Green Eyes

This afternoon a little boy asked me why I have green eyes. I didn't know what to say at first, so I asked him why he had brown eyes. He corrected me and told me his eyes were black! I just laughed!

I'm a Bad Blogger

October is almost over, and I have only written 4 blogs this month! Oops!

• Last weekend, I went to Tapachula to renew my visa. So, I am allowed to be here for another 90 days!
• School is flying by! Monday begins the third week of the second quarter. 
• Last Tuesday I went with three other teachers to a unique school for kids that have to work during the day. The school is actually right in the middle of a huge market called Minerva. The students introduced themselves and told us where they work. Many of them help their moms sell things. The Guatemalan school year runs from January to October. So we joined the students for a delicious end-of-the-year dinner. The seventh graders at IAS held a bake sale on Monday to pay for this dinner. Oddly enough, I ran into a girl who went to LHHS. She is taking a year off from seminary and working at this school. She didn't recognize me, but I somehow remembered her face. She graduated two years ahead of me, but what a small world!
• While the dinner was so, so good, I think it made me sick. I felt awful all night Tuesday night. I shouldn't have gone to school on Wednesday, but I did, simply because it's almost easier to go and bear it than to prepare things for a sub. Needless to say, I felt awful all day. I took a nap outside during my morning planning period, and the English teacher woke me up just in time for the next class period. (She thought I had fainted, haha!) I came home from school, bought some Pedialyte, and went to bed. I slept for at least 13 hours and woke up feeling much better the next day. I'm still not 100%, but I am tons better than Wednesday. I will probably get tested for amoebas in a couple of days if things are fully better by then!
• I think we are officially out of the rainy season, and I welcome all of the sunshine! The mornings and nights are super cold (I can see my breath! At night, I sleep in a long sleeve t-shirt, 2 fleece jackets, a scarf, running tights, fleece pajama bottoms, and socks!), but the days are so warm! It feels like Texas spring weather! It is amazing how sunshine really improves my mood as well!
• Texas Rangers fans will be proud to know that I went to a restaurant to watch the game last night. Although, I really didn't watch much of the game (which probably isn't a surprise)!
• Halloween is really looked down upon here, especially by Christians. One of the eighth graders invited me to come to her church Monday night "to pray for everyone who celebrates Halloween". This made me laugh, but I might go, just to see what it's like!
• I am incredibly blessed to be here. Although I am living in a foreign country and could even be classified as a missionary, life seems so normal and ordinary. I tend to desire those mountaintop and valley experiences. They are adventurous and difficult at times, but they almost always produce intimacy with God. Yet, God is teaching me the significance and value of being with Him and walking with Him in the ordinary, everyday things. Until now, I think I held this fantasy about missionaries. Maybe I'm wrong, but I now believe that being a missionary means being with God, listening to Him, obeying Him, and serving Him wherever we are and with whoever is before us. Therefore, we are all missionaries. 
• We don't have school on Tuesday (but we do on Monday!) because it is All Saint's Day. Everyone eats a certain meal and flies kites. One of the eighth grade girls invited me to her house to eat the special lunch! I think it's basically a mix of veggies and meats, so it should be interesting. People either really like it or really hate it! I'll let you know which way I go!

Sunday Grading

Right now I'm grading the 8th graders scripture memory tests that they took two weeks ago. I asked the students to draw me a picture once they finished their tests, just because it makes grading much more fun for me! 

Here are some things students wrote in addition to their pictures:

• "You'll die knowing you made your class fail (especially me!)"
• "Have a nice and awesome weekend (only if you grade the quizzes on the weekend!)"
• "HI miss! bye miss" with a huge picture of a guy picking his nose
• "I gonna fail!"

