Friday, February 16, 2007

Saul (Sa-ool)

I'm not going to say too much about this, but it is definitely something going on in my life right now, and I'm sure all of my wonderful readers are anxious to know.

Last week, when the missionaries were at the school, this guy came from Tegucigalpa to help out with the church and the music. I had no idea who he was, but I noticed him last week, because he's a cute guy. Anyway, he came on Thursday I think, but finally on Sunday after church I managed to introduce myself and we started talking a good bit. He teaches music at Saint Mary's Episcopal School in Tegucigalpa and is the worship leader in the church. He is in a Christian rock band too. He's a very passionate person about everything he does and believes in, and I really appreciate that about him. He has a lot going for him and has things in life he wants to accomplish. He's even taking some classes at seminary (but he doesn't want to be a priest.) I admire passionate people, and even though I never thought I would fall for someone like him, every minute I talk to him, he seems like the more perfect guy.

But well, to make a long story short - I fell hard, really quickly. He left last Saturday, and we decided to try and make it work between us. Teguc is about an 8 hour away bus ride away, but it's in the same country! (Big bonus if you know me well enough to know what I'm talking about). He told me today that he was going to come visit me the first weekend in March, only two weeks away!

And save your breath of the typical warnings, cross cultural differences, and what not - because I know it all. However, he is wonderful and well ... there are 2 Episcopal schools in Tegucigalpa. I thought about moving somewhere else teach in a different area (a fleeting thought before last week, but still a thought). It's still VERY new, but love conquers all. :)

Don't worry Daddy. I'll come home eventually. I promise.

The Episcopal Church

This is a short little blurb until I have time to sit down and actually think about what I want to write about the Episcopal Church, but I just wanted to say that I never thought I would like attending a church that was anything like the Catholic church. The Episcopal church is different in a lot of ways, but they use a common book of prayer, and have a lot of similarities with the Catholic church. I actually really like it. It's not super traditional, and we do sing some more contemporary songs, but even so - I like all of the prayers and Psalms that we do every Sunday. I like that communion is every Sunday, and I like that you just have to be baptized to take part. I like how small my church is, and how they are so welcoming of new comers.

I like it.

The Missionaries

The missionaries from an Episcopal church in Dallas were here last week, almost 40 of them. They came in three different teams: medical, construction, and educational. Each morning from 9-11, they taught in the classrooms. The theme is covenants, or promises. Monday we talked about Noah and the ark, and Tuesday we talked about Abraham, we also talked about David, Jesus, and Moses. The man in our classroom was named Ed, and the kids called him Abuelo Eduardo (Grandpa Ed). They loved him. He's great, and he brought me glitter, tape (masking tape (!), poster tape, and scotch tape), three staplers, about 300 crayons, and glue. Thank goodness. I've been needing masking tape for about as long as I can remember! The seventh graders with some of the little ones are putting on a Noah's Ark play on Friday. One of the people that came with the missions team wrote it. The play was so cute. The seventh graders did a great job, and the little kids were the animals and wore animal masks. Hilarious. It was hot as all get out in the auditorium (just remodeled this year and no money for the AC they plan to put in eventually), but we survived, as we always do. Afterwards, we gave out best student awards. Then, there was a church service and BBQ goodbye dinner for the missions teams and I ate the best BBQ porkchop I've ever had in my life.

The medical team came and checked out all the kiddies in the school, giving them medicine, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, lotion, soap, and vitamins among other things. How wonderful! It's hard to believe the generosity of these people. They are all very happy to be here; it's great. There is also an Episcopal clinic that our church has in Barrio Suyapa, which is a pretty poor area. They are giving lots of free medical care there to the children and their families. Sometimes I wish I had someone else here in the school doing the same thing I am so that I could share all of these experiences with that I personally have, but this will have to do.

The construction team worked on the brand new upstairs, where 7th grade is currently, and all of high school will go as they add on grades each year. They tore down a wall, built two new walls, painted, and finished the bathrooms up there. How nice.

