Change of Plans

I've been really craving Mexican food lately--Nica food is not even close to Mexican food (besides the rice and beans).  So, I decided I was going to make enchiladas (with the sauce my parents brought me), guacamole, and pico de gallo salsa.  Frank was supposed to be coming over this weekend so I was really looking forward to making him a delicious dinner (and mojitos for drinks and a mango dessert), but unfortunately, he had to go to Managua again because of his latest skin rash reappearing.  Bummer!  I was really sad not to be able to hang out with Frank and, I had already bought all the supplies for our delicious dinner :(  When he first called me, he told me he had to go to Managua (yesterday) for an appointment but he would come here today.  Well, another bummer...  He called me and the doctor apparently told him he has to stay until Monday.  Ugh!  Also, it's Dyland's birthday today, so we're getting things ready for the party tomorrow so I couldn't go visit him in Managua.  Definitely NOT the weekend I was expecting.  It's hard only seeing Frank on weekends, but then when other things happen and we don't get to see each other, it makes it even harder.  Wow! We don't live that far away from each other (2 1/2-3 hours by buses), but it really is like a long distance relationship and it's hard.  It especially sucks when my host family asks me why I'm here and Frank isn't, or why I'm not going to Dario to visit him.  Ugh.  I don't too well when all plans are pulled out from under me and I have to start from scratch with nothing.  I like to plan ahead and I like to do things fun for people and I get super excited about it.  I'd been planning this special Mexican dinner & such for Frank & me for about 2 weeks and then wham bam! it's all gone.  I know, I know, we can do it another time.  But, it's the fact that I had it in my mind that I was going to see my special someone and do something special for him and we were going to be together for the weekend and celebrate Dyland's birthday, and on and on and on...

Well, I thought I was learning to just go with what happens and figure it out from there, but this one suckered punched me and left me lying on the floor for awhile.

I did end up making guacamole and salsa today, which turned into a delicious layered dip where I added refried beans, grated cheese, and a makeshift sour cream.  It's just not as fun to sit there and eat a party food by yourself though.  I shared some with my host family because they love my famous "guacamole mexicana".  I'm glad I can share things with them and make them happy :)  They even want me to make guacamole for the party tomorrow.  We'll see...that's a pretty big undertaking, but I think I can do it.  I hope the others like it as much as my family does.  Nicas make something called guacamol (without the "e" sound), where they just chop up avocado and hardboiled eggs and mix it up.  For some reason that mix just doesn't gel with me and I'm not a big fan of it.  Glad I knew how to make guacamole!

Anyway, Frank is off in Managua chillin' in a hotel room for the weekend in the AC with internet, TV, and hot showers, but I'm sure it's not as glamorous as it sounds.  He hasn't been using the hot water because of the rash, but the AC does help him cool down--the rash gets worse in the heat which is a major bummer as we enter into the hot/dry season here.  I really hope he gets better soon, because he's just a sad little puppy when he's sick and I really miss him :(

Dyland is 1 today :)

Karaoke Party

Today we finally had our karaoke party after a few interruptions (class canceled, I was sick, miscommunication), but it turned out great & I think the students benefited from the extra practice.  They seemed pretty well rehearsed and we all had a great time.  Something that the Access teacher and I share is a love for music and singing so a karaoke party was a given ;)

Here is one of the songs which I thought was pretty cute.  To watch the video, you might need to press "pause" once it has started and then wait for it to load--you'll see a gray bar moving to the right.  Or, if your internet is much faster than mine (which it most likely is) you might not have to wait at all.  *Something to not take for granted, right?  ;)   Also, you can expand the video screen by clicking on the bracket symbol in the bottom right part of the video box.

We had about 10 different songs sung in groups from 2 to 7 students, then the last song all the students sang together.  It's a Portuguese song that's really popular here right now, but they sang the English version, then snuck in the Portuguese one at the end.   It wouldn't let me load that video though, so just one for today.  Also, since the teacher was using my camera to do videos, there are no pictures, but I do have some good videos :)

It's all about the ladies today...

Yes, it's International Women's Day so hug a lady & buy her some flowers--hint to Frank ;)  haha 

The kids at school all said "felicidades" to the female teachers (and even the girl students), but they were asking me how to say that in English.  It means "congratulations", but that isn't quite fitting, so I told them to say "Happy Day" or "Happy Women's Day".  It just seemed odd to say congratulations, I don't know...

