ayden

"it is the nature of babies to be in bliss"

-- deepak chopra

there is a new addition to the family. baby ayden.

i'm in love.

i got to be on hospital duty for a few hours and spend my time just holding the baby and staring at him in amazement. i could stare at a baby for hours and be perfectly content. they are just so incredibly tiny and fascinate me. it feels like they are just too precious to actually hold and that they might break if you make any sudden movement. looking forward to my next few weeks as an honorary babysitter... when my insomnia may actually be put to good use!

me and ayden

eyes open

preciousness

granny ida

just born- 8lbs

it looks like james cameron was directing in the delivery room, but it was just the light for the baby beyond the half room drapes... hospitals go out of their way to assure quality privacy

"babies haven't any hair; old men's heads are just as bare;

between the cradle and the grave lie a haircut here and there"

-- samuel hoffenstein

something borrowed

my kiddos

jair and emily

me and dorita. you're not supposed to have favorites, but...

cupcakes for days

another fav: arturo

costumes

frankenstein

remember my infant II class? well here they are again! with some stickers i gave them!

they look so happy to be at school, right?

snow white looks ready to fight

hilcias. what he was, i'll never know...

thank god for mr. mucul and his camera's memory card and his willingness to lend it to me.

while i think it would have been infinitely cooler to be the transformer bumble bee, i settled dressing up as the regular kind yesterday. the bug kind. or insect. or whatever. you know what i mean.

yesterday was our halloween festivities at school and i made my class cupcakes, dressed as a bee, and all around had a pretty wonderful day at school.

the day started out with an assembly. like all the other times we've had an assembly, it's outside... and hot. the students got called up by level for those who came to school in their costumes and paraded around the school in a line. the lower grades went trick or treating in their classrooms and the older levels were for the most part, of course, too cool to wear their costumes to school. the others were shameless and wore them anyways.

my kids were pretty excited about the cupcakes. usually when there are baked goods at school it's a fundraiser and they need to buy them, so they didn't understand why i would want to give them cupcakes... and for free. i explained it's because i love them. they worked hard that afternoon and wrote letters to their pen pals. a 6th grade class at my mom's school has been corresponding with my class. i am going to get the opportunity to talk to the 6th grade class when i return to the states and my kids are excited for me to meet their friends. : )

after school i went straight to the hospital because fiona had her baby. little baby ayden. i got to spend 3 hours with this precious little boy, but i will post something about that later today or tomorrow.

after i finished my time at the hospital i went to the "halloween disco" at school. always an interesting experience to see kids who are middle school aged at a school dance. i think it was a semi-unsuccessful fundraiser for our sports committee... but the kids that went had fun. and we made sure that they all got home safely.

i will try and write a lot this weekend and post some recent pictures since i have the memory card until monday... then i'll be back to my camera-less self. it's a person i don't really enjoy.

only about a month left here in belize...

love to all.

xox

the best way to get noticed at parties

living with my host family in belize i have attended more than one dinner or party that i wasn't specifically invited to. the family just brings me along and explains that i am doing my student teaching and living with them hence, part of the family. so yesterday it wasn't too atypical for me to go with the family to belize for a cousin's house warming/birthday party.

*when i say go to belize, it may confuse some of you who are thinking, wait... aren't you living in belize? belize is divided into 6 districts: belize, cayo, corozal, orange walk, stann creek and toledo. you can check it out on wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Belize

but back to the story. i am clearly white, much whiter than 100% of the people i meet here in belize and so my goal of trying not to be too much of a spectacle at parties like this is always a bit of a problem. people stare at me, i'm sure, trying to figure out who i could have possibly come with. and while being there with my belizean family makes me feel welcome, at the same time i feel like the soundtrack that is playing in the background is the muppets "one of these things is not like the others..."

this party was not a small gathering by any means, but rather a bash with a band and loads of people. at least i knew i was probably not the only random person there. i always try to make a point of meeting the host and thanking them for allowing me to come along, but finding omar (the man who owns the house and whose birthday it was) in the sea of people was a bit more difficult. i went inside to use the bathroom and when i came out i was momentarily distracted by my host family waving at me. i tried to use signals to communicate that i would go and get some more drinks for everyone and when i turned i tripped and fell down a flight of stairs, nearly knocking over a crowd of people like they were bowling pins, and i was the ball. omar included.

