Memories of Scotland

I am slowly but surely going through our photos and other momentos to make our scrapbook(s) of Europe. We were going through everything and I found this photo. It always made me laugh...

In Guatemala

Another teacher (Ann) and I arrived safe and sound in Guatemala. We were picked up in Guatemala City by the hostel we are staying at, which was wonderful. You can really see how poor the country is in by driving through Guatemala City, but we are staying in Antigua. The city is beautiful and surrounded by rolling hills and volcanoes. It is incredibly old and the entire city is protected against development, which is spectacular. We met two other teachers that we work with here. They were studying Spanish at one of the schools here. SO last night we were able to have dinner with their host family, and then go to a party at their school. Lots of free booze and salsa dancing, but Ann and I were so tired after our early start we didn't last very long. Today we explored more of the city, and went to some markets. We found one that was purely for the Guatemalans. We got some dirty looks becuase we clearly didn't belong there, but it was really interesting to see all the food vendors. And I didn't even yak at the meat vendors. ALthough the smell was more than gag worthy. Tonight we are being picked up and brought to the place where we will be working for the week. The principal of the school is having us all over for dinner and then putting us up in his hotel. It should be an adventure!

Ballonfest

Every June Howell has a big hot air ballon festival. This year it is June 27-29. You can check out what there is to see here. Mom and dad are coming over on Saturday... let us know if you want to come over too!! (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday)

A new addition to our family

I am way behind in posting this... we got a new addition to our family in December. He is incredibly sweet and cute, and we fell in love with his picture on the Internet. He goes everywhere with us, so some of you may have meet him already at mom and dad's. Heis INCREDIBLY spoiled. He even has his own kiddie chair on the porch (it's Dora the Explorer). He was getting upset because he didn't have anywhere to sit when Mike and I were both out there, so we found a chair on sale and now he has his own place to sit... Crazy, I know... but we don't have kids... or a house

I made it!!

I know that it has been forever, but I am finally done with my first year teaching. I didn't loose my sanity (too many times), hit anyone, etc. The firewall did go out once when we were doing presentations... therefore one hour (7th graders) did get a glimpse ofa nudey webpage. HUGE OPPS. But I blocked the screen automatically and they were more excited about the fact that it actually popped up in school versus what they actually might haven seen. And to the best of my knowledge, there were not any angry parent phone calls. So, after 9 months I am still employed, and they seem to like me. I hear that the first year is the hardest, so next year I am hoping that I can stay up later than 8:30pm every night (that is really as late as I was able to stay up most nights). And I will now be able to update more often!