SUPPLIES!

Okay, Makenzie told a joke once that may have been mildly offensive to non-native English speakers who are from Asian countries but basically a Japanese man was in charge of finding the "supplies" for something and he ran off and never came back. People went looking for him and he suddenly ran out from the corner and yelled, "SUPPLIES!" You know, like "surprise" but with an accent? Okay I though it was hilarious and this weekend we had a SUPPLIES moment of our own; Charles, Aubrey's boyfriend, flew to Guatemala to "supplies" Aubrey for VD (Valentine's Day... or Venereal Disease, your choice)!

Charles messaged me last week and said he had purchased his ticket and was coming to Guate for the weekend and that I was NOT to tell Aubrey. Well, I felt like I was literally going to explode with that information so I had to tell a few others. We had this marvelous plan for the guards at our school to let the red-head in and then have him hide in the conference room in the elementary office. We had parent teacher conferences that day so we had Claudia go to Aubrey's room and tell her, "There is a parent wanting to talk to you in the office? Colin is there too... in the conference room. I'm not sure what parent it is, but they said it was urgent." Aubrey was ready to die at that moment but when she opened the door of the conference room she found her lovable gringo man standing there with a smile instead of angry parents ready to chew her out. I didn't get to be there for this moment because I was having a conference myself, but I guess Aubrey punched him, hugged him, slapped him, and kissed him all at once. So that was the surprise I left you wondering about yesterday. Sorry about that one, but I'm teaching my students about the writing process and "keeping your readers wanting more" so I had to follow my own lead :)

SUPPLIES!

Conferences went really well. My parents were all really pleased with how their kids were doing and almost every one of them told me how much their kids genuinely love school. One dad told me that every few months he lets his son in first grade miss school and they go on a father-son day together. His daughter, who is in my class, asked if she could have a father-daughter day with him and he said,

"Sure! Lets go this Friday!"

She stared at him, dumbfounded and said,

"Dad! I have to go to schooool on Friday! If we are going to have this date, we need to do it on Saturday of Sunday." Music to my ears :)

Okay well I hope you all have a great weekend and hopefully something else awesome will happen so I can continue with this consistent blogging.

My adorable little test-takers

I'm feeling like a proud teacher today as my students took their second series of MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) tests this school year and showed me that they really are learning things when they come to school; who knew?! The test is really progressive in terms of computerized tests as the questions the students get are determined on how they answer the previous question. So, some students are answering questions about probability while others are finding the patterns in shapes. Its a little frustrating as sometimes students cannot relate to the content or simply cannot read the directions because the English is confusing, not because the content is too difficult. Students are given a RIT score that finds the average of how they did in all the sections of the test and the teachers can see which areas the students struggled in the most. A lot of the content on the test we simply have not covered yet so it gives me hope that they will do even better in the spring. The range of the RIT scores are 150-300 (ish), 150 is what a first grader might score, 300 being what seniors in high school aspire to reach.

In the fall the class average on the Math test was: 190.
Today it was: 199!

In the fall the class average on the Reading test was: 183.
Today it was: 188.

In the fall the class average on the Language Usage test was: 188.
Today is was: 192.

From what I can see all but 2 of my students progressed in all subject areas. Phew!

Anyway, the real reason I wanted to blog was to share with you some of the questions the students actually had. As I walked around the room, I took note of the questions that were either a. ridiculous, b. my students answered completely wrong, or c. my students would have no idea how to answer them because, well, they don't live in the U.S.

1. Which sentence is a fact
A. The lake is the most beautiful place on earth
B. Jenny and Katie are the nicest girls in school
C. Oregon is bigger than New Jersey
D. Basketball is the most interesting sport.

*Okay, clearly options A, B, and D are incorrect but how on earth are my students to know what "Oregon" is let alone whether it is bigger than "New Jersey"? Yes, the other answers were stated as opinions, but to my students, it was NOT a fact that Oregon was bigger than New Jersey. In fact, they probably had no idea these were states that they were referring too. For all they knew, Oregon was a professional wrestler and New Jersey was one of the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.

2. Which word is correctly capitalized 
A. sincerely
B. Sincerely
C. sinCerely
D. sincerelY

*My students answer? D. sincerelY. gooD thinG hE tooK hiS timE witH thaT onE!

