Flowers (finally!)

Just the other day the thought flashed into my mind, "it has been an awfully long time since Esa has brought me flowers. I guess what they say about the romance wearing off with time is true." A few hours later I heard a knock on the door. After he chatted for a few minutes with one hand hidden behind the wall, I went in for a hug and got a glimpse of the reason behind the secrecy: flowers! A beautiful sunflower bouquet... I guess the romance is still safe for the time being. :)

Marina's Birthday

Last Friday we went to T.G.I Fridays again (2 days after our last visit) to celebrate a birthday. Fridays seems to be the restaurant of choice for birthday celebrations, maybe because of the free dessert or possibly because the waiters make you get up on your chair and dance while they sing. Marina, a long-time friend of Esau's was a very good sport... much better than I would have been!


Marina on her chair. (For those of you interested in couple news, her very cute boyfriend Pablo is sitting next to her.)


Esau and I. I swear, there's nowhere Esa sparkles more than in Fridays!

Job Search

Now that Esa's going back to school, I decided that maybe I need to find a job. I'm not sure if anything will come out of it, but we looked through the yellow pages and sent off a few emails. Now that it's done I'm thinking, "I'm crazy! I have the opportunity to vacation for four months, and now I'm looking for a job?" But the thing about vacation is that it's not vacation unless there's some work in there somewhere. I am the "too much vacation" equivalent of Sister Bear in the "too much birthday" Berenstein Bear book.





Esau basically just looked through the yellow pages and ripped out anything that was in English. If I do find a job, knowing English will be my ticket!

If looking through job ads was that tiring, imagine how bad the actual work would be... :)

I have a friend!

This is my friend Laura Lundell. She's originally from Alaska, but goes to college in Wyoming. She came to Guatemala to student-teach and will be staying until May 3rd. You have no idea how wonderful it is to have a professing friend from the States just 20 minutes from my house! And I couldn't have ordered up a nicer one. She is a lovely person, inside and out.



Outside the Escobars' house after Sunday morning meeting.

Laura's beautiful apartment that she shares with another teacher.

Exchanging blog addresses, I believe. :)

T.G.I. Fridays... "In here, it's always Friday!"

A couple of Wednesdays ago (they have Thursday night meeting, not Wednesday), I invited Esa to eat at T.G.I. Fridays, his favorite restaurant. His eyes lit up like Christmas tree bulbs and off we went!

Amy called me, and as a result, I have the phone pressed to my ear in most of the Fridays pictures. Take note of my fabulously yummy dessert.

And to finish the story, we were supposed to call Esa's dad when we wanted to go home, but I ran out of minutes on my phone. After ordering dessert, doodling on the back of the placemats, and deciding what we would order the next time we went to Fridays, we could no longer put off the inevitable, and Esau worked up the nerve to ask the waitress if there was a phone we could "rent." She willingly lent us hers free of charge and good ol' dad showed up a few minutes later.

Saying Goodbye

Better late than never, here's the pictures from the night we said goodbye to Carlos and his family. There were lots of tears (especially from the girls, who were very attatched to the kids) and promises to keep in touch!

Baby Poogi with one of the Carlos's cousins... she and her sister (Marvin's daughters) stayed with them and helped out a lot with the kids.

The mom of the girl above.

Guys on suitcase duty... (Marvin, his son, and Esa)

The whole crew, minus photographer Carlos.

Photographer Carlos. :)

Marvin, Gerson, and Carlos

Making their way to the entrance... it's starting to feel more real now.

Esa's family (minus Jacob, plus Carlos)

Blanca kissing a sleeping Franchesca.

She woke up!

Franchesca really liked Alex, in spite of or because of all his teasing, I don't know which!

Poogi and Mommy

We waited outside until they had checked in and watched them until we couldn't see them anymore.

Fish Fry

The day that Carlos and his family left, we fried fish to celebrate. Actually, there was no "we" in it, unless taking pictures counts as helping. :)

Stage one: contemplation

Gordo, one of the neighbor boys, is quite the fixture at the Escobars' house! He kept his hands pretty clean during the fish frying, but did help out by running a couple of errands.


Step two: light the stove...

...rub fishy with seasoning

Flour,

fry,

The assembly line kicked in when Blanca and Jacob got home.

Before,

and after...

Luckily this was not my first experience in which my food was staring back at me. That time I was much more wary. I still needed a bit of guidance though, so of course I turned to Esa. "What do I do? How do I eat it?" I asked. "With your fingers!" he responded, as though it should have been obvious.

(Flour, fry,) and eat!