It's been a rough month.... We had a busy month filled with TEFL trainings, talleres, charlas, and more work than we could ask for! We just got done with Nica Tesol, which was a two day conference in Managua with English teachers from all over Nicaragua. It was great meeting so many teachers from different regions of the country, but it was certainly one of the longest two days we´ve had this month. Thank goodness we had a week off after Nica Tesol because I don´t think I could have gone to work afterward. I went up north to visit a friend in Jinotega during my little break. It was an awesome trip and the nine hours it took to get to his farm was totally worth it! It was so relaxing to be there for a couple of days. I wish I could have stayed longer because the climate was perfect and the views was spectacular. Sometimes, I wonder why I wasn't sent up north... Oh well... The grass is always greener on the other side.

I have a lot more to write about this month, but I think I've had enough internet time for one day...

So, I've been a little lazy in keeping up with this blog. I can't believe I haven't written in it since last July! It's been over a year since my last entry. I am seriously bad at this.... But, I've turned over a new leaf and I'm going start keeping up with this blog because I want something to go back to and read after my adventure in Nicaragua ends. I guess I kind of have to back track a bit because a whole year has passed since my last entry, which was Jurementacion or swearing-in.

I´m so surprised that a year and a half has already gone by. I mean I thought we would never get to this point because two years really did seem like a long time once I got here. After swearing-in, I moved to the beautiful, colonial city of Granada. It's an extremely touristy site, probably the most touristy in Nicaragua. Like with any site, my site definitely has its advantages and disadvantages. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, it´s been very hard to differentiate myself from the tourists and backpackers that come here on vacation. The men on my street and the street surrounding my neighborhood, streets I walk through every single day continue to harass me and they still have no idea what I´m doing here. I try to tell them, but it seems like with most things here, the information comes in one ear and out the other.

For the next four months after my arriving in Granada, I lived with a host family. They were awesome! In comparison to the awful host family I had during training, my host family in Granada was nice and generous. I really liked living with my host family, but I never quite felt comfortable living with them because I always felt like I was walking on egg shells. I didn´t feel like their home was my own, and I don´t think that would´ve changed if I had decided to stay for the whole two years. One of the many disadvantages to living in Granada has been the cost of living. Rent is impossible to pay if you´re trying to live alone, and living with a host family can be just as expensive. After four months of living with my host family, I decided to move out and move into a house with my site mate, Liz. She and I found a great place about a 20 minute walk from the central park. The house was in a sketch neighborhood, but the rent was affordable and the owner had been a former PCV in Africa and she understood our financial situation. I moved in before Thanksgiving and it´s been awesome since that day I found independence again.

According to Peace Corps policy in Nicaragua, PCVs cannot live together, but after some fighting and reasoning with the staff and our country director we were granted permission to live together. Liz and I were happy and relieved to be able to live together because rent is ridiculous in Granada. We could not find anything affordable that was located in a safe part of the city. Our neighborhood may be sketchy at night and there are a lot of men who like hang out and drink and play street baseball everyday, but our house is pretty swanky. We have our own rooms and bathrooms, and the kitchen is outside along with our spacious patio. Our kitties, Tuna and Sparky love the house too! There is nothing like being able to cook for yourself again and have the freedom to eat and do whatever you want. If I want to walk around my house naked, I can that! It´s awesome. I never quite appreciated my independence before because it was something I always had at home, but coming here and living with a host family for the first seven months in Nicaragua has taught me to appreciate my freedom a lot more.

I'm an English teacher in Granada. I work work three counterpart English teachers at a school near a local grocery store. I used to work there five days a week, but I cut my hours and now I work there Mondays to Wednesdays. The past four months has been soo busy. I have two community classes during the week, one at the Casa de La Mujer, a government funded NGO that works with women in both rural and urban areas in Granada, providing them with technical classes, and I work with Xichen Centro de Mujeres twice a week teaching English classes. I'm going to be starting self-defense classes with my women´s group next week. I have also been teaching English classes with Futbol Sin Fronteras on Thursdays to a group of girls. Like I said, it´s been super busy here! A few months ago, I didn´t think I would ever be this busy! I´m also in the process of trying to start a garden project, but I think it´s going to fail. No one seems to give a shit about the project because we´ve had to cancel so many classes due to the actos that plague our schools. I shouldn´t call it a plague!... I mean I´m used to them by now. I remember how angry I was when I first got here and my classes kept getting cancelled because my students had to prepare for some stupid school event to raise money for the director´s birthday or practice for the band competition.

I have about 10 more months here....wow, that´s not a lot of time! Time does fly! I´ve been thinking hard about going to Korea and med school. I keep thinking that I have enough time to figure things out, but I really don´t have that much time. I thought I had enough time to really figure out what I wanted to do with my life in college, but time flew by and I graduated and now I´m here in Nicaragua with the same dilemma. I was thinking about taking some art classes and photography classes when I come home next year, and I was thinking of applying to a post-bac program to go to med school.... These are all thoughts... I'm a little freaked out about the future.

