Wishing we had a Memorial Day right now...

Ok, fine, I admit I don't deserve any more days off. (Although, quite honestly, it is surprising we don't celebrate Memorial Day here because they celebrate just about every other obscure holiday there is...) Anyway, instead I found out today that our school year has been extended (are they allowed to do that?). I'm not surprised though, really....even though we already get out so late! We were supposed to get out June 15th (even though all the other schools -- like Justin's -- get out the 8th...remember how our school is always one step behind?), but now we get out the 20th. Okay, I know it's only three more days, but really? I suppose it doesn't affect my life that much anyway though...my plane ticket is for the 24th (I have to stay the week after school gets out to give re-takes for kids who failed). Then again, I'm not sure when they are going to give those recuperation tests now, but, well....not my problem. Either way I'm peacing out the 24th.
Anyway, though, like I said, I can't complain, as somehow I've been able to take mad days off. So this past week was Sam's visit! It was great, and I took Thursday and Friday off of school. I didn't even have to end up feeling bad either (I usually do feel guilty taking days off, because the other teachers just have to cover my classes, and believe me, I know how much that bites) because Thursday was a fun "water" day (they brought in little pools) to raise more money for some scholarships, and Friday was a half day with a celebration for Founder's Day (obscure holiday #742938). So really I didn't miss classes.

Speaking of fun days, that Friday before Sam came to visit was a fun game day too. It was pretty great -- we ended up playing a teachers vs. students basketball game...so it was me and four of the other guy teachers against the junior and senior guys. It was really funny because we wore jerseys and everything and people got super into it...and I actually scored some lucky baskets (I think they felt awkward guarding me)...so I think they found a newfound respect for me (way easier to gain respect from them on the basketball court than in the classroom).

So then I went to go pick up Sam from Tegus on Saturday, and she came back with me to Cata for school Monday-Wednesday. We tried this new Mexican restaurant in Cata, which is my new favorite place here. It seems really out of place here, because it is like an actual nice restuarant. Ok, not "nice," per se, but like a small Mexican restaurant in the states.

Mexican restaurant with the best drink I've ever had...maracuya (passionfruit) slushie

Then we went back to Tegus Wednesday to spend some time at my second home here in Honduras: Hotel Honduras Maya. I love that place. The weather was perfect too -- which was lucky since it's the rainy season now -- so we got some great sun/relaxing time at the pool.

Hot tub at the Maya

And then it was back to G-Rap for Sam and to Cata for me (I feel like I've been on these buses a zillion times). The bus on the way home actually ended up being a whole thing too -- I get to the bus station at like 1:30 so I can leave on the 2:00 (occasionally there'll be like five people in line), and the bus station is absolutely filled...like people spilling out on the streets. Apparently all the university students were in Tegus for something and then were coming back to Cata on Sunday...so it's ridiculous. I wait in line for like 45 minutes, finally get my ticket, and then head over to the bus. The guy put a number 15 on my ticket, and I go over and wait in line to get on the bus, and when I get to the front the guy tells me the bus is 13 (since when are there different bus numbers?). So I feel pretty much like an idiot because then when I turn around I see a zillion people with their bus tickets waiting in the station still (the 14s and 15s). Oops. They were probably wondering what the heck I was thinking going over there. So I'm thinking I'll end up having to wait in the station for the 5:00 bus (there's a 2, 4, and 5). Great. But then I'm standing there in the sea of people and the bus driver points to me and motions me to come with him. He's like, "Do you want to go now?" And I'm like, "Well...is there room?" So there's this seat up front in the little bus driver cabin, and he tells me I can sit there. So I pretty much get a first-class ride back to Cata with air (well, actually it broke) and coffee/snacks.  As much as I hate being the only gringa here, it does have its perks. Never mind that I had to endure a few near hard attacks watching the bus driver navigate the roads and text at the same time...or the fact that I was beginning to question his motives for inviting me to sit up front by the end of the trip. Well, can't have everything.

