It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote and they have been quite eventful. To start, Jen and I took a little trip to the butterfly farm outside of town. It was a total bust! Yes, we did manage to see a few beautiful exotic butterflies, but the day was a disaster! We unfortunately were two unprepared city girls that day. In order to get to the museum, we needed to hike up a 3 kilometer path. What we forgot…bug spray, proper clothes, and proper shoes! It was horrible but hilarious at the same time. At one point we were both simultaneously swinging our bags back and forth on our shoulders trying to protect our backs, while scratching profusely with the other hand. After almost every drop of my blood had been painfully drained from my body and after passing through a mud pit, we finally got to the farm. It was closed and then it began to pour. We were still able to get inside one part of the museum and we even managed to get a few shots of some beautiful butterflies before the rain made it impossible. The rain got worse and we decided to head back down the path again in our flip flops and dresses. Despite the disaster, we managed to get home after a lot of laughs. We did absolutely nothing the rest of that day.



Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to Tela. It’s a really laid back beach city two hours west of here. The atmosphere was very chill and the beaches were beautiful. Although La Ceiba is also on the coast, the beaches are pretty nasty and unsafe. After Tela we made our way to Tornabe, a small Garifuna village. The Garifuna people are of both African and American indigenous origin living in the north coast of Honduras. There was a festival that weekend in Tornabe with many local bands and djs. It was my first punta experience. Punta is a traditional Garifuna dance...it’s a shuffle combined with a pretty intense booty shake. My dance partner and coach was probably about ten years old and could dance circles around me, but finally my big butt gave me a slight advantage. The whole weekend was an unforgettable experience. AND, we were even photographed for the local paper!

The public buses here are recycled school buses from the U.S. Jen and I even spotted one that said Jefferson County Schools on it. Who knows, maybe I rode on it 15 year ago.

Punta!

Although I was pretty sad to miss my actual graduation ceremony in Groningen two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to have graduated from the Central American Spanish School. They had a ceremony and I even had to give a speech in Spanish. I thanked them for how much I had learned and most importantly that I am now ready to find my Honduran husband…just kidding!

Last weekend was quite the event at our house. Jennifer and another friend celebrated their birthdays. It was so cool to actually be with Jennifer this year on her birthday. The best part was the piñata really. It was a great time and a great party.

Jen´s second cake out of ten I think, but she got her faced smashed into this one.

Last week I also began teaching in a bilingual school. I´m with the first graders and although it is a bit chaotic at times, it´s very rewarding and fun. On Friday night we had a United Nations night at the school. My class represented the United States so I taught them how to line dance to Achy Breaky Heart. In other words I´m officially a hick, but it was hilarious. I´ll add some pics of that soon.