Craziness in the past month!

Alright, so it's been a while since I wrote...I've been super busy! In the past month I have finished my first two classes and all the spanish work that went along with them! This also included an INCREDIBLE group presentation with a game show format on Globalization.....it was either creative and entertaining or just plain ridiculous and stupid! Oh...and we also visited a sustainable organic farm! The guy would just grab some random fruit or vegetable or thing that I have never seen before off of a plant, a tree, or the ground, and hand it to me or my friends to try and eat. Most of the stuff was actually pretty good! Best tomatoes ever! I took a weekend trip with 7 of my friends to Volcano Arenal! We swam in hot springs, zip-lined through the rain forest, and chilled in our rocking chairs on our porch of our hotel rooms while looking at the steaming volcano. The following week, we celebrated my friend, Miranda's, birthday! On her birthday a few of us went to her house and had snacks/cake with her and her host family there! P.S. Her mom made popcorn and this was the first time that I had had popcorn since arriving here....I FLIPPED OUT (because I'm far too addicted and was going through withdrawals). A couple days later we went out to dinner at this cool place we had wanted to go to all semester and then went to a dance place called Castro's for the remainder of the evening. Last week a bunch of LASP students hung out at LASP one evening to watch the new episodes of the Office that we have missed since being in CR. I have only seen a few random episodes here and there, but after watching the 1st 5 of season 6, I want to watch the rest of the season now! This event also included MORE popcorn and pizza! I just got home from fall break yesterday. :( 10 friends and I went to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for 4 1/2 days! I got really lucky and found this incredible place online, so we stayed in a Jungle Villa. Essentially the 11 of us had this whole house and pools ALL to ourselves. We went to the beach a couple days too, but spent most of our time hanging around our incredible place! I also got to cook again, which I love and haven't gotten to do in FOREVER! It was a great time of rest and relaxation! Now, we are all splitting up into our concentrations (Latin American Studies, Business, or Advanced Language & Literature = ME) for the remainder of the semester. I will be leaving this Friday to live in Grecia, CR for almost 4 weeks! I'm gonna be reading a ton of literature and doing assignments with them, taking more advanced spanish classes 2 times a week, and doing some sort of "community involvement" job. (I'll post it up when I know what I'm gonna be doing). So, I'm using this week to enjoy time with my host family and with my LASP friends who I won't see now for a month :( Not sure how much I'll be able to post during the next 4 weeks, but I'll do my best!

Nicaragua Photos!!!!

Lunch stop in the middle of our 12 hour drive north

Volcano in the middle of Lake Nicaragua

Dinner at Doña Blancas

Sillouette of Sandino

On Loma de Tiscapa overlooking Managua

(Me, Liz, Carly, Tristen, Miranda & Shelby)

Tristen & I in front of a painting of Sandino

The old cathedral

Jake, Taylor & Carey being monkeys

Miranda & I

Pet parrot at the place we stayed for the first few nights

My room with my host family in Cuatro Esquinas (4 corners)

Genesis - 8 months

I still can't get enough palm trees ;)

Abi - 7 years

(getting ready to go to a wedding)

Dia de la Biblia

Meg & I riding in those trike - taxi things

Market in Masaya

My clean clothes hanging out to dry

My house

My host family

(minus Francisco bc he was at work)

Cousins/Aunts to my host family

Granada

Beautiful cathedral

Another church conected to the monestary

Chillin' around the pool at Hostel Oasis

Shelby & I riding in our little carriage

Our line of horse & buggies

Miranda & I excited for our boat tour of the islands!

A couple islands with a volcano in the background

Taylor feeding a monkey

Monkey sitting on the back of my seat

Monkey eating my banana

Shelby & I at a pizza place our last night in Granada

Oh Nicaragua! Fantastic Trip!

