Sunday, December 31, 2006

Merry Christmas to Me


This is the Vera Bradley tote that I bought myself for Christmas. My sister chipped in some money too, so I didn't feel quite as bad about spending what I spent. I'm very excited about the bag though. It's super cute and quite large with a good many pockets inside, perfect for carrying my books to and from school and carrying my laptop around. It will get put to good use!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

drama

So I promised some updates about the drama at school. It's really all pretty silly actually, but these people are so stupid and selfish and hypocritical. Gosh.


#1. Mr. Anthony decided who knows how long ago that he was going to go home for Christmas. And go back to Honduras in March. Seem strange to you? Why yes, me too. School starts again next week. He told the rector (but not the principal) a week before he left. hmm.... To make it worse, he continued to tell other teachers that no longer work at Holy Trinity that they should take his job while he's gone. Then those teachers he talked to went to the principal to talk about taking Anthony's job, but the principal didn't know that Anthony was leaving. Congratulations, Mr. Anthony, I don't think you will have a job in March. But he doesn't even care. He even told me, "I don't care what they say. If they say no, you can't leave for three months, well... then, I'll just quit." Glad to hear that you are here for the kids. Way to go.

#2. I am missing two days of school next week, Thursday and Friday. I decided that I would like to spend a few more days at home since my cousin has cancer, and I won't be home for a year, until next Christmas. Well, a few of the teachers like to cause trouble. (A few reasons exist: 1) They know they are getting phased out since they don't speak English, and it's a bilingual school. 2) They sort of already resent me for getting a free apartment, etc etc etc.) So anyway, they found out that I was given permission to miss 2 days of school, and went to the principal saying that it wasn't fair, etc etc. I think the principal dismissed them and ignored it. So after this lovely Christmas dinner that the 7th graders had for the teachers and staff, there was an impromptu meeting about shutting the school down those 2 days. Of course, it was brought up that, "Well, Katrina is missing those days." Veronica, the rector, gave in on the grounds that we would have class 2 Saturdays instead. (WHAAAAAT????) Well, the next morning, during the Xmas program, Veronica told the parents that we would have school as scheduled on Thursday, January 4th. That night was the teachers special Christmas party dinner at the Golden Palace. After dinner, Veronica made a little speech about why she made the final decision she did. She said that they had made the original decision to have school those two days for a reason, and the night before, the teachers had caught her off guard. Veronica said that it wouldn't be fair to the parents who planned their Christmas vacations around those two days, etc. Then, this same teacher spokesperson (lets call her Miss H), spoke up and brought me up AGAIN! So, Veronica had to go into this whole long shpeal about WHY I won't be there and the circumstances surrounding me going to Honduras in the first place. (Originally, I wasn't going to go until January.)
Anyway, at the end of this whole exhausting conversation, Miss H was crying (fake crying if you ask me) and gave me a big hug and said "Feliz Navidad!"


Yeah. So that's the drama. I'll update on my adventures at home for Christmas, as exciting as they are, later.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Back in PA

Well, I'm back in PA. And I've been up for 20 hours. Time for bed.

But I do have so much drama to catch you all up on.

Friday, December 15, 2006

ESFP and the Fridge

In high school, I was an ENFP. I retook the quiz today. I had my doubts.

ESFP stands for Extroverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving

This is the description:

Where's the party?" ESFPs love people, excitement, telling stories and having fun. The spontaneous, impulsive nature of this type is almost always entertaining. And ESFPs love to entertain -- on stage, at work, and/or at home. Social gatherings are an energy boost to these "people" people.

SPs sometimes think and talk in more of a spider-web approach. Several of my ESFP friends jump from thought to thought in mid-sentence, touching here or there in a manner that's almost incoherent to the listener , but will eventually cover the waterfront by skipping on impulse from one piece of information to another. It's really quite fascinating.

New! ESFPs are attracted to new ideas, new fashions, new gadgets, new ______. Perhaps it's the newness of life that attracts ESFPs to elementary education, especially to preschool and kindergarten.

ESFPs love to talk to people about people. Some of the most colorful storytellers are ESFPs. Their down-to-earth, often homespun wit reflects a mischievous benevolence.

Almost every ESFP loves to talk. Some can be identified by the twenty minute conversation required to ask or answer a simple factual question.

The dominant function of ESFPs is concerned with the reality that is perceived through the senses. This type's prime directive is to examine the tangible through taste, touch, sight, feeling and hearing. ESFPs' need for new experiences surely results from this function. Feeling gives focus to the collected information, producing the amiable nature of this type. As perceivers, ESFPs do not linger on moral concerns unless it is in service of a Greater Good and/or a unifying cause.


