Keeping Busy

Since coming back from Christmas break, I haven't had any design projects to work on. Last week it was nice returning mid-week and still cruising in vacation mode. This week is different. I feel like I should be working, but I don't have any projects yet. Thankfully I brought back a few things to keep me occupied. At the top of the list is a 1,000-piece puzzle featuring beautiful ocean scenes. We got this as a gift from Beth's parents for Christmas and it's turned out to be a great diversion for me! I haven't done a puzzle since childhood, so it's been a lot of fun, but also challenging and time-consuming. It's taking up the entire dining table.


Next on the list is Super Mario Galaxy, which I got from my parents for Christmas. It's the newest Mario game and is on the Wii. It's been so fun and definitely the best game I've played on the new system. It's a long game and can also keep me pretty well occupied.

And then there's my new book I'm reading: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It clocks in at about 900 pages, making it probably the longest book I will have ever read. My friend, Adam, is also reading it and we're planning to have weekly Skype chats to discuss it. Should be a fun way to keep in touch and delve more into the book.

Last, there's always the gym, ultimate frisbee, and now soccer. Yesterday I went over to the school and played a game of small field soccer with other teachers. It was a ton of fun, though my legs and right knee are feeling pretty sore today. I'm planning to play frisbee this afternoon, but I first need to see if I can even run or not.

Oh, and Monday night we got with friends to watch the OSU/LSU game, last night we went to a bible study, and tonight we have Spanish tutoring. So, in all I guess I'm staying pretty well occupied.

"5.6 on the Richter Sca-ale!"

Last night around 8:00, Beth, Jacob (our friend from Peace Corps. staying the night with us) and I were hanging out watching an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" when suddenly the apartment began to sway. We all looked at each other startled, waited for it to die down, and then it go worse! So we all ran over to the laundry room, which, conveniently, had a doorway for each of us! It only lasted probably 20-30 seconds and the most it did was shake our sliding doors, but it definitely freaked us out.

We immediately got online to look for news and check out our favorite seismology web sites ; ). It took probably 15 minutes before anything was reported, but then we learned that there was a 5.6 quake about three hours from us near Quetzaltenango. From what we read it didn't seem severe, but it certainly got our hearts racing. That, coupled with having to land against 40 m.p.h. winds Wednesday, made for an exciting first week back.

Rock......Chalk.....Jay....Hawk....K......U......

Last night James and I had a few friends over to watch the Orange Bowl (KU vs. Virginia Tech). What started out as a blowout by Kansas turned out to be a great game, and in the end the Jayhawks walked away with the victory!

This was the first KU football game we've been able to watch this season, and I have to say, it was probably the best! We were looking for our friends Kim and Chad Luce on the TV since they were at the game, but the camera must have only been in the KU Band section and the guy with the huge Mangino Head on a Stick. Oh well, I'm sure they had a blast!

Here's the Washington Post's article about it all, slideshow included.

We wish we could have been there, too, for the Rock Chalk Chant!

Got-a-tan on Roatan

Rewind back to December 8-16 and James and I will find ourselves on a Caribbean island, Roatan, Honduras. We spent the week there getting PADI certified in scuba diving on the 2nd largest (and probably most beautiful) coral reef in the world! Because this experience was several weeks ago and we have many blogs to post, I'll try to just hit the highlights:

Friends

We went to Roatan with some Canadians who work at CAG, Jack and Jen Talsma. They are a teaching couple (she teaches English and Jack teaches P.E.) from Canada, and exactly our age, married for almost the exact same amount of time as James and I! They couldn't have been more fun, talkative, or easy-going, and our personalities all seemed to mesh very well, which made for a great experience. We will definitely be traveling more with them!

Lodging

We stayed at the quaint and quiet Posada Arco Iris (Rainbow Inn). We had a room with two beds, hot water, and a kitchenette, which is where we cooked most of our meals since the island was more expensive than Guate. Its best feature was definitely the deck! The deck had a little table and a hammock to relax in, which is where I spent lots of time! We never really felt couped up, even though it rained for a straight two days near the end of the trip. The posada was right across a sleepy street from the ocean, so we were just steps away from the beach! We layed out to read, went snorkeling, and take naps from our posada. It was also in a central location -- less than a block from Native Sons (our diving place), the bakery where we got coffee every morning, and the grocery store where we bought food.

