I've been home three weeks and a day now and it still feels totally normal and completely weird. It's normal because this is where the majority of my life has taken place. I understand all of the social norms, even if some of them do get on my nerves. I know the laws and that there are consequences for breaking them. I'm around all the people I love and who love me. I'm eating my favorite foods and doing my favorite things.

And while all of this is good...it's weird to be an adult here. When I left for Nica I was basically fresh out of college. While that's technically an adult, I was still growing up. Now that I've seen and been a part of something to different, well, I'm different. And that makes me see the things and people and social norms I'm used to different.

When I see a woman in line getting impatiant with an old man paying for his groceries with coupons and then ends up having to put something back because he doesn't have enough money, I want to remind her she's not the center of the universe and that this is his life. How can a person stand there and think about how his life is a waste of her time? That made me so angry. I know I've been impatient in the past so...I'm judging the past-me too.

There are three kinds of people who ask me questions about my time in the PC. The worst are those who really don't care and are just waiting for their turn to talk. Their questions are one or both of these:

#1 How was it down there? (in a disgusted voice)

#2 Bet you're glad to be back, huh? (in a condescending voice)

The second group of people are those who care but don't know the "right" questions to ask because we haven't been in touch much/at all while I was gone. These people usually ask #1 and #2 but without the weird voices. They might even put up with an anecdote or two :) I like these people and can usually guide the conversation to a part of my life they might want to hear more about.

But the best are the people who are actually interested and have stayed in touch with me while I was gone. They can ask the pointed questions.

#1 How is the readjustment going?

#2 What do I miss the most from there?

#3 How did it change you?

I have answers to all of these questions and more. I'll even answer (honestly) the questions from group #1 (They usually get a "It was great," and a "Oh...yeah. Definitely.")

Dear Group #1:

It was eye-opening to live in such a poor country. People can live with so little, which is in opposition to everything our culture crams into us; I mean, Black Friday...? Stabbings, and pepper-spray, and having it now encrouching on our family Thanksgivings? That's sick. We're doing that while 48% of Nicas are living below the poverty line, 79.9% live on less than $2 a day, and 27% are suffering from malnutrition. I'm not saying we should give up buying new things sometimes or try to live on $2 a day, but we should keep ourselves in check.

And to answer your second question, duh I'm glad to be back. But not in the way you mean. You think it completely sucked down there and that everything here is awesome. Yes it was hard being away from my family for so long. I don't want to live far from my family for that long again. And it's nice coming back to all the conveniences and new music and delicious foods. But not everything is a joy to come home to. I'm not the only one that's changed in the last two years. Some people are all about appearances. Some are more materialistic. Some are more cynical. Some are more depressing to be around. I just don't know how to deal with some people because my values have shifted and so have theirs. And people in general aren't as friendly here. It's all about rushing to get to the next place.

End Group #1s letter. They would never listen that long or read that much anyways. I'll bypass group 2 and go straight to 3. The most interesting question makers.

My readjustment is going okay. There are some days when I go crazy and want to yell at the impatient woman in the store. There are some days when I'm just sad to not be there any more. I am more anxious here. I'm worried all the time: that someone will die in a car accident or have a heart attack and I'll never see them again, that I'll never get a job, that I'll run out of money. I never used to worry that much. I think it's because I was away for so long I'm afraid others will disappear from my life and, as for the money/job worries...I've seen truly poor people and want to be able to save so I can keep myself and those I love out of simliar situation.

What I miss most from there are the slower pace of life. Nicas always have time for other people: to talk, help them out, whatever. They're never rushing off to a meeting or work or home. If you show over unannounced, they act as though they expected you. There is always a hammock available for a quick (or long) nap. Time is different for them. Time isn't money. It's free and it's something they can give.

As for how I've changed...clearly I'm more judgemental of my culture and the people in it. I don't know if that's a positive or negative change, but it's a change. I just see more things as frivolous and other people seem to disagree. Like I said somewhere above, my values have shifted to things that are less material but more real.

I am more appreciative of my life and all the blessings in it. I want to help other people overcome the challenges in their lives. I don't know how or where, but I want to help.

And that's a wrap people. Adios.

I am sitting in the dining room at my parents' house watching them straighten up and make delicious pumpkin waffles for breakfast. Yum. Today is my first full day home. My plane arrived last night around 4:30PM, about 20 minutes early. At one point in flight my pilot actually said, "We're going to try to take a couple of shortcuts and see if we can't get you there a little earlier." How do you take a shortcut in a plane? I'm not sure.

Leaving Nicaragua for good was actually pretty sad. I had to say goodbye to my favorite people on Monday morning. They walked me to the bus and helped me with my luggage (thank God because one was soooooooo heavy). I went on my tearful way to Managua. Once there I ran around the PC office like a chompipe with my head cut off. I turned everything in and received my plane ticket. And then I rang the bell.

What am I talking about? I don't know if it's worldwide but PC Nicaragua has a small silver bell halfway down its staircase. When a volunteer finishes with everything, he/she rings that bell. Everyone comes out of his/her office and applauds. It's a very solid finishing sign that made me feel pretty darn good and complete about my service time.

My dad and two friends met me at the airport. Hugs and good feelings (and flowers from Julie!) were flowing...then we went out the automatic doors into the cold, gray and brown world. No complaints though. I like having four seasons. It helps me keep track of time.

Now I'm here. It feels weird and completely normal at the same time. Strange, right? The roads are so nice and smooth. Traveling in a private vehicle is luxurious. I have so many things in my bedroom (be seeing you soon Goodwill!).

To reflect, it was a great experience and I would recommend it to most people. I made a few new best friends, in both other volunteers and Nicaraguans. I learned things about myself and my world. If you want to know about what I learned, let's hang out. Call me.

Chompipe (pronounced chom-pee-pay) is one of my favorite words in Spanish. I like the way it sounds. It means "turkey" and I had my first close encounter with one yesterday. My sitemate Jennifer has one more year to go here in Nicaragua, as does the rest of her group (duh). So they'll be celebrating Thanksgiving here and one of Jen's friends decided she wanted to buy, fatten, kill, and eat a chompipe.

While I am a vegetarian, I have no problem with animals being killed as long as they are treated well and arne't injected with a bajillion hormones and antibiotics.

Anyways, this friend of Jen's lives FOUR HOURS away from where we live. And yet, she decided it would be a preferrable idea to buy the chompipe in our town and take it on the bus to where she lives. I thought this was a horrible idea, but that is in fact what she decided to do. So yesterday the chompipe was delivered to our house (by a very abliging profesora who picked it up from the farm on her way home from school). It was transported in a bag with holes in it. Maybe not the most humane thing, but really...what were the other options?

It spent the night at our house and today went on the journey to its new home. I heard he's doing fine and protested very little when he and his bag were tied to the top of the bus.

The wind must have been a nice change from the blistering heat of the inside of the bus.

Two weeks from right now I will be on a plane. Or maybe I`ll be in my layover in Miami...but I`m pretty sure I`ll be on a plane. This. is. crazy. I can`t believe it`s over. I know I somewhat frequently complained about things...but really, it`s been great. And I still have two weeks to enjoy it.

I had a meeting with my boss last week. It`s required when we`re leaving to bring closure for us and for them to get feedback. He asked me what I`ve learned. Aside from the obvio (Spanish), I`ve learned the value of sharing. People here are ALWAYS offering food when I`m at their houses or at schools. I even know a woman who gives clothes away if you compliment them. I`ve never been a great sharer, but I have gotten better over the past two years. And I`ll be sharing a lot as I pack up. Most of my clothes and shoes will not be making it back to the US.

I`ve also learned how to appreciate the small things. Ice cream has gotten pretty expensive this past year so I now am a frequent buyer of ice creams in a bag. It`s not real ice cream, more like snow ice cream (snow, eggs, vanilla, and sugar mixed together), but I love it and it runs at about five cents a bag.

I also think I`ll be less of a complainer and more of a minimalist...(is that how you spell that?). More on that later, time is almost up on the computer.

So, see you in two weeks.

It was one of those times where I reviewed my dream in that weird place between sleeping and being awake. That way I would remember it better. The details are crazy but I elaborate not a speck. It was just like real life. I was here in Nicaragua, walking home from school during daylight hours. I had just passed the old baseball field when a fat Nicaraguan man with long curly black hair and a beard to match said, “Adios mi amor,” in that lecherous voice so many man can have. Just like real life me, dream me had been in-country for a while and was FED UP. “Que asco, chancho (How gross, pig),” dream me said as I picked up a small handful of rocks. As if they could protect me. Then he made it clear (as people in dreams can some how vaguely do) that he was going to do me bodily harm. He took out a knife. I took off in a run. I glanced over my shoulder only to see him stab two men who had come over to calm him down. I ran faster. I turned the first corner I came to and jumped/scaled/climbed a fence to fall into the patio of a rich family`s house. I made it on top of the roof and was hiding out, constantly looking for him from my blind. Then the rich family came out and made me get down. I tried to explain but they didn`t care. They piled into their car and all of the sudden, he was there. His knife was out and he had me by the hands. He stabbed straight through one of them to show me he was serious. The family was gone. He then went for my stomach and I swear I could feel the warm blood rushing over my organs. Then he sliced open my other hand. It hurt. Whoever said you feel no pain in dreams was wrong. I somehow escaped and was again running down the rock/dirt streets of my town. Suddenly, MY family pulled up in a mini-van. The door slid open with a bang and I hopped in. For some reason none of them noticed I was doubled over with blood pouring out of my stomach. They were visiting me one last time before I came home and were very excited to go see a Dali exhibit that was in town. I wanted them to like it here, so I acquiesced and we went (dream Dali was apparently all about painting Nicaraguan national symbols: the bird, the flag, the escudo, the tree, etc.). I calmly asked my dad if we could swing by the hospital when we were done. They said yes. And then, I woke up. So, normally I´m not one to share dreams because usually they`re only meaningful to the people who dream them, BUT I remembered this one in such detail that I couldn`t help but share it with my sitemate. Immediately upon finishing she said, “Well, it´s obvio what it`s about. Nicaraguan-you is dying and it`s painful. Soon you´ll be reunited with your family and everything will be good.” As for Dali…I don`t really know what he was all about. 3.5 weeks left. Weird.

I have a little over a month left in Nicaragua and my emotions are all over the place. Usually I'm in a good mood and enjoying my time here, but I often feel the pressure of pending goodbyes and sometimes nervousness manages to creep into my general excitement of going home. It's a lot to deal with, this emotional rollarcoaster. At least it's one of those tiny kiddie rollarcoasters though :)

My favorite baseball team has officially started their season! Last Sunday was their opening day. I showed up insanely early because there was supposed to be a parade with an assembly at the end. Did I mention I was supposed to walk in front of the team holding a glove and ball? The boyfriend suggested I be the team's "godmother" and it seemed that the rest agreed (or at least didn't have a problem with it). Anyways, the parade didn't end up happening because of a shortage of money in the mayor's office. (I didn't know it cost money for people to walk from the park to the stadium but, what do I know? I'm foreign.) So we didn't parade. Instead we hopped in the back of a truck. Fine with me. The team lost that day, but I have high hopes for next time (tomorrow!) because they're getting new uniforms. Everyone loves a new uniform.

Saturday morning I woke up and headed to a river with my boyfriend, his brother, their cousin, and the cousin´s girlfriend. We packed 2 bottles of water, 2 towels, 1 radio, 3 bags of chips, 1 bag of ice, 1 machete, and two loops of nylon string. We walk past the health center and continued on after the road had turned to dirt. We head down the hill and squeezed past a barbed wire fence into a cow pasture. From there it´s a short jaunt to the river (where I´m sure the water is dirty but everyone showers afterwards anyways).

We plop all our things on the grassy shoreline. The brother whips out the machete and starts cutting into the ground as the boyfriend and the cousin unwind the nylon and attach hooks to the end. Apparently it´s fishing time before swimming time. The brother unearths a couple of worms and passes them to the others. They fished for about thirty minutes, catching one fish about 3 inches long. It was thrown back.

The brother illadvisidly (is that a word?) dives into the water, assuming it was deep. It was not. Luckily it was his chest that hit the bottom and not his head so he came out scratched instead of paralyzed. The rest of us soon followed (not diving). There were a few parts where we couldn´t touch but for the most part it was chest deep. The water was cold...and refreshing as long as the sun wasn´t behind a cloud. The girlfriend was afraid to cross the deep part by herself so the cousin went to retrieve her...and the chips. The radio was playing ranchero music (Nica version of country) and it was a beautiful day.

Until it started to rain. We saw the giant black cloud coming our way and swam to out exit point. As soon as we were out it started pouring. It was quite chilly after that. Since there was no lightening and only rain, we ran for cover under a tree. The brother and I objected since we were already wet but we had the radio to think of.

So we stayed under the tree. The brother then asked me, "Have you ever seen a buffalo?"

"No," I replied. He gestured towards a HUGE cow with HUGE horns. I do NOT like cows or bulls. They are huge animals with horns that make me nervous. This thing was massive. I immediately wanted to leave. After a couple more minutes (and the siting of two MORE buffalos), we decided to continue on.

Of course, the cousin had to bother the cows as we walked by, making me even more nervous. And I swear, one of the buffalos was watching us the entire time. No lie. He started out laying down. The cousin started waving his shirt and hat around and then the buffalo stood up and just watched us. I was out of that pasture lickety-split.

The pasture was huge of course and we weren´t close to them really, but apparently they can run up to 40mph so I think it was understandable that I was nervous and wanted to leave.

September 14th and 15th are Independence Days here in Nicaragua and they are THE celebrations of the year. The school bands have been practicing non-stop since July (seriously, more hours at practice than they are in the classroom), dancers have been learning routines and having costume fittings, primary students have been learning how to march in unison. It is a very big deal.