This same student who enjoys capitalizinG the last letteR in words, had a lot of trouble staying focused during the test. He kept pressing the space bar to watch the highlighter move from answer choice to answer choice. I reminded him that he was taking a test and that we all want to see how much he is learning and if he is playing it might look like he isn't learning as much. He nodded in agreement and continued taking the test. A few minutes later when I had returned to his side of the room, he was clicking the mouse with his chin and then trying it with his nose. Perfect. It pained me to lecture him because it really was a funny sight but I had to put on my teacher face for that one. Needless to say, this student did improve his score from the fall, though he went from a low score to a not-quite-as-low score.

Tomorrow we have a half day (well, the students do) so we can have parent-teacher conferences at school. I have ELEVEN conferences tomorrow and then five more next week. I am actually really looking forward to them though because not only are the parents very trusting and supportive, but they are also just plain fun! I actually really enjoy bumping into most of my students' parents and think tomorrow will be a positive experience in general. We'll see. No real plans for the weekend though I know for certain I will blog... there may be something super exciting happening that I cannot share just yet but will have a lot to say about come Sunday. How's that for making you want to read more? :)

PROGRESS

Second day in a row of blogging; gold star worthy? Well, maybe not but its definitely progress (first reference to the title of this entry).

I did a little blog research and found a round about way to post word documents onto a blog. So, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite class activities we do in 3A. Each quarter, the students write an entry for the Student Edition of our class newsletter. We brainstorm 22 things that happened throughout the quarter that were significant to us and then write a paragraph about it. The students all draw a picture of the event as well (which I couldn't figure out how to publish on google docs) and it makes for a hilarious letter for students and parents to read and remember about third grade. We published our first newsletter at the end of October and just sent home the second one last Friday. I showed Keri both editions of the newsletter and she happily noticed tremendous improvements in almost everyones writing. I got this idea from Aubrey who learned it from her cooperating teacher in the U.S. and will probably use it for the rest of my teaching career. I am so incredibly excited to see what the students come up with at the end of fourth quarter and hope that someday they look back on the progress (second reference to the title of this entry) they made throughout the year. I still can't believe that in just a few short months those kids will be leaving my class for good but it still amazes me everyday how much their brains can soak up and absorb. Somedays I wish I could stay in Guatemala forever, or at least until my current students graduate and go on to do awesome things, kind of like what Mr. Feeney did in Boy Meets World.

I've been battling some internal ethical issues lately with the kiddo I tutor after school. I won't go into to many details for the sake of privacy, but basically I haven't been standing up for myself when it comes to being paid by my tutee's (tutee...hilarious word) mother. She is inconsistent, "forgets to pay," and pays me a third less than any other tutor gets paid in the school. Its my own fault that I haven't done anything about it (though we are meeting this Wednesday to discuss the issue) but for some reason I just can't get past the fact that this student needs to be tutored much more than I need to be paid. After getting a little more perspective from some insightful friends, however, I realize that probably isn't the most rational mindset and that if I continue to let this happen, it won't just happen to me and it could happen to me in other areas of life as well. Anywaaaaaay, the point is that today my tutee (hehehe) and I were reading a book about Rosa Parks and at the end there was a map of Alabama to help the students understand the whereabouts of the events in the story. From there the conversation went a little like this...

"Miss Hannah, is Alabama close to Seattle?"
--"Well, no, actually they are really far apart! Here lets look at the map..."
"I want to go to Seattle! And you go to Colombia!"
--"Yes! I would love both of those things. Will you show me on the map where your family is from?"
"My mother is from this pueblo near Barranquilla but the rest of my family [awesome English sentence!] is from Bogota"
--"Why did you leave Colombia? Why did your family move to Guatemala?"
"Well, my father, he is ingeniero quimico and he job in Colombia, one day it is no more! So he go on the computadora and buscando, buscando, buscando and then AH HA! A job in Guatemala! I said 'NOOOOOOOOO! I don't want to leave Colombia!' but you know what Miss Hannah? My mom and my dad, they want the best for me. And I have a mother, a brother, food, a father... my life is perfect."

