And of course I can't forget, all the beautiful colors on the day that we first met...

ya me voy...
i'm leaving.

nos vemos pronto...
see you soon.

"i will never know the right way to say thanks for all the nights and days spent hanging out cuz that's what this is about, how i, i am not into, the idea of living without you, and i, i am not into, the idea of being without you, oh no this is won't be a sad song, there's gonna be claps and singing along, cuz sads songs about now well that would just feel wrong"

time to turn in my last assignment then start cooking for the despedida...

side note for you magis peeps: i saw a hat at the mercado that i couldn't justify buying for any real reason so i didn't but it said "God is good all the time".....all the time God is good.

Two more weeks, my foot is in the door, I can't sleep...

less than 2 weeks...scaryyyy..in fact in almost exactly 11 days I will be landing at Logan Int'l Airport...CRAZYYY

To tell you the truth, I randomly have a lot of work to do recently on top of a bunch of last minute things to do like souvenir shopping which I wanted to get done the whole time but no one else seemed to worried about..now we're all freaking out...and trying to hit up all our fave places one last time..and plan a going away party so we can see everyone one last time next week...Monday is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception...the Nicas have celebrations in all the big, populated cities (Managua, Leon, Granada and Masaya) called Purísimas. We were originally going to Costa Rica this weekend but due to time and money constraints we decided to stay in Nica. We will probably go to one of the celebrations at least one day during the weekend because all of our different groups of friends have mentioned it at one time or another...we haven't done tooo many really out of the ordinary cultural things here (other than the show we saw at the theater a few weeks ago that I neglected to mention..sooo cool!) so this celebration should be really cool. Sorry I'm not making any sense, I am still exhausted from the weekend and have so much more work to do!

Speaking of the weekend, it was an amazing weekend "on an island in the sun". We survived the plane the 50 minute plane ride, 10 minute break and 20 minute rest of the plane ride in the tiniest plane I've ever seen, gracias a Dios. The first day (aka Thanksgiving), I was laying on a hammock reading a book, and then I went to catch up with the others in the water. On my way out to meet them, I just started smiling, it was that good. Absolutely beautiful and (almost) perfect weather and despite our few speedbumps on the last day which I'd rather not remember, it was a perfect, relaxing weekend to get away from all the crazy-ness that will be the last *11* days in Nicaragua. We did lots of swimming, readings, listening to music, picture taking (check out fb, i might get around to posting here), eating delicious food, and evening watching a few xmas movies while it was raining. One day we rented a golf cart and gave ourselves a little tour of the island, another day we took a small boat to little corn island...to give you an idea of how much a thrill that ride was in a small boat packed with too many people during a small storm as we held a tarp over our heads, Kristen turns to me after 5 minutes and screams over the roar of the ocean "Jennnn, did you say your prayer yet??" HAHAHA...gooood times. I'm sure I have a lot more to tell, but I'll be home soon and you guys won't be able to get me to shut up about it! <3

If we all don't take cover, then we're all gonna fall back in love again...

Nica Sensations (credit to Elyse Raby for this wonderful idea)

Nica looks like...
La tierra de lagos y volacnes (Lakes, Volanoes), children on the street, black & red fsln flags w/ pink signs, mortars, rotondas blocked by protests, iodine beaches, la pasarela-Miami & Gothic City, people strolling to class, stray dogs, malnourished horses/animals in general, sunsets (setting the world aflame!), geckos, clothes drying on the line, men sitting on the side of the road, green nature beautifulness everywhere, garbage,

Nica smells like...
burning garbage, city, exhaust, food on the street (fritanga), dirty bathrooms @ UCA, red pepper/onions/garlic (only because we load up on when given the chance due to the surprising lack of flavor in food),

Nica sounds like...
SPANISH/SPANGLISH, yet way more English that I ever imagined, car alarms, reggaeton, salsa, hip hop, "dame un pesito, necesito zapatos" (children saying "give me 1 cordoba (aka 5 cents) i need sneakers), "Ya chavalas" (as Alba calls us for dinner), "Granada, Granada, Granada" at the bus stations, honking, water running while chila scrubs clothes near our room at 6am, music from the political rallies, loud speakers/mega phones, fireworks, mortars, *muah* bye/adios, intense political debates, music at mass i've yet to learn, bells from the eskimo cart, whistles, geckos chirping

Nica feels like...
perpetually dirty & stiff clothes, freezing cold streamline showers and room temperature drinking water, bugs biting, crowded buses, excessive HEAT, sweat, Nica kisses, riding in a bumpy pick up truck @ walking speed through rock piles and rivers, parasites that never leave, perpetual stomach ache/nausea/weakness, fans, being locked in my room for 3 weeks during political violence

Nica tastes like...
rice & beans (gallo pinto), delicious fruits & juices (faves - pitahaya y arroz con pina), eskimo ice cream, hormigas (ants, yes under tastes like...), splurging for pizza, room temp. water, apples=delicacy, refried beans & french fries @ UCA


...probably add more before i leave :)
Corn Island Thursday (630am flight!) til Sunday afternoon
"If your idea of an perfect vacation is swaying in a hammock,
reading books, walking white sand beaches, enjoying
spectacular sunsets and snorkeling in clear turquoise waters,
this is a destination for you."
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Who do you carry that torch for my young man? Do you believe in anything? Or do you carry it around just to burn things down?

Don't know where to begin.

Yes, Alba returned a few days later, apparently she never changed her voting address so she had to go vote in a different city and then just stayed there because it was physically impossible to get back. Alba is hardcore Sandinista, no matter what, including this radical Danielista crap. Her son, not so much, but she doesn't know that. Interesting story how I came to find this out, but he earned a lot more respect in my book.

The blog about politics is coming, it's just very long and complicated and is probably going to include more corruption and / or violence than any of you care to read about while i'm still here.

Classes have been happening inconsistently at best.

Lots of rallies, mortars, fireworks, rocks. And road closings, that's the best, when you finally think it's okay to go to the mall and then it takes 40 minutes to get home because all the roads are closed. Or when you can't get out in the first place because the PLC is having a peace march but the Sandinistas find out and surround them at their starting place and hold them there by pointing mortars at the crowd and blocking off all the streets.

Regardless, I go home in 2.5 weeks, my friends live with this :( The other day, the lady here that coordinates int'l students, Kathe, cried in front of us. It was the saddest thing ever. They don't know what to do about their country anymore :(

Last week I went on a field trip to Granada...not too exciting. Thursday I went on one to Ticuantepe with Sustainable Development. We broke into groups and interviewed families about their lives / jobs / etc. It was reallllly cool.

On Thanksgiving I have a flight out to an island off the Caribbean coast for 4 days in the sun :) However, what I DON'T have is a bathing suit because apparently mine and my cover up got stolen off the clothesline AND they only sell bathing suits in Nicaragua around semana santa?

questions about anything - pregúntame because this is like the opposite of all my other blogs.

Let there be peace on earth...

apparently i never posted this from nov. 13...

Today, I woke up. I walked to Greisy's house by myself to do some homework. This took about 15 minutes through Managua, with nothing more than the usual disrespectful men and persistent taxi drivers yelling and honking horns. Good day so far. We walked back to UCA together and went to mass. It was packed live I've never seen. Everyone is really worried. Nicas contra Nicas. We ate lunch, we hung out, we went to class...for a little bit. Then UCA closed at 4pm...again. The fighting is in all the rotondas now, not just MetroCentro. Alba's work is already canceled for tomorrow. She told us to either stay in the house or get up really early and leave Managua. Esta muy feo en las calles. We can't leave because we tentatively have a field trip on Saturday, so looks like tomorrow is going to be another nice day in my room. I'm interested to know if anyone has heard anything about this over there because I'm starting to hear about the possibility of international observers and some possible conflict with the U.S. reminiscent of the 1990 elections and the whole 80s revolution when they backed the contras...

I just want to live. I want to get up in the morning and go to the gym. Then I want to go out to lunch with my friends and hang out at the mall or see a movie. But I can't. Everyone is on edge and no one goes out because they are afraid. I hate living like this, in fear, because I don't really feel like its living. But the thing is, that no matter what in 29 days, I will no longer have to worry about this. But that isn't always the case here in Nicaragua. Our government is anything but perfect, but everything kind of got put in perspective today when the priest during mass said, "They just had peaceful Presidential elections in the U.S. and here we have elections for mayor and we're practically at war."

At dinner, Lucia just asked me if I wanted to go back to my country. I surprised myself at how fast I answered no. Yes, I miss certain freedoms, but it's a really unique opportunity to be able to experience even if I have to forget about fun and be a little more cautious for a little bit. So sorry for all the jumbled thoughts, just wanted to check in and give you a small snapshot about my daily life post-election. Please keep the Nica people in your prayers this week as they try to come to a just solution to this violence and corruption.

Don't tell me it's not worth fighting for...

