i can finally send text messages

I got a brand new phone about a week and a half ago. it is very nice compared to the old one which looked like a toy phone and could only fit 6 letters on the screen at one time. But for some reason it would not send text messages. I bought the new one from IST who put me into their cell phone monthly plan as opposed to the prepaid one i had been using. So I talked to at least three different people in the office, who all tried to get ahold of the cell phone company in different ways to get it fixed, but to no avail. Finally yesterday I went myself to the cell phone store and asked the guy about it. He pushed a few buttons on the phone and voila! Now I can send texts!! Yay. The school plan allows us 50 or 100 free texts a month, and I think I probably used all of them yesterday cause i was so excited!


can you guess which one is the old one and which is the new one?!

how do YOU spend friday night?

just got paid, friday night, party hoppin', feelin' right

well, we got the friday night and the feelin' right part... forget the other two.
it started out as any ordinary friday: granitas after school with all the other NAT's, ride in the back of a truck to the bottom of the hill, 14lemp hot dog from the stand at the corner, taxi to the mall...... but then........ we finally broke down and made the big purchase we've been dreaming about for so long......... A MICROWAVE!!! HEYYO! And isn't she a beauty?!

Welcome to Kinder C

okay guys I'm 2-for-2 on the Monday update thing. We'll see how well I keep this up.

School last week was crazy, with Monday cancelled because of the strike, this is how the week went: Tuesday: half day, Wednesday: full day, Thursday: half day, Friday: full day. And because it was the first week, we hadn't started with any actual lessons, but were instead teaching the kids how to line up in a straight line, how to flush the toilet, how to raise their hands, how to use glue without making a huge mess etc. But if you know me at all, you know I need more structure than that. I have a hard time when I don't have specific things I'm supposed to be teaching. Plus, the kid I mentioned in the last post has turned out to be quite a handful indeed. So all that said, last week was not the greatest.

The weekend was fun, though! Bertha, who lives upstairs from us took me and my roommates grocery shopping on Saturday, which is always fun (except when you check out and see that you are spending 1,900L!!) Then I stayed home in the afternoon getting some work done and catching up on some phone calls. Then Anna, Corrie and I went out to La Creperia for dinner, a cute little crepe cafe, which was delicious as usual. Sunday, I went to church downtown and then met up with the roomies and Bertha for lunch before coming back home to a somewhat productive, very rainy afternoon.

Today was so much better as far as school goes! We were having actual classes and the kids had real work to do, which was great. Plus, they had Bible, Music and Library today which meant that I finally got some free time during the day... yay!

Ok, I promised pictures, so let me give you a few of the kiddos...

first day of school... false

so one of my goals this school year is to update this thing at least once a week (i'm trying out mondays for now), so that you all can keep up with the fun and exciting things that are going on down here. one of my other goals, however, is to be a better teacher and more organized, so if the first goal conflicts with the second, please have some grace and know that it is only for the sake of my students that i forsake this blog updating thing.

that being said, let me give you a rundown of what has happened so far.
Sat 16th: arrived in Tegucigalpa, met new roommate, Corrie, and had dinner with all of the new North American teachers
Sunday: church downtown and lunch at a school administrator's house
Monday-Thursday: workshops and classroom preparation
Friday: Open House - got to meet the parents of 13 of my 20 new students
Saturday: started unpacking my suitcases (yes, one week later)
Sunday: church, lunch at the mall with the roommates and Bertha
Today:FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.... but it was cancelled, due to a strike in the city. Ahh the life of living in the capital city of a third world country! So in lieu of school we went to campus for a few hours to finish up some last minute details in the classroom. And the best part, we finally got internet in our house. Sadly the girl with the router has not arrived yet, so the 4 of us are taking turns plugging our computers into the modem to use it. But hey it's way better than nothing.

Tomorrow will be the real first day of school. I have 20 students this year as opposed to 24 that I had last year. I also have one year of experience under my belt which I'm looking forward to employing. Please pray for me though. I have gotten several warnings about one specific student in my class who has been known to be a troublemaker in the past. So hopefully I will be able to start the year off right and we can work together and be on the same page this year.

Ok, i have to go finish up my bulletin board that I'm working on and then get to bed. Big day tomorrow. I promise the next post will have pictures.

long time...

dustin' off the old blogger. been a long time since i wrote on here. guess school just got so busy i kinda forgot about this thing. plus, i didn't know anyone read it so i felt like i was wasting my time. now that i know some people are checking, maybe i'll be better at keeping it updated. we'll see. summer is under way. cleaning the sisters' apartment and catching some rays.

one foggy morning

Walked out the door to go to school this morning. "Whoa, it's foggy," i mentioned to my roommate as if she couldn't tell. It wasn't incredibly foggy, it was just the first time it had been foggy that I remember since being here in Tegus. Now, being from Arroyo Grande, CA... i know fog. People from Colorado know snow,people from Seattle know rain, but if there is one type of weather I'd say I'm fairly familiar with, it's fog. I remember chilly mornings at CCS, I hardly can think of one that began with sunshine. I remember fog so thick you couldn't see more than 7 feet in front of you. I remember Jared accidentally getting off the freeway because the fog was so dense he didn't notice the road turned. Fog can be a nuisance, but you live with it. Oh, and keep in mind, the fog this morning was nothing compared to these experiences.

So, I get to school and my assistant comes into the classroom. "I've never seen it like this before!" she says. "The fog?" I ask. "Yeah, this is crazy. I thought school would be cancelled... I couldn't even find the school!" I thought to myself, if this weather warrants a cancelling of school, I would have finished High School having attended maybe once a week, if that.

......another example of the difference between home and here.......

oh, and then this afternoon for lunch I was eating apples and peanut butter. my students thought that was the craziest/nastiest thing ever. they all gathered around my desk to watch. Oh the things that so deeply affect a five-year-old!

after the break

So I went home for Christmas. It was nice, busy though. And here I am, back in Tegus, dealing with a lot of different feelings. I can't even put most of them into words, and when I tried, I just started crying... hmm. I have a feeling i'm just going to bury them, cause it's easier than dealing with them. I've never been very good at talking about my feelings, so why should I start now, right? God, give me wisdom. Help me in my weakness.