Land Wildlife

Roatan had plenty of great wildlife on land that was as entertaining as the aquatic life. We had lots of fun watching and listening to the bright green parrots at sunset at a happy hour bar, feeding the monkeys at our posada, watching the leaf-cutter ants work hard on the trees (amazing, actually!), and watching two chameleons fight a battle on our very own deck! It was spectacularly fun! More good news? No giant spiders or bugs in our room!! Yeah!

Aquatic Wildlife

The animals we saw while scuba diving AND snorkeling were beyond my wildest imagination! Among a multitude of other beautiful types of fish, we had the luck to see:

A sea turtle
An eagle ray
Cuttle fish
A sea snake
Barracuda fish
John dory fish
Parrot fish
Trumpet fish
Spiny lobsters
Giant grouper fish
Beautiful coral
Blowfish
Angelfish
Lizard fish
Gobi fish

And so much more, but these were some of our more memorable sightings! We actually spotted the ray from our bakery's deck where we were having coffee, and I saw it jump OUT of the water! Crazy!

Diving

The experience of diving is a surreal one. You are weightless in deep water (40-60 feet for our level) and surrounding by a world that does not seem to notice you, and yet you can get as close up as you want. I loved it! I found it to be exhilarating and relaxing all at the same time, and it quickly became one of my favorite future hobbies :)

Island Life

Being on a Caribbean island is like being in a slow-motion time machine. You never look at your watch, you never worry about being mugged, and you can always squeeze in a nap or a margarita no matter what the hour. Spectacular sunsets, warm winds, lazy days, and a calm, clear ocean are many of the factors that make James and I "Beach people" when seeking out a good vacation :)

So, I guess that concludes our Caribbean vacation for 2007! We were sad to leave, but on the other hand, we were very excited to come back to the U.S. to see our friends and family! More in the next blogs on that!

From single-digit temperatures to high winds...we're back in Guatemala!

Our wonderful Christmas break came to a sad end yesterday morning. Our very kind friend, Cara, got up with us at 4 a.m. and ventured out of the warm apartment and into a very, very chilly outside to drive us to the airport. Thankfully we had no issues getting to the airport, checking our bags, and departing on time.

We first had to fly to Charlotte, N.C., before flying to Guate. While in Charlotte, we reunited with some other teachers and caught up with them before we all boarded the plane to come back. The flight home was three hours and 40 minutes, so Beth and I put to good use our new Christmas gift: Travel Scrabble! We were so excited to get this and know we will use it a lot at home and on many of our weekend get-aways.

Both flights were some of the bumpiest we've ever been on. I'm not keen on flying, so I get pretty tense when the flight's not smooth. It got really shaky the last hour as Guatemala City was surrounded by dense clouds and 40 m.p.h. winds. To make matters worse, we had to circle the airport for an additional 10 minutes while the runway traffic cleared. By the time we finally landed (bumpily, I might add), my pulse was pretty high.

Beth and I were eager to get back to the spring-like weather, though we were greeted with thick clouds and the strongest gusts of wind we've ever experienced in Guate. The wind has not died down since and it continues to howl and shake our sliding doors as I type this. Our apartment stairwell makes a loud, annoying howl, too, due to it.

Once back, we set to unpacking and washing our clothes. Not two hours back then did our power go out. Power outages are common, and they usually restore within 10 minutes. We waited and waited and it didn't come back on. So, we decided to head out for a quick workout and also to buy groceries. By now the sun was nearly set and we should have known better how dark the gym would be. There was enough light coming from the busy avenue so we could work out, though it was really dark and certainly an odd situation. We called it after a half hour and headed home groceryless (the grocery store next door was also out of power and appeared closed).

When we got back we got some candles lit and made good use of our other new Christmas gift: high powered head lamps! These things really light up! We planned to shower up and hope the power came back on in the meantime. Well, being in Guatemala, it should have been no surprise that the water was not working either. (Does that make any sense?) So we sat on the couch in our smelly workout clothes and munched on some popcorn we made earlier.

Finally we decided to buy some bread from the tiendita and get by on sandwiches (keep in mind the most substantive meal we had all day was a bagel). Flashlight in hand, I descended the stairwell and out the building. Crossing the street I noticed some lights flicker on and heard someone yell "Tenemos luz!" (We have light!). Yay!

I got some tortillas, a can of refried beans, a red pepper, some tomatoes, and a squash and Beth and I made a pretty decent dinner with our limited resources. It wasn't how we pictured our first day back, but it was kind of fun and thankfully didn't go on too long.

It was great being home and seeing many of you. Thanks to all who helped us out while we were home! We really appreciate everyone's generosity and kindness.