I must admit that I do love a good parade. In the US I didn´t think this was true but now I´m a fan of the Macy´s Day one and the ones here so...sign me up as a parade lover. I peeled myself out of bed yesterday morning, got ready, and headed out on foot across town (about 30 minutes) to the assembly point. Big mistake. I was sweating buckets before I even made it off my street! For relief I stopped at the bakery in the park. Yum :)

The kids were almost all there already. I dove head-first into the crowd of them and started taking in the spectacle and taking photos (which you can enjoy if you follow the new link under the photos section on the left). Everyone loves having their picture taken since they´re quite...done up. Here it´s sort of a cultural thing to have beauty and sexy mean the same thing; hence some of the more risquè outfits. But everyone was having a great time. Ice cream carts were abundant. The bands played as each best student was announced. It is quite the show.

Then it started raining, as I´m told it does every year. The girls ran for the cover of umbrellas to save their hair-dos. I think there were about ten people trying to fit under mine. The show must go on though! The parade started in a downpour (which let up two minutes later) and ended an hour and a half later in blazing sunshine. Oh weather...you saucy minx you.

I headed home to enjoy the comfort of my fan. There is just no way I can handle that heat for that long. And so I brought to a close my third and final Nicaraguan Independence Day celebrations. It was fun.

I don´t know how much people know about Nicaraguan culture. Before I left to come here I thought I wouldn´t be having ice cream for two years and that I would be eating basically Mexican food. There is ice cream, no Mexican. There are many interesting things about the culture here...so many that I clearly can´t and won´t mention them all in this blog, but a couple of things happened to me this week that have to do with the machista culture here(if you don´t know what that means, look it up).

I am constantly yelled after when I walk down the streets. Men of ALL ages call out to me, "I love you baby!" (thanks to Hollywood it´s one of the only phrases everyone knows) or "Te acompaño?" (Can I accompany you?). All of these are annoying and I have, more or less, learned to ignore them. I now only respond to people if they use my name when they catcall. Since I´m one of two white women in the town, it isn´t much of a filter but it´s something.

Every once in a while someone catches me by surprise. This happened twice this week (and it´s only Wednesday!).

Monday at noon I was walking to school. It was hot. I was sweating. A man in the passenger seat of an approaching taxi HELD HIS BABY OUT THE WINDOW (I´m talking maybe three years old, maybe) and had it say, "Adios amor!) as the taxi drove by me. I couldn´t help but be appaulled and smile at the same time.

The second instance when a man surprised me was on my walk home from my night class. I have to walk by a place where men hang out in the evenings (but it´s owned by a female friend of mine so they don´t bother me too much). I heard a young man say, "Adios Jocelyn." I turned and said goodbye and continued walking. He started walking with me, which was somewhat alarming but we were in a well lit area and I was going to a friend´s house, not my own. Anyways, he started up a conversation about how his dad lives in Indiana with his mom and sister. He´s getting his papers together and should be there in December. He was so excited to tell me this and then he said, "Let me show you their pictures!"

Of course I declined. But he kept walking next to me. He pointed to his house and asked again if he could show me their photos. I said, "Okay but I´m not going into your house." I waited on the sidewalk and he brought out three HUGE photos (for those of you who have been in a Nica home, they were the giant wooden ones but with REAL backgrounds...no superimposing!). He held them up in the streetlight. I appreciated them and bid him goodnight and went on to my friend´s house.

Why did this interaction surprise me? Because this young man (20 years old maybe) did not hit on me or act weird at all. He just seemed genuinely excited to show me his family. It was like he wanted to be just my friend. It was pleasant.

Other things that have happened: I realized I haven´t really lived in Cincinnati since I left for college. A 25 year old man was shot to death in a bar in my town (6 bullets from an "enemy´s" gun). A 5 year old bought me an ice cream. I found out I have to look for a new place to live because the owners of the house I rent just sold the house. I have to move out in October. Perfect. Who wants to rent to someone for 5 weeks? Oh, and I found that out from their daughter who´s in 4th grade.

Wish me luck on the house hunt!

September 2nd was my two year anniversary in Nicaragua! It seems inSANE that two years ago I was sitting in the D.C. airport with a bunch of strangers waiting to come here. I remember being beyond irritated with Peace Corps for making us arrive at the airport at 3AM when the airport DIDN´T EVEN OPEN until 5AM and our flight for Miami was to leave at 7...maybe 6:30...I can´t remember exactly but either way it was something ridiculous. We even had someone in our group from D.C. that told PC no one would be there to check us in until 5. So we sat around on our luggage in the D.C. airport.

And then our connecting flight in Miami was delayed more than 5 hours.

And then we arrived in Nicaragua to find that ALL of our luggage had gone to Haiti.

All in all, I guess it wasn´t such a technically great day, but I´m glad it happened. When PC first came on my radar as a possibility, I wasn´t sure because 2 years (really 27 months) seemed impossibly long and I didn´t think I could do it. And now, with the majority of my service behind me, I can honestly say it was the right choice for me to come here. Hats off to making good choices!

Life here is going along at a steady pace. I can´t believe I only have a little over two months left here...strange to think of living back in the U.S. again...and while I am nervous about some aspects of it, I´m also PUMPED (as you should be able to infer from the all caps, the pumped feeling vastly outweighs the nervous feeling). My reading circle thing with primary students is in full swing. I visit four classrooms. We read a story and then do a drawing. It´s nothing too complex but the kids enjoy it and so do I. My community class is plugging along as always. There are only about ten people left in the class but they come on time every time and I enjoy the small community atmosphere. My counterparts in the high school and I don´t do much together anymore. We´re working more on developing materials they can keep using after I´m gone. I still attend their classes but I do more observing and working one on one with the students having trouble or who were absent. I do believe I´ve hit a very nice rhythm for the next two months.

Keep the letters coming. No more packages or I might not get them before I leave. SEE YOU SOON!

This past week my group had our Close of Service Conference (COS). It started Wednesday morning in the office where we had our final language interviews. I was nervous that I hadn´t gotten better or (worse yet) that I had gotten worse. Fear not! I am now in the "advanced" category, low, but still. I made it! I was definitely pleased and relieved.

Thursday our group boarded the PC bus and headed towards Granada. I was impressed we all fit until I realized that between the English teaching side and the environmental side, we have lost TEN PEOPLE since coming here. 39 to 29. Incredible. Some have quit early for personal reasons, some were sick and had to go. Sometimes you can´t help it. Anyways, we pulled up to this really nice hotel in Granada. Julie, Carla, and I volunteered for the three people room. Comfortable beds, AC, hot water, delicious food, some of my best friends. Nothing to complain about (except the desserts were gross...good thing there was a nearby cafè with chocolate rice crispy treats!).

Anyways, the meetings on Thursday were mainly to give feedback about our programs. Since improvement is always possible, everyone had a lot to say, including me. PC has been a very enriching experience that I would recommend to most people, but there have definitely been some downsides. We also found out about our final three day medical extravaganza where we´re tested for everything under the sun (NOT looking forward to the parasite test!) and cleared to leave the country. For me that´s happening in late-October. Keep your fingers crossed that I get the all clear!

Friday PC hired a life coach to come spend the day with us. When I saw it on the schedule I had my doubts but she was AWESOME! She taught us how to do resumes, cover letters, helped us out with a little bit of grad school advice, and gave us the general lowdown on what benefits and opportunities are available to us. I´ve pretty much decided I want to work for the government for at least one year upon return. Any suggestions? Yes, that´s vague and I know it. But seriously, if you know anything about how to get a government job, please let me know. THANKS!

We also learned about all the forms we have to fill out before we leave :( Not fun.

AND (drumroll please...) we can leave as early as November 15th. Now, that doesn´t mean I´ll for sure be coming home that day. I could get special permission to leave earlier, which I might do because some friends are doing the same) or I might hang out a couple of days. It´s up in the air. But expect to see me flying through the air around that date!

Well July is going out with a lunch of pizza and a side of rain. That´s right, we are still in the rainy season. It started in the middle of May and will go until November (aka the rest of the time I´m here). Here the rainy season is called winter and the dry season is summer. At first I was confused because we´re not south of the equator so they should be on the same seasons as us (minus snow). But now it makes sense. The dry season is unbearably hot and dusty all the time while the rainy season is cooler when it´s actually raining...which is not all day. After the rain the sun REALLY blazes.We`re talking ant under microscope heat. Being an ant is never fun.

However, what is AWESOME is that my books are finally here! In early spring I signed up to receive books from the International Book Project. It´s a terrific organization that sends used/new books to developing countries that don´t have much access to reading material. Due to the kindness of my friend Billy and a foundation (it costs $100 to send a package of 30 pounds of books and the IBP donates $100 and I had to raise the other $100 myself = Billy and the foundation), I received the books no problem. I have been waiting for them for MONTHS (they were mailed in the beginning of March or April) and I now have them! There is everything! Books in Spanish, books in English, English text books, chapter books, sports books, science books, CHARLOTTE´S WEB IN SPANISH! I am INCREDIBLY grateful and pumped! I haven´t quite figured out how I´m going to introduce these books to my schools but I´m thinking about trying to have a reading half an hour or hour at some point during the school day. Any suggestions?! Once my service is completed here (in another 3.5 months) I´ll leave the books with the school libraries. Right now my job is to spike the kids´ interest in reading so the books don´t just sit on the shelves for eternity.

August starts tomorrow! Tuesday is my sister´s birthday (happy birthday!) and I´ll be celebrating by heading to Managua. On Wednesday my group has our final language interview (so we can see how we´ve improved since our training) and Thursday and Friday are our COS conference (where PC tells us what we need to do to leave and what we should plan on for when we come home). I´ve heard it´s a bit hard to deal with because it gets you all excited to go home and then you still have another three months or so...but it´ll be okay. I´m excited for it.

Keep the letters coming! If you want to send a package, please do so in the next two weeks to ensure that I get it in time (sometimes packages take 8 days, sometimes three months). There´s not exactly a mail forwarding service here :) Love you all and thanks so much! See you soon!

So Dad came to visit me for the second time! July 1-12th he was here. I´m pretty sure he´ll be my last visitor...unless someone is planning on surprising me ;) It was a great vacation.

We hung out in Managua a bit at this amazing cultural center that has ties with people who brought me the magic suitcase back in June. It was beautiful and we saw a bunch of girls practicing some traditional dances. We stayed with a very nice family across the street. That´s where Dad´s Spanish practicing started. He´s been studying all year so he could communicate with people and, it worked! I was very impressed with his progress.

The next day we hopped on a bus to Rio San Juan (the river that makes the border with Costa Rica)...it only took us 7 hours to arrive! That´s right people. 7 hours in a bus. We were lucky though because the government recently paved almost the entire road (it used to take 9-10 hours) and we were in a charter bus instead of a school bus. We hung out in San Carlos (the capital of that department) for the night and caught the early morning boat downriver. I didn´t really know what to expect with the boat, but it turns out that it´s just like a bus. People were standing on the shores waving the boat down and it would pull over and pick them up...or people on the boat would stand up when they neared their "stop" and the boat would pull over. Weird.

Three and a half hours later we were at the Reserva Bartola that borders the biggest nature reserve in the country = Indio Maiz. It´s massive. We stayed there for almost an entire week. In the mornings we would go on a hike in the jungle of Indio Maiz with our machete armed guide Paul. We saw howler monkeys, spider monkeys, a toucan, TONS of fingernail sized red frogs that have enough venom to kill 10 people, one bright green and black poisonous tree frog, this one animal that´s like a rat and a dog and an ant-eater combined, and the pawprint of a jaguar! I really wanted to see a jaguar sleeping up in a distant tree, but no such luck. Back at Bartola we played a lot of 500 Rummy, napped in hammocks, read some books, and ate the most delicious food I´ve eaten in this country. Just the memory of the food is mouth-watering. Seriously, since I´ve been back in my site I haven´t eaten much because it doesn´t compare. I can´t wait to come home and eat delicious food!

After a week we headed back to civilization. We arrived back in San Carlos around 5PM and a man was there to meet the boat yelling "Managua! Managua! Managua!" He was selling bus tickets. Dad and I had already discussed that we would be taking the 10PM night bus back. It would be awful but we didn´t want to waste another entire day traveling. This man was selling tickets for the 8PM and told us that the 10PM was all sold out. I bought the tickets. Dad thought I was crazy, and maybe he was right. I mean, why would I trust this man wearing a mesh jersey with my 300 cordobas ($15)? How did I know he wasn´t a fake.

Truth be told, while I was pretty certain he was legit (I don´t think he would have been allowed in the marina if he wasn´t a real bus ticket salesman), I wasn´t 100% sure. I acted like I was though because I didn´t want to make Dad nervous. We went and had dinner and sat around in the park. Around 7PM we hailed a taxi which took us through the poorest neighborhoods down the worst mud road of all time. 15 minutes later we arrived at the bus "terminal" (aka the mud road where the buses park). An hour later we were leaving.

It was hell. They played music the whole night. The horn blared at random intervals. Awful. I slept on and off. Dad couldn´t. He was a trooper though. We arrived in Managua at 2:45AM. People started to hunker down in their seats to sleep. We got in a taxi and went to my friend´s house to sleep for a few hours. When we woke, we headed two hours on bus to the beach. It was nice. I´m not much of a beach person; I prefer lakes and rivers, but it sure it beautiful. We were in a fishing town and it was interesting to see the people swarm the boats, buying before the boat had even officially landed.

Back to Managua for a Sunday evening Mass at that cultural center. Back to that family´s house to spend the night. Dad´s Spanish had improved a TON in the time we were away. Everyone was impressed :) I was so proud.

The next day we went to the...MALL! That´s right people, I dragged my dad to the mall for lunch and a movie. We needed to vacate the family´s house because they had stuff to do but my friend wasn´t home from work yet so we couldn´t yet go to her house. So, we saw Transformers 3 (unfortunately Harry Potter wasn´t out yet) and I loved it. Dad liked it too.

Tuesday morning, bright and early at the airport. I was sad to see him go, but not too sad because we´ll be reunited in FOUR MONTHS! That´s right people! Four months. The first day we´re technically finished is November 15th. What do you think about that?! I´m excited and nervous. Mainly just excited though. I´m living with the parents through the holidays and then I´ll be moving in with Mice come January. I don´t know what I´ll be doing longterm or anything like that but I would like a job using Spanish and helping people. Any suggestions?

