New Look!

Since I didn't have a whole lot to update about, I thought I would change up the look of the blog itself. A lightbulb went off in my head the other day that I didn't have to stick with that North American-looking tree as the background of the blog and decided it would make more sense to have a Guatemalan photo instead. Photo credits go to Mr. Mike :)

The rest of the school week went really well as the students finished up their third quarter exams and no one else peed their pants. We got to see the second grade "Wax Museum" where the students dressed up as and researched a person who has changed the world. There were some George Washington's, a Mother Teresa, a Paul McCartney (this kid presented her information in a British accent-- A+ for sure), and an Aaron Rogers. The kids were very creative and worked hard to know all about their person and, as you can see, put a lot of thought into which person they considered "world-changing."

Paul and her bandmates

Friday after school I played rugby with some friends and then we went to a bar near our school to watch the Kansas game. It was there that I met a real live magician. Like the kind that do magic for a living. He plays rugby with Colin and the other rugby crew and went to magic school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If I had known such a place existed, I may have chosen a different career path! Anyway, I'm going to try my best to explain this one trick he did that almost made me pee my pants. He put one coin (a Quetzal, not a trick coin mind you) in his hand and squeezed it tightly, having Aubrey grasp her hands around his to secure it even more. Then he put three coins in my hand and had me make a fist and hold on tightly with both hands. He said some things, honestly I can't remember what, and then he opened his hand and there was no coin. And then... I opened my hands... and I had FOUR coins! It was unreal! I actually screamed and was shouting, "NO! No way!" for an extended period of time. I'm blogging about this because I still can't explain it and was thinking you all might want to take a stab at it (though, I must say faithful readers, I don't get a whole lot of feedback from ya'll... just sayin'!) ;)

This is what "girls night" looks like

This weekend we had a "girls night" in Antigua. I got there a lot later than everyone because of a change of plans throughout the day but we all ended up having a great time bonding, exploring new places in the city, and meeting some intensely random people. Who was the most intensely random person? A young Guatemalan boy wearing a Kansas Baseball athletic t-shirt. I FREAKED out on him and probably made him pee his pants (I'm going to continue making references to that event) as well as I asked him to take a picture with me. He had no clue what I was talking about since he probably had no idea that Kansas was a state or a place or a school or anything for that matter. I'm wondering if anyone knows exactly how excess athletic clothing actually makes its way down to Guatemala. Is there some clothing donation system? Or like a Guatemalan Goodwill? Or perhaps I'm not giving this kid enough credit and he was actually a member of the Kansas baseball team?

Go Jayhawks?

The rest of my day will probably be spent watching basketball, cleaning, and preparing for the school week. Aubrey and I almost have the entire Semana Santa trip planned and will hopefully also spend some time working on it today. Then just three short weeks until our parents are here and we have eleven days to take Guatemala by storm. The sun in shining here and though I'm missing you all, I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. Ciao!

"If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis"

I had my first couldn't-make-it-to-the-bathroom-on-time experience with a student today. Just as we were about to sit down on the carpet to learn about adjectives, I had a student ask if he/she (I am not uncertain of the gender of this child, I am just trying to disclose as little information about which child it was as possible) could use the restroom when their classmate returned from the restroom. I said, "Of course," turned my back for a second, and then heard the tears as I turned back to see this young child literally covered in urine. I have never seen that much pee in my life. I frantically asked the rest of the class to be awesome while I ran to the office with this kid, only to find that the pee was actually dripping down the leg of this student and creating a trail down the hallway; GAH! I told him/her to wash up in the bathroom while I got help and luckily I found the counselor down that same, pee-pathed hallway and she called this students parents. When I got back to the classroom, I almost instantly ran back out as I had somehow forgotten that the puddle of urine in my class needed to be tended to. The counselor, who is obviously skilled in this area, handled that one too.

I almost dreaded walking back into class because I assumed it was going to take the rest of the school day for those kids to stop talking about the incident that had just occurred. For a second, I toyed with the idea of taking the "Billy Madison" approach and wetting my own pants to make the kid feel more comfortable.  Luckily, my students were easy to convince that this was not an issue that needed to be mentioned ever again. I asked everyone if "that" was something that we needed to discuss with the student and they all said no. I asked if "that" had happened to all of them at one point and they said yes. I told them that I had done "that" yesterday and though I don't think they believed me, they all laughed. Then, I pretended to throw magic forgetful dust all over them and they all started saying things like, "What happened?!" and "What are you even talking about?" It was actually quite adorable. One kid even felt the need to admit to the class that the same thing had happened to him one time but it was when he had "dee-uh-ray-uh"

:)

Best Friends

Today, UNO went wonderfully with my tutee. He kept telling me how amazing I was at the game and that he thinks I am probably the best "player of UNO in the whole world." He yelled, "Thanks GOD!" every time he was saved from losing and did a celebratory dance for 3 minutes when he won his first game.  As we sat in the sunny hallway and laughed about the hilarity of the game, he smiled and said,

"Miss Hannah, you are my best friend."

OH JEEZ! Tear jerker for sure, 1. because it was adorable and 2. because it was pretty sad. I'm happy that we have a good relationship and that he trusts me but I just wish he could be accepted by his peers. I honestly think he is the funniest kid I've ever met; we probably really would have been best friends if I were a third grader. It just kills me that kids can be so awesome sometimes and then, when you turn your back, they can be so cruel. 

During Math Facts Review today, I very briefly taught the class the standard algorithm for multiplying a two-digit number by a one-digit number. They. Were. Blown away. Some of them were holding their heads and saying things like, "Oh my gosh!" and others had their jaws on the floor and eyes popping out of their heads. I was so surprised that they were loving what they were learning that we ended up practicing problems for close to 15 minutes when the entire Math Facts Review time is only supposed to be 10 minutes. Then one of my students asked,

"Miss Hannah! Where did you learn that?!"

I explained that I learned it when I was their age from my teacher as well but they all just insisted that I was a super genius. It was pretty dang awesome to see so many kids stoked about multiplication to the point of disbelief. Man, I can't wait until they get to learn about how cool division is; they're going to explode!

Mango Hunters

This past weekend was frankly one of the best I've had in months. Not because we went someplace new and exciting or because we narrowly escaped a life-threatening situation but because I let myself completely relax without thinking about school or anything else for that matter. We went to Paredon, our go-to beach house, with just a few, calm friends from school and I literally spent most of my time in a hammock or in the pool/ocean. It was exactly what I needed. I listened to my iPod, crocheted two hats, had a good surfing session with Tom, ate delicious food, went mango picking, engaged in deep conversations, and really just didn't worry about anything at all. I came to school on Monday motivated and refreshed and this week has actually been fun thus far. One of the funniest parts of the beach this last weekend was that Tom's friend Georgia, who came to visit him a month ago, is still at the beach! She actually was hired as the manager for the next three months. Her life is pretty sweet right now; playing in the ocean, living for free, learning to make awesome food, meeting lots of interesting travelers, and getting to speak Spanish everyday. Basically, I think my brother Zack should come visit me as soon as he is done with school in Paris and then work at the beach house until he needs to go back to school in September. Yes? Zachary? Okay, see you there.

life's rough

Weekend Update

Here's a weekend update, SNL style.

This weekend we have our 6th day of work on Saturday where we spent another 8 hours at school watching children play in various sports and eat an assortment of junk food at the same time. 3A wons two games of dodgeball and maybe, sorta, a little bit lost two games of soccer. But let me tell you about how Guatemalan's play dodgeball. They call it "Matado" and its so much cooler than dodgeball (yeah, I didn't think that was possible either!). They only play with one ball but as soon as you get out, you have to run to the other side of the court to the opposing team's side and you can hit people from behind as well. Eventually, there are equal numbers of kids trying to hit you from the front and the back. So no one truly gets "out;" everyone continues to contribute just in a different position. I think this version with a few more balls would be a hit in the U.S. and hopefully I can bring it there someday.

