Nicaragua

We got in from Nicaragua at about 7 pm last night. I had such a good time! Here are some highlights, and pictures:

Nick and I set off from Santa Rosa on the 7:30 bus last Wednesday. We then caught the 12:30 Ticabus to Granada, Nicaragua. Taking a Tica bus is VERY different from taking your run-of-the-mill chicken bus in Central America. They are air conditioned, have a bathroom, and they show movies. So the 8 hour trip turned out to be super comfortable. When we got to the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, we went through customs, no problem. In line to get back on the bus, I was chatting with a couple of Israelis, who just finished their obligatory service in the army, and are now traveling for like 6 months, before starting college in the fall. They tell me that most young people (like 70%) travel after the army. In any case, while we were chatting, a border official came and pulled both of them out of our line to be searched again, and questioned more extensively. We figure it is because they had Israeli passports. Anyway, it turned out that the police didn’t have a translator, and the Moshe and Gal didn’t speak Spanish. So, they asked me to translate for them. So, I translated all of the border official’s questions into English (which Moshe and Gal speak perfectly, in addition to Hebrew). Everything turned out fine, and we proceeded on the bus to Nicaragua.

When we arrived in Granada, it turned out that the Israelis were heading to the Bearded Monkey Hostel, and so were we! So, we shared a cab. Nick and I ended up spending the entire trip hanging out with Moshe and Gal, who are super sweet. I was joking with them, saying that I bought their friendship by spotting gal a dollar for the cab, but she says I really bought their friendship at the border.
Our hostel was cute, and had a good atmosphere. It was a huge colonial house, which now serves as dorms and a restaurant. In the center there is a big patio with plants and hammocks. We ate breakfast there every morning, and I had some ridiculously delicious banana pancakes, and free coffee- how much better can life get, right? Pictured at left: Moshe drinking coffee during our hostel breakfast.

On Thursday, the 4 of us walked around the city, and checked out all of the historical sights (see pictures). Granada has a really pretty avenue (Calle La Calzada) running down the center, with restaurants, shops, and houses on both sides, and it ends on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. Despite how idyllic this one street looks, though, there is a lot of poverty in Granada, and Nicaragua in general. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in all of Central America, behind Haiti. There were a lot of street children and people panhandling, and it made me a little sad to see it. There are problems in Costa Rica, especially in the bigger cities, but Nicaragua was definitely a shock. One really funny little boy came up and tickled me when we were eating dinner one night, and asked if I would buy some of his gum; we did.

On Friday, the America-Israel alliance traveled to the Laguna de Apoyo. It is a really gorgeous crater lake, outside of Granada. Our hostel has a house there, where you can either stay overnight, or just go out for the day. We went out as a day trip, and it was BEAUTIFUL! The sky

was clear, and the house had comfortable hammocks to lounge in, and there were kayaks and a dock to sunbathe on. For lunch, Moshe cooked us some Israeli food. I feel like I learned as much about Israel and that area than I did about Nicaragua and Central America. I can now say at least 5 swear words in Hebrew (who knows why those are always what you pick up first) plus the polite words like “good morning” and “thank you”. In fact, if you are reading this, Moshe and Gal: What up, kalba? Pictures: Nick kayaking; the view from the house's porch at sunset

On Satruday, we all went to the Masaya, which is a less touristy, artesanial community. We walked around the market, and I bought some sweet pants. The, we took a bus to the Masaya volcano. We did the night tour that they offer- and it was totally worth it. We saw the volcano, and crater- which was emitting a ton of smoke, some lava tunnels, a ton of bats in the caves. The last part of the tour, we had to put on gas masks,

and they took us right up to the edge of the crater. The smoke and gases were pretty strong, but we could see a little bit of the red glow of the lava. My eyes were burning, and I was coughing something awful- but you only live once, right? To get home, we walked out to the road, and tried to flag down a bus. We managed to find one going to Masaya, and there we walked to another highway to try and catch a ride. Our ride from Masaya was… interesting… A mini bus stopped, but was already completely full. However, the driver did some arranging, and managed to stuff us in. The bus is probably meant to hold like 30 people, and I would say that there were at least 50-60. Moshe was the last one on, and he had to ride hanging out of the open doors while we went like 60 on the highway. It was an adventure. When we got home, we ate dinner, and talked to the front desk about how to check out in the am, since Nick and I were going to be leaving super early the next morning. I was glad to learn that there would be someone around to give me back my $3 deposit that I paid on our locker. Before going to bed, we shared a group hug and said goodbye to our new friends.