So I'm not skeptical anymore. This hit it right on the head. The perceiver part at the end isn't completely right on, but I'm only an 11% perceiver. I'm really high in the other ones. Just today I was thinking that maybe I would rather teach Kindergarten then first and second grade. I do like first grade though.

Oh yeah, my fridge is fixed!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Better

This week has been going better. The kids have had a bunch of quizzes, since Christmas is right around the corner, but they have done relatively well. I won´t be sending too many progress reports home this week, thank goodness.

It is helpful to put things into a different perspective. Veronica said something that helped as well. She said that in the US, discipline in a classroom is complete silence. Here, it´s not too much noise. She also said that the culture is a lot different in how the people communicate with each other - talking over each other a lot - which I definitely agree with. Therefore, it´s more normal for this to happen, and quite often, the kids really can be listening to you as well.

The first grade devil child is even doing better. I´ve started calling him my ¨mejor amigo¨ (best friend), and after much reassurance to the other kids that I´m just joking, he has started to come around and focus more and listen and stop hitting the other kids as much. I did, however, have a mother come in and yell at me for something that happened after I had left school on Monday. School ends are 2:30. I was there until 4:00 doing a bunch of stuff. These two sisters were STILL there. (One is in first and one is in second). Ridiculous if you ask me. Anyway, AFTER I LEFT (an hour and a half after school was out), they were playing on the steps, and Alejandro pushed her or something and she got scratches on her elbow and side. Alejandro´s mom is the secretary, so that´s why he was still there. It wasn´t until later in the afternoon that I realized that this incident had taken place almost 2 hours after school had ended for the day. Teachers are only required to be at school until 3:00. COME PICK UP YOUR KID AND MAYBE SHE WON´T GET HURT! And when she does get hurt, don´t you dare come to me and yell at me and act like it happened in my classroom or even during the normal school day. BECAUSE IT DIDN´T! Wow, that made me mad on Monday.

Alejandro is, however, extremely behind. He doesn´t know any of the letters. He can´t even identify or write the letter, and he surely doesn´t know the sounds they make. He is going to need A LOT of work. I´m going to make a packet of materials that his mom can use to work with him over break. I need to make one for Alejandra too, but she has come along and does know some of her letters now. She´s doing much better with the identifying and even knows some of the sounds.

Tomorrow is Thursday. I go home in a week! I´m excited to see everyone, and there is definitely things that I will stock up on! This weekend I need to do some Christmas shopping, and hopefully I will be going out dancing.

Friday, December 08, 2006

I really do love my kids ...

This week was a bit exhausting. I felt tired all week, because I didn't get to bed as early as I should have. Monday night, I did not go to bed until midnight, because I was out with some friends at Mango Tango. Tuesday, I was in bed by 11, but I was out again. I met up with BFC and two of her friends that she met in Honduras, the Banana Beach people. She left on Wednesday. A little sad, I must say. She hopes to be back in March though, which is only a few months away. She gave me the email address of a Peace Corps guy that works with Habitat for Humanity here in Ceiba. I emailed him the other day, so we will see if he responds.

It isn't raining right now, but it rained all last night and all day today. I hope it doesn't rain so much tomorrow. Veronique's is opening tomorrow, finally. It's a boutique (dresses, jewelry, perfume, shoes), that Veronica's daughter is opening in the same building that I live in. There's a store front, and from what I've seen, everything is absolutely gorgeous and super cute. The inauguration thing is at eleven. It's a really cute store, so I hope it does well for Lorna. In the evening, I'll probably go over to Expatriates and do some planning and have a few beers. Maybe I'll meet someone new. I need to relax and try to forget about all the kids at school who won't shut up and failed their verb and noun quizzes today (only 4 out of 15 or so passed). I'm going to review on Monday and retest on Wednesday. For the retest, I am going to give them a study sheet, even though all of the things are right in their notebook, and we reviewed everything right before the quiz.

