Where have the days gone?

Asian Invasion. I got a lot of flack from these guys and other students because I was Korean American. They tried to teach me about Korean culture and language...but I wasn't a very good student.
Sam and I would have 3 point shot contests. I usually won...okay I lost one time, but that was only once.

posted by Sarah @ 8:01 AM 0 comments

Pre-K 1

posted by Sarah @ 7:21 AM 0 comments

This is the 5th grade boys..

posted by Sarah @ 3:32 PM 0 comments

Well I've been back in the States for 2 days. It's been really good to be home; I love the fact that I can understand what everyone is saying. The weather is so cool here, and everything is green. The tulips are blooming all over town; it's such a beautiful time of year. I didn't realize how much I missed Pella. Managua was good, but it was so hot and dusty. All the plants were turning brown. I would step outside and start sweating, it's a nice change.
I started driving my car yesterday, it's great to be able to go places whenever I want to.
Today, I went to the dentist..I got 3 fillings. The cavities were right in a row, after the dentist stopped drilling there was only a shell of the tooth left. It was crazy. I couldn't feel my right side of my face for about 4 hours. Well, now I have all feeling back in my mouth, and my mouth hurts. Maybe I'll have to eat soup for the next couple of days.

posted by Sarah @ 3:05 PM 0 comments

We sent scuba diving. We were bored because we had to wait 3 hrs in the dive shop before we could leave...so we entertained ourselves.

We're not quite sure why there is a door on this dock...it's a bit ridiculous....

posted by Sarah @ 12:18 PM 0 comments

This is right outside the house that we stayed at in Roatan....it was awesome to step out right onto the beach.

posted by Sarah @ 12:48 PM 0 comments

Well I'm 22 years old as of April 12. Well at least I think I'm 22 now, it's hard when you don't know your real birthday. Some person in Korea decided to give me the birth date. I'm sure the date is pretty close, haha I'm not worried that I'm actually 30 years old or anything like that.
I spent my last 8 days in Honduras on spring break. We went to the island of Roatan. It was beautiful, but the trip had a few gliches. It seemed like everything that could happen on a trip did other than getting robbed. I and 3 other female teachers decided to take buses to the island because it was so much cheaper than flying. The way up to Honduras was easy we reserved our tickets and easily transferred busses. The trip up took 2 days. On our first bus we met 2 nice Sweedish backpackers Freddrick and Myad. They shared some of thier expeirences and knowledge about traveling. Thier advice and laid back attitude inspired us and helped us try to cope with the frustrating situations that would come throughout the week. On our way up to Roatan, we had to stay one night in San Pedro Sur. We rented 2 rooms for $11 each. The rooms seemed to be little more than glorified prison cells. They were grey walls with a chair and bed that was painted grey. Everything was spray painted with stencil letters "Hotel San Juan," even the shower curtain. We were a bit nervous about our living arrangements, so we decided to stay in the same room that night. We checked out at 4:00am the next day to catch our next bus. My friends who I was traveling with wished me a "Happy Birthday." We arrived in La Ceiba, and we had to catch a ferry to the island. The ferry was the most chaotic thing I have ever seen. There was absolutely no order. There were no railings to form lines to buy tickets or wait for the ferry, so it became a free for all. People were pushing and shoving each other to wedge themselves infront of other people. I clutched my backpack infront of me, so nothing would get stolen. I had to stand in the crowd waiting for the ferry for almost 2 hours because the ferry was an hour late coming into the harbor. I was sweating, and I could feel and smell other people's sweat. It was not a fun time. The boat ride itself was fine because I slept most of the way. When we arrived in Roatan, the men started unloading the luggage. They threw it in a big pile and you had to spot your luggage and then shout at one of the baggage handlers to grab it for you. The only problem is that the ferry has over 300 ppl on it. So everyone is yelling and trying to push their way to the front of the line to see their stuff come off the ship. We all got out luggage (thankfully) and then we got into a taxi. We had had gotten directions from other teachers from NCA who were meeting us at the house. The directions were West Bay, Out of the Blue, and by the Princess Hotel. That was it! Our taxi driver didn't know where it was, and we didn't know what it looked like. We ended up finding it after asking directions from serveral locals. By this time, we're all tired and just wanting a shower. When we get the house, we find out from the other teachers that a family of 18 is staying in the house and has decided that they are going to stay and extra day. All 11 of us had no where to say that night. This weekend is Semana Santa or Holy Week, and it's the major travel weekend in Latin America. Most people go to the beach. So almost everything was full. We ended up staying in a place that wasn't quite finished for one night. The rest of our time in Roatan was great. Our house was about 150 feet from the ocean. I layed on the beach and read, ate out at some great restuarants, and even got to scuba dive. I loved scuba diving. I want to get my scuba certificate when I get back. In Roatan, I took a short class and then went exploring around the reefs for about 1 hour. Then on Sunday we decided to leave and head back to Nicaragua. We didn't have school on Monday, so we had 2 days for travel. So on Sunday we woke up at 3:30am to try to buy ferry tickets and catch the 6:00am ferry. We got to the ferry station at 4:15 and the place was PACKED! We ended up getting a ticket for the 10am ferry. When we arrived on the mainland, we couldn't have find any bus tickets anywhere. We tried so many different bus lines, finally we found a ticket to San Pedro Sula (which is only about 2.5 hours away). We stayed the night there and hoped to find something in the morning. We were trying to be optimistic. Well we woke up at 3:30am again to try to find a bus. We revisited the nice bus stations, and we were disappionted again. We found a bus that was going to the capital of Honduras, and we decided to take it. The bus was not the nicest, it was a glorified chicken bus. When we got on the bus, it wouldn't start. So some of the men started pushing the bus to give it a rolling start. After a few minutes that bus started up...not the best way to start off. It only cost $5 for a 5hr bus ride. The bus made stops every 20-30minutes to pick up people. We got to Tegucigalpa, and we were sure that we'd find a ticket for that day because we arrived before 10am. We didn't....the best thing we could find was taking an old run down school bus to the boarder of Honduras and Nicaragua. We'd had to then try to find another similar buses that would slowly take us to Managua. It would have been horrible, because they cram the busses as full as they can. People are standing on top of each other inside the bus, hanging off the back, and sitting on top of the buses. We each had a backpack and a rolling carryon bag. It would have been so hard to find room on the bus and safeguard ourselves. We called the school and asked if we could be a day late coming back, so then we could take a nice airconditioned and safe bus back. We stayed the night in the capital in a hotel that was a little shaddy (but not as bad as Hotel San Juan), and then we road on the nicest bus to Managua. This whole trip was great over all. I learned a lot about traveling and about the people I went with. It was interesting to not know the next step of things, but it all worked out in the end. We definately prayed a lot during the whole experience though!

