Unexpected and Distracted?

So I know it has been awhile and I have neglected updating my blog, but to say the least, I have been distracted with something else that has been so unexpected.  I apologize, but... life has been good!  And you know how I talked about making new friends and becoming a part of the island life, well,  I have and man, do I embrace it.  (Like for real!!)  His name is Carlos and we like to have fun!  We met at church (he goes to the Spanish ward that meets at the same time as the English ward) and we like to create our own little adventures or sometimes we bond with the kids or do whatever we feel like.
Just a glimpse of how cool my life is!

 We went to the Arecibo Observatory.  Super fascinating!  Home of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.  I don't know if you can really tell by the pictures but this thing was huge.  Very cool and does transmits radio waves and (maybe gets in touch with the aliens)  In that first picture, it shows the catwalk.  I would love to walk across that!

After the observatory, we decided to go visit an Indian Cave that is right up against the ocean and when the tide is high it splashes right into the cave.  We went down this little wooden ladder and explored around the cave. 

These pictures are on top of the cave!  Such an amazing view! 

Riding up in this little tram car to the top of the mountain to check out this awesome butterfly and bird park, La Marquesa.  I loved loved this!  You get right next to the birds and the butterflies.  Sometimes, they get really close to you! 

Yes, this is Carlos!  I'm not sure what he is doing, sometimes I don't ask...and Brittney had my camera.  But hey, it just confirms that he is crazy and I'm really okay with that!

Oh ya, in all this craziness, I have even started school.  Yep, this is my classroom!  Remember how in Utah there were no windows in my classroom and I really never had any idea what was happening in the outside world.  Well, here in Puerto Rico, that's all my classroom is!  And I love it!  School is super good, very different in some ways but I'm really liking it, now that I have figured out how things work and where things are.  I have 17 adorable, yet active 3rd graders and they seem to always be happy!  It's fun and here I get prep time, yes, it is a real thing and it's like 2 hours a day and I love it.  I get so much done at school!

Believe or not, but this is what you see when you open my classroom door!  Yeah, there are no hallways here, just sidewalks.  You open the classroom door and it leads directly to outside and down the sidewalk to the cafeteria or computer room, or wherever.  It's so cool though, I love it.

Of course, there is still time to visit the beach!