Things that made me smile this week

One thing that I am loving about life here is that, even though I have a routine, it's much more varied that my 7:30am-4pm work routine in the States. It's not only that I have more varied tasks to do here - it's also that life here is just more spontaneous, more random, and less planned. This week, I started making a list of some of the things that made me smile throughout the week, and hopefully something on my list can make you smile today too. :)

• Marcos (7-ish years old) making car noises as he ran from the classroom to the bathroom during his English class. Don't worry, the noises included a shift once he got too fast for his first gear.
• 14 year old Jorge randomly showing up at our house since he left his backpack in our car after class. We're still not 100% sure how he knows where we live...
• Randomly running into our of our teen English students, Francisco, at the market on my way to catch a bus, and him actually being excited to see us.
• An amazing mother helping her three year old daughter start learning English, by attending class with her and practicing outside of class as well.
• Going to Mass with a bunch of the community members on Sunday at a newly-discovered (by me) Catholic church. I had missed knowing people at Mass...enough to wake up early and go to a 7am Mass!
• Randomly running into the one other American I know who lives near Managua at the mall. Apparently Nica is a smaller country than I realized. :)
• Having a ridiculous 20 minute conversation with 5 of our teen English girls before class. I had almost forgotten how silly 8th/9th grade girls are...don't worry, I've been reminded now. One of the best parts of the conversation:
  Teen: Where's your boyfriend?
  Me: I don't have one.
  Teen: Oh, okay. I have three....one here, and two at school.
  
• Hearing Lesther, a two year old in our child sponsorship program in La Chureca, laugh for the first time.
• Douglas' (another one of our child sponsorship kiddos) laugh as I catch him and spin him around.
• Good conversations with my fellow PDs - which I've had many of the past two weeks, and am extremely grateful for.
• Jose Raul, one of my math students, understanding equivalent fractions!
• Delicious ice cream that costs 1 cordoba (slightly less than $0.05)
• Using the emergency exit on a bus (most of the buses here are old school buses from the US) as a legitimate way to exit when the bus reaches my stop.
• Passionfruit and mamones, two of my favorite fruits here.
  
• E-mails/phone calls with friends from home.
• A feeling of peace, most of the time. :-)