Tela!

    Last weekend was fun, but this weekend was fantastic. I initially didn't know any of the AFSers I was going on the Tela trip with, and I knew that they all knew each other and that they were mostly Italians and Germans, and so I was worried that they would just speak Italian and German and I would be the odd one out. But I was completely blown away by how friendly and welcoming everyone was! Everyone was so fun and open, and everybody spoke Spanish and English so we could all understand. After the first day, I felt like I'd known everyone for years.

    On the bus I hit it off with one of the Belgian girls, Lore. We talked for most of the bus ride to Tela and then ended up in the same room. When we got to Tela, we ate lunch and then headed for the beach! It was so wonderful to talk to people while wading in the cool clear waves and watching the sunset. I thought I was the only American, but there was actually another one! He was a volunteer; not a student. I should have been able to tell right away by his accent and the way he laughed at my jokes, but I hadn't been expecting to meet any so I was surprised when CJ told me he was from Chicago. It was great to talk to a fellow American, I think being abroad for a while has really made me aware of my culture and what traits I have that are uniquely American. Fun fact: Hondurans hate it when we refer to ourselves as "American", because technically they're Americans too. But since we're too lazy to refer to ourselves as "We That Come From The United States of America", we're sticking to "Americans"...at least when talking to each other.

    That night, as well as the following morning, we had orientation-activities, it was all basically the same stuff I had done the former week in Copan. We talked about our feelings, the "positives and negatives" or our experience, etc., etc.

    On saturday, after our orientation activities were finished, we were free to do as we wanted. I started out by going on a little boat tour with a few of the other students, and it was really nice. We took off from the beach in a little motor boat and entered into a quiet little lake not far from the shore. I didn't understand a lot of what our tour guide was saying, but it was beautiful.

                                     

    After that, CJ and I and two other girls, Anja and Berenice, and I decided to go and find "Pastelitos", beacuse he had been raving about how much he loved Pastelitos and I had never tried them. Even though "Pastelitos" sounds like "little cakes" they were, in fact, nothing like cake, but rather a kind of bready fried thing with chicken inside. He said they usually had a kind of relish inside as well, but these ones just had chicken. They were really good, but did not replace the special love in my heart for Baleadas as promised. 

CJ and his Pastelito

                                     

    After that, Anja and Berenice and CJ and one other Italian girl-- I forget her name already but she was really fun-- and I took a long walk on the beach and talked. When we came back, I hung out with CJ and Lukas, a boy from Germany, and we sat on the beach and talked some more. We talked about our experiences as foreigners and had some really great conversations/debates about controversial issues such as religion and abortion, which was wonderful because I really love good debates and I haven't had one in a really long time.

Lukas

     That evening we had dinner and walked through town. We winded up going to a discotec, which was fun although we had a curfew of 11pm, so we were pretty much the only ones at the discotec. Nobody goes to discotecs before midnight! The discotec had an interesting theme that night, and there were all these guys dressed like monsters. 

I danced with one of these guys.

    Our curfew ended up being a good thing because we had so much fun hanging out outside the hotel afterwards. We engaged in quite the bit of silliness-- somehow we ended up with a pineapple that we all wanted to eat, but we didn't have a knife. So this happened:

Lore and Amarilda doing the honors

    And then more 2am silliness ensued.

    We left first thing the next morning for home. Why so early? I was sad to go because I probably won't see any of my new friends again.
    Monday I had to leave school early because I had a stomach ache and felt horrible. It's wednesday, and I'm still sick, although better than I was yesterday. yesterday I was throwing up and couldn't keep food or liquids in my stomach. I've been sick before, but I think what really worried my family was that I wouldn't eat, so they took me to the doctor. She gave me a bunch of medicine and told me to eat soft foods, I think I might have gotten food poisoning or something. Despite having been here three months, I feel like my body's still not adjusted to Honduras. I've gotten several headcolds and stomach malfunctions and viruses. I hope I get better quick, because it would be terrible to miss out on the class trip to Copan this weekend!

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.

Dia De Madres!

                                   

    I had a fantastic weekend! Friday night we had a mother's day celebration at our school. All the parents came and we (the seniors!) provided food and entertainment. A few people sang, but mostly it was dancing! I knew Hondurans were good dancers, but I was blown away! I'm especially impressed because I know they started two weeks ago and only had like 5 practices. Everyone did an amazing job, although some of the dancing would have shocked an audience of American parents. By Honduran standards, it was totally PG. 

