A New Year

Oh, hi! I'm going to try not make excuses for not blogging in over a month but I will apologize. So, SORRY! I'm also going to try to somehow some-up the last month of life in an entry... or two.

So, since December 19th (my last post), I have ventured back to Guatemala after a glorious month long vacation of traveling to Wisconsin, Kansas, and Washington to visit some pretty legit humans. It was hard to come back to Guate after being able to relax and catch up with people for 4 weeks but I definitely came back to school feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the rest of the school year. Knowing I'll be back in the U.S. and other countries in just 5 more months makes the next two quarters of school seem more "do-able."

Some McMackens, Andersons, and a Riordan at Christmas

Okay, where to start. School started again on January 4th and it was pretty interesting to see how much English the students had lost after not practicing it for so long. I spent the first few days speaking really slowly, answering endless "como se dice..." questions, and getting back into the routine of trying to be patient at all times. I was happy to learn that though the kids did forget a lot of their English, they did remember to be awesome in my classroom at all times. It only took a few reminders and class discussions to bring back the class community. We made New Year's Resolutions, introduced multiplication, and started writing our very own poetry. Needless to say, their English skills have returned and have seemingly already improved since December.


Aubrey's boyfriend Charles came to Guatemala during that first week back and then Mike got here the Friday after we went back to school. We had a packed apartment with lots of food and lots of fun. The first weekend we traveled to Lake Atitlan via an intensely packed van whose driver seemed to get a lot of pleasure out of trying to make all his passengers shat themselves with his skilled games of "chicken" he played with semi-trucks, large buses, and cliffs. The town was clear and warm and full of young vendor children just waiting to convince Mike to purchase their products. One look at their persistent faces caused him to reach for his wallet, that he also bought from a child vendor, and give them money for things he may not have purchased from a less adorable, older person.

Once we got our fill on market shopping we set sail for our hostel called La Iguana Perdida, The Lost Iguana. This colorful place was owned by a British couple who brought a taste of England to Guate with their Saturday buffet dinners in which all attendees must show up in costume (in drag, mind you) and then procede to take part in an intense game of musical chairs. I couldn't stop laughing thinking about what that place did to people; complete strangers, dressed as the opposite sex, and playing a childhood favorite party game. Hilarious.

Mr. Mike Photography

We walked around the next day and Aubrey and I did a little swimming (Aubrey on accident) before we made the trek back to the city. The next day was Mike's birthday AND his first day of school. Talk about excitement. As expected, all 22 of my students became obsessed with Mr. Mike within seconds of meeting him. He was just a little bit taller than everyone else in the entire country so shortly after arrival the entire school was equally enthralled. Mr. Brown took liberty of introducing Charles and Mike at the assembly first thing in the morning and Mike even got a shout out about his lengthy hair, which was too long for students at Inter but they "made an exception" for Mike, this time :)

I think the first few days of school were overwhelming/exhausting for our guests but by the end of the trip, Mr. Mike could have made a permanent addition to our school with the entire school community gladly approving. We wrote more poems, multiplied with 2's AND 5's, made our own thermometers, participated in the 3rd grade spelling bee, AND learned about trustworthiness all in 5 days. My students trusted Mike almost instantly which was a huge deal and respected him as teacher from the very beginning. They were all so proud to have Mr. Mike in THEIR class and considered him a member of our classroom forever. I also very much appreciated having an extra set of hands and eyes in the class; its amazing how much more learning occurs with some help.

The newest member of 3A :)

After a week of tying shoes, grading papers, and playing soccer at recess, we headed to the beach for some Pacific Guatemala time. We went to Paredon, the beach we usually go to, and loved basically every second of it. The hostel has really made some changes since the last time Aubrey and I had been there including more vegetation, games, a swing, new staff, and most importantly, a slack line. I'm fairly certain I annoyed all the tenants that weekend with my stubborn attempts to walk across the entire thing but it was incredibly addicting. The rest of the crew played on it as well, so I was only kind of a slack-line-hog. Anyway, we spent the rest of the weekend playing in the ocean, laying in hammocks, attempting to surf, eating amazing food, meeting cool people, and engaging in awesome conversations.

Slack line sharing

Slack line battle scars: the "tuck and roll" instinct is not the best for sand

We then came back to Guate to prepare for another week of school, this time a four day week since I took a personal day on Friday. Mr. Mike made an awesome video of all the pictures he had taken at school for my students and set it to their favorite song, "Wavin' Flag." He worked on it all week, as well as crocheting a hat at school that made for some easy distractions for those 8-year-olds, and when the week came to close, he presented the video to the kids only to find that they were overcome with happiness. Parts of the video were pictures of the kids that had been distorted with a certain setting on Mike's camera. I think my favorite memory of the whole week was hearing and watching those kids crack up laughing while watching their peers look hilariously disproportional on screen. At the end of the video, one of my students who I would label as a "tough guy" who rarely shows emotion or affection towards anyone, leapt out of his seat and ran to Mike to give him a hug. The rest of the class followed suit, of course, and pig-piled him in his chair. It was definitely a touching moment and one that I think everyone involved will not soon forget.

The most hilarious of distorted photos

On Thursday afternoon, Mike and I headed to Antigua for the weekend to explore while staying close to home. We stayed at a super unique hotel on the outskirts of Antigua, ate lots of delicious food, explored the market, camped out in a tree house at the Earthlodge, and then headed back home. It was a great experience for me to travel without being surrounded by friends who have better Spanish than I do because I was forced to speak it more. Though I realize that most people who spoke to me were doing so in a manner that was easy to understand, I was still pretty pleased with how smoothly the weekend went despite the language barrier.

Mike returned home to Kansas yesterday after 16 days in Guatemala and *sigh* now I am back into the "normal" routine. Though I wish he, and all my family and friends, could stay forever, I'm really just glad that I've been lucky enough to have visitors to share this experience with and that my students have such positive role models in their lives now. This week is "second quarter exams" at school, which means we give our young children comprehensive tests in every subject over everything they've learned this quarter, yikes. Then report cards are due next week (double yikes) but my dear friend Keri and her husband Kurt, will be arriving in Guate on Wednesday! I have the guest room all ready to go for them and am looking forward to hopefully doing some exploring with them over the next two weekends :)

"Come back soon!"

Hopefully I'll get another entry in before February to spare my pride in only seeing a (1) next to the month of January on my blog page. And hopefully I haven't lost any faithful readers in my blogging delinquency.