Catching up!

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Well, once again it’s been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve written a posting. My apologies- apparently blogging just isn’t in my blood. I was never very good at keeping a journal either.

Anyway, the last two months have been filled with visitors, and it’s only recently that they’ve all returned back to the first world. My sister was here for two months, then I had two friends come for Semana Santa, followed by my dad and stepmom for a week, and then my mom for just over a week. It was fun getting to play tourist- hang out on the beach, look in all the gift shops (which I had never done previously), and eat out way more than I normally would.

Semana Santa turned out to be even crazier than I imagined- the island was absolutely crawling with tourists, mostly Hondurans from the mainland, and the beach was so crowded we could barely find a place to sit. Luckily I knew of a few places we could go to escape the crowds so it wasn’t too terrible, but I wished my friends could have seen my usual laid-back island instead of the overcrowded and weirdly commercialized one that they were stuck on. We still had fun though.

Having my dad and stepmom here was fun as well. We spent lots of time hanging out on the beach and snorkeling, and I got to dive with my Dad as well. Soon after they left, my mom came. She got her open water certification so I got to dive with her as well, and we also took a trip to Cayos Cochinos. My favorite part of Cayos is the snorkeling- not nearly as many people go there as Roatan, so it’s very pristine. We saw tons of purple fan coral, flamingo tongue, and Christmas tree worms (which Mom found way too amusing).

In other news, school is done! We finished on Friday, and now I have two weeks to enjoy the island before… *dun dun dun*… I return to the US! School was of course crazy at the end, with lots of last minute stuff to get done, but we all survived in the end. On Thursday we had a school talent show which I organized, and the kids put together some really good stuff. Also, another teacher and I sang a re-written version of “I will survive” (“We did survive”) which talked all about the school year, and even included a musical break with a kazoo solo by yours truly. Good times.

I’m sad that my Roatan adventure is ending, but it’s been a really spectacular year. I’m trying to convince myself that returning to the States is a good idea, but the fact that I’m stuck filling out job applications instead of going diving really isn’t helping. What IS helping is the fact that last week I didn’t have water for 4 days, then had it for 2 days, then didn’t have it again for another day. I am looking forward to 1^st world plumbing. And seeing friends. And eating food that I can’t get here. So I guess I have two more weeks to soak up the sun and sand, and spend a bunch of time under the water, before I take off. Very bittersweet. Hopefully I’ll do one more update on this blog before I go! Oh yeah- scroll down for more pictures!

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