Two weeks of class left of the school year, and it’s pretty hard to believe how far I’ve come. Of course, that somehow makes these last weeks seem reeaally slow.
Some events of note recently:
Birthday celebration. Had a fun little dessert and drinks party on the back porch with my fellow teachers on the eve of my birthday before heading out to San Pedro to Kline Bar. There I heard two great local rock bands and had a fun time hanging out while enjoying numerous free drinks.
Surprise from the students. After Actos Civicos on Monday morning, one of my students approached me to ask me a question about the exam schedule. It was a ludicrous question and he couldn’t really keep a straight face. That’s when I realized there was more birthday celebration in the works. “Let me help you out,” I said, “Ask me about my weekend.” When we walked back to the classroom, everybody shouted surprise and presented the huge breakfast feast they had brought. But even better was that they brought a pinata! I learned that it’s pretty hard to hit the pinata when you’re legitimately blindfolded and turned around 24 times. All in all, it was a really nice way to celebrate.
Cusuco trip. On Thursday morning, my students announced that they wanted to go to Cusuco. On Friday. I told them that if they organized it all, we could go. To do my part, I walked home during recess to get the phone number of the guide. They called and arranged the tour, arranged transportation, wrote the permission slip, and got permission from the school administration. So we went. On Friday morning, they all showed up in their hiking clothes—or at least their non-school clothes—and we set off. We heard a small lecture about the park, which formerly was a logging site, but became a protected area in the 1950s, and then had a great “breakfast” provided by the students. Within the first five minutes of the hike they were all whining—“No aguanto más!” But eventually they settled down and got into the rhythm of hiking. We saw a quetzal in its tree nest, well, really just the blue and green tail feathers sticking out. Our guide just couldn’t convince the bird that it wanted to come out to spend time with 7th and 8th graders. A few times during steep downhill portions of the trail, the kids started slipping and sliding around, their Converse tennies lacking the tread to help them get their grip. Once one student fell down and that set off a domino effect, knocking down two other students and even the guide!
Birthday celebration 2 (3?). Since the two friends of mine who live in the city were away last weekend—are leaving this week!—they hosted a birthday/goodbye party/any other random occasion gathering in their apartment this past Saturday. Alas they had actually stayed out until
Other excellence. My awesome sister graduated magna cum laude this past weekend. In other words, she’s a huge rockstar. AND I received a package from my parents! So I ate Golden Grahams for breakfast this morning—albeit with boxed skim milk—while reading a New York Times magazine. And unlike yesterday, there actually was electricity when I woke up this morning. Now that is beautiful.
