I'm a College Kid

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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:

At the park

Cristo de Piccacho

Tegus!

Kayla!

Roomie, Lindsey!

Laura!

On the bus

LIGHT pole dancing

See-saw!

Eloisa!

Becca and Megan!

Valle de Angeles

City Mall

Breakfast

Lunch

Fresh tortillas!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Honduras Day 6.

Fair warning: kind of a boring day down in Honduras. But, here ya go!

Journal Day 6 May 18, 2013

Today was our first free day during our trip, so we all took advantage of it and relaxed! The day began at 8:00 am when we all met for breakfast because we were really excited that we were going to have pancakes! Even though it was a Saturday and we would have rather slept in, we were too excited for pancakes. We also had cornflakes and fruit for breakfast, and instead of syrup for our pancakes, we had honey from the hives on Zamorano’s campus! Several of the students we’ve talked to here have worked with the beehives and really enjoyed it, so it was cool to have some fresh honey. Also, the pancakes were banana flavored! Yum!

Pool time commenced afterwards, and that’s where we spent most of the day. We read some of our books, swam a little, tanned a little...but overall a pretty unproductive day. Literally all we did was eat and swim. We left the pool around noon to get lunch, and we were overjoyed to find out that we were having pizza! Woohoo! There’s nothing like craving a food and then being able to have it! The cooks baked us fresh pizzas: one with ham and one that was supreme. It was absolutely delicious!! I seriously think that the best pizzas come from foreign countries because in Mexico I had really good pizza as well. But then one of the cooks came up to us and was speaking to us in Spanish and asking us questions, like what we wanted for dinner, and then something about what we wanted with the pizza. She started listing off a bunch of things really fast, and all we caught was uvas and coca, the words for grapes and Coke. We thought she wanted to know what food we wanted with the pizza, so we were excited when she said grapes because that sounded really good! We were a little confused about why she said Coke too, but we were too pumped for the grapes. Next thing you know, she brings out some bottles of soda and a lot of them are grape flavored. So she had actually wanted to know what we wanted to drink….oops. I got a strawberry banana one though, and it was so good! But the cook did say a word we knew for sure: helada, or ice cream! We all got really excited, and she brought out vanilla ice cream for us later. It was a little different from American ice cream because it was more crystally, but it was still good.

We had some more pool time after lunch and spent it as quality chatting and bonding time. Then, as we were heading back to the hotel, we saw a stray dog on “The Zoo Way” that looked so sick and malnourished. We felt bad but had no food, so Becca filled a cup with some water and set it near the dog. We watched it lap up the water very quickly, and we refilled the cup 2 more times. It was so sad looking and we felt so bad! So once we got back to the hotel, Katie and I brought a couple pieces of leftover pizza from lunch and gave it to the dog. It loved it! Even though it’s human food, it’s probably better than starving. Katie and I went to the little store after that to buy some stuff, because my water bottle broke randomly today and I wanted to buy a bottle. Unfortunately, I went to the store twice today and there was no water to be found! So I bought a Gatorade and a banana flavored soda, which I have yet to try. I also bought a fresh mango because the one I had yesterday was too good. Katie went all out and bought a candy bar, Gatorade, Cap’n Crunch, Doritos, and banana bread. Hey, we’re all at the point where we want a little junk food.

Dinner was after that, which consisted of fried chicken, French fries, bread, tomatoes, and an apple. Nothing too exciting, but hey, food is food. We organized all of the stuff that Eloisa had bought yesterday (supplies and food for the rural schools). Hashtag teamwork! Some girls did laundry then, but a bunch of us were hanging out in Lindsey and I’s room chatting and bonding. I’d have to say that this was really the first day we’ve really felt super connected to the point where we’d all just sit around and chat with each other. It’s pretty cool actually, because it’s hard to meet people in your classes at school and really get to know them, but through this trip, it’s so easy to get to know people quickly!

Tomorrow we’re going on our first mini trip! So excited!

I don't have my camera with me to upload pictures, but here's one more from last night:

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Honduras Day 5.

Today was by far the best day I've had in Honduras. Soooo much fun in one day!!