My little munchkins :)

Nothing else too exciting happened on Saturday except for the surprise birthday linner (in between lunch and dinner) for Claudia and my 10:30pm bedtime. Walter picked me up a 6:45am the next day and we unintentionally ran 17K with his running group. It was awesome but also a slap-in-the-face as to how depressing it is when you have to get back in shape. I am running a lot more than I had been but it still blows to be completely dependent on someone else's schedule; if they decide not to run, you can't either. Anywayyyy, that's about the extent of the weekend. This next one will be much better as I plan to go to the beach, lay in a hammock, possibly crochet a few hats, play in the ocean, and practice my Spanish. Yes, please!

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day so everyone is coming to my class dressed in green (they are well-aware of the punishments that will ensue if they fail to do so... pinches galore). We are also having a third grade "St. Patty's Day Dash" in honor of my family in Washington. We are going to have a group stretch and a race around the track. Winner gets a prize that I have yet to come up with; suggestions are welcomed. I'm mostly just excited to teach my kids about all the reasons I love St. Patty's Day: Megan Koontz :)

Today as a little break between 7 hours of school and tutoring, my little buddy I tutor and I played UNO. I taught him how to shuffle the deck, we glared at each other while we were "at battle" (his words!) as we played, and I laughed my head off when every time I'd throw down a "draw two" card, he would yell, "Why god, why?!" Then, after beating him for the second time in a row, the kid had to go ruin all our fun by shouting,

"What?! A WOMAN beating a MAN two times?! Impossible!"

Oh snap! You said that to the wrong girl, kid. I pretty much lectured him to death on that comment. I asked him who taught him that or who told him it was okay to think such things and he wouldn't answer me. I think its safe to assume it was the Latin American culture that engrained this thought in his young mind. One of the most frustrating things about this society is that many, many people truly believe that women are inferior to men in every sense of the word. Not all Guatemalans think this way, obviously, but those who do seem to express it in more ways than necessary. It doesn't take a feminist to feel offended by the fact that an 8-year-old thinks that because he is a boy he will automatically beat a 23-year-old girl at a card game. Hopefully the remaining uncomfortable time left in that tutoring session gave him some time to think about what he thinks or at least who he says it to.

Yesterday during math, we all filled out our very own NCAA Basketball brackets. It took forever for the kids to understand the process of it but once they got a hang of it, I was very impressed with their care and confidence. I had printed out the records of each of the teams so the kids had to consider their rankings and records all while looking from one list of data to the next. Eighteen of my students chose Kansas to win the entire tournament. Some kids even chose KU to play UW in the championship game (brown nosers!). Five kiddos chose another team (either Ohio St, Duke, or Texas) and I only threatened to fail them once ;) They are all so excited to hear the results, especially since I told them the winner will get another prize I have yet to determine.

Another event that will bring a smile to the faces of my KU lovers, is when we read the book "Little Miss Sunshine" today in class. For those who don't know the story, Little Miss Sunshine takes a trip to a place called "Miseryland" and, after some persuasion, brings cheer to everyone there. I asked my kids if they knew what the word "misery" meant and one sweet girl raised her hand and answered,

"It is the state next to Kansas!"

It took all my strength to not burst out into laughter but I was able to pull off a smile instead. I told the kids that not only are "misery" and "Missouri" homophones, but they were also synonyms :)

Aubrey's sister, Ali, just got here this morning! They have been so, so excited for that both of them are now passed out asleep. We are hopefully going to an ITRRC (it's been awhile since you've read about that, huh?) dinner tomorrow night to show Ali around the city a bit and for the first time in a long time, Aubrey and I are going to part ways this weekend. Hopefully I can maintain my sanity without her but I think she will have a much-needed sister bonding experience in an Antigua and maybe I'll crochet them matching socks at the beach or something :) Anyway, that's about all I have for you today. Sending my love to all of you!