So, I have some other things to include in this blog before signing off.

- Peter and I are completely over. He´s engaged to some Russian chick he met at Peabody, and the last time we spoke he said they might be married next summer. Isn´t that ridiculous? I still can´t believe he´s getting married. I thought that he would take some time before moving on so fast, but I guess he found his rebound chick.

- I was robbed this past Saturday after going to a concert with some friends in Managua. We were stupid and didn´t think about taking a cab and some guy stole my purse. I learned a valuable lesson... Never walk around at night, especially in a city that is known to be dangerous.

- Liz and David are married!!! Yeah! June 20th! I had so much fun at the wedding... It was unforgettable.

I think that's about it for now... I'm surprised I even wrote all this! I miss home a lot, but I know that I'll be home soon and I should use the time I have here to figure out my life.

It's official! We've made it through training... its our swearing in ceremony tomorrow. I can't believe that these past few months have flown by so fast.

Just finished watching Aladdin! And, it was awesome.

I found out my site! I´ll be in Granada, Granada for the next two years!

Wow, I´ve really been lazy in keeping up with my blog. I´m sooo sorry for that! I remember when I first started this blog I wanted to be consistent in my journals and blog posts, but I´ve clearly failed in doing that... But, I am going to try to catch everyone up to what I´ve been up to these past seven weeks in El Rosario.

El Rosario is a little pueblo in the department of Carazo. Nicaragua is divided into departments- I think there are 16 total, but I´m not sure... I´ll try to post a map of Nicaragua in my next blog entry. This has been my training town for the past seven weeks.. and I have about four more weeks to go. Its been an amazing experience so far. I´m enjoying every minute of it. I live with a host family here, and they´ve been so nice and helpful. The first two weeks were a little hard, and I can´t lie... I did cry a little... no, wait... I cried a lot. I really started to miss home after we got to our training towns. It wasn´t after the end of the second and beginning of the third week that I started to feel better. I´ve really tried to establish some sort of a routine here.. por ejemplo:

I wake up around 6:30 am just about every morning... maybe with the exception of sunday- my day off! I have Spanish and culture classes from 8 to 12, and then from 1-3/4 pm. I come home and hang out with my family or somtimes I go into Jinotepe, a city outside of my little pueblo to use the internet, call peeps, or do some mandados ¨errands.¨

I haven´t really talked much about what I miss about the states:

- i miss pizza hut pan pizza... yummy.

- breakfast burritos

- nutella... with peanut butter. its so expensive here.

- of course, my mom and sister, but that´s a given!

- yes, my friends too... like you guys reading my blog.. sorry again for the delay.

- my extended family.. even if I only see some of them once or twice a year.

- my couch at home

- take-out chinese, italian, whatever

- KOREAN FOOD! MAN, I WOULD GIVE ANYTHING FOR SOME KIMCHEE.

- krav maga.. i miss this soo much. you wouldn´t believe how much i miss punching/kicking..

- my bed/pillow... my room... yes, i miss my house.

- my weekly dinners with michelle and amanda

- robek smoothies with lisa after krav or even before krav

- making my own quesadillas with salsa

- croissant sandwiches with avocado and swiss cheese

- yes, i´ll miss boot season. darn...

- pigging out... i´ve been doing a lot of that here but its not the same because i pig out on galletas ¨cookies¨too much. my sweet tooth has definitely gotten worse since i´ve been here.

- CHOCOLATE.. chocolate covered pretzels would be awesome.

- whole foods... the salmon terriyaki bowls there. ooo....

man... I need to stop! I am totally going overboard with this... but you guys get the idea.

I´m going to be finding out my site tomorrow, which I´m totally nervous about. I want to know, but at the same time I don´t want to find out because that means that the two years are just around the corner. It´s a very scary thought. I´ll be sure to update my blog this weekend.

I hope everyone knows how much I miss them! I hope you guys are doing well! Let me know how things are going. I´d love to still feel like I´m in the loop.. even though, I´m a few hundred miles away. FYI: Nicaragua is only a two hour plane ride from Miami. Plan your trips now!

Hello everyone!

I can´t write much right now, but I will tomorrow.... Have to get started on some awesome homework. Today was the first day of classes. I am in a little town called El Rosario with a population of about 5,000 people.

I miss everyone!!

This might sound repetitive but I still can't believe that I'm leaving soo soon. I'm leaving tomorrow and I still have a lot to do. Packing for this trip has definitely been difficult. Imagine trying to fit two years worth of stuff in two bags! And, the bags have to be under 80 lbs. I've done a good job of packing so far. I went to Gold's Gym this morning to weigh them. Yeah! Under 80 lbs.. they were 67 lbs total!.. so, that means that I have about 13 more lbs of shit I can take. That's awesome. But, I'm really going to try and limit it to 75 lbs.

