Mayan Ruins in Copan!

This past weekend we had our last 3 day weekend :( We all decided to go to Copan, Honduras to see the Mayan ruins! On Friday we went to some Hot Springs and relaxed the whole day after a long morning of traveling (7 hours!) I didn't bring my camera so I do not have any pictures to show!

Saturday, me and two other teachers went to go see the Mayan Ruins! We got a tour guide to show us around. IT WAS AMAZING! Being a total history buff, learning about the Mayans in Honduras was so neat.

This is the highest temple in Copan!

On the 1 Lempira bill, there are some ruins....well, we found the exact spot! So cool!

My friend Shelby and I

 

Now...5 1/2 more weeks left of school. Wow, time has flown by!

Semana Santa in Nicaragua!

Semana Santa : Nicaragua (March 27th-April 6th)


For Semana Santa (Holy Week/Spring Break) we all traveled down to San Juan Del Sur, Nicragua. After about 16 hours of travel in one day we finally made it! We relaxed by the beach, the pool, soaked up the sun, and enjoyed some well needed time away from La Union and our students. After 12 weeks of no breaks, we all needed a little TLC. We spent about 3 days in San Juan. On Thursday, me and three other others made our way to Granada. It was such a cool looking colonial town!

Below are some pictures and more explanations!!

Our first day in San Juan! Soaking up the sun by the pool at our hostel!

The sunset over the pacific ocean. We had dinner on the beach the first night..what a view!

We found a cute little cafe in town!

Falafel shop! I think we went here to eat at least 4 times throughout the week!

The group with our matching Nicaragua shirts!

Granada!

Colonial church in Granada!

In Granada!

With my friend Kate

I love palm trees, so had to get a picture with one!

Ride back to La Union...these chicken buses are PACKED FULL of people...

At the boarder of Nicaragua and Honduras waiting for our passports

The life of a sixth grader

Everyone remembers being in sixth grade, middle school, the beginning of the most awkward, hormonal years of your life; the tweens. Now, I get to live it again, everyday. Although this time, I'm teaching these kids. Over the past 7 months I have witnessed many tears over boys, girl drama, dramatic break downs in class, a student being in a perfectly good mood before lunch and when he gets back its like a flipped switch, and the constant wearing of perfume, cologne, and way too much lipstick. There is one thing I have realized throughout all of this: this stage? It's completely universal. Here are just a couple examples of what I mean...


1) There was about a week in December where I had about 7 of my students cry over the course of a week due to the opposite sex. 4 girls were upset because a boy in class was teasing her about a crush she had and was embarrassed the whole class knew about it. 3 boys were upset because their alleged girl crush found out he liked her and did not return his feelings. Oh boy.
      "Ms...I can't go back in class and see him...I just can't"
      "Ms...why doesn't she like me?

2) Cologne and perfume can go a long way, but in the eyes of a sixth grader? It goes way...too... far. I cannot even begin to count the number of days I have walked into class or stood right next to a student without my eyes tearing up or throat closing because of the smell of wayyyy too much cologne/perfume. I will occasionally catch on of my sixth grade girls holding a mirror in the middle of a lesson and applying makeup/lipstick. As I am rolling my eyes in my mind, I walk over to her, hold my hand out and as they place said mirror/makeup/lipstick in my hand I whisper to them "you're beautiful just the way you are". And yes, I really do say that to them. Now they forget this very quickly because immediately after the lesson they come up to my desk and beg me to give them back their materials. I don't..until the end of the day when they're going home. HA.

3) There was a day when a group of best friends (3 to be exact) were all the sudden super mad at each other during my math lesson. I'm teaching how to multiply decimals and I see the three girls hunched over their desks, crying. I have no idea what's going on so I keep on teaching, knowing I'll talk to them after class. A student precedes to raise his hand and tells me "Ms. they got in a fight and now they're crying". Oh okay, here we go. I finish my explanation then give the class some problems to work on while I took the girls outside. They tell me they were fighting about how one girl didn't let her use another girls newly colored pen and the other girl wasn't on her side. You've got to be kidding me? All that over a colored pen!? Seriously, tween girl drama is no joke. Goodness.

4) I tried to take a picture of my class during Fiesta Tipica (a Honduran festival, which I will blog about later) in their costumes. I get out my camera and half the girls are "Ms. NOO I look so bad, Ms. nooooo please." I tell them they all look great, but no, that wasn't enough. They are "too cool for school" to take a picture all together in their typical Honduran outfits. Sigh.