BEGIN RANT

We've been talking about nouns and verbs for three weeks, and we were REVIEWING what they learned last year. I'm not sure what else I can do to help them understand the difference. Half of them didn't even put any effort into taking the quiz, which was part of the problem. The other part was that most of them talked throughout the entire quiz. Excuse me? We do not talk during quizzes. Give me a break and at least shut your mouth during a quiz. These kids are relentless. I'm going to give them a retest, but I'm making everyone who failed to get their test signed by their parent or they get no recess for an entire week. I've been giving zeros for kids who don't do their homework. I have some who haven't done hardly any. 20% of their grade is homework. Most of the homework I check for completion, not for accuracy. It's an easy 20%. I have a feeling that the first quarter, parents will not be so happy with their children's grades. Then, I can show them all the zeros on my grading sheets and see what they say. We send homework sheets home, in Spanish so the parents can read them to make sure the kids do their homework. Some parents really do care and work with their children. But you'd think that the others would at least give a shit. For example, Leana went to public school last year (read: not very good, no English). She went to Holy Trinity for kindergarten, but they couldn't afford it last year, and now she's back for second grade. She doesn't really understand much English, and was doing very poorly at the beginning of the year. Her father asked if I would tutor her, and writes me notes regularly asking questions about the homework and quizzes so that they can help her study. He speaks some English, which of course helps. She did very well on the quiz, only missed one or two points, while the smartest kid in the class just didn't do it and got a 6/12 or something similar. His mom is a teacher too. Oh well, at least I have Leana.

Alejandro, the first grade devil child (son of the secretary) was back today. He couldn't take the Phonics quiz, because he doesn't know the letters. He didn't do the spelling practice worksheet this afternoon. He wrote his name on two of my letter blocks. However, we did play some this afternoon, and I told him we were friends. I need to give him a reason to listen to me, and I think that befriending him is my next plan. He also wrote "I will listen," about 12 times after he wrote on my blocks and I got upset with him. I talked to his mom, but I think she just thinks that I don't "deal well with kids." Who would ever think that it might actually be your OWN kid

Alejandra's mom was there for the birthday party she threw. It was super cute, and the kids had a good time eating cake and pizza. She told me that she had talked to Stephanie and Angie's grandmother, who had said something about me hitting the kids. The girls, cousins, stopped coming because the school had gotten too expensive. So, they'll start another school in January when all the other schools start up. But apparently, Angie said she was afraid she was going to get hit and didn't want to go to school. I assured Alejandra's mom that she had nothing to worry about, but did tell her that Alejandro does hit and kick them. I said that I talk to his mom everyday about it, and while Alejandro does get punished, there is only so much that I can do about that. She also said something about Anthony, so I said that while I do trust him, I have no control over what happens in the classroom when I am not present. She didn't seem too worried about it. I think that if she really thought that I was hitting the kids, that she wouldn't have even said anything about it to me - she would have gone to talk to Veronica or la directora. I guess she just wanted to see what my reaction was.

END RANT

It rained so much today. My block was dry, but the next block towards town was completely flooded. I took some pictures but it's hard to tell. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it when the bus was driving through. It's supposed to rain for a couple of days, but I hope tomorrow it isn't quite so bad. Today was miserable. Three of my first graders went home early today, because their parents came and picked them up after lunch. At least it stopped raining long enough for me to walk home from school.

I didn't do anything today when I got home from school since the weather was so crappy. I took a nap until about six, and then made some dinner (ramen and peanut butter and jelly - my fridge still isn't working very well) and watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, followed by a couple of episodes of the Gilmore Girls. My TV is at the shop getting fixed, so I don't have that this weekend either.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Fridge, Coffeepot, and TV

So, my refrigerator isn´t very cold inside. The freezer is though. The TV was fixed, but stopped working again. Hmm. I don´t mind so much about the TV. It will get fixed again or replaced. I have no doubts. The fridge will get fixed too, hopefully tomorrow. It was like this yesterday, but I thought that maybe the power just went out and it had to cool back down. But, now my cheese smells. Better throw it out. It´s the only really parishable item, so it´s fine. But, they did say that they had a coffee pot for me! So now, I´m just waiting on a coffee pot and a trashcan. And well, the fridge and TV. hahaha. But, this is Honduras. And I´m okay with it. I just don´t want anymore cheese to go bad.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Pictures!

Pictures *with descriptions* at : http://new.photos.yahoo.com/pollitatica/albums

Here are a few:






Things are going pretty well here. The 2nd graders had a quiz today. Everyone got at least 6/10 except for 2 I think. Which, for the first quiz, when they don't really listen - isn't so bad. They have a grammar quiz on Friday on nouns and verbs. We'll see how that one goes. This picture to the right of my 1st graders was from today. Fernando, the kid in the middle, turned 6 today, and his mom brought in pizza and soda and cupcakes for a little birthday party today over lunch. It was cute. The picture above this one is of some of my 2nd graders being silly. The first one was taken off of the balcony area of the 3rd floor in my apartment complex area. Pretty mountain eh?