Journal Day 5 May 17, 2013

I honestly don’t even know where to begin for this day. So far, definitely the best day I’ve had in Honduras!

Again, it started early, which is starting to take a toll on us here. So many days of waking up at 5:45 am has lead to sheer exhaustion for most of us, and today was the first time we felt it! But I guess we’re going to have to get used to it considering we’re all going to be teachers and have to do this every day!

Breakfast consisted of cornflakes, a ham and cheese sandwich, fruit, and juice. After that, it was off to the school! During the morning, Becca and I had to finish grading the long standardized tests we were working on yesterday. Then came time to teach our very first lesson!! Miss Lacey had given us the teacher math book the night before so we could practice what we wanted to say and we discussed it with her this morning. It was basically a continuation of the bean activity we’ve been doing the past 2 days, only this time they had to visualize the beans and didn’t get to choose the numbers. So, Becca and I worked on finding the difference with the students, and it actually went pretty well! It’s so awesome how encouraging the teachers are and how willing they are to let us jump right into teaching the class, even though none of us have had prior experience with it. We even got to teach a language arts lesson too! Miss Lacey had it all set up for us, but it was cool getting practice being in front of the class. It went pretty well, and I just know I’m going to love teaching, especially if my students are as cute and precious as these are!

Kinder buddies was after that, which is where a 3^rd grader was paired with a Kinder student and they worked on an activity together. It was so cute and sweet to see the older students working with the younger ones. I think programs like that are really important because it allows students to act as role models for the younger students.

Lunch followed, which included fried chicken, rice, veggies, tortillas, and juice. By this time, we were wiped, and almost didn’t want to join the kids at recess because they always have a ton of energy and wanted us to play with them, but we wanted to sit and rest. However, we decided it was probably a good idea to interact with them, so I pushed some of the Pre-Kinder students on the swings and then went to play Hide-And-Seek with some of the girls from my class, but the bell rang. I learned the way they pick the person who’s it though! Instead of “Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?” with the feet in the middle, they sing, “Zapatito, cochinito, dime quien va a cambiar….” And I didn’t learn the rest. But it was still cute to watch!

When recess was over, Becca and I also got to help Miss Lacey with the Word Wall words. We were so productive today! Helping out with 3 lessons and grading? We could practically be teachers already! (Haha, just kidding, I don’t think we’re quite there yet.) The kids played a little bit of Word Wall Bingo, and then Laura did her show and tell. As we were about to walk out of the classroom at the end of the day, one of our students, Ana, came up to Becca and I because she had earrings for us! They were really pretty and it was so sweet of her! Also, our little cutie, Leo, brought us mangoes in the morning (a lot of students like to pick them off the ground and give them to their teachers), so I ate one with Laura and Megan, and it was really good! I’ve never had a whole mango before, and some of the students were very surprised about that.

We headed to the pool after class, as usual, but not before Laura and I went to Espresso Americano to get coolachas and coconut cream lechadas. We read a little and swam a little, but we were too anxious about tonight’s plans to really do any work! But I’ll get to that in a bit.

I showered after the pool and got all gussied up for the night before dinner. We all met for dinner at 6 as usual, but we were confused as to why JoAnn and Eloisa weren’t there! So we decided to eat ourselves and were absolutely overjoyed to see that we had French fries and soda!! Laura and I had literally just been talking about how much we were craving a little bit of American food, and our wish was granted! We also had these chicken sandwich things too. I think we were all a little too excited because when I went to open a Coke, it exploded everywhere! Oops…

Eloisa came in halfway through dinner to tell us that the van was here with all the supplies they had bought earlier in the day for the rural school, so we all helped getting them out and bringing them to Brian’s room. (Since he is the only guy and has a room to himself, we had to store all the food and supplies in his room). And then, with Eloisa’s blessing (and a parental lecture about safety), we were off to our adventure!

