Thanksgiving Bonanza(s)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I certainly did. Thanksgiving break here is great because only the international schools have days off. The rest of the city continues on, unaware. Short lines at the bank and the grocery store, no one at the pharmacy to overhear you explain your unsavory bowel issues.

Vacation started on Wednesday for IST teachers. After parent-teacher conferences (during which I met all of 4 parents out of 75 students), the teachers were allowed to leave school at 1:30pm. Hooray!

Estee, Kayla, and I ended having a slumber party complete with homemade chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries, The Lord of the Rings (the movie - not the flaming eye), facial masks, straight-out-the-oven  chocolate chip cookies, and other slumber party-y things. The only thing that could have completed the theme was Mall Madness. Alas. I think Honduras ran out of that game in 1989.

On Thanksgiving morning, we made a French toast bake in the crock pot and sat around watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I'm helpless against the forthcoming rant: BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL? ELF: THE MUSICAL? I was forced to watch Buddy the Elf do jazz squares and spirit fingers. Come on, people. Really?

I mentioned in the last post that I anticipated enjoying two Thanksgiving bonanzas. It's true. The first involved around 15 or so people and was held at Green House (all of IST's houses have color names). Had a great time with my friends - especially when we played Fish Bowl, the Couch Game, and Spoons afterwards!

The second fiesta happened at the Allen's house. The Allen's are a missionary family here in Tegus. Besides spreading the Good News, this family is concerned with creating jobs for folks here. They sell a number of products such as leather bags, journals, and belts from the south of Honduras as well as Hope Coffee, a delectable Honduran brew. Sales from Hope Coffee provide shelter and water for needy Honduran families. The website is Tierra Linda Goods (Beautiful Earth Goods) if you are interested in unique Christmas gifts. Matt also started Cabra Rides, a bike tour business which takes bikers on half-day and full-day tours of different parts of the city. This would be exceptionally appealing to me if not for mountains.

Matt and Jen have 3 adorable boys and it was wonderful to spend Thanksgiving with a family. After the delicious meal (which Jen prepared almost single-handedly), we played Settlers of Catan. I had never played it but it was a blast. Basically, you roll dice and collect resources to settle around the board. The more settlements you have, the more points you get. You can also build cities on your settlements. But there is a robber card that can befall your state and other various disasters. I didn't win, but I did really well for my first time.

Here's some Turkey Day photos:

Table is set at Green. It looks a bit stark/bare because the walls are white and the chairs are gray, but to us it looked more like home than anything.

Green house set up a "turkey" for us. We wrote what we were thankful for on construction paper hands and these made up the turkey feathers.

My thankful hand. Sorry about the shadow. I was pretty hasty with the pictures.

 Close-up of the googly eyes.

Well done, Green! 

Estee and I are chillaxing at home today. Later, we're heading to a local restaurante to eat some comida tipica. A Christmas-y movie and jewelry-making tonight!

All my best and a thousand hugs from Honduras,

Julie