Love you all and see you soon!

Oh, check out the new picture link for pics of my sitemate´s birthday party and my dad´s visit.

In the Peace Corps I encounter people from all over the US, Nicaragua, the world. While spending time with them, I have heard some really incredible (good and bad) stories. After spending a weekend with some friends, I'm going to share (anonymously) some of those stories.

We were sitting around sharing stories about what our older siblings used to do to torture us or what we used to do to torture our younger brothers and sisters. One of my sisters tricked me into thinking hershey's baking powder is just like pulvarized chocolate. I took a big spoonful and started choking. Another girl's brother felt he was going to throw up; he took his sister's only teddy-bear (which their grandmother had given her) and threw up on it. It had to be thrown out. Another girl and her brothers used to play "Sniper"...a game they invented where the oldest one would crawl on top of the roof with his bebe gun while they ran around the house and he tried to shoot them. Turns out my sibs were quite tame (thanks guys!).

It's not all about sibling games. Other stories are really heart-warming...

For instance, when my sitemate and I came home, she went to her house and found that on Friday night it had flooded a good two feet inside her house! Papers and books were ruined. The new kindle wouldn't turn on. Mud was on her dishes, shoes, clothes, floor, etc. Five neighborhood girls (ages 12-14) appeared and helped her out. They washed dishes, swept and mopped the floor, gathered ruined papers in bags. In a matter of an hour it was all cleaned up. Nicas are really helpful when someone's in a crisis.

There are more but my internet time is running up. Will share more later. Love you guys!

Oh..and have I mentioned Dad is coming ON FRIDAY!!!!???!!!!!

So my dad is coming to visit July 1-12th. I am SUPER-pumped! It's awesome. We have quite the travel plans in front of us. We're going to explore a part of Nica that I've never been to. It's sort of like the last frontier for me. He's going to put his hard-earned Spanish to use. We're going to have some quality bonding time. I'M SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!

Outside of that...what's new...the scorpions appear to have left the building (thank God!). For a couple of nights I had a frog invasion. There were about 6-8 itty-bitty one inch frogs jumping all over my house. Yet another use of the mosquito net; one hopped right on top of it! Without that net I don't think I would be able to sleep at night. Something killed all the frogs because when I woke up after the second night...their bodies were littering my floor.

Now the mice are back. I started putting out the poison a few nights ago. I found a dead one last night...freaked out...called my sitemate...and swept it out. I know there is at least one more (I saw it fleeing the scene...possible murder????). Mice are so gross.

I wonder what will be next?

Everything else is good. My community classes are prepping for their exam. I'm finally closing the older section and might start a new beginners' section. We'll see how I feel after my dad's visit though. I'm STILL waiting for the books to arrive from the international book project...they were shipped at the beginning of April.

If anyone is thinking of shipping me a package, do it before September 1st. Otherwise I'm afraid I won't get it before I leave in NOVEMBER! Craziness. Time is really flying (and in a few short months, I will be too!).

Miss you!

Wow. That's really all there is to say from my end. I suppose that needs a little more explanation for those of you who don't know about my special delivery on Friday. But for those of you who do know, read no further...

A few weeks ago my dad made contact with a woman who brings a group of high school seniors down here once a year. This year is her 12th time and the work she is doing and supporting is truly amazing. She corraborates with the Batahola Center in Managua that offers scholarships and job training classes to Nicaraguans. She brings the students and they help out and learn about the lifestyle here. It seems to be an intense and worthwhile experience for everyone involved.

SO, Dad made contact with her and I was mentioned and she OFFERED to bring me a suitcase full of things I might want/need. Dad asked if I was interested (duh!) and I jumped at the opportunity and sent him a list of things I would enjoy. He let the rest of the family know and before I knew it, it was Friday night and I was in possession of the world's best treasure chest.

It was so heavy I had to support it with my leg while I carried it. There are books for me, books for my community classes, shirts to replace the ones my mice have chewed holes into, contact solution, cliff bars, oodles of magazines, some homemade pumpkin waffles, homemade cookies, letters...I still haven't explored everything yet. Tonight I will.

Anyways, it really gave me an awesome feeling to receive this package. I was looking forward to it for a few weeks and I'm still really excited about it! And I will be for quite some time. I don't just miss my family and friends. Everything here is different than what I'm used to. I miss my mom's delicious baked goods. I miss out Saturday morning waffles and sitting around reading the Sunday comics on the living room floor. I miss the smell of my house. I miss the comfort foods: Dad's homemade pizza or veggies and spaghetti, Mom's mashed potatoes. There are so many comforting things to miss.

And for once, I am not asking people to send me a package. I only have five months left here and they take about three months to arrive. But I am saying that if you know someone living abroad, for whatever reason, take a little bit of money to the dollar store or to your favorite bakery and to the post office. You have no IDEA how much it will brighten his/her day. Yes, it is our choice to live far away from these things so you shouldn't feel obligated, but it's an insanely nice thing to do. My best friend lived abroad before me doing mission work and I sent her a lot of letters, but never a package. Now I wish I could go back in time. Now I know what it's like. Here's to you Mouse. Next time I'll get you back.

So a HUGE thank you goes out to my family and Sue (the lovely woman who was kind enough to haul it down here) and to all of you. Keep up the good work and I'll keep trying to make you proud. Love you.

These are a few of my favorite things about living in Nicaragua:

1) receiving mail2) vanilla ice cream popsicles that cost 4 cordobas (= about 20 cents)3) swimming in an ice cold river on a hot day (which is any day)4) rain storms5) the feeling I get when the last of my dirty laundry is washed6) smelling laundry soap7) gallo pinto8) traveling9) learning about a new culture10) avacados that cost less than 25 cents (guacamole for dinner tonight!)11) receiving a suitcase full of goodies from my parents (a kind woman from a nearby parish is coming down here on Friday and offered to bring me a suitcase full of things my parents collect. I`m super excited!)

One thing that was really upsetting me was the amount of these guys in my house. I killed 12 of them before I finally submitted my house to the chemical bomb that is fumigation. It happened yesterday afternoon and afterwards there were about 9 dead bodies strewn throughout my house. While they are small and not deadly here, they are still scary and painful. I still haven`t been stung (which apparently occurs repeatedly until you kill the grotesque beast), but one of my volunteer friends was stung on the buttcheek. That`s right, despite shaking out her pants before putting them on, there was still a clinger. Her tongue and lips were numb for a few days (a common side effect of their venom) and her butt hurt. No gracias.

My community classes are going well. Students are still showing up. I have a little more than five months left until the end of my service. Dad is coming in less than a month. Life is pretty great now that my house is (hopefully) scorpion free!

In college I was an education major. That was my main focus. Since I was a freshman in high school I knew I wanted to be a teacher. My education classes almost crushed that dream; they were boring and repetitive and didn't permit me to focus on only secondary education. What a pain! I almost changed majors but...to what? So I threw on a Spanish major as a buffer. After all, you never know.

And now I'm here in Nicaragua co-teaching with Nicaraguan teachers. Some days are really good and I love my job. Some days are really bad and make me wonder if I should be a teacher. Most days school is cancelled: all day, after recess, for a holiday. Let't take a look at this week.

Monday school was normal. Tuesday school was normal for some people but not for everyone. Some teachers had to go to a pre-meeting to plan for the big meeting that will happen this Friday. If the teacher doesn't come to school, the kids don't have class. Substitutes don't really exist. Wednesday (today) school was cancelled after recess. Why? Because there is a meeting to plan Thursday's assembly. This means that the kids had class from 12:30PM-3PM. Tomorrow there is no school because there is an assembly to celebrate Mothers' Day (which is a HUGE deal here). The assembly starts at 9AM. Why can't there still be class from 12:30-5:30? I think the logic is that since the teachers and students are at the school in the morning, they shouldn't have to be there in the afternoon. Friday there is no school because there is a teachers' meeting (like I previously stated, if teachers are there in the morning they will no come in the afternoon). Monday there is no school because it's Mothers' Day and that's a national holiday. So...yeah.

My work is a little frustrating because I feel like the lack of importance put on education hinders me from "making the difference" I thought I would be making. I know that I am affecting change in small ways and bettering people's opinions of the US but...it just wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Sometimes I wish I had more freedom in my English program. I wish I could devote less time in the actual schools and do more teacher trainings and give more community assistance. But, like any job, I have to do what my bosses tell me to. Finding that balance and feeling useful at the same time is sometimes a challenge.

What isn't a challenge? Finding fun things to do on the weekends. If I use my stipend smartly, I can usually save enough to go visit a PCV friend or meet them in a new place. This weekend I'm heading to Somoto Canyon. I went once before with Julie but we couldn't enter the high-walled canyon because it was during the rainy season and they were worried about flash flooding. This could still be an issue but I'm going to give it a go anyways. (Don't worry. If there's a danger they won't let me go in.) This place offers some great hiking, beautiful views, a river to swim in, rock walls to jump off of, etc.

I know sometimes my blog posts might seem a little down, like this one sighting some of the faults in the education system, but it's just what happens to be going through my mind at the point I sit down to write. Nicaragua is a beautiful place and I enjoy living here. I'm learning a lot about what I like and don't like, what I want in a career and what I don't. I'm bettering my Spanish and broadening my outlook on the world and how it works. These are things I like. Next blog will be more positive, don't you worry.

Love and miss you all!

Last night the scariest rain I`ve ever been around came to my town. It was almost one in the morning and I was sleeping peacefully tucked under my mosquito net with the breeze of the fan on my face. There had been a pitter-patter of drops on my zinc roof when I first went to sleep at 11, but nothing to write home (or in this case to blog) about. All of the sudden the rain aggressively fell onto my roof. It seemed more pressurized than when I would put my thumb over the spout of a hose when I was little. Hitting a zinc roof. That plus the apparant fact that the zinc roof has nail holes in it allowing water to come in and FALL ON MY BED meant there was no more sleep to be had. BuMMER!

After laying out towels in some strategic places on top of the mosquito net and a couple of well placed ear-plugs, sleep was once again found.

Other than that rain (which hopefully signals the beginning of the rainy season = not as much dust and the occassional break from the heat), life has been continuing in a pretty normal pattern. I gave a presentation to the English teachers in my area about how to use a resource developed by Peace Corps. It was about 3 hours long and went really well. Now if only we could get school to meet often enough for them to use this new resource :/

Last Monday school started 40 minutes late so they students could have an assembly celebrating Mothers` Day. Let me put two things straight for you: 1) there were no mothers present, 2) Nicaraguan Mothers` Day is May 30th....they`ll be doing this weekly until then. Tuesday my counterpart had to go to a school out in the country so we didn`t have class. On the upside though, my community class was able to meet on Wednesday! Our review session went well and overall, I think it was a productive class.

However, fifteen minutes before my community class was scheduled to start, the guard of that building (almost every building has a guard here...this building is owned by the mayor`s office so this guard goes back and forth between the two) came to tell me a woman wanted to talk with me who works at the mayor`s office. I politely told him, "No. I have class in 15 minutes." He said it wouldn`t take long and we went. From a previous interaction with this woman, I was already irritated and knew it would result in nothing being accomplished. I went in...and was right. Basically she wanted me to fill out a paper saying I use a room in their building twice a week for four hours total. I said, "Okay where`s the paper?" She didn`t have it and asked me to come back the next day. I did. She didn`t have it. Someone else was going to print a copy but then the electricity went out. When I suggested we write it by hand she looked at me as if I was speaking in English (I wasn`t). She asked me to come back the next day. My reply, "No. Maybe on Monday if I have time." Inefficiency. Ugh.

But seriously, life is good. My new community class for teachers start this Tuesday. I`m excited and hope people show up. The idea came from a few primary school teachers who asked me to come to their classes and teach their students English (in Nica they don`t receive English until high school). For the PC project and for me, it`s a better use of time and touches more people if I teach the teachers: days of the week, numbers, colors, etc. Nothing too heavy.

Other AWESOME things happening: I just got an INCREDIBLE package from my friend Lauren H (thank you!), my dad comes to visit in July, I am officially done and will see you all in LESS THAN SIX MONTHS!

I was heading home from visiting a friend´s site about five and a half hours from mine, loaded like a donkey with books from the office. I had decided to take a taxi from my friend´s house to the terminal due to the heavy bags I had. But once I stepped outside it was a beautiful day and I decided to walk. Big mistake. I made it to the market, dripping in sweat. I think I could have literally wrung out my t-shirt.

So I´m in the market. And I GET LOST! I know this market pretty well. I´ve been in it more than twenty times. I still don´t really know how it happened. But, there I was. Lost. With two heavy bags. Great. I approach someone and he gives me directions. I head that way and then don´t see the signposts he had explained to me. I make five more turns than he said and ended up in the terminal! SCORE!

I climb into an empty bus and waited for it to fill. A man helps me with my bags and tells me I have precious eyes. In turn, I roll them at him. We finally head out and I make it to the bus stop about thirty minutes before my bus is supposed to pass. Perfection. I go use the bathroom (which wasn´t even gross yet because it was still early in the day) and come back. A bus that goes to my halfway point pulls in. People jump on. Vendors sell their wares. The bus leaves. Another bus pulls up going about a third of the way to my house. The bus worker asks, "Where are you going?" I tell him and he tells me my bus never left the terminal and won´t be passing. He also reminds me that the next two buses I could take will not stop at this bus stop. Crap. And the day was going so well.

So I get on his bus. I plan to get off at a bus stop where the next two buses will stop. Good plan. I settle in for the ride. We pull into another bus stop. The halfway bus is right in front of us. I make a decision and quickly grab my heavy bags and make my way off the bus. As soon as I get off that bus the other bus starts to PULL AWAY. I start running and yelling "suave suave (slow down). The man hanging out the back door signals to the driver and they slow enough for me to jump in the back door. I breath a sigh of relief and settle into a seat.

The rest of the trip was pretty okay. I got to the halfway point and the next bus to my town wasn´t leaving for another hour and ten minutes. Of course I had just missed one by ten minutes. Waiting = BORING.

