First Spanish Field Trip

So the rest of the weekend finished off well with the race Sunday morning and the city tour Sunday afternoon. The race on Sunday went well. It was a smaller race than some of the others and was an 8K in the Eco Park here. It took me 40 minutes to run it (I got 11th for woman overall) but I would say the first 32 minutes were running straight up hill. About minute 25 I started really hating running and thinking in my head "why do I do this?" "Why do I think this is fun?" but then once I got to the top part and had the little bit of downhill, it was much more enjoyable.

In the afternoon, 3 other complejoers and I went on a free tour of the city. It was a replacement for the questionable tour we had for the Farralitos a few weeks before. We went to El Centro and went to the beautiful cathedral and a few other churches. Then stopped by Parque Cuscatlan where there is a wall with a bunch of names of people that died during the war.



We also stopped by a few other places but since it was Sunday, many things were closed. It was a nice tour but since I had just seen many of the things during my race a few weeks ago, it wasn't SO exciting but still interesting to get more information and history about some things.


This week is off to a good start and tomorrow is already Thursday, how wonderful! Tonight I had a field trip with my Spanish class. 3.5 hours of straight spanish, it was painful but fun. Our first stop was a nearby cathedral which was very beautiful, lots of stained glass. The circular windows on the side opened and I had never seen that before.


The circular stained glass windows that opened!

After the cathedral, we went to Antiguo Cuscatlan which has lots of great food places. We stopped in and had some pupusas (typical Salvadorian food) but it was fun to be out in the evening and attempting to speak spanish for a while. Our teacher just laughed the whole time. 2 of the guys always put -o on the end of words they don't know to try to put them in spanish haha.



The whole group of us!

Tomorrow and Friday are pretty typical days. Tomorrow night Jose has the 2nd game in the best out of 3 series for the championship of his bball league. They won pretty easily last night so I'm sure tomorrow will be the same. Friday, I'm planning to play soccer at the school and then this busy, busy weekend. Saturday's day trip to Suchitoto and then Sunday's EARLY morning kayak trip. Oh well, gotta stay busy :)

First Te de Regalos

So it's been a while but I don't have too much to report on. I had a long weekend last weekend because of the Salvadorean Independence Day and I was supposed to go to Parque Imposible (a beautiful national park here) for hiking and hanging out but got super sick so spent most of the long weekend in bed. It was some kind of stomach flu I think and knocked me out for a few days. By the end of the weekend, I was better and have been fine ever since.

This week was nothing out of the ordinary. My class is still GREAT and I just smile every day thinking about how wonderful they are. Although I loved my class last year, they had SO many issues and I didn't realize it until I had something to compare them to. I just got lucky this year because when talking with some of the other 5th grade teachers, they seem to be having the problems I had last year this year and I just smile and say "I know EXACTLY how you are feeling". This weekend is a busy one. Last night, I had my first Te de regalos which means Tea of Gifts. It's basically a Bridal Shower. Jose's brother is getting married in November so this was the tea for the soon to be sister-in-law. It was very similar to a shower in the states with a few Salvadorian twists. First, we played a few games...a word search and a word scramble. I won the word search so got a prize of a little key chain! Then we ate and after that opened presents. The host (Jose's mom) and also his sister helped but the host opens all of the presents for the bride except for the last piece of tape and then she just opens the last bit and shows it off. I thought that ruined all of the fun of opening the presents but oh well.

THEN....

So apparently its another thing that the 7th present that is opened is the person that is going to get married next. Oh heyyyy guess whose present was opened 7th? I wasn't even paying attention and was talking to one of his other sisters and then everyone started shouting my name and I thought they were just calling my attention because she was opening mine but then they all told me what it meant. It was quite awkward in front of all of the women of his family. Then his mom said..you don't have any plans do you? Hahaha I just laughed and said uhhhh no? and then she said....well, not yet at least. AYE, so awkward!

The rest of the weekend is pretty busy too. I'm running another race tomorrow. An 8K in the ecoparque here. It's almost straight uphill, awesome! Then tomorrow afternoon I'm going on a free city tour. The tour company is giving us this tour for free because of the lack of tour when we went to that Farralitos lantern festival. So we figured why not? We'll take it. So Char, Gerri, Colleen and I will go on that tomorrow afternoon. Then it's back to work again. Busy, busy. Time is flying and I'm home in just under 3 weeks for Nikki's wedding (wooooooo!) Hope everyone is doing well. Love you!

First Faralitos, ziplining, race in El Centro

The girls all ready to go before ziplining.

