Thursday June 10, 2010

It is the last day of real school because tomorrow is a half-day full of different activities. In reality today really isn’t even a real day. Grades were due today so there is no more teaching or testing. All I have for my students is a small presentation on the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and a survey to fill out, nothing too exciting. Tomorrow the students are going to get to watch the World Cup. As I write this in the cafeteria they are installing an antenna for this purpose. I don’t even know if an actual game is going to be on, but supposedly we are watching Mexico vs. South Africa. It must be a delayed recording of the game that is being shown at 8 am because I think the actual game is in the middle of the night Mountain Time. Either way it should be fun.

After the game (10 am) my Nivalacion kids are throwing me a going away party—two parties in two weeks from my Nivalaicion class. It should be a lot of fun as well. I bought two big bags of candy and a pencil for each student. I’ll make sure to get some video of this.

Speaking of video, I have made a few different videos that I have been unable to post on the blog because they would take too long to upload. Those will probably be posted once I get back to the United States and will probably be here on my blog under one entry as well as on my personal website. So look for those come the end of June.

The kids go home tomorrow at 12. I will probably clean up my room a little bit and eventually make my way back up to Villa Verde. After this I am embarking on my end of the year vacation.

When I first got down here and mentioned this to the other teachers, the possibility of taking a big trip at the end of the school year, I got a positive response from everyone. However, as time went on people began to drop like flies and at this point it is only going to be Rachel and I. We have been slowly planning the trip over the last couple of weeks and it is going to look something like this:

Friday after school we are going to head to Santa Rosa, which is about a little over an hour away from Gracias. We are staying there for a night and then heading up to Copan early Saturday morning. We need to be in Copan by noon so that we can catch a bus that will take us out of Honduras and into Guatemala. We will be heading up to the town of Antigua for about 6 days (we will be taking a few trips to other places around Antigua). The plan was to hike a volcano, which is near Antigua, but if you have been following the news at all that volcano is (was) erupting and tourists aren’t allowed near it (for unfortunate but obvious reasons). Antigua is quite the place though so there will be much to do.

After spending some time in Guatemala we are going to head back to Honduras on the 18th and make our way to San Pedo. We will spend the night in San Pedro and on the 19th head to Cieba (which is right on the Caribbean) where we will catch the 3 o’clock ferry to Roatan, the tropical islands off the coast of Honduras and the most touristy visited place in all of Honduras. We will be in Roatan for the 19th, 20th, and 21st and on the morning of the 22nd we will head back to Gracias.

The rest of my itinerary in Honduras looks like this:

We arrive (hopefully) back in Gracias on the 22nd and relax. On the 23rd we pack and visit with everyone in Villa Verde. On the 24th we will head back towards San Pedro and on the morning of the 25th we will be hopping on a plane bound for DTW, where we are supposed to land at 11:15 AM on June 25.

January 10 – June 25, 2010. That is my time in Honduras and it has been awesome. This will probably be my last entry while I am in Honduras because I will probably be too busy once I am back after the vacation. Plus, you know how long it took be to get something posted about Semana Santa.

So, to all of you who have kept in touch with me through this blog while I have been down here, thanks so much. I hope you had a few laughs and enjoyed reading about my experience. I will see many of you while I am home but for those of you who I might not see look for a link to my new blog starting the middle of August—Teach Spain.

Take care!

As usual, it’s been a week since my last post. Update time.

So we did not have school this past Monday. Honduras was pounded with rain and the government closed all schools across the country because of flooding. That was a nice surprise. I found that out right before I went to bed on Sunday night. I ended up going to town on Monday and hung out at Guancascos and got my haircut too. It was a nice and relaxing day. I also had the opportunity to work on my TEFL class all day which I FINISHED! I just need to post two comments and I will be done.

School was usual Tuesday through Thursday. Things are wrapping up so it’s been pretty low key. I am giving my last set of tests to my history classes on either Monday or Tuesday (depending on grade) and final grades are due Wednesday with Friday being a half day and the end. It’s hard to believe I’ve been down here for almost 5 months. I feel like I just landed in San Pedro and Mr. Rodrigo and Mr. Bran were standing in the terminal with “Tad VandenBrink” written on a piece of paper. But here I am, 5 months later with a little more teaching experience and memories to last a lifetime.

So on Friday my kids decided to throw me and the other teacher (Mrs. Lopez) a birthday party. My birthday is today and Mrs. Lopez’s was on the first. My students blew me away. They not only decorated the classroom and wouldn’t let me or Mrs. Lopez in to see it until the party, but they brought food (pizza, chips and cake) and even brought in a piñata. It was incredible. Check out my new Picasa album for pictures from the party.

After the party on Friday Rachel, Laura Beth and I left school early to take a bus to La Union. We were going to visit the other school there and I was also going to hang out with my friends who are doing the microfinance company. We took the 12:30 bus to La Union and it was a bumpy and curvy ride through the mountains. It was some beautiful scenery though. We arrived in La Union a little before 4 and ran into Renske and Laura (the European teachers whom I have talked about before) walking home from school. We ended up hanging out with them for a bit and eventually connected with Jake (another teacher and guy who taken on a leadership role in my school and who actually hired me back in December) and my friends. We had dinner at a family that everyone in La Union has gotten to know pretty well. They own a small convenient store in town where most of my friends do their shopping. They grilled us pork and steak for and it was delicious and it was a lot of fun.

I really was looking forward to seeing my friends in action with their microfinance company. I had my opportunity early on Saturday morning. I got up at 7 with Pat and Mike and walked about 30 minutes outside of town to the La Union coffee growers cooperative. Here there is a giant warehouse where Mike and Pat were storing recently purchased fertilizer. The day before they had started to hand it out as loans to approved farmers (farmers had to go through an approval process which the guys have set up. Basically the cooperative is made up of farmers from about 15-20 towns around La Union. They guys have organized a local elected boards of directors for each town who look at the applications of each farmer and help Mike and Pat decide if the particular farmer is responsible enough to take the loan, use it well, and pay it back) who had requested “x” amount (usually only a bag or two of fertilizer). They continued this process on Saturday morning and I got to watch them interact with about a half-dozen farmers. I have talked some about what they are doing, but to actually go to La Union and see them do what they do was awesome. The guys are now starting to look into the possibility of buying some land and building a “model” farm that they could use as an example for the area farmers and also a place to hold meetings. They would also use it as an investment to grow and sell the coffee.

After some time things began to slow down so we decided to walk back into town to get lunch. We stopped at a comedor (restaurant) and had a nice tipico (beef, rice, beans and tortillas). After lunch I decided that I wanted to head back to town to try and connect with the girls. They had done some hiking while I went down with Mike and Pat and had plans to go to a pool. However that ended up not happening and I ended up playing volleyball with Jake, a couple of his students, and a couple of the local guys. We won 3 straight games, even though my volleyball skills are far from impressive. It was a lot of fun though. After volleyball all of us (including three current U of M students who are interning for my buddies this summer) went out to dinner. One of the intern’s birthdays was this past week as well so it was a birthday dinner for the two of us. After dinner we ended up going back to Renske and Laura’s place where they had made a birthday cake for me. It was delicious. Overall it was a pretty awesome night of hanging out. The only downfall was that my buddy Mike had gotten a nasty stomach bug during the afternoon and had actually come home throwing up and ended up not coming out to dinner or to the girls for cake with us.

