BIG Weekend: White Elephant, Football, Goths, Volcano!

Beth and I had a pretty packed and fun-filled weekend. Here's a synopsis of what all we did.

Friday, January 11
Beth and I attended a white elephant gift exchange with about 30 other staff members at the home of Tony and Audrey (they're the couple we spent the weekend in Santiago with). We brought a trash sack full of extra coat hangers as our gift, and, surprisingly, someone actually traded for it! We really thought the first person to open it was stuck with it. But I guess that goes to show there were some other pretty awful gifts. With so many people and so many exchanges, the whole process probably took two hours. It was a lot of fun and pretty funny at times when coveted gifts kept being stolen.

This is the jacket I really wanted, but sadly it was taken...

Saturday, January 12
We had a typical, lazy Saturday morning filled with eggs and toast, coffee, and a couple episodes of The Simpsons. Aftewards, we headed over to the tennis courts to play for an hour, but unfortunately there was a tournament being held and we couldn't. We spent the afternoon at a friend's place with 10 or so people lounging around watching the Packers game.

That night we had plans to go to a goth themed party. I'm still not sure who's idea this was or why they thought of it, but it turned out to be really funny seeing all our friends here dressed up like sad goths. Plus, the party was held at an amazing home about 30 minutes away off the highway to El Salvador.

I was only planning to wear a dark t-shirt, but then was coerced into wearing makeup and a black hat. And I'm glad I did as it was fun to be in costume. Beth looked the part even more as you can see by the pictures!




Sunday, January 13
Sunday we went with our friends, Courtney and Alan (and their son, Wiley), to Volcan Pacaya, for an afternoon hike. This is the active volcano we hiked at night a few months ago. It was a beautiful day (as most days are right now) and fun to see the trail and volcano up close in daylight. It was continuously spewing smoke from the top and we were expecting to see a lot of lava after some other teachers told us about their experience from the week before. Unfortunately we didn't see the rushing lava like they had described (we only saw a couple streams of it), but we still really enjoyed being outside and seeing the craggy monster up close.

A look at Pacaya from the highway

Hiking up

The Carvers

Notice the smoke spewing out the top and the little hikers off to the left of it.
We plan to hike to the top at some point soon.

This cooled lava is what makes up the base and volcano and is treacherous to climb--it's really sharp, so if you fall, you're going to get cut! It is grippy with proper shoes though.

It only takes an hour to get to the trail from our place and less than an hour to hike to the base of the volcano, so it's an easily doable weekend activity. We hope to take some of you there when you come visit!

When it is Hardest to be Away

This past weekend our family pet pug, Fritz, died suddenly of a collapsed trachea. He had diabetes, and he was only 8 years old. Pets in our family are valued as any other family member, so this has been very difficult.



It is so hard to get news like this when you cannot drive home to hug your parents or be there to help take care of a loved one. We both felt so helpless when we found out, because there was nothing we could do at this point, and words to convey my sadness and heartbreak over the phone felt so insincere, empty, and weak.

Fritz was such a good puppy dog! My dad always thought he was the "smarter" of the two pugs, and he was such a great companion dog for all of us, especially my parents after we moved away to college. He was one of the most playful puppies and loved to go for walks. He had a snaggle tooth on his lower jaw that poked out of his mouth all of the time, and my grandpa sometimes said his alter ego was "Juan Fang." (get it? one fang? haha) He didn't like people to be up in his face (much to my chagrin), but he loved to lie on your lap and be held. We loved him so much and it is sad to know that he is no longer there at home.

While we were home for break, Fritz seemed perfectly healthy. He even played with my sister's new pug puppy, Ellie! Because it was so sudden, it is still so shocking, especially when we are not there for closure with my parents, and we just saw him as healthy and happy as ever. We are very glad we went home and got to enjoy Fritz as a healthy dog one last time.

We will miss you, Fritz.

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!