Coming home!!

Yeap, I'm coming home today! I'm excited as I *really* miss my babies..
But I'm also sad to be leaving this town. It has really grown on me. It's such a small town that I've ran into my students while walking around on a few different occasions. I liked that because then I got to meet their parents.
I've also been fortunate in that there are quite a few great people that came on this trip. We have been talking about staying in touch when we get back home, and hopefully we do!! There are a bunch of great potential teachers in this bunch!! Not to mention that they are good friends..
I will miss being able to walk to everything I need to get to. I wonder how bad my driving skills will be when I get home?!? ;-) Can't be as bad as these Guatemalans drive!
I'm going to miss the wonderful diversity of FOOD ;-), being able to practice my Spanish everyday, many times a day, being able to TEACH in a classroom...
My original group of students, the 5th graders, tricked me on Friday. The teacher says that they have written something on the board for me to see...I walk in the classroom...eyes on the board as I enter...& they yell "surprise" & ambush me!!! ;-) They were all giving hugs, but it threw us all off balance & we ended up tumbling to the ground!! It was *real* graceful!!
My second grade class showered me with home-made cards and cookies. It was really sweet.
I will miss all of them. Luckily, in this modern day, all of them have email!! I plan to write them like pen pals.
More pictures will be up tomorrow!!

9 more days to go....

And while I could have easily sat back and coasted the remainder of this experience, I raised my hand to be a sub for the last week. One of the Master teachers was fired (crazy huh?), and the student teacher that was under him is one of the weaker ones, so there was no way she was going to be able to take on the class by herself. I proposed the idea of being the sub, IF THEY WOULD PAY ME, and at first it didn't seem like the idea would fly (they didn't want to pay). In the end, I think they realized they didn't have too much of an option, and with the encouragement from my professor, attesting to my abilities as a teacher, they say sure. I'm only getting paid 1000 quetzales (about $130), for a week's worth of work. To put that in perspective, subs in CA make $105-$135 A DAY... But, it's better than working for free. Spending $$ I say.
But now, I have ALLLL this work to do, on top of the papers I need to do for this class: the original reason I'm out here. Well, it will just add to my learning experience here... and look even better on my resume. I hope to get a letter of recomendation from the colegio's principle from all of this.

Wish me luck!!!

caught a cold...

& it sucks. When we went to Parajachel this weekend, I could feel my chest getting tight. The air quality there was worse than Antigua and I think it has resulted in this sinus bug/infection that I have right now. I've been drinking a lot of tea and sleeping a ton, which has been helping. I stayed home today to rest up & I'll probably work on some of the assignments while I'm here by myself.

This last weekend was pretty fun though. We went to a nature reserve and I was peer pressured to go Zip lining there. (half of the pressure came from Justin, who the night before told me I should do it). I really only wanted to go on it once, but it was a series of 8 lines. Once you went across one line, you pretty much had to go down all of them. It was pretty cool to be hiking through the jungle & zooming on steel cables...BUT I did get a phat bruise on my thigh when I didn't stop in time at the end of a line. :(
Still, it's not something I'd like to repeat in this life. I had a good time & all, but once is enough. :)

We also visited & spent $$ at an old Mayan Market called ChiChiCastenango. I really wanted to get a t-shirt that had the name of the place on it, but all I could find were Guatemalan shirts. Though I did get a parjache, which is what the women in Guatemala use to carry their babies & other items in. It's basically a large cloth that they tie as a sling to hold the baby on their backs. Similar items are sold in the USA, called the Mayan wrap, for way more $$ than I'm willing to pay. I got the parjache for about $25. & I see them use the wrap for their toddlers too...

This week I'm doing a lot of teaching, which I love! I have a great Master Teacher, and the kids in my classes are pretty fun to. They test me at times, but nothing I can't handle!

Off I go to pop another Advil cold&sinus... I'm glad I remembered to bring those with me!