...vacation saves the month...

Shew did this vacation come at the right time! At the end of every parcial (semester), we have to begin plans for the next one. Those plans include: the 9 week plans, government plans, homework calendars for the parcial, plans for the next week, then we have to turn in a copy of every review sheet, final exam, and answer key. SHEW - so after turning in all of that on friday, we were finally able to take a deep breath and jump into a van and head for the water! We went to a beach most of us had never been too called Omoa, near Puerto Cortes (one of the biggest ports in south america). We settled into our nice little canadian-owned bed & breakfast joint that was literally 20 feet from the water - they constantly have to battle with flooding. It took us no more than 30 minutes to get in our suits and head for the water!

The next day we beached it up all day, checking out a couple different beaches - one of which was infested with these little jumping bugs that would completely cover your towel within 45 seconds of laying it on the sand - we didn't stay at that beach long. At the second beach, we met three little guys that were excited to see so many gringas in the same place. After talking to them once, they became our best friends for the day, haha. Their names were what surprised me most - Jason, Wesley, and Steven, haha! I was totally expecting an Alejandro or Juan David, but no. We spent most nights playing "Hand-and-Foot" (a Mellon family favorite) and stayed up late, pooling all of our junk food together.

 Our last day, we went in to Puerto Cortes and visited their largest bilingual school. Becky had a contact in the school and he was happy to answer any questions we had and show us around. We were pretty overwhelmed with the differences in their school and ours. First difference - air conditioning in every class! what! I turn the air conditioning on it our class by opening the doors and windows, haha. But it was cool to get a different view of how they ran their school. It was an awesome vacation to a new place and a great chance to get to know my fellow teachers better!