Language Taller and Matagalpa

Hello All,
Que Onda!? I have been really busy with school and planning with my teachers. Coordinating with all four of my teachers is a lot harder than I thought.

Anyway this past week I was at a spanish language workshop. Since I was at the intermediate level before the end of training I had to go back for a week long workshop to evaluate my spanish and to see if it had improved or not. So I was kind of dreading it at first, but in the end it was really good to review certain topics and learn new grammar. We were able to ask the teacher questions. I think that my spanish has improved a lot but I still have a loong way to go to have that perfect spanish that I want. Hopefully after two years I will get there.

So for the language workshop we had to stay with a family for a week in our old training town. I love my training town. It's really small and everyone there is super nice and they always remember me when I come back. Most people stayed with their same families they had during training. My host family didn't have a new volunteer so I had to stay with a completely new family. I was a little bit nervous about that because I would be staying with strangers again. Well I was worried for nothing! The family I stayed with were some of the nicest people ever! They made me feel right at home. Elba and Luis were the parents and then Emanuel and Orlando were the two boys. They were so sweet. They talked to me and they said they want to come visit me at my site. I am always amazed at how sweet and caring Nicaraguans are. So many times complete strangers have gone out of their way to help me or make me feel comfortable.

This past weekend a big group of us went to Matagalpa to see Sam's ( a volunteer from my group) new house. He has this great new house with two levels and a kitchen and it's awesome. He had a little house warming party. It was like a mini reunion. It was so much fun to see everyone! We also went into the city and I had a calzone, it was soo good. I haven´t had Italian food like that in a long time! We also went out for a little dancing that night too.

Well that´s all for now, I have to get to school.

Picture: The Group at Sam´s house. We have ¨finger mustaches on¨I realized that I am completely covering mine and defeating the purpose!

Life Update

Buenos Dias

I haven’t written an entry in awhile. I have been really busy with school and getting use to my schedule. Teaching is going pretty well so far. I am starting to get to know my teachers better which makes it easier to work with them. The other day one of the students asked me why all gringos (americans) have dreadlocks lol. I just started laughing. I explained to him that a lot of the gringos that come to Nicaragua do have dreadlocks but not all Americans have them. My community class is going well. It’s kind of nice to be the only person in charge of the class so you can do things the way you want to. Sometimes it can be intimidating also because you want to make sure they are learning and that the class is interesting. But I have a good group and they all seem really interested in learning English. We have had four classes now.

This past weekend I went to a jazz Concert in Masaya. It was really fun. The U.S. embassy brought bands from the United States, Germany and Nicaragua together for a four day festival. It was free and the bands were good. It was outside and there were tables and chairs set up for people to sit. It’s fun to get out and things like that. My friends and I felt so cultured lol.

I still haven’t made that many Nicaragua friends. I do have a few friends, but not that many. I really love hanging out with my Peace Corps friends but I also want to have a few Nica friends. But I guess my teachers are my friends and people in my host family are my friends. I guess I haven’t really made friends that are my age. But I met two different sets of people this week and they invited me to their house for a meal so maybe I will make more friends soon.

But I am very excited because my mom and sister are coming in about 6 weeks! I can’t wait to seem them. I am slowing trying to prepare them for the ridiculous heat! lol I am going to stay in the hotel with them and I am really excited about that. (Hot shower and air conditioning)