The week was crazy and not a whole lot got done. This week was equally as crazy, really, with Valentine's Day and Miss Fermina coming back, which is a whole other ranting post in itself. Valentine's Day, on the other hand, was a bunch of fun. There was an assembly where each group did something. Most of the grades danced not very correographed dances, and I think a couple of kids sang. My first graders, though, did a wonderful VALENTINES DAY poem that was written by yours truly. Each one said a line, they all remembered everything and they spoke into the microphone and everyone clapped and it was wonderful. The poem is as follows. I have it memorized by now, since I repeated it so many times to them:

This is our first grade Valentine to all of you.

V is for very pretty.
A is for awesome.
L is for lovely.
E is for excellent.
N is for nice.
T is for talented.
I is for interesting.
N is for neat.
E is for extraordinary.
S is for sweet.
D is for daring.
A is for amazing.
Y is for you!

Happy Valentine's Day!


Big words for first graders, huh? I wish I would have recorded it or something. I did get a picture outside with all of them and their letters, but it didn't come out great. And I can't put any pictures up, because yahoo photos is being dumb.
Speaking of 1st graders, I'm up to 14. I got two new students this week. And guess what? They don't know their letters either. Not so easy teaching 7 kids who don't know their letters, 2 who can read well, and 5 who are on their way to reading shortly. But I'm super woman and can do anything.

About the gym ... I got weighed and stuff today. I lost 5 pounds in the past two and a half weeks. And about 1.5% body fat, according to their little hand held device. Not too shabby considering that this week I ate about 3 pieces of cake and had pizza 2 times. And last week, I only made it to the gym once. I've jumped back on the wagon some this week, gym wise though. Tomorrow will be my fourth trip. I worked my butt off today.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

SO, at the beginning of January I wasn´t all that serious about everything. Well, I have since joined a gym down here in Honduras, and let me tell you - my trainer (free of charge, it´s included in the $25-month membership) is working my ass off. I go to the gym 5 days a week, do at least an hour of cardio each time, and on top of that, we usually do weights/abs/etc. I´m generally at the gym for 2 hours at a time. Today, I was there for an hour and just did cardio and felt like a slacker.

As for the diet part, I haven´t been all that concerned with it - partly because its hard to get super healthy things down here, and partly because what you can get is generally out of my price rang on my $300/month salary. I can afford the gym, but not all the good healthy stuff too. I dont eat badly though, and have been eating more corn tortillas than flour, since they´re way healthier. I have almost completely cut out the fried pasteles and the regular coke. When I want soda, I buy Coca light, which is more expensive, because you have to get it in a plastic bottle and not in a glass bottle, but it´s still cheaper than it is in the States. I joined the gym about 3 weeks ago I think, and he didn´t weigh me and start my computer model stuff until this past week, but my weight was 4 pounds down from Xmas and he did my body fat with a hand held thing that doesn´t seem all that accurate, but I´ll go with it. It said a high number. haha. He´s going to redo it every 2 weeks.

Regardless, I have been getting compliments that I am slimming down, which is cool. I can tell a little with how my clothes fit me differently. I´m definitely gaining muscle which is a good thing. The trainer is a little gung ho and I had to tell him that I was comfortable doing an hour and a half of cardio 5 days a week to burn 1000 calories each time. Does that seem a little high to anyone else?Anyway, there´s my update. Things are going well. MY life now consists of teaching, tutoring, gym. And I have some friends too. But, I dont mind. There are a lot of cute guys at the gym. And a lot of cute girls who don´t really do very much while they are there. In the meantime, I´m sweating like crazy. Oh well.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

a new teacher!

1A1 new teacher came today, named Cynthia to take Mr. Anthony´s place and teach math and science for 1st and 2nd grade and computer. She actually went to La Santisima Trinidad, and she speaks English pretty well. No teaching experience, but hopefully she works out. I thought she might kill the 2nd graders today. They were behaving worse than normal. And I must say, as awful as this sounds, it was kind of nice seeing that they actually behave better for me than they do for someone else. Poor woman though, she had no idea what to do to control the chaos. And I will say, they were chaotic. I was trying to have Reading class with my first graders and could barely hear them since the 2nd graders were screaming so loud next door and running around outside.

I told her it would get better. I hope she sticks around long enough to see that happen.