Anyway, we had a little party for the women and ate ice cream and played music.  It was nice.  They also gave out little pink ribbons for all the ladies to wear.  It's funny because I don't remember ever celebrating Women's Day in the U.S., but I think it should be more popular :)

Healthy

Too many times I challenge myself to go bigger and better every day or set unrealistic or very high expectations and my workouts seem to taper off within a month.  When I started my new “exercise log”, I wrote down: “at least 30 minutes of exercise” as a requirement for me to be able to put an X on the day for a workout.  Things have been going well so far.  I’m in my third week and I’ve done 3 or more workouts of at least 30 minutes, each week.  I’m feeling much better and I’m not letting myself cheat out of workouts but I’m also doing what my body can handle and working out when I can.  Some days are just a little too packed to get in a good workout and that’s ok.  I’ve been playing a lot with Dyland lately, so that’s been keeping me active, especially now that he can walk by himself and wants to grab everything in sight.  I almost tried to count playing with Dyland as my workout one day since it was probably about an hour and I did sweat, and also one day when I walked home from the instituto (25-30 minutes up & down hills) but I told myself that wasn’t fair and if I counted it that time, I would slack off and just use those as an excuse to avoid focused exercise (using the elliptical, ab machine, jumping jacks, pilates dvd, etc.)

I surprised myself with holding myself accountable and I’m glad I’ve been following through.  Some days I’ve had to wait until the late afternoon to work out, but actually that’s been almost better since it cools down and my evenings are a little less crazy.  I will probably be starting an evening English class for adults soon though so that might have to change.  I would like to get workouts done earlier in the day to get them over with and not procrastinate later, but getting up at 5:45am to get ready for school and catch the 6:30am bus is early enough.  There’s no way I’m getting up any earlier than that!  And, most of my classes go until noon, so I guess I’ll just have to be doing afternoon workouts.  It does make me sweat more which good I guess :)  As long as I’m doing the exercise and I feel better (and healthier), then I’m ok with that.  

I do notice a change in my self-esteem and my overall view on exercise decisions.  For a short time, I was starting to feel pretty lazy and unmotivated.  It's still difficult to wake up super early for school (yes, 5:45am is super early--don't argue with me;) ...), but I'm not feeling lazy.  In fact, I feel like Wonder Woman at times since my host family thinks I'm amazing to be able to do these workouts since I'm sweating haha  Today my host mom walked by while I was on their elliptical machine from the 80's and said "ni quiera Dios", which is a common phrase used by Nicas to say "no way!" but literally means "not even God would want it".  I thought this was funny so I asked her why, and she said because it would make her tired. Ha!  I wanted to say the Nica equivalent to "duh", but I held my tongue and just chuckled.  I told her before that I didn't start out doing 45 minutes, or even 30 minutes, on the elliptical, but I started out with something shorter that I could do at that time and I've been slowly working my way up (and lowering it back down) to fit my feel for the day, yet still be a challenge.  She just doesn't want to do it, but I totally understand--I was right there a month ago!  For me, it just feels nice to sweat from a good workout and feel fit, instead of sweating profusely after my weekly trip to the grocery store :/ 

Well, that's all I gotta say for right now.  I hope I can keep it going and not let the excuses and laziness pull me down.  Here's to being (and staying) healthy!

P.S.  I drink TONS of water--something Nicaraguans do NOT do, which has gotta be bad since it's so hot here.  Many people during the hot part of the day say that they feel lightheaded and blame their blood pressure dropping.  Personally, I think they just need to drink more water and stay hydrated.  It also keeps you from snacking frequently throughout the day (which I LOVE to do hehehe).

Managua

I don't like traveling to Managua so I'm glad it's not too frequent of a trip for me.  It's just hot, dirty, and can be very dangerous.  I usually don't feel much danger on my visits because I go straight from the bus terminal to the office or another safe location (via safe taxi).  However, for many Nicaraguans, traveling in Managua is a safety risk.  You would think that the main targets would be gringos/backpackers/tourists, but because there usually aren't many of those walking around Managua, robbers target Nicaraguans.  My host brother, Jasser has been the victim of a few crimes.  After getting off a bus once in Managua, he was held up at knife-point and his pockets were emptied.  They took away his cell phone (which was probably valued at $30 or less?) and about c$200 (less than $10).  Just today, it was a little more extreme, when he and another girl were held up at gunpoint, losing another cell phone and pocket money.  I can't imagine how I would feel with a gun pointed at me, but I'm sure thankful that he's alright.  It's easy to get worried and never want to travel to "places like these" because of the potential danger, but things like this can happen in any country, in any big city really (or even smaller ones for that matter). 

Peace Corps does a really great job making sure that we have safe alternatives to the dangerous public transportation and I'm very thankful for that.  I try to travel with other PCVs whenever possible and take as little risks as possible involving my personal safety--not including the time I held the snake at the circus.  But in all seriousness, I generally feel safe living here and I do not encounter danger daily as some people do, thank God.  I think that experiences like these help us to realize that we need to be more proactive about our safety when traveling and not let our guard down.  It's not to say that we can't have fun and visit friends in other places, but it's important to take warnings seriously and take preventative action to avoid risky situations. 