But I eventually made it home and all was well.

Miss you guys! See you in about six months! Thanks for all the letters and support.

How can it be that when I am walking slowly I sweat through my short sleeved shirt and a man in navy blue pants and a navy blue long sleeve shirt whips by me on a bike wearing a hat and SMOKING and he ISN`T BREAKING A SWEAT!?!?

We are in the hottest months of the year. I am NOT a happy camper.

As many of you know, I have been complaining a lot lately about feeling useless here. Well, I`ve finally decided to buck up and do something about it. I went over to my sitemate`s house earlier this week and we had a brainstorming session about things we can do (she was feeling about the same). We came up with some great ideas.

My top two projects that I`ve decided I need to work on are creating a book club to develop critical thinking skills. I don`t know the details yet and have to wait for the books to arrive (which were shipped on April 1st thanks to Billy!). I`m going to start with less than ten students and see how it goes. The other project is giving an English class to teachers so they can use a little bit of English in their classrooms which will make the students learn.

Happy birthday Jen!

There are so many things to tell about my trip that I`m sure I won`t remember it all! Julie, Carla, and I headed out Saturday the 16th and returned Saturday the 23rd from Corn Island and Little Corn Island. They`re off the east coast of Nicaragua and are BEAUTIFUL!

The experience started out weird at the domestic flight check-in at the airport. The actual checking in part went okay. Then we paid a small tax and went through "security". We had no boarding passes. Just our passports and a return voucher type thing for our flight back. When we booked our flight we were leaving at 6:15AM but because travel is so high there during Holy Week, the airlines basically lies to you. The people who get there first leave at 6:15. Once that plane is full the rest of the people wait around until the next plane is ready. We had to wait about an extra hour. Then we just went outside (we didn`t have tickets, they didn`t ask for them or our IDs) and walked on to our plane. An hour and ten minutes later we were on Corn Island.

It`s 6.5 square miles big or somewhere around there. We headed straight to the dock and boarded a small boat to go to Little Corn Island (1.1 square miles, no roads, no cars). We stayed there for 5 nights. It was soooooooooooooo relaxing. We stayed in a hut that wasn`t even wired for electricity. It was a perfect hideout from the mid-day sun. Surprisingly enough, sleeping was actually difficult due to the round the clock creaking from the palm tree growing through the center of our floor and out the roof. That was driving us CRAZY! Luckily it was okay if we were a bit tired since we didn`t have much to do all day.

Don`t get me wrong, there are things to do. We went swimming, on walks, Carla and I discovered a new species (it appears to be a giant slug...picture await you in the new photo link), we went snorkeling (we saw two sharks and about 6 sting rays!), we devoured the local coconut bread, we climbed a lighthouse tower. We laid around and took naps. I read a book and wrote some letters (which will be mailed soon I promise!).

Thursday morning we crammed into the small boat again, along with what seemed like every other person on the island (Julie literally had to sit on my lap for a bit) and headed back to Big Corn Island. Since our flight was to leave early Saturday morning we didn`t want to have to worry about catching the boat and all that nonesense. And frankly, after five nights on a 1.1 square mile island...it was time to head out.

On Big Corn we ate delicious pizza two nights in a row, hung out on the beach, climbed another lighthouse (although this one was shorter), and just chilaxed. In all honesty, I liked Big Corn better than Little. Yes, Little is very attractive for the lack of cars, roads, etc., but it`s too small. After a (short) while I`m sure I would go crazy. I admire the people that can live to isolated, but I need more contact with people. In the short time we were on Big Corn we met more locals than the entire time we were on Little. Of course, that`s partially our fault because we were pretty anti-social on the small island, but it was also because the amount of tourists on Little Corn make it pretty impossible to meet people actually from the island.

It was a great trip. I got to hang out with two of my best friends, I only got sunburnt once (on my back while snorkeling), and it gave me a much needed break from my daily life here. Something that surprised me was that as the trip was coming to a close, I realized I was missing my family and friends back home even more than usual. After a bit of reflection I decided it`s probably because whenever I`ve taken a vacation in my life I always return back to my family. This time it wasn`t the case. Weird, huh?

Don`t forget to check out the new pics! Love you and (obvio) miss you too.

I think the heat is getting to me. April and May are the hottest months of the year here and I do NOT do well with the heat. Being constantly hot and sweaty with just a general feeling of being disgusting doesn`t up my morale. Nor does it make me want to walk to school. Or teach in a stuffy room with a bunch of kids packed into it.

Sunscreen helps ward off the damaging effects...but it also makes the dirt cling to my skin so when I scratch one of my many bugbites my fingernails come back black. Gross. I know.

There is one thing that saves me. The parasol. Why don´t we use this in the United States. According to my google image search, it used to be a big deal. Now? Not so much. But really, it`s great. Sure it`s a little bulky and I have forgotten it in many classrooms and shops, but it`s my own personal cloud. Mine is a little rust stained where the metal pieces are, but I don`t mind.

HOWEVER, also in my google image search, I came across several photos of one way people are using parasols. It disgusted me. Wedding parties. The bride and her bridesmaids each had a coordinating parasol. Gag me. I hope to never see this in real life.

Weddings in general are getting harder for me to swallow. In my year and a half here I see a lot of my fellow PCVs going home for weddings. The stories of extravagance and hurt feelings (over silly things I might add) and the general wasting of money accompanied by the feeling that more thought is being put into the wedding than the marriage...well it doesn`t sit well with me. (Disclaimer: I still hypocritically like weddings and want to go to them. I`m just not sure if I will end up having one...if I do it will be small.)

And yes, I`m aware I should still use sunscreen.

Back to the point though, today is sunny and about 86 degrees with a nice breeze. I can`t complain about the weather today. Thank God. It has bolstered my spirits (and the fact that I leave early Saturday morning for Little Corn Island doesn`t hurt) and made my general annoyance decrease. I really do feel like when I come back from this week of legit vacation, I`ll be able to handle my lack-of-work situation better and make more work for myself.

Love you guys! Happy birthday to Mice (and no I do not mean the vermin in my house that refuse to die)! Happy Easter to everyone! See you in seven-eight months!

Well the party is officially over and my schedule is back to normal... but for many reasons it`s not for me. At the beginning of the school year I made my schedule so I worked at one school on Mondays and Wednesday and another school on Tuesdays. I placed my two community classes on Mondays and Wednesdays in the evening and that was that. My counterparts and I planned our classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I was working three BUSY days a week and then had a suuuuuuuuper long weekend each week. I was living the dream.

However, due to one counterpart being incredibly busy because he`s the sole English teacher and the principal of his school and another counterpart not working due to a hurt foot...I am really only working with one of my teachers. We only have three classes together per week on two different days. Last week he had a meeting on one of those days. Today he is sick. I barely work.

Some would say I`m living the dream now.

I am not. A feeling of uselessness is taking over. If I am not working, why am I here? Okay okay, I know I am still helping people. After all, I still have my two community classes (one of which is going well and one is not) and sometimes I teach in the schools. It`s just really frustrating. The heat doesn`t help. I hate being hot and feeling disgusting. One day I took four showers. April and May are the hottest months here.

HOWEVER, relief is soon to come in a REAL vacation. Put your jealous hats on because for Semana Santa (Holy Week...come ON people!) Julie, Carla, and I are going to...........LITTLE CORN ISLAND! For those of you who don`t watch survivor, Nicaragua is basically divided into two halves that might as well be (and sort of are) 2 different countries. I live on the western Spanish half. Little Corn Island is off the eastern Carribean half! I am BEYOND excited to have the opportunity (thanks Mom!) to go there for an entire week. It`s going to be amazing and super-relaxing. There are no cars or roads on this place. It`s small enough to walk everywhere. There are places to stay for $4 a night. I`m going to be with two of my best friends. Could life BE any better?! Don`t worry, I`ll take tons of mouthwatering pictures to convince you guys that Nicaragua is worth coming to. Seriously. It is.

Finally, a big shoutout to my parents, Carolyn, Claire Y., Mice, and Diana for my birthday packages! While they were late, everything in them was delicious and not moldy or rotten! Or if it was it didn`t make me sick so who cares?! Thanks to everyone for your support!

Wow. March. What a whirlwind. This month has FLOWN by! I`ll give a basic overview of what`s been going on here.

Par-TAY!

That about covers it.

I`m going to ego-centrically assume you want more details. Each town in Nicaragua has a patron saint. On that saint`s feast day there is a massive town-wide party. They take out the statue of the saint from the central Catholic church and process through town with it ALL DAY. There is a special Mass. There is a bull-riding competition and a parade of beautiful and expensive horses. Everyone dresses up like cowboys and cowgirls (I now proudly own two plaid shirts but still can`t bring myself to purchase leather boots). There is a giant party at night.

At least that`s how it`s done in most places. If it falls during the week everyone gets a couple of days of work but the real events take place on the weekend because some of the horses, bulls, and riders come from different towns. In my town they do things a little differently.

I have only been to class about six times this month. Granted, I only work in the schools Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and not every day was cancelled for the fiestas but some were. School was disrupted ALL the time. The dìa de San Josè is March 19th but the fiestas here started the first weekend of March...and are still going. The first two weekends it was just Saturdays and Sundays: one bull riding competition on Saturdays, two on Sundays, and tent parties surrounding the bull ring. By tent parties I meant the two local brews set up tents and speakers and blast music and people come to drink and dance. Then it was the big weekend and the partying was Friday-Monday. The weekend following San Josè`s big day was the beautiful horse-parade and the BIG FINALE party! My sitemate and I were excited to have the town return to normal for a weekend...then a friend told us there`s one more weekend of bull riding. Oh well.

So that`s what been going on lately. Sometimes it gets a little crazy. It`s been fun. I`ll be glad when it`s over for real.

This may come as a shock to some of you, as it did me, but the following things do NOT need to be refrigerated:

eggs (maybe because they`re fresher here?)mayo (as long as it doesn`t become contaminated with other food)cooked beans (you just boil them twice a day to keep germs off)cuajada (Nica cheese that can be unrefrigerated for two days without going bad...maybe the high salt content?)cut fruits and vegetablesraw meat (again...because of the freshness? Usually it`s slaughtered and cooked in the same day...I`m still a vegetarian so can`t attest to this, but I`ve seen it in action)

This knowledge has revolutionized how I think about bottles and packages that claim an expiration date. I mean...if it doesn`t go bad for me and I don`t own a fridge...can it really go bad for it IS refrigerated?

I do long to own a refrigerator though. And yes, I am aware I`m probably spelling that wrong; that word has always escaped me.

Happy Ash Wednesday. No one reminded me. I wonder if any one will come to my community class tonight (on Monday there were only 26 people!).

Miss you!

Well my school year has begun. I am working with the same three Nicaraguan English teachers at the same two public high schools. For those of you who may have forgotten (or tal vez never knew), this is short tutorial about what high school is like here:

It's five years long and they call each year a number: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Most 1st years are 11 years old. Some are 16. Last year I worked with all years except 3rd; this year I've decided to do it a little differently. Due to some inappropriateness on the 4th and 5th year boys' part, I'm only working with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years. It's already MUCH better. They're not yet "brave" enough to ask me on dates so...that's a nice change.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I work at the larger public school and on Tuesdays the smaller one. I like both for different reasons. The big one has more people to get to know and more of a community feel for me. The smaller one is more like a family because it is THAT small.

So how it works is I meet with each of the 3 Nica teachers and we plan what we'll do in class that week. We split up the materials we need to make for the class and usually do those on our own time. Once it's time for class we co-teach. This is difficult for me because I like things done a certain way and it's hard to be flexible sometimes...but I'm learning and trying. Patience is not a virtue I have.

My community classes have also started. The new beginners' class has an unknown number of people in it. We've met twice. For the informational meeting there were 41 people. The first night of real class there were 48. 65 people are on the sign-up sheet. Tonight they're taking a quiz though so that'll be the attendance and I'll know for real how many people I'm teaching. Speaking of, I've got to get out of here and go set up our classroom for the night (in the town's "library").

I miss you guys. A lot.

I left my house at 5AM this morning to head to Managua. I had plans to take the 5:40AM express bus, which takes 3 hours, as opposed to a normal bus that takes around 4-4.5 hours. I was nervous I would miss it, hence leaving my house so early. I arrived at the market in record time (probably because I could walk fast since the sun wasn't yet beating down) and sat to wait.

All of the sudden at 5:15 a bus whips into the market with the cobradors (men who collect money and load big stuff on top) frantically yelling, "MANAGUA MANAGUA MANAGUA MANAGUA!"

I take a look at it and turn to the driver, "Is this an express?" I innocently ask.

"Yes," he lies. That's right. He LIES! To my FACE.

I didn't realize it at first. I passed the glowing red cross on the outside of the front of the bus. I climbed onto the first step and was met by two strips of tiny STROBE LIGHTS, a small glowing red bull's face and horns, and K'naan's world cup theme song. Apparently I had gotten on the party bus. No extra charge.

The cobrador came around and collected my 60 cordobas... meaning it was NOT an express. Jerks. I was already on and seated though. No turning back now.

We started blazing a trail to Managua. These guys were hauling like no express bus I'd ever seen. We were making great time. Then we crossed the bridge and we hit a roadblock. Literally. I still don't know exactly what happened but from what I could see, one truck had broken down and then another truck decided he could still make the turn. He could not. The broken down truck was now somehow LEANING on the other one. We could definitely not fit. So what did we do? The driver threw it in R.

He turned it, drove back over the bridge and went FLYING down a dirt road I'd never been down before. Then we come to the river. I see the bridge in the distance. Lucky us it's not rainy season! We successfully forded the river and made pretty good time to Managua still.

The 5:40 express DID end up passing us just outside of Managua. At this, our driver went crazy and started driving like a maniac to try to catch up. We reached it at one point but then lost it at the light.

Nice start to the day :)

List of things that were awesome about this week: the Steelers lost the Superbowl; I finally hung out in my department capital with some really fun PCVs and had, well, fun; I went to my host family´s farm and went horseback riding yesterday which is always a good time.

The list stops there.