Updates

Well, I couldn't think of too creative a title, and nor do I have much new to report...but I figured I'd post because it might be a little while before I post again, since Sam will be here next week!
Well, Monday we had parent-teacher conferences. All the other schools had them like two weeks ago...our school always seems to be one step behind for some reason. It was rather uneventful (which I guess is a good thing) -- I had only about four parents from 8th grade, and then I talked to a few other parents from other grades who were concerned about their kids' language grades.
My favorite classes have changed since the start of the year...now my favorite classes -- by far -- are the seniors and the 8th graders. The 7th graders are too rambunctious, the 9th graders too crazy, the 10th graders too silly, and the 11th graders....well, let's just suffice it to say they have taken to calling me "Miss Beautiful." I'm not sure if I like the 8th graders better because now they're my homeroom class, if they like me better now because I'm their homeroom teacher, or if they actually have just gotten better. Either way, they are a really great class. It occurred to me how much I like their class when Rose was here -- she was saying how good the class was and suddenly it occurred to me: "This is a 180 from the beginning of the year!" Remember when I had to give them talks about focusing in class and that one time I made a zillion different forms of the same test to catch cheaters? Today I was just thinking about that because I gave them a quiz and was busy working at my desk and I didn't even have to worry about them cheating or talking. They're the only class I can say that about. (Meanwhile, I caught more cheaters today in other classes....)
And the seniors are just a great class too. I never would've said that at the beginning of the year either. Maybe it's because they're almost done (a week and a half left for them) that I'm realizing it, maybe they actually have gotten better, or maybe it's because I've started teaching them writing and research papers instead of grammar and they are paying more attention because they realize it actually might be useful. Either way, they are a really great class. And I'm trying to convince one of the girls to apply to Calvin for the spring semester.
Anyway, tomorrow we have a sports day at school (I don't remember the last time we've had a "normal" week) -- we are going to have some games and a bake sale (Tegus school wants us to raise money for something or other). So they just told us that today (shock), so it looks like I'll be making a few batches of cookies tonight! Luckily the supermarket had butter (the last couple of times I've been there they haven't had any). And then tomorrow after school I'm headed back to Tegus! Sam gets in on Saturday, so we'll spend the night at Justin's before coming back to Catacamas Sunday in time for classes Monday. But then I somehow managed to get Thursday AND Friday off of school (which I'm super excited about), so we'll be back in Tegus at the end of the week to spend some days at the pool! (Hopefully it's nice weather...it's rainy season now so it's rained pretty much every day this week.)

Quick update...Happy Mother's Day!

Well, after those two weeks of fun it's back to school....but last Friday was the Mother's Day Celebration. The celebration was pretty fun -- disorganized and crazy as expected. And I wasn't even worried when one of the other teachers came in a taxi to pick me up at 4:50 (we were supposed to be there to set up at 4:30 and it was supposed to start at 5:00). I'm actually starting to understand this Honduran time schedule (not agree with it, but understand it). It didn't start till probably 5:30, which isn't too bad, but there were still people arriving at 7:00. Standard. A bunch of the kids got up to read poems, dance, sing, etc., and then everyone was served a delicious chicken lasagna dinner. The place was waaay too small though, so some people couldn't even get a seat...I guess it serves them right for being so late! Plus they didn't have nearly enough servers, so another teacher and I took matters into our own hands and went back to help the waiters serve. One thing I'll never get used to in this culture is how impatient everyone is here. It's the weirdest paradox though, because everyone is always late for everything. But then it's like, when they want something, they want it now. A lot of the students -- and even parents! -- just went back to stand at the door to the kitchen to ask for their food! I thought that was crazy...I would never do that when waiters are coming around to serve. Yes, it was taking a long time to get the food, but you have to just wait. Well, all in all it was a lot of fun, and I really like going to stuff like that because it makes it feel more like a school with extracurricular activities and other things to do...which we don't have much of here.

My senior girls (there are only 2) and I...the seniors are done in 2 weeks and I thought I was going to be excited because it means less work and more free periods...but I think I'm actually going to end up missing their class a lot! 

Besides that, it was back to the routine this week. I'm still teaching ESL Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so that's one of the best parts of my week. Lorena and I are actually becoming quite good of friends -- I usually go over there around 4 and end up staying till like 8 or 9. She always makes me dinner, and then sometimes we do a workout video together, or I watch a movie with her ten year-old son (I know him from swim lessons). Lorena is a first-grade public school teacher, and she's trying to teach her students some English, so I sent Rose an alphabet songs CD to bring down with her to give to her. She said her students LOVE it -- they didn't even want to go out for recess! Haha. I also gave Harry (her son) some marshmellow peeps that my Mom sent me for Easter, and it was really funny because he absolutely loves them. I gave them to him on Tuesday, and on Wednesday when I went over he told me he came home from school and just bit the head off one because he was trying to savor them. Haha. The other day I also went with them to pick up a bunch of stuff from the states. It was really kind of funny...there was this big semi-truck filled with huge boxes of stuff that people in the states sent to their relatives in Cata. Anyway, so it was just parked there and they went to go pick up a big box of stuff like shampoo and drink boxes and fruit cups that Lorena's husband (well ex-husband, but that's another story) had sent them. I don't know why, but the whole thing just struck me as kind of strange -- this huge semi filled with random stuff from the states?

Back on the Blog

Welll...I know it's been a while since I last posted -- 2 weeks? -- and now I don't even know where to start!