We left La Union this morning, on the only bus to Gracias on Sunday, at 5 AM. We arrived in Gracias at 8 and grabbed some breakfast at Guancascos before heading up the mountain. I took about a two-hour nap when I got home and have just been hanging out since. A pretty relaxing birthday, and a birthday weekend I’ll never forget.

Anyway, the last week of school has arrived. I am actually going to be taking a vacation into Guatemala and out to Roatan after school, so I will be sure to write at least one more time before that starts Friday afternoon. But that may be my last post in Honduras—I could be writing my final posts talking about my vacation state side. June 25 is rapidly approaching but I still have some incredible adventures ahead of me.

I hope all is well in the State. Take care!

Written Friday, May 28 2010

Sorry for the delay. No excuses other then its been raining and that has made me really lazy.

Last Sunday was a good day. I had gone to town early because my school’s girl’s soccer team was playing the other bilingual schools team early in the morning. Rachel, LB and I made our way to town at 10 to watch the game. Now there are no referees that you hire to come and referee these games, it is usually a parent or someone who happens to be there. The first half ended up being refereed by a student of the other bilingual school. Therefore, it only made sense for the second half to be refereed by someone affiliated with our school. The whistle was handed to our principal at halftime and before I knew it he walked over and handed it to me. The girls went crazy and started chanting my name, so I had no other option—I refereed the second half. I would like to think this gave the girls motivation because they ended up breaking a 0-0 tie by scoring two quick goals two begin the second half, but I’ll give our coach Mr. Bran the credit. The girls went on to win 3-0 and I feel like I refereed a pretty good game.

After the game Rachel and I went into town to grab lunch at Guancascos and I used the Internet to work on my TEFL class. At 2 we made our way to another field where we watched the first half of our 3rd and 4th graders play. It ended raining pretty hard so we went back home but the boys were down 1-4 at halftime (they ended up coming back and only lost 5-6).

The rest of the day we just hung out and relaxed.

This week went by very quickly, and I think the next two weeks will be the same way. Things are wrapping up. I have officially planned out the rest of the year for my classes and it is hard to believe it is almost June (let alone my 24th birthday…). I just felt like I arrived here in Honduras. Anyway, more update later!

Written Sunday, May 30 2010



My back hurts, my legs hurt, my knees hurt, shoot, my entire body hurts. But I did it. In just under 10 hours Rachel and I, and the father of the family I live with, made it up and down Celaque. At just over 9,300 feet it is the tallest mountain in Honduras and was one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done.

Rachel and I had decided midweek that we wanted to do this on Saturday (yesterday). And although the weather forecast looked unfavorable with a chance of thunderstorms we figured it would be our last opportunity to do it. So, at 5 AM yesterday morning we started our trek up the mountain.

Going up was difficult. In order to reach the highest point we had to go up and down what I counted to be at least 3 other mountains. The number of switchbacks we went up were numberless and the terrain was less that favorable. We have been getting pounded with rain here in Honduras over the last week and the trail was wet and muddy. As we went up we had a few peaks of sunshine, but it was only teasing us because our downhill trek after reaching the top would be miserable.

After about 4 hours we reached Camp Naranjo. This is the last camp and stop before you take the trail to the top of the mountain. Don Luis (our guide) said it was about 2 hours to the top from this point but it only ended up taking us about an hour and a half. The trail from Camp Naranjo to the top was beautiful. Large trees covered in Spanish moss surrounded us. Add the fact that we were in a cloud forest so there was fog all around us as made it seem like we were in a dream. However, getting to the top was rather anticlimactic. We made it, and there was a nice sign welcoming us along with a Honduras flag. But being in the middle of a cloud forest meant that we couldn’t see anything (no spectacular view of the mountains) because it was all white. However, we did hear the wind blowing across the mountain and it sounded really powerful. We had made it to the top in 5 and a half hours and after taking a few pictures and resting we began our descent.

By the time we had reached Camp Naranjo again it started to rain. This was going to make the hike down even more difficult. Don Luis said going to the top would be “easy” but coming down would be more dangerous. Dangerous was right. Rachel and I were slipping and falling constantly, and even our experienced guide slipped a few times. With the pouring rain I began to count the hours until I could hop in a hot shower and lay in bed the rest of the day. After being at the highest point in Honduras 4 and a half hours earlier I finally marched into the Comedor with achy knees and feet. I sat down for a few minutes before taking a shower and going to bed for 2 hours. What a trip.

All in all it was difficult and even miserable at times. But we did it, and have one heck of a story to tell about our trip up and down Celaque.

Anyway, I am going to let my body continue to recover as I sit around all day today and work on my TEFL class and other schoolwork. I hope all is well and in a week from today I will be 24! Yikes… my mid twenties…

Saturday May 21, 2010

So it was an up and down week. First the up part.

I had the students (Nivalacion) evaluate me and in that evaluation I asked them to write something they would like to learn in English. Many of them (including some of the girls) wrote that they wanted to learn vocabulary related to soccer. I decided to do this and gave them some basic soccer vocabulary at the end of last week. On Monday I assigned them a project in which they had to construct their own soccer stadium out of anything they wanted and then label the parts (positions and parts of the field). The projects were due yesterday and I was amazed at some of my students work. The students really liked it as well—many of them commented that it was a really cool way to learn the vocabulary. That always makes you feel good as a teacher. You can see all of the stadiums in my Picasa albums.

On the other hand there were a few downers. My seventh grade class has been a little rough the last couple of weeks. It is not only my class, but it is with all of the teachers and their classes as well. There are 28 of them and it is a relatively small classroom, therefore they are all sitting really close to each other, which allows them to get distracted rather easily. Add this with their age and it is almost a perfect storm for chaos on a regular basis. A few weeks back I caught two girls cheating (see May 9 post) and I have had problems with students copying homework, and making it obvious, as in doing it in class or in front of another teacher during her class. Well, I had another new one this week. Two actually.
Take One:
Thursday I was checking their homework and came across one of my student’s assignments. It was a boy student’s assignment and the handwriting was definitely not a boy’s. I looked closer and he had written his name in the left hand corner but in the right hand corner there was a whiteout spot and clearly through the whiteout you could read the girl student’s name whose work it actually was. This may be partly my fault, but sometimes my students do their homework in their history notebook and they don’t want to rip it out—they want to keep it with their notes to study. This particular girl student whose name was “hidden” behind the whiteout had asked if I could just check her homework in her notebook the day the homework was due so she didn’t have to rip it out. I did this and didn’t think anything of it because I had done it before. On Thursday while I was checking the homework I realized what was going on and I went and talked to this girl student (the boy student was absent that day). I was clever and first asked her to go get her history homework that I had checked for her. She said she had left her history notebook at home because we don’t have history on Thursday. I said fair enough, and then I took out her homework with the boys name and asked her if it was hers. She said yes. I then asked why the boy’s name was on it with her name “hidden” by whiteout. She said she didn’t know why, but said admitted that she had given her homework to this particular boy student so that he could copy it. At least she was honest. The boy though was the one that blew my mind. Instead of re-writing in his own handwriting, which would have been harder to pick up, he just whiteouted her name and put his…
Take Two:
Yesterday I was hanging out with Mrs. Lopez and my Nivalcion class after lunch—it was my off period and the kids were watching The Pursuit of Happiness. My principal, Mr. Calderon, came and asked for me and went on to tell me that he had talked to the girl student about the above situation and she had given him more information about some cheating going on in seventh grade. Evidently there was another boy student who had done the same thing. This boy student had just turned in his homework late and I hadn’t checked it yet. So I went to go look at it and sure enough, a boy definitely did not do the work, the handwriting was too neat. So we pulled the boy student and the accused girl student out of class and asked both of them about it. The girl said it wasn’t her handwriting, but the boy insisted it was. After comparing the girl’s handwriting in her notebook to the homework in question we (Mr. Calderon and I) determined it wasn’t hers, but she was still very hesitant and was holding something back. My principal and I sent the boy student back to class and kept the girl student. Within a few seconds after this she broke down crying and started to talk very fast in Spanish to my principal. As she did this the principal made a sign that told me that she liked this particular boy student (crossed his fingers). I stopped her and asked her to explain what she was saying in English. Evidently, because she liked this boy student, she had had a friend of hers (who doesn’t even go to our school) do his homework for him and then he turned in that homework. The irony of this is that this girl student hadn’t even turned in HER homework, but had had a friend do the homework for a boy she liked. Seventh graders…

