Top Technology Scholarship

            Deciding on my favorite piece of technology was not difficult. My laptop is my prized possession. If you were to dive into its depths you would find yourself exploring all the details and inner workings of my brain. You would find notes overflowing with random thoughts, inspiring or funny quotes from books, songs or friends, ideas, lists, and things to remember. You would find drafts upon drafts of papers, projects and applications not to mention the hundreds of interesting articles, countless class notes, and occasional outlines that were used in their formation. You would discover photos cataloging all of the exciting, and even some of the mundane, moments of the past five years of my life. Favorite recipes, journal entries and even my manifesto for how I want to live would provide you with more than a glimpse of who I am. My computer is what I use to process, to learn, to achieve and to communicate.

In many ways it is my link to the world, thanks to the Internet. It is through my laptop that I plan events, meetings, or casual get togethers, communicating through email. After I moved away from the place I had previously called home I began to use it to stay connected with family and friends through Facebook and blogs. I am also able to keep up with loved ones through Skype, which allows me to witness birthday parties and even make hospital visits from hundreds of miles away. I also use it for ideas on how to improve my day-to-day life. I search out new recipes, organization ideas, craft projects and ways to save money though Pinterest as well as some fun blogs.

This year my computer has served somewhat of a different role as a result of the decision my husband and I made to simplify our lives by not having Internet in our apartment. Some may think that renders a laptop unnecessary. While I do use it less than I used to, it sill contains my world. I continue to use it multiple times a week for cooking alone. After all, it is a very convenient place to store my favorite homemade pizza recipe. It houses my calendar and helps me stay on track so I never miss an appointment or even a friend’s birthday. It’s where I type up scholarship applications or long email updates to have ready to send on my next trip to the library. Surprisingly enough not having Internet access all day every day has made me more appreciative of my computer itself. I can outline, type and read much faster without the distractions of checking all of my social media sites every few minutes. It helps me focus and be much more intentional with my time.

Although it probably isn’t great that I am so completely reliant on my laptop I consider myself blessed by the lessons I have learned on and through it. I can’t imagine life without it and I hope I never have to.

Let the Vacation Begin

I know I haven’t updated in over a week but that’s because there’s just been so much going on I didn’t have much time!

Last week was our trip to Montezuma where it rained most of the time, which was fine with me because I was still feeling sick so I just stayed inside working on my paper and rested. 

Friday- The program ended. Woah.

My family arrived in Costa Rica. No way.

Eldredge family vacation summer 2011 has begun!

We spent the first two nights in Monte de la Cruz in a hotel 2 km down the mountain from where my university is so they got to see all aspects of my life in CR.

Saturday night for dinner my host family had us over for dinner. I was the translator which was fun but difficult because people would talk at the same time or tell long stories and I would get confused at what I was translating but overall it was fun. I learned that its hard for the translator to eat dinner when she’s always talking! Haha But seriously, it was great to see my two families meet and have them all be so loving get along so well, despite the language barrier.

Sunday morning we left for Puerto Viejo. We have a little bungalow we’re staying in, which is really cool. It doesn’t have air conditioning, it just opens up to outside and has lots of fans. It’s a very fun experience! I love being without TV to distract us and we only have internet when we’re in the restaurant/bar/game area so we’re pretty free of technology. We’ve been playing lots of cards since that is the only game we really have access to (cards are easy to pack!) and that has been very relaxing since you don’t need to think super hard to play Tens and Twos or Kings Corner. We’ve been trying to play Nertz but for that you need two decks of cards that are different and we have two matching big decks and two matching little decks so its been impossible but hilarious as we keep trying to find ways to do it!

We spent a few hours at the beach yesterday and somehow I got burnt. I reapplied sunscreen so many times but somehow I’m the only one who turned pink! Oh well!

Today the plan is beach again then visiting the town of Puerto Viejo and tomorrow a canopy tour is on the schedule (so hiking and zip lining). Thursday morning we head back to San Jose to be next to the airport for our flight that leaves early early early in the morning on Friday.

I think this is my last update so thanks for being patient with me as I tried out this blogging thing this summer! :)

Emma

Escaping Nicaragua

Wednesday was a very long day. We started it off with a visit to the Cultural Museum of Nicaragua. Unfortunately this museum lacked the four things one hopes for in a museum: (1) air conditioning (2) benches (3) an interesting tour guide (we’re pretty sure ours was hung over) and (4) toilet paper, soap, and paper towels in the bathrooms. Although we tried none of us caught anything that was going on and could only manage to stare blankly at the few artifacts around us. After the hour long tour we went upstairs to have a ‘chat’ with a man who I think was the director of the museum but am not completely sure. He encouraged us to move our chairs into a circle to encourage conversation, telling us how much he prefers conversation to lecture. He then proceeded to talk at us for 30 minutes after which he begged us for questions claiming he really wanted to start a discussion. After each question he talked for at least 15 minutes. 5 minutes before we had to go one of our students asked him a question which he spent over 20 minutes responding to until, after many attempts, our professor was finally able to cut him off more or less politely. I’ve never liked Profe more than in that moment!

