Erica and TJ

Monday, August 13, 2012

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school.
School here starts at 7:00, so we had to be there at 6:30. It is definitely something new to get used to! We each had a homeroom, and then 8 periods on 40 minutes after that. It seems like a lot, but we have SO many more prep periods that we are used to. Today we each had 3 periods off!

I (Erica) have the grade 6 students. They are so little! It was their first day in the middle school today, so a lot of them were really nervous. I have five different sections, and I got to meet all of them today. There are a couple that will be a handful, but they all seem pretty sweet. TJ has the grade 8s, and they are kind of a "notorious" group, but TJ says they are a good bunch too. It was a pretty slow day for both of us, doing a lot of introduction stuff.

The kids all left at 2:00. The early start is made up for by the early end, and the two 40 minute breaks! When school was done we went to take our Spanish class to see what level we would be placed in. We were feeling pretty good for the first couple questions, but when it got into reading comprehension and creative writing, we were both pretty stumped. Should have done more Rosetta Stone before we left! We are both really excited to start the Spanish classes this week, because it's been really hard to do simple things when you don't speak the language. For example, we found it was near impossible to ask "Do you have these soccer cleats in a size 7 and a half?"(Don't worry, after some frustration on both ends, we each got a pair.)

Aside from school starting today, the past couple days weren't too eventful. We went to Guamilito market on Sunday, and got a hand made coffee table for 15$ (which we LOVE), we'll post a picture soon. We also went to Club Arabe, which is pretty much a giant pool and nice restaurant (complete with a helicopter landing pad). It's where a lot of the rich families here go to hang out on the weekends. It was nice to hang out with all the teachers and relax before the first day of school.

All in all it was a great last weekend of summer, and a fantastic first day back at school.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Thumbs up and Thumbs Down by Erica

10 Things I like about Honduras

1. The heat

2. The taco restaurant where dinner and (several) drinks for two costs $8.

3. That is won't get dark before 6, even in january

4. 60 minutes to the coast

5. The mountains

6. Parrots, Toucans and giant lizards outside my classroom

7. Friendly culture

8. Baleadas (A tortilla with refried black beans and cheese)

9. Cheap beer, cheap rum

10. Trivia Night @ the Dog House

Things that are challenging about Honduras

1. The heat

2. The poverty

3. That I don't speak spanish (yet!)

4. The lack of good cheese (this is a positive for TJ)

5. Having to take a taxi most places

6. That is gets dark at 6:00

7. Uncomfortable couches EVERYWHERE

8. Big Bugs

9. That no on uses/knows any street names (makes telling the spanish cab driver where you live very hard)

10. The pigeons that live in our roof.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

First Peek at our Apartment

Today, I finally caught up on all of the blogging. We have now been in Honduras for a week, and are starting to settle in and feel at home. Our apartment is great (probably nicer than what we could afford in Canada, despite some questionable furniture choices…..

This is the view from the front door.

This is our living room.

This is the view from our living room.

Going into the dining area.

Our kitchen.

The back of the apartment, going into the bedrooms.

Our bedroom.

Our walk-in closet, leading into the bathroom.

The bathroom.

The view from our bedroom window.

We've done a lot of exploring the city, and orientation stuff in the last week. We hiked up Coca Cola mountain (aptly named for it's giant Coca Cola sign near the top that lights up at night....it's like the Honduran Hollywood sign). We were both ready for an intense hike, but discovered that Coca Cola has a paved road winding up to the top. This is us at the top.

This is a little peek at Tela, the beach that is about an hour from San Pedro Sula. We had an orientation there that kept us inside for most of the day, but we got a couple hours to relax on the beach afterwards.

TJ and Erica in front of our apartment, behind us is the balcony we share with our neighbours, all of whom work with us at the school. It's great in the evenings to hang out and hang a drink.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Goodbye Canada

After only about 3 hours of sleep, we got up, loaded our bags into the car, and said some goodbyes. It was pretty hard to say goodbye to Brit, but she was too sleepy to care too much at the time.

We drove to the airport, and said goodbye to Mom and Dad. I think we were also too sleepy to be too sad. We got on the plane almost smoothly…. T.J. forgot about with multi-tool in his carry-on and had to run down to lost and found to mail it to himself.

Both flights were good, despite not being able to sit together on the second flight. We both had Spanish speaking seat mates, which made for a pretty quiet ride, and a confusing discussing of how to fill out entrance documents. Martha (our principal) and Bessy (on the human resources staff) both picked us up at the airport and drove us to our new home. It was pretty seamless, and we were definitely grateful for the help. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and went to bed around 7:00PM (which actually felt like 9:00 with the time change, so it's not that bad!)

Finally at our new home!

Friday, July 27, 2012

T-minus One Day

The day before we left, the packing frenzy began. Trying to fit so many clothes in three suitcases was a challenge. We were committed to making sure that our suitcases weren't overweight, so we packed and repacked about 20 times to redistribute everything. Finally, we got all our our bags to 49.8 or 49.9 lbs (out of the passible 50 lbs). Our flight was at 6:00AM the next morning, so we tried to get some sleep before leaving at 3:00AM.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Tornado vs. Norway Lake

We were looking forward to a relaxing final week in the country, unfortunately, the tornado that hit Norway Lake on Monday changed these plans. Instead of boating and lounging of the dock we were cleaning, chainsawing and woodchipping. Not to mention that the boat was underwater. Thanks Marc and Zach for your help that week! Lots of work, and still lots of packing to do made the week fly by with not much time to visit. We were really thankful that everyone came out to see us the weekend before.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Summer Fun

As we headed into our last week at home, it finally began to sink in - we are leaving home, our family and friends for two years. We had a great day with friends on Saturday (one day you'll jump off that bridge Ash!), and were actually surprised when we returned home to find over 40 friends and family waiting for us. Thanks to everyone who came out to help send us on our way, it meant a lot that you were there. It was a bit surreal to describe our upcoming adventure to everyone; it almost seemed as though we were describing someone else's life, someone else's plans. We feel so lucky to be able to go on this adventure together! By the end of the night we were tired, but we both agreed that it was an evening that we will remember forever. A great way to spend one of our last few days in Canada. Here are a few photos that sum up our epic summer at home.