Catching Up

I have a list of "things to blog about" on my desktop that I've been keeping since October. It's since gotten out of control. I have things written on there like "awkward car ride music" and "Livingston adventure" and "my life is like a Super Mario game" but I just haven't made the time. Here is another fledgling attempt to salvage this blog:

I had an amazing Christmas at home. It began with Angela and Drake's wedding, which was surreal for various reasons: the beauty of the celebrations, the joy of reuniting with my family of friends, and the serendipitous fit of my bridesmaid dress. Thank you, Allison:) Christmas is always so special for me, and it was especially so after being so far from home.

My somewhat angsty relationship with Guate has subsided. I love my students and I love my classroom...despite the rickety desks, Dengue-ridden mosquitoes, and the broken window. I feel useful at my school, which is something I haven't felt in a job for a while. Heather and I are trying to start new programs for the kids (college prep club began this week and was a great success) and we feel excited about what we can do for the school. My most enthusiastic class is by far my seventh graders, who are notorious for choosing longer lectures over playing games and asking questions like: "Miss, are we going to be able to read the whole textbook this year?" Yeah...I'm not sure what planet they are actually from. While this class is my blessing, my eighth grade class would appear to be my punishment. The only things they seem to get excited about are sex and violence. Fortunately for me, this unit is on Henry VIII :)

There are some things I will probably never appreciate about Guatemala. The violence, the corruption, snow cones with lemon and pepper on top, pan flute music in every public venue, and poorly organized national events. A few weekends ago, Heather and I joined some of our friends from church to climb Volcan de Agua in an event organized by the British embassy to protest domestic violence. You can read about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16669818. Although we were supposed to form a human chain from the top of the volcano to the base, what actually transpired was a rag-taggle mess of Chapins and gringos bumping into each other for four hours. No handholding and no human chain, but we did manage to send a Guatemalan flag from the base to the crater. I think...

The hike was fun, but I think I know how a dust buster feels. There were a limited amount of buses to take the 12,000 hikers from the tiny town of Santa Maria de Jesus back to Antigua. We were fortunate enough to get a ride up to the town in the back of a police truck, but had no such luck coming down. Thousands of us were stuck in a mob on a narrow street in Santa Maria, waiting for a bus to come. We waited for three hours, during which a car got swallowed up by the crowd and injured people were practically crowd-surfed down to the bus stop. People were pushing and shouting--a bit harrowing, but we finally made it home.

Remind me to post sometime about our trip to Livingston and how we spent our vacation with a tour guide drunk on "coco locos." Oh the places we go...