Nick and I woke up at 5 am to get our stuff together and be at the busstation by like 6:15. However, we had a small hang up. I was trying to open up the locker where our stuff was stored, in complete darkness so as to not wake up the other 8 people sleeping in the room. But when I stuck the key in the lock, it totally came apart. Seriously, the main part fell out into my hand, and some little balls also fell onto the floor. Using my IPOD for light, Nick and I tried to fix it, but it was hopeless. I went and got the nighttime guard for the hostel, and we carried the entire locker into another room (with light- thank goodness). The lock was 100% jodido, so Nick and I walked, in our PJs, to Granada’s fire station (which was luckily right around the corner). They leant us some bolt cutters, and after some skillful wielding by Nick, we got the locker open. The guard was laughing, and told me that I was definitely not getting my deposit back… I told him that I had kind of figured that.

Well, we made it to the bus staion, and back to Santa Rosa. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. When we got on the bus, and I finally hada few minutes to distress- I realized that I had woken up with weirdo hives all over my body. I freaking hate how weird my skin gets. They are not “the itchy” that I usually get as an allergic reaction- they are different. I still have them today, but am hoping that if I keep dosing myself with antihistamines, I will stop looking like I have leprosy. Actuyally, I have no idea what leprosy looks like, it is just the disease that I usually compare my skin got. Similarly, whenever I am sick ,I say I have SARS. That’s just how I operate.

December 9, End of the semester stuff

Today was the last day of classes before the Christmas vacation. However, their Christmas vacation is actually their summer vacation, so we don’t go back until February. Everyone finished their finals, and some really surprised me with how well they did. I am definitely gonna miss my 6th graders… even though we had our differences before, we worked it out, and I ended up getting along with them really well. We also made birthday cards for Eric, the old volunteer, and I mailed them. They were super cute, and pretty funny. Here is a picture of what the inside looked like.

Tonight, we had a Christmas party at my house with my adult students. Or, more accurately, the 4 of them who showed up. It was nice though, we had food, and it was neat to sit around and talk (about actually topics, not just the very limited ones that they know how to say in English). I made Guacamole, and it was a hit. Also, I handed out grades and Christmas presents. It was cute. I have put up some Christmas lights and decorations, plus, Patri finished painting my house this weekend, so it was pretty nice to be getting in the Christmas spirit. Pictured below: 1-Patri painting my kitchen; 2-Some of my adult students in class.

On Sunday night, we went to a baile at Los Pinares. I am not sure that I have ever had so much fun. I got to practice my Meringue, Salsa, and Cumbia skills- and I am definitely improving. Also, they played some serious Maná and other Spanish rock, and we just jumped around and had fun. I was exhausted when we got home, but whatevs. I still don’t understand why Sunday nights are such big going out nights here, especially since everyone has to work so early on Mondays, but I digress. We also got together to pick names for a Secret Santa gift exchange among my friends- I am hoping to find a cool present this week when I go to Nicaragua.

Nick and I taught a workshop in the colegio on Monday, on chess (ajedrez). I haven’t played in like, years, but it was fun. We taught them some of the basics, and then practiced in pairs. Funny story- I was playing with one of the other teachers in the colegio- Errol. I took his queen, and he says: “what the fu*k?!” I was laughing so hard, because it was in English. I teased him, and accused him of being the one that teaches my students all the bad words they know in English, because it definitely isn’t me, and they know quite an impressive number.

Tomorrow Nick and I are going to Nicaragua for 4 days. I will blog more on that later, though.

El Doble Miedo

Heeeeyyyyyy-

Last night, I met up with my friend Jóse (the tech guy at Habitat) to go to dinner in Barva, where he lives. He has been telling me for months about this restaurant, called Pepinos, where they have a "hamburger" called the Doble Miedo. As y'all know, I can eat, so he challenged me to finish it. I am ashamed to say, I couldn't do it (or maybe I would have been more ashamed if I had finished it... I am not sure). In between 3 different buns were sandwiched 2 hamburger patties, pulled beef, french fries, ham, bacon, pickles, lettuce, and I don't even remember what else. I used like 27 napkins.

Jóse showed me the central plaza, and I totally fell in love with the city. There are a ton of sculptures in the main park, and a lot of really cool art. I still get surprised about how much variety there is in Costa Rica- Barva seems like a different country from Santa Rosa. The city is famous for its fiestas, where they make really crazy masqueradas (traditional masks). Every trash can has a clown scultpure/mask on the top; kind of creepy, but I liked it.

New Volunteer, dancing, and lots and lots and lots of rain.

This will be a comprehensive update. Some interesting things have happened, some less interesting things have happened. I will try and keep my stories as much from the first category as possible.

