Friday was Amazing

This post may resemble my old posts in that I just want to talk about one day!

I woke up Friday morning and walked up to school. I had an hour and a half of academic time to work on our daily things, take a spelling test, and write our first drafts for an essay competition. During my academic time, however, a student had brought in her new pet "Zibi." Zibi got free and flew around my room until I became the Monster Tamer and got her back in the box. I'm not going to lie, it was awesome.

Then, we headed off to the ruins with 4B. Unlike last year, this trip was well planned, given an appropriate amount of time, and Emily and I were able to get in for free. The teacher who planned it communicated really well and in advance in the weeks before. The kids had a blast and, generally, behaved themselves. My quietest, shyest girl, who normally keeps to herself, was practically glued to my side for the day. The eighth graders were also there, and we ran into them toward the end of our trip. One of my kids ran off with my camera for a while, and he actually got some very nice pictures. We also got to be witness to a flock of Macaws flying across the grounds. We were away from school from 8:30-12.

When we got back, we gave the kids a short lunch period. Over the course of this week my students collected 3,351 plastic bottle caps for a competition with the other 4th grade class. We were collecting to help an artist who is here for the Copan Feria, which starts today. He is known for his recycled art and he is making a mural with the plastic bottle caps. The winning class was promised a popcorn party, and so I bought several bags of popcorn, allowed them to bring food into the classroom, we listen to music, and played games for the rest of the day (until the last 15 minutes, when we cleaned). Most of my boys were playing tazos, which appears to be a form of the game "Pogs." Most of my girls played 10,000 the dice game.

As I swas leaving school, Nahomy had been showing Zibi to more people, and Zibi had once again flown out of the box, this time landing on a very brave third grade girl who did not scream or kill the giant bug crawling up her leg. i was once again the Monster Tamer, and safely got Zibi back in her box.

At the end of the school day I went home to change, grab a jacket, and meet most of my coworkers outside of the Marina Copan. We hopped on a bus to the Welchez coffee finca for a free tour and dinner. Edgar, a friend of mine from last year, was our tour guide. While we were touring, it started to rain, and though it was cold, I ran around a lot so I didn't feel cold. Kat and I skipped around, laughed a lot, and sang in the rain. We ran back and forth on the swinging bridge and took lots of pictures. The last time I was at the finca, the berries were ripe, but this time the plants were covered in beautiful white flowers. I had never seen coffee flowers before. The dinner was delicious and I drank a lot of coffee, which was later regrettable, but I don't really regret it.

I got home a bit after 8 and went to sleep around 9:30. I, for some strange reason, wasn't sleeping well, and heard English walking by my window at 11:30. I thought some of the teachers were out, so I sent a text to Emily, who was sleeping. I could hear a lot of commotion in the park. I decided to head out and see who was out. The party in Barcito was winding down when I got there, but I still got to catch up with a number of people. Katie, one of the Urban Promise girls and I were able to have a real heart to heart, which was nice. I only stayed out an hour and came back and tried sleeping again, which went a little better the second time.