All work and no play.....

I´ve been super busy the past couple weeks, culminating in presenting at a conference on Thurs and Fri in Managua. The conference is open to all English teachers in Nicaragua, it´s not free but there are scholarships and such available & while we initially were told about 600 people would be there the final tally after registration the first day was more like 1,100!! Awesome that so many teachers were able to attend, but it created problems for us who had been told to expect 30 participants per session (and therefore 30 copies of handouts) while in some sessions double that showed up.

I was nervous going in, I get anxious about speaking in public in general & yet had decided that I should do not only the one presentation with my friend Maria but a second one by myself which I ended up preparing only the weekend before. I thought it would be a good challenge for myself and provide good practice, but I was afraid that maybe it was too big of a venue to be ¨practicing.¨

Luckily all went well, Maria and I did our presentation on how to improve your English twice the first day - first to a group of 60 and then to a group of 40. On Friday I did my solo presentation only once to a group of 35. Both went really well, it´s probably the least nervous I´ve ever been before speaking before a sizable group of people. Not to say my public speaking fear is totally gone, but I¨m proud of myself for taking a risk and having it pay off.

After the conference on Friday I met up with some friends visiting from the states & headed up to Leon to see the sites and do some volcano boarding! So far we´ve had an awesome time, it´s nice to get a chance to relax and unwind after all that stress. Today we´re heading back to my site to enjoy the Fiestas Patrias festivities tomorrow and Tuesday celebrating Central America´s independence from Spain. I will post pictures as soon as I can but it might be till after my friends leave that I have a chance to post again.