i frantically stood up, mortified at what had just happened. everyone was staring. knees scraped. ankle rolled. death of my pride. mortified. omar helped me to my feet and in an effort to make a laugh out of the whole situation i quickly said, "i thought this would be the best way for us to meet, omar, it seemed entirely appropriate and since i didn't bring a gift... i though i could leave you with something to remember me by." we both laughed. mine was an awkward get-me-the-eff-out-of-here, laugh and i was counting the seconds until i was able to exit stage left and take my seat. omar told me that he nearly had a heart attack watching me fall, and then it certainly would have given him reason to remember me.

after assuring everyone that i was indeed alright i sat down and tried to wait it out while everyone else found something more important to think about, other than my debut as a stair dancer. the rest of the day was lovely. food, dancing and good company.

so, moral of the story... always try to walk with your head held high, cause it's almost certain the moment you look anywhere else you'll miss the flight of stairs anxiously waiting for you to fall down them.

homecoming count: 40 days.

xoxo

letters

i realize that it has been a while, and i blame it on the fact that my camera is out of commission. my memory card broke somehow and my parents so kindly sent me 2 replacements in the mail... which got stolen straight out of the package. here's the background to that story:

more excited than a child on christmas eve, i check the post office daily here in orange walk when i know i am expecting a package from my parents. i'm not sure who gets more upset that my package hasn't arrived yet, the postman or me... cause he really hates seeing me get sad that my mail has still not come in yet. but it really makes it all worth it on the day the package actually arrives, it is worth all the waiting...

so on monday when i arrived, the postman excitedly told me that my package was in. we were both ALL smiles. but, when i saw the package i knew something wasn't right. the package had brown tape on only the right side of the package. now for those of you who know my mom (or brother, or me, or my dad) know that there may be some OCD tendencies... no offense to any party involved. just the way it is. and i know that if my mom was going to tape one side of the package, she would have taped both sides. sign #1. the post office was closing so i took my package, unopened, in a hurry and walked to the park. at the park i sat myself down on a bench and giddily opened my package. sign #2. as i pulled out two shirts that were scrunched and jammed in the box, i thought... yup. my mom would have certainly folded these. and the envelope was open. someone had stole my goods.

anyways, it was the start to a somewhat weird, somewhat terrible week for me. a large mix of things. but friday is nearing, and tomorrow always has the potential to be the best day ever! AND today i got a letter from a little boy in my class. we have a letter writing station and they can write letters and mail them to relatives or give them to their classmates... but this little guy wrote his to me! instantaneously made my week seem a-ok!

dear miss rachel,

you have been nice since the first day of school here at L.G.S. you always try your best to have fun with us here in class. i know that you can't be in all the same places at once, and you are going home in 7 weeks to the states but i wish you could stay here with me forever. we will all miss you when you go but you can send some letters to us if you want to. i'll write back. i hope you will be happy right there with your family and your brother like you are with us while you are here. i also hope you enjoy your delicious pizza like you told us you have in states. enjoy.

love,

arturo

another equally lovely letter i received from a student a few days ago...

dear miss rachel judge,

how are you? wish you are great and thank god you are still here with us. my friends say you look like hannah montana and that's great because you are MY teacher. you look beautiful with your hair and your eyes and the way you dress you look so great and pretty. so how do you feel to teach us? i bet it's hard sometimes. everyone doesn't like to listen. i am happy that you are my teacher because you are funny, kind, and beautiful. so good luck with your trip home and can you write back as soon as possible?

love my heart,

dorita

it's hard to say you've had a tough week when you have letters like these from some pretty super kids! i really do love it here. and i love teaching these kiddos. LOVE it!

over and out.

xoxo

this is for you, kid.

allie galway.

besties since we were in the same story time class at the local library.

williston park, new york.

age 4.

new years eve. 2008/2009.

nyc. big timers.

