Copan Take Two

    I was sick most of the week last week, and to my delight when I got to school we didn't have classes. On thursday we had some sort of catholic ceremony called a "Rosario" or something, and there was a lot of praying and singing and catholic stuff. A bunch of the younger students dressed up to represent all of the continents, and had a sort of parade in the gym walking around holding a giant statue of Mary. It lasted a few hours and then we watched a random movie in the gym. I played Screaming Ninjas with classmates the whole time. And then we got out early so we stayed at school and played hopscotch and jumprope and whatnot. Afterwards Kevin and Nicole and I went to La Princesita to eat baleadas...yum!

    On friday it was "students day". Of course, we spent the first few hours in the gym doing more catholic stuff, as is inevitable at any school event. Then the rest of our day was all craziness-- all of our teachers dressed up like pop stars and danced and lip synced and put on "concerts". My friend Cesia and I were incredibly hyper so I spent most of the time dancing and being ridiculous with her. Her friends were embarrassed by us and Kevin later told me that he had been laughing at me because I had no rhythm and I looked stupid, but whatever. At least I had fun, right? 

    That night we had a Tardeada, or a school dance. I was a bit hesitant to go since I didn't have the best experience at the last Tardeada, but my friends persuaded me. At first I hung out with friends and they attempted to give me Vachata dance lessons, but then my friends disappeared and I didn't know what to do with myself. Luckily I met a guy-- I think his name was Renen-- who saved the day. He danced with me for most of the night, which admittedly was pretty awkward since I fail at vachata dancing, but he was really nice about it and made the awkward dancing kind of fun. Unfortunately he's a IMLI alumni, so I probably won't see him again.
    So the next morning I was expected to be ready to go at 2:30am for our school trip to Copan! It was hardly even worth the effort going to sleep, but I slept about two hours and then took a taxi with Cesia and a few other girls to Wendy's, where we were to get on our bus.
    I managed to sleep for some of our 5 hour bus trip, and when we got to Copan we immediately went to the ruins. Of course I had already seen everything before, but it was still cool. As a bonus, I got to get in for the Catracho price of 20lemp ($1) as apposed to the foreigner price of $15.
    After that we were done we went to our hotel for lunch. I ate lunch at a chicken place with Kevin and Nicole, and the we wandered around and bought ice cream and I got ripped off buying earrings from some vendors. Then we all had to get back on our bus and go back to the ruins to go to the Museum, which is a very boring place, but I spent most of the time having random dance parties and taking silly pictures with Cesia and Kenia and Stefany and everyone, so it was fun.

Sr. Carlos PG-ifying MTV for us hahaha

Sonia, Stefany, Kenia, Cesia, and I

Kenia, Sonia, Stefany and Cesia being cool

Cesia at Cafe Americano

    When we got back to our hotel, Nicole and Kevin were going to dinner, but I wasn't hungry so I wandered around the park a little bit until I bumped into Kevin-- the other Kevin, Kevin M, and we had coffee and chatted. Not for the first time, I missed the memo on the dress code for the evening. All of my classmates were painted and primped to the max in heels and dresses, and I had only brought jeans and sneakers. School dance? Jeans and sneakers. Going to Cafe Americano? Bring out the heels. Hondurans confuse me.
    Then I bumped into Cesia and her friends, and we all decided to take a ride in one of the taxi cabs, which is like an event in Copan. Cesia talked him into charging us only 15 lempiras, but I would have paid 100. It was far more thrilling than any roller coaster, because there were a few times when it actually seemed plausible that I might die.
    And then we all hung out and walked around and chatted some more, and then I bumped into Kevin and Nicole again and hung out with them. While we were talking, I was approached by a news lady with a big microphone who wanted to interview me for TV. The one day I didn't do my hair! I wasn't sure why she wanted to interview me exactly, she just asked me where I was from and if I was enjoying Honduras, etc.  This is the second time I've been on the news in Honduras. I guess not much goes on here. So yeah, I spent the rest of the night just hanging out with classmates some more, and it was really fun!
    The next day we immediately got on our buses and headed home. Nicole invited me over to her house and she and Kevin and I hung out and made some of the coffee she had bought for me in Copan as an "early birthday gift" because she knows I love coffee. It was really good!
   Afterwards Kevin and Nicole were going to our classmate Javier's 19th birthday party, and somehow I ended up going too although I hadn't actually been invited. It was fun, we sat on the roof and ate cake and joked around.
    Gabi asked me what I had planned for my vacation week, and everybody laughed at me because up until that point I had had no clue that I had a vacation week. So I have this whole week off! This will have made for, what, five whole days of school I've attended in the last four weeks? I love my life. I spent monday and tuesday just lazing around, reading and eating and sleeping and trying not to get fat. On wednesday Cesia invited me to watch movies at Kenia's house. Cesia came and picked me up in her taxi cab-- she has, like, her own personal taxi driver buddy, and for some reason he let me go free. Sweet! We watched Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, which I do not think are the slightest bit scary but it was hilarious to watch how the girls reacted. Then Cesia and I left early and walked to her house. When we were walking Cesia got self conscious and whispered "Kaiti! Why is everybody staring?" I laughed and said, "Because I'm a gringa!" Yeah, everybody stares at me all the time, pretty much. It's pretty nerve-racking.
    Cesia lives in a Pulperia! How cool. So we just sat in the shop and talked to her sisters and mom and adorable little cousin. Her mom gave me an avocado! I don't know why, but I was happy. I love avocados. Then Cesia and her sister walked me home (our houses are super close!) and Cesia kept asking me when I wanted to come over again so I said "what about tomorrow?" Wow, I am so annoying. But she said they were making pancakes and she seemed excited about the idea of it, so yay! I'm going to go over in a few hours.