*At this point I couldn't decide if I should smile or cry. I think I may have done a little of both :)

"Miss Hannah, why did YOU move to Guatemala?"
--"Well, I wanted to be a teacher in another country and I thought Guatemala looked like a wonderful place to be."
"You can no be a teacher in Estados Unidos?"
--"I could, but I wanted to try something new, meet new people, do different things."
"Aaahhhhh, well I am happy you are here"

Okay, I think I need to remind you that this boy is NINE years old, knew almost no English when he entered school, and get bullied like crazy almost everyday. What insight he has; what wisdom! I think we could all learn a little something from that conversation. I know I was so moved that I have since told this story at least five times. Now if this isn't progress (third reference), I don't know what is. Not just in his English learning abilities, but in people appreciating what they have. If this third grader can be genuinely thankful for food and family, hopefully someday we can all feel that same way. In a world that seems to want more and be grateful for less, this one boy stands above everyone else and loves life.

Alright, its time I progress (4th) as a teacher by getting more sleep. Thanks for reading, people. To be honest, you are the reason I write and the reason I will be very thankful someday that I have this blog to look back upon. So, cheers to you! Have a great week and remember, our lives are perfect :)

One year

One year ago this weekend I was in a tiny, freezing town in the middle of Iowa, accepting a job to move to Guatemala. Its hard for me to believe that it was really a year ago because life has changed so much since then that I feel like I have learned a lifetime of lessons. Aubrey and I celebrated our one year anniversary of knowing each other by going out to dinner at a very Guatemalan restaurant called KaKao. We laughed about how crazy we felt while we were waiting outside hotel rooms for interviews, walking through feet of snow in business suits, and turning down jobs to the Middle East one year ago. We recalled the conversation we had about possibly being roommates and what grades we might teach and who else would be coming down to Guatemala. We were amazed with how we thought life was going to be like here and what it really is like. And we hoped that the next year of life wouldn't pass us by. Even though we both have no idea where life is taking us next-- whether its back to our home states in the US, a new state in the US, a new country in Latin America, or a new country elsewhere in the world-- at this moment, here is now and life is good.

Happy Anniversary, Miss Aubrey!

This week at Inter we celebrated our 100th day of school. ONE HUNDRED DAYS?! That means only 80 more? Wow. We played a lot of fun games that dealt with the number one hundred such as:

1. Draw a picture of what you look like today and what you will look like in 100 years (a lot of us will be in wheelchairs, walking with canes, wearing glasses, and a few of us, represented with tombstones, will be dead)
2. Write 100 words as quickly as you can
3. Fill out a 100s chart as fast as you can
4. Make a necklace out of 100 cheerios and yarn
5. Complete the following sentence, "On the fist day of school I could not ___________ but on the 100th day, I can!" (most students can now multiply, write in cursive, say all their classmates names, and "do cool science experiments")
6. Grab a handful of rice out of a bowl. The person closest to 100 grains wins (the closest, btw, was 146 grains. Most students grabbed several hundred grains; I guess we'll have to work on estimation again)
7. Bring in 100 items of anything and have a partner count to make sure you brought 100 (one girl brought in 100 rose petals, one boy brought 100 hole punched pieces of paper, and another girl brought in 100 buttons sewed to a hat)

Each time a student won a contest, they got to take a handful of candies from the prize jar. All the kids got to have a handful in the end but it made them work a lot fast when they knew there was crappy Guatemalan gum involved :)

Veggie Burger Success!

Keri and Kurt came back to the city on Friday afternoon and spent Friday and Saturday with us. We went to dinner on Friday night, only to realize that Keri and Kurt were both coming down with some stomach issues. On Saturday we all bummed around in our pajamas until almost 1pm and then started to make veggie burgers from the Earth Lodge cookbook that Keri had purchased the previous week. They. Were. Amazing! The burgers took almost two hours to make but they were so worth it. We took them and some beers to the roof and ate in the sunshine. We then headed to the mall to see a VIP movie called "Red Social" (Social Network in English, you know, the movie about facebook) only to find that it had been sold out in the VIP theater. So we sucked it up and paid the whole $4 to see the movie in a regular theater. It was actually a relatively enjoyable film that surprised most of us and even made me reconsider using facebook in the first place. After that we headed home, watched many a youtube video, and went to bed. Keri and Kurt left for the airport this morning at 7 and are probably mid-flight to Seattle as I type. I'm so happy they were able to come here and see a new region on their quest to see the world. They told me they loved Guatemala so much they plan to come back someday. I'll see if I can get them to write a reflection or something about their time and post it on here *hint, hint! ;)

In the back of a very small, almost clown car-like, cab :)

Now for some exciting, non-school related news.