Anyway, today has been an extremely successful day. I got up early and have planned the rest of the year for both 7th and 8th Grade and am about to start on my TEFL class. I might post again tomorrow, but for now, adios.

**This is my second post for today. Scroll down to see the finale of my food blog and then read this, it will make a lot more sense!***

Sunday May 16, 2010
So it was a tough weekend. First, you heard about the food. Maybe its because I have been thinking more about getting some American food once I am back in the States, but between bugs and chicken neck it was rough. Not only this but something I ate on Friday (or seeing that fly on Saturday) really set my stomach off and I have been fighting a stomachache since.

Saturday afternoon Rachel and I went into town to buy food for the dinner she was making me and as we walked around Dinora (the supermarket where we grocery shop) I could barely stand up. Not only was my stomach off but I also ached all over. She told me to go sit down somewhere while she finished shopping, which I did. But I still didn’t feel much better. I went to the pharmacy and bought some Pepto, which eventually helped, but it was no fun. We eventually made it back home and I took some ibuprofen for my achy body and then passed out in bed for 2.5 hours. When I woke up my stomachache was better but now I had a pounding headache. I took some Excedrin and went up to see how Rachel was doing on dinner. She had just started and after being told to sit down and wait for dinner I just relaxed. After enjoying dinner we just hung out and relaxed the rest of the night. I think the meds I took countered all my symptoms for the rest of the night. Although, I’ve been fighting a stomachache all day today too—the chicken neck really didn’t help.

Along with all of this we (as in the comedor where I live) have been out of water most of the weekend. I’ve only taken one hot shower since Friday with the rest being cold-bucket showers. It’s not that big of a deal but it further makes me appreciate constant running hot water that I am spoiled with back home.

Also, because of my sickness I did not get a chance to work on my TEFL stuff at all on Saturday. So today I have locked myself inside to finish my current module. After about 4 straight hours of work this afternoon I completed Module 6, which means I am halfway through the course. In fact, I think Module 7 is the last one with a reading lecture, quizzes and assignments because Module 8 is a unit lesson plan, Module 9 is all paperwork and Module 10 is course review. So I am getting close to completing this online course and having another certification, this one in teaching English as a second or foreign language!

Anyway, I don’t want to complain more because I am still really enjoying my time down here and believe this is where I am supposed to be right now. I felt that way when I got here and I still feel that way. I feel like I have grown so much personally and professionally down here as well over the last 4 months. Its going to be interesting to see what life is like for me back in the United States before I ship off for Spain at the end of August! Craziness…

Anyway, I hope all is well back in the States and I will continue to try and stay on top of my blog entries.

Take care.

Sunday May 16, 2010
The week meal blog continues…

Thursday:
Breakfast: this morning I was given a more “traditional breakfast—refried beans, scrambled eggs with onion mixed in, a spicy sausage (same from last night) and 4 tortillas. I also had a loaf of that sugar bread and a cup of coffee.
Lunch: Funny how I mentioned 84 East yesterday because today at lunch we went Italian (and this time not spicy spaghetti). We had lasagna today and it was actually pretty delicious. We had had this once before a couple months ago and I was impressed with it then too.
Dinner: So I had the usual for dinner tonight—beans, scrambled eggs with onion mixed in, montequilla and tortillas. No meat or avocado tonight. Three nights in a row… but that’s okay, I was hungry and I am used to it by now.

Friday:
Breakfast: This morning I had baleadas (from Monday morning) with eggs again—three of them with some Don Julio’s (the extremely good hot sauce down here).
Lunch: I really don’t know what the things are called that we had for lunch today, but they aren’t my favorite. They are tortillas that are folded in half and are stuffed with shredded chicken (and the last two times we’ve had them, including today, I’ve bitten really hard into a bone that wasn’t taken out of the shredded chicken) refried beans and I think a little montequilla. They are then covered with a mock marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. The ones today didn’t sit well with my stomach either. But you eat what you get and I was hungry.
Dinner: Yup, you guessed it, beans, eggs and tortillas tonight. Not much else to say about that.

Saturday:
Breakfast: I slept through it and by the time I had showered it was 11 and told them I could wait until lunch for food.
Lunch: I had spaghetti today with an unpleasant surprise—a large fly in the middle. I don’t know if it was the fly or something I ate the previous day (I am thinking lunch) but at that point my stomach went off the rest of the day.
Dinner: Since Rachel had beaten me in our NCAA Basketball brackets and I had to buy her dinner she said she would “make up” for it by making me dinner sometime. So this was the night. She made some garlic and lemon pepper baked chicken (boneless, thank goodness) with white rice and green beans and broccoli. It was delicious and was a nice change of pace from beans, eggs, and tortilla.

Sunday:
Breakfast: I was up for breakfast this morning and had a glass of orange juice and some vanilla wafer type cookies. Very delicious.
Lunch: I had rice, potatoes and chicken. Now the thing about the chicken down here, and I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, you never know what you are going to get—dark meat, white meat, both. There isn’t exactly a specific cut like there is in the US (breast, leg, wing, etc.). Well, the chicken I had today, at least part of, had to be from the “upper body” portion of the chicken because there was definitely a bone sticking out of it that looked like a neck. Pair this with my stomach still being a little off today and it wasn’t a good combo. I ate as much as I could because I hate leaving food on my plate down here, but it has not been my weekend for food service at the comedor. First a big fly and now neck-chicken. Oh well, that’s Honduras, maybe better luck next weekend!
Dinner: And again, tortillas, eggs and beans. But I got a slice of salami and half an avocado this time around.

Thursday May 13, 2010
Big news coming out of Honduras today—I heard back from CIEE today and was given my teaching placement for Spain next year. I will be teaching at a secondary school (12-18 year olds) in Motril in the province of Grenada. It is right on the Mediterranean (well technically a few miles from the actual coast) and is only a 40-minute drive away from Grenada itself. Sounds like a pretty awesome place.



The beach in Motril.



A view of the town.

I am starting to learn more of the details for the program too. I need to be in Spain by August 23rd. I will then be taking a 4-week intensive Spanish learning/immersion course and will then have a one-week orientation for the teaching program after that. I officially start teaching on October 1 and will teach until May 31st. I am about halfway done with my TEFL course so that will be out of the way soon as well. Hearing my placement news today has gotten me super excited about going to Spain. Woo Hoo!!

