Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Stuff We Like Posts

Well, we are a we now. We've been a we for about seven months now and, as a celebration of our we-ness, we are going to be writing from time to time about stuff that we like. Don't worry, we'll still post pictures of dog hosing and cake baking. We might even post some funny juice tasting again.

There are strict rules for items posted with the heading "stuff we like." We both have to like it. This means that Karine can't write stuff we like posts about movies with lots of explosions and I can't write stuff we like posts about sitting on the porch and talking.

Stuff We Like: Ze Frank

We can say without hesitation that The Show with Ze Frank is the funniest and smartest thing that we have ever seen on the internet. His last new episode was published March 17, 2007. We haven't seen anything remotely like it since. The Show was hilarious interactive new media explosion -- difficult to describe but easy to love.

For example: He invited his viewers to dress up their vacuum cleaners in wacky outfits and posted the results on the show's website. Dressing vacuuming cleaners in wacky outfits? -- that's not cool. Oh, wait. No, its awesome. Check out the complete archive of wacky vacuum cleaner outfits here.

If you have three minutes to kill, treat yourself to one of his best episodes, located right here. If you have more time on your hands watch them all. You can start right here.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Stuff we like

We stumbled across a new blog today that we find pretty entertaining. While living down here, it seems that we, and other bloggers are (not necessarily accurately) constantly making generalizations about what Hondurans are like and what they do. This blog we found has entries about stuff white people like. In fact, it's called Stuff White People Like.

A brief excerpt... (follow the link for more!)

#51 Living by Water
"It is hardly a secret that all white people love being near water. And why wouldn’t they? It has so many of the activities that they love to do: swimming, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, and it’s a perfect place to read next to. But before we move on, let’s not gloss over that last point. White people love to be near a body of water so they can read a book, while sitting nearby. The process of reading is somehow heightened through the process of doing it near some water. Extreme reading!..."

Saturday, February 16, 2008

We're still here!

It's been awhile since we've posted anything very interesting. This is not because we've been sitting around being boring people- It's just that we've been busy, or else without an internet connection here at home.

School is going well. I think our students are about ready for summer vacation. Unfortunately, we've still got over 3 months to go. So, that just means that we teachers need to keep things extra-exciting. Here's a quick video of my students re-enacting a battle for their spanish social studies class. They were insane- but had a blast.

Tom was the P.E. substitute this week, and he had a lot of fun doing it. (My students had a lot of fun with him too!) He played soccer with the senior boys yesterday for almost an hour, and today he's moving a bit slower than usual.

Our dog is gigantic and dirty today. She just received a hose-bath. Ruby has officially outgrown her "bathtub". (We had previously used the pila, an outdoor sink, to bathe her, but she's too big to fit inside now!) Ruby had a morning playdate at the park with her friend Fisher, while I enjoyed chatting with a friend.

We are one step closer to being actual certified scuba divers. Last weekend, we ventured out to Roatan with a dual purpose. One purpose was for Tom and Jason to play music at a nice resort and the other was to do some open water dives for our certification. Both were an adventure.

Picture Tom's upright bass (6 feet tall and 3 feet wide) and amp being toted along with our island weekend gear to the ferry station. At the ferry docks, the men took Tom's novia (Spanish for "girlfriend") away in it's soft padded case. We weren't sure how it would be treated in the cargo underbelly of the ferry. We were pleased to find it in one piece upon arrival in Roatan. All we had to do next was secure a big ride to the resort (a 25 minute drive from the port). After negotiating with a taxi driver who has a "very big vehicle" Tom and I, the bass and amp, the guitarist and his girlfriend, and his musical gear all arrive at the car. This car was a 2001 Toyota Corolla. 5 people, 2 instruments (one extremely large), 3 bags, 2 amps, and 1 bungee cord holding it all against the trunk (obviously the trunk didn't close) and I was a nervous wreck. Tom sat in the front seat and a calm came over him. I think he had just handed the whole thing over to fate. I, on the other hand, sat in back with my neck craned, watching the creaking trunk lid go up and down, and Tom's bass rock with it. A half an hour later, I was in disbelief that we had arrived safely and everything was still intact. Needless to say, we shopped around for a van to take us back to the ferry on Sunday afternoon.