OBAMA/BIDEN!

our election party was a great success and filled with lots of American junk food...just the way we like it. The rest of the week consisted of well..nothing. Wednesday classes were canceled so that UCA could have some meeting regarding elections. Thursday Kristen's fam was already here so we left for Ome Tepe because we only have one class anyway. Friday and Monday (today) classes were canceled too because of elections, but we had to come home Saturday night in case it got too violent for traveling so the extra days off didn't do much good other than give me some more quality time in my sauna of a room. Another fun fact, from Saturday evening to Monday evening no alcohol was allowed to be served at all in Managua (maybe all of Nica, not sure), also due to elections. I could go on and on about elections but I'll save that for when there are more offical results...if there ever are any. Lots of manipulation, fraud and violence going on right now. Hopefully it calms down by tomorrow so classes can start again, I might actually go crazy if I spend one more day in this room.

So now for Ome Tepe...definitely beautiful, but after all the hype - not quite what we expected. We kept hearing "oh it should be one of the 7 wonders of the world" and "what you're only going for 2 nights? you need at least 5" and now granted we didn't climb any volcanoes which take a day in themselves but I don't really feel like we missed anything and we were kind of ready to go when it was time. Kristen's family was a blast - it was her Dad, Uncle Kathy, Uncle Scott, and her cousin Van. On the ferry from San Jorge to Moyagalpa, Ome Tepe, they showed a vianica video about different places to visit in Nica. Not only did we recognize just about every place from having visited, but our very own friend Don Yaro was in the Rio San Juan section...coooool! After our long journey to Ome Tepe (successfully avoiding the chicken buses!) we were greeted at the port by many cab drivers/tour agencies anxious to gain business from the gringos. We soon settled on Rodolfo who attacked Kristen's dad and won us over by speaking English. He's one of my favorite people I've met in Nica. He totally hooked us up all weekend with rides everywhere and we totally hooked him up by probably paying for him to take a week off. He was so sweet and modest. He drove to go kayaking and just waited while we did that and ate and wouldn't even get anything to eat when we offered it to him. Then he recommeded this cute swimming hole / natural spring with cold-ish water and it was greattt. He also took us back in 2 different waves when we wanted to go home on Saturday since her fam had to leave earlier than us. The hotel was excellent by Nica standards, but not quite what KVV's fam was looking for. The food was great though and they had (almost) enough booze to last her fam the whole weekend so I think they dealt with it just fine. I was randomly pretty sick again most of the weekend so I was kind of a bum at night and just sat in my room, but I still had a good time during the day.

Saturday morning after KVV and her family left, the other FU people went kayaking. I had already gone the day before with her fam so I just decided to watch. I ended up writing a ton in my journal and doing some of my best reflection (not related to being unhappy) yet on this trip. I'm not gonna get that into it here, but basically it was very calming and humbling experience to be sitting on the edge of Lake Nicaragua and feeling completely peaceful, relaxed and satisfied. I didn't want anything, I didn't need anything, I didn't have 1000 things racing through my head that I knew I should be doing. I was just being. And then I was thinking about what one really needs, and our discussion in Sustainable Development where things like a cell phone were included on our list of basic needs...in Nicaragua, a developing country when I always though that list only included food, water, shelter and arguably clothing. I recently added something else to my list and this all connects I promise, but it's just way too much for this blog, especially because every day I find out more people are reading my blog that I had no idea about..hint hint..say hi?

I picked the lyrics for this title because that song randomly played everytime we were in Rodolfo's car/van...also because there's a lot worth fighting for recently, and a lot of people who are fighting recently, and I'm just trying to make sense of it all.

I'd love to hear from people...even though I'll be home before you know it!

(side note: my "host mom" hasn't been home in over 48 hours...she never told us she was leaving and the slave/her aunt says she "doesn't know when alba will be home"...alba also works for the government...coincidence??)

I won't worry my life away...

So I promised a bunch of people I'd keep this short, let's see how I do...

Halloween night was Carlos' bday party so we went over around 930 in costume. Kristen was a flight attendent, Greisy a maid, Lora catwoman, and I did 80s...I was worried no one would get 80s cuz 80s here was revoultion, but they did / people thought I was supposed to be the girl from 13 going on 30...pix to follow. the party was fun, but there was a lot of people that we didn't know so we mostly just kept to ourselves...suprisingly practicing a lot of Spanish though...it was more fun when Isabel, Andrea and Luciana showed up. Max showed up too, but we're not entirely sure how he knew about the party...oooo Max

Saturday wasn't much of anything until about 530pm. I was online and Kristen was doing laundry when we get a call from Carlos (after approximately 7 missed calls). "Hi Jenn, what are you doing, I'm going to the beach, do you want to come? We're leaving in 20 minutes" me: *hysterical laughing* Carlos "that's not funny" me: "umm okay"
so we leave for the beach at like 6pm. I died laughing explaining to Albs why we were packing up and leaving at 6pm on a Saturday night. Lora and Greisy didn't feel like coming, but Kristen and I drove with Carlos and his friend Javier to their friend Caryl's house for the night where we hung out on the beach for the night and then the following day. 11 Nicas + kristen + me...SO MUCH FUN! the other girls didn't know what they were missing. Carlos knew a few from UCA and the rest from his political activisim so they all ranged in age from like 17 to 28. It was great, we've already seen a few of them walking around UCA...and any political conversation had to be had in English because Caryl's housekeepers are pro-Ortega so we got to learn a few more things about politics...

Got my historia test back yesterday...95%...better than most of the Nicas who apparently don't study? So as of now my grade in Historia is actually slightly better than my grade in Ethics (my one class in English...) Needless to say, I'm still not very worried about grades. Also, with the approaching Nicaraguan election, we haven't really been having all that much of classes...there is some sort of a protest scheduled for tomorrow afternoon so UCA has already suspended all classes and activities for the day. Yesterday they decided to make Fri-Mon a national holiday for everyone due to Sunday's elections. (We've been advised to mostly stay in our houses Sun & Mon due to election related violence) Kristen's dad is coming tomorrow and since Greisy, KVV and I only have 1 class each, we're just leaving for Ome Tepe on Thursday so we can be back and safe by Thursday...aka I had a 2 day week, followed by a 6 day "weekend"...going back to FU is going to be sooooo hard especially because I think I'm taking 6 this semester...

After lunch at Ola Verde with the girls and Daniel, Constantino and Irwing...Lora, Kristen and I picked up some snacks for our "election party"...We planned to be up all night (which wouldn't have been so bad once we found out classes were canceled) but we basically already don't have to.....lots of people already baracked the vote...omg i'm so corny. CNN says 199-78 right now and that's like not even including some sure blue states....

OBAMA / BIDEN '08!!!!!

(still gotta work on keeping it short i guess...)

p.s. Lora and I joined a gym for the last month :)

but don't talk about revolution, cuz that's going just a little bit too far, so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal...

ooo hey everyone...so, it's been a while. my ac adapter for the macbook is broken so i'm waiting to get a new one from kristen's dad when he comes next week so until then i will be computer-less again for a while...before you start reading i want to let you know that there are TWO really exciting points to this article so I will try to keep them brief, but make sure you make it to the second half...

Part 1
first, this past weekend we went to Esteli...or a little reserve just outside of esteli. We were spoiled by a nice bus to take us to the city, and then put back in our place with the bus we had to take to the hostel...moved at approximately 5mph up a steep rocky mountain..we shuold have walked. At this reserve/cloud forest we had a lot of fun (this time it was everyone but greisy, sarah and xander came). The 5 of us checked into our room and ate lunch. Then we asked what we could do BEFORE dark. Remember that part later. They told us we could go up to the "mirador" (look-out) to watch the sunset. So, we hike up to the top, Lora and I made it up first and the other 3 shortly after. This is also an important fact to remember. We walked aroudn for a while and didn't see anything because it was so cloudy (in the cloud forest...). But it was so nice we hung out for a while. Xander kept warning us it was getting dark so we should head down soon, it was going to take about 15 minutes to get back. HAH. so the trail was really well marked, except at top. Apparently the last part of the trail we didn't even realize wasn't really a trail, but just a grassy area. And, it didn't help that we didn't all come up together. Now, naturally Lora and I think it's hilarious that we keep ending up at this same trail blocked off by barbed wire 4 times and I'm pretty convinced we're in the twilight zone. Kristen is scared, Sarah is just quiet like always, and Xander keeps announcing which way his sense of direction senses we should go. Eventually we make it down, using cell phone lights to guide the way. Thank God we escaped all those headlines...Anyway, we make it down and there's kind of 2 paths to take back to the Inn...the one we're supposed to take, and the other one. It was so dark we didn't even realize when we got to the turn so we ended up taking the wrong one..aka deep deep mud. I lost a shoe in there temporarily and we were all covered in mud by the time we got back. I'm not sure if I'll be bringing my sneakers back to the states but it's Friday now and I think I've finally gotten all the mud out of my clothes at least.

So after we clean off a little we sit down to get a little dessert and drinks. I decided to try coffee because it's supposed to be excellent there. I surprised myself when it was basically black coffee but I actually liked it. Lora told me not to get my hopes up because not all coffee tastes like that. Boy, was she right. Now, I am pretty convinced there was something fishy in that coffee because granted we were in the middle of nowhere in some cabin, but that night the 2 of us could not stop freaking out. I couldn't close my eyes or keep them open because I saw freaky things either way. So I'm having the time of my life lost on top of a mountain but I can't fall asleep because I think someone's trying to break into our room...definitely something in the coffee. The next day we attempted to find a waterfall but settled for a smaller, much closer one. The way back took forever due to limited bus service to our Inn and limited service on Sundays in general. We finally arrived back in Managua but not before meeting another Nicaraguan who spoke English and had several friends on this bus. Jorge's favorite music includes Jack Johnson, RHCP, etc, cool right? And his friend Manuel and Noella (??) rode all the way to Managua with us. The next day we saw them at the printing place in UCA...loveeee how small this country is.