The bus ride home from Matagalpa was loooooooooooooooooong and bumpy. I arrived to my house hungry, thirsty, and covered in dust. I showered, I hydrated, I ate. Life was good. Until it wasn´t.

I don´t think I have EVER felt sicker in my life. Throughout the night I didn´t sleep more than 45 minutes at a time because the pain in my stomach would wake me up. As you know, I love my house...BUT I have a latrine...outside...behind two doors that are bien shut at night. This did not lend itself to the urgency of my situation. Luckily, each time I had to throw up that night (around 8 times) I made it out the door in time. So that´s a bonus.

I mixed our rehydration salts and drank them. No dice. That came up within about ten minutes. The night was not going my way.

In the morning my temperature went up to 100 degrees. No bueno. I called my doctor in Managua and told her what was what. She told me what to do and I did it and felt better. Or so I thought. I took some fever reducers, drank water, didn´t eat much, and slept the better portion of the day and all of Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning I felt better so I went to the farm and hung out. Super-fun. I came home and ran some errands (tracking down the mayor is a week-long stalking process) and sat down to eat a delicious homemade dinner. My number was up. Last night was a repeat of Monday night.

So here I am in an internet cafe, sweating (the fever is back a bit) waiting for the results of my blood work to be done (11:30AM) at the local lab. Great. Hopefully I´m just a few antibiotics away from appreciating food again. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

(Seriously though, don´t worry. My doctors are aware of what´s up and this isn´t uncommon here. I just needed to vent.)

Miss you guys. And America. And flushing, indoor toilets. Loads of other things too. This week has NOT been good for the morale.

Well I`m back in Nicaragua. I know, I know...I`ve been here since Jan. 5th...but now my mind is back to Nica-mode, which is vastly different than vacation-in-America-mode. Shocked. I know. (Man, I know a lot in this entry!)

I was insanely busy when I first got back. So busy that I didn`t have time to transition back to life here. Now it`s happened. I went to my training on the beach. I was a camp counselor at another US Embassy sponsored English camp. I came back to my site. I cleaned my house. I washed my clothes.

Then I curled up in my hammock with six letters from home: one from my friend Claire and five from my dad.

That`s right, five. He writes me a letter a week and I love them. I don`t receive them weekly because my mailbox is in Managua and I don`t go there every week. He hasn`t missed a week yet and I`ve been here since September of 2009. Pretty impressive, right? There was one letter from before I went home, three from while I was home, and one from right after I left.

They were all touching, but the ones that really got me going were the ones from while I was at home. These letters reminded me of how terrific it felt to be home. You guys have no idea how much you mean to me. How much I miss you. How much you make me wish I could be in two places at once (and sometimes how much you make me wish I could make the one place I am to be with you instead of here). So...that night was a little melancholy (is that spelled right?) and 100% necessary. I was sad and lonely and homesick. So I went to sleep early.

Since I do plan on spending the next eleven months away from you, I`m going to make each month count. I still want to be here and I have a lot of work to do. My community classes are starting up again on the 15th (newbies!) and 16th (people from last year`s class!). My high school classes also start the 15th. It`s going to be a busy time. Then there are some projects my sitemate and I want to do. Life is going to be busy and fun.

One more thing: DOWN WITH THE STEELERS!

Hola from Managua, Nicaragua! As of a little before six this morning, I am officially back in my host country. I am excited to be here. There are a lot of neat things coming up: a four day training with our counterparts and our group at a hotel on the beach, another embassy camp to work, and the start of the school year is just around the corner in February. I'm really excited for this year. I feel like I have a solid handle on the way life works and that I'll be able to accomplish a lot more than last year. (I'll still have my rough days though, as in any job.)

HOWever, even though I am excited to be back...I was very sad to say goodbye to everyone at home. It was actually sadder than the first time I left. I don't know why, but that's the way it was. Maybe because now we realize how long a year (I'm officially "done" in November but might travel until Christmas time) can feel sometimes or how many things I miss out on. I don't know.

The people in my life are amazing. I was going to italicize that and then I realized that would make a mockery of how important you guys are to me because italicizing doesn't come close to expressing it correctly. Even the triple possibility of underlining, bolding, and italicizing just didn't touch it so I'm leaving it as is. I don't know how I became so blessed in my life. Balancing my time was difficult but I did the best I could. Thank you guys so much for being so accomodating to my schedule and being a part of a terrific experience (my life....haha, but seriously). Also, thank you to all the people who understood and didn't make a fuss when I was too busy to hang out. That was very supportive and gracious.

My feelings and thoughts while home were a mirror to my feelings about leaving: complete opposites. I would go to stores and be thrilled at all the options I had at my fingertips, but be appaulled at how people behaved while shopping. Especially since it was Christmas time. I realize that budgets are usually tighter around the holidays and people put things on credit cards in order to please other people...but I was astounded at how angry people appeared while shopping. I love everything Christmas-related, even the Grinch's big green butt, and it confused me as to why people were so hostile while purchasing gifts for others.

Part of me felt like it was because of the obligation of gift buying. Someone buys a gift for one person, that person in turn has to return the favor. And forGET it if there are small kids involved. Cousins buying gifts for the children of cousins. Grandmothers buying gifts for nieces and nephews kids. It can get overwhelming. I wish there was no stigma attached and people would drop the charade and just buy gifts for the people they wanted to. Wouldn't that be something?

Driving was completely normal. Except for the fact that I was constantly fearful of hitting a patch of ice and careening out of control. Then I'd start imagining all the other drivers around me and the sheer number of people in cars made me realize it's a miracle people don't careen out of control more often. (In case you didn't know, volunteers in Nicaragua aren't allowed to drive so it had been since August of 2009.)

The food was more delicious than I remembered. I ate cookie dough for breakfast once. Dad made homemade pizza twice. My friend Julie gave me a giftcard to Chipotle for $25...I crushed it. I met people for lunches and dinners and ice cream/coffee dates. My family celebrated Christmas twice (Dayton and Cincy) and claro que si mouth-watering food was present in abundance at both. Needless to say, I gained about nine pounds while I was home. Worth every bit of it (especially because here I'm going to be living more frugally = less ice cream in order to save money for a trip I want to take with Julie and Carla).

For now I'm heading back to the hotel to take a nap. 4AM flights do NOT treat me well. A big shoutout for my first mail of the year: a letter from Dad that was mailed in late-November and a package from Jamie that was mailed in early-October.

I love you guys!

Well, my three week vacation is over as of today. This afternoon my brother will drop me off at the airport and I'll start my trip back to Nicaragua. My time here was incredibly special and I had a wonderful time. I wanted to let you all know that I appreciated how flexible you were with my schedule and, if I was able to, I loved spending time with you.

Now I have to go pack. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

What a whirlwind! I arrived at the CVG airport in the afternoon of the 16th and it's been non-stop ever since. I was surprised at the airport by four of my best friends who were laden with Ohio Buckeyes (the candy) and chocolate covered pretzels. Not only that, but due to the snow on the ground (which hasn't melted at ALL since I've been home), they also had my winter coat, two sets of gloves, a scarf, and a hat. They are amazing. They would be one of the many many people I'd meet for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I don't think I've eaten at more restaurants in my LIFE. Mind you, I am not complaining, just noting.

After having a delicious dinner of homemade pizza and running errands the next day (helLO Target!), we headed up to see my aunt, uncle, cousins, and children of cousins. It was a loud, crazy, and super-fun day. There was great company of people I haven't seen in a long while, delicious food (that's a major theme for this trip so far), card games, fake presents, real presents...the works. At some points it felt a little too crazy...trying to find a card deck to play euchre proved to be more difficult than we thought, especially after Jon threw all the cards on the floor. Which the kids LOVED.

Throughout the next week or so I met friends for lunches or dinners or coffees or ice creams (that's right, I can't resist even though it's cold!) whenever I had time. I overscheduled myself a little bit and sometimes feel worn out, but there are so many people I want to see and thank for their support and just...get to see and hang out with and talk with. I've missed so much this past year and few months! My oldest nephew is almost 8 years old. The 6 year old is starting to lose his teeth. The 2.5 year old can walk/run/talk (a little bit)! Touchdown Jesus has BURNED DOWN!

I went to a Christmas party at my friends' house. It was a mini-high school reunion and I loved every minute of it. I don't know how most people do it, but my friends are almost exclusively from my high school. A few managed to slip in during college, and I love them just as much as I do my high school friends...but my core group is from high school. Our school had such a sense of community and we all bonded. My college didn't. I'm okay with that. Anyways, the party was filled with friends, traditional games, Christmas treats.

Then came the Christmas celebration with my family. It started on Christmas Eve with decorating sugar cookies. Christmas Day was different than usual because my sister had to work; we pushed the real celebration to the 26th (hereby dubbed "Christmas Plus"). We cooked together, baked cookies, pies, and cakes. We invited my aunt, uncle, and cousin down for dinner. We wrapped presents and exchanged them. We played card games and with toys. We watched Christmas movies. It was amazing and everything I was missing from last year. I leave town next Tuesday afternoon...time is FLYING by and it's been surreal. Thanks to everyone for hanging out with me, or for understanding that I'm balancing time as best I can. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

I would just like to remind everyone that I'm LEAVING NICARAGUA TOMORROW AND WILL BE HOME ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I'm a little excited.)

Love you!

Thanksgiving was SUCH a fun weekend. Last year we all went to Embassy or Peace Corps workers` houses for dinner. That was fun.

There was delicious food and tons of company. However, this year was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better. My PCV friends Meg and Alex coordinated hosting a dinner at Meg`s house. The 8 people who were in attendance all chipped in money. We had vegetarian chili, chicken, creamed corn, regular corn, wine, cranberries, homemade pumpkin bread, two kinds of stuffing, homemade pumpkin pie, broccoli with cheese (or really cheese with broccoli), regular bread, and I`m sure I`m forgetting a couple of things. But it wasn`t all about the food (although I was salivating while they were cooking), it was more the feeling of sitting down together and sharing the meal. It was more intimate and more like a real family Thanksgiving. So, a big shoutout to Meg and Alex for making that happen :)

But that wasn`t the end of my awesome Thanksgiving weekend. On Black Friday, Julie, Carla and I headed to the Laguna and hung out all day. We swam, ate more good food, and took a nap in the shade on a deck. It was beyond peaceful.

Until we had to hike OUT of the laguna. We had to be at a body building competition at 5PM (yes, you read that correctly), and the bus schedule wasn`t cooperating with us so, we started hiking up. It sucked. Then a taxi passed us and in ENGLISH the passenger said, "You guys lookin for a ride?" We piled in and made it to the competition a little before 6. Lucky us Nicaraguans don`t run on time!

So, why were we at this competition? Two of the guys from the gym Carla goes to were participating in it and they`d asked her. She hesitantly asked Julie and I, to which she received two resounding YESs. I mean, HOW could we pass that up?! So we were there, watching a bunch of buffed out guys (but not disgusting like in the US) getting greased up and parade around on stage. It was... interesting. One of Carla`s friends won his weight class and the other came in second in his. Whawhoo! Go men of Santa Teresa!

The next day I went Christmas shopping in the Masaya market and hung out with Alex and Chris and Alejandro. We had a mojito night. Apparently that is Chris`s favorite drink. I judged him at first but, turns out he makes a pretty mean mojito and I actually liked it! We played some good ol` fashioned Apples to Apples and had a mini-dance party.

I scurried home on Sunday morning and washed my clothes in hopes that they would dry before I needed to leave for camp on Tuesday morning... on the 5:40AM express bus to Managua.

WHAT?! I went to camp? Yeah, that`s right. The U.S. Embassy sponsors different week-long English camps. I volunteered to work at the one for high schoolers. There were twleve adults (1 from the embassy, 5 PCVs, 4 Nica English teachers, and 2 assistants). I`ll admit, during our planning time on Tuesday at the embassy...I was nervous. There was a lack of organization and efficiency that freaked me out. I mean, the next afternoon 80 kids from around the country would be arriving at the embassy...and we were in charge and had no clue what was going on.

However, it was AWESOME! We spent 7 days with these kids and they were perfect. The embassy chose them through an application and interview process. We had two beginners classes and two intermediate classes. The kids came from all over: the island, the north, the south, Managua, the Atlantic Coast. It was a big deal.

I`m not going to describe every day at camp because, well that`d probably be boring to read and you wouldn`t find the things funny that were funny. But indulge me for a couple of paragraphs. The kids spoke English all week. They didn`t know I spoke Spanish until a skit the PCVs did for the Talent Show on the last night (which will go down in history). Their English wasn`t perfect, but it did show me that they are capable of great things. Most of them have been in public schools their whole life, but they spoke English. I was floored. Astounded. Amazed. Seriously, it was incredible.

We made crafts (Christmas wreaths and Pilgrim and Indian hats), we sang songs (50 States that Rhyme, the National Anthem), we played games (Red Rover, Leap Frog). We goofed around. We really bonded in that week. It was incredible to see the friendships that were formed so quickly and so intensely. And not just among the kids. On the last day, when I had to say bye, I wanted to cry.

It was a fantastic week. And then I had the long, sad bus ride back to my site. That`s when I started thinking/reflecting/processing/whatever you want to call it. For a long time now I`ve been struggling with what I want to do in my future. Since I was a freshman in high school I wanted to be a high school English teacher (thanks to you MHS English teachers), but since coming here, another idea was added. What if I taught ESL (English as a Second Language). I`ve been going back and forth and really didn`t care much either way. This camp changed that. I am good at teaching ESL and I love doing it. That is what I want to do with my life. NOT only that, but I want to be a part of something, whether it`s an NGO or I don`t even know what, that helps give kids experiences they otherwise wouldn`t have the opportunity to have. Any ideas anyone?

So... it`s nice to sort of know what I want to be when I grow up :)

The rest of my new pics are in the "We Love Summer Camp" link on the left.

AAAAAAAAAAAND... I´LL BE HOME NEXT THURSDAY AFTERNOON!!!!!!