1. First my friend Tessa who I've gone to school with since we were 11, is coming to Guatemala in two weeks! Having so many visitors not only makes me very happy, it also makes the time flyyyy (which I guess is a good thing because it means you're having fun, right?)
2. I got a new phone! And its a big girl phone! Like one that has a keyboard and music and internet and stuff. Not that many of you can actually call me but in case there was an emergency, my new number is (502) 5633-7602. The best part of this new phone is that its a Blackberry which means if anyone else out there has one, we can BBM for free! I have already been too giddy with amazement when my brother and I can send each other pictures from Paris to Guatemala instantly. The phone itself was free and the plan is a little less than $30 a month; totally worth it.
3. Okay, this next one is something that I am so intensely excited about that I probably mention it to anyone who is willing to listen at least three times a day. SHAKIRA IS COMING TO GUATEMALA! In April! And we are going!!! Aubrey, Katie, Makenzie, Jessica, and I are all planning on going to the Tigo Music Festival on April 9th in the city which is an all day, outdoor concert with other Latin American bands such as this duo where one never takes off his sunglasses and the other wears an entirely too tight of shirt and yet somehow seduce adult women to dance with their hands shaped as a heart, the Latino Sting, and of course these guys who practiced English for weeks to say a few sentence in their video that displays their signature singing tactic of yelling. Mostly, Shakira is coming and that's all that really matters :)

Well, I think that is all I have for you today but if something else exciting happens, like the superbowl or something, I'll consider reposting in the near future.

Americano Girls

I thought I would post a quick update so I could, a. get back into the habit of blogging, b. tell you some funny stories and c. (probably most importantly) get in one more blog entry before February. Should we take a poll as to how often I post next month? Winner gets... some tortillas?

Okay, there is a crazy phenomenon going around Inter again that has really thrown me for a loop. Girls in the elementary school have been bringing American Girl dolls to school on a daily basis. First, how did they get American girl dolls here in Guatemala? Second, how do they get clothing for the dolls once they get them? Third, why don't they have Guatemalan girls? Questions aside, the biggest problem about these foot-and-a-half tall dolls walking the halls with my two-and-a-half feet tall students is that the kids are all paranoid that something will happen to their beloved dolls while they are away from them for mere moments. The solution? Babysitters. Students in the other third grade classes will ask their friends to "watch" their AGD (American Girl Doll. I just made up that acronym, BTW (By The Way. Didn't make that one up)) while they go to the bathroom, or while they are in P.E., or even when they forgot their pencil box in Spanish class. I guess you could say its a good thing that these young girls are practicing responsibility and taking ownership of their property but when I have students in my class with FOUR of these dolls on their desks while we are trying to learn, I could care less about responsibility. I have since banned AGB babysitting in my classroom but still can't get over the concept of it in the first place.

For our Language Arts test last week, there was a section about using verbs in the past, present, and future tenses. One of the sentences I wrote was about one of my students "hugging" her American Girl doll, except I didn't write "American" I wrote "Americano." This was a legitimate typo on my part (probably a good sign that I actually am learning Spanish) but my kids just thought it was hilarious. Some of them actually got the question wrong probably because they were so distracted with my error. Blast those dolls!

Today was the due date for our report cards and I feel like I have had a 44 page weight lifted off my shoulders. The report cards are definitely a significant improvement from what we were using in the past but they are also a lot more time consuming. I just hope my students' parents actually look at them, to be honest, because the whole school put a lot of thought into giving more feedback to the families. Luckily, I had help from Claudia and Colin gave me almost instant feedback on my comments so it ended up being a relatively painless process.

One of Makenzie's students shared a hilarious story with her today that I loved so much I told Mak I was going to blog about it. This student recently lost a tooth and after a visit from the Tooth Mouse (yep) he was rewarded with Q.50 (about $6) for his efforts. That sassy Miss Makenzie asked,

"What are you going to buy me with all that money?!"

The student, with a perplexed, almost shocked look on his face, responded with, "I'm not going to spend it! I am going to save it for emergencies."