Part 2:
This week has been pretty normal with the exception of one day. We've seen our language partners a lot, had lunch with them, our shower broke, water went out for a few hours, fotografia was canceled with no given reason, still haven't had the Desarrollo test I was supposed to have 3 classes ago, etc. Standard Nica week. Except Tuesday. On Tuesday we are all sitting in Ethics and a whole parade of people dressed in white FSLN shirts walks by the classroom making a lot of noise and handing out flyers. Okay, kinda disruptive, but that's the least we can expect before election week, right? (Their elections are Sunday, November 9...and we've been told there's about a 99% chance there will be no elections the next day and we should just stay in our house...cool) So after class we're having our usual post-ethics chat session since all our Nica friends are in that class with all 6 of us FU kids. We start to hear some really loud cheering. Not entirely unusual because it's not uncommon for there to be loud music playing out of random speakers on the sidewalk, but this was really loud. We decided to take a walk towards the sound and on the way were greeted by our Spanish teacher, Mercedes, who told us we needed to be careful...why you might ask? Because these were not just any FSLN people, they were a crazy faction of Ortega supporters mad at la UCA for publishing results of a survey they conducted about the past elections. I believe they are threatening to take away any of the funding that UCA receives from the government. Apparently this survey was a big deal, and UCA students for and against Ortega joined together to get these people off of their campus with chants like "FUERA FUERA FUERA" /" que se vaya, que se vaya" / "Ortega y Somoza son la misma cosa" (the first to basically mean get out, and the last one Ortega and Somoza are the same thing..Somoza was the president/dictator before the Sandinista Revolution in the 80s.) Eventually there were a few hopeful cheers of, "nicaragua, nicaragua" - Nicas fighting Nicas is sad, the students just wanted to be heard...Even if the students were for Ortega, they did not support this faction because they forcefully entered campus.

Carlos was right up front in the fighting. I think these language partner pairs were done exactly right. A lot of our other Nica friends and some Fairfield people kept being like "Carlos gets mad too easily." I've never seen him mad before Tuesday. I think if you're not going to stand up for what you think is right, then what are you going to stand up for? If you don't fight for what you believe, you're part of the problem. Props to Carlos for speaking his mind. Of course, we already knew he would do that because he's a political activist and will probably actually transfer schools soon to be a politics major (they don't have it at UCA). Anyway, there was some pushing and shoving, some water bottle throwing, and one large chunk of wood thrown that got someone in the head. Other than that, I think any casaulties were avoided. It continued for quite some time and I think we ran into or got a call from every professor / administrator we know at UCA to tell us to be careful. Of course Lora, Greisy and I were watching everything (Marcello was protecting us!) while the others went off into more remote locations of campus for a while. They suspended classes for the rest of the day so the administration could meet (My classes were already done..) After the students finally succeeded in pushing the crazies off campus, who do I run into but Mario Gutierrez (the Sustainable Development teacher). He says hi and asks if I'm okay and I am. Now usually, I try to avoid any further conversation because he is long-winded, but today I wanted answers. For the next probably half hour he proceeded to explain current Nicaraguan politics to us. I'm not going to bore you with details right now (although they are anything but boring) but I'm sure I'll have plenty more to say in the coming days. This upcoming election is for mayor and the result in Managua will make a huge impact on the whole country because Managua is 1/3 of the population. Basically, it comes down to voting for the FSLN candidate where nothing will change and the rift between poor and rich will widen while corruption continues and only FSLN supporters get government help OR voting for the opposition even if you don't compeltely agree with it (the opposition is a party that broke off from the left because they didn't like Ortega and joined the right because they didn't get enough individual votes last election to still be considered an independent party). However, if the opposition gets elected, Ortega will most likely turn a blind eye to any of its concerns and won't given any support and the situation will probably get worse until the 2012 elections (when the people would have a chance to vote Ortega out of office). lose-lose...but I think you all know what I'd do. The rest of this week we've had to show our IDs to get into campus (thank God we finally got them last week!) and all the gates are locked at all times. I'm guessing this will continue until at least a few days post-election.

Part 3
Okay, so I said 2 parts, but this past weekend Carlos went to Guatemala with an oranization called "Un techo para mi pais" (A roof for my country) to build houses with people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Nica. In a few weeks they're building in Managua and he said we could go! I'm not sure if the other FU kids are going but I definitely am. He said when they were building houses the first day they got to meet the lady who's house they were building. They invited her to eat lunch with them and she said, no, it's okay I'm going to go eat with my children. They insisted saying, "We are all the same people, eat lunch with us." And the woman began to cry. She felt bad that she didn't have something better to offer them, but they didn't want anything else. The next day she had the students over for lunch at her home with her family. It's going to be a challenge for me to have that kind of experience in Spanish, but then again I didn't speak the language at all in the Philippines and I got by just fine (with the help of the kids that spoke English at least..) Anyway, to say the least, that story made me miss the Philippines harddddd core.

MAHAL KO ANG PILIPINAS!!!!!!

ps, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Life is very short, and there's no time, for fussing and fighting, my friend...

So last week I forgot to mention what we did after volunteer. We had a meeting to discuss a few upcoming events, as well as choose a letter written by a student in from one of the various projects run by the Pastoral (Camp. Min.). We don't necessarily know this child, but we buy them a gift for Christmas. The letter was so full of thanks, I couldn't help myself but post it below..in Spanish for those that can read it so that it doesn't lose meaning...

For those that can read Spanish, here's the letter.
Hola Niño Dios. Espero que te encuentres bien de salud tu y tu familia y que Dios los bendiga.
Estoy en 5 grado. Estoy en el proyecto chateles. Me llamo Anieka Tamara Castillo Sánchez. Tengo 10 años. Soy morena. Le pido por favor si me puede regala una muda de numero 8 y unos zapatos 35. Por favor, espero no sea muchas cosas. Gracias. Espero no pedir mucho. Gracias. Que Dios los bendiga a usted y su familia. Muchas gracias. Adios.

Translated:
Child Jesus, I hope this finds you and your family in good health and that God blesses you. I am in 5th grade in the Project Chateles. My name is Anieka. I am 10 years old and I am "morena" (dark hair, skin, etc.) I am asking if you could please give (but literally gift me, to give is a different verb) a outfit (size 8) and shoes (size 35). Please, I hope this is not too much. Thank you. I hope I'm not asking too much. Thank you. God bless you and your familiy. Thank you very much. Bye.

Now, I know I've been living the sweet life here in Nicaragua, and being at a private university, I have met some of the most fortunate people that live in this country. It's hard to balance the study abroad experience that everyone expects (lots of traveling, souvenirs, going out, etc.) with the reality of life here in Nicaragua. I'm so glad that for even 3 hours a week I can help these students who are struggling, and probably still aren't among the least fortunate, but really do need help. When I'm feeling down, the children always put everything in perspective. They are not as fortunate to receive the same education as me, and I they do not have as many things. And when they want one little thing, they are not begging (although I do encounter that on the streets a lot), they are asking God for a little bit of something, and are very careful that they do not ask for too much. In the material world we all live in, it's hard to believe that all this child wants for christmas is an outfit to wear to school. God bless them.

Changing subjects...this weekend we went to San Juan del Sur. After being tricked, just as our guide bus warned us we would be, into getting on a bus to Rivas and being forced to pay a tip to a guy that led us to the wrong bus, we finally ended up in San Juan del Sur where we stayed at a really cool international hostel called Casa Oro. It was $6.50/night/person to have our own private room for the 4 of us girls. We chose this hostel because they also helped organize day trips. While there we encountered even more English speaking people...mostly Californians and Australians there for the good surf on the deserted beaches. The first night we just hung out and got a late lunch/early dinner by the ocean. BEAUTIFUL. The 3 of them went out to a little bar for an hour or so while I stayed in nursing my 1847564th migraine of the trip. I think I'm finally immune to my medicine.

In the morning we got up for breakfast and then took a "bus" aka jeep with no real seats/seatbelts to a nearby beach called Madera. The actual San Juan del Sur beach is nice, and not really crowded, but it's also a fishing town so there are a lot of boats. At Madera, there may have been 2 other people there besides the 6 or so that came in the Jeep with us. Beautiful. Unfortunately, this is where my luck ended. Our stuff kind of got soaked by the tide coming in while we were in the ocean and of course the only thing that got ruined (other than some drenched beach towels) was my phone. RIP. After that I was hot and in a bad mood, so Greisy and I went back to the hostel, showered, got lunch, went online, etc. We met up with Lora and Kristen for a quick dinner and then headed back to the hostel for the Turtle Expedition. I think that's the legitimately the only thing we've done in Nica that costs more than $15, but the money went to a good cause. In Nica, turtles are very endangered so they are trying to protect them beginnign with a movement called "No como huevos de tortuga" (I don't eat turtle eggs.) They also have reserves like the one we went to where people patrol to stop people from stealing the turtle eggs or the actual turtles. We weren't lucky enough to see any of the big turtles burying their eggs but we saw some little guys digging their way out of the holes. It was so cute. Interesting fact: Turtles always return to lay their eggs at the same beach they were born, that's why such big nesting sites such as this one at La Flor exist. Also, turtles basically swim the whole world traveling in ocean currents. Pretty sweet life right? Only down side to the night, the last pair of flip flops I brought with me finally broke so I had to walk with one bare foot the whole night...ooo well, worse things have happened.