After the museum we had lunch at the same place we had eaten at on Sunday, which was very exciting for all of us because the food was not sketch at all and the building had air conditioning. We were all in heaven!

The afternoon was filled with college things. We visited a university and got to have a chat with the students. It was really interesting to hear how things are different in our countries and learn from each other a bit. It was also just a fantastic experience to interact with the people. It feels like we barely got to speak to anyone on this trip so it was great to use our Spanish skills while also making connections with other people around our age. The only frustrating part was that they really struggled to understand the basic premise of Wheaton. It’s so different from anything they are used to. They seemed to think we are being exclusive, keeping non-Christians from a good education. Part of the problem was I don’t think they fully grasped how many colleges there are in the States, since there are not nearly as many in Nicaragua. They also didn’t fully grasp the community we strive to create and how most non-Christians (heck even many Christians) don’t want to live by our Community Covenant. It was difficult because we weren’t expecting to have this talk so we weren’t prepared to defend our college. Unfortunately I think they got a skewed view of what Wheaton College is. At the end of our discussion Freddy (one of our planners/guides) gave us a speech about how can we be light among light as “just something to think about”. It was very frustrating because he seemed to be looking down upon us and our university and we didn’t get a chance to defend ourselves. I fully understand his point but I also know that Wheaton College is exploding with ministry opportunities while also ministering to its own people. Just because someone has accepted Christ doesn’t mean he or she does not still need to be ministered to. So that was my little rant… sorry about that I guess I’m just pretty protective of my university. It doesn’t have it all together but it does have some things right and I love it.

Anyways, after our chat and a quick tour of the campus we stopped at a little snack shop on campus to grab a drink and chat more with the students. That’s when it happened. Out of nowhere a storm hit. It was unreal watching it come in. We could literally see it coming towards us and people begin screaming and running for shelter. It was hilarious! Luckily our snack shop had a roof so we were all safe and got to watch in amazement as the rain continued to pour. The unfortunate thing was that we ended up stuck in that spot for a half hour while we waited for the rain to stop and/or our bus to find us. This, as well as the crazy traffic we hit when the bus finally did find us, put us behind on our schedule. We showed up 45 minutes late to dinner.

Dinner was pretty funky Wednesday night. Instead of eating at the hotel, which is what we usually do, we went to a typical Salvadorian restaurant for pupusas. A pupusa is a corn tortilla type thing that they fill with meats or beans and fry. That is a really poor description but it’s the best I’ve got. I had mine with beans, cheese and sausage type things while some other people just had beans or had chicken. After you get the little patties you put something that looks like coleslaw but has a more tangy taste on top. It looks really sketch but tastes pretty good! Overall it was definitely a good experience.

The frustrating thing was it took a long time after each order was placed for them to make them, since they make them fresh and its just a few ladies doing it. It wouldn’t have been so bad but after our first round we waited, thinking we were done and waiting for the Quiroa family to finish (they eat like central Americans- always taking their time). After 10 minutes of waiting we figured out we could order seconds so a bunch of the guys wanted to do that. Basically that made us take another half hour to finish up eating.

It wouldn’t have been so bad except I had made a skype date with Sam for 8 thinking there was no way we could get back later than that from dinner that starts at 6. Plus, if you remember, it was Wednesday and that means 9-9:15 Party. We got back at 8:50 and I was rushing to get a hold of Sam while also setting up the party. Jessie and Jacob helped a ton and I already had worked on a lot of the decorations in advance so it was pretty easy to set it all up but still quite comical.

The party was definitely a success. Every single student on the trip came and most stayed for the whole time. I was surprised that they all humored me and came but I think they were pretty curious what the crazy girl was talking about. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves though. We had Christmas music playing as well as clips from the movie Elf.  We had a giant bag of “Christmas candy” that we found at the party store plus red and green balloons that people could blow up. Why balloons? Because the lame party store didn’t have any red and green streamers or other decorations so balloons were the only option! It was a goofy fun touch!

