El Sal, Brother, Media Maraton

I didn't believe my friends that blog when they warned me that its a lot harder to write during the second year. Turns out they were totally right! I am working on it people...

Roomie Love

Well two three weekends ago now, Makenzie, Aubrey, Tom, Ryan (Tom's high school bro who now also teaches at Inter and lives next door to us) and I went to El Salvador for a three day weekend. We ate Trits, El Salvador's intensely amazing ice cream sandwiches, took naps in hammocks, swam in the pool, surfed a bit, watched Tom and Ryan assist in tearing down an overgrown mango tree, and just completely relaxed. It still really amazes me that we can go to another country so easily and so quickly. Its especially amazing because we have so many opportunities this year to float around and get out of the city with a long weekend almost every single month of the school year. For the next one, we are almost 100% sure we are going to Costa Rica as the plane tickets we just found for $177 are too tempting to resist.

Who will be going to Costa Rica? Aubrey, KyleAnne (a new teacher who teaches in high school), maybe Makenzie, aaaaaaand MY BROTHER! He is here! The process of him getting here was a little more brutal than I would have liked... his expected 8:58pm arrival time turned into hours and hours of delays as he was diverted to El Salvador because of thunderstorms. This wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that the Guatemala City Airport does not think it is necessary to give people any information as to the whereabouts of the flights that become delayed. So we stayed at the airport until 12:05am when his flight landed but since I recently received the "Sister of the Year" award, I had fallen asleep in the truck and woke up at around 1:00am to find my scared and cold little brother alone in the arrivals section of the airport. I still haven't forgiven myself but luckily my brother has.

He came to school on Thursday after 3 hours of sleep and, as expected, was an instant hit with the kids. Kids were volunteering to be Mr. Zack's Spanish teacher, fighting over who was going to get to walk with him in line, and I was happy to have an extra set of hands (and eyes) in the classroom. We have plans of doing some serious touring of the Guate and the countries that surround it but many of the plans are currently not in our control. Hopefully we will have our passports in hand and tickets purchased in the next few days.

Yesterday was the Guatemala City Half Marathon that I have been super excited about for a few weeks now. Unfortunately, nothing special happened. No best time. No moment of triumph. Just pretty average. I felt a little discouraged after the run considering some of my best races seem to now be when I don't train for them but I'm feeling okay with it today. I'm still waiting for that inspiration to try something new in athletics. Maybe half marathons are just not the right distance for me? Maybe I need to do something more exciting? Maybe I should try something that doesn't upset my bowels so much? Perhaps I should look into scuba diving? Plenty of animals to see, has the word "diving" in it, and I get to be submerged in water. Or I could look into the squash court at our apartment building and maybe even start up a team? I'll get back to you on that one ;)

3B with KinderC reading buddies!

Taken by a student in photography club :)

Okay I need to hit the hay but I'll try to update more frequently. One more blog before the end of the month?