On Sunday we didn't really know what to do so after breakfast and finding a new pair of flip flops, we began our journey back to Managua..bus to Rivas..bus to Managua..taxi home. Basically just hung out the rest of the day...didn't really have any hw to do and didn't have my computer anyway..

Monday our early class was canceled, I wanted to check on my computer since they could no longer call me, Lora's computer was also broken, and Kristen wanted to drop off some clothes for dry cleaning. So the 3 of us met up before our 11am to run some errands. About 5 minutes into the trip, my new pair of flip flops breaks :( So, then I walk with one bare foot through dirty Managua to La Union and buy 2 new pairs..God willing these will last me the next 7 weeks. I also bought super glue in case I can fix some of the old ones or in case these new ones break...Then we went to GBM where they immediately recognized me and brought out my friend so we could speak in Spanglish..turns out they fixed my computer and everything was covered by warranty. It was great and everyone was so nice. I kind of wish they fixed dells too so we could go back and chat with them some more about Lora's computer haha. Then we finaly found a place for Lora and she dropped her computer off, but she might not be as lucky as me because she thinks her warranty has expired. Greisy wasn't with us so we were all tested with our Spanish..I think we succeeded though! After this trip around the city, I'm sitting in photography and I notice my ankle is pulsating (idk if this is a word but you know what i mean). GREAT. as if my computer, camera, phone and flip flops breaking weren't enough..my ankle still kills if I walk too much.
The rest of the week aka 2 days has gone pretty smoothly.

Yesterday I went to MetroCentro to try to get a new phone since Greisy and Lora had bought theirs pretty cheap..like $20ish. Come to find out, these same phones are now $50..no thanks. I think I'll go without a phone for a while. Then we went down to the food court to look around. While checking out the menu for one place, someone heard us speaking English and turned around saying, "This is the best place." Now, I'm not sure if he recognized us first and then said that, or if we all recognized each other at the same time, but it was none other than Ricardo, our hustler/tour guide from when Kristen's fam was with us in Granada. Now normally, Ricardo doesn't shut up. However, yesterday he was completely smashed at noon on a Tuesday, with his boss. He realllly didn't shut up then. It was crazy. We tried to sit away from him and he followed us. Then his boss came over, who looked and talked completely American and asked where we were from. We said NY & CT but we all go to school in CT. He's like oh really, I'm from CT, what college do you go to? We said Fairfield and he made a face, we assumed because he had never heard of it. Turns out he's from Fairfield, built the development of houses behind the townhouses (verrrrry nice houses if you've seen them) and owns a house on the beach. This was all verified by his passport. Crazy, small world.

Side note: We haven't had a single gecko in our room the first 7.5 weeks. Last night we had 3. Personally I think they're cute, and completely harmless. I've never seen them anywhere but on walls so they won't bother me, plus they eat bugs. Kristen is a little sketched out, but I think she's happy they're eating the bugs so we're dealing with them just fine.

Again, sorry for the length, I just never know what to leave out! And my camera is still kind of broken, but I can still take really zoomed out pix, so maybe I'll start putting a few up again or stealing from other people.

I'd love to hear from everyone!!! <3 <3 <3

ps-I'm obsessed with the new genius sidebar on iTunes. check it outtt.

*whooah, we're halfway there, livin on a prayer, take my hand and we'll make it I swear, livin on a prayer...*

I had every intention to update my blog tonight, but tonight turned out a little different than I originally planned. Details on my weekend and my crazy whirlwind of a day today are coming soon...probably while I procrastinate studying for my first 2 tests of the semester (not including ethics which doesn't count because it's in English...)

I did have to post this though because I've been saving these song lyrics for weeks now...today marked the exact halfway point of my time in Nicaragua...I hope that there are twice as many happy times in the next 7.5 weeks because I don't know if I can take anything else breaking or any more tension between the group...53 days...can't decide if I'm happy or sad..probably both.


"And I may be strong, but I know that I won't make it if I don't try,
And I can't go wrong, if I start believing that I can reach the sky
And maybe I'm just halfway there this time
It's okay cuz I'm already halfway there..."

somedays i feel like crying, don't matter if it's rain or shine

so, it's been a little while since I've updated you all..thanks for all the Mac hints, I took it to a store today so hopefully they can fix it and I won't lose all my files :(

I was going to do highs and lows, but it's been so long since I wrote that would take forever. But let's just say the highs have been coming more frequently in the past few days. The end of last week was a rough time for me. I was having a lot of trouble dealing, not with the Nicaraguan life, but with some other issues here. It was hard not to have all my best friends to turn to, so I kind of reverted into pre-college Jenn that likes to keep everything inside. This didn't bode well with some people, so not only was a feeling like crap, people were mad at me for not talking because they thought it was rude...great. I hope we're past that now and I can just keep my mouth shut when stuff bothers me because that's all that seems to work :/ (alyssa-don't be mad, you taught me well, it's just not working here! haha) Thursday mass actually came at exactly the right time. And this week, Greisy and Lora are coming with me. I miss masses at Fairfield where I can go with 20 other people and the kiss of peace takes a full 10 minutes.

I don't have Friday classes yet I had 5 straight hours of classes this past Friday. Apparently in Nica, when a professor has to miss class, they can reschedule it since all the students in the same carrera have the same schedule. This meant class from 1-3 on Friday afternoon..good thing we weren't traveling anyway. We also had Spanish from 10-1. After class we went to the mall to buy a present for Marcello because it was his birthday on Tuesday and his party Friday night. We told him we were gonna get a pinata and he seemed into it so we did...it was interesting walking into a party with a pinata but everyone seemed to have fun so i'm glad we did. It was so fun to walk into his party and see not only our language partners, but also people we knew from Ethics that we knew were going to be there. Walking in further, KVV and I spotted a girl we knew from Desarrollo. Basically, we knew everyone there and it felt really cool to actually belong in Nicaragua..and also to be at a house party instead of the club..much more to my liking :)

On Saturday Lora, Kristen and I left for Matagalpa. (Sarah and Xander didn't want to come, and Greisy had too much work). By this time, I was pretty sick and probably shouldn't have gone, but I was almost immediately better upon reaching Matagalpa and it's cool, clean mountain air. It was wonderful. Since we took a bus bound for Jinotega, we didn't go to the Matagalpa bus station, we just got dropped on the side of the road. That made finding our hostel a little challenging (Alba knew someone so called and made reservations for us..we end up getting a room and breakfast for $7!) We found a nice taxi driver who really took care of us and even spoke to the hostel owner on the phone to make sure we were going to the right place. Another guy was in the taxi with us and he spoke English. He then talked to the cab driver for us and the guy that spoke English assured as we were in good hands. It was a really cute exchange. While still in the cab, we saw some people that could have been Nicaraguan, or could have been American. They saw us and called out something along the lines of "Hey girls, how do you like Nicaragua", in English mind you. We laughed it off and continued to the hostel. No sooner than 2 blocks down the street from our hostel on the way to lunch, we run into them again. Turns out they were California, and now living in Matagalpa. I think by the time we leave, we will have met everyone from the United States that lives in Nicaragua.

Some days I wake up dreaming
Feels like I've never even woke
I answer life's big questions
As if it's one big joke

The rest of the day we just explored the city. I bought a shirt for $2 at a cute little shop and we got coffee/smoothies at a little shop. For dinner we went to this chicken place (aka gallo pinto for Jenn!) where the guy soon figured out we spoke English and started speaking to us in Spanglish. He really hooked us us, and when we didn't want soda he went out to buy us juice. On the way out he told us in both English and Spanish to be careful...everyone is always looking out for us!

In Matagalpa there were kids everywhere, and they weren't all beggers like in Managua. I started my photo project there because you could really see so many different emotions and stories in each face. I know where I'm going if I need more photos for my project.

The next day we got up kind of late and ate breakfast at the hostel. Then we took a bus bound for Jinotega that let us off at Selva Negra..a beautiful cloud forest. We walked around a little bit, met the owner, swang on the swingset, saw a copy of my rainforest book in spanish, and had some fresh fruit juice. The food was a bit pricey but all locally grown so it was worth it. When we started down the hill to return to the road and catch the bus, a local offered us a ride..in English. Needless to say, we accepted and rode in the back of their pickup truck most of the way back to Matagalpa so we could catch a bus back to Managua. It was great riding down the windy roads in the open air. And for those of you who are nervous, it was also completely safe...

Some days I feel like singing
I sit back and just groove the day away
Maybe pick up a guitar
And play what I want to play

When we finally got on the bus home, we soon realized it was not an express bus, but rather a bus like we took to Rio San Juan that decided to stop for every breathing being on the side of the road (including chickens). It was interesting to say the least. It only took about an hour more than it should have and made for a few good laughs...definitely part of the Nica experience. They were transporting some things on top of the bus as well, and when someone needed to get something down, one of the boys working on the bus climbed up to get the package. As soon as it hit the ground, the bus started again...and completely unphased by this, the boy climbed down as the bus was moving. I was so scared for his life, but he was so used to it I guess.