You see, I had talked to Gustavo, my newfound friend from the cat incident earlier, on Facebook, and he told me he and his friends would make us dinner tonight! I asked him if it would be okay if there were 13 of us, because everyone was interested in going, and he said yes! So around 6:45, we began our walk to the guys’ dorms where we were meeting them. We were a little nervous about leaving so early; we were supposed to meet at 7, which, in Honduran time, really means 9 for parties, according to Eloisa! Apparently in Honduras, everyone shows up late to everything, and it’s no big deal. Megan was freaking out and thought that it would be really awkward. And when we showed up, to be honest, it was a little awkward! There were several guys standing around outside where we had originally met the guys, but of course, we didn’t know any of them! So, a group of 13 Americans (all girls but one) just showed up out of the blue for this party! I was slightly nervous because I was the one who sort of got it all set up, and I was afraid that the group wouldn’t have a good time and it would be my fault for getting them into this mess. Everyone was looking at us kind of strangely, so I went up to one of the guys who was working on building a fire and asked where Gustavo was. They called him outside, but he took awhile and it was really awkward standing there because we were all really nervous. In the meantime, some guys put some chairs around in a circle for us to sit in, so we all kind of secluded ourselves into this circle because we were too timid to talk to anyone. Finally, Gustavo came out, and I went up and completely nailed the kiss-on-the-cheek-then-hug greeting they do down here. He welcomed us and offered us something to drink. We all politely refused because we were again, too shy. He then asked if we like country music, to which most of the girls cheered. So the guys proceeded to pull out a huge speaker system and plugged in their laptops for some music. Well, country music isn’t exactly the go-to music for dancing, so we changed it to a couple songs they had on iTunes, including “Yeah” by Usher. Some of us danced around a little bit, which was really fun. Some of the group broke off to watch, and later join, the card game some of the guys were playing, and some of the group had some one-on-one conversations with the guys. It was awesome!

Then, some of us wanted to learn some dances that Hondurans do, so my new friend, Juan, began teaching me reggaeton, which is basically just kind of moving your hips back and forth to the music. He told me that you follow your partner during the dance, but I had some trouble with that because let’s be real, I prefer freestyle dancing and am too independent for following my partner! But it really was a lot of fun! And Laura and I were eventually referred to as, “the dancing girls,” because we were going crazy and that’s how he recognized us.

Laura and I also got to chat with some guys, Norman and Emanuel which was pretty cool too. And then the guys all got together to perform a traditional Honduran dance, the punta, for us. It was really fun to watch, and they called Katie and me up to dance with them. We then returned the favor by teaching them all some American line dances, such as, “The Cha-Cha Slide,” “The Cupid Shuffle,” and “Wobble.” It was awesome getting to share our cultures with each other!!

One of the funniest parts of the night was that Gustavo sort of fell in love with Katie. He joked around with her the first time we met, saying, “Speak, Katie!” because she had been so quiet. So tonight, he continually said things like, “Dance, Katie!” and such. He once even stopped the music because she wasn’t dancing!! They got to dance with each other a little bit and then they got some pictures together which were absolutely priceless. He was seriously/jokingly in love with her, and it was so funny because the whole night he kept calling out to her and wanting to dance with her.

The whole night was just an absolute blast! There were a lot of funny moments, such as Megan trying to speak Spanish (“Yo quiero Ricky Martin), and the time I saw the cat and ran after it. Oh, and also when the song, “It’s Getting Hot In Here” came on and one of the Zamorano guys began doing a strip-tease of sorts, and then I fake lassoed him with my scarf and we danced a little. It was hilarious!!

However, all good things must come to an end, and around 9:45 we were sort of kicked out because at Zamorano, the students have a curfew of 10:00 pm. So we thanked everyone and got lots of hugs and kisses on the cheek and left. Everyone had such a great time! When we got back, the hotel desk person didn’t have our keys for us because Eloisa had taken them all so we would see her when we got back after the party! We thought it was really funny when we were all standing outside of her room waiting for her to answer the door and give us our room keys (which are legitimate keys, mind you). She was glad we had a good time though!

Laura, Katie, and I decided that we needed to write our daily journals immediately because so much happened today, so we all came to our usual spots in the lobby and began the long process of journaling. But even then we got super distracted from Facebook with everyone uploading pictures of the night and with Gustavo messaging us! And then we saw a skunk!