Tuesday May 11, 2010
So I am going to try and do a better job at posting more often during the week. To do this I was trying to think of different things I could do to make sure I post. I decided that this week I am going to give you guys a running account of what I have for each meal down here in Honduras.

I often get a hodgepodge of meals and hopefully you will see this over the next week. I came up with this idea some time ago and have been meaning to do it. So lets get this started.

Monday:
Breakfast: Three baleadas. Baleadas are one of the staples down here in Honduras. They are tortillas that are stuffed with refried beans and butter (called montequilla). There are then bullibaleadas that in addition to the beans and butter have egg and avocado. On this morning I had egg, but no avocado. I add hot sauce for a little more flavor. They are pretty good and are growing on me.
Lunch: I always get lunch at school and today’s school lunch was Asian style beef and vegetables with rice and tortillas. You get tortillas with everything down here. In fact I had tortillas with spaghetti this past weekend.
Dinner: Now this was a hodgepodge and a perfect example of the randomness I sometimes get for dinner. I had a giant plate of French fries, scrambled eggs, and 4 tortillas. The French fries were delicious, but paired with eggs and tortillas you have Honduran randomness. Sounds like something I would eat in college… minus the tortillas…

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Well, I mentioned spaghetti and tortillas above and what did I get for breakfast this morning? Spaghetti and tortillas. It was a spicy spaghetti sauce too. There is definitely no Prego down here—the spaghetti sauce is always something a little different that doesn’t resemble 84 East spaghetti sauc whatsoever. Mmmm spaghetti pie…. Anyway, I had 4 tortillas with my spicy spaghetti. Not a bad start to the day. Oh, and coffee with that spaghetti too.
Lunch: So school lunch today wasn’t that bad, we had some fried chicken (that was actually a little too overcooked) with rice and a salad. It was pretty good and one of my favorite lunch meals we get once every two weeks or so.
Dinner: Now if there is a staple dinner down here this was it: beans, eggs, avocado and tortillas. I had a new cheese with it tonight too that reminded me of a mozzarella stringy-cheese stick, which was good. I usually eat a meal like this by grabbing a bite of beans with some eggs, throw that down, and then bite off a piece of tortilla. But tonight I was feeling lazy and I mixed everything together on my plate and ate it with a bite of tortilla. I sometimes get a hot dog or two or some other type of sausage with this dinner, but not tonight. I usually eat this for dinner 2-3 times a week. It took me a month to get used to it but I throw it down pretty easily now.

Wednesday:
Breakfast: This morning I got what I could eat for breakfast every morning down here—a cup of coffee and three small loaves of this sugar bread. This bread is incredibly good with a cup of coffee; they were made for each other. Delicious.
Lunch: School lunch today was something we’ve only had a handful of times since I’ve been down here. I am pretty sure it is shredded meat (I at first thought it was pork, but the kids told me it was “carne” which is meat) with lemon juice on it with salad and rice. It was pretty good and you have two ways of eating it, mixing it all together or eating a bite of each and then biting off a piece of tortilla. I prefer the latter. I did get ambitious today and was still thirsty after lunch so I tried one of these canned juices that the school sells. I had never tried it before and bought a “Nectar de Manzana” (apple). Boy, I am not going to get that stuff again. You know that syrup that is in the can of mandarin oranges? That is what it tasted like but of the apple variety. A lot of sugar in that stuff.
Dinner: So, repeat on dinner from last night—beans, eggs, and instead of avocado it was two small spicy sausages with tortillas. That is twice this week and its only Wednesday!

Sunday May 9, 2010
What a tough week. I don’t know if it is that point in the school year for me or what but I am really lacking energy with the kids at school and one of my students even called me out this week. During class he basically asked me why I wasn’t as energetic while teaching them now as I was back when I first got here. Ouch. I sat down on Thursday and talked with Laura Beth about it. She is one of only two other trained teachers down here and I wanted to here what she had to say. She reminded me that where we are in the school year is one of the most difficult times in regards to having energy with the kids because it is close to the end of the school year but we aren’t there yet. She also said that this is my fourth month of teaching (their seventh month) and that back in the states the third and fourth months are usually the most difficult (write before Christmas in a typical school year). With this said I have had a couple times down here where I’ve had to remind myself that I am down here for the students and the experience. That is what I had to do this week because that’s what gives me the energy to work with these kids on a daily basis. It is draining though, and when you just finish grading a test where the average grade was a 62 percent it is even more difficult. Speaking of that test, I had to give 0’s to my first students for cheating. It was blatant. She was making hand signals—the first being numbers (holding up fingers) and the second making letters (a,b,c,d). I gave the signaler and whom I believed was the primary target of the signals 0’s. They are getting demerits as well so I think I will let them try and redeem themselves on a make-up test—a really hard essay response question. We’ll see. So that’s another reason it was a tough week. I hope the following week goes a little better as well as the remaining 5 weeks we have here.

I had to refocus myself this week as mentioned and one of the ways I did that was by putting together a video on iMovie using pictures and some video I took of my nivalaicon kids performing a fashion show. They did this on Wednesday and it was a lot of fun. I finished the video and I am hoping to upload it to my YouTube account and post a link (if not the actual video) on my blog. Hopefully I can get it working.

Today was a fun day (other then working on school work and TEFL stuff). There is a Filipino couple that are missionaries here in Honduras who also teach at the school and it was their son’s birthday today so we had a party. Rachel and I got put in change of decorations for the party so we were up early this morning decorating the comedor (where I live). We had bought a birthday sign, some balloons, and some streamers in town yesterday. I tied at least 50 balloons this morning, but luckily didn’t have to blow all of them up thanks to the help of some of the neighbor kids. The party itself was a lot of fun with the highlight being the food. We had some really good sandwiches, potato salad, and chips and cheese and salsa. We even had a fresh fruit salad and a cake. It was fantastic. As mentioned, after the party I spent the rest of the day working on schoolwork and my TEFL class.

Yesterday Rachel, Laura Beth, Paola (the fourth grader of the host family I live with) and I went to town around 9 in the morning to watch some of our kids play soccer. Our kids were split into two teams, the U12 team that we watched at 9:30 and the U14 team that played after. Unfortunately we weren’t able to watch the older boys play because Rachel and I had to run to the bank and we promised Paola we would take her out to lunch. After the soccer game, in which our boys punished the other team 9-0, the three of us went to the bank in town. The line was so long (reminded me of Semana Santa in Tela…) that we decided to forget the bank and just go buy some decorations for the party and grab lunch. Rachel had enough money to cover these expenses. We grabbed some lunch at Guancascos and afterwards headed back home. I ended up doing some TEFL work and graded the tests I mentioned earlier in which the average grade was a 62 percent. Ugh.

Anyway, that’s a pretty good update. Sorry it took a week for me to post again, but with my TEFL class and school work I have been super busy. I have even unfortunately gotten out of the habit of running 4-5 times a week. I need to get back on that.

Anyway, I hope all is well and I hope all the mothers who read this entry had an excellent Mother’s Day!

Saturday May 1, 2010
So this is a catch up entry on everything that has happened the last 3 weeks. Have fun.