Back in Managua, I found out my computer wouldn't start. I was trying everything, and at one point I unplugged the tv to try plugging my computer in that outlet because we were sure it worked. A little while later Kristen noticed her internet wasn't working. We checked to make sure I didn't mess anything up and finally realized that my computer was broken and her internet wasn't working...great right? Except when I said that just for the hell of it I would plug the TV back in just so that everything was just how we found...immediately her internet started working again...only in Nica...can anyone explain this one for me?

Today I feel like laughing
Seems to be no reason at all
And if the world stops spinning
I'm not afraid to fall

Quick update on the week - had my Spanish finals, and we all got A's!! Got a new group in Desarrollo Sostenible and they're really awesome..we worked on a project the other day then went to the teacher to have him check it over before it's due..lovinngggggg that i'm in the overachiever group! We have a test in historia on friday (orignally Monday, but apparently it's completely okay to cancel classes and reschedule them for Fridays...) I'm a little nervous, but hopefully it will be fine. We have our first real assignment in fotografia, but Kristen Lora and I are just working together after we sort of got used for our cameras by some other girls in our class. Hopefully we get that project done while we're in San Juan del Sur this weekend. The first Ethics test was also this week, easy A for all us English speakers and I don't think the Nica kids did bad either. The only other important thing that happened this week is we went out to eat a lot aka spent more money than we usually do in Managua. When I asked Kristen what else was important she said, "Well, we went out to eat a lot, which is kind of proportional to our happiness." So, true.

Today, Greisy went with me to the Mac store and after a while we finally got a guy that was able to help us. I understood most of what he said but a few times Greisy translated or confirmed things for me. After her doing that 2 or 3 times, the guy breaks out in perfect English. I thought it was hilarious. After that we talked Spanglish for a while and got everything sorted out. They're going to run diagnostic tests this weekend and I should have some more information by Monday at the latest. After that Greisy and I hung out til we met Lora for mass. Then the 6 of us Fairfield kids, Isabel, Andrea and Carlos went back out to Ola Verde (the organic place). I was going to try something new, but when they didn't have what I wanted I couldn't think fast enoguh and ended up with the same delicous meal. Then Carlos took me and Lora to the post office so we could mail a few things and then we got ice cream because obviously hadn't eaten enough already. Did you know they make Chips Ahoy McFlurry's now?? Then the 4 of us came back to hang out, watched part of Flight 93 or United 93, we weren't sure which. Then, we rented Georgia Rules and Carlos brought his DVD player over so we could watch. Carlos and Lora just left, but all in all it was a great day. I'm glad we actually got to do something at night instead of stay in our room doing nothing. It's great to have friends with cars :)

Sorry it was so long, a lot to catch up on. And sorry for the lack of pix..camera is STILL broken. San Juan del Sur this weekend! For those with facebook, check out Kristen's pix since she is the only one of the four who still has a working camera...

ps-next blog entry - perhaps stealing from elyse? i thought the Ecua looks like, smells like, etc. was really interesting...

cuz there's a world awake outside, with injustice and music...

So my computer broke.

For any macbook geniuses out there, here's the sitch:

i powered my computer down for the weekend. it was definitely all the way off when i closed it because i've had that problem before so i'm careful.

now, when i press the power button, nothing happens. i've checked and the battery is fully charged. when i plug the power adaptor in, the green light comes on full brightness on both sides.

still nothing when i turn it on, no sound, no flashing of the screen real quick, just nothing.

applecare doesn't have an email and i'm not ready to buy enough minutes to call them for the amount of time they'll probably put me on hold or ask the same question 18 different ways like last time.

i probably wont' have time to seek out a place here until at least Thursday and hopefully i can bring someone along who's actually fluent because explaining a broken computer isn't really vocab i've bothered to learn yet :/

In the meantime, updates will be less frequent. This weekend was awesome though and filled with lots of blog-worthy stories, which I hope to be able to put up at sometime this week.

I'm not going to ask you to leave a comment this week...even though (almost) no one does...

oh lately babe, i stay awake thinking this life gets lonely...

Thursday we went to the U.S. Embassy to get absentee ballots for those who didn't fill out the form at home. It was great to be "home" for the short time we were there. Despite the special privileges we got since we're citizens, the security was about 10 times worse than at airports. Good timesss.

Friday we started Spanish class again finally and it was much less painful. Plans for San Juan del Sur fell threw. I think people were overwhelmed with school work / unaware of the short amount of time we have left here. It's already been 5.5 weeks! Next weekend is our friend Marcello's birthday so we'll probably stay in Managua on Friday to celebrate then hopefully off to Estelí which is farther north in the mountains aka COOL WEATHER!

Friday night Albs and Carlos took me and KVV along with two of the Nica girls (Gabriella and Lucia) to Las Galerias to shop a little and get this - listen to live music playing on the first floor of the mall. I obviously loved it. Then Carlos bought us all ice cream. So I guess staying "home" this weekend did have a few perks other than not having to pay for a hostel...

Saturday we went to lunch at this organic and self-proclaimed socially responsible restaurant. I was in heaven with the number of healthy, vegetarian options...we might have to make this a weekly occurence so we can all try everything we want! At night Marcello took us to Hipa Hipa again. If you know me, you know the club scene is not really my thing, especially not this often so I hope we start to find other things to do...other than Kristen seeing everyone she knows there (because of the connections her mom had when she visited)...what made the night interesting was after about an hour, 3 tall African American guys walked into the club. it was clear from the way they dressed that they were not Nicaraguan so after a while KVV got up the courage to ask where they were from...Houston and NY...they are supposedly here playing basketball for a month or so although I'm still sort of confused as to who they play for / who they're playing against / why Nicaragua, etc. Anyway, it was cool to meet some Americans in Nicaragua because that's not exactly a common occurence here.

Sunday we chilled out and ran some errands at La Union. We bought some oranges, which are ironically green here. We have yet to try them but I'll let you know how they are! Today was supposed to be filled with lots of classes but my last class got canceled and so did dance so I was out at 3. That didn't really help me get much else accomplished other than catching up with a bunch of friends, but that's more fun than reading about the historia de nicaragua anyway...

Today I realized that everything that I don't like about Nica (which isn't much) and everything that I miss about Fairfield really has nothing to do with Nicaragua or its people. It has to do with how I got here. I am here with 5 other Fairfield students and as much as we all collectively try to meet other Nicaraguans, it's hard when we're still doing that in a large group. I get frustrated and wish I could do things by myself like I'm used to but that's not an option here. It's difficult not having a place to escape to because the only place I can go is my room where I have a roommate, but I'll have to make the best of it. I was also catching up on some of The Mirror (fairfield newspaper) articles I've missed. In an article about a Fairfield grad who just won a MacArthur Fellow (yay, maybe Fairfield doesn't suck as much as all the ratings say!), the grad said, "I have learned to see Jesus in everyone, and hold myself personally accountable for what I do," he said. "If you imagine you're speaking to Jesus, it is much easier to not always be in contention with them, but rather learn to work together." I think this is a really interesting perspective that I am going to try to remember next time I'm frustrated with all of the rude comments and insensitivity that have become an all too common occurrence in our little FU group...

It's midnight. I have class at 7am...I still haven't learned how to go to bed early, so I've just learned to sleep less...and my camera is broken for the time being so pictures will have to wait...sorry!!

Escribame..Ecris-moi...write to me!!!!

PS, Fairfield you can take your rain back...I want to go to the beach soon. :)

You're what makes New England so great...My island nights are all spent dying, wait for summer to become wrought with lips, my wishful thinking...

so this update is going to be much shorter than planned because we just got a call that we're getting picked up in an hour (around 815) even though our experience has been that nicaraguans don't go out until 10 or 11 so here's the short summary...

• weekend - albs was super nice while kristen was gone and has been about herself since kristen's been back, i think she felt bad i was alone..
• sat-went to granada with greisy and lora to meet up with kvv and her mom and cousin
• las isletas, laguna de apoyo (swimming in a volcanic crater in COOL & CLEAR water and the most beautiful, relaxing place ever in the world), and lots of good food
• sun-mass at 8am (yes mass on an actual sunday) dragged mostly everyone except kvv and her mom with me!
• private bus to the market in masaya...def. going back there with a lot more money and buying new clothes and lots of souvenirs/gifts, it was crazyyyy (this would be the point in time where you tell me what you want)
• then volcan masaya which is still active...tried not to get too much sulfur in my lungs...
• back to managua for some hw and relaxin...it's weird that i actually feel like the comfort of going "home" to managua even if it's not the best living situation..

