Home Sweet Home: Bienvenido al USA!

This is coming at you straight from the comfort of my American home! Today marks my third day of being in a world where hot showers exist and tarantulas do not, where I can make phone calls and wear sweatshirts, where a salad means a big pile of crisp green stuff with veggies and dressing and not potato salad, a world where I don't have to eat stew chicken with rice and beans for 3 whole weeks if I don't want to. And trust me, I don't have a particular desire for it. 

But to answer the question that I've been asked at least a million times: yes, I am excited to be home. Of course if I was hating it after being here barely 3 days, I think I would have bigger issues. In all seriousness though, I am loving every minute of it. As I've said before, my whole being was desperately crying out for a break, for time to step back and truly reflect on what the heck just happened for the past 4 months of my life. I'm not sure I have a definitive answer and that's ok. I probably won't have one even when June rolls around. What I do know is that my mind seems to be in this dualistic/Jekyll and Hyde state where I'm loving home and everyone and everything that comes with it, but at the same time I miss my Belizean family and I especially miss my kids. But there is a bit of comfort in the startling reality that 3 weeks is going to fly. I can't wait to be back with them though that's partially because I'm worried about the trouble they're getting into. And yet as I'm sitting in Florida of all places, bundled up, and still freezing, I can't imagine taking one more cold shower. Yuck. I can't think about cold showers right now. 

To distract my mind and my numb toes from the horrible thought of leaving hot water, I suppose I'll share a little about the rest of finals week and coming home. I must warn you though, there was nothing terribly exciting. But I don't really think anything in this blog is terribly exciting, so if you've even gotten this far in the crazy adventure of my life, then you must have some remote interest in hearing about these things. 

After Tuesday, I only had 2 more exams to proctor, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, so I was able to knock out the rest of my grading/recording and finish the math exams. It also gave me ample time to hangout with students which is always my favorite. One of these afternoon hangout sessions manifested itself in the library when I went to visit Kelley and within 2 seconds there was a swarm of boys in there just to be there. What were they doing you ask? Making bead bracelets of course. 

Crafternoon with Ms. Kelley. They were occupied with beads for at least 30 minutes during which Kelley and I each received our own bracelets complete with backward letters and everything.

I do have one funny story from Thursday. I was proctoring my last exam for 4th Formers and everyone in the class had finished and left after the first hour/hour and 15 minutes except for 2 students. They were there forever. And it's a good thing I love both of them because I just wanted to yell, "Ian!!! Write your essay! What have you been doing for the past hour and a half???" Well with about 15 minutes left in the exam time, the second to last student left, but then returned about 1 minute later. So I walk to the door wondering why he would returned to the room he just spent almost 2 hours in and he goes, "Miss, boogie is in the chapel." Now I just stared at him wondering if finals had just gotten to his poor little mind and also realizing I didn't open the chapel that morning, but finally after a few silent seconds of staring at each other I say slightly annoyed and exasperated, "Juan. What is a boogie." "The dog, Miss. It's in the chapel." "There's a dog in the chapel?" "Yes." "So...can you get it out?" "No, Miss. The door is locked." "So you're telling me that the dog is locked in the chapel." "Yes, Miss." I burst out laughing. I also sent Juan downstairs to get my keys only to discover that they were upstairs in the classroom with me, but eventually he and another students managed to rescue the stupid dog out of the chapel while I'm just cracking up as poor Ian is trying to finish his exam so that we can both get out of there. Dogs locked in chapels, TIB.

Then Friday came, the day of freedom and packing and last minute desperate pleas to my students to be safe and make good choices over break. It was the least stressful packing I've ever endured in my life and trust me, I hate packing, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. But this was great! Kelley and I turned up the music and freaked out about all the good and bad things about going home. But we got it done and then we were able to hang out with people and even see some of our students at the basketball court that night. 

Saturday. What a long day. It started at 6 am Central Time and ended at 2 am Eastern Time and only a light 20 minute nap on a plane. I don't know how to describe saying goodbye to the other volunteers any other way besides strange. It certainly wasn't overly emotional, I wasn't happy to see them go, it was just "Oh we've seen each other all the dang time for 4 months and now we're parting ways. Hm." Joe, Kelley, Jack, Michael, and I were all on the same flight into Houston, so even though Joe had to split pretty quickly to catch his connecting flight, the rest of us were able to have dinner together. And let me tell you, Subway never tasted so good!