Since returning from break I have been rather busy. The first week back was one of the busiest I’ve had down here. I hadn’t done too much work before break (tired and lazy and looking forward to break) so I had a lot to do with regards to schoolwork—grading, planning, you know, teacher stuff. However, along with this I started my TEFL class. This is a class I am taking to help further prepare me to teach English in Spain. It is a two-month online course that requires me to write several 300-500-response papers to questions as well as respond to other’s post. It is all done on an online discussion board run by Microsoft Blackboard. I am trying to work ahead in the class and am currently a week ahead of schedule. I am mostly doing this (working ahead) because the Internet is so spotty and I never know when and if I can post an assignment. Also, I’d like to finish it early, the class ends June 11 but I am hoping to be done by the end of May. This has required me to go into town more often and use the Internet at Guancascos. I have been doing this a lot more often because I think the rainy period has started and with rain and clouds comes poor internet service.

Along with the TEFL class I was busy figuring out final grades for the third partial. In Honduras there is a national law that students who fail a partial must have the opportunity to take what is called a recuperation test. The score on this test can replace the test grade for the class and create the possibility that the student can actual pass the class. I had 4 seventh graders who failed my class and had to take the recuperation test, 1 eight grader and no ninth graders. All five of these students failed the recuperation test thus failed the third partial. I had parent-teacher conferences yesterday and I only met with 3 out of the five who failed. More about that later.

Two weekends ago I went to Lake Yojoa, which is the largest lake in Honduras. A couple of the girls had gone here over Semana Santa and said it was one of their favorite places they’ve been in the country. Along with this the only microbrewery (LINK) in all of Honduras is near the lake and even has rooms you can rent. We did not have school the following Monday so we took a trip there. It was fantastic. The food was good, the beer was good, and the rooms were pretty good as well. I also had some good conversation with people. First, unexpectedly my buddy Pat and his boss (microfinance people) along with Renske and Laura were at the Lake that weekend too. When we walked in I heard my name called and there they all were. We ended up having drinks and dinner with them later that night, but an unfortunate accident where Pat’s boss (the graduate student from U of M) fell out of the back of a truck and needed 15 stitches led to us not seeing them the rest of the weekend. I was also sporting one of my several Michigan shirts while at the brewery and was stopped by a couple that asked me if I was from Ann Arbor. I found out she grew up in Ann Arbor. We ended up hanging out with her and her boyfriend much of the weekend and had a great time with them. He was in the Peace Corp working in a small town about 30 minutes outside Gracias and she was just hanging out in Honduras and had just finished teaching English for a year in Ecuador. Good people.

The highlight of the trip to the lake was the expedition Rachel and I took to a waterfall about 25 minutes away from the brewery. We were told this was the place to go so we went. When we got there we were asked if we wanted to take a guided tour behind the waterfall for a little extra money. We said sure, why not. Neither of us were prepared for what was about to happen. Our guide first told us to put our stuff in the restaurant because we were about to get really wet. We did that. We then followed our guide (who spoke English) down a rocky path. Now there was a smaller waterfall that we had seen when we entered the park. I laughed and thought, wow, this better be worth it. However, as we walked down the path we began to hear a large rush of water. We then saw a large drop off. And then we saw it—the 139-foot waterfall.




It was incredible. As we walked down the path we ended up going right towards the base of the fall. We made our way to a gate—which the guide unlocked and preceded to walk through, right towards were all the water was falling from 139 feet. He then jumped in the river, beckoned us to follow, and swam underneath the fall to behind it. We explored two caves and then went back out from under it. The whole time I had to breath through my mouth because the water was so strong and had to keep my eyes partly closed because I thought my contacts were going to fall out. It was awesome. We then proceeded to cliff jump from about 9 feet and about 26 feet. Yeah, I cliff jumped from 26 feet. Three times. My left thigh still hurts from how I hit the water the first time. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done.

We ended up leaving the lake and had a terrible time getting home (broken down buses, missed buses, expensive taxi rides) but we eventually made it home to Gracias. Another epic weekend in Honduras.

The following weekend (last weekend) was a pretty good weekend too. Rachel and I ended up walking to town to do a few errands and in the meantime explored the fort that overlooks Gracias. It was built in the 1860s and gave us some pretty cool views of Gracias. Later in the afternoon I played some soccer with Mr. Bran, Mr. Rodrigo, and the guys of Villa Verde at the school. This was a lot of fun and I actually kept up with all of the guys. All the running I have been doing is paying off. Later that night we all celebrated Jackie’s 23rd birthday along with Fernando’s 5th birthday (one of the neighborhood boys). You can see pictures of this entire weekend in my Picasa albums on the right. Sunday I just hung out and caught up on some work—school and TEFL.



Yesterday we had parent teacher conferences from 3-6. I needed a translator because even though my Spanish listening skills have improved, my speaking skills have left a lot to be desired. I ended up meeting with about 14-16 of my kids parents including only 3 out of the 5 who failed my class. I had a frustrating moment with a mom of a student who failed my class when she asked if we could help her daughter be more discipline and study at home. Not my job—I can do all I can do at school and in afterschool tutoring sessions, but she is in charge of holding her daughter accountable at home too. This led to me suggesting a study time sheet that must be signed by her mom and turned into me every Friday. We’ll see how that goes.

Today has been rather busy. I’ve done a lot of TELF work again and some school work.

Anyway, that is the quick catch up on what is going on. Today is May 1, which marks the fifth calendar month I have been in Honduras. Craziness.

I hope all is well back in the states. I’ll be home before you know it. But then I leave for Spain…

Sunday April 25, 2010

Sorry I did post this earlier. Again, thunderstorms have hindered our Internet ability and with school and my TEFL class now I am rather busy. I will blog about the post Semana Santa stuff after this post and give you all an update. But without further a do, spring break part four.

The next morning (Thursday) we packed our bags and got ready to take off. Before we checked out we went back to the roof deck of the hotel and took some pretty cool pictures. We were pretty sad to leave because the weather could have not been better. We made our way downstairs, grabbed lunch at a street vendor and hailed two cabs to take us to the highway where we could catch a bus to San Pedro. We arrived at the bus station and were sitting and waiting for a bus when Steve suddenly had this panic look on his face—he had left his iPhone in the hotel room sitting on the windowsill. The three of us (Mike, Steve and I) hailed a cab back to the hotel (10 minutes one way) and luckily Steve was able to track his phone down—however in the process he knocked over a vase in the reception area and was not quick enough to catch it before it shattered on the floor. We then hopped back in the cab and made our way back to the bus stop where the girls were about to get on a bus hoping that we would arrive in time—we did and we were off to San Pedro.






This was a rather uneventful bus ride and when we made it to the bus station in San Pedro Rachel had arranged for the hotel we were staying at to send their free shuttle to come and pick us up. We made our way to the hotel, checked in, and were rather amazed at the hotel room. This is where the girls (other teachers) and their friends or family always stay before they fly out because it is close to the airport and has a free shuttle there. They were apartment style rooms with 2 bedrooms, a living room and a small kitchen. Very nice. We relaxed in the rooms for a little bit before we decided it was time to explore the City Mall.