Monday - really great day. if i can capture the highlights it would have to be

• random kid who got up in the middle of photography, asked if he could use the teacher's camera...then continued to take pictures of the class for about 15 minutes even after the teacher asked him what he was doing...
• i got up in front of my whole desarollo class to explain something...in spanish...and everyone understood me...(mind you, i don't even particapate that much in english...yay me!!)
• desarollo teacher asked us if we knew who eduardo galeano was not really expecting us to know...unfortunately i did know, thank you walter petry
  
• more dance class...we went at a different time though so we had a different guy who actually bothers to help us learn so that was cool
• ate really good pasta with capers and tomatoes and then a banana-cinnamon dessert like thing just like the thing michelle makes in barone....in continuing me only getting fed well while kristen is gone (maybe she's not as cheap when she doesn't have to feed both of us?)

the rest of the week has been pretty normal. had volunteering again today. it's a little frustrating that my girl doesn't know any spanish at all and doesn't listen to me when i explain the directions, but i'm trying. i don't feel like i'm qualified to start from square 1 teaching english but i'm doing my best. all the other kids at least can say a few things like the alphabet, numbers, colors, etc. Hopefully she starts doing better in class and can continue to bring her homework...we let out of volunteering a little early to have a planning meeting with the other volunteers. we had to come up with a game for each week with an objective. it was a great time to both practice spanish and meet other people our age. they were all very nice and i'm so excited to continue working with them! I also have a few new ice breakers to bring back to Fairfield, though I'm not quite sure they're awkward enough lol...I almost taught them "baby, I love you" but even the other Fairfield girls thought that was too weird hahaha

Escribame!!!!!! pleaseeeee :)

You'll always be my thunder, so bring on the rain...

Bring on the rain. It's been raining for short periods of time every day recently but it is SO necessary I don't even care. I look forward to the rain because it takes sometime to get hot afterward...or if the rain happens late enough in the day, it doesn't get hot again. And by not hot, I mean it probably stays around 80-85.

As you might know, another part of the chorus from the song I quoted in my title is "your voice was the soundtrack of my summer..." The soundtrack to my "summer" here in Nicaragua has quickly become the sound of car alarms. I don't know if they are seriously always getting broken into or if the alarms are more sensitive here, but it is out of control...you hear a car alarm go off for like 46 minutes...and if you just understood that, you're probably a dane cook fan and you know the constant "soundtrack" in my head everytime I hear one of these alarms..."Heelllooooo...I'm a carrrrrr...GASOLINE MAKES ME RUN....bacckkkseaattt, trunkspaceeee...helllooooo...let's go for a riiiide...OIL IS MY BLOOD...seatbeltssss...radio knobs..." yea, try not thinking about that next time you hear a car alarm.



Not too much different has happened this week except that I successfully survived my first full week of classes! I have 3 classes on Mondays, 2 on Tuesdays and Wednesday and just 1 on Thursdays. So far the workload isn't too bad and all of the teachers are really nice and so willing to help us if we don't understand something. We started dance classes on Monday. They are Monday thru Thursday for one hour. We can go at 4, 5, 6, or 7. We usually go at 6 because that's what works with most of our schedules. Dance class is..interesting. Everything is really fast, and I can do the footwork but let's just say that we try to do some things that white girls should never try to do. Needless to say, we embarass ourselves quite a bit but get an awesome work out while doing it. On Wednesday a few of us began a volunteer project helping high school students who are having trouble in their English courses. I'm glad I at least get to do this since the internship didn't work out unfortunately. I am helping a girl named Jessenia. She really doesn't know any English at all so this is going to be a challenge. And of course she speaks Spanish very fast so I'm learning just as much as she is. On Wednesday night we went to Moods with Kristen's language partner Isabel and her cousin Luciana. It's another club like Hipa Hipa and on Wednesdays girls get in free until 11 so we went to check it out. It was also very upscale like Hipa Hipa and we had fun, but it had been a long day so we didn't stay long. While we were there I saw the girl that helped me in my theology class (whose name I still don't know!) and she introduced me to some of her friends too...slowly but surely we are meeting people!

Kristen's mom and cousin got here last night and so Greisy, Lora and I went out to dinner with them. They're staying in a hotel really close to our house. Kristen stayed with them last night and today they went to Granada. As you might guess, I was not sad about my alone time. I'm used to having to be very independent and doing things on my schedule so I absolutely loved coming back last night and being able to do what I want. I actually got to fall asleep with the TV on which is my favorite thing ever since I got so used to it with Beth Anne last year. I woke up when I wanted without an alarm...still very early though because the sun rises so early. I got breakfast and then walked to Greisy's house (about 20 minutes through the city) by myself. There, we worked on some history homework and then I walked back to my house, on the way stopping at La Union to get a grapefruit for 25 cents. It was glorious. When I got back I finished some more homework, talked to Alba who had come for lunch and then waited out the storm before walking to UCA to talk to Maria Dellores and Kathe about classes, Alba, etc. Then I met up with Lora, Sara and a girl from their house at MetroCentro. Max was also there, but unfortunately I have no funny max stories to share with you today :( The girl, (Lori I think?) is from Switzerland. So while we were at the coffee shop (where I also ate lunch because I hadn't eaten earlier) she was talking about how difficult French (her native language) is to learn because you don't pronounce a lot of the letters and a lot of the words sound the same but mean totally different things and are spelled a little different...for example vert=green vers=towards verre=glass and there is no difference in pronunciation. Then I turned to her and said "je parle un peu de francais" and she responded "tu l'a appris oú?" which means where did you learn it...but of course all I could think of was "escuela" (school in spanish) after a second I said à l'école and then we switched back to spanish. I was surprised I understood her with how fast she spoke, and it was harder to switch between French and Spanish then I had expected. Needless to say I practiced a lot of Spanish today...but the little French I got in there had to be my favorite part. I often think of vocab first in French and then Spanish since I have more background in French vocab. So I always say to Kristen, "This is the word in French, is there a Spanish word that sounds similar to that?" haha

I'm home now and waiting for dinner. We might attempt the movies tonight. Tomorrow Kristen, Greisy and I are going to Granada to meet up with Kristen and her fam. We'll probably stay overnight and then hit up the market and volcano in Masaya Sunday. Hasta luego!

[edit: today i assumed i would be eating dinner alone because the other girls go home on the weekends...but the (only) nice girl is still here so me, her, and alba had a nice convo over dinner...and at one point she just turns to alba and says, "ella habla muy bien el espanol" (she speaks very good spanish) and it totally made my day...and alba didn't disagree with her so that's an improvement...]

Sometimes it's better to say too much, than never to say what you need to say...

Lots of new pix on facebook - check them out! This weekend was fun, and the ride there was a piece of cake compared to last weekend's adventure. To give you a taste of last weekend's trip, I give you an excerpt from the guide book...


"Only the most masochistic and chronically pinche (cheap) travelers should attempt the highway from Managua to San Carlos. Past Acoyapa, the road disintegrates entirely and your bus is left to batter its way at walking speed for hours through gulleys, rutted tracks, and mud pits."
Yea...we did that.


But then we also got to kayak and swim in Rio San Juan. And hang out with Don Yaro who is this really old white man from the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua who speaks perfect English and Spanish. And walk through a nature reserve/rainforest thing with rented boots because you can't walk through with your own shoes. And ride horses into town. And lay on lots of hammocks.

^^ feer the deer^^
This weekend KVV, Greisy, Lora and I went to Leon. The first night we stayed in Lazy Bones because Lora stayed there in March when she came with the LACS class from Fairfield. It was nice, and there was free internet, but they were weirdly strict about lights out and quiet time..not really like any hostel I've ever herad of. It was nice though and we got a big bowl of fruit, yogurt and granola for breakfast..yummm. The night before we walked around Leon and went to the market. It was so cool, I could have bought everything there but I contained myself to a purse and 2 bracelets. In the morning after breakfast we caught a bus to Las Penitas, a really pretty, not at all touristy, beach which we basically had to ourselves for the 24 hours we were there. It was beautifullll.


The second hostel was more of a homestay than my actual homestay at Alba's. They immediately took us in and gave us all these suggestions of what to do there and in general in Nicaragua. We had the most delicious meal ever, chilled at the beach and swam in their pool. At night we just ended up hanging out in the hostel playing cards and met a few interesting people that happened to pass through to talk to the owners. Let me tell you that that whole stay including food, etc was less than $20/person. So...when do I move in? hahaha.


In other news, Alba gave us salad for dinner 2 dinners in a row, and told us she was going to buy pineapple for breakfast during the week...definitely an improvement...and today she helped us order delivery from Pizza Hut without making fun of our Spanish or saying anything rude...let's hope this wasn't just a fluke.

Random side note...on the bus from Leon to Las Penitas, the bus was very crowded and we had just gotten off another crowded bus where we could barely stand. We all looked exhausted. When I got to the place where I was going to stand, a man offered me his seat. Now, everyone was tired and exhausted, and last weekend I never would have dreamed of offereing my seat to anyone on that bus because it was just so unbearable. Now I know offering a seat is not something too special, but in Nicaragua I have not experienced a lot of that chivalry attitude. It's mostly been annoying cat calls and begging for money, etc. I haven't experienced a warm feeling from many people, including my host family. I enjoyed that ride so much because it helped me remember why I am so convinced that people really are good at heart :) And maybe next time I'm on a crowded bus, I'll think again about giving up my own seat for someone who's tired...

I MISS YOU GUYS!
current bribe: visit me during Thanksgiving, pay for your own flight and I'll pay for everything else...k great, see you then.