The hit of the party though was the ornament decorating. Everyone got to decorate ornaments and tape them onto the Christmas tree Jacob cut out of the green paper we bought. The funny thing was, to save time Jacob cut one half of the tree and traced it to cut the other side of the tree. Unfortunately he didn’t flip it over when he traced it so we had matching halves. It made for a very interesting tree- way better than a normal one would’ve been! I’ll put pictures on facebook so you can all bask in the awesomeness.

After the party I was finally able to talk to Sam which was good and then I got to go to bed. I was exhausted!

Thursday:

            Our last full day in Nicaragua- YAY!!! The week was long but it still went by fast (just like this whole summer). In the morning we met with 4 Nicaraguans from the dump who are fighting against big companies for basically poisoning their workers. All of them are sick with some kind of cancer because of the chemicals used at the plant they worked at. Two of them had worked at the plant for 14 years and two for more than 20. They all started working between the ages of 14 and 16 and would often work from 7am to 10 pm in the factories and farms. The chemicals used on the fruit (mostly bananas) have been banned in the US for about 50 years because its so dangerous and harmful to humans. That doesn’t stop these huge corporations (many of them from the US-ever eaten a Dole banana?) from using it in Nicaragua and other poor countries though. I mean really, who cares if a few Nicas die when there is a profit to be made? I’m not sure if I’ve ever been more disgusted to admit I’m a United States citizen. Way to go US, you win again and none of us ever know at what cost. We’ve really done a number on Central America and the majority of us have no clue.

            We were supposed to do something else at the same place after our talk but it didn’t work out so we came up with plan B- another mall. This mall (my third in Nicaragua) was pretty nice but I didn’t have the energy to pretend to shop for a half an hour so I just sat on a bench and worked on writing my blog update to you guys. We were supposed to meet at the entrance at 11 so I packed up my stuff and headed down there with the group. The Quiroa family wasn’t there yet but we’ve come to assume they’ll always be 10 minutes later than the time they tell us so we weren’t too concerned. It was a pretty nice place to wait since there was actually a breeze going through that section and it had a few benches to sit on. One student was with the Quiroa family but the other 14 of us were all there on time, chillin’ while we waited for our professor to return. After 20 minutes I started to get upset. I like to think of myself as a fairly patient person but this trip has taught me that I still need to work on that, a lot. If you guys could be praying for me this last week of the program to be patient with our professor and his family that would be much appreciated.

            At the mall we said goodbye to Raquel who had been with us since we crossed the border. She might be the single sweetest person I know. She was probably in her mid twenties and always had the biggest smile on her face and you can’t help but smile to when you look at her. Throughout the week I had commented on a bracelet she was wearing and she said she made it herself. She also always had funky earrings, which she made herself too. Since she knew I liked them she brought me a bracelet just like hers and when we were saying goodbye in the mall she took the earrings out of her ears and gave them to me to remember her by. I almost cried I was so touched. I will never forget her kindness.

            We went back to Granada and checked into a new hotel for our last night in Nicaragua. Granada is closer to the border and its where our bus driver lives so it just makes sense. Plus the hotel there is in a safer area so we were able to go out on our own. We had the whole afternoon and evening free which was so exciting! It felt like we’d been go-go-going all week and never had time to decide what we wanted to do.

            A group of us went to find the Cacao Museum we had seen last time we were in the area but hadn’t been able to go to. It was beautiful and smelled fantastic! A woman explained the basic history of chocolate and how its made, which was very interesting. We each got to try some tea made from the shell of the cacao seed and it was actually really delicious! There was a workshop where you could make your own chocolate that sounded really interesting but it was kind of expensive and took two hours so we just settled for our little adventure and went back to the hotel satisfied.

            After hanging out in someone’s room for a bit and having some alone time (where I worked on this blog again) we met up again for dinner. We decided to go back to the Museum because it was a cute little restaurant too and after being there we were all craving the chocolate crepes we had heard about. We had to go there first since it closed at 6:30 so we enjoyed our crepes then went to a pizza place for “second dinner”. We really just wanted to place an order for delivery but somehow it got all mixed up and they had us sit at a table for a half hour while we waited to take our pizzas back to the hotel. There was a nice breeze in the restaurant though and we were with fun people so the wait wasn’t too bad!

            After pizza we all just ended up hanging by the pool. It was so nice to dip my feet in after a long day in my tennis shoes! It was definitely a great bonding time for us. We all ended up sharing photos of our siblings so we finally got to put a face to the names we’d been hearing for the past month and a half. It was really cool because there is one boy on our trip who kind of keeps to himself and can be a little snotty/standoffish to the rest of us but I got to have a long conversation with him. I just kept asking questions about his family (he is one of 9 kids so there were many to ask) and we were able to have a really nice talk.