Now, the City Mall is the place where you feel like you are in the United States. With a giant glass front I felt like I was walking into a mall in suburban America and as I rode the escalator to the first floor I decided this mall was 5 times better then Westshore Mall in Holland. Unfortunately we arrived a little late and many of the stores were closed—plus it was the Thursday before Good Friday. However, the food court was open along with the purpose of us going to the mall, Applebee’s. First the food court: it was amazing. Quiznos, Subway, Wendy’s, so much American food I could hardly hide my excitement. I wanted to go to each place and order one item. But we decided Applebee’s was the place and there we went. We sat down and one would have thought you were in the States other than the fact that soccer was on all the televisions (bad joke, sorry). For an appetizer I ordered the infamous Applebee’s spinach artichoke dip and it never tasted better. For dinner I ordered the Western Burger. Now burgers down here in Honduras are typically a joke. They are usually small pattys. At Applebee’s I knew I was going to get a real burger and it was a real burger. Amazing. Three months away from the US and I think the thing I miss the most is the food (right after my friends and family of course…). However, I decided that my stomach has shrunk since I have been down here. Usually back home I would order the burger at Applebee’s when I am not extremely hungry and it sounds really good, and I would usually devour it no problem. This was not the case with this burger. As good as it was I could not finish about two bites of the burger—I was stuffed. It’s going to be interesting to see how much I can eat once I get home.

After satisfying my need for good American food we took a cab back to the hotel where we were all so exhausted we decided to crash. We played cards for a while but Mandi, Amy and Steve had a long day of traveling the next day so we went to bed.

Friday morning came and we headed to the airport to see off our friends. After paying their exit fee (yes, you need to pay a fee to leave Honduras) they checked-in and were off, a rather epic vacation for them and us. I couldn’t believe the week was over. However, it wasn’t…




The view from our hotel in San Pedro and Mike the morning Steve and the girls left.

As I mentioned it was Good Friday and we began to hear rumors that the entire country was closed for the day. This included the bus station and all buses. We (Mike, LB, Rachel and I) were planning on heading back to La Union and Gracias respectively and not planning on spending another night in San Pedro. However, after asking around we found that the rumors were true and we were going no-where. We had to figure out where to spend the night and after talking with a taxi driver we ended up making our way to a hostel right near town. This was a pretty cool place and for 1000 lemps ($50) we got a private room with a bunk bed and a full size bed, air-conditioning, and our own bathroom. We went into town after checking-in and got lunch. McDonalds never tasted so good. We then bought some stuff for dinner and made our way back to the hostel. We hung out the rest of the afternoon because nothing was open in the city. After dinner we had some very serious Euchre playing. This had started at the airport earlier in the day while trying to decide what to do after seeing our friends off. The girls had beaten Mike and I so we wanted a rematch. Now, as a long time Euchre player I usually play a pretty fair game. However, playing with Rachel has turned me into a little bit of a rebel. She plays steal-the-deal, which I really never play, being the honest person I am. With this said, when Mike and I strategically distracted both of the girls and Mike stole the deal it was game on. A very serious game of Euchre followed with the victors being the boys. After this we called it a night because we wanted to get a bus ASAP in the morning and get back home.

We left the hostel at 7 and made it to the bus station where buses were running. The girls and I got a bus heading towards Gracias and Mike got one heading towards La Union. What an awesome vacation.

This concludes the four part series on my spring break vacation. I hoped you enjoyed reading about it as well as the pictures. I have uploaded almost 100 pictures from the trip—they are in my Picasa album that can be found on the right side of this page.

Thursday April 15, 2010

Ok, back to spring break, take three. I didn’t mean for these to be on the same day (read part two below), but that’s how it worked out with our Internet crashing.

The next day (Tuesday) we all slept in—which was until about 9 o’clock. We all gradually made our way down to the restaurant for breakfast where I had French toast. Around 11ish the girls decided that they wanted to go out shopping and walk around town. It was cloudy and raining so it was not a beach day (we were all pretty disappointed in this). Mike, Steve and I hung out at the restaurant playing Rummy. By the time the girls came back 3 hours later we were still playing Rummy. We decided we should go get some lunch and the three of us went out and left the girls in the restaurant playing cards themselves. It was during this time that I had an awesome experience. While walking to lunch we passed a native Honduran who was sporting a vintage University of Michigan number 4 basketball jersey (whose number? Any guesses? Answer at the bottom of this entry). This was the first of several U of M sighting in Tela. When we got back the girls were still playing cards and we figured out what we wanted to do that night. Dinner was the plan. After sitting around and being lazy all afternoon (which was wonderful) we went out looking for a different place to eat dinner.

The first restaurant we stopped at was Casa Azul. It looked very nice but when we looked at the menu the prices were a little steep. Rachel wanted to try and find another hotel/restaurant that was somewhere in town, but that was the problem, it was somewhere in town. After walking around aimlessly for 15-20 minutes we decided to just go back to Casa Azul and splurge. It was the right choice. I had some amazing chicken fajitas and the appetizer we had (see picture) was incredible. Bean dip with hot toasted tortillas. This also was the location of one of the tour organizations that specialized in kayak tours through the mangroves. We talked with one of the guys and we agreed on 400 lemps per person ($20). We were a little iffy on making the commitment because we weren’t sure what the weather was going to do, but he said we could have our deposit (200 lemps) back if the weather was poor. We agreed. We went home after dinner stuffed from a good meal and ready for an early morning (8 am) kayak trip. Balloon.



Wednesday morning we woke up and headed to Casa Azul. The weather was perfect—mostly sunny and a little cooler because of the cold front that had moved through with all the rain the day before. It was here where we had our second U of M sighting. One of the employees for the kayak company was sporting a Michigan t-shirt. I was ecstatic and made sure I pointed it out to Rachel, who inconveniently is a Michigan State fan hanging who was hanging out with three U of M alum and two other Michigan fans. After we verbally assaulted her about it for several relentless minutes and sung the Victors (this was mostly me, not going to lie) we hopped in the van and made our way towards the garifuna village where we would embark on our kayaking journey.

We arrived at the village and we first stopped at the restaurant where we were going to eat lunch after kayaking. Now we had eaten at a beachfront restaurant for dinner earlier in the week, but this gave beachfront a whole new meaning. This restaurant was basically an open-air building where you ordered food and then ate your food under palm branch huts that had picnic tables under them, on the sand, yards from the ocean. I could not wait to come back after kayaking and hang out here. We told them we wanted two of their largest fish and continued on our way to the mangroves.



We arrived at the national park were we were going to kayak. After getting our kayaks out from under the ranger station we dragged them about 150 yards to the river. As we were doing this other tour companies showed up with groups of their own. Our guide said hurry because we wanted to be the first in the water so we had the best chance to come across larger alligators. So we hustled and were successful in getting in first. Mike and Steve were in one kayak, Mandi and Amy in another, and Rachel and I in the last. Laura Beth had decided to stay home and relax. We kayaked for about 2.5 hours and it was incredible. From birds, to turtles, to alligators the wild life was abundant, not to mention the mangroves were incredible. We did see about 5-6 gators with the biggest gator being probably about 3 – 4 feet long. However, our guide, who led the way everywhere we went, did come across a larger gator (he said maybe about 6-7 feet), however he spooked it and by the time the first group made it to where he was at the gator was gone. Speaking of our guide, he was a pretty cool guy. He wasn’t a big talker (he spoke English) but he knew what he was doing. He had studied biology in Europe and had been giving tours through these mangroves for over 10 years. He could spot a needle in a haystack too. We would be 30 yards from shore and he would spot a black box turtle sitting on a log near the bank of the river. Very impressive.




After a successful kayak trip we made our way back to the launching point. Instead of having us drag the kayaks back to the ranger station we attached them to the back of the van and dragged them. Steve jumped out of the van half way and took this picture.