If one thing is for sure after a year of teaching tweens....no two days are the same. I never know what I am walking into. Teaching middle school is a whole new level of teaching.

Halfway there

 It's hard to believe I have only been here six months and I only have five more months to go. There is something that comes with living in a different country for a year that is very hard to explain unless you do it yourself. Today was the first day in about two weeks where it was sunny and warm and not rainy and cold. Let me tell you, it felt so incredibly good to feel the sun. My friend Shelby and I decided to go on a spontaneous hike/walk around the town and we eventually made it up to the La Union tower, where I took this picture. Nothing beats it. Just look at that view. The fact I only have about five months of this is crazy. Up here-looking out over La Union-I can do nothing else but thank God He as brought me here for my first year after graduating college. He knew how this experience would change me--and I will be forever grateful.

Welcome back to Honduras...

I have been back in Honduras for a week now after being home for Christmas! Let me just tell you all, it is so nice to be back. Yes, I absolutely loved the time I spent with my family and friends, but I honestly missed my students! I have picked up a new class to teach on top of my 6th grade classes (Reading, Language, Math, and Science) and my 9th grade geography class. I am now teaching 12th grade Business Math. Now most of you are probably laughing right now, and as did I when my boss first told me, but I have enjoyed it so far! Those 8 12th graders are very smart, nice, and really easy to teach...and yes, I understand the content (although I do have to study sometimes the night before!!). I also walk into my classroom this morning and find out I have a new student, and the school just "forgot" to tell me. Teaching here definitely keeps you on your toes!

Being home for two weeks has made me really appreciate what I have taken for granted and being in Honduras has made me appreciate my family and friends so much more. There have been so many moments the past week that the only explanation I can have is...welcome back to Honduras.

1) After we all arrive from our flights in San Pedro Sula, we take the 3/4 hours ride back to La Union....and when we get there, there is no power. Apparently the Catholic priest was driving and his breaks weren't working correctly so he slammed into a telephone pole, knocking the one tower that holds all the power for the whole town down. Of course...he had to crash into that one! (no one was hurt) We weren't able to text our family and friends that we made it to La Union safely until the next night.

2) Everything is dirty again. My hands, feet, shoes, clothes. No matter how hard I try to stay clean in school, that red dust somehow makes it onto me.

3) I have taken only one warm shower since being back. Oh showering at home was so nice; the water pressure was so great and the water was actually warm/hot..now it is back to cold water and little water pressure.

4) As much as I missed my students, I however did not miss their constant tween whining, "Oh Ms...no Ms...it's to hard Ms..no Ms....please Ms. nooo." Seriously, teaching middle school kids is teaching on a whole new level.

5) Waking up to very, very, very, very loud music outside our house around 5 am a couple mornings a week. Oh how I have missed that... I am pretty sure the only music Honduras play here are slow Spanish love songs, spanish pop music, or Celine Dion.

6) The weather. I am loving it. It is currently freezing and snowing back in Michigan and at home, but it is about 70-80 degrees here in La Union..definitely not complaining about that one!!

Here are some pictures that my housemates took for our Honduran Christmas Card :) 

Christmas wish-list for my classroom

I will be back in the States for two weeks on Thursday and I couldn't be more excited to see my family and friends! The Christmas season is coming up and all I really want for Christmas is some supplies for my 21 sixth graders. I have a link below for my Amazon-Wish List with some supplies listed that would be greatly beneficial to my classroom!! Even a small donation would be greatly appreciated :) If you choose to help me out, you can mail the package to my home address:

Taylor Votto
402 E. Athens Ave
Ardmore, PA 19003
**Please note I will be leaving back to Honduras on January 3rd**

Here is the wish-list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2B0371SQSQ5KF/ref=pdp

"If it's not challenging you then you're doing it all wrong"

Teaching.
It is challenging. It is hard. It is tiring. It is overwhelming. I would be completely lying if I said I haven't thought about why in the world I decided to come down to Honduras to teach for a year. Many people thought I was crazy for wanting to do this and to a certain extent I was..and some days I sometimes believe they were right. Your first year of teaching is already hard enough..now add 42 ESL students to teach (both the 6th grade and the 9th grade geography class), a language barrier, weekly power outages, a curriculum that sometimes doesn't provide you with resources, so you end up making a lot of them yourself, and bi-weekly grade reports to send home to parents to let them know how their student is doing. It takes a lot of time and hard work. You wake up and go to school. Then after school you plan get everything prepared for the next day (and if your lucky the day after that). Then you come home and grade and plan ahead. Then you go to sleep only to repeat that cycle 7-8 hours later. Teaching is really a 24/7 job. You are constantly thinking about ways to introduce new material, how to help out your struggling and excelling students, and what you are going to plan for the next week. There have been so many times the past two weeks where I have wanted to just give up and go home. Every teacher has those moments where you feel like no matter what you do, nothing is getting better. Everything you do is for your students. During student teaching, my senior year of college, a friend and I would exchange quotes and jokes to tell our students almost every morning. I have continued this tradition down here and write a weekly quote on the whiteboard. I sometimes feel as if I benefit from this more than they do and wonder if they even read the quote.

