http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Clint-Holmes/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Clint Holmes en-us Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:16:31 +0000 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:16:31 +0000 So I have survived the last leg of classes although it isn't official yet. We still have exams next week. As of today May 29th 2009 I have been here for nine months and sixteen days. This got me thinking...I am not officially traveling I life here. So I am considering changing my Blog to Wordpress.com for a few reasons. There are most all the functions that Travelblog offers plus a few o http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-403412.html Last night I was sleeping soundly in my humble Honduran abode. I was having a dream about my hat one of my favorite things to dream about. I find that dreaming about my hat is the second best thing to actually wearing it. Sometimes it's even better seeing as how my forehead never sweats in dreams. However last night's hat dream was different. One could even say it was a hat nightmare. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-403121.html After a great weekend with the Mrs. I returned to the old routine. When I got to school on Monday I was greeted by one of the women who cleans my classroom at the end of the day. We have a few kitchen staff and they also open the rooms and clean up after the kids. Well her first words to me were Your room is full of bees.You can imagine what I thought when I heard that. I had images of nest http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-402389.html I have picked up two hobbies since I moved to Honduras. One is bike rides and the other is taking photos of roaming livestock while on my bike rides. I'll admit that the bike ride itself isn't a new hobby. I have been riding a bike since I was a kid but a Honduran bike ride is a whole new experience. You see and learn a lot sometimes things you like and sometimes things you don't.The livesto http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-400350.html Finally rainy season is returning. I was beginning to think I would literally melt the next time I stepped outside. The weather here isn't kind to a Western New Yorker I think I might have mentioned that a few times already... but it is finally starting to cool off a bit. Well... it is getting less hot we still have a long way to go until it can cool off. I consider myself to be a cold we http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-395005.html Give this video some time to download. It is about 13 minutes long. EnjoyNote My photo camera had full batteries but the memory card wasn't set up right so I couldn't take any photos. However the miniDV was charged and ready to go. As usual the seven year old Canon did not disappoint. I figured a video blog would be just as good as a written one and our handy dandy video machine was happ http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/blog-392266.html Exams are finished and the countdown has begun. A bell marking the beginning of Holy Week will be ringing this Friday in Comayagua. A tradition many Hondurans have celebrated for years. The time of this sacred ceremony varies from one neighborhood to the next. In our neighborhood they will be ringing the bell at 120 PM. At that time the streets will flood with screaming teenagers wreaking ha http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-386563.html These photos really do speak for themselves http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Tegucigalpa/blog-385060.html Well the field trip was a success. No students got pregnant and the director of the school didn't get thrown in the pool. Here is how it all went down.We arrived in Tegus and visited an old theater and the museum. The theater was really beautiful and it had great acoustics. There was all sorts of booths and even a presidential booth where I took the liberty to sit for a few minutes and enjoy http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-380386.html We arrived at the hotel and all the kids with PSP's found a wireless signal. For those out of touch with hand held game consoles a PSP is a Playstation you can hold in your hands and it uses wireless internet. One of my 7th graders found out the pass code and now I'm blogging. Currently I am in my room with Melvin and Dennis both 7th graders. Melvin is watching the Simpsons and Dennis is pla http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Tegucigalpa/Valle-De-Angeles/blog-379512.html Tomorrow the High School students of El Alba will be taking a two day fieldtrip to Honduras' capital city Tegucigalpa. We will visit a museum in Tegus' and then drive to Valle de Angeles to stay at our hotel. From what I hear Valle de Angeles is a historic town about 20 minutes from Tegus'. I have mixed emotions about the trip seeing as how I am the only teacher attending. Other than myself http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-379215.html Last weekend Karina and I decided to make our own tortillas. In reality Karina was the one who made the tortillas. However I was the one who bought the ingredients. So I did my part.Overall I can say that the experience was both messy and fun. The tortillas it turned out were a bit on the chewy side. It isn't every day that Karina makes tortillas by hand so neither of us had perfected the ar http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-377940.html The past few weeks I have simply been enjoying IT. My classes are going well and when they don't go so well the stress doesn't follow me home. Other than the hot weather everything is going really great. Karina and I are still chugging away at our wedding plans and she has been on the ball. Speaking of chugging I have really gotten into milk. It's pretty awesome.Karina organized and ordered http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-374413.html The first thing I asked myself when I walked into school this morning was Why does David have a gun My second question was Why do Josue Cris Kevin and Ramon have guns tooIt turns out that this week we are celebrating El Alba's 24th anniversary. So it only makes sense that the students should bring guns to school. I must say that after I made the connection I felt a little embarrasse http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-368158.html Top twenty things I hear on any given day1 Hi Meester.2 Ay No.3 We go with you4 For what we go English or Reading5 You can't give us homework we have like... seven quizzes tomorrow.6 No Meester its true.7 Meester He or She is boddering me.8 Meester can I go9 Today you will let us play10 Yes. Yesterday you said dat you will let us play.11 Why you give us homework all the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-367472.html In an effort to keep my travel blog subscribers interested I am now posting another blog. It has been eleven days since my last and I am once again sorry for the delay. Life in a slow moving Central American country can get pretty busy.Just recently I went to visit Karina's uncles in Tegus. Their families both share a house in a smaller neighborhood in the outskirts of the capital city. It w http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-365266.html Christmas and New Years was filled with each form of surprise one can find. For someone in my situation the celebrations were all completely new and obscure. To say that I found a close similarity to what I have known Christmas to be would be a lie. Honduras expresses it's joy in a way that is not too uncommon from the roots of North American family ideals however what is manifested from tho http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/El-Paraiso/El-Paraiso/blog-361312.html So far I have spent two days in Paradise and it has proved to be exactly that... Paradise. Here are some photos of the pinata for you guys to enjoy. Meanwhile I am off to fill my backpack with firecrackers. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/El-Paraiso/El-Paraiso/blog-356457.html In just a few short hours I will be headed off to Paraiso. I have about two weeks of vacation time to kill and I'm not doing that here in Comayagua. Hopefully I can find an internet cafe with a speed worthy of my Gringo tastes. Danli and Paraiso tend to have really slow cafes. If I'm lucky I will venture into Nicaragua and post a blog. I guess we will see how far Karina lets me out on the lea http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/El-Paraiso/El-Paraiso/blog-355807.html Wow 18 days without a blog post. I bet most of you thought I had given up. However I have just been busy. I rediscovered Skype and since then I have been communicating with a few relatives more than before. I have also been planning the wedding writing exams for the second quarter and playing NHL 2k9 on the Wii. Thanks to my aunt Dorthy Mr.Josh and myself have been competing head to head http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Comayagua/blog-354524.html