Pennies, Dead Crabs, and IHOP

Here is my meager attempt at getting a blog in before the weekend because I'm sure the weekend will also bring many stories to record. I'm going to bullet-point this one because I have a lot to report and wanted to make sure I said it all in a semi-orderly fashion.

We're crazy and you like it, loca, loca, loca!

1. Carnaval and Cascarones: Okay the carnival I told you about happened on Tuesday and though it was definitely one of the most random days of school, it was also one of the funniest. Kids came to school dressed in any costume they wanted, as long as they were nonviolent. I had two Darth Vadars, a Princess Lea, Harry Potter, various fútbol players, a bumble bee, some Disney Channel characters that I didn't recognize, and Aubrey and I came to school as the Cat in the Hat and The Lorax. Well, we didn't really come to school that way, we threw together our costumes with the paper supplies we could find in our classrooms moments before the kids got to school. I think we did a pretty darn good job of it. At recess, the kids ran out to the soccer field with bags of hollowed out eggs filled with confetti and, in all seriousness, smashed them on each others' head. True story, scouts honor. All us new teachers gawked at the scene with our jaws on the ground for a few moments before we joined in on the chaos. I asked around about the significance of the events of the day and absolutely no one could give me an answer. Its just another thing that makes Guatemala... special.
   
   
2. IHOP: Yep, you read that acronym right. The International House of Pancakes has finally reached Central America as a new IHOP opened at the mall in Guate. A group of about 25 teachers all met there on Tuesday night for pancakes and other various breakfast deliciousness. It was a great way to get out of the house and enjoy each others company and contribute to the globalization of Guatemala. With bellies full of pancakes, we headed to our friend Alfredo's soccer game. We had a good time pretend-heckling the goalie but the best part is that we met more Guatemalans. We even met a girl who went to college at... wait for it... Mizzou. I hated her for like two seconds just to appease my Kansas connections, but she was actually a wonderful person that I have every intention of being friends with :)
   
   
3. Pennies: This one is a quick, funny story from class. One of my students read a story called, "How to Make A Trillion" that tried to help students with their number sense starting with a million and then working up to a trillion. One part of the story talked about having a million pennies and how much space it would take up. When I was grading his summary of the book, I about died of laughter at the way this students spelled the word "pennies"... p-e-n-i-s. So he talked about having a million "pennies", a jar of "pennies", etc. Though his phonetics in English clearly need some work, I'm glad he at least tried to sound the word out and gave me a good laugh at the same time.
   
   
4. Dead Crab: A few weeks ago, a student brought in a crab in an empty spice container to show the class. I vaguely remember this even happening and a few days later the crab was forgotten by everyone else as well. So yesterday during lunch, I was organizing the bookshelf and found a container of cinnamon. Curious as to why this spice would turn up next to the historical fiction books, I opened the darn thing. Dead crab that had been living three weeks ago, in a small, enclosed container just so happens to be the most dreadful smell I have ever encountered. Good thing I opened it while my students were all at their desks eating their lunches. The odor seemed to fly across the room and into my poor kiddos noses. Soon the whole class was screaming, gagging, and yelling, "I'm going to bomit!" while I spun around in circles spraying Lysol everywhere. Sometimes, being an elementary school teacher really does feel more like being a character in a cartoon.
   
