Weddings: San Pedro High School Style

The first full week of school is officially finished!  I spent most of the week observing Ms. Andrea's form 2 classes and Ms. Jennifer's form 1 classes.  I haven't taught any lessons yet, but the students are beginning to become familiar with me and are starting to feel comfortable enough to ask me questions.  Although they usually just laugh at me for reasons that are still unclear.
The form 2 students are all in a class called "Life Choices".  I'm not exactly sure what they study in this class, but I know earlier in the year they carried around sacks of flour as their children and then "killed" their babies by smashing them on the floor.  This week their focus was on weddings.  They researched weddings from different cultures and spent at least one day watching videos of the different types of wedding ceremonies in class.  After they student weddings from different cultures, then have a wedding of their own.  The teacher picks two students to get "married" and they have a wedding on the beach.  I'm talking full bridal gown, suits, bridesmaids in 5 in. heels, ring bearers, and a priest.  The "bride" walked out and The Wedding March began playing.  The flower girls sprinkled petals in front of the bride, although the wind took them pretty quickly, and then they made their way to the altar.  The student who was the priest went through the typical spiel beginning with "dearly beloved", and ending with "you may now kiss the bride" (which he did).  After the wedding, the wedding party took pictures on the beach and then moved inside for the reception where they obviously began with their first dance and toasts.  Fake champagne was poured into fake champagne glasses and the kids danced until the wedding cake (complete with a bride and groom on top) was cut and then the students danced until the bell rang.  All in all it was a pretty hilarious thing to watch and rumor has it there will be another one on Tuesday, which I'm hoping to attend with a camera!
On Friday afternoon there was a big assembly to give out medals to the students who attended and placed at the regional track meet last week.  It was really cool to see the kids so excited, particularly about one student.  Her name is Alia and she's in form 1 and the daughter of one of the English teachers.  Her mom said that people told her she was sort of fast, but she had no idea that she's actually a track star.  She won 7 (I think) gold medals and is favored to win 7 gold medals at the national meet this weekend.  I'm traveling inland on Saturday to go to the meet so I'll be there to cheer her on!  Apparently, she's so fast that during this meet she may be qualifying to be a member of the Belizean Olympic Team.  Pretty cool for a freshman in high school!
Outside of school, I spent the majority of this weekend at the beach.  Needless to say, it was a successful weekend!  On Tuesday I'm going crocodile hunting, so I'm VERY excited for that!  You go croc hunting at night because their eyes glow when it's dark so it should be a pretty cool experience.  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and try not to lose any limbs in the process! :)