Nicaragua Trip

Wow! I can believe I just got back from a 2 week trip to Nicaragua! There was sooo much that happened, so I'll have to just share some highlights with you! After our 12 hour bus ride from San Jose to Managua, Nicaragua (which included a flat tire) we arrived at a retreat center where we spent our first few days together. We heard from a couple American missionaries, a woman at a church, and Dona Maria Tellez (One of the political party's leaders who also fought in their war back in the 80's). It was so inredible to hear from these people as we gained a better understanding of Nicaragua! We also went to Loma de Tiscapa, which is where a famous political leader, Sandino, used to live. We saw their Central Park, National Theater, Old Cathedral, New Cathedral, and other potical/historical locations. We also visited and heard from the leaders in this community in the middle of Managua across the street from the National Assembly. They are living in these huts made from scraps of wood and garbage bags. They have all been affected by a chemical called Nemagon, which big companies forced them to use in farming back in the early 90's. This chemical was illegal in the US, but there weren't laws against it at that time in Nicaragua. However, it is EXTREMELY damaging to one's health. So we got to hear about their history and their struggle with getting the attention and care needed from the government. However, the government has done NOTHING about this and they have been living in this community for about 6ish years now. Anyway, that was the gist of our time in Managua.

Wednesday we met the pastor's of our communities and split up into small groups. They each took four or five students and introduced each one to their host family for the week. My family was inredible and so extremely hospitable! They practically treated me like a queen with tons of food, their nicest plate, and practically serving me in every possible way. Mirna and Francisco were my host parents. Francisco worked from 4:00 am - 7 or 8ish at night, so I did not see him a whole lot. However, one night he got home a littler earlier and I got to talk to him a lot about Nicaragua, their politcal history, their interaction with the US, and his opinion on it all. One thing I discovered quickly was that Nicaraguans have a very different accent than Costa Ricans. They seem to talk a little faster and almost mumble more. That made it twice as hard to understand (as if I don't have enough trouble all ready) haha. Mirna was a more quiet but strong woman. She cooked, cleaned the house, washed the dishes, washed clothes, and took care of her girls. Katherine was 12 yrs old going on 25. She helped her mom with everything around the house and took care of her youngest sister Genesis (8months) who is possibly the most beautiful baby I have ever seen in my life! Abi (IRONIC, and confusing at times) was 7 yrs old and she became my shaddow. She went with me EVERYWHERE and just watched me. She was really quiet at first, but during the second half of the week she was starting to talk all the time with me. I pretty much got to live life with this family. Life was very slow paced which i enjoyed for a change. I believe that there is a lot we can learn from "slowing down". We went to church every night, except one. There church was more conservative, but they expect everyone to participate. It's typical to have people come up front and sing a song for the church. Numerous people did this every night...including myself on my 1st night there. Mirna found out that I knew "Eres Todopoderoso" so we marched up there and sang it for all. Talk about DIVING right into the experience! haha I played kickball a couple times with a bunch of people from Cuatro Esquinas (my community) and passed a volleyball around a few times with some girls. My host family took me to Masaya, where there were 2 main markets that we ventured to. I also went to the Dia de la Biblia (Day of the Bible) with a large group of people from our church. We marched through the city of Ticuantepe chanting things such as Quien vive? Cristo! A su nombre? Gloria (Who lives? Christ! And to his name? Glory!) We arrived at a park where there were at least 300-400 people. It was then conducted somewhat like a church service with singing and a message along with their national dance and some poetry. I mostly enjoyed just spending time with my family going to the stand to buy fruit, go to another house to buy rice and chicken, sitting outside with my sisters, chilling in their hammock under the palm trees, talking with people in the community, going to a wedding, riding around in these trike-like taxis, and watching telenovelas (soap operas) with my family. So many more stories, but it's impossible to write them all! Feel free to ask me more about this trip when I return.

The last 2 days of our trip we reunited as a LASP group and stayed at a nice hostel in Granada. This was a time of rest and reflection. I ventured around Granada seeing their beautiful architecture, eating, and buying a few souveniers. As our group activity on Thursday, we had some debriefing time in small groups and then took a tour of the Islands in Lake Nicaragua (where Granada is located on the coast). Such incredible beauty!! There was an island with monkeys that we got close to. Taylor Jessup (the other APU student here) fed a monkey and then the monkey journeyed onto all our boats looking for food. She (the monkey) searched through my friends bag and found her granola bar. She also smelled that I had a banana in my bag (good timing on my part). She crawled all over me and I gave her the banana to eat. So incredibly hilarious! We all went and had lunch on one of the islands and then returned to our hostel by horse and buggie to enjoy the rest of the day.

Friday morning we got up bright and early to begin our 11 hour trip back. Now I am back in San Jose with a journal to finish about the trip, a 4-6 page paper to write, and a packet to read all for Tuesday! The break from classes sure was nice, but I guess that's what I am here for. Back to work! :)

Pictures to come!