Monday, December 04, 2006

Los Maestros, Part 2

You may remember that not too long ago, I wrote about a certain teacher, Anthony. I now know a bit more about some of the other teachers, and it isn´t all so pretty.

The 7th grade teacher is named Chanel. She teaches Science, American History, Grammar, and Literature to the 7th graders (the first grade of high school that we have at this school). We hung out a little this weekend, and she is a very cool girl. She´s much younger than I thought, only 19. She´s lived here for six years though with her mom and younger brother. She´s originally from New Orleans, and her family (not sure which side of the family, dad maybe) is from the Islands.

The Bay Islands, for those who don´t know, are three beautiful, Caribbean islands just off the coast of Honduras. There are ferries that go to two of them, which conveniently leave from La Ceiba, where I live. You can also fly into Roatan, the biggest and most developed of the islands. Interestingly enough, there are charter flights directly to and from Milan.


Roatan, the largest of the three islands, has the world´s second largest coral reef, which hugs the shore, providing calm and clear waters which are some of the world´s best beach scuba diving. That said, the islands are also one of the cheapest places in the world to get dive certified.
Anyway, that´s where Chanel is from. Her dad lives and works in the US, but comes down every six weeks (sweet life, right?). He´s some kind of petroleum engineer guy who works on a boat. They have a nice, big house right across from the airport. Chanel is actually going back to the US in February to go to school. Her boyfriend, who she met in the States, moved down here in October to be with her because he was sick of being so far apart. Must be nice to have that option, huh?
On Friday night, there was a parent meeting at school. Afterwards, we went out and got something to eat. Saturday, we went to the salon together and spent 4 hours there getting a manicure and pedicure (which only cost me $7.) To be fair, we only waited for an hour, it just took three hours to do the manicure and pedicure. It wasn´t bad though; it was nice to get pampered. They told me that I should go back every 2 weeks, so I think I will.
I´ve also gotten to know another teacher a little bit, named Seydy. She teaches Ciencias Sociales (in Spanish). She is from Olanchito, which is to the west and a little south. She came to La Ceiba and found a job at this school through her cousin. She lives with her cousins, like 3 of them, I think, only about 3 blocks from me. I think we may hang out sometime in the future. She might be a couple of years older than me, but II think she´s in her mid twenties. She´s worked at the school for 4 years, but considering she probably got her teaching training combined in the 12 years of high school. Maybe she´s older than I think. I´ll have to ask sometime.
The other teachers are all nice to me, but I think that some of them might resent me behind my back, which I guess I can kind of understand. A lot of them have worked here for years, and I think I´m making at least as much as they are. Granted, I have a college degree, and I´m a native English speaker, which when you are switching your school to a bilingual school, is kind of a necessity. Also, I am living in a very nice, furnished apartment that I´m not paying for. I only pay the electric bill. At the same time, I moved how many thousands of miles just to teach in this school. I´m certainly not in it for the money, considering I took like a 75% pay cut. Not to say that I´m not making plenty, because, really I am. I don´t have a ton of disposable income, but I certainly do have some. Living is cheap, and most of what I spend money on will not be my electric bill, groceries, and cell phone cards, it will be all the other stuff I do. Chanel´s mom works at another bilingual school, and apparently, Chanel had heard of me before she even got a job at Holy Trinity, where I teach.
But really, this isn´t that weird for La Ceiba. Mazapan is a really nice, expensive bilingual school in La Ceiba, owned and operated by the Standard Fruit Company. From what I understand, their teachers make way more money, along with getting residency, and their flights paid for and everything. So, yeah. I understand why the other teachers might be a little frustrated, but I don´t really feel bad either.


Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Hangers and other such happenings part

The title of my last entry was ¨Stop Signs, Hangers, and other such happenings.¨ Except that I didn´t talk about the ¨hanger s or other such happenings part.¨ In case anyone was dying to hear about my experience buying hangers, here ya go.

I went to Carrion. Which was a nice thing to see in Honduras. There, of course, were various Carrion stores in Costa Rica, and seeing them here in La Ceiba made me feel a little more at home. I needed hangers. So, I walked in, and found the hangers quickly. Immediately, as anyone would expect, there was a girl attached to my left elbow. The conversation went something like this:

Her: What are you looking for?
(I was clearly standing right in front of the hangers.)
Me: Oh, thanks, but I found what I need.
(I start looking at prices of the 10 pack.)
Her: Oh, well these are cheaper.
(Pulling down the three pack.)
Her: See, these are only 29 lps, and those are 34.
Me: But there are only three of them. I want ten.
Her: Oh, well these are better hangers.
Me: But there are only three of them. I want ten.