What kind of emergencies do nine-year-olds have? A sudden and unexpected release of Diary of Wimpy Kid 18? The uncontrollable urge to buy out the entire Shuco supply at school? The chance that someday Justin Bieber will charge Q.50 to hang out with him backstage at his "From rags to riches: I believe in a better Guatemala" tour? The best part is that Makenzie knew to ask how much he had been saving for said "emergencies." The answer: Q875. Big time stud.

Well its late and tomorrow is only Tuesday but it is also the first day of February so I better start this short month on a good note. We have no breaks until the middle of April, a four-day weekend in May, two weeks of school in June, then we're finished! Oh, P.S., my mom has officially purchased her tickets to Guatemala in April for Semana Santa!!! She is going to get in on a Friday, the first day of my vacation, and we are going to spend a whole week traveling with Aubrey and her parents. Then we'll come back to the city and she can hang out in my classroom for a week as well. When I told my kids she was coming, they just screamed. I had to show them on a calendar that we had to wait for many, many Tienda days to pass before she got here but they didn't seem to care. They then asked when everyone else I have ever told them about would be coming "to see us." Oh, how those children have bettered my life :)

Happy February!

Can you feel the love tonight?

I sure can. Today I was overwhelmed with kindness and I just can't stop thinking about it.  On Monday, one of my Guatemalan co-workers, Leo, told me I looked like I needed a hug and gave me one. She was spot on, by-the-way, as I was letting school and external feelings get the best of me. Since then, she has given me a hug at some point everyday. This morning, she came into my classroom with spring rolls and soy sauce because she had found out that I was "not a coffee drinker." She then gave me my daily hug and reassured me that, "We all love and appreciate you here in Guatemala... just in case you forgot." :)

Later when we were reading Charlotte's Web in 3A, Walter came into my classroom with flowers, placed them on my desk, smile and waved, and then walked out. I was so speechless I don't even remember if I said anything at all. The funny thing is Walter is heading to Miami tomorrow to run a half marathon and he went out of his way to make others smile. I got so caught up in my own unnecessary stress that I didn't think to make him a card this time around. Good thing I have people like Walter to remind me to be selfless...

We ate lunch in the classroom today because the cafeteria is being used for an Art and Music Festival and we had an unplanned skyping session with Mr. Mike. I'm labeling it a skype "session" rather than "conversation" because my kids pretty much screamed the entire time. I think there were maybe 30 actual words used the entire time and it was mostly me telling everyone to calm down. Anyway, as we were hanging up, I saw out of the corner of my eye one of my students who was particularly attached to Mr. Mike crying in the corner of the classroom. This little dude had a really hard time saying goodbye and has been getting emotional all week whenever he even thinks about the name "Mr. Mike." I guess he got upset this time because everyone was so crowded around the computer that he couldn't even see Mike. He gave up, walked away, and cried his eyes out. As the kids ran off to recess I pulled this student back into the classroom and we called Mr. Mike right back and had a private conversation with him. I think it was exactly what he needed-- to be reassured that he really hadn't been abandoned. Mr. Mike showed this student his dog and the snow on the ground in KS and since this student has never seen snow before, it was a pretty special event. I still can't really believe how much my kids were moved by having Mr. Mike in their class but I am so very thankful they were.

At soccer practice today, the head coach, Francisco, gave me some candies from his hometown in Amatitlán, Guatemala. Apparently this city is not very far from where I live but looks and feels like a completely different place. Its around a lake and has beautiful mountains and other cool things to look at. Not only was he kind to give me candy but he also reminded me that I still have so much to learn about this country.

I bumped into my dear friend Claudia in the halls today and she asked if there was anything she could do to help me with my report cards. I thought about it and realized everything I needed to do were things that only I could do and I sighed and thanked her for the offer. Later in the day after I had entered all the data into a spreadsheet, I backtracked and asked Clau if she could put the numbers, letters, symbols and other nonsense into the actual report card template. She had it done and sent back to me within an hour, when it probably would have taken me at least 3. I can't believe how amazing that woman is, not only at her job, but also at being a friend.

I'm still not sure how I got so lucky to be surrounded by such beautiful people, but hopefully that look of distress that worried those around me has left permanently. My report cards should be completely done by tomorrow which means I'll have the weekend to either meet up with Keri and Kurt at the beach, or hang out with my friends in the city. Either way, I'm grateful this week wasn't as painful as I thought it would be and am actually looking forward to putting on my JEANS (we got casual Friday approved, finally!) tomorrow and finishing this week up strong :)

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.