lessons

It is 11:52 on a Saturday night, and I just finished writing math lessons for the week about symmetry.  Did you know first graders dive into three types of symmetry - slide symmetry, mirror symmetry, and spin symmetry? Neither did I.  Honestly the only symmetry I really remember is mirror symmetry.  But I found some pretty great pictures to demonstrate each type, and it should be a fun week of math. I got to thinking about this whole lesson planning thing. If I teach 6-7 lessons a day for five days a week, that is 30-35 lessons to plan each week.  Yay for teaching!  Honestly... it's been a rough week.  But I am hopeful because I have heard so many horror stories about (a) the first weeks of school and (b) the first year of teaching, and since I fall into both categories I think I have alot to look forward to in the future.  For now, I'm learning time management and spending my Saturday evenings with lesson plan books and the Spanish dobbed over version of the Princess Diaries (actually, that was over 2 hours ago and now I'm watching some bike race).

I'm learning some other lessons in life, too.  Mainly, the same ones I've been learning for the past year: Don't take myself so seriously. Don't get so stressed out about everything.  Don't focus on all the negatives.  So today I wanted to think about all the little joys in my life in the midst of change and stress.
Therefore...
Reasons why today was a good day:
1. I got to sleep in.
2. I finished my book Travelling Light by Max Lucado.
3. I found out that my friend has the Anne of Green Gables books HERE.. in my house... and I took them to read.
4. We continued our weekly tradition of pancake brunch on the balcony.
5. I washed my sheets and dried them in time to sleep in freshness tonight.

Funny story:
Went grocery shopping today (i.e. walk down hill, catch taxi, listen to crazy taxi music, get dropped off, get stared at, and then its pretty typical).  At one point in this delightfully inexpensive trip, I chose to put some things back and told my friends I would meet them at the front of the store.  Thus began a skeptical of walking around the store at least three times trying to find my friends, all the while thinking to myself, "It should NOT be this hard to find two white girls in a medium-sized grocery store in Honduras!"  Alas, I found them.  Kicker: they hadn't moved from where I left them. 

Here's a few pics. Tomorrow I'm going to a festival outside the city (SO excited!) and I will try to take lots of pictures.

First weekly pancake brunch on Saturday (last week)

First street food

Called a "gringa" - also the name for white girls - not sure what the connection is there

Food was great with beef and veggies

Against all appearances, I didn't eat the plate for dessert.

As you can tell from the background, playing cards is a pretty big pasttime down here.