(I finally pulled down the ones I wanted, and starting looking around at the blankets some. She, of course, was still following me.)

Her: I´ll take those for you. Are you ready to pay?
Me: Well, I´m still looking around.
Her: Well, let me take them for you.
Me: Really, it´s okay. I think I´m going to look around the whole store a little.
Her: (With a surprised and shocked look on her face,) Oh, well, I need to take those for you. Let me take you up to the cashier.
Me: I´m not ready to pay.
Her: Well, I really need to take you up to the cashier.

I finally gave in and just went. But honestly, are you trying to attract business or kill it? And there was no language barrier here either. This interaction didn´t surprise me in the least, but for all of my state-side readers, this is what you get here. Heaven forbid you want to buy something from two different departments. And it´s nice as if there was a separate cash register in the hanger, blanket, picture frame department. She walked me upfront. I guess they´re worried someone will get through the two armed guards they have standing at the doors checking every receipt (that is stapled to the outside of the bag) as people walk out.


I do look a little dangerous.


As for the other such happenings? School has been fine. Little by little I have been pulling in the second graders. Today, I threatened extra homework. Even gave some out to some of the kids who won´t shut up. And, a parent asked me to tutor. So, I´m going to mention it to several parents. Some of the other kids could definitely benefit too. I charge 30 lempiras for an hour if there is just one kid, and 25 lempiras an hour if there are 3 or more. That´s right folks, if I get 3 kids, I´ll be making 75 lempiras, which is a little less than $4. But, it´ll be for 2 or 3 days a week, and when you make $300/month, an extra $8-$12 a week is welcomed. :)

Friday, November 24, 2006

Stop Signs, Hangers, and other such happenings

Stop signs in La Ceiba are completely optional. They do exist at most street corners, however, they are only stopped at if another car is coming - and even then, some of the cars barely slow down, and just swerve. Better hope that you don't happen to be a pedestrian at that particular intersection, because while they might swerve to miss the car, they probably won't swerve to miss you. But don't worry, they usually honk to warn you that you are in their way. That should give you just about enough time to dive out of the way. There may be a little too much of the "pasa lo que pasa" attitude here in La Ceiba. Apparently, hitting pedestrians is not much of a big deal.
I have almost been hit several times. I don't even live right downtown, which may be some of the problem. In the center, there are a few redlights, which generally are stopped at, thank god. The second or third night I was here, Veronica took me for a ride downtown one evening so that I could get my bearings. We were driving down la Avenida 14 de Julio, and went through an intersection and nearly got sideswiped by a car who didn't stop at their stop sign. We did not have one, but they did. Veronica hit the brakes, he hit the brakes (interestingly enough noone swerved though), and both of our cars stopped about 2 inches from each other. Of course, it was on my side of the car.
The next day, someone (who was completely serious) said something along the lines of, "well if you stick around, maybe you should buy a car." I laughed, and I think I offended her, so I added quickly that I could get anywhere in La Ceiba that I needed by walking, and I could always take the bus or a taxi if I have to, so I don't need car. She started to object that a car would be better than walking or the bus, when I gave her a look and said I would rather take the bus than get behind the wheel of a car with all these crazy drivers around.

So yeah. I'm Expatriates using free wireless, but my computer is going to die soon and my fries are getting cold.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Los maestros, part 1

So, one of my avid readers wants to know more about the other teachers that I work with.

The teacher that I will work with the closest is Anthony. He is 21, and was raised in Texas. I think he was born there too. His dad is from Spain, but grew up in the US, and his mom was born in La Ceiba. I don´t think she is 100% Honduran though. He is teaching computaciĆ³n to grades 1-7, and 1st and 2nd grade math and science. He is a little flaky, and I get the idea that he doesn´t plan much. He thinks that he is on Veronica, la rectoras, good side, but in fact - she told me before I met him that she doesn´t really think he´s that good with the kids. haha. But today was the first day of school, and he seemed to interact with them well enough. He has a Honduran girlfriend who is very jealous. If I´m around (even inside the school), he shushes me when he calls or she calls him. He has been walking me home (all 4 blocks) after school and taking a cab home from there, and he said, and I quote ¨I would be crucified if she found out.¨ hmm. Maybe I´ll just have to make friends with her. Because I´m already counting on him to program my remote control for my TV and a couple of other things.

