the beginning of the bump!

16 weeks

the end is in sight...

My first trimester teaching English at the university is almost over. Thank. you. sweet. Jesus.

Don't get me wrong, I like teaching! I do! And I like teaching English! And I like *most* of my ~80 students!

But good grief. When I am grading final projects and doing final oral evaluations and I hear something like this...

me: Describe your typical day.
student: Chicken.
me: What? Tell me about your typical day. What do you in a typical day?
student: Baleadas.

(from a level 2 student. not level 1, but level 2!)

Hellooooo. Have you not been listening to anything I said for the last 10 weeks?

It makes me want to scream! It makes me want to run far, far away! Thank GOD Semana Santa is almost here!!!

hellooo smoky season!

We technically only have 2 seasons in Honduras - the rainy season and the dry season. But I am declaring that there are actually 3. That's right Wikipedia, update your info. These are the seasons in Honduras: dry season, smoky season, and rainy season.


Since the last rainy season (which wasn't as rainy as usual) it has only rained a few times. That's like, 6 months with only a few inches of rain. Talk about a drought!


And what happens when there isn't any rain, we go into our hottest time of the year, AND it's time for the farmers to get their fields ready for crops (remember, they burn their fields)? Ahh, bienvenido smoky season!


That's right, smoky season. As in, the air is full of smoke. In the city, you can't smell it and you wouldn't even know it was there if it weren't blocking the view of the mountains.

(see those beautiful mountains in the distance? oh, you can't really see them? that's because there's smoke blocking the view!)

And if you weren't an observant person and didn't notice the lack of mountains in the distance, then you would still most definitely notice that all of a sudden your throat hurts all the time and you can't breathe through your nose anymore.

I am tired of waking up every morning with a stopped up nose from the stupid smoke. And it's SO hot right now that it's impossible to sleep with the windows closed. And I know in a couple of months I will probably be begging for the rain to stop... but will someone please, PLEASE do a rain dance or something?

jirafa

I know that this is a strange and foreign land to a lot of you, but this sight today was even strange and foreign to me.

Yes, that is a giraffe. It was being pulled on a trailer in the middle of some protest or something, in front of the Casa Presidencial. And pobrecito, the cage wasn't even tall enough for him. :(

Now, there is a circus in town, but the 50 or so people walking in front of/behind the trailer were all wearing red, which is the color of the resistencia. If it was them, I'm not really sure what a giraffe has to do with the resistencia. "Come join our circus" maybe?

Just to be clear, giraffes are not native to Honduras. Hahaha