Friday-Homeward Bound

            Friday at 7:08 we departed from Granada toward San Rafael! It was a beautiful thing… :) It took us about an hour and a half to reach the border then we spent 2 hours doing border things. At about 8 I started to have to pee so the wait was extra killer for me. When we finally got to the Costa Rican side I paid 25 cents to use a restroom and it was glorious! Haha

            We hit some major traffic in Costa Rica and barely moved for about an hour and a half. It wasn’t so bad for me though- I was glad for a break from the bumpy drive! Plus by that point I had joined Jessie in reading the last Twilight book. I had tried to sleep but kept getting woken up so I decided to read the end again over her shoulder. It was nice because its easy to read and it drew us in so we weren’t focused on how long it was taking to get back.

            We got to our houses around 6:30, which was a pretty reasonable time. My family asked me lots of questions about the trip and was pretty excited to have me back. Montserrat and her family were over when I got there and stayed for dinner. Plus Montse stayed the night because she spent the weekend with us (the schools are on winter break right now so she doesn’t have a lot of studying to do).

Saturday- Achoo!

            I woke up Saturday feeling sick… awesome. It just a cold, which I’m pretty sure came from the intense change of climate I had in Granada. It was so hot in Nicaragua but Thursday night I was right under the air conditioner and was freezing all night. Plus I was worn out from the trip so basically I’m not surprised that I got sick.

            I probably should have stayed in bed and rested on Saturday but my family was going on a trip that they wanted to take me on and I felt like I should go. I’m glad I went because we had a good time but by the end of it I was pretty miserable. They made me take a rest after we got back, which I was very relieved at because I don’t think I could’ve done anything else. I couldn’t sleep but put my earbuds in and listened to Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors which was so relaxing in my dark room! I could tell I was really tired because I didn’t move at all for an hour, which usually I can’t do.

            But I guess I should explain the things we did during the day that helped wear me out. The reason we went out in the first place was that my host parents needed to drop off some supplies they were donating to a rehab center their church is connected with (it’s a little over an hour away). It was kind of awkward to go there because I felt like an intruder since we didn’t stay long enough for me to do anything other than look around. It would have been cool to hear more about it but it was fun enough seeing my host parents get all excited about the mission being done there and greet everyone with big smiles.

            Next we went to see the big church in that town because it has Costa Rica’s “Little Black Virgin” (like the Virgin of Guadalupe but in CR- basically every Latin American country has one). It was cool to see, definitely a different experience than anything I’ve ever really done. We had to wait in line to see the apparition, which was in a small black stone. We also saw the fountain that the people say is blessed but we didn’t go very close because I think my mom was a little skeptical of that. They were selling bottles right before you enter so people could take some of the blessed water home. Very new for me.

            It was only 10:30 by the end of our time at the church so we ended up driving another 45 minutes to the nearby volcano. We didn’t spend much time there, just walked around a little and took some pictures. It was very different from the other volcanoes I’ve seen here. Apparently its usually raining up there but it wasn’t when we were there and there were barely any clouds at all so we could see everything clearly. It was pretty cold though- my body was so confused since now I’m used to Nicaragua temperatures of blazing hot every day!

            So that was basically my day. That night I hung out with Montse and she really enjoyed playing with my computer. She had a little too much energy for my sickly self though so after awhile I had to retreat to my room for a little peace and packing. Its so strange that I’m already packing up to leave- I just got here! The time with my host family has flown by and I’m sad to say goodbye. They have taken such good care of me and its strange to think I’ll probably never see them again.

Sunday- a day of rest

            I was supposed to go on an outing with my family all day on Sunday. I woke up at 5 because the plan was to leave the house at 5:45 and I knew there was no way I could do it. I really wanted to go, especially since I knew how excited my parents were to take me on the trip (it was with a group from their church to a parade on the beach, apparently they go almost every year). I knew it was better to stay though because I didn’t want to bring the celebration down and since we were taking a bus with the group instead of driving individually I wouldn’t have a way to come home early if I was feeling awful.

            I’m so glad I stayed. I went back to bed for another 4 hours then got up, had a leisurely breakfast and finished up my packing. As soon as I hopped into the shower the phone started ringing off the hook and then someone was at the gate. Lilo (our dog) was barking and whomever it was called out her name and then mine. I was so confused because I didn’t recognize the male voice but they obviously knew I was the only one home with Lilo. I got out of the shower and wearing only my towel went to check it out (looking through the window sneakily trying to see who it was without them seeing me). Then I heard Jessie’s voice and it all made sense. Apparently my parents had gotten worried because they called and I didn’t answer so they called Jessie’s mom. It was a pretty hilarious moment when I answered the door in my towel and they suddenly understood why I hadn’t picked up the phone!

