A quick recap...

So I had big plans to update my blog today (at last), and post photos from the past two weeks that are long overdue. But, while I finally have fast enough internet to load photos, my computer won´t recongnize the USB I have the photos on.

Story of my life here.

If it´s not one thing, it´s another.

But so it goes, and I hope no one was too desperate for a photo update. So much has happened in the past two weeks, I don´t know where to begin!

About two weekends ago, CIEE spent the weekend in the mountains of Jinotega, at a school for high school aged students, where we got to work with pigs, chickens, cows, vegetables and coffee, alongside the students there who were learning agrarian skills. That story will have to wait for photos, although photos won´t even do it justice. Let´s just say that all of us were reluctant to go back to Managua that weekend. 

The most major change these past few weeks happened last weekend, when nothing in particular happened except that I suddenly began to feel like I actually live here. All of a sudden I realized I have fallen in love with this country, and I am already dreading the end of June when I know I will have to say goodbye to my life here. Five months is not enough time! I have started to make friends with people who aren´t exchange students (what?? anyone who has studied abroad will probably understand what a big step that is), Spanish is getting easier and easier to understand and speak, and I can now haggle for a taxi like a pro.

So the last two weeks in a nutshell... I learned to use a machete, saw a night sky with more stars in it than I ever thought possible, started volunteer work with an organization for at-risk youth (more to come about that one), learned a little salsa, got a cold, got better, randomly ended up playing soccer with special agents from the US Embassy in Managua, became a Nicaraguan history nerd, and officially settled into my life here, at last.

It has been a good two weeks.

Climbing volcanoes in my spare time...

Last weekend we took a CIEE trip to another volcano, this time Volcan Mombacho, an inactive volcano near the colonial city of Granada, about an hour outside of Managua.

Mombacho has been inactive for a long time- I don't know how long it's been in years, but in the time since its last eruption an entire jungle has grown and thrived inside of its cloud-filled crater. It was cloudy, green and chilly- I felt so at home!

Overlooking the tree-filled crater of the Volcan Mombacho

The CIEE girls: Amalia, Daphne, Brigid, Me & Tiani, just before heading up the mountain

Wandering around on Mombacho...


As much as I like living in Mangua, getting outside of the city is always the best part of my week. The nature here is incredible!!

First Day of School... But not really

So Monday was technically my first day of school here at la UNAN, but I didn't actually attend any of my classes. I had my schedule all picked out, and was ready to take "Teorias de la Etnicidad" at 11:30, and "Sociologia del Desarollo" at 2:40. I showed up in the classroom I had been told to go to for my Teorias de Etnicidad class.... deserted. I stayed there until 5 minutes after the scheduled start time, when a janitor came in and started mopping the floors. Apparently, I had the wrong room.

Okay, no big deal, I still had my second class that afternoon. At 2:30 I found building 62, where my Sociology class was supposed to be held. My classroom door was not only shut but gated, locked and shut. Hm. Maybe I was in the wrong building? So I went to the building next door, and joined the students filing into the classroom, sat down, and got ready for class. What do you know? I found myself in a technical writing class... Definitely not Sociology.

So I excused myself, went back to the first building, and looked into every classroom in search of Sociologia del Desarollo. And guess what? I was in the Math department.

Worst

first

day

ever.

So after talking to the CIEE staff here and having them make a few calls on our behalf, all of us have gotten our schedules straightened out now. Today I finally found my way to Teorias de la Etnicidad (8 buildings over from where I was on Monday), and it was great. The professor and students were very welcoming, and it looks like it will be an interesting class.

I am also taking a seminar class on current events, and one CIEE class, "Revolucion y reforma neoliberal en Nicaragua," which starts this evening.

So after the most ridiculous first day of school of my life, things are settling down. Thank goodness.