Winter Break!

*I started this on the plane ride from Guate to Houston and finished it now... almost two weeks later. OOPS!

I’m writing this entry from an incredibly small yet exciting airplane. Its not exciting because we’re watching an action-packed movie or because the flight attendant is one of those hilarious Southwest Airlines joke-tellers, but the fact that I am sitting here, hovering over the landmass known as the U.S.A., is something so exciting to me that I have hardly slept or ate all week. I’m still a little unsure if this is all actually happening; getting an entire month off of work, traveling to three different states in 4 weeks, seeing so many people I love in such a short period of time-- how did life get so awesome?

The flight out of Guatemala was probably the most amazing flying experience of my life, though waking up and getting a cab to the airport at 4:30am was definitely not part of it. I got through security and arrived at my gate with hours to spare, something that I feel rarely happens to me. When it was time to board the plane, I took a quick glance at my seating assignment and saw the number-letter combination, 2A. Thinking this aircraft was one of those small planes were anyone taller than 5’8’’ hits their head on the ceiling and the seat 2A simply meant you were close to the front, I was shocked to find out that 2A on this plane meant first class. I stared at my ticket, stared at the seat, looked at the number written below the overhead compartment that suggested it was indeed my seat, and then repeated this process until the people behind me started to cough under their breath in hopes I would get the heck out of the way.

I took the seat and then showed the man sitting next to me my ticket and asked with the utmost confusion,
-“Is this really my seat?”
The man smiled and said,
-“Well it sure looks like it! Why do you sound so surprised?"
-“Uh, well, I guess I just didn’t expect to be sitting so close to the front of the airplane [insert awkward laugh]”
Then, the passenger in 2B gave me a piece of advice I’ll never forget. He said,
-“The moment you start to question miracles, they’ll stop happening.”
I promptly shut my mouth, smiled, and wrote down the quote so I could share it with you all ☺

I knew I was no longer in Guatemala when I was served French toast, was given those intensely hot wash clothes to “wash” my hands with (?), and watched a full-length feature film about some animated owls who want to save the world on a screen two feet away from my face. Though I never did find out why I was moved to first class, I couldn’t help but marvel at the disparities between Guatemala and the U.S. As I sat in those unnecessarily too big of seats and looked out over Central America, I realized that though Guatemala is not a place I would like to permanently make my home, I am so thankful for the opportunity to truly know that country, learn from it, hopefully help make it a little better through my students, and forever remember what I experienced there.

I remember in one of my undergraduate education classes a professor explaining that in schools there are certain times of the year where teachers need to be on guard. He called these days “hot spots.” Examples of such were the days before long holiday breaks, days of big high school sporting events, and other such activities that could distract students to the point of not learning a single thing when they came to school. I remember thinking, “DUH!” when he lectured about “hot spots” and then never giving it a second thought again. Oh, how I wish I would have asked that professor for some advice about how to deal with these “hot spots” because the week approaching our month long winter break almost drove me crazy. My students seemed to be possessed by some Christmas-loving, fighting-at-recess, being-sent-to-the-principal-multiple-times-by-several-different-teachers, reluctant-to-learn-anything-new, forgetful-of-all-the-things-we-had-already-learned-this-year children that I had never seen before. Seriously, I didn’t even recognize my students by the end of the week. On Wednesday of that week, I only had sixteen kids in my class. Sixteen! I normally have twenty-two! FOUR had been sent to the principal for fighting (yes, fighting!) at recess, one went home “sick”, and one never showed up. We were all very ready for this month long break, to say the least.

Santa's Little Helpers :)

I do miss Guatemala, my students, and my friends but am thankful I still have another year and a half to make more memories there. I had missed the United States and the people in it before coming back but am grateful that I had so much time off to catch-up with so many different people. I am also realizing just how fortunate I am to be loving my life abroad but also loving my life in the United States. I mean, how lucky is that?

Hopefully I’ll write a few more entries this month but I haven’t had a whole lot of down time thus far. Now that I finally reached Seattle, there should be more opportunities to write but I’m not making any promises ;)