     Now I'm at Jessie's house using her internet to work on my paper. I'm already way past the page minimum now I just need to fine tune it and I am so ready to cross that whopper off of my to do list! :)

Hope all is going well in the states!

With love,

emma

The Missing S and Other Nicaraguan Tragedies

            So… Nicaragua. We’ve been here for about 5 days now and we’re all ready to go back. We’ve heard over and over again that “Costa Rica es diferente” and now we see how true that is, CR is way different than what we’ve experienced here. One thing is, Nicaraguans don’t pronounce the s at the end of words. This makes all the words blur together. Its hard to explain but its like they don’t fully close their mouth ever and end a word so everything just gets muddled up. Its very soothing to listen to, a little too soothing when you’re exhausted and sitting in a stagnant suffocating hot room. It has been a struggle to pay attention when receiving lectures from Nicaraguans, but more on that later.

            Monday- Granada

Not sure how much you know about Nicaraguan geography but we’ve been staying in the capitol, Managua. On Monday we went to visit another major city, Granada. In the morning we went on a boat ride in Lake Nicaragua, the biggest lake in Central America. There were lots of beautiful views but the lake itself was filthy. It is so contaminated it was a brownish green color- not pretty. The worst thing was we saw multiple people swimming/fishing in the water. Everything in me cringes at the thought of letting that water touch my skin but I guess its no big deal for them.

After lunch in the city we were given 3 hours to just walk around the city. It was a little frustrating because I was exhausted and not feeling well. I think I caught some kind of bug from the water or something. We have all been trying to be super careful but sometimes it still gets ya. Anyways, we looked around at the street vendors but didn’t see anything we wanted, walked around looking at the architecture (it’s the oldest city in Nicaragua).  Four of us decided to cave in and pay to take a horse drawn carriage tour around the city. We got to hear a lot more about the history of the city (it has a lot to do with William Walker). Making conversation with the driver I asked if it’s difficult to learn to drive the horses and he said “no, wanna try?” (except in Spanish) and I was like “uh, yeah!” So I drove the carriage the rest of the way! It was fun; the horses basically already knew where they were going so I mostly just had to let them lead but I would steer them away from potholes so I was pretty proud of myself!

Tuesday- the good day

            Tuesday was the best day. We spent our morning in the dump and let me tell you it was disgusting. There was trash everywhere and little kids flocked to us. I think at one point all of us had a kid in our arms as we toured their home. Mine was a little girl in a dirty pink skirt named Cassandra. She was 8 years old. When she saw the water bottle of one of the boys she pointed and asked for it and when he gave it to her she drank for a good 30 seconds without stopping, as though she hadn’t had anything to drink in quite some time. It is unbelievably hot in Nicaragua and the dump was possibly the hottest place, despite the fact that it had already rained that morning which usually cools things down.

            In stark contrast, we went straight to our second mall in Nicaragua right after seeing some of the worst poverty I’ve ever seen. This was a really nice mall too, apparently it was to show us the difference of life in Nicaragua but it just made most of us go numb. As we were sitting in the mall I decided to plan the 9-9:15 Party. I’d been thinking of having one and I just decided that if I wanted to have a fun time in Nicaragua I needed to stop complaining about what we’re doing and make the fun myself. Jessie, Hannah, Nathan and I went to the party store we had seen earlier and bought supplies for our Christmas in July themed party.

We picked that theme because for some reason there are Christmas decorations all over here. We think its because there is an election coming up and Daniel Ortega (the current president) wants everyone to remember that Nicaragua is a “Christian” nation (because then no one can start a smear campaign calling him a Marxist). There is tons of propaganda like that here- its insane. There are billboards, posters and bumper stickers all supporting Daniel, not to mention all the graffiti. “Viva Daniel” “Viva la revolución” and “FSLN” (his political party) are everywhere.

After the mall and then lunch came my favorite part of the day, if not the trip in general. We went to the Villa Esperanza (hope) which is a ministry that reaches out to the girls in the dump that we had visited earlier that day. It was shockingly beautiful. They have about 20 girls living with them now who have all had difficult lives living in the dump. Many have experienced sexual abuse and some have had to deal with other tragedies as well. For example, a pair of sisters there lost their father to AIDS and their mother is slowly dying of the disease as well.

