Christmas Travels: A Picture Story

Here are my Christmas adventures in pictures! (this is what happens when I have high speed internet for once! :D)

1. The beginning of our travels--Parque Nacional Cerro Azul

Fellow adventurers include 3 fellow SMs (Kandice, Sasha, and Heidi), Kandice's mom, Sharlene, and boyfriend Jared.

3. Tela.

Now, it's pretty darn hard to beat this place. I almost fell over and died when we walked straight through the back door of our hotel and saw this:

4. The Trip to Utila

One night in a hostel (bed #8)
One taxi ride to the ferry dock (waited 1+ hrs for the ferry)

One bright, windy, perfectly clear ferry ride toward a speck on the horizon (dolphin siting included),

and One picture of our arrival to the beautiful island!

5. UTILA
Taking pictures in the back of the truck during the tour of the island.

Our amazing hotel! We could look down from our second-story deck and see our own private aquarium; stingrays of all sizes, huge pufferfish, pelicans fishing, and tons of beautiful fish.

For only 100 lempira a day, you could rent a bike to roam the island! So fun!

If you ever go to Utila, dive with Parrots. They know what they're doing and they're awesome!

Just before our dive!

On the ocean floor (only 30 feet). I think I'm the one on the far left. haha!

Riding in the back of (another) truck, this time to expore freshwater caves.

Christmas Galore!

Today we finished our last day of school before Christmas vacation. Three glorious school-free weeks stretch before us!

Yesterday we barely had school. The entire school spent most of our morning classes practicing for our massive Christmas concert. Then, 5th grade had their Christmas party. As is becoming usual for parties, I supervized the pizza, soda, and candy distribution for my 5A class while Emily (my co-teacher) took 5B.

Then, the best part---we combined the classes for our Secret Santa! The very first person to go was Cristian (check out my earlier blog to learn more about him...). He shyly handed his present to.... ME! So adorable! The kids went crazy every time a gift exchanged between a boy and a girl--I think I even heard shouts of 'Beso! Beso!' (Kiss kiss!). Haha.

And again, today, Emily and I decided that it would be worthless to teach anything. So, once the Christmas program practice ended this morning, we did absolutely nothing! I played Simon Says, On the line Off the line, and we sang Christmas songs. Throughout the rest of the day, we had the kids color Santa Clause, do Christmas word searches and puzzles. The kids loved it, obviously, and so did I. :D

Tonight's the Christmas concert! Wish my kids luck!

Student Files: Eduardo

Don't let his baby face fool you. Eduardo's a joker to the core.

I picked him as one of my favorites before the first two weeks of class ended. He cracks me up and infuriates me within the same class period. He stands up during the middle of my Math class constantly!

The other day, as I checked their Math homework, Eduardo looked at me and said, 'Miss, I am a fox.' I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but I didn't really have time to ask further so I just nodded and said 'Ohhhh really, Eduardo.' He nodded (with the same smile you see in this picture) and I moved on.

Miss Emily (my co-teacher) had a chance to ask him more questions when he told her the same thing. The conversation proceded as follows:

Eduardo: Miss, I am a fox.

Diana(who sits directly behind Eduardo): Oh yes, Miss. He is a fox.

Miss Emily: Oh really, and what does that mean?

Diana: It means he has many girlfriends.

Miss Emily: Oh really? Well did you know that, in English, when you call someone a fox?

Diana: What?

Miss Emily: It means you think he's very handsome!

Diana (and all the girls sitting in the vicinity): OH NO, MIIIIISSSS!

(Eduardo gets embarrassed.)

I guess he's quite the loverboy! hahaha. My kids crack me up!

Christmas comes!

Count-down to Christmas!

Last week my kids' parents decorated our classrooms! In 5B I have to push garland out of my way in order to open the door. In 5A twinkling Christmas lights cover half the whiteboard, which makes it difficult to do long-division, but I love the decorations! (Despite the fact that the sun's out and I change into shorts every day as soon as I get home from school....Merry Christmas?)

In preparation for our Christmas program next week, each class is learning a Christmas song. 5th grade will sing 'O Come All Ye Faithful' (which also happens to be one of my favorite Christmas songs). All week long we've been practicing at 11:00 in the auditorium--too bad we haven't had a chance to practice with the keyboard yet! Still, they manage to keep on tune (most of the time).

On Friday we don't have school, but we're giving the parents their students grades for the first Partial (quarter). Basically, it's an all-day Parent-Teacher Conference. Should be interesting!

This week the SMs chose Secret Santas! . On Monday paper snowflakes and packages of cookies covered my bed. On Tuesday one of my students told me that there was juice sitting on my desk, accompanied with a cute note. Yesterday I found a bag of cheetos and a Christmas card taped to the wall in the Teachers' lounge. Since there are only 7 of us, the hardest part is trying to do anything without another missionary seeing it! We live and work in such a close proximity! :D

Mostly, I can't believe it's December already. In 6 months I'll fly home. Talk about a weird feeling.

May God bless you this Christmas season! :D

Student Files: Onintza

Before I even met my 5th graders I heard about Onintza. She's a star.

Oni doesn't have to study very much at all, and she gets perfect scores. She's not the over-acheiver type like Sally--she just knows she's the best.

This girl loves to tease.

One day I'd given the class their assignment and they started busily scratching in their Science notebooks. I was trying to decide if I had enough time in class to do my second activity and ended up zoning into oblivion. (oops.)

Suddenly a movement caught my eye and I re-focused to see Oni's little impish grin. She waved her tiny hand, raised her eyebrows and asked, 'Miss, what are you looking at?'

Eduardo and Cristian have taken to pestering her. Cristian leaned back in his chair, teasing her for every word she said, and Eduardo (completely turned around in his desk which sits in first row) egged Cristian on. Finally, Oni cried, 'Miss! Tell them to stop!' (as she attempted to hide a smile.)

Poor Oni. They all love her.

(Belated) Happy Thanksgiving!

(I totally forgot to post this on the day of, although it was written at the right time. Haha.)

Happy Thanksgiving a todos!

Yesterday the administration took the missionaries to the US Military base just 5 minutes away. EAch year the base puts on a special meal for Thanksgiving and most Americans in the area find a way to go. I was so excited to have a chance to see the base that we've heard about.

School got out early and, after a quick party with my 5B class (each kid brought something to share--cookies, chips, sandwiches), we hopped in cars and drove to the base.

The food=amazing. Good old American Thanksgiving with all the fixings. It was weird to see so many Americans and hear so much English!

Since we're having another Thanksgiving celebration on Sabbath, the SMs decided to make this Thanksgiving truly unique--we're fasting! We met together this morning to consecrate the day with prayer for those in our lives and for families at home.

This will be the only Thanksgiving on which I won't eat anything! :D

I wish you all well this holiday!