Wolf Man in the Park

I don't have too many things to update on since my last post, even though it was a week ago, but I am going to do my very best to explain a story that one of my students told me today.

• Student A: Mees Ana, yesterday me and Student B goed to the park and, and, and there was a... a... a... como se dice hombre de lobo??? 
• Class: Wolf man!
• Student A: Va! Si! There was a wolf man at the park.
• Me: A Wolf man? Uh... okay. Is that the whole story?
• Student A: No! The man wolf, he come up to Student B and he say things about her sister.
• Me: Whose sister?
• Student A: The sister of Student B
• Me: Oh, he was saying things about HIS sister. Was the wolf man saying mean things?
• Student A: Yes, he say bad things of the sister of Student B so Student B say, "You can't say things this way of my sister!!!!" and HE PUNCH HIM!
• Me: WHAT?! Wait, you're telling me that a man, who looks like a wolf, was at the park yesterday, saying unkind things to Student B about Student B's sister and then Student B punched him???
• Student A: YES!
• Me: Was this "wolf man" an adult?
• Student A: Yes, he was big!
• Me: And what did he do after Student B punched him?
• Student A: He go like this [makes angry face], "GRRRRRR!"
• Me: [bewildered, amazed, and not sure what to say next] Student B, did you really punch a wolf man in the park because he said mean things about your sister?
• Student B: [smiles] Yes.
• Me: Are you guys sure this really happened? [no longer trying to hold in laughter]
• Student A & B: Yes, Miss Hannah!!!

I'm still pretty confused.

This past weekend Aubrey and our friend Claudia and I went to see Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte. It was quite possibly the best Harry Potter movie yet. I was super tense the entire time and left the movie thinking there was going to be snow on the ground and dementors waiting for me outside the mall. Tom is going to the movie tomorrow with his whole 5th grade class-- awesome. Aubrey and I really wanted to join but we are going to a baby shower for Katrin, our neighbor and director of extra curricular activities at Inter-- equally awesome.

After the movie, Camille, Katie, Makenzie and I went to Antigua to meet up with Jaron, our friend from the Peace Corps that we met while hiking Volcan Tajumulco. She seems to really be adjusting to her site well and is overall loving her experience as a volunteer. We met a few of her PC friends there as well and one of them was a vegetarian from Wenatchee, Washington and attended the University of Washington. Small world! Another had finished his PC service in April but remained in Guatemala to build schools out of... wait for it... garbage. No joke. He somehow figured out how to use hundreds of thousands of tons of trash to create strong enough structures to teach little Guatemalan children in. Talk about inspiring! That's one aspect of living abroad that I don't know how I will ever be able to give up. I've met some of the most interesting, compassionate, knowledge-seeking people, which I am confident exist elsewhere in the world, but there's something about aimless wanderers that intrigue me to no end. On Sunday morning we went to Salvador's (the seventy-year-old Antigua grandfather who danced salsa with us a few weeks back; remember him?) crepe restaurant and then headed back home for an afternoon of napping, relaxing, and getting ready for our three-day school week.

Tomorrow is our last day for the school week and then we only have one full week left until an entire month vacation. It's unreal how fast this is all going. I'm trying not to blink for fear the next time I open my eyes this whole life down here will be over with. In order to take advantage of every vacation time we have, Aubrey, Claudia and I are going to Livingston, Guatemala for the four-day weekend. Livingston is located on the Caribbean Sea just east of Belice. Apparently it's like a little Jamaica and looks nothing like the rest of Guatemala. Should be a good time.

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and if you're having a hard time finding something to be thankful for, here are some inspiring words from one of my third graders...


"This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my lovely family and my kind friends. They are always there for me thats why I chose them. I am thankful for my friends because they always play with me, they always make me laph, and they always care for me. But with my family, is different. They love me with all thair harts, I know it because they always tell it to me. My dad is so sweet because he tells me that it doesn't matter if he is in the sky. He is always in my hart. Thank you for being so good listeners!"