So, last night was tripy man!... (need to finish up some packing...)

I found out what my address will be in Nicaragua for training:

Dianne Kim, PCT

Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado Postal 3256

Managua, Nicaragua

Central America

Man, I had no idea.. until I went through my Welcome book again. Guess I should have done that sooner. Hope everyone is able to write me.

May 2nd, 2008

Mi amigo, Eric y yo fuimos a Clarendon Grill y vimos un grupo de 80s. Eric bailo muchisimo con otros chicas feas porque estaba muy ocupada hablando con un hombre guapo. El hombre tenia pantalones con rayas y su culo era muy grabalicious. Eric salio con las chicas feas y una chica fea era un cougar. Ella tenia 54 anos. Espero que el tenga una buena noche con la mujer aka... cougar llenado con muchisimo sexo.

The title says it all. I can't believe it. I haven't even started packing. I have soooo much stuff to do before I leave! 

So here's the 411 on the Peace Corps and what I'll be doing for the next 2+ years:

Country: Nicaragua

Program: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Job Title: TEFL Teacher Trainer

Dates of Service: July 18, 2008- July 16, 2010

Pre-Service Training: in/near Masaya, Nicaragua May 7- July 18, 2008

write more later... need to do some errands!

I realized that I only have three weeks left until I leave for Nicaragua. I'm sorry to everyone who has or will have read my blog in the next few weeks.. The posts are all about leaving and blah blah blah I'm sad blah blah... Sorry! I'm trying to make them more interesting, but it's a struggle because not one thing has come up that has been as huge as my inevitable departure in three weeks. I'll try to keep these posts somewhat FUN!... and I'll posts some pictures up as well. 

Here's a list of what I've been up to the past few days: (I also listed some stuff I should be doing as a reminder to myself!)

- figuring out what to pack and what to buy. I've been looking into buying some "sporty" sandals, but lets face it, the Chacos sandals that are a "must-have" among Peace Corps volunteers are in a sense, not the most attractive sandals around. I know that I shouldn't been too choosy, but I've decided that Chacos are not for me. However, I have been looking into buying some awesome Keen sandals I found at REI. I'm going to do some more research to see if I can get them cheaper on Zappos.

- I've made a decision not to buy luggage. The one I have at home is large enough and I'll just take my pack and carry-on bag. I can't take a lot anyways, so what's the point of buying luggage. I need to be more thrifty.

- need to pay my taxes! AND.. let me just say that I am not happy... but at least I'll be getting some money back.

- trying to make plans to visit people. gosh! three weeks are going to fly by, aren't they?.. I mean it feels like just yesterday that I received my invite to Nicaragua.

- going to Krav! I went to Krav tonight and I got a great work out! Yeah, I have a bruise on my leg.. I think it's from when I kept trying to "knee" my partner, Chaz in the ribs and kept getting his elbows! He was a good sport! I guess I still need to practice a bit more before I leave. 

- working on some art projects, one in particular which I have been working on for the past couple of weeks... but damn it, I'm not even half done. I can't seem to get motivated to finish it, but I need to. That reminds me: I need to restock on art supplies. Need to go to Pearl. 

- spending time with mom and jeanette should be a priority, but with j at college I can't really see her all that much. Man, I am going to miss her and mom. The reality of leaving them hasn't sinked in yet.

- spend time with peter. no more fighting. He's so right about not fighting before I leave. I want to make some great memories with him before I leave. I'm going to miss him soo much. 

- call my grandparents. aunts. uncles. family. (NEED to do this ASAP!)

- can't remember... will post more...

For those of you who have been lucky enough to read my blogs, I will miss you soooooo much! I've been feeling some anxiety about leaving lately, and it has really made me think about the people who are most important in my life.

Wow.... i have one more month until i leave for orientation and then nicaragua. i've been feeling more and more anxious as my departure date approaches. time sure does fly.

i have one more week of work left and then i'm completely done with being a server. i can't believe it! i've been working at that darn restaurant for so long, its going to be strange not working there... but honestly, i just can't wait until my last day. it's going to be awesome. i'm going to just hang out with friends and enjoy my last few weeks here before i leave in may.

I really can't believe that I'll be leaving in a month. It's so unreal. Time really does fly.. and it doesn't always happen when you're having fun. The reality of my eventual departure hasn't set in yet, and it probably won't until the week before I leave. I've never been very good with keeping up with journals, but hopefully I'll be able to write in this blog once or twice a week. I'll be sure to let everyone know my address and other important info before I leave. I'm just going to have to enjoy every second... minute... moment of this month!