These are my "Dos Hombres" Oscar and Kevin. They walk up to me a few times a day and say "Kaiti! I Love you!" hahaha aww <3

Prom shopping, mass, and awkward goldfish

Giovanni, Rosa, Emily and Me in Tegus

My little friend who lives in my closet

    This week has been sleepy. Last Saturday there was another Tallier project at school, but I didn't end up going because my family was going to Tegus to look for a prom dress for Rosa. My host mom, Rosa's Aunt, Rosa's little cousin Emily and Giovanni and I went to a few stores and Rosa picked out a beautiful pale green satin floor length gown. Here, if you want to buy clothes of even considerably good quality, you have to go to Tegucigalpa. I was coached to tell the shop owners that we're from Tegus if they ask because apparently if you tell them you're from outside they show you the worst dresses-- haha! Tegus really is like a whole different country. 
    Even though you can find good clothes in Tegus from American and European brands, the prices are outrageous. They charge at least twice as much for any given article of clothing, and they hang cheap fashion chain brands like Forever 21 and H&M in boutiques along with designer. I'm going to Rosa's Prom, too because it's not really a dance but more like a formal graduation party. I didn't realize until after our shopping trip that I'm supposed to buy a formal dress too-- I thought one I brought was nice enough, but I showed it to my host mom and she said it wasn't. Shoot. Item # 345,678 I really should have packed...hopefully we'll go to Tegus again sometime in the next three weeks because the thought of trying to buy a formal dress in Comayagua makes me shudder. This experience is really making me realize what a diva I am.
    Another event coming up is the mothers day celebration at our school...I'm a senior, and apparently we're the entertainment. We're all supposed to either sing or dance...everyone's dancing, but I'm white and I can't dance, so that's not happening. Everyone wants me to sing-- I don't really get stage fright singing in public, but the main problem is that I have no idea what to sing. It's so hard to find a song that's good for mother's day. Also, it's hard finding opportunities to practice since I feel self-conscious about the fact that the whole neighborhood can hear our household activity. Not that the neighbors don't deserve it for blasting their mariachi music late into the evening, but still. I could always play the Bewildered Exchange Student Card and get out of it. 
    Today I got to experience my very first Catholic mass, which was slightly more exciting than Lab class. We just sung and prayed and chanted things. I was scolded very publicly for not singing along, but I was like, "I don't know the words, dude, what you gonna do?" Actually I just smiled awkwardly like I didn't understand and the service went on. There was wine and bread present, like at protestant communions, but instead of everyone taking some like we do, only the priest drank the wine and ate the bread. Haha. Okay. 
    The only other abnormality in my week was having to talk in front of my class today. El director, Senor Carlos, decided that I should take a turn doing the morning chapel like everyone else, but he decided instead of having me talk about God he wanted me to give a speech about myself "to practice my spanish". My classmates Mirta, Kevin M, and Nicol teased me about it all week, saying "Remember, Kaiti, on friday you have tu momento religioso" with an evil glint in their eye, and then laughing like the voyeuristic fools they are when I squirmed with dread and discomfort. Awesome. I just babbled about my hometown, my family, and my school for a minute and I must have made a lot of mistakes because everyone kept laughing. Afterwards I asked if anyone had any questions, but they just stared at me like a bunch of awkward goldfish. Ugh. 
   I still haven't had my compañeras over to swim, because every time we plan something, a test or something comes up and they have to study. Most of the people I talk to are from the other class, Secretarios, and they have to study even more than my class does! Most of them rarely get more than 5 hours of sleep a night.
    Tomorrow I have another school project, my class is doing some sort of volunteer work. I'm not really excited about going to school on Saturday (again) at 7:30 in the morning, but at least it will be a much-needed opportunity to hang out with my classmates. 