Our other Roatan adventure was scuba diving. We went on 2 open water dives on Saturday. We saw so many cool things, but the highlight was seeing two sea turtles! Tom is a natural underwater and really got the hang of it quickly. I'm not quite as gifted, so I spent a bit more time going up and down. Real scuba divers know that you're supposed to make a straight-like line. It might be a diagonal, but it's pretty smooth. My line was shaped like a bunch of WWWW's. We have one dive left until we're officially certified, so over spring break we will get that finished up. I'm excited to polish my skills a little more- and hopefully see some more of those sea turtles!


We had a great Valentine's Day- complete with candles lit all over the house. Though we are very romantic people, it was a necessity as the power went out for a few hours. No worries about Lost though- the power returned just in time! Wow- that show is exciting.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Barack 2008

No, this picture was not taken in downtown La Ceiba. But Barak Obama's name comes up frequently in conversations with other expats. We are excited about his candidacy and what it means for the future of our country. We miss our home and for some reason Barak Obama feels more like home than Hilary Clinton.

I found the picture on Andrew Sullivan's blog located here. Its a great political blog. I read it every day and would recommend it to anyone.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Super Tuesday!

Happy Super Tuesday!
Today was super, and also not-so-super in a couple respects.

Super: Caucus info coming in- Go Obama!
Super:I've got a great new classroom website for my students!
Super: The woman across the street gave us a giant bag of pan de coco (Honduran sweet bread)
Super: Our maid came and our house is sparkly

Not-so-super: I tried to make a Fat Tuesday BBQ Hawaiian chicken pizza, and it turned out bad. It tasted gross. Lesson learned: Just call Dominos.

On a cute note- our dog had a family reunion on Sunday with 4 of her sisters and her mom. They were always on the move, so it was tough to get a good picture. Can you tell which dog in the picture is not part of the family???

Saturday, February 2, 2008

TV Karma

Many of our readers are fans of the series, Lost on tv. Last year, Tom and I became hooked. We watched all 3 existing seasons over the course of a few months and when the season finale came last spring, we were very sad. We knew that we would be waiting 8 months to see the next episode.

When we moved down to Honduras, we were elated to learn that we have 3 U.S. network channels (out of Denver) on our cable package. (It's still a free package because of the fact they won't let me pay a bill if I don't have the paper copy, and they won't send us a bill). Anyway- since October, we've been counting down the months, weeks, and most recently days until the 2 hour premiere event. Thursday after school, we took Ruby on a long walk to the mall where we bought a bottle of wine and some Doritos, then went across the street to Quiznos for a tasty toasty treat. It would be one of those special fancy meals at the Lewandowski home.

We got home and were just settling in, and turned on the tv. No signal for the 3 networks. No Lost. I was almost beside myself. It's not that we're such tv watchers, it's just that we've been looking forward to this ONE SHOW for so many months. We missed it. We even tried going to expats to use the satellite feed they receive. The only problem was that their feed was from CA, and our show wouldn't even start until 11. We were so tired from a long week that we knew we couldn't get up at 5:30 if we stayed. We went home sad.

It's not always so rough though. Last night we went to Buckbuster video to rent a couple movies. We rented the Oscar nominee, Juno. I don't believe it's released on DVD anywhere else, but we live in Honduras. Here, a movie can open in theaters one day, and you can rent it on DVD the next. It's not always so bad. We watched this movie last night and loved it. It was also fun for us to see all the Minnesota references. (MN lottery posters in the gas station, license plates, St. Cloud) Check it out if you get a chance!


So, though we didn't get to watch Lost this week, we got to watch something on our TV that most of you won't be able to do anytime soon. It all evens out in the end.