In Honduras -- First Days

Today is day 3 since arriving in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at Academia Los Pinares.  I apologize as it has been a while since I've been able to post anything, but this is largely due to the lack of time and internet.  I'll see if I can summarize...

After flying all day Wednesday night and Thursday morning, I landed in Tegucigalpa Thursday afternoon.  I flew first class the whole way which really turned into a huge blessing.  Not only was I able to better sleep on the plane, but I was served food and drinks and given personal customer service when I was having issues getting my paperwork authorized to leave the country.  If I were to do it again however, I would probably fly Continental only because the flights are MUCH shorter and they have an actual airline coming out of Portland.  Flying American operated by Alaskan, was fine -- I really enjoyed my final Alaskan Amber before leaving the country -- but the hassle of communicated between airlines made things more difficult than they needed to be.

Flying over Miami

Customs was an interesting adventure.  Another benefit of flying first class was that I was first in line at immigration/customs.  I had no problem with my passport, but when they searched my bags, there were quite a few questions raised about my packaged equipment and because my Spanish is horrendous, I couldn't really answer the poor official.  After a while she gave up and waved me along.  :)  Soon thereafter, I hopped on a shuttle to the school.

View of the City on the Way up to the School

My rooming assignment is actually in a large house shared with two other new teachers.  It comes complete with one massive living room with fireplace, two bathrooms with shower, a kitchen complete with oven, fridge/freezer, and stove, and three bedrooms with closets and full upper loft.  Washer and drier are located outside.  Furniture included bed, desk, and dresser for each of the bed rooms as well as a dining room table, sofa, love-seat, and recliner in the living room.

The Living Room

The Bedroom - Notice the Loft Above

We do have some issues with our water at times.  Our first night, we managed to flood our entire living room.  At 10pm that first night when we went to bed, the water wasn't working.  After messing with it, my housemate gave up.  Sometime during the night, the water came back on.  However, my housemate had inadvertantly left the bathroom faucet in the 'on' position,  The drain couldn't keep up with the rate at which the water flowed and it created a nice little waterfall over the stairs and into the living room.  When I awoke to the sound of running water at 12:30am, I found an inch of water in our living-room-turned-swimming pool.  For an hour we had the opportunity to sweep it all out the door with the brooms. One thing I found out about the house is that it seems to be designed to hold water.  You'll notice in the pictures that there are tiles going up the walls.  I imagine that the house is designed to minimize water damage for big rain storms and housemate initiated floods.

Today we went to the mall in town to purchase supplies for surviving the week.  The mall was interesting as many American chains were present -- chains such as Radio Shack, Walmart, Burger King, Wendy's, Popeye's, TGI Fridays, and Pizza Hut.  I must admit, most of my shopping was completed at Walmart.  Again, I got to try practicing my Español when the various sales reps tried to help me find a product, but I think it ended up creating more awkward moments than I needed.

Wendy's at the 'Mall'mart

I will continue to try to stay connected to the outside world via the internet.  As mentioned previously on my Facebook, I now can receive txts and phone calls to my cell number.  I may or may not always be available to talk as I do not have internet in my house yet, but I will try to have most everything established by next week.

Pinares' Gym