 Food that doesn't contain rice!

Michael: "We're way to excited about chips in this picture." It's the little things.

But just in case our dinner wasn't already awesome, they were putting out fresh cookies when a couple of them crumbled and broke from sheer freshness. So Kelley being Kelley asked if we could have them. Yep, we got free fresh Subway cookies.

Welcome to the USA!

And we all made it home safe and sound. I made it into my nice fluffy bed, I'm enjoying feeling clean, and slowly but surely I'm adjusting to life in the States. I really am looking forward to my break with its promise of many little adventures: a baby shower, family visits, friend visits, oh! and a trip to Disney!! Life is good. It is so very good. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Finals

It's Finals Week here at Mount Carmel! Which means the students are running around with that feeling of craziness that comes 50% from finals and 50% realizing it's almost break. But, with no lessons to plan, this is the time when us teachers get to play! That is until the exams have to be graded. Oh wait! I already gave my final exam for my music classes, so I don't have any grading to do! Woo hoo! Yep, this is probably the lightest week I've had all semester and I almost feel kind of bad because as the finals are being taken, I see the stack of papers quickly climb on each teacher's desk. So I volunteered to help grade for some teachers. And by some I mean I'm helping Joe and any of the other volunteers if they want it. The exams that I'm helping Joe grade are being taken right now, so that means grading party tonight!! I'm actually pumped about it. It's multiple choice, I'll just put on some music or a movie and it'll be great!

Ok enough about my weird excitement to grade. Let me fill you in on my life. 

Like I said, the kids already had their music final. Eric, Monica, and I had a Christmas concert last Wednesday that counted as their final, and it was a circus which is exactly how I expected it to be. There are also a couple of Christmas songs that make me cringe now because I have painful memories of singing them over and over again with children that just can't sing to save their lives. Well it's over and done with. I don't have any pictures from it because I was a little busy running around organizing children, so that's a bit of a bummer. They looked so nice all dressed up! I was very, very relieved to have it over with though.

Friday was eventful because we had Fun Day which means the whole school was organized into different teams to compete in different games and activities all day. I think most of the kids had fun which is who it was for, so that's what counts. I personally would've rather just had the day off to sleep and be introverted, but what can you do. I got to watch futbolito games at the end of the day with some of the favorite kiddos and I talked to Katherine Furness, so the day was so very great.

That night we had our staff Christmas party, so we all got dressed up to celebrate the end of classes and go eat and drink with our colleagues. It was kind of funny because we were like, "wow, this is like when people go to an office Christmas party." We felt strangely grown up. 

Look! Missionaries can clean up real nice. We're missing Monica though because she was giving a final at the Junior College at that moment. 

Here is our department table! These are the people I see every single day. Me, Joey, Yuri, and Emmanuel.

Saturday was a typical Saturday spent going to Mass in the morning and then hanging out for most of the morning. Oh I remember what happened on Saturday! We were all invited to one of the teacher's house for her little 2 year old's birthday party. She's the Food Processing and Nutrition teacher, so the food was so stinkin good. Plus it was honestly the first time in a while that all of us were kinda forced to be having fun together and I really thought it was good for all of us, just being together. That night we went over to Brynne and Victor's for a Christmas party which meant it was our normal hanging out with them except their house was decorated and Christmas music was playing. It was so great!

Sunday was a really special day because December 8 was the day for total consecration to Jesus through Mary. Some of us on staff here have been doing the 33 day preparation and Sunday was the day to actually consecrate! It's really quite beautiful and is something I could go on and on about, but it was a very grace filled day. That afternoon, Joe and I went to Cayo because we were supposed to be meeting up with Yuri to explore a bit, but we found out she had something come up after we had gotten on the bus. So Joe and I had a little adventure day in Cayo! And that's just always fun because it's always ridiculous. When we got back, some of us watched Elf because Monica had never seen it before. I know, we were shocked as well. But we amended the situation, so it's all ok. And that's pretty much the weekend I think. This week is just full of proctoring exams and getting ready to come back to the States. There's a lot more mental preparation in that than you think! It'll definitely be an adjustment to not being surrounded by Spanish, brown teenager, feeling clean, and just being in a 1st world country again. I'm so ready for the break though. I'm so exhausted from this semester that I can't even explain how exhausted I am. Please pray for me to make it to the end! And for my students. They get unmotivated so easily, if they get motivated at all. It's just that final push before break which is always the toughest. 

