I have a real job

Haha. Those pictures are of me drinking coffee (I just took it right now, look at the pretty cup!) and beautiful Honduras from the hotel cafe that I'm currently sitting in.

I have to admit this, although I don't think many people would be surprised to hear it- but I started looking for teaching jobs abroad because I just really wanted to travel. After I accepted this teaching position in Honduras, I focused my thoughts primarily on the travel side of the experience. I wanted to see Honduras! And other central American countries! But now I am here, in Gracias, and I've seen the school and been through orientation, and it's finally beginning to hit me that this isn't just travel time...it's a real job! I am being trusted with providing education to actual children. Alarming.

In any case, here I am. We finally arrived in Gracias on Saturday, after a seven hour drive in a crowded van (the last two hours of which were spent on unpaved, bumpy, mountainous roads), but we made it. I was so thrilled to finally be in Gracias, and it truly is absolutely spectacular. The city itself is quite small, and isn't what I expected. I thought it would contain many culturally Honduran stores, but most of the places here seem to sell things you can buy at a dollar store in the US. Most people in Gracias wear clothes similar to clothes in the US, and other than some beautiful pottery, I haven't seen anything that has struck me as culturally "Honduran." That's why I need to travel!! Even though most of the stores sell American things, Gracias is very poor. Most of the houses are just little colorful huts with thatched roofs, and all of them have a pila in the backyard for doing laundry, or getting water if the water stops running. (Last night the water in my house stopped because of the rain, and the family offered to put water in a bucket for me so I could wash up this morning.) There's crazy wildlife here too, yesterday I saw the biggest toad I have ever seen in my life. He was as big as Kipper when he was a little puppy! But anyway, I can find mostly anything I need here, including peanut butter!!!!! yay. I live in a house with a really lovely family right outside of Gracias, and they have been so kind in bringing me into their house and making me feel welcome. I hope my Spanish improves this year, because I am constantly frustrated with how little I understand.

Gracias has a lot of really cool things that I am totally looking forward to experiencing. For example, there are natural hot springs in the city, which is naturally hot water that comes out of the ground that people can go to swim in and relax. We went a couple nights ago, and it was incredible! I have heard of hot springs but have never seen them, let alone go swimming in them! That was pretty awesome.

In addition to seeing the house and town I will be living in this year, I was finally, finally able to see Vida Abundante! I live about five miles away from the school, which is literally located up in the mountains of Gracias...and it is one of the most beautiful schools I have ever, ever seen. The setting is spectacular; located in the Honduran mountains, in a cloud forest, with beautiful flowers and wildlife everywhere. Honestly, it is impossible to look in any direction without seeing a magnificent butterfly flying around. Yesterday I saw one that was purple with pink spots! The campus of the school is so cute too; I absolutely love it.

The classrooms are extremely modest, but we are doing our best to decorate them as much as we can. I've started decorating mine, and with my lack of art skills, it seriously looks like a kindergartner (kindergardener?) did it. I will be teaching the second grade, as well as computer classes for the ninth graders. Haha, who put me in charge of computers? That should be interesting, especially since I haven't seen any computers at the school yet. And I don't know anything about computers!

This week has been a whirlwind of deadlines, decorations, and rules. I learned about the school's creed/mission (email me if you would like to hear about it, it's worth hearing), and panicked when I was told that this Friday is parents' orientation, and Monday is the first day of school. What?? Since I only found out officially what classes I would be teaching yesterday (unofficially I knew a few days ago), that's not that much time to get my stuff together. The school also requires that we turn in a ton of paperwork (notes for parents' orientation, lesson plans for each week, a letter to the parents, etc) so I am very busy. I want to explore Gracias but I feel extremely overwhelmed with everything I have to get done. I can't help but think, though, that these first two weeks will be the most challenging, and after that I'll be able to relax a little bit.

I'm being literally eaten by mosquitoes as I type this, but to my left is an absolutely exquisite mountain, so it's worth it. Even though I'm overwhelmed and still trying to get settled in, I feel like I can really do some good here, and that's an incredible feeling. I'm hoping to get some pictures up of my house and the school soon, but the internet here is pretty slow so we'll see how that goes.

The next two weeks should be pretty interesting for me. I kind of doubt that anyone reads this...but if you do, stay tuned :)