*I need you to show me the way from crazy, I wanna be so much more than this*

soooo, a LOT has happened since I last wrote...Rio San Juan will have to wait because there is just too much to tell...let's just say it's filled with a lot of memories that are only funny when we look back on them and not so much at the time...

we got back yesterday (wednesday) morning around 530 am. Our first class was at 11am...perfect. Kristen and I went to Fotografia together and it was great. There are a lot of people in our class and the dynamic is a little different than Fairfield classes..the students were disrespectul and a little chatty but I absolutely love our professor. I never had to ask him to slow down and I understood every single word. He annunciated everything well, so that helped. After class, Kristen and I went to introduce ourselves and tell him how we can understand, but we're not so good at speaking yet and he was very understanding. I think that will be a very interesting class!

Then I had Reflexion Teologica...I will not be attending that class. The professor was very rude and didn't care that I was an exchange student...thank God for the one friend I made in that class who helped me through it and said "no te preocupes, no entiendo nada tampoco" aka "don't worry, i don't understand what he's saying either" Luckily for the first couple of weeks we're just supposed to go to a bunch of different classes and then narrow it down to 4 or 3+ an internship, so i'm still in good shape.

Today, my only class was at 3, and I waited for a half hour and the professor never showed up so we left. That class was supposed to be Sustainable Development though, which I'm sooo excited to take. I should have it on Monday so I'll probably write about it then. This morning after showering KVV and I decided to do some laundry since we are planning on going to Leon for the weekend and all our clothes are dirty from last weekend (since we only got home yesterday). After Kristen finished, I tried to rush to do mine before mass at 12 and at about 1130 the water went out. We still don't have any water in the house...so my clothes are sitting sopping wet in a bin of soapy water. I'm not sure what I plan on doing about that yet... hopefully the water turns back on soon.

I'm also extremely unhappy in the house here. I know I've sad bad stuff and sugar coated it before, but I really can't deal with it anymore. Alba is so rude to me, and even Kristen finally admits that she treats us differently. I know at times I can have an attitude when I am unhappy, but I don't know even close to enough Spanish to be anything but extremely polite. I am sick of how she speaks to me, how rude she is and then turning around and seeing "nice" she is to Kristen. I say "nice" only because it's not night and day, she's still not a warm person, but there's a line between not being warm, and being rude...and she crosses that line with me everyday. Also, I am still unsatisfied with the food. I have no problem eating like Nicaraguans do, when I signed up for Nicaragua I was fully aware that I would be giving up a lot of my favorite foods for 4 months..what I was not prepared for was the lack of healthy options. For breakfast I get the choice between dry cereal heavily coated in sugar (none of the healthy stuff - cocoa krisps or fruit loops or sugar coated corn flakes), or white bread...occasionally pancakes..notice a trend of carbs and lack of fruit? We are frequently given different food than the Nicaraguans that live here and though I do enjoy the occasional pasta dish, I don't get sauce since I don't eat meat, so I hardly consider that a meal either. One time she made vegetables but it was mixed in with meat and God forbid she save any to the side for me...one time she gave us arroz con leche (rice with purified milk) which was tolerable, but not something iw ould choose to eat..it was also very sweet. When we told our Nicaraguan friends about it they said it was sweet cuz it's dessert, not a meal. Food is something I guess I can deal with, it's just hard because before I came here I had been making a conscious effort to eat healthy..and what makes it worse is seeing how all the other Fairfield students are eating at their houses...what I really can't stand though is how rude Alba is...people are trying to help me rationalize it by saying that sometimes people just aren't nice and you have to take everything with a grain of salt, and I do understand that, but there is no reason why she should be hosting foreign students if she is going to be like that. It brings me down every night to know I am coming back to Alba's house.

"I know God will never give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much." Mother Teresa

On a brighter note, I have a ton of pix from this weekend (or at least the first 2 days before my batteries died) but I'm still waiting to get my memory card back from Carlos..I'll try to post some before we leave for Leon tomorrow!

"Love is just God on a good day..."

So the past few days have been pretty standard...today was supposed to be our last spanish class but apparently it needs to be 40 hours, and we've only done 30 so we'll finish it up next week...i really don't see how anyone will get anything but an A because we are not learning anything new...the German kid Max is way too much to handle. I could keep a whole blog based on the things he says/does that make Kristen and I laugh for hours on end when we try to explain him to other people...I was so mad at my teacher today for making me work with him, it's impossibleeeee. Today after class we walked to Metro Centro to get a late lunch cuz I cannot do the UCA food anymore. I'll try it again next week sometime but I have been sooo sick. Greisy is too. Booooo. We also talked to Kathe today about the living sitch. Apparently our complaints were nice compared to what other people have said so Kathe is going to talk to Alba to at least try to rectify the lack of fruit situation. I could go into more detail about why they probably won't put any Fairfield students here again but I don't want anyone to worry...It's not horrible, I don't hate it, and it's not ruining the rest of my experience...it's just like...whatever. We got JUICE with Alex, the other American girl that lives here, after we got back from Metro Centro...I legit drink only water...sometimes a gatorade for lunch to help with the constant dehydration...but iced tea and lemonade never tasted so good. Her and Dave leave for Corn Island on Sunday and we'll see them just one more time before they had back to the states :(

Anyway, it still hasn't rained here and we need it bad. Even the Nicaraguans are complaining about how hot it is...This weekend we have a long weekend due to a national holiday so UCA is taking us on one of our 2 included trips within Nicaragua (somehow I'm pretty sure it will end up being the only one though...and we probably won't get our costa rica trip either...). We are going to Rio San Juan which shares a border with Costa Rica so its pretty far. In the U.S. it would probably take a few hours to get there...for us it will take 9 hours on the bus plus a 1.5 hour boat ride...can't wait!!! we leave at 5am our time..getting picked up at 4am...waking up at 330...whcih leaves me about 3 hours to sleep...of course i'm the least tired the day i actually have somtehing to wake up for...hopefully i can sleep on the bus! I won't have any internet there and maybe limited cell service...I'll be back Tuesday night-ish and then we start our first day of class!! (Let's see how long that excitement lasts...)

Also - I may be doing an internship with Fe y Alegria teaching English.... :) I hope it works out!

IF YOU LOVE

You might quiet the whole world for a second
if you pray.

And if you love, if you
really love,

our guns will
wilt.


i know it must be hard. but i am here.
your friends are here. God is here.
you probably won't even read this..
but we're all praying for you and your family
through this difficult time. <3

We're only several miles from the sun...

Dear Fairfield,
Please share your rain with us.
Love, Managua
p.s. I had macaroni and cheese for dinner. It was delicious.
p.p.s. The German boy wore a scarf today. It was over 90 degrees.

"You look pretttttyyyy happy" ~ Miguel

Random picture of me doing homework at UCA!!

Wow, so a LOT has happened in the past few days since I updated. So, Friday night we went out to a discoteca called Hipa Hipa. After literally being on the phone relaying messages for 2 hours between Greisy, Lora and Carlos, we finally figured out our plans for the night. The son of Greisy’s host father was going to the disco with his girlfriend so he ended up driving all 6 of us Fairfield people. We continued the theme of not having enough seats in the car for the number of people. Actually on Sunday night when we finally had enough room, it actually kinda felt weird to not have anyone sitting on top of me hahaha. They don’t have transit police here, so kinda everything goes…We didn’t bring cameras to Hipa Hipa because apparently they are a hot item in Nicaragua, but it turned out it was a very nice and safe disco, so next time we will definitely take pictures. The cover to get in was about $7 and with that you got free drinks/soda, etc. all night. That ended better for some than others. Needless to say, we were politely asked to escort one of our friends out of the disco around 130. Thankfully, all of us were able to get a ride back with the boy that lives at Greisy’s house and give our friend lotsssss of water. Despite that setback, we had a great time. We saw a German boy that’s in our Spanish class, and 2 boys from Spain that lived with Lora and Sarah (but they left to go home yesterday). Hopefully next time we go, some of our Nicaraguan friends will be able to come too!


Saturday, Greisy, Kristen and I took the bus into Granada with Alex and Dave. Alex and Dave spent the night and went to the volcanoes I think, but the three of us just walked around and toured the city. Granada is one of the oldest cities in Nicaragua and a lot of the houses are colonial style since it was colonized by Spaniards.



One of the first things we did after walking through the park and one Cathedral (there are 12 in Granada!), was take a horse and buggy ride tour of the city. (this is Greisy and Kristen in the buggy).


We had an awesome tour guide/driver that spoke slow and annunciated so we were able to understand him and learn a lot about the city. We drove to the edge of the city where to the shore of Lago Nicaragua which is a HUGE freshwater lake (that takes probably 8 hours top to bottom by boat). Fun fact - it is the only freshwater lakes con tiburones (sharks!). Inside the lake there are a lot of small islands. Next time we go to Granada we hope to go to one of the small islands. There is also a bigger island near the center of the lago called Ome Tepe which is supposedly BEAUTIFUL and very safe / touristy. That will defintiely get a whole weekend to itself.

