En enero 2008 tenía muchos problemas con mi casa en DC y con los compañeros. No sabía lo que estaría haciendo en un año más pero sabía que quería mudar de DC a un lugar fuera del país. Estoy bien feliz para decir que en enero 2009 hago exactamente eso!
New Years was pretty sweet. I was hanging out with my friend Maria in her store like I do pretty much every day and I asked her if there were any traditions for New Years Eve (I had already learned that wearing white is encouraged and most families will eat a pollo relleno- that is a chicken basically stuffed with vegetable mush) and she told me about how in the north families build a doll and fill it full of things about the last year to burn at midnight. So at about 8pm on New Years Eve we decided we had to build a doll to burn! Maria got her hands on some old clothes and we stuffed them full of dried leaves and then stuck an old doll in the top and this is what we ended up with:
El fin del año fue bien alegre. Estaba hablando con mi amiga Maria en su pulpería como siempre y le pregunté si hay costumbres nicaragüenses por el fin del año (ya aprendí que debo llevar blanca y que muchas familias comen pollo relleno) y ella me dijo sobre las regiones del norte donde las familias construyen una muñeca para quemar a medianoche. Entonces a las 8:00 decidimos que necesitamos construir una muñeca! Maria encontró algunas ropas viejas y las llenamos con hojas secas y pusimos una muñeca vieja encima. Mira:
After hastily constructing the doll, I went to my friend Moises' house as promised and hung out with his family for a little while. It was pretty much a typical family gathering: aunts and uncles, cousins, food, the usual. Except that instead of watching a football game or chatting for hours like my family likes to do, they cranked up the music and got to dancing.
Despues fuí a la casa de mi amigo Moises y pasé tiempo con su familia. Era una cena tipica: tías y tíos, primos, comida, lo normal. Pero en vez de mirar un juego de fútbol americano o hablar por horas como mi familia, ellos pusieron música y bailaron.
Then there was more dancing as we headed out to enjoy the nightlife for a little bit.
Próximo fuimos a bailar un rato.
Finally, we headed back to Maria's house to spend midnight in the street with her family and neighbors. For pretty much any occasion it's customary to set off fire crackers and just generally make a lot of noise so I figured New Years would be the epitome of noise and it pretty much was. Fireworks were going off all over, Maria's brother set off some stuff that scared the crap out of me and we tied the doll up and burnt it to the ground (I have a video that I might try to post when I have a fast connection to use):
Finalmente, pasamos medianoche en la calle con la familia de Maria y los vecinos. Había muchas bombas, el hermano de Maria me asustó con algo bien fuerte, y quemamos la muñeca:
And probably my favorite part was that everyone just walked around hugging each other and wishing a “Feliz año nuevo.” I would definitely put 2008 in my top 5 New Years Eve celebrations.
Me gustó mucho que todos en las calles les abrazaron y dicieron “Feliz año nuevo.” Fue uno de mis mejores fines del año.
I spent New Years Day with my other foster Nicaraguan family: my landlord and her cousin. These ladies have taken me in as the child they never had and invited me to go to the beach at La Boquita to spend the day. I went to this beach once during training and it was pretty dead, much like the beach near my site is, but on holidays things are different. It was totally full:
Pasé el primero con mi otra familia nicaragüense: la dueña de mi casa y su prima. Estas mujeres me tratan como su hija y me invitaron a la playa La Boquita. Fuí a esta playa una vez durante entrenemiento y no era mucha gente pero en días ferías todo esta diferente. Estaba bien llena:
and here was our small party, I don't think they were too excited that I wanted to take a picture of them :) From right to left that's Claudia (my landlord, she spends most of her year working in Costa Rica and will be heading back again this month), Linda (Claudia's cousin, she'll be my stand-in landlord while Claudia's gone), Danilo (Linda's brother), and Chico (they guy who drove us there).
Aqui esta nuestro grupo, pienso que ellos no estaban muy emocianados para mis fotos. De la derecha es Claudia (la dueña, ella trabaja en Costa Rica y va a volver este mes), Linda (La prima de Claudia, ella estará la dueña cuando Claudia se va), Danilo (El hermano de Linda), y Chico (el chofer).
Overall, not too shabby! And I have to say I'm pretty psyched for 2009.
En total, todo fue bien! Y estoy emocionada para 2009.
2 comments:
HAHA every time i feel compelled to complain about my apartment, i stop and think to myself "stop, put things in perspective: at least the kitchen cabinets remain firmly attached to the wall"
xoxo
do monkeys compain about thier homes?
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