I don´t know much about the other teachers, but they are all Honduran. The grades that aren´t completely bilingual have 3 hours of English a day, even though I´ve never heard the teacher who teaches them English speak English. She´s very nice though. Since it´s a bilingual school, or well almost so, English is spoken here and there by most of the teachers. At least Espanglish. I haven´t heard all of the teachers speak English though, and I´m not sure that some of them even speak it very well. It doesn´t really matter, though.

I finally met the kindergarten-home ec teacher today. She seems nice enough. She´s older, reminds me of my K teacher, Mrs. Porter. She was very old and retired not long after I had her. The kindergarteners though, are sooooo cute. Love them.

I´ll write more about my own students and the other teachers later.

TACA update

So, I went to the TACA office in the mall to try and figure out what was up with my ticket. I managed to have the girl change it, explained to her the situation, and she sent in a request to El Salvador (that must be the main office) to see if they would change it without charging me. God bless her.

So we´ll see. The only thing that´s a bit of a pain is that I have to come back to the mall tomorrow. But, really. It´s fine. The flight itself is changed at least.

Possibly the most frustrating thing about this all is, that when the girl finally told me yesterday that she couldn´t change it on the phone, I figured it was because I would get a new paper ticket. But no. I did not get a new ticket. Maybe I will tomorrow? Who knows.

I bought a cell phone today too. It´s a little one, it cost me about $25 and I got 100L of minutes included. That´s about $5 and it will last for about 18-20 minutes. crappy rates, huh? But text messages only cost 1L, which is about a nickel.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Some busy kids

So, I wrote my own schedule on Friday. It wasn´t done for me, and I realized that I had to write the 1st and 2nd grade schedules myself, with the help of Anthony, who is teaching math and science in English to the 1st and 2nd graders.

3 hours later, we finished it.

The problem is, these kids take so many classes!! And a lot of different teachers have to teach them, because I, as the 1st grade homeroom teacher who is reponsible for teaching a lot of these, am teaching about 30 periods of English a week and simply does not have enough time.

I am teaching to1st and 2nd grade the following:

Reading, 5 times a week each
Grammar, 3 times each
Phonics, 3 times each
Spelling, 2 times each
Writing, 2 times each
Orientation (like health), 1 time (1st grade only)
Music, 1 time each
Social Studies, 1 time each

Other teachers are teaching the following:

EspaƱol, 5 times
Ciencias Sociales, 3 times
Math, 5 times
Science, 4 times
Gym, 1 time
Drawing, 1 time
Caligraphy, 1 time
Library, 1 time
Ed. Cristiana, 1 time

And they have an assembly every Monday morning and Church every Tuesday morning.

Gosh these kids are busy!
Just an interesting tid bit I would like to share with you all. I will try to get a picture of it at some point.

My bed is on wheels.

I may have already mentioned this, but this means that it moves pretty much whenever I get on my bed, or roll over in my bed, or just sit up. I am going to try and pin it in the corner, as soon I get my freakin suit cases out of the way. But honestly, who puts a bed on wheels? It´s pretty high to begin with, so when I´m kind of jumping to get into bed, it rolls away. There is a headboard, but it´s just propped up against the wall sitting on the ground.

Don´t get me wrong, I love my apartment. I just think it´s funny that my bed is on wheels.
I still need to buy hangers, and my cable is blurry for some reason. But, I´m not paying for it - so I shouldn´t complain.

What´s more, is that my furnished apartment, while it has more than I ever expected, did not come with trashcans. For now, I am simply using grocery bags. Guess I´ll have to buy some.

TACA update. I finally decided that maybe if I press 2 for Spanish, that someone halfway intelligent would be able to help me. Well, I quickly learned from the lady that even if they would decide not to charge me to change my flight, I cannot do it over the phone because I have a paper ticket. Goodness gracious. 15 phone calls later and someone FINALLY tells me that I have to go to a TACA office to fix my flight.

School starts tomorrow. My classroom is all set up, so hopefully things go well. I´m pretty flexible, so I´m sure things will be a little hectic, but fine. The guy teaching math and science doesn´t even have any plans ready or anything. I´m definitely about 17 steps ahead of him at least.

Friday, November 17, 2006

I´m here! Safe and Sound!

My apartment is very nice. Way not third world country style, but that´s okay! I have a microwave, cable TV that I´m not paying for, and an AC unit in the bedroom (but I do pay the electricity). From what I´ve seen around here, it´s gorgeous! I haven´t ventured and explored very far, but this weekend I will.

