Living in Paradise

Sorry that I haven't updated in a couple days. Things have gotten pretty busy and I have gotten a bit lazy. But here I am, with lots to share. This past weekend was set to be a staff outing to the beach. On Saturday we went out to West Bay (the beautiful beach where I stayed with my fam). We went to an awesome resort called Mayan Princess. Ms. Nina's brother works there so we had the hook ups. We got to enjoy the beach for free and just had to buy food. 

The Pool 

beach chairs

The beach,  stormy. 

It was actually pretty stormy when we got there. A huge thunder storm with lots of lightning was rolling through. It was actually really cool to watch the huge bolts of lightning bounce off the waters. We watched the storm pass right through the beach, it passes pretty quick and then it's a beautiful day ready for the beach. The water is so warm and nice and even during storms the weather is super nice and beach-worthy. 

post-storm. the sky looks so cool. 

We had lots of fun hanging out at the beach and the pool. Also, since Ms. Nina had the hook-ups her brother gave us all free club memberships to Mayan Princess, comes with free admission to their beach and other nice touches, we were pretty stoked. 

On Sunday we checked out a church in French Harbor. Augustine and Carlos, two teachers from the school help lead worship for the church. We had fun and met some cool people, but we'll probably keep checking out other churches for the next couple weeks. After church a new teacher, Mr. Dean arrived. He will be temporarily teaching Chemistry, Physics, & high school Math I believe. We're still in need of a full-time teacher! But after he got dropped off at the apartments All the ladies in the apartment went to another resort about 10 mins East of our house called Turquoise Bay. Another reminder that we live in paradise. Turquoise Bay is a man-made because but still beautiful. It's a lot less crowded and less busy than West Bay and the sun was out so it was quite the day. 

Oh just hanging out in hammocks at the beach, NBD.

View during dinner. 

Is this a joke?

Yesterday, I followed up with a contact who is from Santa Barbara but also does things in Roatan. He invited us to his resort to hang out and watch a rehearsal of some local singers. His resort is in Brick Bay about 10-15 miles from our house. Being vehicle-less we weren't sure how we were going to get there so we figured we'd try out hitch-hiking and let me tell you, it was a HUGE success. I promise we were safe! Let me paint the picture for you: it was broad daylight, 6 girls, and we were on the main road, so yes in the States we would probably have never done it, but it's the island and we did it and it actually kind of ruled. We got picked up in about 5 mins, got dropped off about 4 miles from our destination, and within SECONDS got picked up again, it was awesome. The resort Club Natalie, is about 2 miles off the main road and the 2nd car was nice enough to drive us all the way into the main gate. We felt spoiled. Once we got out of the car we basically realized we landed in paradise. 

Their private beach

Infinity pool

View from their rooftop terrace

Stoked. Loving life.

We had a super sweet time. Got to meet new friends, enjoy paradise, and hear some incredible local singers. The cool things with Club Natale is that it's all part of a vocational training program. They reach out to single moms and at risk youth of the island and train them to get jobs in hospitality. It's super rad, and the singers were local women from another part of the island. They were preparing for a huge benefit concert the hotel is putting on in a couple weeks. They were incredible, felt so blessed to be there. Overall, a super fun night, felt like we were finally breaking out of our bubble and making new friends. 

This week, we're finishing up working in our classrooms and getting prepared for open house this Friday and school starting next week! We've been getting to school at 6:45am this week, getting prepared for what it's going to be like during the school year. It's been a bit brutal, although on Monday I woke up at 5:30 to go for a run, I'm still shocked that happened. During the day it's been quite hot lately, we all just sweat all day. Although it is raining right now, but still hot. Oh the weather on this island, quite strange.