Next we made our way back to the beachfront restaurant. When we arrived our lunch was not yet ready so we all decided to go for a swim. It was paradise—blue water, a blue sky dotted with a few clouds and great sand. Not to mention the waves were a good size and the water was pool temperature. After a swim our lunch was ready and when we made our way to the hut there were two foot-long fish staring back at us. They cooked the entire fish so we got head and tail. I am not a big seafood fan but I was in paradise so I tried it, and I was surprised. It was extremely good. After having my share I just sat there and took everything in.




After lunch Steve, Mike and I decided it would be awesome to go jump around in the sand. We did this for a good 30 minutes and took some pretty solid pictures. The girls were laughing at us until they came and did it too. A bunch of 20-somethings just being kids in paradise.



The weather started to turn cloudy and we decided we should probably head back to the hotel. When we got back we decided a light dinner would be okay so we just went to a random restaurant and watched some soccer. We then decided that we wanted to go out and see what type of nightlife Tela had. We found a nice little place and just hung out, talked, and danced the night away. It was an awesome end to an awesome day. Oh, and at this small bar we had two Michigan sightings, two hats to be exact. Here is a picture.



Anyway, I will post part 4 later this weekend or early next week.

Friday April 16, 2010

Sorry this wasn’t posted earlier. We have had some serious rain/thunderstorms the last couple of days and those knocked out our Internet. That is why I didn’t post this when I wanted to on Wednesday.

So I realized I forgot to mention this incredible pizza place that we went to in Copan in the last entry. It was called Pizza Jim’s and a guy who moved down to Copan from California ran it. It was delicious. We ate dinner there after our long day of the ruins, swimming, and horseback riding. Again, this was the second time we had had pizza in three days—do you think I miss my pizza, and really all American food? Yes.

After our long day Sunday we crashed and went to bed early because we had to get up at 5 the next morning to catch the 6 am bus to San Pedro and then a bus to our final destination, Tela. We were all walking zombies when those alarms went off at 4:45, 5, and 5:15 (different people set different alarms so that they could get the extra sleep). I was the early bird at 4:45 and was ready to head towards Tela. We went straight to the bus stop at 5:30 and luckily for us a Pulperia (a convenient store) opened across the street and I had a breakfast (no platanos) consisting of chocolate milk and package of powdered donuts. Mmm donut. At 6 we were off. Now our understanding was that this first bus was a direct bus to San Pedro. By direct I mean we weren’t going to stop every 10 minutes to pick people up as was the case with most bus rides we had been on. Well, as we have learned, you can’t have such high expectations while traveling in Honduras. This bus stopped less often then others, but it still stopped and tried to cram as many people on the bus as possible. Ask my friend Steve how this worked out.

Steve and I were sitting next to each other and I was lucky enough to snag the window seat, which put him in the aisle seat. Half way through the trip to San Pedro, at one of the several stops, a young mother got on the bus with her young son and a few friends. Shortly after she got on she proceeded to start breastfeeding her son (which is a common public practice). Now, having two nephews I know that once a baby eats it also needs to burp—and more often then not cough up whatever didn’t make it down the first time. Well, this happened to occur with this young Honduran baby, and happened right over Steve. It was almost slow motion. I was watching the baby and Steve, while Steve was glued to the baby. The baby threw up once on the mother’s shirt when the mother was facing us, however now the mother had turned her back on Steve and was sitting on his arm-rest (the bus was packed with people), with the baby staring down on him. Suddenly I saw the baby’s movements—the movements I remember seeing right before my nephew Peter threw up all over me on Christmas morning. Luckily for Steve one of the young mother’s friends also picked up on the movement and just at the right moment took a plastic bag and put it over the baby’s mouth and caught all of the throw up. However, there was still some drooling and some of the first throw up that did drip onto Steve’s pants. However, the baby-throwing-up crisis had been mostly avoided.

We later learned that day that one of the other teachers was on a bus and was sitting in the window seat with her window open. Well, unlucky for her someone sitting in front of her threw up out the window. That throw up flew right back into the bus through the window Sarah happened to be sitting next to. Not as lucky as Steve.

After an eventful bus ride to San Pedro we went to go find a bus to Tela. I had never been to the bus station at San Pedro (it is large and crazy) but luckily both Rachel and Laura Beth knew where to go to find a bus to Tela. We had to wait for about 30 minutes but eventually we loaded onto a direct bus to Tela. Now this direct bus was more direct then the one we just got off of. We only stopped two or three times on our hour and a half ride. In fact it was probably the most comfortable bus ride we had all week.

We arrived in Tela and found two taxis to take the seven of us to our hotel. Now Rachel and Laura Beth had stayed at this hotel when they were in Tela earlier in the school year (before I came down) and they had tried to explain it to me. But you cannot understand how awesome this place was (in regards to its location right on the Caribbean) until you actually see it. I have never stayed at an ocean front hotel so this was a first, and it was awesome. May I remind you that for three nights it cost each person only about $90? This is when I decided that I would be coming to Honduras for vacations the rest of my life. When you are able to get a ticket for $300 (about the average price for a ticket several months ahead of time) and then only spend the amount of a one-night stay at a midrange level hotel in suburban America for an ocean side hotel in Honduras for three nights, it’s a simple decision. Go Honduras.




Now the original plan for us leaving so early for Tela was so that we could get there and enjoy most of the day on the beach. Well we arrived in Tela right around noon and this was the plan. However, I needed to make a quick run to the bank to grab some more money for the week. Now banks in Honduras are very unique. Although there are ATMs there is a long process to go through to get a card (which I haven’t done). Because of this most people go into the bank and do what they need to do. Well this often includes anything and everything. Not only can you deposit and withdraw money at banks but you can pay most bills as well. This often creates long waits. So my intention of going for a “quick” bank run disappeared when I walked through the doors of Bank Atlantida in Tela. I needed money (I couldn’t wait another day because we had to pay for our hotel and the banks were closing for Semana Santa) and had to wait. I stood in line for just over 2 hours. There goes my beach time. Luckily the bank was air-conditioned.

Laura Beth also needed money so we were able to keep each other company. But we both felt like we were in line at Cedar Point. Yet, it ended up being ok—we just told stories to each other to pass the time and before we knew it we were one and two in line. I made sure I withdrew enough money so that I didn’t have to go to the bank again.

After the bank I made it to the beach for about an hour, but with my luck the clouds rolled in and it was a downpour by dinnertime. That night we went to a restaurant right next to the hotel. I decided that I was going to splurge a little bit and ordered the filet mignon. That was a disaster. I ordered it medium and when it arrived it was closer to rare. So I ate the cooked parts and picked through the red meat. The manager came out to see how we were doing and noticed what I was doing. He quickly snagged my plate to put it back on the grill. When it came back parts were either still rare, or too over cooked. I just went with it and probably left 33 percent of the steak on my plate. Oh well.



After dinner we had high hopes for going out and exploring the nightlife. We went back to the hotel, showered and changed. When we went downstairs and asked where the nightlife was we were told that everything was closed on Monday nights. Awesome. So we went swimming in the Caribbean at 10:30 at night.


I will write a third post later this week/this weekend. I hoped you enjoyed this entry! More pictures are coming, I promise.

