I updated my photos today...take a peek. I´ve got the ones up from the volcano. Gotta run.
Elizabeth
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
another exciting Saturday night in Dolores...
Here´s a pic of me and my #1 chica, Iris. She doesn´t look very happy, it´s true, but that´s cause we just finished a round of English homework.She wanted me to help her transcribe a song in English because here, kids in high school can choose to do a song-dance routine (in English) instead of taking their midterm English exam! The other day I got to go observe a class where this was happening...it was really bizzare. The kids from first-fifth year all divide up into teams of about 5 and pick a song, choose costumes, and correograph it (don´t know how to spell that) , and perform it for a grade in front of the whole class. The winning teams from each of the grades perform against eachother, and then the winning teams from all of the high schools in the department perform against eachother, and it eventually turns into a national competition. CRAZY. Anyway, I think my fellow gringos and I have been invited to judge the final competition between the grades in the high school here. The hardest part is trying not to laugh...One of the teams did ´we like to party´by the venga boys, except for when they sung it it sounded like they were saying ´we look sporty´...obviously the entire meaning of the song was lost. Other teams chose songs like ´man i feel like a woman´by shania twain, and other pop-rap songs by people like nelly and ashanti. verrrrry entertaining.
Today we had our site fair in Diriamba (which is actually a future site for one of the trainees in my group!). My top picks were Leon, Leon... Matagalpa, Matagalpa... and San Rafael del Sur, Managua. They are all very different from eachother. Leon, Leon is a huge college town...lots and lots of students come from all over to study there...the architecture is beautiful...there are some beaches relatively nearby...lots of rich culture...some tourism...but it is HOT HOT HOT. Matagalpa, Matagalpa is a little bit cooler, and a really big city. I´d be working with a big school with lots of counterparts. The really cool thing about this site is that it is a big coffee center (real coffee, not the instant kind), and people work there as coffee tasters. These people really want to learn English as it relates to describing and marketing coffee, and I feel like I´d be pretty good at that (cough cough, Taylor Books 4 life, cough cough). The third site is San Rafael del Sur, which is a beach town. I´m not sure if it has a port or not, but it´s hot, and has ocean. And opportunities to work with youth. They also just recently discovered oil there, so that means lots of money, resources, and opportunity for speaking English in the near future (SUSTAINABILITY!!).
There are at least 15 different other sites though...I´m making a conscious decision not to be upset if PC doesn´t put me in any of my top 3...it´s bound to happen... It´s really hard to say that you have a preference about where you want to spend the next 2 years of your life when you´ve never been to any of the places you get to choose from. But, I´ll keep you guys posted - we find out next Friday afternoon.
Well, I guess I´ll go sit in the rocking chair outside my house.
Elizabeth
Thursday, June 19, 2008
hey der guys
so, it´s definitely been a few weeks since i´ve written. the thrill of being here (in other words, the first stage of culture shock) has officially worn off. everything is no longer new, different, and exciting. it´s just...well, it is what it is.
it didn´t help that i had a little bout with e. coli (or its evil step sister) and was in the hospital for a few days. i´m totally fine now though. but i am never making fun of anyone with diarrhea again. ever.
so, lets see. tidbits...
- i got to hike a volcano (volcan masaya) the other day. it was more like a crater than a volcano, i thought. it didn´t seem like it was up really high, and didn´t smell as much like sulfur as i thought it would. i took pictures though, and i´ll upload a few this weekend when i have a little bit more time.
- i got to visit a current TEFL volunteer for a few days last week. she lives in corinto, chinandega, which is the only international port in nicaragua. corinto is pretty and there´s enough stuff to do, and she lives so close to the beach that she can walk there in about 3 minutes. on the down side, it was SUPER hot and i got eaten alive by mosquitos! i think that just goes to show that there really is no perfect place to live here (duh). there really is no springfield, nicaragua.
- on the same note, we have our site fair this saturday. we are going to learn about all of the different departments where they´re going to send us to do our 2 year service. then, they want our input. i think that all i´m really going to say is that i don´t want to be put somewhere that has previously been a training town, and that i´d like it to be medium to large. since we´ve never been to any of these places they´re going to be putting us, i feel like it´s better to just leave my placement up to fate. they say that they put us in places based on our work priorities and personalities that they´ve already observed. but at any rate, only about a week til i know where i´ll be living for the next two years!!! crazy.
- so i never thought that moving to nicaragua would have a significant effect on my english..or at least in this way... this is funny - i´ve been hanging around a bunch with one of my site mates who is from wisconsin, and i´m starting to pronounce my long o´s differently!!! it sounds very midwest. i´m starting to localize it more in the back of my throat than in the middle...dontcha know. it´s contagious! mom, you should research why this is happening...it happened to me a little bit too when i went to school in ohio...weird.
well, it´s about six thirty and i´m sure that i have a hot plate of rice and beans waiting for me at the house. i´m going to go devour it.
elizabeth
it didn´t help that i had a little bout with e. coli (or its evil step sister) and was in the hospital for a few days. i´m totally fine now though. but i am never making fun of anyone with diarrhea again. ever.
so, lets see. tidbits...
- i got to hike a volcano (volcan masaya) the other day. it was more like a crater than a volcano, i thought. it didn´t seem like it was up really high, and didn´t smell as much like sulfur as i thought it would. i took pictures though, and i´ll upload a few this weekend when i have a little bit more time.
- i got to visit a current TEFL volunteer for a few days last week. she lives in corinto, chinandega, which is the only international port in nicaragua. corinto is pretty and there´s enough stuff to do, and she lives so close to the beach that she can walk there in about 3 minutes. on the down side, it was SUPER hot and i got eaten alive by mosquitos! i think that just goes to show that there really is no perfect place to live here (duh). there really is no springfield, nicaragua.