The Villa is currently attempting to become self-sufficient so they have chickens that the girls look after as well as a garden and fish that they grow for food. All the girls have chores as well as schooling that they must do. Its not an easy life for them, as the Villa is attempting to prepare them for what won’t be an easy life when they are out in the real world, but it is much better than where they came from. It was hard to know that they could only help 20 girls now. Even though I know that makes a huge difference, its hard not to think about all the other girls left in the high risk situations. But I know that the program works on reaching out to the families of the girls and the community in general, in partnership with the local church there, so they are doing a lot of good, even if its not in huge leaps and bounds.

The Villa has a set of rooms that they rent out to guests to bring in some money. Apparently, our original plan was to stay there, which would have involved a lot of mission work as their guests usually work with the girls as well as other programs in the surrounding neighborhood. Unfortunately, another group already took the week of our trip. It was so frustrating to know what the trip could have been. We all thought that we were going to be doing mission work here, that is what Profe told us, but instead we haven’t done anything except learn about all the problems here. It was nice to know that he had the same idea as us but so annoying to know that his lack of follow through caused us to need the inferior “plan b”. I’m just taking comfort in the fact that the next group that does this trip, when it is better planned, will be able to do all the mission work we had hoped to do. Its sad to just watch the poverty and pain and then walk on, without doing anything to help.

This is all I have time for now, but when I return from dinner I will try to finish up Wednesday and today!

love and God's blessings to you,

emma

Nicaragua

Saturday 6 am- meet at the Parque Central ready to head out for Nicaragua. There’s a challenge. My padre Tico refused to let Jessie and I walk the 8 minute walk with our stuff so he drove us there and stayed until boys from our group showed up even though it was nice and bright out and not at all sketchy. Then we were met by a pleasant surprise when the bus showed up and it was not the tiny little thing we’d been squeezing into for our other excursions but instead a really nice bus with big comfortable seats and even a few extras. I wish I could make you understand what a blessing it was to be in that bus. The other bus handles the bumps in the road so terribly that it makes me sick but I was comfortable (as much as one can be on a bus ride in Costa Rica) so all was well!

                  I had the exciting experience of walking across the CR/Nicaragua border, which felt super sketch but wasn’t too excruciating of a process. Then we had another 3 hours of driving in Nicaragua to get to Managua where our “hotel” is. We passed the time quickly though as Jessie was reading Eclipse (the third book in the Twilight series) and I reread most of it over her shoulder. It’s a pretty easy book so it’s not hard to read on a bus.

                  Our hotel is… interesting. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures and put them on facebook so you can fully understand what I mean. When we first walk in its super hot and muggy as it now is every day when we enter after being gone because they shut the air off when we’re not in it. Then we noticed that our room was super dark. Where everyone else had two bulbs in their light we only had one. This brought about the fiasco of them trying to put in a new bulb, which ended up not working. Eventually we got another bulb that is less bright than the first but still an improvement since now the two are working together. Our room is still kinda dark but its doable. Then there’s the bathroom… oh goodness. There is a lovely black splash stain on the floor around the toilet and the shower floor was still actively wet when we showed up. I have not walked barefoot in that room and I do not plan to-yuck! We also have some special friends who live on the roof of our bathroom who scurry around and make fun noises for us. We have named them Jiminy Cricket and Patricia.

                  Overall Emily (my roommate for this week) and I are just trying to enjoy our time here even though our room is without a doubt the worst of everyone’s. Oh well! Its certainly an experience.

Sunday was fun although it was a pretty long day. We started off the day with two masses at two different Christian Base Community churches. It was very interesting to see the differences in those churches even from the churches I went to with my host parents in CR, not to mention my churches in the US. We were so lost at the first service because they didn’t have the words to the bulletin printed in the song, it was quite comical.

After church we went to a really yummy restaurant for lunch where we were actually able to eat our fill! We eat breakfast and dinner at the hotel and get very small portions. It’s a bummer but not a huge deal! I just feel bad for some of the guys on our trip…

After lunch we walked around Historic Managua for a bit, which was nice but very warm and very dirty. Nicaragua is a country with a high temperature and a lot of trash. Makes me miss Costa Rica- a lot! After the site seeing we went to a mall where we got an hour and a half to explore and chill. It was loud and crowded- nothing like Paseo de los Flores, our favorite mall in Heredia. Although we were able to buy fairly good-sized water bottles for 50 cents there so that was a win.

That’s another unfortunate thing about Nicaragua- the undrinkable water. I’ve never really had to deal with unhealthy water before and its not fun. It’s hard to remember not to rinse my toothbrush with water from the sink and we’re always suspicious when we eat out that they cleaned everything with purified water. I’m not feeling well now and really hoping its just my stomach being weird and not that I got a virus from something I ate. Please be praying for all of us that we can stay healthy here.

