The End of one journey...the beginning of another

I made it back to the states on June 20th.  It feels great to be back and being able to visit with friends and family in person.  I am so happy to be in control of how hot I am, but am still having a little trouble getting used to the air conditioning.  It is just TOO cold. 

I managed to have an interview and get hired within my first days back.  I will be working for a school district in Buffalo Grove, IL very close to the same area I was working before.  I will be an ELL teacher and will be helping to work with 4th, 5th, and 6th grade ELL (English Language Learner-- English is not their first language) students by going into their classrooms and helping or pulling them out and working in small groups. 

I am SUPER excited for this job.  I love teaching, but I was starting to feel burnt out from being a classroom teacher and was ready for a bit of a change. 

This will be my final post.  Thanks for all of your love and support.  I look forward to catching up with you all soon. 

winding down...

So my time here is starting to wind down.  I finally bought a plane ticket back to the states.  I will be happily joining you all back stateside on Monday June 20th.  : )

Looking forward to catching up with everyone in person!

The Lovely Ladies of The Hosue!

We have had a new member of the house named Amy these past three weeks.  She has been a very fun addition to the already super cool place that is the house.  We love her and wish she could stay forever.  Sadly she will be leaving us shortly to continue on in her traveling through Latin America.
The Ladies of the House from left to right: me, marni(2nd grade teacher), Erin (3rd grade teacher), Steph (kinder/prepa teacher and my roomie), middle/center-Amy.  btw- this picture is from before school at about 6:20am.  Notice how chipper we all are : )

Semana Santa

My parents and sister came to spend some time with me during Semana Santa (the week before Easter).  They came on a Wednesday afternoon and came back to Cofradía with me to experience what my life is like at school and in town.  We went to my host family's (also Nicolle's house from my class) house from the beginning of the year and they got to meet and experience the joy and love that is that household.  We laughed and visited with the family and enjoyed a delicious meal of fried chicken and tajadas.  At school they got to experience the joy of the Honduran manualidad (small craft projects to make things for the house).  We made vases and fake flowers.  It was an experience and I was SOOOO thankful to have three extra sets of hands to help out.

On Friday we headed to the northern coast of Honduras where we spent the night and then hopped on a ferry to take us to the Bay Island of Roatán in the Caribbean the next morning.  We spent three lovely days in Roatán enjoying snorkeling, swimming, zip lining, mom and Kaci went parasailing, went to a butterfly garden, and mom and Kaci swam with dolphins.  We came back and got to enjoy a little bit of time together in San Pedro.  Their time here flew by so fast.  They left on Wednesday and I was left to veg and enjoy one more day with ac and a television by myself.  I then returned to Cofradía and started the joy of searching and applying for jobs.

Día Típico

About a month ago we had a large event on a Sunday at school called Día Típico.  Basically each grade represents a department from Honduras and is responsible for making a choza (hut) to represent their department.  Lots of bamboo, palm branches, sticks, and even clay to make authentic wood burning ovens are brought in.  Parents from each grade work together to make a hut like structure in which food typical of their region will be served.  Also, one student from each grade has to wear the typical dress of that region and answer questions to judges that come around and give points to each grade for their huts, food, decorations, and representative student.   This event was great because us teachers basically had to do nothing but come in and enjoy it.  I banded together with Andrea and Stephanie and we walked around buying any food and juice our hearts desired and then went and shared them all.  I probably tried about 8 different juices in the course of 2 hours.  Talk about sugar overload.    

Lago Yajoa

One weekend Andrea, Stephanie, and I all went away for a relaxing weekend to a lodge right on Lago Yajoa called Agua Azul.  We just relaxed, ate great food (including multiple milkshakes), played a lot of cards, went kayaking, and slept a lot!!!  It was great. Lago is probably one of my favorite places in Honduras!

Music Rocks!!!

 check out some of my students jamming out at drumming club afterschool.  They meet with a member of a local band called Montuca and have really learned some cool stuff.  All of the students are mine except for the keyboarder.  Fabiola is on the snare, Fernando on bass drum on the floor, Maryuri(longer darker hair on the cowbell type thing), Melking on the bongos, and Amely is sitting in the chair playing the funky metal thing.  By the way I have no idea if any of those drum names are correct.  Enjoy!  drum club video