This last week and weekend have been busy and full of lots of FIRST things. On Wednesday night, I went with a few other teachers to the Faralitos festival in Ahuachapan which is about an hour and half outside the city. It was a big trip for a school night but it was fun. The city has a big ceremony and festival where people put up displays of lanterns to celebrate the birthday of the Virgin Mary. We walked around the town which felt kind of strange to be out on the streets at night but there were so many people around and its a big festival so everyone was celebrating and having a great time. One highlight was going to a sanitary bathroom that was "sanitary". We had to pay 25 cents to use it which really just gave us a few sheets of toilet paper. The bathrooms were disgusting and I would have rather gone on the street, ew ew ew! It was an interesting festival though and I'm glad I went.



Char, Gerry, and I at the Faralitos festival.



Friday a couple that has student at the school, had all of the American teachers over to their house for a Taco Party. It was quite the party complete with clown wigs, blinking red noses, and party hats that were randomly brought out midway through the party. Towards the end a mariachi band showed up and the drinking began. That's about when I left but the dad brought out his VERY expensive tequila and people were taking shot after shot. No thank you!


Andrea and I at the Taco Party.


The Mariachi Band.

Saturday morning, I went ziplining for the first time. Another parent invited the teachers to try out the new zipline that he owns just outside the city. It ended up being a parent of one of my students so she was there doing the zipline with us. It was super fun and something I would definitely like to do again. There were about 20 people that went and because they let us go try it out for free they only had a few guides with us so there was lots of waiting in between each line for everyone to cross. Overall, a great experience.

Coming in ziplining.


My student, Natalia, and I showing off our gloves (your brake) while ziplining.

Sunday I decided it would be a good idea to run a 12.km race (about 7.75 miles). A friend was talking about doing a 4km and that there was also a 12.5km so the group that runs on Saturday mornings decided why not go for it? It was down in El Centro which is the downtown and city center. I had never been before so I decided it might be fun. It actually went well, it was an up and back and then you got back to the cathedral and ran a few laps around there to finish the race. It's in a part of town that I would probably never go to otherwise because on a normal day, it's not the safest place, so I decided to take advantage of the highly secured race to check it out. A friend and I ran it in 1:09 which is not too bad.

I have just been LOVING having Antonia, the maid, come twice a week. I rarely ever have dirty clothes and her cooking is wonderful. On Tuesday she had written a note saying that if we wanted her to make a quiche for us she would and she could make mine without milk or cheese. Well, Holly bought the stuff she had listed she needed so I assumed she was making one just for Holly. Well we got home on Friday after school and she had made one for each of us. There were two pies and she wrote a note saying that she put an H and an M on them to distinguish which was which. SO cute and sweet:)


Our designated quiches that Antonia made for us last week.

So this was a busy week but overall it was great and went by very quickly! I can't believe it's already the weekend again! On Monday, there was a security talk at the school about safety which was helpful but nothing that I didn't already know. Lots of "Be aware of your surroundings" "Don't go to places you don't know" "Follow your gut instincts" BLAH BLAH BLAH. They were helpful reminders though. Tuesday night, I went to Jose's bball game which they won against the 2nd best team in their league. It was a great game. Wednesday Spanish class started again woooooo. It was very easy and I felt comfortable with everything that was being said. I'm going to do my best to go more regularly this year because I definitely slacked a lot last year!

Thursday night was Open House at school and I had all of the parents in my class come except for one set that I knew already was not coming so that was exciting! It went really well and everyone was nice! I talked for a bit about myself, the class, my philosophy and then the spanish teacher came in and did her little presentation. We showed off all of our new technology and the parents seemed to be very impressed! After the spanish teacher talked, the parents went around and did a scavenger hunt of the classroom that their child had made for them. I figured they would not want to sit and listen to me talk the whole time, so they could explore the classroom that way! I was happy with how it went and everyone had nothing but positive things to say. It's fun to meet the parents because so many of them look just like their children!

I've been relaxing on the weekends mostly and this one will be no different. I am going for a run with the crew in the morning then Jose has another game tomorrow night. I don't have any work to do either because I am already almost fully prepared for the week ahead. This 2nd year with experience, the new technology we have, and this new reading/language arts curriculum has made my life!

Some other luxuries I have been enjoying since being back have been having Antonia, our maid, come twice a week this year. It is so wonderful to have her Tuesday and Friday. She does laundry both days, cleaning and cooks if we ask her to. She's made burritos, some egg frittata, some broccoli dish and some potato salad. All delicious! It's amazing to come home to clean sheets, bed all made and dinner ready to heat up. I also began this week getting the vegetable delivery service. There is a lady that comes and delivers organic fruits, vegetables, or other things like breads and muffins that she makes. I got my first delivery tonight so I am looking forward to having her come weekly again!

So overall, all is well. We have one more full week of school and then a short 3 day week for Independence Day. No big plans for that weekend yet but maybe a trip up to one of the national parks up north. Hope everyone at home is doing well. Love and miss you all!!