Buenas Tardes!!

Hola from El Rosario!! My host family has been really nice, & they're feeding me great food! Many Nicaraguans eat lots of carbs and not much for vegetables and fruits, but I've been getting a lot of everything so far. In addition to my host mom & dad, there are 3 sisters who live here, one is married and her husband lives with us along with their 3 year old & 4 month old, who are both really cute. I chatted with one of the sisters for a bit yesterday, her name is Gabriela & she's my age. She's studying international relations at a university in Jinotepe & wants to learn English & French. My Spanish is better than I thought and I can understand quite a bit, but it's still not great so conversing can be difficult and I'm still catching onto the accent. It's even harder to understand a conversation between two Nicas because then they aren't speaking as carefully as when they talk to us & their accents get stronger.

But I'm settling in pretty well here, it's hard to be away from the support system we all built up during the last week but I've been out walking a couple times with the other trainees & their host families so I'm getting more familiar with the town. My mama's son, who doesn't live with us, told me that there are about 5-6,000 people in El Rosario, but I think that probably covers the town & surrounding areas because it doesn't seem to be that big, but I also haven't seen the whole place.

Things are a little weird with the transportation strike, like Gabriela was supposed to be at school yesterday but couldn't get there & we were supposed to have classes as well but our language facilitators couldn't get to the sites either. They say that we'll have classes tomorrow, but I'm not sure how the facilitators will get here. Wednesday we're all supposed to take the bus into Diriamba to have class with the other TEFL trainees, but again, not sure how we'll do that with the strike (they're striking over the price of fuel, which apparently Ortega promised would be lower if he was elected).

They show the strangest dubbed American movies on TV here, so far I've seen Water World, Beethoven, and Indiana Jones. Looks like a lot of American TV gets down here, though they have their own stuff too. It also finally rained yesterday, it cools off when it's raining, but when it stops it's even hotter. It's not as bad here as in Managua- I'm sweaty but not too bad :) Though I keep getting bit by random little ants! Stupid things. We have a dog, a cat, & lots of animals wandering around the yard that may belong to my family, or maybe the one next door, I'm not sure. There are chickens & a rooster, a turkey, I've heard a cow but not seen it, and a couple pigs.

I'm still in disbelief that I'm here, I know that it'll be a day by day process because I just can't imagine 27 months of roosters crowing & reggaeton music blasting at all hours of the day. For now though, I'm still giggle to myself every time I hear the turkey gobble gobble and get the most entertainment out of watching the kids goof around :)

and now, fotos:

Our hotel in Managua, not bad eh?

Here I am with my two roommates, Kat in the center and Sam on the right (Sam was my roommate at the hotel in DC & was also supposed to go to Bolivia but with the Health group), at Peace Corps Headquarters in Managua.

Looks like those are all the photos it´s going to let me upload today! I´ll try for more next time. Hasta luego!