 My physics teacher, Merlin, and Gabi

Singin' songs about unity and peace and stuff

Merlin and I

    I was so hyper that night I had trouble sleeping, which was unfortunate, because I had to wake up at 4 am to be at the school for our trip to Tegus with Sr. Silva! Most of the students couldn't go because of Trabajo Social, but Merlin, Gabi, Oscar, and three of our professors had an awesome time anyway. To be honest, when I left, I didn't really know what we were doing. Sr. Silva, our religion teacher, is Portuguese and he's extra-hard to understand-- all I knew was that we were going on a trip, so I signed up. But I learned that we were going on a "run" (we didn't actually run much) with the organization Run 4 Unity to promote peace. I hadn't really worn running clothes, but that's fine, because in Honduras, nobody wears running clothes. If this had been in America, all the girls would be in yoga pants and jogging shoes, but Honduran chicks wear skinny jeans and ballet flats everywhere. Seriously, everywhere, even to go camping in a cow field. 

    When we got to Tegus, we met up on a sidewalk with a group of other kids and a lady who talked a little bit about the organization, and then we sang some fun songs and got started walking. We held a bunch of signs that said things like "Youth for peace!" and chanted and we had police escorts so that we could walk in street. Traffic was busy and a lot of people were annoyed at having to go around us. Blocking traffic for peace! Woot. 

    We stopped a few times along the way to meet up with little groups of other R4U people holding signs on sidewalks and to be interviewed by various cameramen. I think we were on TV, but I don't watch TV, so I don't know for sure. I ended up being glad it was so early in the morning because it was already so hot! We walked for about two hours and then we stopped at the university and gathered in one of the auditoriums. There was more singing and talking and some sexy dancing. (No event in Honduras is really complete without sexy dancing). We painted our hands crazy colors and put our handprints on a big poster and took lots of pictures. And then we ate lunch! All of us had brought Baleadas and Sr Silva had brought sandwiches and fruit to share and then we went to the mall "to eat lunch". Everyone made fun of me because I didn't want any of Sr. Silva's food and I didn't eat at the mall. "You don't eat much!" they said. But I had eaten three baleadas and a guava! I don't understand how my classmates are so skinny the way that they eat! 

    I was glad we went to the mall because it gave me a chance to buy a present for "mi mama hondureña". Bless Merlin for being patient with me when I was trying to pick out a card for my host mom! They all said things like "You are the best mother in the world"-- well, that's a little disloyal. Or, "you have always been there for me"-- well, that's not exactly true. Or, "you understand me more than anyone else"-- that would be difficult, considering we speak different languages! I finally found a fairly generic card and a bag of jelly beans with a cheesy little "Happy Mother's Day!" balloon. It's so difficult to communicate with my host mom but she is a sweet lady and I hope she knows how grateful I am to her for opening her home to me.

\

    That was pretty much my saturday! Obviously I was tired that night, but I had trouble sleeping. At three AM I was awoken to the sound of Giovanni's signature "Maliña!" outside my window, and I was like, oh, Rosa and Giovanni are having a date in the front yard at three AM, that's cool. But then I heard a bunch of other voices and I realized that, in fact, half of the church was in my front yard! And they had all brought drums and guitars and started singing a mother's day song. Thank heavens I had worn pants that night, because in Honduras, you never know if some guy is going to stick his head inside your window at three AM and shout "LEVANTATE, KAITI! How ARE yooooou!" 

    That was a serenata, and apparently they're common here on mother's day. Mother's day is kind of a big deal here. I noticed when we were on our way to la casa de los abuelitos that morning that a lot of people were dressed up and carrying cake boxes and flowers. We brought presents and mocha cake and Gracia's dad played a bunch of Mother's day songs on his guitar before we ate it. It was a good day. I hung out with Gracia and talked about books and ate ridiculously good food, as per usual upon visits to the grandma's house. We hung out at the river and caught fish and Gracia yelled at a bunch of boys who were torturing wildlife. They tortured a turtle and threw rocks at the beautiful colorful birds in the trees until they fell down and beat them, laughing while they screamed. One of the birds they had thrown rocks at was entangled in one of the trees, crying and badly injured. We managed to get it down because Gracia's brother and I wanted to put it out of its misery, but Gracia wasn't sure so she just left it hidden in some of the grass by the river, hoping those horrible boys wouldn't find it again. Animal abuse is something that is sadly prevalent in Honduran culture.