Tuesday March 13, 2010

Hi Everyone,

This is a follow up post on my two friends who are starting that microfinance company in La Union. I had written an entry several weeks ago describing what they are doing (Monday, March 15 post). My friend Mike just sent me an email with a link to the new and improved website for their company. It is really well done and I highly encourage all of you to take a look at it. Click here for the website.

Buy some coffee while you are at it and help an awesome cause!

Also, I am working on my next entry about my spring break adventures. I hope to get it up later tonight or tomorrow night at the latest.

Sunday April 11, 2010

First, I want to let you know that I saw my first snake here in Honduras earlier this week—and it was one crazy snake. Now there are two snakes that are very similar—the Coral snake, which is very poisonous, and the King snake, which is not poisonous. Both have the same color markings but the markings themselves are in a different order on each. While walking home from school on Monday Rachel spotted something moving on the side of the road under some brush. We walked over and there was the orange, black and yellow coloring of either a Coral or King snake. Neither of us could remember how to tell the two apart (there is a rhyme that distinguishes the two because the order of the colors are different on each snake) so we watched it for a minute or two slither through the brush, memorized the order of the colors and walked home to look up what we just saw, either the King or Coral snake.



We arrived home and after checking several sites we confirmed what I originally thought—we had come across the second most poisonous snake in North America (after the rattle-snake), the Coral snake. I love Honduras.

Anyway, over the next couple of days I will be posting entries about my Semana Santa (Holy Week) vacation. Now, to clarify, Semana Santa is basically a national holiday here in Honduras. This is when most schools have their spring break and most businesses shut down on Wednesday or Thursday for the rest of the week. In fact, on Good Friday the entire country shuts down. We found this out the hard way when we were planning on taking a bus back to Gracias and there were no buses running because it was Good Friday. Anyway, on to my trip.

Friday after school Laura Beth, Rachel and I took the school bus with the kids to town and hopped on a bus to Santa Rosa where I was meeting my friend Steve and Rachel was meeting her two friends Amy and Mandi. The three of them had flown to Honduras earlier in the day and we had given them directions on how to get on a bus to Santa Rosa. The three of us reached Santa Rosa around 5 o’clock and our friends were waiting for us at the meeting place we had picked. It was crazy that Steve was all the way down here, and when we met up with Mike shortly after the three of us began our epic vacation in Honduras, with two of us actually LIVING in Honduras.



We spent the night in Santa Rosa at a pretty nice hotel. The 7 of us went out and ate some good pizza (the beginning of my American food craze over vacation) and went back to the hotel and just hung out. It was a pretty relaxing start to vacation. The next morning we got up early to hop on the bus to Copan where we were going to spend the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday.

COPAN
Now Copan is in the Northwestern corner of Honduras near the Guatemalan border. It is known for being more of a tourist town because of the ancient Mayan ruins that are found just outside of town. We had quite the itinerary for our two days in Copan and we were very successful in accomplishing it.



We arrived right around lunch time and took a mototaxi from the bus station up to our hostel, the Blue Iguana, where we stayed two nights for 120 lemps a night (6 dollars), so $12 total. We had a room with three bunk beds and one cot so we all had to get to know each other pretty quickly. My friend Mike ended up not making it to Copan for the first night because he had some work he had to finish in Santa Rosa. He was hoping to make it but he missed the last bus to Copan. So the 6 of us made our way to Macaw Mountain.



Macaw Mountain is a natural preserve that runs off of donations and the entrance fee ($15). The main attractions are the hundreds of birds, mostly parrots, which they take care of. They have collected many of the birds through adoption and recuperation. We first took a tour of the park with a guide who talked about each of the different species. At the end of the tour we came to an open area where they had one of almost every species at the park hanging out. Here the guides would pick the birds up and place them on you. I took a picture of a blue macaw, a red macaw and a green parrot hanging out on my shoulders and arms (see the picture). In fact the blue macaw bit my shirt and put a hole in it. This was a lot of fun and to be so close to these “exotic” yet native birds of Honduras was pretty awesome.



After Macaw Mountain we went back to the hostel and relaxed. We were pretty tired from traveling and walking around. We ended up going out to dinner at a really good pupusa restaurant (a pupusa is basically two tortillas that have cheese and meat in the middle, basically a tortilla sandwich). From here we went out and enjoyed the nightlife in Copan. We ended up going to a restaurant/bar called “Club Fun” and I had a Honduras try and teach me to dance…unsuccessfully. But it was a lot of fun and we ventured our way home after a successful and tiring day.

Sunday morning we woke up and got ready to make our way to the Maya ruins. We first decided to get some breakfast and I was really feeling a banana. So while the rest of the group went to Espresso Americano to get coffee I made my way to the open-air market to find some bananas. I found a nice stand and asked the woman “Puedo tener tres banana’s por favor” (May I have three banana’s, please) and she grabbed three “bananas” and put them in the bag, I paid my 20 lemps ($1) and made my way back to the group. Well when I arrived I took one “banana” out of the bag and something wasn’t right. I looked at it, and then the group looked at it, and in unison we declared that I had been given plantanos (plantains) and not bananas. Bummer. Now for those of you who don’t know platanos are like a banana but not as sweet. They need to be cooked in order to be eaten because they are too hard raw. Therefore it was impossible for me to eat what I just bought.

After my disappointing breakfast (I ended up just buying a bag of mango from a street vendor) we made our way towards the ruins. As a history major/teacher I was really excited about checking these out. Other then it being scorching hot it was incredible. We ended up not spending the extra money for a tour guided and just wondered around the ruins ourselves. My friend Steve had taken a Mayan civilization class in college (my Mayan history is spotty because it wasn’t one of the areas I studied in college) so he was able to explain some different things to the group. To think about how this was a thriving civilization 1300 years ago and that these are the remains of that civilization is crazy for me to think about. Then again that’s probably why I am a history nut and a total geek. Here are some pictures.






After the ruins we hopped in a taxi and went back up to Macaw Mountain. The tickets we bought were two-day tickets and they had a pool that they said we could come back and use. So after walking around the ruins for a couple of hours in the hot sun we were all eager to jump into the pool and relax. Well, I was a little too eager in fact. I quickly set my stuff down by the pool, took my shirt off and jumped in—forgetting that I had my wallet and cell phone in my pockets. My money and wallet dried out, but I was without a phone for the rest of the week. Bummer. After swimming for about an hour we decided to go get some lunch and I had an excellent club sandwich.



After swimming we had to quickly make out way back to the hostel. On Saturday we had decided that we wanted to go horseback riding and had made reservations for all us to go at 3. We made our way to the meeting place and I met my new best friend for the next three hours—Mariposa, or in English, Butterfly (For the record Steve’s horses’ name was Princesa—Princess. This was an awesome three hours and probably the highlight of our time in Copan. It took an hour to ride up this trail to the top of this mountain where there was a native Mayan community centered around a school. We walked around this village for about an hour and then rode back down the mountain. The ride down was awesome—we were able to “open” the horses up and I stayed in a solid trot and a couple of times a decent gallop (for an inexperienced horse rider like myself this was a blast). We eventually made our way back to where we started (not before my friend Mike’s horse almost threw him off when his horse and Steve’s horse had an argument).




Overall Sunday was a busy day and we were all drained from the day’s activities. I will end this post here and include a second post sometime in the next couple of days about the second half of the week in Tela and San Pedro. Along with the pictures I inserted in this post I am working on sorting through others to post in a Picasa album. I’ll let you know when those are uploaded.