Frustrated. (I just happened to be frustrated at the moment i was tryingto think of a title)

Scratch that internet schedule...my schedule isn`t consistent enough for me to make those kinds of promises. Today I ate some spinach for the first time in Nicaragua. I met the ministry of education delegate for my municipality, and also met this awesome volunteer who lives in the municipality next to mine. She`s gonna let me follow her around for a while, and maybe take over some stuff when she leaves!! Today I`m going to observe (and maybe lead some activities in) one of my counterparts classes at a nearby university, which is pretty intimidating but I can`t let on that I`m intimidated. I`m trying to email some pictures to someone but this computer is so slow that its realllyyy frustating and my lack of cell phone signal AT THE SAME TIME is extremely frustrating right now as well. Also the fact that I have to pay for my internet time and its really not much but its stressing me out all the same I dont know how much extra money I have after I pay for food and rent and stuff. blegh.

Day 5: Falling for Dolores...among other things...(cheezy, I know, but you might have to get used to it...)

This is what I have been doing for the past 5 days: going for long walks, reading, studying spanish, coloring, reviewing the things I have to get done my first 2-3 months here and trying to make a schedule or routine, texting, learning how to cook, kind of learning how to sew clothes, although I may not be as interested in that as I thought I would be, trying to build up the courage to start introducing myself to one or two families a day, starting with my brother´s who I don´t know as well as I should. This might sound lazy, but school´s out, and I´m supposed to be spending summer vacation getting to know my community and its people and its needs. Today I´m going to a Nicaraguan baby shower!! We´ll see how that goes.
Yesterday afternoon, a cute, chubby little girl with brown pigtails and beautiful eyes walked straight through my house, into my backyard, where I was sitting in a rocking chair studying Spanish, and proceeded to start a conversation with me. No one was around, and when my mom finally showed up she didn´t recognize her or know where she came from either. Then the little girl ran off. OMG she was so cute. That probably made my day yesterday.
There are really beautiful roads on the outskirts of Dolores but I guess it´s risky for me to walk around them by myself.

Ummm...I´m making myself a schedule for when i´m gonna be online, which is 7-8pm (Nica time which is 2 hours ahead of cali time) on tuesday and thursday, and 10-1130 am saturday mornings. In case you ever wanna skype or whatnot.

There is a more serious post about Nicaraguan culture, specifically regarding gender, coming soon...

Yesterday was my first day in my site as an official volunteer. I lugged my big fat suitcase HOME and spent a couple hours trying to unpack and arrange everything in my tiny room. It`s going to be hard but it`s going to be good, there are already people who have actually approached me asking for english classes. I think my first goal for my emotional wellbeing is to get more exercise. Also, I`m really learning how to cook now, instead of just thinking I was going to learn how to cook. Although to be honest Nicaraguan cooking seems extremely simple. I don`t know where this post is going, sorry, I`m gonna go home and write in my journal instead.

Me with my first meal in Niquinohomo. There is a salad, rice, guizo de papas, and some boiled platano on the way...



This is the angel that is my abuelita. She was watching my purse while I danced. On this night, she stole a knife from the restaurant and hid it in MY purse. It was hilarious....

Me and Sam working hard with the light of our headlamps....

Me and Julie in a chair-hammock at Sam´s house...

Me and host mom before a Halloween party....yeah she went pretty scandalous...and I went with bubbles...

Por fin! Unas fotos....

I know it´s late and maybe a little dumb to post pictures of my Niquinohomo house and family the day before I leave, but, here is my room.
In the first one you can see the Jonas Brothers, and in the second you can see Eclipse.


This is the kitchen and dining area, and that dog is Pupi.


This is the rest of the house kind of minus the living room...and the central patio thingy.



I don´t know...there were stuffed animals up for drying...I thought it was funny...it looks kind of bad. Also, the door that sayd "Gaby" is my room.



This is tio Bismarck and Gaby sitting in front of the TV, behind them is the living room...

Host mom on the computer in the living room....Pupi on the floor on the bottom left corner...

oh ps i got my first french manicure of my life in nicaragua

"I figure I´m a walking blog, you just need to plug your headphones in" and "Every other eggplant I buy has a worm"

A lot of things have happened in the past week and a half. I can´t really write about all of it, but it´s been crazy and swearing in is in 3 days.