There are lots of palm trees, and though it´s raining now, it didn´t rain at all yesterday until it got dark. How nice. The weather was even a little chilly today believe it or not. Well, okay. probably not actually chilly, but I was a bit chilly from time to time.

I live in a Barrio called Solares Nuevos. I do not know my way around yet, but it´s near a soccer field of one of the local teams, and everyone says it´s pretty centered and nothing is too far. If I walk down my street a few blocks, I´m downtown. I´m told that I can walk to the mall even, and my school is only about 4 short blocks away.

The school is nice, but they are doing a lot of construction on it right now. I finally figured out my class schedule today, after spending 6 hours there yesterday not really doing anything, but that´s okay. Today, the teachers kind of sat around all morning waiting to find out where our rooms were. When I finally figured that out, I took my stuff in there, but then had to write my own class schedule! that´s right ladies and gentleman, I had to get together with the ciencias sociales teacher, espanol teacher, and the math-science teacher so that I could write my English classes for 1st and 2nd. Then, I had to fit in gym, religion, home ec, caligraphy, health, social studies (in english, which i´m teaching in 1st and 2nd), and music (which i´m also teaching in 1st and 2nd, hahaha). The second grade homeroom teacher is only teaching math and science in 1st and 2nd grade, in English, and then teaching computacion for all the grades 1-6. geez. But at leas the schedule is figured out. It will be an interesting first week to say the least. And besides all that, I need to go back in Sunday morning to decorate my classroom because by the time I finished with the schedule it was already 4pm!

So, Veronica - the woman that works at the school and set this all up - and her mom, who lives a block from me, both have vonage phones. That means that they have US (Boston) phone numbers. So, not only call people call me there for free (if it´s arranged), I can call people there for free too! Since it´s a US number, it´s a US call. Cool, huh? However, the bad thing is that it works through the internet. Tried to call TACA today to fix my freakin plane ticket, and well - the internet wasn´t working, so the phone didn´t work either.

It gets dark here by 5:00. That will take some getting used to. I guess it´s been getting dark that early at home lately, but I think it´s an all year round thing here.

Ok, the ac is blowing right on me and I´m freezing. Plus, I still have to go make myself something to eat.

By the way, another random tidbit of information. My bed is on wheels. So, I roll around particuarly when I get in and out of bed, or sit on the bed, or roll over, or .... I´m going to try and put it up against the wall, so hopefully that will keep it less mobile and more stationary.

Oh, and I´m going to meet Bound for Ceiba and La Gringa tomorrow!! We´re going to dinner somewhere in Sambo Creek. How exciting!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Talked to Marcos tonight. I'll write more about it (and who he is since most of you don't know) tomorrow, but we talked for a half hour. Pretty long conversation. He even said that maybe he'd save money and get a passport and try and make it up to Honduras to visit. (There were a lot of "and"s in that sentence).

I have too much stuff.
Packing sucks.
I'm going to use every pound of my 100 pounds.

I've been watching Gilmore Girls. I only have 8 episodes to go in the 6th season. Maybe I'll finish it tonight. Who needs sleep. And I am packing at the same time, so I'm being productive.

Packing really sucks.

And I realized today that my return flight was magically scheduled on NOVEMBER 21st by the damn TACA phone guy, instead of December 21st. And so I called and they are going to go back and listen to the tape of the convo to see what I said and what he said. So, they'll either decide to change the date for free or make me pay $100. At least I realized tonight and not tomorrow night.Geezus.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Dreams

It's 3:00AM and I'm posty. So I had this dream last night. I meant to write about it this morning, but I forgot. I was going to write about a little earlier tonight, but couldn't remember what the dream was about.I don't remember details, but this is the general gist.

I took someone's baby (the baby of a girl at Red Robin. She brought her in so I could see her and I was holding her a lot last night). So I take this baby (I might have been babysitting it). I continue to walk all across and out of town. (I think I was in Carlisle again, but not sure). It was cold and I was only holding the baby, no stroller or carrier or anything. So, I felt like I was only gone for a couple of hours, but when I called to tell someone that I was finally coming home, It seemed like I was gone much longer. and I didn't call my dad, I called Randy and Shirley. Randy answered and I asked for Shirley and he said something like "I'm not telling you if she's here or not. You just need to get your ass back here." I said something like "I know. I'm coming."

That was it. How strange, right? I don't think I had this dream last night, because I tend not to remember dreams I have at night. I think I had it this morning after I woke up the first time and went back to sleep. Regardless, it was very strange.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

suck it up. pack. and get on the airplane.

