Viviendo el sueño: BREAK!

I made it to Semana Santa (Holy Week/Spring Break...whatever you want to call it)! The third marking period ended today (well, actually it ends tomorrow, but I won't be there tomorrow), so I was scrambling like mad to get everything done today. All our grades have to be entered in the computer by tomorrow, but seeing as how I won't be there, I had to finish them today -- and I had 4 tests to give out today to add to their scores. And it's not like in the states where you just enter grades in the computer as you go...you have to put them in your grade book, average the quiz, tests, and homework separately by hand, and color-code the grades by homework, quiz, and test (which speaking of, they just changed the colors so we all had to re-write all of our grade books...don't get me started on that). Anyway, I'm done! I also finished organizing and decorating my classroom -- well, pretty much (I still want to put up a bulletin board) -- so I feel good about that too! I forgot to bring my camera to school but I'll take pictures at some point. Hard to believe we're already at the last marking period.

So the reason I'm not going to school tomorrow is because we have a basketball game in Tegus! I'm really excited...the girls are nervous. We are playing against the Abundant Life school in Tegus (the Spanish-only school though, so not Justin's) and some other school too. The guys team is coming too, so they have two games and we have two. It should be a lot of fun -- it's about time we have a game! We leave at 6am tomorrow...and actually it works out perfectly, because now I can just take the bus with them and stay in Tegus. When I was asking the principal about going (I was a little worried since I just missed Monday, even though that wasn't my fault) he was like, "You know what? You deserve it." Bahaha. Exactly what I was thinking. Well, actually I feel kind of spoiled because this week before Spring Break only turned out to be a three-day week for me...usually I feel soooo ready for a break by the time Spring Break comes around, but I feel like I just had one! Well, I'm not complaining though.

Kim and I are going to Guatemala for Spring Break. She moved to Choluteca, which is about two hours from Tegucigalpa, so she's going to meet me there tomorrow, and then we'll leave Saturday morning. Justin's friend is coming to visit so they are going to El Salvador -- but actually we'll be on the same bus as him! He'll get off at El Salvador and we'll transfer buses there to go to Guatemala. We did a little more research into our vacation this time, and actually found a hotel to stay at already, so hopefully this trip won't be quite as crazy as our last one! We are staying in Panajachel by Lago de Atitlan -- a place where we went when I was on my study abroad in Honduras -- which I loved, so I'm super excited to go back! Plus we managed to find a decently cheap hotel that still has a pool, so I figure no matter what it's going to be great.

We had a really great weekend for Kim's last weekend here -- Saturday our host dad brought us to see the caves. I had gone one other time in the fall with some of the other teachers, but this time we went to a different one that we had to hike to. It was quite the hike (plus we took one wrong turn)...and this was an unattended cave (the other one has guides). We ended up going about halfway in but our flashlights didn't work too well. Plus I decided unattended caves in the middle of the forest are kind of creepy. Saturday night I got invited to one of my student's quinceaneras (15th birthday party...15th birthdays are a huge deal here -- see the pic of the invitation), but since it was Kim's last night here I decided not to go. Well, that and all the students were asking me all week if I'd dance with them at the party...soooo, at the risk of this turning into another party with my students like the one I went to in the fall (see a prior blog post), I decided not to go. I got invited to another one in a couple of weekends, so maybe I'll go to that one to see what these things are like -- by the sounds of it, it's like a wedding reception. Anyway, Sunday we went to Tegus, where it turns out all the other American teachers had to go too to change their visa types! I didn't realize they'd all be there too but I guess I should have figured...anyway, it was a lot of fun to see them all again. And then we got to go see The Hunger Games Sunday night. Monday was a little less than ideal -- we spent five hours waiting in line at the immigration office -- but finally we got everything taken care of. And then Kim was off to Choluteca and I took the bus back to Catacamas. All in all, it was a really good weekend, and here I am at another break!

Oh and one last kind of funny story -- so I was practicing some basic conversation stuff with the lady I teach ESL too -- and I was like, "Do you like to teach?" (She's a first grade teacher at one of the public schools here), and she exclaimed adamantly, "NO!" I was really surprised! But then she pointed to her teeth and stated emphatically, "I no like my teeth." Haha...we laughed about that for awhile -- I would've been really surprised because I thought she had liked to teach (she does). But, ok, I guess it's only fair now that I share a stupid Spanish mistake I've made...so I was talked to the assistant principal the other day because one of my students was trying to cheat on a test (shock), and I thought the verb "to cheat" was "chapear"...but turns out it's actually "chepear." Chapear actually means "to cut the grass." So basically I told her one of my students was trying to cut the grass during a test...hahaha. Whoopsie.