posted by Sarah @ 6:56 AM 1 comments

I only have to teach 4 more class periods today before I am on Semana Santa break. I'm going to hang around Managua until Tuesday, and I'm going to try to finish up things for student teaching. I've been neglecting the assignments because I always say I'm going to do the next week. Well since I only have 2 weeks left, I better get on the ball.
After school I'm going to go surfing, I hope it will be really fun. There are a bunch of teacher going, and the waves will be 6-8ft. It doesn't sound very big, but when your looking at a wave about to break on top of you...you feel the full power of it tossing you around. So far, I have only thought that I was going to seriously die twice. Once was at San Juan del Sur on a camping/surfing trip. The waves were so much more powerful than I was used to, and the waves broke so fast without much warning. I was dropping down on a wave, but my board dipped in the water and sent my flying head over heels into the water. I didn't know which way was up in the water, but I survived. Another time was at the beach we normally go to in Managua; I was just trying to paddle threw the wave to get past the break. The wave just whipped me around in the water and made me do a couple of sommer sults. But considering I go surfing about 2x a week, 2 scary encounters aren't that bad. (Don't worry I'll promise to be careful in the future) I can't believe I only have 2 more weekends to surf before I go back to Iowa...where there will not be any surfing in the near future. Unless a massive earthquake occurs and splits North America in half...

posted by Sarah @ 6:31 AM 2 comments

8.5 more days of teaching...it's crazy it has gone by so fast. I respond to a variety of names at NCA. In Latin American culture, students call teachers "profe," senior, or seniora, or maestro, but they don't add thier last name. So I respond to most students calling me "miss," which can get confusing if I am sitting around 3 other teachers. Some other high school students decided to call me "Susan;" they tell me, "it's for your own safety miss. " If you say Miss. Matherly really fast, it becomes Smatherly, and some students get a kick out of calling me that. My elementary students call me mainly 2 different names, but they are not trying to misprounce my name, they just forget how to pronounce it. I've stopped correcting them because I think it's cute. The pre-K and kindergarden students call me Miss. Beberly. Last night, I had dinner with a pre-k student and her family, and the parents called me Sarah, but thier daughter kept correcting them, "It's Miss. Beberly!" The 5th grade students call me Miss. Matherlyn. And once in a while, I get called my actual name Miss. Matherly. I'm still trying to get used to being called by my last name; it makes me feel so old.

posted by Sarah @ 7:01 AM 4 comments

My forehead has quickly healed from the surfboard ramming into about a week ago. The swelling went down after 3 days, and there wasn't even a bruise from it. The cut has healed, and the only sign left that I had in a run in with the surfboard is a 2/3” scar on my forehead. Scars are always white, which is a bad thing in my case. I am getting tanner and tanner each day. I do all of my PE teaching outside, and on the weekends I go to the beach. I put sunscreen (45spf) everyday and sometimes twice a day. When I got to the beach, I'll reapply multiple times. I know sunblock can go bad after a while, but the sunblock I brought to Nicaragua is less than a year old, and some of it is brand new. I usually try to apply it 20-30 minutes before I go out in the sun, so it can soak in. Can a person become immune to sunblock?

posted by Sarah @ 12:14 PM 2 comments