What another crazy week here!! I am entering week three of training Monday...time is flying buy already. Yet it feels like i´ve been in Nicaragua for at least a month or 2!

Monday was a national holiday (Independence Day) and we didn´t have class! Instead I went with my host mom to watch my sister and cousin dance at the assembly and parade. After the parade, I went to Nandasmo (the bigger city closer to where I live) to watch there activities. Its very interesting because the parade is full of students marching..along with dancers, "cheerleaders" and marching bands...every school has a marching band..it was so cute to see the little kids carrying drums!!! Also, the assemblies are used to recognize the top student in the school as well as the best teacher. They both recieve a regalo, rather than plaque, which is something personal they could use. I thought it was really cool that so much thought is put into these awards. After the events in Nandasmo, I went with another aspirante and his family to "agua arie" which is bascially a super nice river to swim...it was awesome, beautiful, and an amazing treat from the heat of Nicaragua. The best part was on the hike back to the car we saw MONKEYS!!! OMG. I was so excited. I guess monkeys used to be very common but now a lot of their habitat has been destroyed. However we were near volcan mombacho where they are still pretty common!

The rest of the week was full of spanish class everyday, technical sessions, and building a huerto (garden) this morning. We have a youth group meeting tonight...haha..a nice test of my spanish abilities. Oh...Sunday I went to the national zoo..with my family and then to Tip-Top the national fast food chain!! Excellent.

And....I´ve seen a kid wearing a University of Cinncinati shirt...I thought it was really funny...my host family didn´t seem to understand!

Yesterday was my one week aniversary of my arrival in Nicaragua!!! However, its seriously feels like it has been weeks and weeks....a lot due to the events over the past few days!! :)

Last Friday, our entire group left Mangua [Capital of Nica] to head to our training sites. All of the environmental volunteers are training around Mesetepe [in Masaya] and I live in a small farming town that is the suburb of a suburb. But I LOVE my little town and my host family is super nice. I have a host mom, a host sister who is 12 and two host brothers [14 & 22]. Additionally, my entire extended family lives really close to me and we have a continual flow of cousins [who are super cute] and aunts and uncles through my house! Its super fun! On Sunday, my family took myself and one of the other Aspirantes Robert to Catarina. Which is an awesome little town and overlooks a volcanic lake. It was absolutely beautiful. I seriously can't describe it!! I can't wait to go back and take more pictures. When I went last week I didn't realize how pretty it was....my host sister told me there was just lots of shopping! :)

Monday was the start of Spanish class. Its amazing how quickly my Spanish was improving!! We have 6 formal hours of Spanish class. From 8-noon in the morning which is more class-like and is based on vocab and practicing speaking. Then we have an hour for lunch. Class resumes at 1 and goes until 3. This part of Spanish is more focused on activities within our training towns. Finally, we have an additional 2 hours with our host families inwhich we are practiticing and such. I have a lot to learn...but I was picking it up pretty fast!!

However...currently I am back in Managua and staying at a hotel. Several people in our group are sick and the Peace Corps is observing 4 of us to ensure we also aren't sick. However, I absolutely can't wait to return to my training site and get back into the swing of things!

Along with this post are 2 photos from Nica. One is the entire Nica 51 group [we are the 51st training class to enter Nica since 1991 (i think)] and the other is of the Environment sector of Nica 51. There are 20 enivronmental trainees and 19 TEFL trainees!!

The Trip to Nica!!

What an adventure the past few days have been!

Tuesday : Staging for Peace Corps in Washington DC. It was super awesome to finally meet my entire training class! Basically we went over the basics of PC...mission, rules, and our fears and such. AMAZING! :)

2am Wednesday: We left for the airport..only to arrive and discover that the airport was actually closed...hahah. Soooo..we sat outside of our check-in area until 3:30am when the check-in lady checked us and we got to stand in a multitude of lines, including bag check-in, the bag security line, the actual security line, and the breakfast food line all at 5am! Yay. The flight to Miami left at 6am..and I'm pretty sure the flight NEVER happened because I slept through the entire thing.

Our arrival in Miami welcomed us with the fantastic prospect of a 3 hour delay. Which then turned into a 5 hour delay. Which was amazing...nothing is more fun then hanging out it the airport...we did go to bahamas though! :) Finally we left Miami around 3pm...putting us into Managua about the same time!

Arrival in Managua was super exciting! I paid my $5 entrance fee and the was greeted by some PC staff and then volunteers. After standing around for a while waiting for our luggage, we went on to discover that infact our luggage was in Hati. Excellent.

Thursday: Today was our first official day in Nicaragua. This morning we were lucky enough to meet the Peace Corps Director [Aaron Williams] and hear him speak about his vision for the Peace Corps. It made me so excited to be a PC trainee. The rest of the day was full of medical interviews & vaccines, language intervies, and information sessions.

Tomorrow I'll move in with my host family. Excited and nervous!

Nicaragua is beautiful. Everyone in my training class is amazing. Loving PC so far!