   
5. Processions: Yesterday after school, Walter took Aubrey, Camille, Camille's friend from Canada, and I to the Easter processions in Zona 1. Guatemala is almost entirely Catholic and people pay hundreds of Quetzales to participate in these processions that carry the stations of the cross and a 60 foot "float" carried by 60 men all around town. They do this for hours. At every street corner when they have to make a turn, the men switch places with others who paid to be part of this ceremony. They had it so well planned (unlike most other things in the city) even to the point where men were assigned the role of lifting up the telephone wires with what looked like extended pitch-forks so the float of Jesus could fit under. Though I was raised in a Catholic church, all this was unfamiliar to me. I had never seen such extravagance, such commitment, such genuine faith from Catholics, or anyone for that matter. I was pretty moved by how much Guatemalan's truly dedicate their lives to what they believe. Not because someone convinced them. Not because they want to get to heaven. Not because they don't know anything different. But because they truly, whole-heartedly BELIEVE it. I don't know many people who really possess that quality, myself included, and it was pretty remarkable to me to see 80-year-old men carrying a float that probably weighed thousands of pounds because it was just that important to them. It was actually quite beautiful. Walter took us to the market after that and we sampled some odd fruits, went to dinner, and called it a night. I'm very thankful for what I saw and learned yesterday, and can't wait for my mom to get here and see the real Easter festivities I have heard so much about.
   
   6. Sports Day: Tomorrow we are coming to school for the 6th day this week for "Sports Day." Apparently it is a lot like Family Day but only sports and games are played rather than crappy food being eaten and intense bounce houses being used. 3A has to come to school wearing red and play soccer and dodgeball against the other third grade classes. Obviously, we plan to dominate. Not sure about the rest of the weekend but there is a possibility that we could be going to harvest fruit at one of our Guatemalan friends' farm. Yes please!

Makenzie getting egged

Dr. Seuss lovers stick together 

Lastly, one of my coworkers told me she googled herself to make sure that if future employers did the same thing, she would not be incriminating herself. Her results included entries from my blog as well as pictures from my blog. Uh oh! I think I changed the settings so this blog could not be found via search engines but if I hear anything else about it being linked to peoples names, I will probably have to make it completely private which means only people I approve to read the blog can. We can cross that bridge when we get to it but I just wanted to give you all a heads up. So, if you frequently google yourself and my blog comes up, please send me a comment or something so I can look into stopping that asap. Gracias!

marzo

Whoa! Considering I was MVP at blogging in February, I'm pretty sure I'm really letting the team down so far in March. I am actually at school right now, and somehow finished all the things I had wanted to get done this morning (though I suppose there is always something else I could be working on) and thought I would check in quickly.

Last week I was significantly happier than I normally am all because I started running again. I found out that one of my coworkers, Victor, has been running home from school everyday! Excuse me? Sign me up! Its about a 6K (don't you love that I'm measuring in kilometers now?) run that happens to be really hilly and maybe a little sketchy but I feel pretty safe with Victor. As soon as we're done with ECA's, we put our backpacks in someones car and start our way home. Its perfect for the following reasons,

1. Being outside is always a plus
2. Someone to talk to while running
3. A cool new view of the city, you know, running in a small patch of grass in between a four lane highway.
4. Working on my reflexes as we are constantly dodging cars, dogs, broken glass, fallen branches, and other hilarious things
5. Getting home before 5pm and not having to talk myself into working out
6. Learning a lot about Latin America and life in general from Victor
7. Feeling empowered to set aside the fears and just... run
8. Being exponentially more content with life because one of the things that I thought I had to give up to live in Guatemala is, in fact, not the case :)

The Packers in Guatemala. Yep.

Over the weekend, Aubrey and I did a lot of cleaning. We actually swept and mopped our entire hard wood apartments (can you tell there isn't much else to tell about the weekend since I am spending two sentences on our floors?). Well we did go to Antigua for the night on Friday with Makenzie and our friends Juan Pablo and Alfredo. We met up with Jaron, our super awesome Peace Corps friend we met on a volcano, and ate some great food, met some interesting people, and explored some other parts of Antigua we had yet to discover. Its nice to know that Antigua is accessible for just an evening; we really don't have anymore excuses to stay cooped up in our apartments. 