- on the same note, we have our site fair this saturday. we are going to learn about all of the different departments where they´re going to send us to do our 2 year service. then, they want our input. i think that all i´m really going to say is that i don´t want to be put somewhere that has previously been a training town, and that i´d like it to be medium to large. since we´ve never been to any of these places they´re going to be putting us, i feel like it´s better to just leave my placement up to fate. they say that they put us in places based on our work priorities and personalities that they´ve already observed. but at any rate, only about a week til i know where i´ll be living for the next two years!!! crazy.
- so i never thought that moving to nicaragua would have a significant effect on my english..or at least in this way... this is funny - i´ve been hanging around a bunch with one of my site mates who is from wisconsin, and i´m starting to pronounce my long o´s differently!!! it sounds very midwest. i´m starting to localize it more in the back of my throat than in the middle...dontcha know. it´s contagious! mom, you should research why this is happening...it happened to me a little bit too when i went to school in ohio...weird.
well, it´s about six thirty and i´m sure that i have a hot plate of rice and beans waiting for me at the house. i´m going to go devour it.
elizabeth
Sunday, June 1, 2008
ENTRY 4
Today is my host sisters birthday. We were supposed to go out dancing last night...that definitely didn´t happen. They guy we were supposed to go with had to work this morning at 8...and around here girls don´t really go out with guys...so...we´re supposed to do something this afternoon. We´ll see. It just started raining. Apparently another tropical storm-hurricane is supposed to hit tomorrow. YAY!
I got up around 9 today to get a head start on some laundry... When the sun´s out in the winter you have to take advantage of it and do all the laundry you can so it will actually dry and not smell like mold.
I´m eating chicken again. Being a vegetarian was just not worth being bombarded with questions and sketchy-confused looks. It´ll be fine...the chicken here is pretty safe it seems... If you´re not eating one of your own then it probably belonged to one of the neighbors. One of the guys in our group has like 10 roosters in his backyard. They wake him up at 2:30 every morning. The other day his host mom served him rooster soup. He said it tasted sweet...like revenge.
I have yet to teach (or even coteach) an actual English class. I´ve been able to coplan, but class keeps getting cancelled for reasons like Mother´s Day...rain...meetings...etc. That´s fine by me for right now. I´m just trying to go with the flow.
I´ve even had enough time to watch a couple of movies that I burned onto my computer. Krista - I got a chance to watch Fur. It was strange and creepy but very awesome. Also watched Cloverfield, Party Monster, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. Poor me, right?
Well, I´m going to do a bit of reading. A friend loaned me the Kite Runner. Seems like a worthwhile read.
Elizabeth
ENTRY 3 - 5/31 - 7:00 am
Am having some serious issues getting out of bed this morning. I woke up to a mix of roosters and the neighbor blasting ¨Wonderwall¨by Oasis. Thought about you, Kel! I haven´t been running all this week....every morning at 6 it´s been monsooning so I´ve slept in...thought about going this morning, but I just don´t feel like it. I´ll start over on Monday.
So...in an hour and a half we all have to be at Casa Mision, El Crucero for a PC workshop on Culture Shock. Bleh...it´s Saturday! It´s really pretty there though...it´s this house-lodge that´s buried in the mountains between Dolores and Managua. I´ve taken pictures of it and will post them soon....They´re the pictures of the blue house and the misty mountains and pretty hydrangeas (sp?)
Well, time to get moving.
Elizabeth
Today is my host sisters birthday. We were supposed to go out dancing last night...that definitely didn´t happen. They guy we were supposed to go with had to work this morning at 8...and around here girls don´t really go out with guys...so...we´re supposed to do something this afternoon. We´ll see. It just started raining. Apparently another tropical storm-hurricane is supposed to hit tomorrow. YAY!
I got up around 9 today to get a head start on some laundry... When the sun´s out in the winter you have to take advantage of it and do all the laundry you can so it will actually dry and not smell like mold.
I´m eating chicken again. Being a vegetarian was just not worth being bombarded with questions and sketchy-confused looks. It´ll be fine...the chicken here is pretty safe it seems... If you´re not eating one of your own then it probably belonged to one of the neighbors. One of the guys in our group has like 10 roosters in his backyard. They wake him up at 2:30 every morning. The other day his host mom served him rooster soup. He said it tasted sweet...like revenge.
I have yet to teach (or even coteach) an actual English class. I´ve been able to coplan, but class keeps getting cancelled for reasons like Mother´s Day...rain...meetings...etc. That´s fine by me for right now. I´m just trying to go with the flow.
I´ve even had enough time to watch a couple of movies that I burned onto my computer. Krista - I got a chance to watch Fur. It was strange and creepy but very awesome. Also watched Cloverfield, Party Monster, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. Poor me, right?
Well, I´m going to do a bit of reading. A friend loaned me the Kite Runner. Seems like a worthwhile read.
Elizabeth
ENTRY 3 - 5/31 - 7:00 am
Am having some serious issues getting out of bed this morning. I woke up to a mix of roosters and the neighbor blasting ¨Wonderwall¨by Oasis. Thought about you, Kel! I haven´t been running all this week....every morning at 6 it´s been monsooning so I´ve slept in...thought about going this morning, but I just don´t feel like it. I´ll start over on Monday.
So...in an hour and a half we all have to be at Casa Mision, El Crucero for a PC workshop on Culture Shock. Bleh...it´s Saturday! It´s really pretty there though...it´s this house-lodge that´s buried in the mountains between Dolores and Managua. I´ve taken pictures of it and will post them soon....They´re the pictures of the blue house and the misty mountains and pretty hydrangeas (sp?)
Well, time to get moving.
Elizabeth
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