Ummm...I´m really gonna miss everyone that has been a part of training. I have so much organizing to do of stuff and thoughts and PLANS.

I´m kind of excited about all of the free time im gonna have to post a bunch of pictures and study up on TEFL and things I can do and settle in to my house and community. Very eager to make friends, and still happy with the ones from Niquinohomo ;).

Basically that´s all: my head is scrambled eggs but right now I´m gonna go out with some aspirantes and some Nicas and go a little wild (hopefully) probably for the first and last time.

"Chunchitos"

This family and this town are suppperrrr religious. This is going to be difficult. Maybe it´s just my family, and I just need to meet other people, but even my 19 year old nephew is always just...singing religious music, and stuff. I don`t think I have a problem with it itll just take some getting used to. And I`m tired all the time again but I think that`s just what happens to me when I have to start over.
I think I`m just gonna pull an all nighter one of these nights to write this portfolio, because now I just want to spend my remaining time in Niquinohomo hanging out with Niquinohomo people and the other trainees. And be myself while I´m in a more...liberal and open minded town.

BUT, just like I had mama Conchita when I was sad in Niquinohomo, I have these adorable twins here in Dolores. And Myerli, their 5 year old lil sister, who is teaching me a lot of vocab.

Escoba y Kosquillo(sp?)

Yesterday I arrived in Dolores for my site visit. Basically it`s just a 6-day period where you have a chance to meet and hang out with your new host family, meet your counterparts, get to know the community and start getting comfortable. I decided to take my medium-sized suitcase, my saco (the big Nica market bag full of textbooks that PC gave us), and my backpack. Stuff I`m gonna leave here so I can bring the rest of my stuff after swearing in. I hopped on a bus from Niquinohomo to Dolores, took about 45 minutes, which means I am about a 2 hour bus ride from Managua.
I was incredibly spoiled by my Niquinohomo house. I knew it from the start but I let myself get comfortable anyway. This host family and this new house fits more the image I had before I got here. This time, my host mom is the abuelita, and she`s got a bunch of little grandkids running around the house, so I have a 5 year old girl that is attached to me always named Mayerli, and twins that are ridiculously sweet, who are 10 years old, named Karelie and Karelia. There is a baby of about 3 months named Naomi. These people don´t live in my house, they live next door, but they are around. It`s a lot more tranquilo than my other house, but they are friendly and experienced with volunteers because Dolores has been a training town for a while.
Anyway, I got off the bus, called my counterpart Tania who I had called the night before, and she walked over from the instituto to pick me up. The instituto is basically at the bus stop. She is awesome. She works in the morning teaching at this school and then in the evening teaches at a private university (I think) called Ave Maria. She introduced me to one of the other english teachers who is new, and then proceeded to take me to every single classroom to introduce me to the students, one of which, in each class, she had asked to prepare like a little welcome speech for me, which was cute and a little overwhelming. I hung out with her and the directora for a while, met some other teachers, then she helped me take my stuff to my host family`s house, and I ate lunch, and went for a walk, and this is where the title of the post comes in.
So I went for a walk with my mom, Mayerli, one of the twins, and we picked up my mom`s mom (abuela laura) on the way. We walked down a reparto and it was really pretty and fresca and green and there was this plant everywhere called escoba. It`s just a plant with leaves, but my mom was all excited and like man someone get me a machete so I can cut some of this escoba, and we finally found a machete, and man does she know how to use a machete. I tried and failed miserably. I was also a little scared. Then we made these little bundles of them, because I guess they use it to sweep. Anyway she`s going crazy over this escoba, and then she realizes that we left abuela laura far behind and she starts freakin out and then we hurry and each gather our bundle of escoba and head back home.

The rest of the day I was kind of just tired and bored, but then we had dinner and talked about India and watched part of a telenovela (Soy tu Dueña) and went to mass in Diriamba which was nice but a little long. Came home and crashed HARD but realized my cell phone reception isn`t too hot in Dolores =/.

Also I got serenaded on Sunday afternoon.

Today I observed a class of the new English teacher, and now I`m sitting in the computer lab (yes, my instituto has a computer lab) and my counterpart, who teaches all morning, sent a student with a pack of crackers for me to eat. I love her already.

Everything is good, it`s just scary all over again.