I love living on my own. I didn´t realize how miserable I was in my previous living situation until I peaced out of there. I feel so liberated. So free. So comfortable. So welcome in my own home. What terrific feelings. I cook what I want, when I want. I am never in the way in my kitchen (partially because there aren´t very many thing in the kitchen). Mice aren´t frequent visitors in my kitchen...although they have stopped by to say hello at least once. I wash my clothes almost every day and they don´t pile up. I have a place to hang them indoors to evaid the rain. I never have to worry about when the family´s clothes are going to be washed. There is always space on my drying line. I wash my dishes with soap every time (as opposed to the rinse off some dishes would get in the family house). I have alone time.

It. is. awesome.

However, it is not perfect. My landlord STILL hasn´t replaced the flimsy lock on the front door. Yes my porch is enclosed with bars but they don´t go all the way up. The house has an ant problem; I bought a HUGE can of raid for ants on Tuesday and it´s almost gone. It is not taking care of the problem. When I come home, I´m bringing back the good stuff. You know, the kind that you set out, they think it´s food so they take it back to their house and everyone eats it and dies. That´s what I´m talking about. And finally, in one of the back rooms I don´t use an animal poops in the same spot...every night. I´m guessing it´s a white cat that I´ve seen fleeing the property a couple of times, and as my friend Carla pointed out, cats are the only animal weird enough to poop in the same place over and over and over. Ew.

Still. It´s awesome.

A lot of other things are happening. The school year is officially over. My community class took their final exam on Wednesday. My sitemate Carolyn has left for good and my new one gets here this coming Monday or Tuesday. I´ve spent some time with her and she seems pretty super. For Thanksgiving I´m meeting up with some of my favorite PCVs (Carla, Julie, Alex, and Meg) at Meg´s house for a delicious dinner and later that weekend we´re going to the laguna and I´m going Christmas shopping in the market! Then December 1st I´ll be in a location TBA to be a camp counselor for the US Embassy´s English summer camp for high school students. Sounds dorky, but it´ll be fun.

THEN ON THE 15TH I LEAVE NICARAGUA AND ON THE 16TH I´LL BE HOME! So, I´ll see you soon!!!!

I have the keys in my hand and the first month´s rent is paid! Pictures to come. Thanks for all your prayers :)

This weekend was all about Rainbow Brite and Donald for me. I went to Masaya for the weekend. My friend Alex told me the town would have a pretty wicked parade on Friday the 29th. Now, as some of you might now, I don't like scary things...this was scary. The morning after I was literally startled by a sheet. As in...a bed sheet. And it wasn't even doing anything. I just opened my eyes and jumped a little bit at the sight of it (in my defense, it's a tie-dyed sheet and the white parts resembled fangs; could've happened to anyone).

Anyways, we went to the parade and it was awesome and scary and weird. Someone had a chained up vulture on his arm.There were babydolls speared through stakes and syths. People were wearing the scariest masks of all time. They carried lit candles in one hand and sprayed a bottle of hairspray with the other. It was madness. All these things plus five man marching bands playing frantic music = me being scared by a sheet the next morning. (Seriously, check out the new photo album and tell me you wouldn't have been a little startled in the AM!)

On Saturday we celebrated Halloween the good ol' fashioned American way: dressing up and having a dance party. Yours truly did a poor impression of Rainbow Brite. If you don't know who she is then I have one question for you: WHERE were you during the early 90s? Other people's costumes ranged from Nicaraguan street vendors to Shaggy and Scooby Doo. It was a pretty fun time.

Sunday I was enjoying a sandwich in the park when my host dad called. To make a long, and quasi-painful story short, my computer (Donald) was stolen. That's right people...I am writing this blog from another computer. My host dad called me to tell me my bedroom door was open. I asked if my computer was there; he said no. So...after 6.5 years together and only one hard drive replacement...our relationship has ended. I'm proud to say there were no tears, just a little bit of anger and disappointment.

Yes the police are doing an investigation. No I didn't have it insured. Yes it was stolen from inside my bedroom. No apparently no one from the family was inside the house, only in the office and no one noticed anything. Yes the police took fingerprints. No my computer probably won't be recovered. Yes I will accept one as a gift when I'm home for Christmas (preferably one of those tiny ones and then I'll buy the external cd/dvd drive but I'll accept all kinds! [No, I don't expect someone to take me up on this offer, but you never know!]).

So Donald is gone.

Oh...and the house thing hasn't worked out yet. I'm looking for more options.

But seriously, while it might seem like I'm complaining. I'm not. It was a good weekend and, while Donald will be missed and lamented at times, worse things could have happened.

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

I might be moving out of my current house as soon as this Tuesday!

I have a really cute house picked out but nothing is certain yet. This is why I'm petitioning everyone to keep his/her fingers crossed. First I am waiting to see if the owner accepts my offer of $60 per month. She lives in Costa Rica and her sister is in charge of her house while she's away. The sister has to get a hold of the owner, which is semi-difficult because she doesn't own a phone. SO, first you're keeping your fingers crossed for that.

Then one of my bosses is coming on Monday to make sure the house passes the safety requirements. I'm not nervous because I know it will...but I'm still nervous. Does that make sense?

Why do I want to move out of my current house? While it's been wonderful and helpful and easy, I'm ready to live on my own. I want to have more domain than a room. I want to wash clothes whenever it's sunny and not have to wait for the family's washer-woman to be done. I want to cook food whenever I want and not feel like I'm in the way if someone else is cooking. I want to be able to sit in peace anywhere in my house. I want to look forward to coming home in the evening because I know it will be relaxing. I want my friends to feel welcome at my house and not have to sit out on the patio talking to them. So, while it has been a good year with the family, and I will still visit them, I'm just ready for more of my own space.

So please pray that all this works out for me and I get to move in to my new house next week. Thank you!

As some of you know, on Saturday I took the GRE test. No I don't know what I want to go to grad school for. I don't even know if I want to go. What I do want is to have all my options open. So I signed up for the test three months ago, studied off and on for about two months and then threw caution to the wind and didn't study for the last three weeks. I've never studied for a standardized test before and everyone says it's more important just to know what the test is like. And after taking about four practice test I was more than familiar.

I had a GRE-at (get it?!) time this weekend! When my dad came to visit back in July we met some diplomats from the US Embassy and one of the younger women told me whenever I need a place to stay in Managua to let her know. I know sometimes people make these offers just to make them but, I'm in Peace Corps and can't afford Managua hotels SO I took her up on her offer (and she seemed really genuine). Not only did she give a resounding yes to my staying, but she also approved two of my friends who were also taking the test. THEN she offered to drop us off AND pick us up from it! To top THAT off, on Friday there was a bbq at the US Embassy. She put it on the table and I was like, "Um, HELL YES."

However, disaster struck when she heard she might have to go to Italy for the weekend. I was nervous but she reassured me that we could still stay at her house AND she would leave us her car keys. My jaw dropped when I read that email. We only met for one weekend and she's never met my friends. I thanked her a billion times and told her not to bother with the keys because volunteers aren't allowed to drive here.

Anyways, she ended up not going to Italy. Whew! My two friends and I met her at the embassy around 3:30PM on Friday. She drove us in and, apparently (who knew!?) the US embassy in Nicaragua is the second biggest (acre wise) in the WORLD. It's seriously sparling. I'd been there once before and had only seen the office buildings out front. I had no idea there was more. So we go up a hill with beautiful manicured lawns on both sides and trees and no litter and no street dogs. I swear there was different air up there. We turn the corner and there's a moon bounce and a pool. Obviously the moon bounce was just there for the party. The food looked delicious. Some Marines were working the bar...nothing like a little GRE prep time. Hah.

As one of my friends and I were taking off our shoes to get in the moon bounce, who walks up but one of our bosses. Karen was just as shocked to see us as we were to see her. We convinced her to get in the moon bounce with us. What a surreal moment. Not really what I imagined I'd be doing the day before the dumb test :)

We headed back to the diplomat's house. It is gorgeous and pristine and I love it. When I was little I wanted to be an ambassador. That dream (or maybe just a diplomat) was semi-reawakened this weekend...I don't really think I'd end up doing it but, it was fun to think about. We settled into our guest rooms and watched a movie (The Time Traveler's Wife...the book, of course, is much better) and went to bed, in the most comfortable bed of all time.

The next morning, after hot showers and a breakfast of left-over Pizza Hut pizza, we made some peanut butter sandwiches and headed to the test. There's really no need to write about that. It was the typical standardized test: boring, a little overwhelming, and really just a lot of sitting around waiting for it to be over...except on the math sections when I was always pressed for time. The diplomat picked us up afterwards and took us out to lunch at this delicious organic food restaurant: one plate of ravioli stuffed with spinach with a basil pesto coming right up. She then dropped us all off at different locations all over town so we could head home.

It was awesome. She is awesome. I'm SOOOOOOOOO lucky to have met her.

Then on the bus ride I didn't have a seat which sucked because it's like three hours, but you know...I've waited in longer lines at Kings Island and the rest of the weekend totally wasn't that bad so I'm not going to complain (more).

See you guys SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Well another visitor has come and gone. It's still awesome to have company so feel free to come on down :) About a month ago my brother sent me an email saying, "I hear you're homesick...tx are 500...I'm free the 8th. Realistic?" I'm not summarizing here. That was the extent of the email. At first I wondered what in Texas was $500...a slow moment for me that I'm not too ashamed to admit to having. Two days later he had his tickets = Oct. 8th-16th.

We made plans and he arrived on time around noon on the 8th. We carefully chose a taxi cab, making sure all the numbers matched up and I checked out the guy's ID (taxis are a little dangerous sometimes). Everything checked out and we were off...to pick up the driver's son for baseball practice. After that we were on our way to Leon. It's a city famous for the insane number of churches it has...but we were going to a different reason: to hike up and sled down the side of a volcano.

Cerro Negro is the youngest volcano in Central America and is located about an hour outside of the city of Leon. There are two companies who offer volcano boarding that I know about: Bigfoot and Quetzal Trekkers. We wanted to go with Quetzal Trekkers because they let you go up and down twice for the same price...unfortunately there weren't enough people to warrant them going so we ended up defecting to Bigfoot. Still awesome but a second run is necessary because on the first one we had no clue what we were doing.

The hike up took about 45 minutes and then it was time to go down. I'm still mystified as to how the volcano grew so high while we climbed because it definitely didn't seem that big from ground level. It was scary. Our guide Roger explained how to steer and how to sit on the sleds. The record is 82 kph. No. I am NOT kidding. Jon and I cruised on our sleds at about 45 kph. It was way harder than it looked. I thought we'd just sit down and go in a straight line. That was not the case. I ended up having to stop, stand up and clean the volcanic rocks off my board about 4x. I'm pretty sure Jon only had to stop once. By the time I got to the bottom I was covered in black dust...a quick rinse of the mouth was necessary.

Once we got back to the hostel and showered we were off the the crater lake...still one of my favorite places in Nicaragua. We went for a swim, ate delicious pizza, and had a rather revealing conversation with a Swiss woman who has apparently been constipated for the last three years. Yeah...that was our first conversation with her. Anyways, the lake was beautiful as always and I even convinced Jon to put on some sunscreen while we were there (it's a little dark in the pic but I'm wiping sunscreen on his face). We caught the 11:30AM bus out of the crater and proceeded to Masaya where we'd be staying for a couple of nights with my PCV friend Alex. She's a pretty fabulous hostess.

In Masaya we ate a bunch of typical Nica food, which I'm not a huge fan of...except for gallo pinto which I could eat every day. Alex, Jon, and I went to the market, which is the largest in the country outside of Managua and walked around for most of the morning. While Jon normally cuts his hair himself he couldn't resist the $1.50 haircuts that were offered there. I mean...who can?! We saw the pigs' heads that are laying out for whoever wants to buy one (he almost couldn't resist those either but wasn't sure if one would fit in his carry on). We passed by the pinata place, plastics place, shoes place, candy place, food place, and every other kind of place you can imagine. All under one roof. An interesting morning but not such a great smell.

Our next stop was San Juan del Sur (near where Survivor was shot) to see some turtles lay some eggs. A couple PCV friends came with us. We stayed at a cheap hostel and signed up for a turtle tour. The woman I'd emailed about it a week beforehand said they'd been going every night and that it was high season or whatever. She is a dirty liar. Our tour was supposed to leave that night at 6PM...we didn't leave until almost 7. I hate waiting. I know, I know, who likes it? I'm just saying. An hour later we pulled up to the reserve and the guards told us there was a turtle on the beach right then. We headed out and saw it lay eggs. It was still breath-taking and surreal. Then we walked on the beach for an hour or so. It was beautiful and deserted of both people and turtles. I was disappointed because I thought there'd be a ton, but I'm glad we at least saw one.

The next day we hung out on the beach all day, got banana splits for lunch (Jon's first EVER) and went to the circus at night. That's right, the circus. It's actually the second one I've been to since being here. This one was way better. Granted, most of the performers were under the age of 12 so I think some child labor laws might have been broken but, it was entertaining. There was a 10 year old contortionist who had arms of steel (straight up hand stand for at least 2 minutes). There were two boys around the age of 15 who flipped each other around. There was a 5 year old boy clown. There was a troupe of boys ages 3-12 who did flips on a giant trampoline (while older people pulled the edges so it wouldn't break!). There were other human trick people.

FINALLY we went to our last stop: my training town! They were in the Fiestas Patronales (patron saint parties). We stayed with some Nica friends of mine who are conveniently the owners of the ice cream store. The highlights of our stay there were the bull-riding competition and the fiesta at night. During bull-riding competitions in this town you pay $2 for a seat, $1.50 for no seat, or FREE if you GO INTO THE RING. We paid $2. Basically in the ring there are the guys working the bull-riding and the drunk guys. A guy rides one of the bulls and jumps off when it looses steam. Then everyone else in the ring tries to get it riled up again by throwing stuff at it or waving those red towel-like things at it. We stayed for about 5 of the bulls. All of the riders did okay...except for one who fell off, got trampled, passed out and had to be hauled out of the ring. Don't worry, he woke up within about 15 minutes. He had a pretty bad limp though. I'm not a doctor, but I'd say he broke a bone.