I have had hard days and awesome days. I have been overwhelmed and I have been overjoyed. I have been tired and I have been recharged. Just another day in the life of a teacher. As I am writing this, after a very hard week, I have realized there is still nothing else I see myself doing. Yes, sometimes I would want nothing more to scream in frustration or sit in a corner and cry from being overwhelmed, but then I have one good moment, just a small one, and I realize my bad days are not the end of the world. Those good moments, even those good days, are what I need to count.

I have always loved being a student. I loved learning and I loved going to school. Maybe that is why I decided to go into teaching. Now I am a teacher...but I am still learning something new everyday. I am still a student. That right there? That is the best part about being a teacher...regardless of where you are in the world.

My sixth graders after finishing their short stories. 

They have been working on them since September

and were so excited to see all their hard work

pay off. These are the moments I love.

The wanderlust I never want to lose

I live for adventure. I sometimes may be scared out of my mind, but I love it. I get my wanderlust from my Grandma...something I think I may never lose. After one adventure I am already thinking about what I want to do next, where I want to go, who I am going to met, and what I will gain when it is over.

I had the opportunity this weekend to go to Lake Yojoa, located about an hour from San Pedro Sula (northwest part of the country). We had Friday off from school and had a three day weekend. We traveled form 5 am to about noon. We stayed at the D&D Brewery.... think of it like a B&B and a hostel combined. So we spend the rest of the day walking around the town and relaxing by a bonfire at night. The next day we go tubing down a river surrounded by a tropical jungle and ended up in a warm natural lake, Lake Yojoa. The river current was extremely fast so we flew down that river, bumping into trees, rocks, going down rapids...it was so much fun. When we get to the Lake, our guide suggested we climb a rocky cliff about 30 feet and jump off, so why not? We climbed the rocks with our bare hands and feet (wearing shoes of course)...now this part was probably the scariest part for me. If you fell or slipped...you would painfully hit the rocks and eventually fall down into the water..not something I wanted to do. When I finally made it to the top... I jumped. It felt as if you were falling and falling and you were never going to land, until you finally do...with a loud crash into the water..talk about adrenaline rush...I did it twice! That morning can't even be compared to the rush of adventuring behind a waterfall holding onto nothing but a rope. When will I ever experience going literally through a waterfall, holding onto a cable cord, with 40 pounds of water pounding down on and all around me?...definitely wouldn't find that in America. It was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. There were times I couldn't even breathe there was so much water coming down...but you just have to look down and breathe through your mouth, something our guide told us repeatedly. I mean you would not be even allowed to do something like this in the States. The experience was beyond words. And all this was topped off by bird-watching by boat Sunday morning. Ever seen a toucan besides the one on the Fruit Loops box? I have, and I kinda can't believe it. I'm so thankful for these amazing opportunities and the wonderful people I get to share them with. Honduras, you're one incredible country. 


Wow. I cannot wait for more of the adventures I am going to have this upcoming year. A five day weekend is coming up next week...off to El Salvador I go! 


                                                        "Not all who wander are lost".

Vacation in Roatan!

This past Monday was Independence Day in Honduras, so we had the day off. The Honduran President also gave us Tuesday and Wednesday off as well, making it a 5 day weekend :) Of course all of the American teachers were ecstatic and planned a 4 day vacation in Roatan (right off the Northern coast of Honduras) in about 40 minutes. We found and AMAZING all inclusive deal on Group On for our stay of 4 days and 3 nights! All of the La Union teachers decided to go as well as about 7 of our American friends teaching in Gracias. This would be the first time we would be hanging out as a whole group since orientation, so we were all excited to see everyone again! We waited in anticipation for the week to end so we could start our journey to Roatan! FINALLY Saturday morning came and we were on our way :) We took buses from La Union to Santa Barbara to San Pedro Sula, to La Ceiba, and finally the ferry to Roatan. Let me tell you something about this ferry...the locals call it the vomit comet. It became very true to its name. That is all I will say about that....


