585748

Es posible que me cagé hoy.

Summer school started monday. We started the class out with 'getting to know you' activities. It lasts from 1-4 pm. The first day went well, I feel like. The upper school is teaching the rising 6th grade students. The students were somewhat responsive to what we were trying to communicate. I taught a lesson on personification and the children understood the term at the end of the class (each section is about 50 mins for summer school). Today was not so great. Chrissy taught long division, Athena taught about the scientific method, and I taught about folklore. It felt like (i want to say at times, but it was basically the entire time) we were fighting the class and working against them. We were talking about it after the class and it just seems like we have not authority to assert since this isn't our class, there's not graded activity, etc. One girl told me that she didn't have to call me Mr. because I wasn't her teacher. A lot of them sat there apathetically. I don't think they feel motivated to do any of the summer school work. I do'nt think the year will be like this. It's just the lack of control in the summer school situation. Hmm. I'm back in Charlotte on Thursday night for my sister's wedding saturday. Pretty stoked to get back. I'm going to have to watch what I eat however, because my body is starting to get used to the food here and I don't want to completely throw it for a loop (but i'll be darned if I don't eat BBQ in the best state for it, NC). Despite today being kinda rough, I'm still really excited to get into the classroom. Julie is our teacher and I feel like, given the time, she has done an incredible job of preparing us and fattening us up with chinese food and licuados. I say fattening us up, but i'm pretty sure I've lost weight since I've been here.