Long weekend

It feels nice to be back in Boaco in my room and to sleep in my bed.  well, haven't gone to bed yet, but you get the idea.  I left last Wednesday for Managua for my charla and it was really nice meeting the new trainees.  They seem like a fun group and didn't seem too stressed out so that made my job easy haha   Anyway, I was in Managua for a few days, then went and hung out with Frank and headed up to Matagalpa for a going away get-together for one of our friends.  It was great to see so many people, but also a little sad to say goodbye to such a fun person.  I guess we'll be having to do similar things real soon...  speaking of which, I took off another link from my chain.  That leaves 21 weeks.  Crazy!  Also, just one week til mine & Frank's trip to Maryland.  Now, that's even crazier!  Time flies and I'm thankful for that right now because I'm really looking forward to this mini vacation :)

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I started a new thing with my Access class, called Small Talk, which I borrowed from Gonzaga's international students program.  Anyway, we pick a topic, then the students are split into small groups (3-5), and they discuss the topic using only English.  It's been going pretty well so far and last week's topic was pretty interesting--equality.  They've just started reading about MLK Jr. so that book gave them a little grasp on that topic.  I brought up things in Nicaragua as well.  I like controversial topics for the reason that students are usually more interested and they are more apt to participate and voice their opinions.  I took some pictures and videos that I will try to post soon.  The topics are going to blend with the culture topics they are supposed to study each week, so I believe this week will be about freedom.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for some small talk conversations--any kind of topic is cool. 

Oh, and my mom was asking for my Dyland pictures, so here are a few :)

Apparently my roll of tape was plenty of entertainment for this little guy