After our tour we looked at some souvenirs at the tables set up around the park. Finally for lunch we decided to splurge and eat at the really nice restaurant. And by really nice restaurant I mean it was the most expensive restaurant and I spent $9 on 2 bottles of water, salad, garlic bread, and a nice big bowl of spaghetti with marinara sauce. After lunch we bought a few souvenirs and caught an early bus back to Managua since it was so hot and we weren’t sure what else to do there. Next time we’ll bring our book and stay over night because it’s sooo beautiful there. On the bus ride back, I called a few Fairfield friends to catch up and enjoyed the nice breeze from the open windows on our 1-hour, $1 bus ride home. I’m a huge fan of the exchange rate if you haven’t noticed.

Saturday night we were pretty excited, so we just hung out at our house. Sunday morning I woke up early because I was determined to find mass. I was out the door by 8 to walk to UCA. My plan was to walk to the church and sit there until more people started coming and that’s how I would figure out what time mass was since no one seems to know. My plan failed almost immediately when all the gates were locked. I’m not sure if I just went too early or if they were closed because school isn’t in session or what. Needless to say, I missed mass AGAIN. Next weekend we’re most likely going to be traveling again, but we’re not sure where since it is organized by UCA’s tourism students, but hopefully if it’s anything like Granada there will be a bunch of cathedrals where I can go to mass…

Around 11:30, Rebeca came to pick up Greisy, Kristen and I to go to her house. Again, we squeezed in the back since Rebeca also picked up another friend and her cousin. At her house we were greeted by Miguel and Rebeca’s dad who we had already met. We also met some of her friends, a few of which spoke perfect English which of course was both good and bad. We were able to understand each other, but we spoke a lot of English. Her house was also probably the most beautiful house ever, and definitely way bigger than most houses I’ve ever been in, no matter the country. She had a pool too, so we were able to cool off for a little bit. Towards the end we were able to practice a little more Spanish with her family, who mostly only spoke Spanish. That was a lot of fun, and her dad remembered me from when Rebeca was at Fairfield! I guess she mentioned coming to my room a few times…Also, for a while we were a little confused by the very white-skinned blonde-haired lady who didn’t speak English, but we later found out that Rebeca’s uncle is married to a lady from the Ukraine. After hanging out a little more and finding out that Miguel (Rebeca’s boyfriend) is extremely locooooo, they drove us back to our house where we waited for Carlos to pick us up. He was having a little reunion at his house with some of his friends from high school. We couldn’t stay long because Greisy had class at 8am this morning and still had some homework to do but it was good to see him again and meet some new people. We felt bad that he kept driving us everywhere, but we apologized profusely on the ride home and he really didn’t seem to care at all. I’m glad we already made such a good friend ☺ I think Kristen is going to try to have lunch with her language partner again soon so hopefully we can become friends with her too!

Today we slept in a little because we really couldn’t think of anything else to do. We attempted some more laundry although apparently so did everyone in the house because we ran out of room on the clothesline. Then we headed off to UCA for lunch before class. We tried a different place for lunch today and there weren’t really any vegetarian options, but after a while I got up the courage to ask for a quesadilla “sin pollo, solo queso” (without chicken) and the guy understood me right away and said it was no problem. Sooooo I had a delicious quesadilla for lunch and the only thing that would have made it better would have been a little salsa which they apparently don’t have here. After lunch we had class. The time is starting to pass by a little faster in class, but I’m still not really learning anything new…and we have the most ridiculous homework ever. I already wrote about our assignment to talk about a picture for 10 minutes. For today we had to think of “If I were a tree, what kind of tree would I be and why…” also, what animal, what famous painting, what famous person from history and what book we would be…not even our favorite of those things, but why we would want to BE one of those. Sounds like OBoard/Kairos style interview questions if you ask me…and as you know, I am not a fan of those questions. We ran out of time to do them for today but that should make for some funny situations tomorrow…and tonight’s homework…pick a song in Spanish and SING it in class tomorrow…not read the lyrics, we are required to sing the song. eff my life. Now, we are allowed to do an English song and translate it into Spanish, but I don’t think that will work very well, and no judgment allowed – but the only song I really know in Spanish is Frankie J/Baby Bash – Obsesion. So, I will be rapping/singing in Spanish in class tomorrow. Ohhhhhhhhh boy!

Sidenote-I also got heat exhaustion today. It came on all the sudden and I got really cold and was sweating a lot and had really severe stomach cramps for like the last 45 minutes of class. Right afterwards I went straight home and turned the fan on high and drank a lot of water and Gatorade. Kristen brought me 7-up to help my stomach and then we googled heat exhaustion and I had like every symptom, so yay for us diagnosing and treating the problem. I feel mostly better now but I also don’t really think there’s anything I could have done to prevent that since I already drink a ton of water and stay mostly in the shade…hopefully that doesn’t happen too many other times, though it has happened to me before so I wouldn’t be surprised :/

I’m loving all the Fairfield pix and I miss all of you guys! I have new pix on facebook too so check them out!

Hakuna Matata-para llevar una vida sin responsabilidades ni preocupacions

...is not as easy to say as "it means no worries, for the rest of your days"

So, I haven't written in a while..which is a good thing because it means I've been busy! I left off Monday night...that was our first experience in a taxi. The other Americans wanted to go to TGIFridays so even though Kristen and I had already eaten, we went with them just to hang out. It was fun and now we know how to get a safe taxi, etc. Then, Tuesday morning, Kristen and I ventured to MetroCentro by ourselves. It's less than a 10 minute walk so that wasn't bad except that it was by far the hottest day so far. Once we got there, we found the phone place (Movistar) and all in Spanish, all by myself, I had to buy a new chip for my phone and some minutes. Everything worked out and most of the time the guy understood me so I was pretty proud of myself. Then we ate lunch at the food court-but this time we decided to skip the American food and eat at the Nicaraguan place. I wasn't too hungry but I tried Queso Frito (fried cheese). Kristen loves it, and I know it sound delicious, but for some reason I think I've found the only kind of cheese I don't like hahaha. After lunch, we walked back to UCA and went to Rebeca's presentation. Her final project to graduate from UCA was the website she made about the Fairfield-UCA exchange program (www.studyabroadnicaragua.com) you should check it out - it's awesome and she passed with flying colors. I'm so glad we got to see it. After her presentation we had class. We were actually supposed to have class at 2, but since that's when Rebeca's presentation was, she just asked our teacher if we could miss an hour of class and she said yes...they're sooo laid back here. Class isn't anything like I expected it would be. It's very easy and we're not really learning anything new. Towards the end of the week it got a little better, but for the most part those 3 hours seem like 3 days. Wednesday went pretty much the same way as Tuesday. In the morning Kristen and I went to Maria Dellores' office to try to finalize our schedules. Next Tuesday the 6 of us have a meeting with Maria and Kathe to get the final copies of our schedules. I know for sure I'm taking History of Nicaragua, Photography and Sustainable Development...it's just unsure whether or not I will have an internship or take a theology class - both of which are very interesting to me! After talking to Maria, we had class at 12 instead of 2 so that our teacher would be out in time to go the barrio where she works/lives. It reminded me sooooo much of Gawad Kalinga it was unreal. The kids ran right up to us and said hi and gave us hugs without even knowing or caring who we were or why we were there. It was really kind of random that we even got to go, our teacher just asked if we wanted to see where she worked, so we went. We told Alba about it the night before, and she said as long as we were with a teacher and we didn't bring anything too valuable we'd be fine. I'm so glad we did...they only need volunteers on Fridays there and we'll probably be traveling a lot so I hope to find something else like that where I can volunteer.

Yesterday after Greisy's class at 10, Kristen, Greisy and I walked to La Union to pick up a few things that we needed and some fruit since we don't get much of that at our house. So far we only tried the grapefruit, and I don't really like grapefruit but it was delicioussss. After La Union, we got lunch at UCA (vegetarian fajita..yummm) and went to class. After class we came home to do our laundry...by hand. (pictures to come..when Alba saw us doing laundry she actually suggested we take pictures because as she said it's an "experience") Then we ate dinner quickly and Carlos picked us up to go the movies. It took us quite a while to find Greisy's house, but now we'll never forget. Then us 3 girls and Carlos went to see Tripulacion Dave aka Meet Dave. It was all in Spanish with no subtitles (which is weird because most of their movies are in English with Spanish subtitles) but we were able to understood most of it. The movie wasn't that great, but it was good for practicing Spanish.

Today we took the time to sleep in, and then did our homework in the late morning since we didn't have time the night before. Get this we a) had to DRAW (which neither Kristen and I can do) a picture of anything b) describe it in Spanish for 10 minutes. When we told Carlos it had to be 10 minutes, he laughed. It ended up that it didn't actually have to be a full 10 minutes, but mine was 8 anyway because I talked about EHF, and obviously I can talk about that foreverrrr. Class actually went by a little faster today because we had more work to do, so that was buenooo. After class we finally ran into Alvaro! We gave him a small guilt trip for not talking to us yet, but he's been really busy and he might come out with us tonight. I think all the Fairfield people and our language partners are going to try to go to a discoteca, so that should be an experience. And tomorrow we're going to Granada for the day with Alex and Dave, the other Americans at our house. And Sunday Rebeca's having a little get together at her house at 11am and Carlos is having a party at his house at 7 or 8 at night. So basically, we have a ton of fun plans coming up and I can't wait! Escribame!!!

p.s. - Fairfield people, take lots of pix this weekend...I want to see everyone's new TOWNHOUSES!!!!