Friday, August 22, 2008

Sorry for the delay...

No one in Central America could access this site for about 3 weeks...but alas, I´m back. Ok, this is what I really wanted to title this entry:

Department of Sanitation + Nicaragua = ???

No one really knows. This country is pretty filthy. I´m not sure if I´ve mentioned this before, but there´s no environmental education here beyond the PCVs. People throw SO much trash on the ground, but what´s worse is they literally burn all of the garbage from their house in their yards each and every night...

I´ve had this blog ready since 08-08-08, so it´s a little outdated, but here goes:

Here’s a couple of pics from swearing in:






After swearing in, a group of us stayed an extra night in Managua so we could hang out at a pool before starting our two year service term. Here’s a pic of the girls:

Things I miss:
My parents/family, friends, my bed, Jimmy John’s, good pizza, my closet, washing machine/dryer, wireless internet, air conditioning, cooking, a real bathroom, hot showers, TV in English, driving, strawberries, Chicago, Target, grocery shopping, Starbucks (even though I work with distributors here that sell directly to Starbucks...), Marshall’s/TJ Maxx, Lincoln Park Zoo, Hawaiian Ice, free nights and weekends, a salary, Wrigley Field, hot dogs, the beach, malls, trash cans, music.


Things I never thought I’d do:
Drink milk made from powder, get used to having bats in my bedroom, teach a class of 71 students, use bug spray every day…this category is difficult…

Anyway, things are going well here. I’m going to be a lot busier than originally thought; I guess it’s both a blessing and a curse. It’ll be good for me because I won’t have a ton of down-time to second-guess myself, but I’m going to be constantly worn out. I’m excited to get started on my projects, but I really need to keep working on my Spanish.
Screw hair straighteners - this is how we do it in Ocotal (or the OC, as I like to say...):
This is a pic of my new sister and me at Sky Dancing:


This place is so strange to me…it’s a club, but it has the weirdest mix of people…including some of my students – I probably wasn’t wearing the best outfit to run into a 15 year-old male student, eh? In my defense, everyone is supposed to be at least of the legal drinking age (18) to get in.


Ok, miss you all! More updates soon!