On Sunday a group of teachers did the Avon Breast Cancer race in the city. It was a sea of pink both walking and running to fight "el cancer de mama." Yes, in Spanish, "breast cancer" is literally translated to "the cancer of mom" -- yikes! Anyway, it was not a very good run for me, which reminded me that running home from school is something I need to continue. But it was still a good time with friends and for Q50, we helped rid the world of Mom Cancer and got to be out in the glorious sunshine without a care in the world. ***This just in. Apparently "mama" without an accent means "mammary gland." I was enlightened by a lovely coworker, Adina, of this fact but decided to leave this paragraph as is because I find it even more hilarious now. The weirdest part is that I laughed about "the cancer of mom" at the race and no one corrected me. They probably just wanted to let me continue to entertain myself :)

Aubrey, Makenzie and I laid on the roof of our apartment for a hours later that day. It was pretty glorious except for the massive sunburn I acquired. After damaging our body's largest organ, we had a little birthday party for Makenzie and Ashley's dads. We knew it wasn't easy to be away from family on that day so we thought carrot cake and friends would make a good substitute. I'm sure those cool padres were looking down on us and celebrating in the same fashion, wherever they are :) 

After a lovely afternoon we had to go screw it up by seeing the most intense movie, El Cisne Negro, or The Black Swan. Okay, I could probably devote an entire blog to analyzing that movie but ho-lee-cow it was so crazy. I know I need to see it again at some point in life to catch-on to things I didn't understand the first time, but I probably can't see it again for a very long time. It was so disturbing yet incredibly well done; the acting, plot, camera angles, everything. Anyway, that movie pretty much consumed the rest of the day, considering it was over 2 hours and we spent the next 2 hours talking and getting all wigged out about it. 

:)

Yesterday, the little guy I tutor after school wrote the coolest story. I asked him to cut out three pictures of people from a magazine and write a story about all three of them. He definitely didn't understand me because he cut out the three most random pictures that had nothing to do with one another. One was of two girls paddling on surfboards, one was a guy with sled dogs in Canada, and the last was of two guys mountain biking. When I repeated my directions he was shocked!

"ONE story about ALL pictures?!" he shouted.

After a few grunts and a "Nooo, please! Please Mees Ana! I don't want!" he finally decided he would write about "My Summer." Here is the paragraph he wrote in just under 15 minutes...

"Hi my name is andres. I have thing to tell you. this summer was realy great. Why? I tell you why. First went to miami and paddle in the ocean. after miami went to alaska i love the sleigh, the snow, and the wolfs. and the end of my summer went to united states my family and me go to the mountains. i don't forget this summer."

Okay, so that was on March 7, 2011. On October 27, 2010, just about a week after he came to Inter, this is all I could get out of him when summarizing a story about a boy named Peter who saved an entire town by putting his finger through a hole in the dike that was leaking...

"Piter put you finger in holl."

Five months, many tears, several hundred eye rolls, and lots of head banging on the desk later, I think he was finally and genuinely proud of himself. 

Today is Carnaval in Latin America which at Inter translates too wear-a-Halloween-costume-to-school and smash-hollowed-out-eggs-on-peoples-head day. Yes, I am equally confused. All I know is right now I'm dressed up as the Cat in the Hat. Embrace it!

We have a busy week ahead but I still have a lot to update about so my goal is to post again before Friday. If there isn't anything new on here by then, feel free to send me threatening messages. 

Recharged

This Friday was quite possibly the greatest day of the school year thus far. We had a professional development day which means teachers come to school all day and the students enjoy a three-day weekend. Normally, I daydream bitterly about those niños playing at the beach or watching TV while I sit in a stuffy library, trying my hardest to not fall asleep while spending the entire day planning out what will happen next in my classroom with my team (don’t get me wrong, I love my team but spending an entire day planning is pretty much as exciting as eating plain Cheerios without milk). This time, however, was different. By the end of the day, every single teacher walked away feeling inspired and recharged; something we all desperately needed.