Me, Nicole, Gabriela, and Jenny

    On monday I had something fun to do as well. It was my compañera Jenny's 18th birthday, so she had a little party at her house. Gabriela, Nicole, (Mirta?), and another girl who's name I forget and I hung out and ate pizzitas and nachos and cake for a while and then we went to the theatre to meet up with some more people from our class and see the Hunger Games, which I was ecstatic about. I've been bugging everyone about taking me to see the Hunger Games for the past month! Everyone has been warning me that the theatre in Comayagua is a joke, but it was much nicer than I expected. The chairs were plastic but a step above fold-ups, the screen was big, and the rows were slanted down so people's heads did not impede my viewing. And for a buck a ticket, I'm not complaining about anything. I would have paid that much just for the privilege of sitting in a well air-conditioned room for two hours! Haha! Maybe I'll pester people about seeing Avengers with me next. 
   I might be having another awesome weekend this week because I heard AFSers are doing a trip to Copan! I didn't go on the last trip and I sort of regretted it, but apparently everyone was robbed so I guess it was for the best. Hopefully that won't happen again! 

Trabajo Social

 

  I had a great weekend. The volunteer work turned out to be really fun. We started out our day by piling into very Honduran-styled transportation-- the back of a giant truck.  If I thought riding in a car with a seatbelt in a country with no speed limits, no regard for traffic rules, and an incredibly low amount of actual roads was scary, this was terrifying. But it was a fun kind of terrifying, with everybody screaming and laughing and falling over each other, and it was a pretty good way to get woken up. I tried to avoid doing the math about the statistic probability of my earthly termination.
    We rode to a little town outside of Comayagua, and we went to a school where we were expected to take down the stone wall surrounding the school. I got the feeling I wasn’t expected to do much--they didn’t even put me in a group! But I was excited about having something to work hard at for once. I am a hard worker and I wanted to prove that just because I am a “rubia” gringa who doesn’t understand Spanish or anything at school doesn’t mean that I am a lazy useless blob! So I surprised everyone by working my very hardest. Some people actually got mad at me because I made them look lazy, so people kept taking my shovel and forcing me to take breaks. They kept complaining that I was making them work even though I never said anything! “Tranquila, Kaiti!” they whined.  “Descansase.”
    At lunch I reunited with Kenia, Sonia, Merlin, and Prins, the girls I had hung out with at the Convivencia. I love them so much! They’re all really silly and they make me laugh so hard. We got on the topic of dancing, and I told them that they need to teach me because I am a gringa and I absolutely cannot dance. I showed them “gringa dancing” which was like a really bad imitation of snookie-meets-lady gaga, and they got a kick out of it. Then Merlin stood up and tried to show me how to dance, but Jorge, one of the boys from the other class, took over. He told me to imitate what his feet did, so I did, and everyone told me that I did good but I needed to move my butt more. So I moved my butt and everyone was like “perfect!” Wow, um, that’s it? There were cameras present, so there is probably photographic evidence of this experience somewhere on the internet. Great.
    So I rode in the back of a truck, worked all day, and danced during lunch break-- it was a very Honduran day! I’m still sore (and it’s Tuesday!) but it was a great day and it was definitely worth it.
    On Sunday we went to church and to Giovanni’s house to watch movies. We watched Rango and Puss in Boots and went to his Aunt’s house for dinner. In retrospect I probably seemed grumpy because I was so tired that I didn’t really talk all day, but it was a good day. I love Giovanni’s family, they’re nice and they make me feel at home. Monday I went to school and I had today off for some sort of holiday. I’ve just been relaxing and I went to lunch with Sra Ortega, Rosa, Giovanni, and Rosa’s uncle. We were going to go to a Tilapia restaurant but we had a kind of funny experience there. Everyone there was hammered and singing Karaoke really loudly. My host mom asked the waitress for a menu, and she was like “we don’t have one”. She asked, well, what do you have then? And the waitress said “Tilapia”…and then she left and didn’t take our order. What, was she waiting for us to decide? Haha. So we ended up going to Carne Asada.

Oh yeah, and this is the menu at "Wendy's". Funny.