First things first: I have my camera back! Like 4 months after I broke my supposedly waterproof camera by taking it in the ocean, I got a new one. I would like to thank all of the people who made the waranteeing of my camera possible: Matt and Stephanie (for taking it to the states), Nancy and Caty (for dealing with Costco) and the warantee and mailing it to Brent, and Brent and Shanda (for carrying it the last leg of the journey back to C.R.). Thus, blogs from now on should be pretty picture heavy.



It literally hasn't stopped raining for 9 days straight in Santa Rosa. Ok, that's not true, there was about an hour on Saturday when it wasn't raining, just cloudy. In a town with few to no clothes dryers, this is rough. But hopefully the weather will get better soon. If not, I might go into a depression.


There is another American volunteer in Santa Rosa right now, so I am getting my English-language fix. His name is Nick (see picture), and he is 18 and from Massachusetts. He is taking a year off between high school and college, and decided to come volunteer for two months with Habitat. He is living in Abdon and Ligia's house, so I obviously see him a lot. He is going to be helping me with my projects (including what is left of the school semester for English classes) plus doing a few side projects. We are looking at teaching some workshops on random stuff in the high school, as well as doing some much needed building repair there at the colegio. Also, it looks like he is going to come with my on my next out of the country trip. yeah! We were going to go to Nicaragua, but there are Sandinistas rioting in Managua, so that is not looking like such an atractive option. Then, we were going to go to Bocas del Toro in Panama, but there has been some crazy flooding this week. I guess we'll just wait and see.


I went out dancing in Cartago on Saturday, and it was probably one of the funnest nights that I have had yet. Dixie, Nelson, Carita, myself, and a new friend who I hadn't met previously (who they call Tractor, but is actually named Melvin. I know, weird name) went to las Gemelas and Sunset. I got to practice my dancing abilities, and just have a good time. We got back at like 2 am. I took pictures, but they somehow got erased during the transfer to Nelson's computer process- I guess that's what happens when I haven't used a camera for 4 months, and try to download pictures without reading the instructions.

Milestone: I passed the halfway mark of my trip last week. It's all downhill from here. I have like 4.5 months left. It's honestly been going super fast, and I already know that the rest is going to fly by. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but I don't think that I am really going to celebrate. Maybe Nick and I will eat a can of green beans or something =)


This picture is of my 5th graders playing a board game about vehicles that I made. It went really well... so I took a picture.

Beach beach beach

So, this week I am staying at Playa Tamarindo with my cousin Brent, his wife- Shanda, and their two cute-as-pie-daughters- Ansley and Riley. It's really gorgeous here! The water is warm, the condo is beautiful, and its great to be hanging out with the fam. Here are some pictures.This is definitely a break from my usual Costa Rica experience, and I am gonna live it up =)

We have had a fun week- swimming, going to the beach, going to the pool, laying out, eating... all of the things that you usually do on a gorgeous tropical beach. I have totally fallen in love with Ansley and Riley, and am really appreciating the chance to get to know Shanda and Brent even better. We went to playa Avellana today, and i loved it! It was beautiful, and super pura vida. We ate a restaurant named Lola's, which is named after the pet pig that the owners keep as a pig (see picture). I would definitely go back, and never leave.

We are heading back to San Jose tomorrow. No bus for me! We are going in the rental car. I suppose I will have to go back to work =( but am super greatful for this nice break.

Obamanos!

Obamanos!

I am super psyched about the election. While I wasn't able to follow the progress throughout the day, Costa Rican TV is still quite interested in the U.S. election results, and I got the important news: Obama won! I am sitting here reading the transcript of President Obama's victory speech, and I am really impressed. I don't want to sound cheesy, but today I am really proud to be an American. People here are asking me if I voted, and if I think that Obama will make a good President, and I can orgullosamente say that yes, I did vote (provided the ballot reached its destination. We can only hope), and I think that Barack Obama will be the President that changes America for the better. ¡Si se puede!

Phone call

I just got a phone call from my dad. It was the first time that he has called me- usually I call them. Caty was down at the house in Benson, and they were having dinner. They called to tell me that my cousin Andrew passed away today. That was rough. I am actually sitting in my house, not really wanting to go to sleep, but not knowing what to do either, so I am going to write a blog. Pennebaker says that even writing about upsetting feelings in a diary is enough to help you deal, so I figure my blog should suffice (there’s a random bit of psychology knowledge for ya). Like I told Caty, I am crying, but not bawling. It is more that kind of crying that you could hold in if you had to, but it feels a little better just to let it out and let yourself grieve for a bit. I don’t even know what to say- he was in his 20s. They don’t know what happened. I am definitely praying for Bill, Beth, Melody, and Shannon right now.