Well, the typical teacher myth of making it through the whole week only to get sick over the weekend or a vacation happened to me this week. I woke up Friday morning feeling just AWFUL and I was pretty terrified to go to school. But I will never miss school for being “sick” unless I am physically unable to hold my up-chucks in my mouth. So I took some Dayquil and carried on. I felt pretty good until about lunch time and then my energy, and probably my patience, began to slide. By the time the kids left, my body hurt so badly that all I wanted to do was cry myself to sleep. Tom took Aubrey and I to the grocery store after school because we almost literally had no food and I felt so bad for them because I was probably miserable to be around. The second I came home, I put on sweatpants, a sweatshirt, socks, wrapped up in a blanket and passed out. I woke up at 9:30 pm lying sideways on my bed listening to Billy Joel on my computer. Talk about confusion! Aubrey got home at around 10:30 from a dinner party and we sat in my bed and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, haha. It made me miss you a TON, Danielle, as we used to always sit in bed and watch movies in Kansas :)
Anyway, I’m feeling much better today and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to update the blog. I still can’t believe how negligent I have been with this thing as I am definitely one of those people that gets frustrated with blogs that I follow that are infrequently updated. I vow to do a better job!
This week at school was super busy as expected but I am actually pretty proud of myself for making it through without too much damage. On Wednesday we had our “Meet the Teacher Night” which really just meant “only five of your twenty-two students’ parents will actually show up night.” I mean, I am SO grateful that those parents did indeed come because I know they work long days and I know at many open houses in the US parents do not come at all but I was surprised at the low turnout. We played a name game so I could start knowing the names of my students’ parents instead of having to whisper to my students as their parents approach me, “hey, how does your mom pronounce her name again?” All the parents seemed to have a good time with this and they were very supportive and patient with me considering the fact that I did not know the answers to a lot of their questions.
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| Happy birthday, Rodolfo! |
So some other things that have been going down that I had forgotten to blog about are:
1. ITRRC
2. VIP Movie Experience
3. Car Shopping
4. After school activities
5. Family Update
1. ITRRC: Stands for International Teachers Restaurant Review Committee. This is an unofficial club started by Tom and Blake (a high school history teacher from Minnesota) that consists of them taking their gringo selves to the fanciest restaurants they can find in the city and then filling out review cards they made up on the quality of the service, food, and overall dining experience. Aubrey and I received an email last week from Tom stating that we had been cordially invited to join the ITRRC club, based on the quality of our first impression. We accepted the invitation and went to a place called Zumos in Zona Viva. It had a really nice set up with candle-lit tables, low light, cheesy jazz music, and a fancy menu. I found out pretty quickly that the only thing I could eat at this restaurant that was vegetarian was a plain salad (which is LAME and chances are there would be animal products in the dressing anywho) so I made the executive decision to eat some fish. I came to Guatemala with an open-mind about vegetarianism and though it has been working just fine in almost every other situation, I knew that I wouldn’t lose any sleep over eating some salmon.
I got a dish called the “Hanny” (I know, right! Totally made for me) that was hand-made ravioli stuffed with sweet potatoes and salmon, covered in an almond cream sauce (I know, right! TOTALLY made for me!). It was definitely worth it. Aubrey got some shrimp dish that was pretty much 5 piece of shrimp placed decoratively on a fancy looking plate, Tom got a huge steak set on top of a crab cake thingymabobber, and Blake got a chipotle smoked steak. The head chef and owner of the restaurant came out to talk with us a few times and then gave us the skinny about what deserts to order. We ended up getting a chocolate cake and crème brulee and the entire bill for me was about Q. 150 which is less than $20 USD. It was a hilarious experience and Aubrey and I felt honored to have been invited as the only female members. We still have yet to fill out our review cards but hope to do so this weekend. I’ll see if I can post it when its finished.
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| Tom with the fancy people desserts |
2. VIP Movie Experience: So, if this next topic doesn’t entice you to come visit, I’m not sure what will! In Guatemala City, most people try to go see movies at the VIP theatre which consists of full reclining Lay-z boy chairs and waiters who come and bring you food and drink from Nutella crepes to cocktails all for less than $8 USD. We saw Inception (which I would totally recommend) but it was an experience leading up to the movie that really made the evening. We wanted to get some pizza beforehand so we decided to stop by the theatre to buy our tickets for fear it would sell out. Tom was driving and put the car in park in a “Drop off, pick up zone ONLY” and ran inside with Makenzie to buy the tickets. All he said when he left was, “if someone tells you to move the car, just pretend you don’t know how to drive it [a standard].” Sure enough, about four security guards holding massive guns (because that’s what security guards here do, even the ones outside of Subway) gathered around our vehicle telling us to move. We kept trying to call Tom and Makenzie to tell them to hurry the heck up but were not getting a response. Aubrey kept telling the guards that our friends left us there and we didn’t have the car keys so we couldn’t move the car until they came back. Even more guards showed up shortly after and Katie finally got ahold of Makenzie and said “you guys need to get back here NOW. We are surrounded!” Though we were a little afraid we were going to be shot by someone, it was hysterical. So Aubrey pretended to run into the mall and grab the car keys from Tom when she really had them in her pocket all along. Since I was the only one in the car who had ever even driven a stick shift, she ran back handed me the keys with a worried smile and said, “okay, we’re leaving!” I, nervously laughing my head off, got into the drivers seat and started the car. We INSTANTLY stalled it and then sped off into the parking garage. I tried to just put the car in park on the ramp so we wouldn’t have to pay but another guard in the garage peer pressured me to pull into the crowded parking lot. We drove around and tried to leave but trying to maneuver a standard UP a ramp while paying a parking fee and waiting for those little gate things to go up was nearly impossible. As soon as we got to the top of the ramp, and right before I would have been forced to drive onto a one way street on busy city traffic, Tom and Makenzie came running up to the car and chaos was avoided. I really couldn’t stop laughing about that experience for days and wish I could have had it on tape to show you all.