So I am getting nervous. I'm nervous about moving and everything, but I'm prepared. I'm going down and have someone to meet me at the airport, a job, and a place to live. More than a lot of people going abroad to teach English can say.

I'm prepared to be lonely at first and not have friends. I'm prepared to have a hard time adjusting to my school schedule. I'm prepared to spend my waking hours thinking about school and what I need to do for school and what my kids need and and and ... I'm prepared to be scared the first few nights I'm there. I'm prepared to be disoriented around town for the first week or so. I'm prepared to get catcalled. I'm prepared to be the center of unwanted attention, because I'm blonde, a gringa, and *oh my god* I speak Spanish. I'm prepared to be really freakin hot. I'm prepared to come home for Christmas and want to go back really bad and not want to go back all at the same time.

But I'm really nervous about teaching. But I shouldn't be. I can't say that I'm completely prepared. But I have the curriculum. I have the books. They tell me what to do. I'm good with kids. I speak Spanish. I have books and lists of all the games that I'll use in class. I have week one (vaguely) planned out for 1st and 2nd grades. Those are the hardest because it's review. They aren't planned out for me. Everything else pretty much is. I have the books and the materials and the ideas. I have the desire. I'm prepared to fall in love with the kids that I teach, even the most difficult ones.

But I'm still scared. It's normal. I was terrified when I moved to San Diego, and my dad was already there. I was scared to go to Costa Rica and have to live with a host family and *gasp* talk in Spanish. I was scared. But I came out with some of the best experiences I have to date. And this will be no different. And well, I can always come home. But I expect to make a new home, there. And I expect that when I finally do have to come home to deal with grad school and undergrad loans and teach for america (if I get accepted) - well, I expect that I will feel the same dread and desire that I felt when I left Costa Rica, but 10 times stronger. I was only there for 4 months and made such a home there. I'll be in Honduras for 5 times that long.

I'm so excited for myself and the experiences I'm going to have. I'm proud of myself for just doing it. It was never a "should I go?" It was a "where should I go to?" I'm proud that I'm confident and independent enough to do what I want to do, what I have dreamed about. Here is when I tell myself "suck it up. pack. and get on the airplane."

Friday, November 03, 2006

Geography Lesson


Since everyone thinks I'm moving to South America, here's a geography lesson.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Two weeks

Gosh, I leave for La Ceiba in two weeks. I can hardly believe it. I should be planning the first week for my 2nd graders, but I'm posting on blogger. hmm ...

Holy moly I'm not looking forward to all the rain. But I'll take rain over snow ANY day. And I'll take hot and humid weather over cold winters any day too. I'll have to keep reminding myself that once I get down there and I'm dying of heat exhaustion and sick of the rain. haha.

Things have been pretty stressful around here. I got my car stolen two Fridays ago in Philly. So well, I am without a car for the next two weeks. Not the end of the world of course. But it's very inconvenient. And I must say that middle class suburbia does not come with good public transportation. Ah, well.

I really need to plan 2nd grade. I planned first grade. Generally at least. Nothing in depth. Goodness I have a lot of work to do. However, I get to La Ceiba on Wednesday Nov 15th and school doesn't start until Monday. So I have time. And well, I'm not exactly going to have crowds of friends waiting at my door. :) I bought Greys Anatomy season 1 and 2 yesterday and I plan on getting a few more TV show box sets online before I go. I need something to keep me busy.

Alright. I need to plan. And go to bed.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Introduction

I don't really write in my blogger, because I write in my livejournal. BUT, you can post pictures on blogger, so thats my plan for now. I may choose to write random updates here though. I leave November 15th, and I am VERY excited, but nervous. The teaching is a little nerve racking, but I know that I'll be fine. I have a curriculum to follow, and books - and it's fine. But ... well, i'm still a bit nervous. And moving to another place is a bit scary too. I dont know anyone, but I have the people at my school. I'm living alone, but they assure me that it's safe and that they wouldn't pick a place for me to live that would be unsafe. And I'll make friends. I'm an independent young woman (too independent my friends may say), and am fluent in Spanish ... and love new places, etc. I'm not scared as in "Oh my god, i might not go," just the normal "blah blah blah i'm a little nervous because i'm moving far far away." But well, it'll be great. And the school is PAYING to send me home for christmas, so it'll give me a little test run, I'll come home - and then go back for a year or so. So yes. I'm very excited. And a tad overwhelmed.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006