primer dia de trabajo.

10 principals of democracy in the presidential palace. muy bonita

This morning at breakfast the juice label on our oj was SULA. Apparently it comes from San Pedro Sula in Honduras...it was a hilarious situation because, typical behavior from me, the first thing I did when I got into the kitchen was yell, HEY my names on there! And of course no one could understand that so then I scrambled around to explain what the world I was talking about.

Today was my first day teaching...or attempting to help teach. I'm currently working in a school for kids with special needs and learning disabilities, the most prevalent seems to be serious ADD. They were literally bouncing off of the walls. I was greeted by this sweet little boy who mumbled a lot of spanish into my ear and gave me a big kiss. Completely surprising but also totally adorable. Though I understand half of what they're saying at the most...this one little girl hugged me and said, "te quiero" (I love you) 5 minutes into the class...and I thought I was doing pretty well until I took her crayons away and she rolled her eyes at me and said "te odio!" meaning I hate you. Too bad for me that is one of the phrases I do understand.

This afternoon I went to this amazing cathedral with one of Virginia (my host moms) daughters. And then then we also went to the Palacio Nacional, (the presidential palace...like the white house). It was incredible...I was the only non spanish speaker in the tour though so the guide made tons of jokes about me, fed by a giggling group of 8th graders in uniform, who asked me tons of questions about the United States. One of them was like....oh so you've been to vegas!?! And they wanted to know all about what you needed to do to go to the United States. BUT I learned a lot...so the whole thing is sort of sea foam turquoise...literally everything is different shades of it and its so pretty and none of it is painted. The color comes from the chemicals they put on the stone on the walls. The pictures don't do it justice...it was very zen in there. The president at the time it was built was obsessed with the number 5 (Connor...are you reading?) So everything is in 5's or multiples of five. It's crazy. There are also tons of murals depicting the fusion of the mayan and the spanish cultures in Guatemala...one in particular has a cross coming in from one side and a sun coming in from the other, muy interesante. But my favorite part...besides all of the turquoise, was the presidential dining room because there are these 10 stained glass windows side by side and each one has a person and a word representing the 10 principles of democracy. It is stunning.

I'm going to attempt to upload pictures...