Ready for Convention...

The Central American Student Convention begins on Tuesday morning, and I think I'm pretty much ready for it now.  Except for packing.  After church today I went to the store to buy some of the clothing I need for it.  Flip flops and sandals are unacceptable footwear, so I ended up spending 330 Lempiras to buy a pair of closed-toe dress shoes.  Then, I also bought a pair of warm-up style pants so that I'd be dressed appropriately on athletic competition days.  I even found a pair of knee high stockings so that I don't have to wear regular stockings.  Even the thought of wearing a pair of stockings is repulsive, but since the skirts I have don't cover my ankles, I have to wear hose.  So, I'm going to fudge it a bit and wear knee highs since I have a skirt that should be long enough to accommodate them and still not have to wear the real thing, the completely restrictive, utterly repressive-in-this-heat stockings.  What?  You think that perhaps the clothing standards might be a bit restrictive and puritanical?  But wait, there's more.

Today I found out that if my blouses/shirts expose the bones at the top of the rib cage (clavicle, I think, but the ones less than an inch from my thyroid neck scar) they are considered too low and revealing?  Seriously?  Now, that's downright puritanical.  I mean, I dress quite modestly already, but am starting to feel that maybe I should head down to the Catholic church tomorrow and see if the nuns have a few habits I can borrow.  Thankfully, it will all be over by Friday afternoon and I can go back to being myself.  Dressing like myself!  Total cost for today's purchases: 724 Lempiras ($38.33 USD).

The good part about my afternoon shopping trip is that after I was done, I just took a bit of a leisurely spin on my motorcycle.  My packages were safely ensconced in my mochila (backpack), so I just rode.  I took the road that heads up toward the Oki.  I rode until I ran out of pavement and then drove just a little bit further before turning around and heading back.  It felt great to be out there in the sun.

On my way back, I decided to stop by a store to try to buy a second helmet. They were closed, so I'll try again either tomorrow or Saturday.  Right now, I can't (legally) have a passenger with me unless they happen to have their own helmet.  Although, you might be surprised at some of the motorcycle "helmets" I've seen people wearing.  I've seen bicycle helmets, hard hats, and even toy fireman's helmets.  Yes.  Really.  Toy fireman's helmets being used as a motorcycle helmet.  And, apparently that's just fine, because I've never seen any of those people being pulled over.  I'm sure my passengers will appreciate the fact that I value their lives just a bit more than buying them a party favor and calling it a helmet.

Actually though, I'm really hoping to buy myself a new motorcycle helmet when I'm in the States.  I don't really trust the ones here.  There are no DOT or Snell certifications.  Plus, it seems that most of the helmets here are full-face closed helmets, which I find really limit your vision.  I'm wearing an open-face helmet with a shield and I actually like it, but, it's black and very, very hot.  I can't get it in white or any other light color.  So, I'll be checking out a few places to see if I can find a helmet.

How about that?  From clothing to motorcycle rides and helmets in just one post.