Well who knows! This might be the last update I post in Belize for a few weeks! What a very strange thought. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Giving Thanks in Belize

Last week was Thanksgiving which isn't news to anyone reading this because if you're reading this, then you are probably in America where you had a nice normal holiday. What did we do in Belize? Well as a gift to us Americans, we had a half day (I say this tongue in cheek because it was more of a hassle than anything. If they really wanted to do something nice for us, they would've given us the day off). But that morning, it really felt like fall because it was absolutely freezing. I know, some of you are sitting amongst your snow and sweaters, scoffing at me for using the word freezing for Belize, but remember 2 things: 1) I'm from Florida and 2) I've been living in Belize. But that whole week and this week too, it's been about 60 when I wake up. And when all you have is 1 lighter sweatshirt and fleece blanket and no heat, you end up waking up every morning shivering. Anyway, the point of that is that it was actually really nice waking up on Thanksgiving and having the weather make it feel like it was fall somewhere in the world.

So school got out at 11:30 and we had staff Mass at 1:00 and Thanksgiving dinner/lunch at 2:00. Last year, as I think I've mentioned, they had barbeque chicken and rice and beans, so that's what I was expecting. What we actually got was turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, and still rice and beans. Of course it all a Belizean twist to it meaning the cranberry sauce was canned or at least gelatinous, we had rice and beans but it was fancier and not black beans, and my personal favorite, they made mashed potatoes but had sweetened it with different spices. It wasn't until about halfway through the meal when Kelley said, "Oh my gosh. Do you know why these potatoes are sweetened? They wanted to make sweet potatoes." We died laughing!! They completely missed the mark mostly because they used regular potatoes, but the gesture was appreciated and they didn't taste too bad. We were so super happy to have real Thanksgiving food though, especially Kelley. All she wanted was turkey for Thanksgiving, so she was ecstatic upon eating it.

Joe and I showing off our yummy dinners

There was also American football! Though I was so exhausted from the field trip and our dumb dog that I went home and took a nap. That's how I celebrate Thanksgiving!

I did really enjoy the day, and the weather was perfect. Plus the next day was Friday and even though we had to come to school, it was ok because well, it was Friday. Plus I got to talk to my family since everyone was at my house for the holiday. And! It was a Friday with no retreat, no special things that I had to do, so I could actually sit at my desk, get things done, and just be. 

Ok the next exciting thing that happened was the Regional Basketball game on Saturday. It was an all day affair that took place in Belmopan. It was a boys and girls tournament, 4 teams each, so they day started with a girls game, then the boys, another girls, and the other boys. We were the 4th game, so we had a long morning of just waiting and watching. But we won our game which meant we went to the finals in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the other team was making all of their shots, the refs were making unfair calls against us, and our team gets attitude real quick so they just got into the mindset that everyone was out to get them. In the second half, most of our boys were able to shake it off and shape up, but it was too little too late. We ended up getting 2nd Place though and when we got on the bus, the boys had recovered and were their regular loud crazy selves. Here are just a couple pictures from the day.

Naturally they had to find a random assortment of strange accessories because that's just what they do. Julio, Ethan, Nasser in the back, and Travis.

A pretty sweet shot of Charles, one of our 4th Formers. Kelley was our photographer.

Team pic after receiving their trophy and their medals.

Sunday had 2 doses of goodness. One was Brynne and Victor's daughter was baptized! No more pagan baby! It was right after Mass and was a really nice, small Baptism and we got cake afterwards. At about 2, most of us headed to Melchor for a few hours because there was an old volunteer visiting this weekend. We just hung out at the park with a ton of students and it's always so fun to have such a variety of them around. I really do just love hanging with the students, and it sounds super lame until you think about that they like hanging out with us. It makes me feel better about spending my free time with teenagers. 

Well I think that's Sunday. I can't tell if I got everything or am just forgetting little things here and there. What else? Oh, Joe and I finished our book! Now just to clarify, Joe and I are not writing a book. We were reading a book, but we just finished the very last of it yesterday which was our big reminder that we're going home in just 11 days. That. Is. Nuts. Though I'm very much looking forward to not being feasted on by bugs.

Ok I think that's it. Short and sweet. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.