I'm a College Kid: Honduras Day 7.

My apologies for a lack of posting yesterday...unfortunately nobody had internet because you have to get these codes from the front desk with the password every 48 hours, and they ran out of them! So here's Sunday's delayed post, and today's soon to follow!

Journal Day 7 May 19, 2013

One week here already! It seems as if it’s gone by extremely fast, but at the same time slow because we’ve already set up a routine of sorts while here. Only one week left in Zamorano and then a week in Copan before we head home! It’s crazy to think about!

Unfortunately, we don’t have Internet today because we have to have these codes to get online and they expire after 2 days. However, we won’t have new codes until tomorrow because the technology people didn’t give us enough codes and only one device can use a code. It’s frustrating, but I suppose I can go without contacting people and uploading pictures on Facebook for one night J

Today was different because it was our first weekend trip! We all met for breakfast at 7:45 and got the cornflake milk stuff from the other day, apples, and French toast with honey! It was so good! We left around 9 when the giant 30 seat van/bus thing came to pick us up, and we were off to see Cristo Picacho, a statue of Jesus on the Picacho Mountain that overlooks Tegucigalpa to mimic the statue in Rio de Janero, Brazil. The statue was in a big national park, so we got to walk through the park a little first. One of the first things I saw was a traditional see-saw, so Laura and I ran to it and rode it. America changed all their playgrounds to less awesome plastic ones, so I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced a legitimate see-saw before. The little kids on the one next to us looked at us like we were crazy, and perhaps we are, but it was still fun.

We walked through a bunch of the park and took pictures before we got to the actual statue. The park was beautiful! There were a bunch of stone figures and structures along the paths, and there were green plants everywhere! It was pretty neat. There were mazes and fountain-type structures and it just seemed really peaceful and a nice place to hang out on the weekends with family or friends. When we got to the statue, it was really funny because Ivy said, “So who is this guy anyway?” Everyone laughed because we figured everyone knew it was a statue of Jesus, so it was really funny. The statue was huge! It was pretty difficult to get a good look at it because we were so close up, but we took a bunch of pictures in the area, and the view of the city was great, despite all the mugginess. It was just really neat! We went into a little gift shop afterwards and left to pick up JoAnn from her hotel in Tegus from her meetings. After that, we left for Valle de Angeles to shop! We stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road along the way for lunch which was pretty cool. They served Coke in bottles, which we took as souvenirs of course, and we got to order our own food! A lot of us ordered chicken fajitas, and they brought the chicken out on a sizzling platter, just like Chili’s! We also had freshly made tortillas too, which were delicious. We drove the rest of the way to Valle, and it was so neat! It was basically a couple of streets with shops and stands set up for people to shop at. We got 2 hours to shop, and the only stipulation was that we weren’t allowed to go anywhere by ourselves. So we took off!

There were so many cool things: colorful hammocks, bags, wooden boxes, mugs, t-shirts, bracelets and other jewelry, pottery, and so much more! JoAnn told us that we should try to barter with the shopkeepers and that Eloisa is an awful bargainer, so don’t ask for her help. So we tried our hand at it, and we were actually pretty successful sometimes! We were almost always able to get the prices down a little bit. My high school Spanish teacher would be proud of me, because I recall him talking about bartering with shopkeepers before. Laura was excellent, and almost everyone asked for her help in doing so. She was on fire!

I bought a ton of stuff for different people, but I also came away with a cute, colorful backpack and a shot glass (for decoration!!). Becca and Megan both got hair wraps from some of the street vendors, and Ivy got her ears pierced, which I honestly thought was kinda sketchy. But everyone went away with something, and it was pretty fun!

We went from one Honduran cultural experience to another; after we left Valle, we went to the Tegucigalpa mall! Let me tell you, that mall was amazing! It was two stories, plus a movie theater on the third floor. There were a couple stores that we had in America, like Payless shoes and a Nike store (where I bought a new pair of athletic shorts because after converting the lempira, it was only $18 compared to the $30+ at home), but there were a lot more that were not ones we’d seen. We found one store called Charly that seemed like a store that teens would shop at, except everything seemed incredibly expensive after converting. So instead, we just walked around and checked everything out. Laura, Katie, and I were also craving some ice cream, so we stopped at a Baskin Robbins to get some. Let me tell you, I needed that chocolate desperately. It’s been too long without it! It was so tasty. We also went to the movie theater just to check out what was playing, and we found it really interesting that all but one movie was from America. True, America has Hollywood and Honduras doesn’t have anything like that, but it’s just really interesting how pervasive American culture is.

After the mall, we drove back to the Kellogg Center (and back to no Internet). We listened to a bunch of reggaeton music, which Laura and I really love now! It was completely dark on the way back, so we got to see the city lights, and it was gorgeous. Seriously, 2 more weeks in this country won’t be enough.

Pictures: