La Playa!

Weirdest Honduran Phrases I've Heard:

1. "Vayapues"-

Sounds like "go so" but in Honduras it means "OK"

2. "Tengo hueva"-

Sounds like "I have egg" but it means "I feel lazy"

3. "No hay pedo"

Technically means "There is no fart", but here they say it to mean "No problem". Oooookay.

I'm feeling pretty good today. As of yesterday, I've been here a month, and I'm finally feeling adjusted. I have to admit, I hit a low point my second week here, and spent the week feeling a bit sulky, asking myself "What am I doing in this strange country?!" and wanting to throw every plate of Honduran food I saw out a window, but I definitely don't feel that way anymore.

I get so much attention for being a gringa! I have to admit it, most of the time, I love it. Mostly people just stare, and I don't blame them, because even I stare when I see gringos in Comayagua. The other day I was loitering outside a Pulperia with some classmates after school and a group of sunburnt shorts-wearing tourists came wandering up the street, and I stared and giggled with the rest of my peers at how out of place they looked...and then I remembered that I'm a gringa, too, which despite my bad spanish and habit of looking in mirrors daily, I have still managed to forget after a month of living here. The other day a little boy at church ran up to me during worship, kissed me, and stood on a chair, pointed to me, and screamed "La blanca!" Yeah, I'm white. Pretty cool, I guess. Apparently school children have yelled compliments to me when I'm waiting for my bus, too, but I had no idea I was being addressed...and men call out to me "hermosa!" and allegedly some things it's better I don't understand. That would be the sort of attention I'm not particularly pleased about.

This weekend I got my first glimpse of the beautiful Honduran coast. I had to wake up at 3:00am on Saturday because the trip to the coast takes 5 hours-- yikes! I can't imagine how long it would have taken in a country with speed limits! My host mom, Juan Carlos, Sandra, and Sandra's kids and I went to the church where we met up with other people from church and piled into a big bus and headed for the beach. Rosa couldn't come because she had too much homework. Once at the beach I spent the day swimming, sleeping under palm trees, and eating coconut bread, fried things, and fresh coconuts, and drinking delicious red (hibiscus?) juice sold by some ladies from the church. It was lovely! Unfortunately I also accidentally fell asleep under the extra-hot coast sun, which rendered me quite burnt despite my SPF60, and got me some interesting nicknames, like"Fresita Rosita" (little pink strawberry/Strawberry Shortcake) and "Tomato".

Whilst relaxing under palm trees some little local boys approached us and sang us a song whilst banging on bucket-drums and dancing. It was so adorable! I tried to upload a video but blogspot is being stupid.

On sunday I went to Nicol's house and played Uno and watched Inception and hung out with her and Kevin. Despite this being my third time watching Inception, and my third time having a guy try to explain it to me, I still don't really get it, and I don't really understand why when these people can build any world they want their adventures are taking place in hotel lobbies and snowy mountains, because personally, I would be permanently residing in a magical unicorn land with candy falling from the sky if Inception were real. Still, it's a good movie.

Apparantly there's a dance party at school on Friday (I can't dance, so that'll be interesting) and my classmates invited me on some sort of roadtrip this Saturday for eating, swimming, and "convivencing"-- spanglish is so adorable :). It sounds so fun! I'm really excited for this weekend!