My presentation went really well! I was very happy with it and I got a lot of positive feedback from my colleagues. Most said they were going to use the program I talked about in their own classrooms and asked if they could come watch it in action this week. Makenzie even said I should have been paid for the presentation it was so great :) Aubrey’s presentation was also very informative and helpful for teachers and our presentations complimented each other so many teachers felt that both programs were possible to bring to their classes. We also heard from some teachers about the research they had done on bullying. From my experiences, bullying is not nearly as big of an issue at this school as it is in others I have seen, but it exists nonetheless. And as we discussed as a staff, even just one instance can completely shake a young child’s world. We all took a miniature pledge to be more active in our students’ personal lives by ensuring that everyone feels safe at school and most importantly, by making sure we as teachers are not bullying the students.

After we all developed as teachers, the P.E. staff had a little surprise presentation of their own for us. They lead the entire elementary school staff in stretching, aerobics, salsa, and dodge ball. Best. Day. Ever! I was pretty much laughing the entire time watching my uncoordinated colleagues let lose and dance while some high school teachers gazed longingly at us from a distance, desperately wishing they were members of the elementary school instead. After getting all sweaty, we ate at our potluck lunch the Spanish teachers planned and then spent the last hour of the day planning. I don’t think a single person left school that day without a smile on their face.

After the PD, some of the teachers and Colin’s rugby friends met at the soccer friend to play touch rugby. I had played one other time before but couldn’t get the hang of the fact that rugby is a sport that requires the team be moving forward but passing the ball backward. So frustrating! This Friday was so much more fun, however, as we had the right mix of people and we were also playing in the pouring rain. Like waterfalls in the streets or enough water to fill the sink hole, kind of pouring. After coming home with squeaky shoes and a bruised body, we began the weekend of celebrating Katie's 26th birthday. We had a gathering at our apartment and pretty much invited everyone we know. A bunch of Guatemaltecos came which was great because we made a lot of new friends that know the ins and outs of the city and have every intention to initiating us to real Guatemalan livin'.  We already made plans to go watch a futbol game, see some live music, check out some potential apartments for next year, and go to the only winery in Guatemala... all this week. I think its safe to say we made some great new friends :)

Q.35 sunglasses automatically make you cool

The whole apartment building, including especially myself, was pretty dead all day Saturday but in the evening we took two car loads of people to Antigua for day two of Katie's birthday weekend. We stayed at the hostel we usually default to (Q.65 for lodging and breakfast. That's less than $8, in case you were wondering) and went out to eat at a restaurant called Frida's, named after the beloved artist. We went out and listened to some local bands play and then called it a night. The next morning, we walked around the market, ate at our favorite crepe restaurant (it may also be the ONLY crepe restaurant but it really is incredible), and then headed to the Earthlodge for the second time in a week. The Earthlodge was having a BBQ with live music, good food, great games, and awesome people. We are convinced that this party was actually planned for Katie's birthday. We laid in the grass, ate mounds of chocolate, and basked in the glory that is our lives. Even the drive home was pleasant, despite the pollution and traffic, because I found myself in the company of good people and good people seem to make everything, well, good. 

Happy birthday, Miss Kite :)

And I'm afraid that is really all I have to say about that. Sometimes the simplest of weekends are the most enjoyable. Tomorrow is the start of a new month, one that is jam-packed with super cool elementary school activities such as space exploration (from earth, that is), Sports Day at Inter, the end of 3rd quarter (come again?!), beginning to learn DIVISION, and an entire month for 3A with no visitors. They seem to think that someone should come once a month now; they've been spoiled rotten with the awesome visitors they have had so far! Aubrey's sister is coming to Guatemala in less than three weeks and then her parents and my mom are coming a few weeks after that; hopefully we can all hold out until then.  For this weekend we are running an Avon breast cancer run with a bunch of teachers and others in the Inter community. I'm doing a 10K just to prove to myself that I really need to get serious about running again. 

Enjoy your last day of February!