Inbetween all the work at school my mind wanders and inevitably I find myself at the computer looking for something on the Internet. Today, its a tie between political porno (i.e. Barak Cabinet Updates, Liberman getting the shaft, etc) and a bit of homesickness.
Officially, the countdown is on. In exactly one month Anah and I will be back in Wisconsin with friends and family. For all the adventures and good times down here its nothing compared to a home-cooked-mom-meal and a few (or a lot?) of beers (Riverwest Stein, please?!?!??!) with friends.
Here's the result of a combination of Internet and homesickness; ladies and gentlemen, Milwaukee's Best (like that?). The Candliers!
Anah didn't want me to post this, but after giving it a few weeks I've decided that I absolutely have to share something with you. The following are the contents of an e-mail I received early one morning:
Subject: Bird Flu- When birds attack
Just something to make you laugh...So, I am sitting at my desk this morning, with only 1 other student in the room. I'm checking my email and updating a few things. All of a sudden, I feel something big hit the side of my head. I assume it is a ball, my guess is that my student has accidentally hit me in the head with a beach ball we have in our class. Then, I look down. It is a BIRD. A BIRD FLU INTO THE SIDE OF MY HEAD. The BIRD DIED. Yes, it's true. My head is so gigantic that a bird hit the side of my head and died.
I am traumatized. I went screaming into Kim's room and I think she thought I was crazy, not to mention the poor student that was in my room at the time.
The end.
Big Head
Yes, blog readers, Anah killed a bird. I'm not really sure what to add to this whole story, but I'm assuming its safe now to post this because she's laughing at it all too.
A funny addition to this all is that the weekend following this terrible ordeal Anah and I went to a bird sanctuary in Copan with her parents. In the course of walking through the park I made my fair share of bird-to-head-to-death jokes, but since the birds were in cages no one (Anah) was in real danger until we met the toucans:
The video of the whole situation is pretty funny, too:
About two weekends ago (sorry for the delaying in posting!), Anah and I were joined in Honduras by her parents, PJ and Nancy. This is obviously a great thing to have a set of parents come down and experience just a little bit of what is going on down here (mine will be coming for spring break!). Having arrived on Thursday, with a departure on Monday, it was imperative that we get the 'rents out of SPS ASAP.
Anah left PJ and Nancy very specific and phonetic Spanish directions from the airport and to our school and so their arrival went without fanfare. Having arrived before school was out they happened, by chance, to stop in the school's cafetorium where the middle was having their Halloween Talent Show. Luckily they left before seeing myself and the shop teacher sing (another story at another time).
On Friday, PJ and Nancy joined Anah at school and were classroom helpers. I'm told that their assistance in the class was very nice and the kids seem to get a real kick out of having them around. Nancy read to the kids and PJ showed the kids how to carve a pumpkin.
After school we were off to Copan Ruinas, a small town about three hours from the city. Copan is set in the Honduran highlands about 8 miles from the Guatemala border. Even though SPS is cooler right now it can still be hot and Copan is even more so, providing consistent cooler temps.
We stayed at a place called "La Casa de Cafe" (The House of Coffee) which was run by a former teacher at our school (of many years ago). The hotel was very beautiful and not too expensive.
On Saturday morning it was early rising for us all (as usual for any occasion with Sikorskys). We even beat the morning coffee from the hotel. It was well worth the wait... very delicious. We drank so much I think the owner of the hotel, Howard, was annoyed when we requested the stuff at all hours of the day.
Getting up early also had its upside because it meant that we could hit up the nearby Mayan ruins and beat the crowds that fill up the place later in the day. Just outside of Copan Ruinas is the site of one of the greatest Mayan cities in all of Central America. I won't give you all the details (you can read a bit about it here), but it was an amazing sight.
I've never been super interested in ancient history. Most of the books I've read from these periods have been super dry, are usually ambiguous in their facts ("some believe" or "scholars dispute...") and thus make for poor reading. However, going to Copan hit all of my history-nerd buttons. We paid a guide to take us around the ruins for a couple of hours and he basically just told is the story of them. It was so fascinating and since (apparently) the scholarship on the Mayans is getting more solid and historians have learned to write, the books on them is supposed to be halfway decent.
Beyond the ruins, Copan Ruinas (the town) is a quaint little place. They are obviously trying to follow the model of a place like Antigua, Guatemala (our adventures there) and beef up the tourist industry with their small-town-nature-closeness-colonial-beauty-lifestyle-approach.
It goes without saying, but the best part of it all wasn't being able to see ancient history or cruise a nice little Honduran town, but to see family. It was comforting to have family nearby when, until this weekend, they were all so far away.
It only gets me more excited to start planning spring break when I get to introduce my family to Honduras.
There certainly isn't more that needs to be said, but I can give it a shot.
Watching from afar I was terribly worried that somehow the moment where Barack Obama would be declared the winner of the US Presidential election would never come. Indeed I had been watching NBC for so long last night without earth-shattering news that I sort of zoned out when Brian Williams came back from commercial to announce Obama as the United States' 44th President.
Anah had gone to bed not too much earlier satisfied in the fact that all of the numbers were in Obama's favor. I, too, was pretty confident, but I needed to see/hear it for my own soul. I love politics and I love following all of this stuff for better or worse; tonight was no different.
I had five different electoral map trackers running. All of the major network websites up and running, and a few other sites to see if they were watching stuff I wasn't just so I could center on that moment when Ohio went to Obama, or maybe Virginia, or maybe Florida.
Its hard to put stuff like this into an appropriate context. I have not been personal wronged by the nation's racism that for so long has prevented African-Americans from not only running for president, but running for local office in most places. I am not a person who's job has been cut in this crippling economic recession. I am not a parent, sibling, or spouse of someone who had given life for their country in Iraq or Afghanistan. These most difficult experiences I have avoided.
To me, a student of history, I can always read about the injustices that we as a people have suffered, but experienced very few of them. To me, as to many Americans (and others around the world) it was less about overcoming the past and our faults, but an optimistic view of the future.
I believed that Obama provided the best opportunity to propel us forward as Americans; I believed that rather than relying on what we can't do or shouldn't do, we should look for what we can and might be able to accomplish. People with many more years of experience have warned me that this view is overly optimistic and that politics will always be politics. They may be right, but I suggest that there is nothing wrong with believing once in a while.
Every so often an individual comes along that transforms the world we live in. Without being overly dramatic Obama, given his rhetorical skills and strong beliefs in his ideals, has provided this current generation of Americans another opportunity to witness history in action.
Will he match the high ideas and soaring eloquence of a Martin Luther King Jr. or John F Kennedy? Will he transform the way government works for the people like Franklin D. Roosevelt? Will he crash to the ground in partisan gridlock?
These questions remain to be answered, but for one night and the following days Americans should take note that for the first time we have elected an African-American to the presidency. Once again, we have chosen hope over fear and change over continuity. Here's to hoping that this President lives up to his words and fills America with the strength and resolve that has guided us through so many other trying times.
After those nice words.. here's something more vulgar (yey, reassuring):
It is that simple. Walk down the street and cast you ballot. I know this blog is pretty popular and has all sorts of followers so I'm using my influence to help push the political process forward. I'm not making any suggestions as to whom to vote for, but...