I guess I'll start from the top with SAG, the Student Annual Gathering in Tegus. It was a ton of fun! I really loved it and all of the students had a ton of fun too (they said it was better than other years...I'm not sure why.) It is something I definitely would have loved in high school. It's true that I didn't get any sleep -- I slept in a huge cabin with triple bunks with 85 other girls. We had two bathrooms for the 20 girls from our school, so I had to get up at 3:30am every morning and shuffle the girls through the showers...at least most of the time the girls were exhausted so they actually went to bed at like midnight like they were supposed to. So I got a few hours of sleep at least. Anyway, Justin ended up coming too, so that was fun -- at first he didn't know if he was going to go or not. Of course all the girls at my school fell in love with him, which Justin of course ate up....so now I have about 50 pictures on my camera of Justin and all my students...but that's a different story...

(picture 1 of 50 of Justin and my students...)

So our school ended up coming in 4th place out of 6th...and the Tegus school won. Shock. (Not.) They win every year. (My students said Catacamas won 3 years ago, and halfway through the competition the Tegus school decided it wasn't good to have a winner...) To give you some background here on the schools, it would be like a Class A school like Rockford (Tegus) competing against a class C or D school like Whittemore-Prescott (Catacamas). Not that we couldn't compete, but let's be real, some of the other schools don't even go up to 12th grade yet! Well, oh well. And our boys' soccer team did beat Tegus in the championship! It was ridiculous...they were freaking out because soccer is the last competition and the biggest deal. So they were chanting and cheering all the way back to the cafeteria from the field. I was really disappointed in our girls' basketball team though...we won the first game but lost the second. If we would've won that second game (against a team that was not very good that we had beat already like a month ago!) we would've been in the championship, which was pretty sweet because it was at night under the lights and everyone went to watch! I never understood before when I was a player why the coach would get so frustrated at the team when they lost or played bad...

(Watching another basketball game)

Anyway, the sudoku competition was pretty funny because Justin and I had both been the trainers for our schools, so we were talking smack the whole week with our students until the competition...and then it turned out that some guy from Cholu won in like 5 minutes! Haha. Well, one of Justin's girls came in third...either way, it was pretty funny that after trash talking all week neither of us won. My students were strrruggling -- one of my tenth graders made a bad face in the middle of the competition and whispers, "Next year Miss!" I was like, "No! Go! There's still this year!" Oh well...he ended up giving up halfway through. Haha. One of my ninth graders did win the spelling bee though! So I was super excited. And well, I could go on for days about all the competitions -- band, singing, speech, Bible trivia, lego, three-point shots, cross-country, mini-soccer, rubik's cube, dictionary search (most of the time there were several competitions going on at once so we were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off)...but that could take all day. So let's suffice it to say that a great time was had by all and I just had fun hanging out with my students and speaking more Spanish with them in a non-school setting where I didn't have to tell them to sit down, shut up, and pay attention all the time.

(First place in the spelling bee!)

Then I managed to get out of the big fancy dinner the last night of SAG (basically the students' prom -- because everyone gets that dressed up) so I could go see Rose the first day she got in! It was great. We got to go see one of Justin's football games and hang out with the other football players (who are all crazy, by the way) and take a day trip to a town up the mountain to get some souvenirs. Mostly, though, we spent Saturday - Wednesday hanging out at the pool at the hotel in Tegus.  It was a great relaxing break after SAG!

(Justin and I after his football game)

(Free bracelets from some lady we bought earrings from)

Wednesday night Rose headed back to Catacamas with me to go to school Thursday and Friday (too bad I couldn't take the whole week off, but I can't complain). It was fun though, and I'm really glad she got to see my school and where I live, meet my students, live my routine with me...etc. On Friday we once again got back on the bus to Tegus for her to leave Saturday morning (I spent the rest of the day taking advantage of the pool), and then I came back to Cata once again on Sunday (I'm getting good at riding these buses back and forth...).

(Rose and I with all my eighth grade girls)

So it was a crazy last two weeks, but probably the best two weeks so far that I've been in Honduras! And it was back to the grind on Monday, for what is a somewhat normal week (as normal as a school week in Honduras can be) -- although we do have a big Mother's Day celebration on Friday (so we leave school at noon and then have a big dinner thing at 5 with all the moms where we have to get super dressed up). Anyway, I've got the rest of this week and next week of school, and then it's back to Tegus to pick up my other friend Sam from the airport because she's coming to visit me for a week! It's going to be great! It's funny because the students and teachers are like, "Wait you have another friend coming to visit? They're coming here just to visit you? Not for any other reason?!" They can't believe it. (As if I'm not worthy to be visited?!) I guess I have some pretty great friends.