Life is All Kinds of Beautiful: Honduras Style: Adjusting!

I have been living in Honduras officially for one week now! Wow. Last Tuesday seems like many weeks ago, rather than just one. I am extremely happy to say that I am adjusting really well to life in Honduras! I am feeling much better--which I couldn't be happier about. It's never fun to be in a new environment and feel sick, but a week here has already gotten me feeling a ton better.

The girls and I enjoyed a relaxing weekend together. We watched a movie on a laptop the first night as we were all getting some school stuff organized. "Run Away Bride" was a good choice! Other events that took place this weekend include exploring our city on our own a bit (Sarah stayed with Zak for most of the weekend at the hospital because he was ill for a number of days). We love Sarah a lot, but since she was here last year it has already been easy to only feel comfortable to go out with her to help show us around and to translate for us. So it was neat in a way for Kylie, Jaime and I to get more comfortable on our own in Gracias. We went and saw a castle behind Guancascos Hotel where the ex-president of Gracias used to live, went to a missionary families house down the street for coffee and peanut butter cookies (yum!), and then later that night a few of us went to the public hot spring in Gracias. The public ones are a little more busy (they are just cheaper than the private ones) but I think that they are more natural looking, and just beautiful! I want to post pictures of the springs sometime, but I haven't gotten good pictures of either the private or public ones yet since we have went at night both times. Justin (teacher from last year) bought a motorcycle last year and he drove each of us separately to the springs so we didn't have to pay for a moto taxi. I keep thinking in my head "wow, I am living here for a year." It is still hard to fully believe. Night rides through Gracias on a motorcycle might have to happen often!

We are going to try Sarah's church out this week. We would have went Sunday night (night service instead of the sunrise service) but she was helping with Zak. So we still have yet to attend a church service here!

This week at school has just been decorating and working on our scope and sequence for our classroom curriculum. My decorating is coming together really well--there are a lot of decorations for the nursery that are required to go up, so I know my room will never be bare! Besides, with the lime green walls alone (compared to the light brown walls in every other classroom) my room already seems decorated! I received my class list today and it looks like I have 12 students, and a mix between mostly 2 and 3 year-olds and a few 4 year-olds. It was exciting to start learning the names of the students though! It is still a little overwhelming having two assistants who do not speak the same language as I do. But they are great workers, and have helped me out a ton! I just wish it were easier to form a strong relationship with them right away--but I guess that's what I will just have to allow to happen slowly throughout the year :).

The rest of our group arrived today, so all of the American teachers are finally all together! It was exciting to kind of be on the opposite end this time, and to know some of the answers to questions they were asking. Not many, but some!

Kiley and I went to find a monkey today after school. We were told that there is one pet monkey in town, even though it is illegal to have one as a pet here. We tried to find it yesterday but were told that the monkey was "out and about" and would be there tomorrow. I found it rather funny that the monkey was just out and about the town of Gracias! But we did end up finding him today and I fed him a banana. I stood kind of far away from him though since I didn't know if he was very friendly or not, and the last thing I need happening a week into my experience is getting bit by a monkey! Then Kiley wanted to get a picture with him, so I went to take it for her and we both had forgotten that she had a bag of bananas in her hand--needless to say, they monkey wanted to those bananas and went after Kiley! Luckily the monkey was on a chain, and Kiley jumped back far enough before it could attack her. But my video camera did capture a part of it, and we definitely got a good laugh out of that experience!

That has been my week so far pretty much though. I just need to start practicing my Spanish a lot more, because I deeply want to form relationships with the people in Honduras. This is where patience for that needs to kick in. Hopefully we will have internet in our house eventually so I can set up Skype dates with people. I have talked to my parents and grandparents on Skype so far, and it makes things a lot easier seeing faces of loved ones :). So I hope to see you soon!