you know things have changed when....

Some of you may appreciate this more than others. I just got back from the faculty restroom here at Mt. Carmel (don't worry, this is a G-rated story). When I walked into the stall, there was a gecko running up the wall behind the toilet and wouldn't you know, it didn't phase me one bit. I just continued with my... intended activities. Granted, I didn't try to catch it to hug it or anything, but this is the girl that, this summer, wouldn't walk into her house if there was a lizard on the porch! (John Robert, don't get any ideas about what's acceptable indoor pets while I'm home, ok?). Anyways, I just wanted to share...

So, the real news is the fact that I had a hot shower on Friday night! Whooo hooo! This weekend I had to run an errand to Belize City to redeem a voucher for my ticket back in January and another teacher, Marybeth, had to take the GRE's. So, we did something highly un-recommended by the guidebooks and traveled to Belize city on Friday evening and stayed overnight. Granted it's dangerous, but so is life so we just gathered our street smarts and had a wonderful very safe weekend, the highlight not being the fact that I got a deal on my one-way return ticket but that we splurged for a "safe" hotel room (meaning not budget) which had hot water... Not just the Central American solution to cold water which is a coil which heats up the water as it comes out of the spigot (and gives you a bit of a shock if you happen to forget and touch the spigot, as I did once... I figure it's some sort of homeopathic treatment that hasn't been discovered yet...) Oh no, this was a genuine-turn-the-knob-that-says-"h"-and-have-water-get-warmer-as-you-turn-the-knob-more-and-then-have-it-stay-hot-through-your-whole-shower-water. The bathroom was tiled, and the BEST part was, when you stepped outside of the bathroom, instead of sweat instantly gathering on you (it's the wierdest feeling, stepping out of a cold shower and instantly being hotter than you first were...) the hotel room was air conditioned, so we didn't perspire the whole night! Marybeth and I agreed that regardless of how things went on Saturday in respect to her GRE's and my plane ticket, the hotel room was WELL worth the two hour trip from Benque. For the records, we both showered in the morning too.

Ok, did I really just spend a paragraph on showers? It was honestly the highlight of my weekend... Getting to eat at Subway on Saturday was a close second... Belize is probably the only country I've heard of that doesn't have a McDonalds (even Guatemala City is rumoured to have not only that but a Starbucks), the sole "chain" store in Belize is a Subway in Belize City (and it's only one store, so does that downgrade it to a "link" instead of a "chain"? I don't know...) That was also exciting, had there been chocolate chip cookies for sale that day, it may have topped the shower on the list, but they were out. Besides that, we had a fine safe time in Belize City and were home in Benque in time for the Red Sox game (speaking of which, what's the deal? The Sox finally make it to the Series and I'm in Belize? My housemate, Anne, is from Boston so she's leading the cheering section for Boston and has converted all of the teachers (ith the exception of one girl who's from Missouri) including the ones from England who couldn't care less about Baseball, the owner of the "sports bar" in Benque, and Father Mark and Father Dan! We've been watching the play-offs and now the series here, it's been so exciting! (and the first time I've looked at a T.V. in two months, which is just wierd... Have you ever noticed how excessive commericials are?).

I'm glad y'all liked the stories about my students, I'll post some more soon. They make me laugh so much, but I always forget things. Tonight some of my more chatty boys are writing an essay entitled, "When I talk in class it keeps others from learning and makes Miss Alison punish me but I do it anyways because..." to try to gain insight into why they inisist on making so much noise... I've discovered that having my students write essays for punishment is highly effective because 1) they hate it and 2) they're SO entertaining! A couple of days ago I had them write another one related to how they should behave in class since they were created in the image of God and not animals (they like to make turkey noieses in class) and the answers were a RIOT...

Thanks again for all your continued prayers and messages. I really appreciate hearing from you all, me and my kids pray for all of you!