Today was exciting, we got to see a little more of Managua and Christopher took all of us out to lunch with Rebeca and her boyfriend Miguel! Rebeca studied abroad at Fairfield in the Fall of 07 when I was an international orientation leader. She actually graduated from UCA recently (except for her final presentation on Tuesday – kind of like a thesis or senior capstone presentation we think), but she’s still going to be around to help us! It’s so great knowing I already have a friend here, and I know she will get to know everyone else too! After lunch, we had a brief meeting to talk about safety / classes, etc.
Then we walked around the mall a little (pretty much like our malls, they had stores like Tommy Hilfiger and nine west too…). They had this set up in the mall and it reminded me of the train set we used to build when I was little…even though this is racecars… --->After the mall, Rebeca and Miguel brought us back to UCA. Then we walked around to the 3 different houses the Fairfield students are staying at. We decided that all of the houses have their advantages and disadvantages – some people have desks and closets, some are close, some are far. The nicest one is Greisy and Alex’s house. They have a tower with the steepest steps ever – but totally worth this view…
I think our bedroom is the most simple of all of them, but I’m okay with that. It would be nice to have a desk, but we can do our homework at the kitchen table. We might try to get a little end table to put some of our stuff on since our clothes are in crates so little bottles just fall right through the holes. This is what our room looks like!
Our house is nice. To get from the main house to our room you walk outside but there are lights and we just have to be careful of the steps (with my perpetually swollen ankle) and of the dogs! Their names are Luna and Cristal (spelling?). We’ve also met Alba’s daughter Albalucia (I think!) and her son whose name I can’t remember right now.
This is what outside of our house looks like. But when I say outside, it’s still inside technically since it is in between our room and the rest of the house and it’s inside the locked doors/gates..it’s just in open air.
After we saw everyone’s houses we went to el supermercado, La Union. La Union is owned by Wal-Mart, so as you might imagine, I was displeased. I struggled with this idea before I left too. A lot of the things that I have become more aware of over the past two years as far as social responsibility, mostly affect people in developing countries like Nicaragua. However, if the only choice is “La Union,” then do I have no choice but to shop there as well? Also, since La Union is owned by Wal-Mart, does that mean they are just as bad as Wal-Mart or not? I wish I knew these kinds of things…social justice people, help me out!
When we got back to our house, Alba was ready to make us dinner. It was chicken nuggets, tomatoes and rice. I then had to explain that I don’t eat meat. I said “No como carne, soy vegetariana” and she didn’t understand me. So she called her daughter in, who said the same thing, and she was still confused. But later she said “no comes carne, ni pollo., y no comes pescado?” so I think she got it…
Then Kristen and I gave her our gifts and talked to her some more. I’m really proud of how much Spanish we’re speaking already. Tomorrow we will have breakfast at 9am. Since it’s Sunday we can eat later! I wanted to go to mass, but nobody can tell me what time it’s at so I think there’s a good chance I won’t make it which is sad. I’m looking forward to mass for several reasons, not the least of which includes practicing some more Spanish! At 10:30 Kathe (from UCA) will pick us up, with a tourism student and we will go to the mall to get our phones and maybe to a market. I think they will show us around some more and then we will probably come back to our houses in the late afternoon/early evening.
P.S. If you read this and are friends with Kristen – don’t listen to what she tells you about the bugs. There are no more bugs here than in the United States. For your MAGiS kids, it is not even remotely close to the Philippines!...and yea, I’ll try to keep it shorter in the future so you don’t lose interest and stop reading!
