More Daily Life

Mas fotos

This is the Texaco we go to to get internet and coffee.  Apparently, Texaco is a big thing in Honduras.  For example, I was reading a Honduras travel book and in another town, you start your night out tailgating at Texaco.

 This is a spot I thought was pretty.

An American-style grocery store.

 We have two chile plants in the backyard!  They are freaking hot, man.  I tore a tiny bit off  to try and my fingers burned for the next few hours.

 We also have cilantro!  It's actually a very strong brother of cilantro.  When I picked it to cook, it my hands smelled like it for the rest of the day.  It was a pretty nice smell to have, in my book.  One of my roommates doesn't like cilantro, though, so I might have to take it easy if I cook for her.

 Backyard.  We have one of the bigger ones, but still our house isn't nearly as nice as one of the other teacher houses.  I mean, their house is nice by my standards (which, given, are low)...

 This is basically what all the electricity looks like all over town.

 This is the best local beer in Honduras because it's the most flavorful.

 The Hotel el Boqueron is another cool place to get internet and chill with a pool and beers.  We have a pool in our neighborhood, too, but we haven't started paying for it yet.  Once we do, though, I'm sure we'll be there all the time, especially in February and March.

 This is the view from one of the other teacher's classrooms.  This is what we need to remember to see every day.

So, all the shoes I brought tore my feet to shit (as you can see if you look closely).  So, I went to a used shoe store today and got these, and so far so good!  I walked all the way from my house to the hotel, about 20 minutes, and my feet feel great.  They're a bit too big, but I added an extra hole so they fit.  I also got sneakers, so I can play futbol and go hiking.

 This is my abode and the area around it.  Apparently, some of the locals consider this pat of town to be snobby because the style of the houses and the gate.  We also have a pool, so maybe that's part of it, too.  The inside is just as nice as anywhere else that I've seen, though.

This week I started seriously working on my lesson plans, and since I'm an over-achiever, I decided to plan for the first two grading periods all in the next week and a half before classes start.  I would be completely stocked if I get them done, but in all likelihood I won't.  In either case, I'm going to be very busy with lesson plans for a while.

My new roommate got in today!  And the other returning teachers this past weekend.  To continue on with the theme, they're cool, too.

The dogs are actually starting to make me really sad, but I think it's something you have to just not think about.  The hard thing about it is that they aren't necessarily street dogs.  I think the majority belong to people, they just don't take good care of them and they run around in the streets where the cars barely slow down for them and they are always getting in dog fights and having babies.  I just really can't wait to see my dog.

As far as learning Spanish... The lessons that the school was going to give us aren't starting until late September, but luckily one of the other teachers that's pretty good at Spanish happened to bring her "learn Spanish" DVDs 1-3, so I'm going to start with that.  I really hope it helps, because I was laughed at yesterday when I was trying to get some lunch and it was really embarrassing.

I really hope we go on a trip this weekend to see the surrounding area.