3. Car shopping: So it looks like we may need to give in a buy a car. The school had originally said transportation to and from school would be provided for teachers but due to recent and unexpected budget cuts, the only bus available for us in the morning gets to school at about 8:05 when the kiddos get there at 8:15. Not okay! So for the first whole week of school Aubrey and I took a taxi to work which really started to add up. Lindsey just got a car last weekend and took us to school this week but I really don’t want to mooch off of her for two years. So Katie, Makenzie, Aubrey and I are thinking about pooling our money together to buy a car. We found a 2003 Kia Sportage with 68,000 kilometers and four wheel drive for about $5000 USD. Though this is quite a bit more than we had intended to spend, it seems like the perfect car for us. Not too nice so if anything happened to it we would be devastated, not too crappy that we would have to put more money into it, roomy enough for the four of us, and able to handle some of the rough roads outside of the city. The girl who is selling can’t get rid of it until the end of September, however, so we have some time to think about it.
4. After school activities: So I’ve been taking Spanish lessons everyday after school and not only have they been going really well but they are actually pretty fun. Camille, Ashley, Eliza, Graeme, Makenzie, and Jessica (a grade 4 teacher from Chicago) take the classes as well and we usually end up laughing throughout the entire thing as we try to pronounce things and make silly mistakes. Our instructor, Walter, is the elementary school Art teacher and he is just fabulous. He is a really good teacher and talks slowly enough that I can understand almost everything he says, I just haven’t really figured out how to respond. I really think I’m going to have to go away for some weekends to a language school in Antigua if I’m serious about learning, however. Starting this Thursday, I’m adding a new after school activity. You’re reading the blog of the new kindergarten/first grade assistant soccer coach! Big time, I know. I am so incredibly excited for this I can’t even really describe it. The head coach doesn’t speak a work of English and very few of the players will either but I am already laughing at picturing a mob of five-year-olds running chasing the ball. The director of extra curricular activities wanted me to do this so the girls would have a role model in doing sports—I think that’s pretty awesome :)
5. Family update: Okay so I’ve been incredibly selfish in this blog and haven’t been updating people about my family and friends who have been off doing super awesome things.
First, Sarah just completed her first Half Ironman! WHAT A STUD! She finished second in her age group and ninth overall for the women and she finished under her goal time. I am so proud and impressed with how dedicated she is to her training and really hope I will be able to watch her compete in her first FULL Ironman next summer. She is also working full-time at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center trying to kill that byotch called cancer all at the same time.
Then, Zack just packed up his things and moved to Paris for the next year! He is going to be an international student at Sciences Po from September to June studying French and Political Sciences, as well as various other awesome courses. He is travelling (I spelled it with two l’s just for you Zack!) around Europe right now and scouting out all the super cool places he plans to take his family when they come to visit :)
My mom is adjusting to life with her kids being scattered all over the world and doing some travelling herself. She is working as an RN at a colonoscopy and endoscopy clinic AND working at Chico’s on the weekend (but, if she can take the hint, hopefully she will stop working at Chico’s soon so she doesn’t go crazy). She is going to Reno for Thanksgiving, Paris at the end of November, and Guatemala in the spring. That woman gets around!
Weston is a manager at Boeing working on the 787 plane. He has to work long days and usually weekends too but as far as I can tell he is happy with it nonetheless (though Weston rarely complains about anything). He has been working hard to get their new house organized and feeling more homey so I’m really excited to see it in December! He is also Sarah’s biggest fan in her triathlon pursuit which makes us love him even more.
I have been able to skype with lots of people which makes this whole transition A LOT easier. I just love skype and think they should hire me for how many people I have convinced to start using it :) I can talk to other teacher friends teaching in other countries, Danielle took me on a tour of my old house in Kansas, I've enticed people to come visit by giving them tours, and its just nice to see peoples smiling faces.
Okay, I think that’s about it? I hope this obnoxiously long blog post has made up for my lack of posting the last two weeks, though I’m sure this has been a pain to read. I’ll definitely try to be the Most Improved blogger though and give a weekend report (if anything cool happens) tomorrow. Love to you all!
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