Monday has definitely been a full day! We spent the day in Granada, the other big city about 45 minutes away. In the morning we took a boat ride through Lake Nicaragua (which is really contaminated) and saw some beautiful views. In the afternoon we went to central Granada and had 3 hours to walk around. I was exhausted but still managed to have a good time. We just walked around checking out the merchandise in people were selling along the park and said “no gracias” a million times to all the people who came up to us selling something.

Emily, Mike, Elisabeth and I took a carriage tour around the city which ended up being really cool. Our guide was very nice and explained the historical significance of all the buildings we’d been looking at. Plus, he let me drive the horses- it was super cool!

Now I’m back at the hotel, showered and waiting for dinner, hoping its something appetizing. Only three more days left in Nicaragua then another full day of travel back to the beautiful Costa Rica! Hooray! Its definitely an experience here but I’ll be glad to get back “home” to San Rafa. 

I hope you are all enjoying your 4th of July's wherever you are!

Love from Nicaragua,

Emma

Where did June go?

Wow its been a long while since I’ve been able to update! Its been a busy week with not a lot of spare time! I’ll explain it all as I continue…

Sunday:

We got to choose what we did in the morning before heading out. We could stay at the hotel, find a tour we want to go on, or go on a canopy hanging bridges tour with our professor. It was a tough call but I ended up staying at the hotel and was so glad I did. I just didn’t have the energy to walk around all morning and I felt like I had a million other things I could do. I ended up hanging out with Elisabeth and we both silently did work. I finished my book for Quiroa’s class and wrote up my review of it plus was able to get other odds and ends done I’d been meaning to do. It was fantastic- I really needed that time to rest and get some things finished!

In theory the point of our weekend excursions is to give us a chance to relax but since my family is so chill the trips are actually more tiring for me! I share a room with two other girls so naturally we stay up later than I do at home and then we always have to get up early for breakfast- even earlier than I do for school every day. Plus we are always trying to get the most out of our visit so I wear myself out doing the activities. Throw in a bumpy ride in a crowded bus and I come back to San Rafa feeling sick!

Monday:

Since it’s our last week of official classes we began our mini-proyecto presentations this week. In the morning we got to go an animal shelter nearby the university where we got to play with the kittens and walk the dogs as volunteers. We named all the kittens and they were precious! I wanted to take my little one (I named her Felicity because feliz is happy in Spanish) home with me because she was unbelievable precious and kept coming up to snuggle me!

      After the shelter we went to Heredia so my group could do our presentation on the university there. It was somewhat frustrating to me because my group was not really interested in doing it well, mostly in just getting it done. I was kind of on the same wavelength but I got really frustrated when I felt like we were straying from the plan and just trying to get it over with and Profe could tell. I got more and more agitated as the morning went on because I wasn’t feeling well and things were just piling up. At lunch I was able to cool down because we ate at a cute little Soda (restaurante) in the center of the campus. It was cool to see where the Costa Rican students all hang out plus I ate with Jessie and Jacob and made them only talk about happy things to distract me from my frustrations. We ended up talking about our favorite things about our siblings, which was obviously a very happy topic so that calmed me down!

      After lunch we headed into San Jose- a more than 40-minute bus ride- to go to a museum, which turned out to be closed on Mondays. It was a bummer but actually worked out in our favor since we were able to go to the artisan market and shop around, which we’d been wanting to do. I found some funky rings and a colorful headband for cheep so I consider it a success!

Tuesday:

      Since we didn’t go to the university on Monday we had double grammar class on Tuesday. It was fun because usually we’re split up into two groups and trade off between grammar and culture class but since it was all grammar we were all together. It was not fun because we didn’t really learn anything. Its hard because we’re studying the subjunctive right now which is really difficult to understand how to use. Its even more complicated because our professor, who did her thesis on the subjunctive, always seems to contradict herself. The problem is we have all learned rules to follow for the use of the subjunctive but in real life it’s not always that logical. Very confusing when you’re trying to learn it! I really wish we could have started studying it earlier because it feels like its that part of the language that is always done last so we never get to spend much time on it- and it’s the most complicated. It has been really fun though to watch everyone get better at using the forms in everyday life!

Wednesday:

LAST DAY OF OFFICIAL CLASSES!!! Woo!

We had all day grammar again which ended up being taken up completely by everyone sharing their neighborhood projects. When you have 15 students and each one talks for 5-10 minutes you use up time pretty quick! It was interesting to hear about where people have been living here and how that compares to their home in the US but after the 7^th person it all starts to sound the same. During the second hour I ended up translating the lyrics to “Aaron’s Party” into Spanish just to stay awake. It was actually pretty challenging and great practice for my Spanish skills so I think I’m going to try to do stuff like that more often!