Saturday afternoon I dropped Jon off at the airport and headed back to Matiguas with my bag full of dirty clothes. Sunday was not fun. I hate washing clothes.

Short term future: I take the GRE this Saturday in Managua. Pray that I guess right!Slightly longer term future: I'LL BE HOME IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS!

So I'm changing my address...again. Or rather I'm changing it back to what it was during training.

Jocelyn Norman, PCVCuerpo de PazApartado Postal 3256Managua, NicaraguaCentral America

What's the reason for the change? While Managua is farther away from where I live, I go there more often than I go to Boaco SO it's more convenient. I'll still get any mail you have already sent to the old address, but from now on send it to this one. Thanks! Keep the mail coming! You guys are awesome.

Well...it is officially the Nicaraguan hurricane season.

I left my site early Saturday morning to go visit Carla and our training town. I clearly did not think ahead of time. Our safety and security officer had emailed us telling us Tropical Storm Matthew was on it's way and we should stock up on some drinking water and food just in case. I did that. But then when I was packing to go to Carla's I packed my sunglasses instead of a rain jacket or umbrella. Not my smartest move. Five hours into the six hour trip, it started pouring and I got soaked. Serves me right I suppose.

It didn't stop raining for two days. Carla and I scurried from house to house visiting friends when it would lighten up for a few minutes. It was still a lot of fun: saw friends from training, ate at the new pizza place in town, met the new trainees that are living there. We headed to Managua early Monday morning.

Time for our one-year check-up. None of us are sick but once we're in country for a year they send you to the dentist (no cavities!) and you get a physical, etc. It wasn't enjoyable but it wasn't any worse than doctors in the US. Well, the dentist didn't clean my teeth as thoroughly as I would have liked but, I can live with that.

We met Julie in the office (yes, we made our appointments on the same day and had them put us in the same hotel room that night so we could hang out) and hung out in the hotel room. My shower water was so hot that I looked like a lobster when I came out. That's right, I sort of scalded myself. It felt amazing. I love hot water. We went to the grocery store and stocked up on chips, hummus, chocolate milk, apples, and other delicious things that aren't offered in our towns. Then we watched some trashy TV and hung out in the cold AC air. A trainee asked me if we party when we're in Managua. I described what I do while I'm there and said, "So...yes. It's a party."

All the while it is still raining off and on. We watch the news on Monday evening. The water is up to people's waists in some places. In some towns, water was up to the roofs of houses and people are canoeing down the street. A woman talked about a young boy she saw carried away in the current. My town's bridge was underwater and buses weren't running there anymore because they couldn't pass. It was pretty crazy. The three of us were grateful we were in Managua and together.

That night Peace Corps put us on "standfast" which is the first level of our emergency program. It means we have to stay wherever we are and if we want/need to move around we have to talk to the safety and security guy and get permission. Carla talked to him and he told her to go home. Her site's really close and there aren't really any bridges on the way. Julie and I had to stay another night for other reasons. The rain just kept falling.

Tuesday I had work to do in the office and on Wednesday one of my bosses and I gave a lecture/charla to the new trainees about teaching listening. I was really nervous because I kept thinking, "I'm not experienced. I don't know what to say. What if it's boring?" My worst fear was to give a boring lecture. I did not appreciate most of the lectures we had during our training a year ago and was usually bored out of my mind. I did not want to do that to another group. BUT, I think it went pretty well. We laughed, played games, and I still managed to give useful information. Another thing that was cool, I realized I am experienced and I do know what to say. The trainees would ask questions and I had answers. It was such a revelation. I liked it. It made me realize that I really have been here for a year and I do know what I'm doing (more or less). Also made me realize I only have a little over a year left. Scary.

On Wednesday I talked to some of my bosses and they told me I'd be in Managua for the weekend. WHAT?!?!?!?!? Don't get me wrong guys, Managua is awesome for one or two nights. AC. Hot water. A kick-butt grocery store within walking distance. Cable TV from Miami. Oh...and did I mention that the McDonald's near there puts caramel sauce in the McFlurries?!?!?! Take note America. BUT, after two nights, Managua is super-boring. After two nights I just want to get back to my site and back in my routine and doing things I like to do.

So when they told me that, my first thought was, I only have one more day of clean clothes and even those smell a little moldy. I was NOT pleased.

Late that night I got a text message from another PCV saying standfast was lifted and we were free to move about the country. Thursday morning I packed up my stuff, checked out of the hotel, and headed to the office to take care of some last minute things. I told our country director I was leaving and she said okay. I called my sitemate to make sure the bridge was passable and she said she was on a bus to Managua. I peaced out. My sitemate made it to Managua before I made it to Matiguas (I'd stopped in Boaco to pick up mail: thank you Claire, Mice, and Dad for the package and letters!) and she texted me to tell me standfast really wasn't lifted and some of our bosses were mad at her for coming in.

What the heck?!

The moral of the story is not to worry if you see Nicaragua on the news. While this tropical storm didn't treat this country well, PC has procedures in place and we're all pretty careful.

See you guys in TWO AND A HALF MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Except for my brother...I'll see you in ONE WEEK!)

The festivities are over...for now. September 14th and 15th are the two biggest holidays of the year. The first one is the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto in 1865 when US invader William Walker was defeated. The 15th celebrate the independence of Central America from Spain. I'm SUPER-pumped I'll get to be here for this celebration three times (once during training, once yesterday, and once more next year)! The music is great (because they've been cutting so much class in order to practice). There's no school. There are parades and parties and just general alegria (happiness).

So, what did the two day celebration entail? The teachers had told me everyone was meeting at school at 7 on Tuesday morning and then we'd parade to the barrera (bull-riding ring) with the band and the dancers. All the other schools in town would be doing the same thing. Since they said 7AM, I was walking out my front door at 7:35. My jaw dropped when I saw that the band was already leaving the school. That means people were there on time. Excuse me?! I thought. AM I still in Nicaragua?

The sun answered me with a resounding YES YOU ARE! It took us the better part of an hour to walk to the ring. Normally it takes 25 minutes. I was all kinds of sweaty;my new official teacher polo (with my name embroidered on it!) was a different shade of blue than when I put it on. I looked around me...of course, no one else was sweating. I know I didn't grow up here, but I've been here for a year. WHEN ARE MY SWEAT GLANDS GOING TO ADJUST?!

We arrived at the ring and processed in. It was hot. There were masses of people. The dancers and bands stayed in the sweltering sun in the middle of the ring; the non-performing students and teachers fled to the shade of the bleachers. I walked around in the ring taking pictures like I was getting paid to. I felt really bad for the kids. They were sweating bullets and getting sun burnt (no one ever has sun screen). Oddly enough, they didn't seem to mind too much. The head of education in our area gave a speech, the national anthem was sung (yes, I DO know the words thank you), awards were given out for the best student in each subject area, the bands played a little...and then we headed out for the real parade. Great idea. Let's march from one end of town to the other (normally a 35 minute walk but took us 2-2.5 hours) in the mid-day sun.

I had a GREAT time. I walked next to my big school's (Jose Santos Zelaya, the first video) drum section almost the entire time. That school's band is the best because it's the biggest. I would say because they practice all the time, but so do all the other schools. It's simply because it has the most people. Smaller schools have good ones too though. In the second video is the band from my small school (Miguel Lareynaga). (Also in that video is a man with a killer mustache in a black shirt...that's the school's assistant principal.)

By the time we got to the other end of town everyone was sweating. And then the rain came down. For a second I thought maybe everyone would break formation and run for cover, but they didn't. They kept right on playing and dancing and marching. Nice. Each band did a short presentation and then went home.

Yesterday the celebration wasn't quite as intense. In the morning there was an hour long assembly with all the kids in their school uniforms standing in the sun while the declaration of independence was read and the national anthem was sung. Then in the evening there was a presentation by the band, which was pretty awesome. There are more pics if you click on the link "Fiesta Time" under the links. I was the paparazzi.

I've been living in Nicaragua for one year. Holy. Cow. It's such a long time and not long enough at the same time; that's thanks to you guys. I seriously wouldn't still be here without the support of you guys at home. I will really never be able to show you as much gratitude as you deserve.

When I first starting thinking of joining the Peace Corps, the time commitment of 27 months freaked me out. I kept asking myself, Why can't they make it a one year program? Well, I've discovered the reason. It takes a while to make connections and get used to how things work and living in a place completely different than the one you know. I wouldn't say I went through culture shock, but adjustments were needed. Some are complete: I look forward to the cold showers to cool down from the heat of the day; I'm not offended when people call me chelita (little white girl) and I don't cringe when people refer to one of my host brothers as negro; I'm aware that I won't work at school every school day because some classes, or the whole day, will be canceled; I know the difference between la hora gringa and la hora Nica (gringa = on time, Nica = late).

Other adjustments are still a work in process: I still hate using a latrine (although I am used to it); I sometimes take offense when I'm called gordita (little fat girl); I know I will sweat every day but am not okay with it; I get really frustrated when people don't show up for meetings; I hate being cat-called on the street or offered money to marry someone "as a favor" so he can go to the US.

But, overall, the pros of my situation definitely outweigh the cons. I have made some lifelong friends that understand me and whom I can just be myself with. My Spanish is getting better; sometimes I catch myself saying something in a verb tense that I don't even remember learning and I look around suspiciously and ask people if it's correct...and it IS! I've developed deeper relationships with people from home as we share our lives through letters, email, and skype. It seems odd that we've been able to delve deeper when we're never truly face to face, but I think sometimes it's the distance that brings us closer...it makes us remember what's important in our lives. And "what's" really always translates to "who's" because things are never as valuable as people.

And I've learned a lot about myself. Someone semi-recently asked me "What things?" because I always cite "things" but never specify what. The list is endless, but I can never think of anything on the spot. However, lucky you, I'm not on the spot right now. I could delete this whole entry and you guys would never be the wiser. But I won't. Deleting what I write just isn't in me (although I did throw away my high school journals at one point...).

I don't want what I thought I did...or maybe what I was told I wanted. The media drills in us that we need a bigger TV, a faster computer, a sleeker car, a louder stereo, a beautiful house in the suburbs, a cell phone with more features, and so on...and so on...and so on...literally an endless list of stuff. I don't want those things. I want a TV that's not the center of my family's life, that's not big enough to be the center of any room in my house. I want to keep using and repairing my laptop that I'm using now that I've had for six years (go Dell!). Right along with that I want to have my silver 2000 Honda Civic for as long as possible. I want something to play music on that won't cause hearing damage. I want to own a house that fits my family. When I was little I used to pass the Atheneum on Beechmont and think I want a house just like that. WHAT would I do with all that space?! I'm not criticizing people who have the lux of the luxery, just saying that's not what I want for life. I don't want to have to work more hours to pay for things I don't need when instead I could spend time with the people I love or doing things I love to do.

Second thing I've learned is about humans in general. It's amazing what we are capable of adjusting to. My body quickly adapted to being here. I don't get sick very often (although I do have a cold right now). The heat doesn't bother me quite as much as when I first arrived a year ago. I don't need air conditioning. When I tell Nicaraguans where I live, they all make the same face that says, "That's SO far away!" but, as long as the bus rides are less than 5 hours I don't mind them (unless I drank a lot of water that morning). I don't scratch my bug bites as much (although you will see some scars in December...that is if my legs can bare the cold for a few minutes!). If hand-washing my clothes takes less than an hour, it's been a good morning. And these are just a few of the things that pertain to me. Nicas are far more impressive. When the grass needs cutting, they do it with their right arm and a machete. They work outside in the sun all day without complaints. Kids come home for the weekend and help on the family farm for fun.

I don't like the fast-paced life. My future house must have a rocking chair that is permanently parked in a shady spot on my front porch. I love knowing the workers at the ice cream shop, the guards at the bank, the owners of a local hotel...and in connection with that is I LOVE having time to stop and talk to them whenever I see them. I'm never in a hurry. I don't have to rush off to make a meeting (because even if I have a meeting, chances are it won't be starting on time). I'm never stuck in traffic (because there isn't any!). At home I sometimes felt the weight of time crushing down on me. How long will this take? That's not the way I want to live...always waiting for the thing I'm doing to end so I can move on to the next. What's the point of that? So, something I need to remember when I come home is to just s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n. It's easy to get swept up in the hustle and bustle.

Another aspect of my life that has started to grow is the spiritual part. I still don't enjoy Mass and therefore never go. I pray about the same amount as I did before I left. I know what you're thinking, "Then what's changed Jocelyn?" I feel God more. There are so many beautiful places here and nature is where I see and feel God. Try as I might, I do not find Him very often in a beautiful church adorned with statues, crucifixes, and stained glass windows. I feel his presence and his design when I lookout from the top of a small mountain (can't claim I've climbed any huge ones), when I see a crystal clear waterfall drop into a pool, when I look into the eye of an ancient turtle laying her eggs. That list could go on forever. I know a lot of people believe that Mass is necessary for me to be called Catholic, but I don't. I respect where other people are at on their spiritual journey and I expect the same sort of respect in return.

I don't want to bore you so the list of learned things about myself is going to end there. But don't worry, I still have another year and three months to add to it :)

There's so much I still want to accomplish before I leave in November of 2011. It's going to flash by faster than the lightning that fell as I walked under my umbrella to class last night (Can anyone tell me if I shouldn't carry an umbrella when it's lightning? I was super-freaked out the whole time.).

What do I want to do? I want to hold an English summer camp for kids. I know it sounds lame but it's actually a lot of fun. We'd play games and learn at the same time and it would be free (no complaints there!). I want to start the world map project. My goal there is to have one in each of my two schools before I come home for Christmas. I want to open up a pen-pal program that connects more high school students at home with my students here (we're talking about that now) that will last longer than a school year. I want to see more of the country and meet more people.

I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm done serving in the Peace Corps. I'm taking the GRE on October 23rd to have grad school options open. I don't know where I'd go or what for, or even if I want to go...but who knows? Maybe I'll know all those things in a year and three months. Maybe I'll go abroad and teach English to other kids in need. Maybe I'll get a regular job teaching English to high schoolers. Maybe I'll do something I don't even know about yet. It's all up in the air. And I'm okay with that.