I usually don't worry very much about my safety on a daily basis, but having my family here visiting certainly made me more aware of all the potential risks.  I remember feeling at times like I was herding my little ducklings around and being extra cautious about which streets we walked down and what time we were visiting certain places.  Whereas, when I'm with Frank, or some other PCVs, I don't worry so much, but I guess that's also because I know they're accustomed to Nicaragua and know what's going on in the different areas. 

I hope I didn't scare anyone too bad with this post, but it's just something to be aware of when you're traveling to an unfamiliar place.  Although we would like to believe that everyone is friendly and helpful, there are bad people out there that like to take advantage of others.  Fortunately though, many of the experiences that I've heard of in Managua involving guns and/or knives, the weapons were just used to scare and distract the people, and not actually used to harm anyone.  

Weekend Happenings

Frank and I did our own things the other weekend, but this past weekend we got to spend some time together which was nice :)  It was his host mom's birthday so I went over there to visit.  I got there Friday and then things changed a bit.  We found out that we needed to go to Managua for Frank to get a check up on his current medical situation--he has a rash from something (allergy or touched a plant--who knows?).  Anyway, so since it was late, we had to stay in Managua.  I wasn't too excited about hopping onto another bus to head into Managua just after arriving in Dario, but the AC and hot shower really made up for that ;)  Frank got some new medicine to add to the pile (still finishing up meds from his sinus infection--he's been a sick boy lately!), picked up his new glasses (since he lost his old ones), and then we headed back to Dario.

We finally just got to hang out a little and have some downtime, which I enjoyed.  Then, a little later, the family had a Purisima in the house, celebrating the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.  Usually these things are in late November/early December, but apparently you are allowed to have them until Easter.  And, maybe because it was her birthday they were celebrating together?  I'm not sure, it was a little confusing, but we attended the "service", socialized after, and ate some yummy food :) 

I had made some brownies for Frank's host mom's birthday but I decided to give them to her the next day since there were about 50 or so people at the get together and I certainly did not make 50 brownies in my little "easy-bake" oven as my mom (real mom) likes to call it.

Even though Frank is still a little sick and trying to recover from his reaction, we still had a great time hanging out and I'm looking forward to seeing his this weekend in Boaco--it's been so long since he's been here for a weekend since he's been so sick.  And, it's Dyland's birthday this weekend so that should be fun.  Hope Frank feels better by then :)

Yesterday on my way home, which is always a little unpredictable trying to catch a bus back to Boaco on Sundays, I had to wait for a little over an hour at the bus stop in between mine & Frank's places, because the Boaco buses weren't leaving Managua on time.  I almost considered going back to Frank's since his buses pass by every 15 minutes.  How disappointing is that, seeing one of those pass by so frequently, and stepping up to the curb in hopes of a Boaco bus following it, but it's not there?  Ugh!  Well, one finally came and I pushed my way on.  But then I found out that there wasn't going to be any classes today because they're observing the 117th anniversary of Boaco (yes, I was right with the number).  So, no classes on Friday (they had a parade and then went to the circus) and no classes today (Monday).  Kinda silly I think.  Well, I still had to come back to Boaco because I had my Access class and we were going to have our Karaoke party, which had been canceled last Friday since the events taking place.  However, I woke up feeling not so good and had to call in sick :(  I was really looking forward to the Karaoke and felt bad about disappointing the students, but I was definitely not feeling well.  So, I'm here at the house trying to relax and take it easy.  I think I'll be fine, I was just really hot last night and this morning so I felt a little blah.  I'm feeling better already.

Happy March!

Wow! Another month has come and gone and the countdown continues.  I have now completed 18 months here in Nicaragua, and only have 8 1/2 left to go... I saw pictures of snow in Oregon today--oh I can't wait for that when I get back :)  It's been a little cooler here in Boaco in the evenings & early mornings (mid 70's) but it's gonna get HOT very soon. 

Festivities coming up in March:
2nd: classes are canceled so students can attend circus--really?!
4th: Boaco's 117th? anniversary--I'm not really sure on the number, but they celebrate every year, not just the 25's, 50's, and 100's
8th: International Women's Day--hug a woman :)
10th: Little Dyland's 1st birthday--not gonna be as big as the baptism, but should be a fun one (pun intended)
11th: Daylight Savings--well we don't observe that here, but good to know for my phone calls home...
17th: St. Patty's Day (and my Grandpa's birthday)--wear green and pinch someone for me ;)

More birthdays and such, but no other days off of school (at least not planned as of yet) for Nicaragua ;)  Let me know if I forgot something!