More Holiday Fun

Feliz Nuevo Ano to everyone! I can't believe that it's already 2011! I have almost been out of college for four years, that's really scary.

The past couple of days have been really fun. My friend Julie has spent the past couple of days with me at my house. We are helping out with a camp that the US Embassy is doing. She lives up north in Jinotega so she came to spent new years with me until we leave for the camp. The first day she came, we went to this place called Coyotepe. It use to be a fortress for the liberals against the conservatives. Down below there are chambers were they use to torture the prisoners. We had a guided tour of the holding sells it was really scary and a little eerie. It was really dark and cold down there so I got an idea of what it might have been like back then. Coyotepe is at the top of this big hill. The air is so fresh up there, the breeze felt so good. I wasn't sweating for once! We took some pictures and then walked back down. It was also good exercise. (Something I haven't been doing much of but I am trying to change that in the new year) The trip to Coyotepe was a great way to introduce Julie to my town.

On New Years Eve, Julie and I went to Masaya to walk around and do a little shopping. We met up with Stephanie, another volunteer from our group who lives there. We ate at a Mexican restaurant which was pretty good. It wasn't as good as Mexican food at home, but it wasn't too bad. They had flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas which I was pretty excited about, and chips and salsa. After we left Masaya, we went back to my house to relax until the family party at night.

We went over to my host mom's mom's house around 8 pm. As Julie and I are making our way over to the house, we see lots of scare crows or life size dolls, sitting in chairs on front porches of almost all the houses. In Nicaragua, it's a tradition to light a scare crow on fire at midnight on new years to burn the old year and bring in the new year. It's pretty insane. I am going to try and upload a video so everyone can see it. But before midnight, my host mom's brother Paul invited Julie and I to go to a bar to hang out for a little before midnight. We stayed there for about two hours and talked with Paul. Julie and I were proud of ourselves because we talking the whole time in Spanish and even making jokes. We also got really excited because at the bar they were playing lots of American music and we were singing along. Close to midnight we left to go back to the house to ring in the new year and watch them light the doll on fire. It was pretty funny. Something completely different from how we do things at home. There was also no count down, I looked down at my watch and all of a sudden it was like 12:05. After we gave new years hugs, we ate our new years dinner of rice and chicken and potatoes. I was pretty hungry at that point. Overall it was a really fun night and I think Julie had a lot of fun with my family. It was a great way to celebrate the new year and another good memory.

Happy New Year


Picture
#1-3- The first three pictures are when we were at Coyotepe. I am with my host mom and brother
#4- I picture of Julie and I on New Years
#5- A picture of the burning doll
The video won't upload! I will try again another day
I will put more pictures on facebook