But for now it's late so what I want to do (and what I'm going to do) is go to bed. I just thought you guys might want a one-year-in-country update.

(I have another anniversary in mid/late-November for one year of service. Feel free to send gifts! (Hah! That was a joke. Save them for when I come home...better yet, don't buy any and just take me out to a delicious restaurant.)

And the winner of the Coolest Turtle of All Time Award goes to the.....OLIVE RIDLEY! COME ON DOWN!

This past weekend I headed down to San Juan del Sur, one of the most touristy places in the country (and did I mention they've just finished up the filming of Survivor nearby?), with my friends Carla and Tyler. It was a pretty long trip; luckily I have a super-awesome friend named Alex that let me spend the night at her place on the way there and back so I didn't have to do it all in one day. We went out dancing on Friday night until early Saturday morning...maybe that wasn't my best move when I knew I'd be going on a turtle tour, but it was definitely a fun move that was definitely worth the tiredness that resulted. Carla, Tyler, and I dropped out stuff at the hostel, went and played in the ocean, ate delicious pizza, and then went to the turtle presentation.

At this presentation we learned all these cool facts about different turtles that come to La Flor Reserve to breed. They get about three leatherbacks a year, which are so massive that italicizing the word won't even do it justice, even if I bold it too. They can get up to 12ft long and 900kg in weight. Say WHAT?! You read right. But, La Flor only gets about three of those a year; we were more focused on the Olive Ridley. These turtles lay 80-120 eggs three times between July and January. They will only lay eggs on the beach they were born in. That fact was even more incredible when we learned that they don't start laying eggs until they're 10 or so years old. And they travel all over and somehow find their way back to their beach. Scientists have theories about maybe they know the earth's magnetism or something like that but they can't prove anything. I know what you're thinking, "If they lay all these eggs, HOW are they endangered?" Well my friend, apparently only 1 out of every 1000 eggs laid actually hatches (things eat it, the tide comes up higher than the mother thought it would, etc.).

Out of those that hatch, only 1 out of every 100 make it to adulthood. I'm no mathwhiz but, that's how.

After more facts, and telling us how to behave on the beach (the most crushing thing was that we weren't allowed to use the flash on our cameras because it freaks the mommas out which is why all the pictures on here are from google images but really, they're the same things I saw), we loaded up into the bench seats in the back of a truck with 5 other people. Despite the potholes it wasn't too uncomfortable...until it started raining and then it was miserable. They had tarps, which helped, but not completely. By the time we arrived we were soaked through and through. We dashed to the covered porch of the "lodge" and waited for our guide, a very petite Nicaragua woman who was as sassy as can be and super-fun and a great guide.

She told our group to wait two minutes. Five minutes later she comes out of the lodge with a plastic basket full of baby turtles! There were tons of them and they were sooooooo tiny and cute. I wanted to look around to make sure no one was looking and put one in my pocket. I resisted though. Why did the reserve have a basket of baby turtles laying around? Normally the eggs hatch at night and the babies make their way to the sea, but sometimes they hatch and break out of the sand nest during the day, and if the reserve doesn't pick them up, they will get eaten by birds. The workers can't just put them into the sea because they need to have the mental imprint of their beach in their system so they can find it when it's time for them to lay eggs. Crazy, right? So, they gather them up and then tourists like us who paid $30 for the travel and the guide, get to help them find their way. And by that I mean our guide set them up in a line like at a horse race and then we held red light flashlights out in front of them. The flash from our cameras might scare the moms, but the babies LOVE lights. Weird.

After that we saw a couple of big ones. The first one we saw was just packing up shop. Their instincts are insane. In case you didn't know, turtle-moms abandon their eggs and never come back. It sounds harsh, but they do disguise the nest well. First of all, they dig it WITHOUT HANDS (obviously I know, but incredible) about 12-16 inches deep in the sand. When they're done laying the eggs, they cover it back up with their flippers (to dig it they used the back tip of their shell, above the tail) and make sure no sand is mounded up around it. They pack the sand down and mess the sane up around it so it "doesn't look" like a nest. It's pretty impressive. Then she turns to the ocean and peaces out.

Then came the coolest one. Our second big one. She was just finishing up digging her nest when we intruded. She started laying eggs and we watched. After seeing a few drop I decided seeing goo fall wasn't really my thing, and I headed up to her face. When they're laying the eggs they go into a trance and can't tell what's happening around them. I kneeled down in the sand and had my head cupped in my hands LESS THAN FIVE INCHES FROM HER FACE! It was incredible. There was my face, inches from the face of an animal that's been around since the dinosaurs, inches from an endangered animal, inches from a momma turtle doing Lamaze breathing (or the turtle equivalent...she was seriously working it out) and giving birth to 80-120 baby turtles. I could've sat there all night.

But not really because I was freezing. My clothes were soaked. My sneakers were soaked (they saw not to wear flipflops because the beach is 1.6km long and sometimes you have to trek a bit to find the turtles). It started to rain heavily again. We peaced out. All of this: the baby liberation and the two moms with their nests, probably took about two hours or more.

If anyone's coming this way and is going, go to the hostel called Casa Oro or something like that. It's owned by a French woman who's been here for six years and she's all about teaching and doing things the "right" way to not interfere with what the tortugas are up to.

I had my doubts at first (like when they told us there was only a 50% chance of seeing turtles that night), but it was definitely worth it.

So we all remember when in the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant when the girl from South Carolina gave that really bad answer about why many Americans can't find the United States on a map, right? (If you don't remember, I gave the information so you could youtube it. It's seriously worth a look.) In case you don't feel like looking it us, the gist of it is that this girl gives the most awkward answer of all time. A.C. Slater couldn't even keep the adorable smirk of disbelief off of his charming face. Anyways, in the middle she made a somewhat valid point...if she were talking about Nicaragua. She said she thinks it's because a lot of people don't have maps and therefore really can't know.

That's sort of the truth here. There are internet cafes and some schools have one map or one globe for the entire school. Some kids don't know where Nicaragua is because they've never seen a map before. There isn't ready access to a map. Because this is true in a lot of third world countries, Peace Corps does something about it. They have a system of drawing giant murals of world maps in schools. There are two main ways to do it. The first one is the projector method where we use a projector and a world map printed on a transparency. We trace it onto a wall that's already painted blue and then we paint it. The other is the grid method. More on that later. It exists for when there is no projector or when there is no electricity to run the projector.

So, one Peace Corps volunteer decided to take this project on. She was determined. She was prepared. She had helpers. Her name is Julie and she's one of my best friends. Julie lives in the department of Leon, about 6.5-8 hours of travel by bus for me; because of that distance I'd never visited her. Well, this past weekend changed all that. I had a ride to Managua (so I didn't have to take the bus and it cut the time to Managua from 5 hours to less than 3) and when I was done there I hopped a bus to her place. I got there Thursday afternoon.

Friday morning a church group of 11 high school and college students and 3 chaperones were coming to help Julie out with the map. Seem a little weird? You have no idea. One of the chaperones was an old friends of Julie's from high school and it was sort of all a big coincidence. Anyways, she and I had no idea what to expect from them or from the map, but our hopes were high. So we headed to the school and the first picture is what was done so far. Julie had cleared the furniture and painted the ocean. We had a lot of work to do, starting with setting up the projector.

Hah! How we actually thought something would work so easily, I don't know. We had the map printed on the transparency and went to the school library to pick up the projector that all the teachers had told Julie would be perfect for the map and the transparency. They failed to mention that it was for SLIDES. What were we going to do?

Turned out we were going to do the grid method. It basically involves measuring 56 squares across and 28 squares down and making a grid. Then we use papers that someone from PC developed that show exactly what squiggly line to draw in each of the 1568 squares. Dear God. We were not looking forward to this. It just seemed so tedious. Oh well though. We really had no other option.

Julie and I walked to pick up the group. We were meeting them at the park...and it was quite the spectacle. They rolled up in a suh-weet bus with AC, so we hopped on. They all seemed really chill and fun as Julie guided Pedro (the kick-butt driver who I'm pretty sure could navigate that bus anywhere) to her house so he could park it.

Then we went to work! Julie and I were more than a little nervous about what all of the group would do since there wasn't enough space for everyone to work on the map at once. Turned out not to be a problem thanks to the Nicaraguan tradition of getting out of school early. The Nica students played soccer and volleyball with them. At one point I saw a little hackey-sack. Some students were brave enough to come help out on the map. It was all pretty impressive considering the visitors had pretty limited Spanish, but language really isn't a barrier as long as people are willing to look a little silly while miming things. And looking silly definitely wasn't a problem for these Americans. They were awesome.

So by the end of the day, the map was drawn. Julie still has a lot of work to do. I still don't really know how she and her students are going to paint it using acrylic paint...but if anyone can do it she can.

And I'm hoping I can too. She completely inspired me to do this in my town. I talked to the head of education in my town and he's excited and asked me when I'm starting. I mentioned it to the mayor earlier today...basically saying I need money, and he said something along the lines of, "It's a great idea. Come into the office sometime this week and tell me how much you need." I know it's not going to be quite as easy as it seems like it's going to be, but I feel prepared and supported. I know my students will help me out...not as many that promised they would, but some of the faithful ones (and if we're being honest, some of the boys will come just because they have incredibly inappropriate crushes on me...whatever).

I'm SUPER-excited about this and will keep you guys posted! My goal is to start in the public library, then in the two schools I work in, and start in the other schools in town after that. I have some things I need to get under control before I start, and then I have to price point the materials (sharpies, pencils, yardsticks, paint, possibly a projector [keep your fingers crossed for this!], and paint brushes, a roller and rolling pan too for the ocean...I think that's about it). I should definitely have some done before I come home for Christmas though so...ask me about them then! (Or now via email. Duh.)

Miss you guys! See you in LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nicaraguans love to celebrate anything. In Matiguas there's New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, St. Joseph's (our town's patron saint) Feast Day, Teachers' Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, Revolution Day (and the day after), Labor Day, Kids' Day, the 11th anniversary of Matiguas being named a city instead of a town, the anniversary of the school being a school, inaugurating the new school buildings, Earth Day, Sandino's birthday, the anniversary of a famous battle during the revolution, Independence Day...and who knows what else. For all of these days school is canceled. If the date happens to fall on the weekend, have no fear, school will be canceled the Friday before, the Monday after, or both.

This past Saturday was the 48th anniversary of my big school (Jose Santos Zelaya) being a school. A student band from a school over three hours away were bused in to play; don't worry, my students will be returning the favor (and missing school) when it's time. Student teams came from 1-2 hours away to play volleyball and soccer against our students. Our's won. Teachers and students brought food and drinks to sell. And as out of place as it seemed to me, there was an inexplicable Haunted House. I elected not to enter. It was a tough choice though.

There was a beauty pageant. Well, actually there were two: one for primary girls and one for secondary girls. They're nominated to run, during class of course. Then, at the celebration the actual pageant-y stuff happens. They each answer some trivia questions about the school/town/whatever's being celebrated at the time. They each perform a traditional dance. That's about it. Then the students vote and a few weeks later, the queen is announced. Great.

I don't know how many different queens and princesses there are at my two schools but I've been to at least four of these pageants this school year alone. And we're only half-way done (the school year here is February to November).

So, I went to the school on Saturday armed with my camera but not sure exactly what would be going on. Well, turned out what was going on was Jocelyn getting sun burnt. That's right; I just did the first person thing. Deal with it. Anyways, there I was standing in the blazing sun in a tank top talking to some students. Marlo pointed to my camera and asked if he could take some pictures. I handed it over and he disappeared into the crowd. I continued talking to the rest of the group for about 15 minutes. Then I asked Edward where Marlo was because I wanted to go home. The following is our conversation (translated into English for your ease of understanding):

Me: Where's Marlo? I want to go home.Ed: Why? Aren't you having a good time?Me: Yeah, but I'm getting sun burnt.Ed: Don't worry about it; it'll look nice.Me: WHAT?! Edward, I turn red when I sun burn; my skin doesn't get darker like your's.Ed: Huh? That's weird.

After he realized I was going to turn into a tomato he disappeared in the crowd to look for Marlo. I found him and he was taking a video that I unsuccessfully tried to upload onto this entry. He also took the pics that're on here. They're all of the primary school candidates because I left before the high school's pageant. Just in time too. I made it home with just a slight hint of pink on my shoulders. Bullet dodged.

That's right. My phone is gone. As of this morning between 7 and 7:30 I am phoneless. Crap.

How did it happen? I wasn't paying attention, that's how. I was in Managua this morning and I hopped on the 110 intercity bus. I had to cross town from the UCA to my bus terminal. I had plenty of time but was still pleased when I saw the big green bus (coincidence? I think NOT!) pull up moments after I exited a microbus.

It.was.packed. No, it was beyond packed. Another guy and I were standing in the staircase for the first bit (don't worry, they don't drive fast). Everyone was crushed up against each other. It sucked. I should've waited for the next bus (which really, probably would've been just as bad), but I didn't.

Finally I made it up the staircase and into the aisle. I reached for my phone to check the time. Gone. It was in my right side pocket of my jeans. No more. Maybe it's in my backpack, I thought. After all, sometimes I put it in there. I looked. Not in the small pocket. I never put it in the big part. That's when it hit me:

I'VE BEEN ROBBED!

Commence my freakout as I realize my wallet and mp3 player were in my backpack. I open the big part, sure they would be gone. I see them both and they are safe and sound. I traveled a little smart and didn't have them on the top of my bag. And yet...they now were on the top of all my stuff. What was missing?

My toiletries bag. That's right. A Nicaraguan thief is walking around Managua with my cell phone (luckily they're pre-paid, unlucky I just put money on it), my toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, and my deodorant. Granted, there were a few other things in there, but come ON!

So...that's that. I am phoneless. I'll let you guys know the new number when I get one.

(And before you think it, no I'm not running around with unbrushed teeth. I have a backup toothbrush, I bought new toothpaste and new deodorant. Thank you very much.)