Tonight was absolutely a blast, and I hope we will have a couple more fun nights like this before we leave! I also hope we get a chance to see some of our new friends before we leave!

Pictures:

Some of 3rd grade

Luis Fernando

Kinder Buddies

Leo

Pre-K

My first whole mango!

Espresso Americano

The group before the night out

#HonduranSwag

Dancing with Juan!

The guys performing, "Punta"

Me and Juan

Gustavo y Katie <3

Me and Juan Jose, post striptease :)

Norman y Emanuel

GUSTAVO :)

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Friday, May 17, 2013

Honduras Day 4.

Day 4 down...the time is slipping away wayyyyy to quickly!! Hope you're not getting bored reading yet!

Journal Day 4: May 16, 2013

Woke up bright and early again this morning for breakfast, which consisted of eggs, sausage, beans, plantains, and the sour cream/cream cheese sauce stuff. Then it was off to another day of school! My class started off with Spanish again, and we went to the library to check out some Spanish books. Then we came back to the classroom where the Spanish teacher instructed the students to write a chronology of their lives with at least 4 events. I worked with this cutie, Déborah, during this time. She even asked me how to conjugate the verb graduarse, which I was very confused about. However, after talking with her a little, I found out that she was born in the United States in California and moved to Honduras 3 years ago. She didn’t know any Spanish at the time, and now she’s fluent! Apparently her dad is a teacher in one of the classrooms at ABSS. She then wanted me to write a chronology of my life, so I obliged. I even did it in Spanish and got to practice speaking with her! I love that kids are so forgiving…even though I fail epically with my Spanish, they’re still willing to let me practice on them.

A short recess followed and Becca and I sat outside with some of the girls, who shared their giant grapes with us. Apparently they don’t have small grapes in Honduras! The grape prompted us to practice our words for various fruits in Spanish , and then I had the privilege to have my hair done by the girls…it was really cute…;)

Math was next…we continued working with the beans and finding the difference. I worked with Luis Fernando again as I did the day before. He is such a cutie, even though he doesn’t really like to listen to me or do work. It was a slow process to try and get him to do some of the parts of the lesson, but eventually he complied to my requests. I just tried to be very encouraging, because it doesn’t help to get frustrated with the students. Miss Lacey told me I was doing a good job while working with him, but I didn’t feel that was the case because we didn’t seem to be making much progress. Perhaps I will if I continue to work with him!

Language Arts was next, after a quick brain break, which was a murder game that I compared to Frogger, which I always played during volleyball. The students got to read their books, and this little cutie, Kenneth, read some of his book to me and we took turns reading pages. Miss Lacey then had a project for us: we had to grade some standardized tests the students had taken the week before. There were 20 tests of about 70 pages! So we started the process with our own method, but Miss Lacey later gave us a faster, more efficient method of grading so we could get done faster. Lesson #1: Always listen to the experienced teachers!! They give good advice.

The tests had different parts: reading, grammar, math, etc. What was interesting was that these tests were standardized tests for Iowa. What were they doing in Honduras?! Becca and I felt as if we were marking almost every question incorrect, especially when it came to the words and finding the correct definitions out of a list with almost no context clues. We even talked to Miss Lacey about it: these would be so difficult for students to figure out who are in third grade in the US, let alone students who primarily speak Spanish! It strongly reminded me of a passage I read in one of our assigned novels, Of Borders and Dreams: A Mexican-American Experience of Urban Education. It talks about how standardized tests are biased and are not in favor of minorities because they are set up to be culturally relevant to the majority (Carger, 1996). There might be words and phrases in these American tests that would make no sense to these Honduran children because they are not culturally significant here as they would be in the States. So, why these tests are being administered, I couldn’t say. But I’m not sure how accurate they really are of these kids’ intelligence.