despite miles or time zones, years spent apart or years growing up together, we have stayed in touch through it all. and by some strange stroke of coincidence, we have done many of the same things through out our lives. a tribute to why we are such good friends. we can pick up our friendship right off where we last left off anytime we're together... and it's always a sad thing to say goodbye. but we actually never say goodbye. it's always a "see ya later". but i digress from my main point of this entry.

the other night i was talking to allie online. to quote my aunt meme "technology makes the world a small place when you feel so far away". she was having a fabulous night in milan and i was sitting in my room grading papers in belize. and we started talking. here is a clearly meaningful conversation that only took up about 3 minutes. it was like a rapid fire series of questions.

allie galway, my love, this one's for you.

AG: so, i have to ask... is there a boy in belize?

RJ: no. definitely not.

AG: hahaha yyyyyy?

RJ: belize is not sexy in the way i'm sure milan is, miss italy.

AG: ehhh. italy is not always sexy

RJ: well the men here are short. and they cheat on their wives.

AG: SAME! and they wear tight pants

RJ: they don't wear tight pants here. too hot. but they wear jhorts which is equally bad. jhorts, of course, being the infamous jean shorts

AG: socks with sandals, or no?

RJ: it's too hot for socks. and they are ALWAYS sweating.

AG: ew. smelly? so it's not like dirty dancing havana nights? at all?

RJ: most of the time, yes. or overpowering with cologne. and it's dirty alright... but not in a good way

AG: this is WAY better than your blog, no offense. it's just the straight up unromantic answers.

RJ: well thanks. i'm really excelling at unromantic. it's a strong point in my life at the moment.

so... for those of you who found that conversation to be much more exhilarating that my blog, this one's for you. : )

also, i would like to just say that i have met some wonderful men here in belize that do not fit my aforementioned description of the men of belize at all. i exclude anyone i've written about in my blog from these generalizations.

love,

me

be careful what you wish for.

today i learned first hand that you need to be careful what you wish for. as you know, they speak english here in belize, but they also speak some spanish and some creole. creole is not the louisiana creole that some americans would associate the word with but rather a jamaican-like "hey mon" type of creole. lately i have been wishing that i was using my spanish more and becoming conversationally fluent in both spanish and creole.

well people, today i got a new student in my class... he most definitely only speaks spanish. so i guess i will be using my spanish more!

i would also like to take this moment to share a story with you about my continuing relationship with ethan...

ethan is kind of a punk. he's always pushing buttons and getting into mischief. so when i came home from school for lunch and he refused to let me in the door, pressing his face against the glass and making kissing faces, i found it entirely appropriate to greet him with a "what's up punk?" as i walked in.

what happened next took me off guard. that little voice that bellowed from my 5 year old friend responded quickly with a "what's up bitch!"

i stood there somewhat in shock and with no hesitation said, "what did you call me??"

ethan looked confused. "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. oh. nothing"

i told him not to ever talk to me like that again.

alyssa had overheard him say it to me and told her mom that ethan had cussed at me. he immediately apologized and we moved forward.

halfway through lunch he tells yvette, "but mom (which he calls his aunt when his mom's not around), she called my a punk". yvette then asks me what happened and i told her that i simply said "what's up punk" to him and he called me a bitch.

everyone at lunch started laughing. they told me if i was going to talk like that, i shouldn't get offended when he calls me a bitch.

ok. what? how are the words punk and bitch even in the same category? well. they aren't. i didn't know what was going on. i did nothing wrong. why was everybody making such a big deal about this?

later that night yvette was telling those who has missed out on our lovely lunching about what ethan and i had said to each other. so i pressed the issue....

"what's wrong with what i said? he is a punk!!"

yvette looked at me a little confused as to what i was talking about. so she explained.

here in belize the word punk is a derogative term used to describe a person who is homosexual. and when someone says the phrase "what's up punk?" the other person usually responds with "what's up bitch".

oh. ok. i get it now.

so...

ethan knew that i wasn't being serious, clearly, and he then thought that if i was joking it was ok to say the common response.

lesson learned.

here's my belizean phrase of the day:

bleached out- staying up all night

love,

me

xoxo