      In the afternoon we had our final for Theology. It was actually pretty simple, I knew all of the information it was just a lot of writing to do, especially in Spanish. Plus my stomach wasn’t feeling too hot so that was an added bonus. I was so relieved when I finished. It’s nice to have something like that done, although I still don’t believe we could already be that far along in the program.

      After the final a few of us snuggled into the couches and watched Twilight. SO FUNNY! I was thrilled to be relaxing and finally be sharing the hilarity with my fellow students. We watched the movie until the students started showing up for English class, which was pretty relaxed this week as always. We did the hokey pokey, played a travel version of Monopoly, and everyone talked about where they are from. Its always fun to see the Costa Ricans, they’re really nice people and we always have a good time.

Thursday:

      We had the pleasure of finishing up our mini-proyectos on Thursday, which actually wasn’t that bad. We went to two parks and a funky little museum and were able to finish up around noon. All three were in San José though and just going back and forth takes a lot out of you. On the way back we found a cute little smoothie place in Heredia where we got lunch. I was so happy with my cheap but delicious sandwich and smoothie!

Birthday Festivities

Thursday was a day of surprise birthday celebrations. Lis (one of the girls on our trip) baked a cake for me and the Quiroas (the family of our professor from Wheaton) bought pan dulce. They brought it out after lunch with a candle (the only ones they had were real candles like the kind you put on a mantle!) for me to blow out!

After we enjoyed all the yummy food they told me there was another surprise I had to wait for and spent 10 minutes trying to throw a rope up over one of the beams. The surprise was a piñata that Amanda had bought at a market in Heredia. They put a scarf over my eyes, gave me a stick, and had me go at it. It was tough because they kept pulling on the rope on the other end so it would move plus we were kind of close to a wall so I hit that once on accident and left a mark! Overall it was a really fun time and we all enjoyed the candy that came out when it finally broke! :)

In the afternoon Lis and I had our massages- what better birthday present is there? Jessie’s host mom works planning the schedules of a massage school close by so she hooked us up with free massages from the students who are learning. It was awesome! Neither of us had ever had a massage before so it was a fun experience to share. Definitely something I’ll never forget!

Then we had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner… does it get any better?

Friday: (The actual birthday)

            My host family is so sweet. Friday morning they made a giant breakfast with bananas, pineapple, gallo pinto (the breakfast version of rice and beans), scrambled eggs (with chopped up tomato and pepper mixed in), sausages wrapped in tortillas, tamales (some sort of potato thing wrapped in a tortilla thing- really yummy), plus some little ham wraps and a big glass of OJ. They decorated the table and even got me a little cake! It was a nice surprise! Plus they invited Jessie to come over to join us so that made it even more special.

            After breakfast Jessie and I left for this weekend’s excursion, which meant almost 4 hours on a bus- woo! We tried to read but the roads are so bumpy that you can only read for a bit then you have to take a break. But with lots of fun people around us the trip can be fun.

            We went to a resort for the afternoon near Volcán Arenal that had about 30 small pools. We only explored a few of them but the majority were hot springs- some too hot to even dip your toes into! It was fun to just hang out in the warm water and chill. I laid out and read my book for class for a bit but since it has been so cloudy this weekend I didn’t get much sun. :( oh well!

            After dinner we checked into our actual hotel and got cleaned up. Then some of the boys came over and we had a movie night. We also broke into the little cake that my parents had bought me and suggested I take along (because there was no way we could eat it after that huge breakfast!) We watched Tangled (in Spanish of course) and it was really fun.

Saturday:

            This morning we got up at 6:30 so we could have breakfast and be ready for zip lining. That was a great experience- such amazing views! I think my favorite part was just how fast we went- I love feeling the wind rush past me. We also did something called the Tarzan Swing, which was intense! They hook you up and have you lean off the platform while they’re holding you from your harness in back then they just let you go and you plummet down and swing back and forth. So epic!

            After the zip lining we had a few hours to just chill at the hotel, which was pretty refreshing. I was able to get some more of my book read and just catch up on little things I’d been meaning to do. We were all getting pretty testy after lunch though, when we went on a boat trip on a lake near the volcano. It just wasn’t what any of us wanted to do so we had a pretty bad attitude about it. If you guys could be praying for me to have patience and overall just a better attitude that would be great! It just gets so frustrating for me sometimes since our professor’s management style is so loosy-goosy so we never know what is going on-the opposite of how I like to run things.

            Now I suppose I will force myself to do some more homework… who ever thought it was a good idea to take classes in the summer? :P

Emma