With a little help from my friends

I just had a long skype videochat with Doron. Since I've been on the road and was busy with school before that, its been awhile since I've had a good talk with a good friend.

This is just a quick blogpost informing you all that I have been reminded how great it is to know I have great friends back in the States. Just hearing someone say that I'm a good friend to them is like nutrients for the soul. It'll keep me going and in a great mood for a long time.

I'm amazed, yet not surprised, that even though we are almost two years out of college, the connection is still there. Not just with Doron, but with everyone from college that I care about. Its a truly great thing. When I haven't talked to my good friends in awhile, I feel that something is missing, but I can't tell what it is. Then I talk to one, some, or all of my best friends, and the emptiness goes away. My best friends understand me like no one else does. I don't know how this comes to be, but its true. I can always be myself, always be comfortable and relaxed, and always have fun with my friends. In being apart from them for so long, I've learned that you can't have that with everyone. We are all so fortunate to have each other in our lives.

We've all said it before, and I'll say it again: Without good friends, life would truly be meaningless.

Thats all! :)

With love to: Brigette, Shawna, Megan, Willa, Doron, Nick, Laura, Juliana, Sally, Elisabeth, Julien, Jon, Alec, Spencer, and Sam.

I'm back!

Alright friends. I realize I've neglected the blog. Big time. But I'm back home in Honduras, so fresh and so clean, and ready to write.

Winter Break
My little sister Hannah and my step sister Alex came down to visit. We started our trip in Copan Ruinas. Saw the ruins again. Good fun. Honestly those ruins just don't compare to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I've been spoiled. Talked to some guy from Norway while I was in Guatemala, who now lives in Cambodia (follow that?) and he said that Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu are the coolest ruins he has ever seen. Guess I'll have to get to Peru soon.

Next we headed to the middle of nowhere Guatemala. Shuttle from Copan to El Rancho. Hopped on a shuttle from El Rancho to Coban. Took a bus from Coban to Semuc Champey. It took a long time. A very long time. 2 days. 2 hours or more of dirt roads. lots of guatemalan type bus situations. 26 people in a 12 person van. a pig shat on my foot and squealed. good times all around.

Semuc Champey was the most stunningly beautiful place I've ever been. These pristine emerald colored pools were magnificent - but that's an understatement. See the facebook album for pictures. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187271&l=3a5e2&id=6703396

Here is one of many:


So, we spent 3 days swimming in these beautiful pools, in the Guatemalan forest, in the middle of nowhere. Oh! It was delightful.

Our other adventure in Semuc Champey was splunking in caves! The 5 of us, me, Hannah, Alex, Sarah (my housemate), and Brett (housemate's friend), got a local guide who gave us wax candles and led us into the eerie caves. We lit the candles so we could see where we were going and had to hold them up high while we were swimming through water in the caves. We walked, climbed, swam, and crawled. We scaled a waterfall inside the caves on a rope. I dodged bats flying all around. Got brave and jumped off a high ledge in the cave into the deep black depths of a pool below. Simply amazing adventure. Wish I had had a waterproof camera.

One night, in our hostel in Semuc, a HUGE tarantula crawled into our room. It wasn't that much of a challenge for the spider since the room had lots of open spaces to the outside. Anyway, how cool is that!? A wild tarantula just came into our room. Here's a pic:

Yes, that is a Guatemalan man who worked at our hostel getting the tarantula out of our room for us. Yes, we were THOSE people. Seems the last time I was talking about tarantulas I was eating one in Cambodia.

Next went to colonial Antigua, Guatemala. Been there, done that. Had a nice dinner.

Then went on our way to Nicaragua. Had to pass through El Salvador. The border officials were not too stoked that Sarah and I had expired visas, which we had tampered with. Paid a fine. Got the hell out of that country. Granada, Nicaragua was our stop. It was cool, not as pretty as Antigua. Spent New Year's there. Partied in a swanky club in my backpacker clothes - cargo shorts and a tank top. Had to leave a day early so as not to be hassled by border officials on the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Said goodbye to the sisters, and made sure they had transport to the airport for the next day.

Sarah and I got to Costa Rica no problem. Spent 4 lazy days in a beach town. The water was salty and so was my hair. Got some vitamin D from the big bright sun. It was delicious for my skin. I got sunburned right under my boobs though. I hate it when that happens.

Spent 2 days in buses getting from Costa Rica back home to Honduras. See map above for reference.

Good times.

Anyone in the mood for a quickie?

School is great but its getting harder and harder as I deal with more nuances of the culture. Today I was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to tell an abusive father that I am having disciplinary problems with his daughter. I almost got in an argument today with the principal about some of the Honduran teachers because they favor some kids over others, and my principal thinks that's ok. I told a parent during parent-teacher conferences that his daughter has been cheating and copying on tests and homework and he just laughed...I was like, um, no, you are supposed to be mad. (Obviously, I didn't say that). These are all just differences between my culture and theirs, and the situations just keep on coming. So, its a lot to deal with. Being totally culturally immersed in a culture that's different from my own isn't all fun and games like I thought it would be. Every minute of my life is a learning experience though, so I better as fuck be learning a lot from this. Its definitely a test in patience and acceptance. I gotta tell you, I'm learning I have a lot of room for improvement in those two areas. Nevertheless, my Spanish is coming along, I am still totally in love with my students and have a blast with them, and Honduras just qualified for the next round for the World Cup, so life is good.

from the mind of an 8th grader

I asked my 8th graders to write a story using past tense verbs. Here is a great one:

Godzy
Godzy was a little gecko. He was a very little gecko. One day he found...A RADIOACTIVE GECKO TREAT! He ate it and thought it was delicious. But he felt some what weird. He didn't care and went home.

That night his claws started growing. They were bigger than a cat. When he woke up he said "Wow! I'm bigger!" Then he took sun and then took a bath. In a RADIOACTIVE WASTE BARREL! After that he fainted. When he woke up, he saw trees beneath him. "Maybe they are bushes," he told himself. Then he found a city and because they shoot him he got mad and destroyed accidentally.

That's how Godzy became Godzilla!

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This boy has very good English, but I left in all the grammatical errors so you could read it in its original form. He reads a lot of English books, so he has surpassed his classmates in English ability. I loved this story and wanted to share it with you guys.