Lunch was next, and it was by far the best meal I’ve had here so far! Our cook made us tacos with some extremely good tortillas, chicken, guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, and sauces. Ohhh man, it was heavenly. We proceeded to join the kids in their recess games afterwards. It’s an understatement to say they were crazy. They were running around everywhere, crowding on the playset to go down the slide, jumping on and climbing up the slide, bumping into one another, and rolling around in the dirt when they got to the bottom. Noé had scissors in his pocket for some reason, so I had to take them before he stabbed himself or someone else! The girls were running around blowing raspberries on our stomachs, and everyone just had way too much energy! But we finally settled down a bit when we taught everyone the game, “Down-By-The-Banks.” It was a simple game and everyone, even some kids from the Kinder class, enjoyed it.

Becca and I graded some more afterwards, and before long, it was time to pack up and leave. Most of us were really excited because we were going to visit the orphanage right after school. Miss Lacey told us that four students in our classroom, Luis Fernando (who I work on math with), Norman, Daniel, and Cristian (one of my favorite kids there!) all live at the orphanage. I was shocked: we knew some students came from the orphanage, but we had no clue they were in our class! I did notice that 3 of these students were a little more reserved and quiet, especially Luis Fernando when I work with him on math. Miss Lacey had said he needed some extra love, and now I understand why. My heart for these children grew 10x more when I discovered this. I can’t even imagine a life with no parents, and it makes me very thankful for my family and not having had gone through childhood without strong role models.

Well, unfortunately, our trip to the orphanage fell through after we had all piled into the van because of some miscommunication that all the students from Jovenes, the orphanage, were actually coming to ABSS after school, because they have a partnership of sorts where the students visit each other. However, we found out that the students would be playing a soccer game here, so we decided to stay for that. I felt like a proud parent watching Danny and Norman and Cristian play their game! I was cheering them on and taking pictures of them and everything. Future soccer mom…? Haha J But it was absolutely adorable: even though Cristian is pretty quiet in class and sometimes seems wary of me, every time his team scored a goal, he looked over at me and smiled. It was absolutely precious!! I can’t wait to tell him how well he played tomorrow!! We might be able to visit the orphanage next week…I really hope so!!

We had dinner at 6, which consisted of chicken, rice, cucumbers, bread, and fruit cups. We then had class, where we discussed the book I mentioned earlier. The book is essentially about a boy named Alejandro, who was born in Mexico and moved to the United States. He had a lot of trouble with the public school system in Chicago, and the book, told by his ESL teacher, highlighted the struggles he encountered with not knowing English well or Spanish academically. It was pretty interesting.

Becca and I went over tomorrow’s math lesson in the math book afterwards because Miss Lacey is letting us teach the math lesson tomorrow! The book lays the lesson out pretty clearly, but it’ll be a really neat experience. We also might get to do the Language Arts lesson!

Another fun thing: Katie and I got to chat with some more Zamorano students today! Many of them congregate in the hotel lobby at nights when we’re studying, and Katie and I were there too. All of a sudden, a beetle flew onto my backpack (they’re EVERYWHERE!) and I freaked out and tried to get it off, but it wouldn’t go anywhere! So I was just spazzing out, and when I looked over, 2 girls who were sitting there were laughing at me. So I took the opportunity to ask what they were studying for in the lobby, and they told us they had a big project due and were writing a paper. Their names were Wendy and Karen or something like that. We found out that a lot of the girls live in the Kellogg Center because there wasn’t enough space in the other dorms, and that’s why they were always hanging out here! Also, Karen actually did an internship with Purdue for 3 months earlier this year! She said she really liked it and experienced snow for the first time while there! She basically lived within a mile of me, too! Apparently a lot of Zamorano students do internships at Purdue because both have such a strong agriculture program. It was awesome being able to ask them questions though! They might even take us out to do something on Saturday! Seriously though, it's the animals and creatures that get us friends..first the cats, and now the bugs!

Speaking of doing things, Gustavo, they guy we met yesterday, added the 3 of us on Facebook, and now he and his friends are going to make dinner for us tomorrow night! Seriously can’t wait!!

Goodnight for now!

Photos:

Roxely y Andrea

Library time! (With the attractive librarian...all the girls either like him, the PE teacher, or the 6th grade teacher. Maybe I need to move to Honduras... ;) )