First impressions

I have officially been here for over a week! This weekend was cool. On Saturday Rosa and Giovanni, her boyfriend (isn’t that a great name? Giovanni!) and I went to the beautiful central park. Scroll down to my second post to see what it looks like, because I forgot to take a picture. We went to a teensy museum where they had a model of Comayagua and some Semana Santa masks. Everyone’s been talking about Semana Santa, and I’m pretty excited about it’s coming up and from what I hear, it’s going to be pretty cool. Apparently I’m going to get a whole week off school and there are going to be parades and stuff. And then we went to this massively impressive church (as shown in picture) where we stumbled upon this old man who happily shared the church’s history with us in passionate detail. He kept asking Rosa to translate details for me-- “Tell her that sculpture’s painted with real gold! Tell her the church took 500 years to build! Tell her there are priests buried in all the holy walls!” and then he tried to get me to give the church money, to which I politely declined. Then we met up with my host mama who bought me some chocolate ice cream, which was much appreciated because, in this climate, I am eternally too-hot. I chose to wore knee-length shorts on my outing, which made me feel quite out of place because nobody in Comayagua really wears shorts. I was warned beforehand that dressing here is more conservative than in the States, but from what I’ve seen it’s not really more conservative-- just a bit different. Shorts aren’t common-place, but you’ll see people wearing really short skirts-- denim mini skirts seem especially popular, but not nearly as popular as pants. Not so much skin is shown, but everything is tight, tight,, tight, regardless of age, size, or gender! The most typical outfit for Hondurans anywhere between five and thirty I’ve seen is skinny jeans and a fitted Hollister/American Eagle/Aeropostale T-shirt. I’m not sure if they actually sell those brands here or if they’re all fake, because I’ve seen a ton of stores selling fake American brands as such. Girls here dress a bit more effeminate then in Bellingham, heels, pink, etc., which I like. I stick out no matter what I wear because I packed relatively-lose fitting jeans and t-shirts and A-line skirts-- I can’t imagine trying to squeeze into tight clothes in this climate!

After that we went to find me a cell phone-- yay! I bought a cheap little green one that I can add minutes onto as I go. And we went to the super market and then Rosa and I went to church. It was a lot like my church-- it was held in a pretty plain building with fold-up chairs, we sung worship songs led by a worship team of guitarists and a drummer, and then we had a sermon. What I understood of the message was pretty good. It was about King Solomon and the importance of giving your all to God and not being caught up in the things of this world. The service was a bit longer than I’m used to-- three hours! But the highlight for me was when a man got up with a trumpet before the service and led us in some traditional worship songs performed rather untraditionally-- with a mixture of mariachi-esque music and trumpet! Haha! I loved that I already knew some of the songs because they were Spanish versions of songs I know in English, so I was able to sing along.

On Sunday we got up early to drive to the grandparents farm in Tegus, a two hour drive, to spend the day with the family. I had a lot of really good food that was practically all grown on the farm-- they even grow their own coffee!-- and I walked around the farm and the river with Rosa and Gracia and their adorable little cousin Emilie. I contributed to the meal by making the orange juice with Gracia by hand-squeezing a couple piles of (farm-grown) oranges. It was delicious and fun, but it was something I probably would never do at home because a) buying juice would probably be cheaper than buying fruit in the states and b) Americans are way too lazy to spend all that time making juice!

For breakfast we had these corn-things made in corn husks, and for lunch we had delicious meat and rice and what looks to me like pico-de-gallo, but that’s not actually what they call it. I was also served frozen chocolate milk in a Ziploc, which is genius. Why didn’t I ever think of that? And homemade coffee and cookies/biscuits. Overeating probably wasn’t the best thing for my acclimating stomach, because that night I was SICK. Oh well, I suppose it probably had to happen eventually. My host mom makes this magical tea that makes my stomach hurt less, too.

And then it was back to school. I have to admit, my enthusiasm about school is starting to wear off. The only classes that are even mildly comprehensible are sociology, history, philosophy, and math (precalc?). Basically all of my other classes revolve around computers and programming (all six of them!) and no matter what class I’m in, I never have any idea what the professor is saying. It’s frustrating and boring to sit in class with nothing to do. On Tuesday, I went and begged the principal to let me help out with English class some more like I did on Friday, because I got to talk to people and it’s the only time this whole week that I haven’t felt like an invalid. He said he didn’t want me to because I’m supposed to be here learning Spanish and being a student, but maybe I could go just on Fridays. It’s better than nothing, I guess.

Honestly, I’m getting a little moody about the prospects of months more of sitting in class like this, not really understanding, not really being expected or able to do anything, and then going home and not really having anything to do there either. I asked Nicol if the school has any extracurricular, because I really want something to do, something that will actually get me connected to people and help me make friends, but apparently there aren’t any extracurricular except soccer, and THAT’S not happening.

I’m excited because tomorrow, I don’t have classes, we have something called a “Convivencia” or something, and I don’t really know what that is exactly, but I guess we’re going to be doing some sort of games or something to compete against other grades. Whatever it is, I bet it will be fun.