Silly Skit Night

Tonight the Student Council hosted "Silly Skit Night". Since I love dressing up in costumes, this was right up my alley. I played the Big Bad Wolf in a version of Little Red Riding Hood with the middle school English teacher. We reenacted the story of Little Red Riding Hood with really bad Spanish, Texan/Southern accents, really fast, without talking, and using Smurf-isms. In another skit, I played an overly enthusiastic  Justin Bieber fan. The 8th graders practiced a lot during lunch this past week for their skit, and they did a great job! They won the trophy! What a fun night...but now I have to plan and grade :( The students don't have school next Monday, but the teachers do. I'm looking forward to the much-needed "catch-up" time! Then, next Thursday we have parent/teacher conferences, which should be interesting since the parents don't speak much English, and my Spanish is still very elementary.

Play Date

I just got home from my play date, and I had a blast! I hung out with this sweet girl for about 5 hours tonight! I kind of forgot that I am her teacher, as it just felt like I was spending time with a friend. Her mom picked us up from school. Once we got to her house, her grandmother fixed us a "snack", which consisted of black beans, grilled green onions, carne asada with salsa, beets, and orange juice. It was delicious and probably the biggest snack I've ever eaten! As we finished eating, we looked through about four different family photo albums, as her mom kept bringing out more to show me! Then, we played Wii tennis and baseball. I lost every game we played! After Wii, we played a board game called Lince, which means lynx. It was really fun, and I must brag...I won both times! After Lince, we ate dinner with consisted of "enchiladas", which are really big tortilla chips (or tostadas) with salsa, queso, carne, y verduras. If we hadn't eaten enough already, then her grandmother served a pound cake that she made especially for me! Their hospitality was incredible! After dinner, we just sat around the table, talking and laughing. It was so much fun! Most of the time we spoke in Spanish, but if I didn't understand something, they were very understanding, and K. explained it to me in English. After dinner, we played another round of Lince, and then the entire family drove me home! I think today was only the fourth time I've ridden in a car since I've been here. Also, her grandmother sent me home with a bag full of apples, a cherry Coke, a ham sandwich, and two more pieces of pound cake. What a fun afternoon!

I am truly blessed! The Lord is so good, and only He deserves the praise!

It's Been Awhile...

Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks. Lately, I've failed at blogging consistently!

• Here, oranges are not orange. They're more of yellow/green color. I ate one for breakfast this morning, and it was a bit disappointing. The watermelon, however, is delicious!
• I had an infestation of fleas. At one point, I counted 61 flea bites on my body. You will be happy to know, though, that once Betty washed my sheets, the problem was gone!
• Middle school students don't have a filter. They just say exactly what's on their minds. Sometimes this is good, and sometimes this is not so good. For example, in one day, 3 different boys asked me what happened to my face in reference to a pimple I had. However, last Friday, the first thing one of the girls said to me was, "Miss, you look beautiful today!" Now that is a great way to start the day, especially since my hair was pulled back (and a bit dirty)!
• An eighth grade girl invited me to come over to her house to meet her family and hang out. In the States, this would just be weird. Here, however, it's not so awkward! I accepted the invitation, and I'm going tomorrow!
• Unfortunately, the Spanish is slow coming! My Spanish teacher just keeps saying "poco a poco", which is supposed to be encouraging, but sometimes, it's more discouraging. I want to be able to speak conversational Spanish, but it's hard when I speak in Spanish all day at school and when I hang out with the other teachers. We have parent/teacher conferences in two weeks, which make me nervous, because about half of the parents don't speak English. Haha, it should be interesting!
• In the States, we have Mother's Day and Father's Day. Here in Guatemala, they also celebrate Kid's Day, which I thought was a joke at first! Kid's Day was on Saturday, but we celebrated at school on Monday. The parents brought pizza, tea, and cake for the kids. Also, each room mom made bags of candy for each kid. Needless to say, but the kids were so hyper on Monday! I let the kids eat their candy in my room as long as they gave me some!
• I kept telling myself that when I could run, I no longer had bronchitis. Well, two nights ago, I ran for thirty minutes without coughing! Yea!
• I eat pancakes almost every morning for breakfast, which is wonderful, because they are homemade with bananas! However, I have never eaten this many pancakes in my life!

Ok, that's all for now! More to come, but I'm at school right now, so I should be "using my time wisely!"