Best Weekend Ever?

I can make friends. I can hold my own and meet new people. That being said, I am not great at it. I'm not naturally inclined to be extroverted and come across as super awkward when I'm with a crowd of people that I don't know. That being said, I have made some truly WONDERFUL friends down here in Honduras. God has blessed my life is numerous ways-- the least of which includes filling my life with incredible people.

This past weekend doesn't hold stories of anything incredible. We didn't do anything notable and we don't have pictures to document our time. (It figures that the one day that's ideal for pictures, I leave my camera at home, right?) But this weekend was spent hanging out with friends, laughing, and making memories. Cliche? Yes. True? Also, yes.

So here you go. A play-by-play breakdown of what has the potential to be the best weekend in Honduras to date.

Friday night Sarah and I went to the grocery store and then headed over to the steakhouse next door. Here we are ringing the doorbell to be let into to this fancy restaurant, carrying our bags of groceries. Definition of class right there. The restaurant was all decorated for Christmas and the food was divine. After dinner, Sarah, Jorge, and I came back to the house to bake cupcakes, watch a movie, and hang out with Nelsy. The cupcakes were a success, the fire in the fireplace was a raging success, the movie wasn't such a success. So we filled the night with countless games of 20 Questions.

The other week Sarah and I went to the movies with Ricky and Cristian. While hanging out after the movies, Cristian mentioned that he had been down in Comayagua during the weekend, but had to return the next weekend. Sarah had only been to Comayagua once and I have never been there, so we pretty much invited ourselves and told Cristian that we were tagging along. That was awesome. Until we realized that Cristian wanted to leave at 8am. We stumbled out of bed and into the car at promptly 8am. Which is what led to the forgotten camera. And forgetting to turn the water off in the washing machine and flooding the laundry room. Mornings are rough at the teacher's house.

We pulled in to Comayagua around 8:45 and Cristian was finished with his errands around 9am. Soooo, what to do? There's a famous church in Comayagua with the oldest clock in Central America, so naturally we had to go. There was a tour guide milling around so Cristian asked him if he could let us in to the clock tour so we could head on up. The man said yes, found the guy with the key, and let us in. We climbed up the narrowest, scariest staircase I have ever encountered in my life to the top of this belltower. The tour guide told us that he was waiting for his actual tour group outside, so we could look around until he came back, but not to touch the bells. Not bells. Got it. So we're looking around. A bell- mmhmm. The views-- mmhmm. Hey, can you see me if I stand down there and look through the hole in the ceiling-- mmhmm. Oh, look at this wooden thing with a crank that the tour guide didn't say we could touch. Cristian turned the crank, made some noise, we carried on looking out the windows. A few minutes later we heard the tour guide huffing and puffing back up the stairs. Apparently said wooden contraption was only spun ONCE A YEAR and the priest of the church had heard the noise and called the tour guide in a panic asking what was wrong. Oh, oops. Worst tourists ever, we're sorry. We hung out in the bell tower a little bit longer, then decided we were bored. We make the trek back down the sketchy staircase and go to pay the guide. But wait, on our way out, we closed the door behind us. The door that locked. And there was only a small handful of people in Comayagua who have the key. All of which were otherwise occupied at the time. Oops, we're sorry, I suppose we really are the worst tourists ever.

Not my picture. The cathdral.

After having to ask for directions because we couldn't figure out the map between the three of us, we made it to the Archeological Museum. Since we're gringas, Sarah and I had to pay 40 lemps more than Cristian for admission. We were also followed around by one of the museum people who gave us the whole rundown of everything. I don't know if she was following us because we were white or just to give us the whole museum schpeel. We were able to see a lot about Comayagua and see the original clock face from the cathedral. Like I said, nothing monumental, but kind of cool.

Not my picture. But a picture of the original clockface.

At approximately 10:30am we rolled into Burger King for some healthy eating which was promptly followed by a trip to Baskin Robbins. We are the picture of health down here. And wouldn't you know it? The circus was in town. So we meandered across the street to see some African animals. The actual show wasn't for another 6 hours, so we just looked at all the animals and left. Sarah and I also touched a lion, no big deal.

We start to head for home and Cristian decides to take us to an atoleria. Which is a place where they sell atol which is essentially liquid cornbread. Not a fan really, but I tried it. This particular atoleria is also where all unsafe and old American playground equipment goes to die. This is not a joke. We played on some of the jankiest teeter-totters and see-saws. We also walked across the ricketist bridge I have ever encountered in my life. Sarah and I were terrified and hanging on to the edges for dear life whole Cristian was just jumping around behind us having a grand old time. AND THEN! At then of the bridge was a slide. Okay, I can do slides. Nope, think again. This is where American playgrounds go to die, remember? There's a litttttttle tiny bump in the slide, guess who FLIES off the slide? Painful and not enjoyable. We headed to the zoo which was comprised of ducks, raccoons, a wolf, and some rabbits. Yepp, that's also not a joke. And back over the rickety bridge, down another slide. This one had tires at the bottom to stop you. How nice of them, that sounds like the perfect way to sprain an ankle. In all seriousness though, we did spend quite awhile there, so it was clearly enjoyable for all of us.

Typical afternoon at the Teacher's House-- naps, Lifetime movies, and lesson planning. Yepp. Then I get a phone call. "Hello?" "What are you doing?" "Nothing, just les--" "Good, come outside. I ahve fireworks." Perrrrrrfect.

In standard fashion, we proceeded to climb onto the roof and shoot of fireworks. Why? Why not? Because it's Saturday and Saturdays always deserve to be celebrated. But before we were setting the fireworks off the roof, we were standing out on the patio shooting off fireworks. Some of the fireworks just required a flame and were then tossed into the air. But two of them were just a little different. You lit them, they exploded. Lights, loud noises, smoke, ooooh. Fifteen seconds later-- BAM! SUPER LOUD EXPLOSION. Hector, Cristian, Sarah, and I were standing around talking about how cool the firework was and next thing we knew, we were all hiding behind bushes or the flagpole. I was a little worried that I had peed my pants. It was terrifying and awesome all at the same time.

Rounding out the weekend with a little 24/7 and then some Christmas festivities. Like I said, it wasn't a monumental weekend in Siguatepeque. Nothing major happened, but it was spent with some of my favorite friends. Easily the best weekend since my arrival three short months ago.