the last day of my first week of classes

It´s Friday. I´ve been in Honduras for exactly one week now.

I´m still staying in the Hotel. I still don´t speak or understand Spanish well. I´m still afraid to go out at night. But now I have about 80 high school friends, I know where the Mall is, I´ve swam in the Carribbean Sea, and I´ve hiked through overgrown jungles to the base of a beautiful waterfall.

Classes

I am the English teacher for the high school´s juniors and seniors. Basically I´m the one who is responsible for making sure these kids improve their spoken, written and comprehended English. Scary. I´m also teaching Sociology to Juniors.

The school is so disorganized compared to high schools in America. I didn´t even know what I was teaching until the first day of classes. The kids don´t change classrooms, the teachers do. So far the kids really like me. Probably because I´m young, white and don´t give them very much homework. They are really sweet and helpful. All week they´ve been brining me information about apartments for rent in the area, and the last two days I was offered a ride home by students. Maybe it´s inappropriate to have the kids helps me and give me rides home but it sure beats trying to figure out this new city all on my own.

The hardest part about classes is actually preparing for them. All I have are a few textbooks. The second hardest thing is keeping the kids from talking the whole class. They do not listen very well, but as of now they say they can´t imagine me becoming mean. We´ll see if they feel they same way at the end of the year.

The leadership of the school can be frustrating. Today I got in trouble for letting my students walk around and draw on the white board during their reading hour. I told my boss that I was never told to prepare anything for those reading hours. He doesn´t like it when people disagree with him so he didn´t take it very well and told me not to let it happen again. The kids felt sorry for me and promised to behave better.

This is already too long, but I am liking it here. Although teaching is difficult it will probably be one of the best experiences of my time in Honduras. The kids are great and I´m excited to get to know them better and see them grow as learners.

Until next time,

emily

first days in la ceiba

I made it to Honduras. It´s been wonderful so far. I arrived Friday night ...after several hours on a train, several more hours on a bus, and just a few minutes in a car I was sitting on one of the two queen beds in my hotel room at Hotel La Aurora, a very classy hotel located just off the highway when you enter La Ceiba.

Today was my second full day in Honduras. I am here with Micah, a friend from John Brown University. Both of us are to be ¨maestros¨at Brassavolo Bilingual School. Today Micah and decided to hike to some beautiful waterfalls. The travel book said a bus would come by around 9am, but by the time it did actually come it was closer to 11am. The bus off roaded up a dirt road. We got off at the Banana Republic Lodge, a great place for backpackers. There we jumped off rocks. Micah of course jumped backwards, upside down, etc. I myself was too scared to jump anyway but the regular way. At the lodge we also had a wonderful lunch of chicken and vegetables but it cost more than we expected ... about 3,300 limperas or about $16. Mind you, my math and grammar aren´t great now cause i´m using a spanish keyboard and i´m in a hurry.

After lunch we hiked up through lusious jungle to a beautiful, tall waterfall. We were guided by Victor who didn´t speak any English. I am muy cansada from the hike, but it was definitely worth it. Along the path we made some friends, Nicholas, Fanny and Sarah. They ended up letting us ride in the back of their pickup back to our hotel. This saved us at least $10 which was good since we had only about $5 on us.

Anyway, that´s all for now. Tomorrow is the first day of classe, which is scary for me becasue I have no idea what to expect. I don´t even know the times of my classes. I hope my students are good and that we´re able to learn a lot but also have a lot of fun.

adios amigos. hasta luego.

moving to honduras

For months I've been searching for a job in another country. First it was the au pair job in Germany and then France, then it was the journalism internship in Costa Rica, and finally, I began looking for teaching jobs in Honduras. Thanks to help from several people I will be leaving for La Ceiba, Honduras in less than three weeks!

Brassavola bilingual school has offered me a job teaching freshman and sophomore English, sophomore social studies, junior U.S. History and junior Philosophy. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm qualified to teach most of those subjects but they say that since I have a bachelor's degree I'm what they want! I can't wait.

From what I've heard, and read online, La Ceiba is the third largest city in Honduras and has an eclectic mix of Latin, African-Antillian and Caribbean cultures. It's located right on the Caribbean Sea!

For the next year this blog will serve as a journal recording and preserving the best and worst of my times in Central America.