To bring you up to speed with my life that has suddenly picked up pace. December came and so did Christmas decorations, mostly in businesses but a few houses on my street have hung some lights. But the businesses here really support the American commercial Christmas trend. For example City Mall in San Pedro has a decked out, 2-story tree in the food court. The beginning of December brought my first round of classes to a close. On December 7th was my last day of teaching for the year and the following day I had a mini graduation ceremony for the students. The ceremony was a very short program where the students received certificates (apparently very important to people here) followed by the customary refreshments of cake and soda. The classes I teach are 3 months long and are offered 3 times a year. Round 2 of classes starts in mid-January.
Then December 9th there was a Proyecto MAMA EndOfYear/Birthday/Christmas party. So in other words lots of food, candy, and gifts and a piñata (obligation for birthdays). A Mariachi band came and sung "Happy Birthday" (in Spanish). I thought it was really ironic that they sang the verse that says "now we want cake," three times... if you sing "now we want cake" over and over, do you really mean it? Proyecto MAMA does a secret Santa gift exchange for the Christmas part of the party. The gift exchange was a little different than any I've participated in before. For example there was a price minimum for the gift and there was a sheet to write down what you want your gift to be, and could be as specific as you want. I put down that I wanted a soccer jersey of a Honduran team (I got a nice one of team Marathon), but one could write what they wanted in a particular color from a particular store. Being able to write what you want ensures that you actually get something you want, but also takes away the fun of the anticipation, just my opinion.
I said that I don't have class from the beginning of December through mid-January. During this time I'm actually going/have started doing a lot of traveling. This week (Dec 11-17) I'm back in Copan Ruinas to take some more Spanish language classes. My Spanish is a ton better and my comprehension is pretty decent, but my grammar is still weak when I'm conversing. Plus I can understand a question and respond but I couldn't tell you what tense I just used much less the rules or patterns for the tenses. So this week I'm focusing on expanding my vocabulary, improving my knowledge of the structure of the language. Plus it's pretty relaxing to be back in Copan, and living with the same lady my family stayed with when we were here back in 2005. This is my 3rd time studying at this language school, I becoming a regular...
My next stop on my marathon trip is to San Jose, Comayagua. This is where my host parents are from and where most of their family lives. The plan is to spend 2 weeks-ish there and get to experience Honduran Christmas with them. I've been told to expect lots of tamales, apples, grapes, and fire works. It should be fun and very different from Christmas in the states. I'm looking forward to it, and will let you know how it goes. Then in the beginning of January, I'm getting a much anticipated visitor. Liz is coming to visit me for a couple weeks and we will to do some traveling. One place we plan to go is to Roatan island off the north coast of Honduras. I'm really excited because Roatan is supposed to have some of the best scuba diving and snorkeling in the world. A lot to look forward to in the coming month.
I'm not really planning on having much internet over the next month, so it will probably be a while before my next post.
A random fact:
Since I've been living here the amount of names that I respond to has grown exponentially. At home and school (normal Spanish speaking settings) I go by Miguel. I go by Mike or Michael in the occasional English setting (MCC team). Plus people who know a little English call me Mitchel because they think it's the English version of Miguel. Plus some people call me "Me-Kay," the Spanish pronunciation of Mike. It's almost to the point where I'll answer to any word starting with M...
Thanks for reading and have a merry Christmas
