Copan!

     The wednesday night of last week, I got a call from Louisa, my AFS coordinator, saying there was a trip to Copan the next day and I had to be at the shopping center at nine AM the next morning. Advanced notice, right? But who am I kidding, it's not like I had anything cooler than Copan planned. So I enjoyed the rare luxury of sleeping in, and the next morning I was on a bus to Copan! The bus ride took the better part of the way because we kept having to stop and wait for other students. I got to reunite with the other students, Juri and Luise, and the rest of the German/Belgian volunteers. There were also two new volunteers; a girl from Lichtenberg, and a lady from Switzerland, and a new student, a boy from Japan. I forget their names already, but they were cool. When we got to the hotel, we were all surprised by how fancy it was. The courtyard was gorgeous and the rooms were clean and had giant super-soft beds and irons and coffee makers. Then we all laughed about how Honduras has changed our fanciness standards.

Juri, Luise, and I :)

    The first day we ate dinner and then spent the rest of the day just chilling, which is actually what we did for most of the trip. I kept asking our coordinators what we had planned and they said, "Nothing, this is just for relaxing and vacation!" A vacation from my vacation! We had a lot of freedom; no curfew and we were allowed to go wherever we wanted, so that was cool. The first night Juri and Louise and I walked around the picturesque town and hung out in the park. We talked to people at the souvenir stands and watched fire tricks, musicians, and dancing. I loved the mood of the town: it was a little irritating being treated like a tourist, but there's something to be said for the friendly, artificial mood of such a touristy place. Being a foreigner, you feel an automatic sort of kindred-ness with other foreigners, and it's easy to walk around and just meet people.
    On friday, we started off the day by doing a AFS exercise like the ones we had done in orientation. We talked about our feelings, all our crappies and our happies. Louise ended up with a crazy host sister who spreads mean rumors about her, and she's having to change families. Juri absolutely loves her family and her school and is having a great time. Everyone has gained weight except for me-- Juri even had to buy new pants. I had to buy new pants too, but it was because I lost weight. I have no idea why! I've basically been stuffing my face nonstop for three months now.

    After we were done writing our feelings on construction paper and such, we ate lunch and went to a bird park. I almost didn't go because the entrance was $10, which seems like a ridiculous sum of money to me now, but there wasn't much else to do. The birds of Honduras are absolutely beautiful. A lot of the birds who were in the park were there because their former owners had been abusive-- it's so unfathomable that people would abuse and kill such beautiful creatures for fun. At the end of the tour, we all got to have Kodak moments with the Macaws on our shoulders. Our guide claimed they were docile but one of them bit my hand, the little booger.

    Part of the fun of our little bird-park trip was just riding in these crazy "taxis". They aren't even cars, really, more like some sort of ATV/golfcart hybrid, and our cab driver had a need for speed. I'm pretty sure he was racing the other cab driver, there were a few times I thought I was actually going to fall out and land my butt on some cobblestone. But if I thought a Copan cab ride was crazy with four passengers, it was nothing compared to when we somehow managed to fit seven.

Look at this lady! She's like, "Stupid tourists." Hahaha. (Her presence in this photo is entirely coincidental)

    That night we were again without plans. Louise and Juri and I wandered around town again and we ended up meeting a couple of Brazilian guys and we hung out with them for a few hours. They were trilingual and good conversationalists, and their English was perfect. One of them used a few words I didn't know; which was so not cool. 

    Saturday we finally got to see the Mayan ruins. They were incredible. According to our tour guide, the ruins in Copan are pretty much the best in the world. He knew so much about Mayan history and the way Mayans lived. It was all fascinating, but I kept having to resist the urge to ask how they knew all these things from looking at a bunch of rocks-- his histories were almost unbelievably detailed. This is why I have trouble in school.

    Saturday we hung out with the German/Belgian/Lichtenbergian(?)/Swedish-- this is too much work, I'm just going to call them German, OK? Saturday we hung out with the German kids and went to the discotec. I've heard so much about Honduran discotecs but this was my first time going to one! It was fun. 

    Getting up the next morning for the bus home was not pleasant! Neither was going to school the next day, because after an eventful weekend it felt so boring. A lot of the other exchange students have fellow exchange students in their towns or in their schools, and I'm a bit jealous. It's funny because I remember wondering why the exchange students at my old school hung out with each other. I thought if I were on a country I would only want to spend time with people from that country in order to be integrated-- but I totally get it now. I still think it's good to try to be integrated into the culture of the place, but I think hanging out with other exchange students is good too. Being an exchange student is such a strange experience to have and it's nice to be around people who understand your perspective.
    Monday at school I announced to Nicole that I need new pants. She laughed and assumed that I've gained weight, although that is not the case. So on Tuesday we walked to the mall after school. Kevin came too, and at first I was like, "Oh, great, a boy. He's going to hate this," but it was funny because I think he was actually more into the process than Nicole, as hard as he tried to hide it. After we had been to three different stores and tried at least twenty pairs, I finally found a pair that sort of worked and he said "Are you sure you don't want to try on more?" Nicole rolled her eyes and I could have hugged him.
    I didn't think I was going to see any of the other students again, but I ended up seeing Luise on wednesday when I went to Tegus to deal with immigration things. I get documents in the mail in thirty days that say I am officially a resident of Honduras! (And then I leave a week later. Hahaha.)
    I had to catch a bus at eight to go to Tegus, and at eleven we were done and Tania and Louisa took me to the bus station to take a bus back to Comayagua. But I was a little disappointed that I had come all the way to the city just to go home an hour later, so I asked if I could go to the mall. They said OK, and Luise wanted to come too, so we took a taxi to the mall. I've been dying to buy books and I need to buy a formal dress for an upcoming Quinceañera as well as Rosa's Prom. I did not accomplish either of my objectives-- the bookstore was tiny and only sold religious books and crime novels, and I got distracted from my goal of buying a formal dress. I had fun anyway, it was so nice to shop in a really good mall. I wish I had known I was going to Tegus, or I would have waited and bought pants there. They had big-girl pants.
    I just found out I'm going on another AFS trip to Tela-- tomorrow! I won't be with the same group of students. Since I'm the only American, and, I think, the only student doing a semester program, I'm an abnormality and I don't really have a group. I'm not sure why, but I'm invited on this trip as well. Yay! 

    Oh yeah, and here are my graduation pictures. I'm not actually graduating, but I insisted they take them because everyone else was and I felt left out.