We arrived to our resort, Palmetto Bay Plantation, around 6:30 Saturday evening, had dinner, and enjoyed a late night swim out by the dock. There were about 6 of us staying in one villa...and let me just say it was the nicest house I have ever seen. It was two stories, marble counter tops, very high ceilings, an all-around porch, surround sound speakers and microphone throughout the whole house, and air-conditioning!! (picture below) I do not know how we got this villa for such a cheap price; we definitely lucked out!!

On Sunday we hung out at the resort; laid out at the beach and pool, enjoyed reading for pleasure, and catching up with all the American teachers! In the afternoon we had the opportunity to go snorkeling, which was included in our package. It was incredible!! We went out on a boat and went to two locations: a shipwreck and a drop off. It was only about 4-6ft deep out where we were. We got our gear on (goggles, flippers, and the snorkel) and headed out! We saw so many beautifully colored fish, lots of cool looking coral, and I even saw a stingray! We went to the drop off next....now this was so so so so cool. You swam around in a circle around the drop off which suddenly shot down very steep...and you couldn't see the bottom. The drop off was very very blue and you couldn't see much, which honestly was kind of freaky. On my way back to the boat I saw the BIGGEST sting ray! It was seriously huge....and honestly all I could think about how was the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin from Animal Planet, died from one...so I glanced at it for a couple of seconds and quickly swam away!

That night the resort staff made us dinner on the beach :) It was so special and sweet of them to do that for us! After an amazing dinner we all hung out and played games. Monday we spent the day relaxing. Seriously all we did was lay on the beach, go on the dock, read a book, and eat. It was awesome and well deserved.

We headed back on Tuesday afternoon, heading to another beach town, Tela, for the night before catching the bus back to La Union early Wednesday morning. Tuesday night and the journey back Wednesday was probably the most interesting 24 hours I've ever experienced. We hung out at the beach at night and had some fun swimming in the warm ocean. We then fit 6 of us in one hotel room...Then we had the journey back to La Union....the 6 of us traveling together missed the bus back to La Union by a couple seconds so we ended up hopping in this one taxi and having the driver chase down the bus...which we caught about 10 minutes later! We were so lucky!

This vacation was much needed and so relaxing! It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone, catch up with the teachers from Gracias, as well as enjoy some amazing beaches Roatan had to offer :)

 

Our villa in Roatan...about 6 of us stayed here :)

 

 All of the La Union and Gracias teachers!! So thankful we all get along.

 The La Union girls! What a night we spent on Tuesday..... :)

 My friend Mer. We both graduated from Hope and have known 

each other since freshmen year of college! 

 

The view from the start of the dock during Sunday morning's sunrise :)

Living the Simple Life

Life here is simple...and I love every minute of it. Don't get me wrong, I admire elegance and have an appreciation of the finer things in life...but to me, beauty lies in simplicity. I love how the Honduran people are so happy, yet they have so little. Their walls are cement bricks with bed sheets for windows, their houses are the size of my bedroom at home in Philly, they are secluded from the rest of the world, sometimes never getting out of their small town. I come home everyday with red dust from my classroom floor all over my shoes and the bottom of my navy pants, I sweat constantly from the heat in my stuffy classroom and from the 2 mile walk everyday to school and back, my clean socks get dirty from the floors in my house within 10 minutes of wearing them, sometimes the power goes out for hours and we can't shower or cook, sometimes I wish I could go outside my house and not see half my students at the only social place in town, Cafe Zazzo, or go out to eat at a restaurant instead of about 10 commodores that only make Baleadas (white tortilla, mashed re-fried beans, egg, and cheese). Everything is different, yet I don't think I would change one thing about my experience here. Yes, I come home sweaty and with dust all over me, but I am still able to wash my clothes and turn on my fan. Yes, the power can randomly go out for hours at a time but at least I have power, a working shower, stable internet, and an oven to cook in. Yes, I see my students every time I go outside my house and walk down the main street, but it is so refreshing seeing them in a social setting rather than just as my students in my classroom. My life here is so simple, yet it is so great. I am in love with the beauty I am surrounded by everyday. The view from my school is breathtaking and every time I complain about my recess duty spot being in the hot sun on a hill watching kids play soccer, I look at the view and I am in awe.

This is the view of La Union from the top of a hill. My friend and housemate

 took this shot on a hike yesterday after school. So simple, so beautiful.