The vacation looms
Well, 2nd quarter midterm grades are due on Monday, which means that I will be churning into panic mode this weekend. All the preparation for midterm and quarter grades reminds me of finals week in college. So in other words, I have 8 finals per year. Agh!
I'm getting very excited for the upcoming holiday vacation because my baby brother, Danny, is coming to visit! Yay! We're going to travel to El Salvador to surf, to Guatamala to climb a volcano, and back to the coast of Honduras to snorkel, swim, and fish. I'm really looking forward to the break and traveling around. I guess I'll be testing out my Spanish skills because I won't have a native Spanish speaker along with me to interpret at all. But, my Spanish is definitely passable right now, and I can do just about anything I need with my current skills.
Yesterday, I hit a milestone in my o-so-very-young teaching career because I had one student ask me to write her a letter of recommendation. Wow.
I know I only wrote briefly about Nicaragua, so I'll try to fill you all in a little better now. I drove down through Nicaragua with Keiko, a student teacher at Discovery, Liisa, the 6th and 7th grade Humanities teacher at Discovery, and Tolmek, Liisa's boyfriend. The border crossing was quite interesting. I've never seen so much chaos. I had relatively little trouble getting into Nicaragua and returning to Honduras because I got my residency (for Honduras YAY) about three weeks ago. The first city we went to was Granada, which is a really pretty Spanish colonial town near El Lago de Nicaragua. There was a really huge volcano, Momotombo, very close to Granada that can be climbed in a day trip. Unfortunately, we did not have time to climb it though :( Keiko and I stayed at a really cool hostel very close to the main parque of the city. Granda is full of old cathedrals, a fort, and amazing architecture. It's definitely a city worth visiting again.
From Granada, we drove down the world's-most-pothole-filled road to San Juan del Sur, which is essentially a surfing town on the Pacific Coast. The town is very tiny and has a great beach with easy access to better beaches for surfing. One huge different I noted between Nicaragua and Honduras on this trip was how much safer Nicaragua felt. I saw far more gringos (white people/travelers) in Nicaragua than I've ever seen in Honduras. It was actually okay to walk around the streets in the dark, something I haven't been able to do since I moved here almost 4 months ago. In November, June, and July, the San Juan del Sur beaches are filled with sea tortoise laying their eggs. I wanted to go on a tour to see this, but I had to leave to go back to Honduras. But, again, I need to return.
Our whole group was supposed to travel next to Ometepe, a huge island in Lago de Nicaragua with two enormous volcanos, but our plans were thwarted by a late night out. Entonces, Keiko and I hopped in a collectivo (taxi for like 5 people) and rode back to Rivas, where we caught a "chiken-bus" to Managua. Wow. I don't know if I ever want to do that again. The ride really wasn't that bad, but we were stopping to get people at every dirt patch alongside the road for the whole 2 and a half hour trip. It was really nice to travel with other Nicaraguans and locals though because that's definitely a very different experience than traveling in the huge airconditioned tourist buses.
When we finally arrived in Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua, we hopped in a taxi to Ticabus, from which we would leave the next morning. When we got the bus station, we were mobbed by a bunch of young men trying to sell us hotel rooms at the nearby hotels. This was a little bit scary because I was the only Spanish speaker, and I had to translate everything for Keiko, but we made it okay. We got a hotel room in Casa Roja (never stay there), and promptly got a taxi to take us somewhere to eat--somewhere away from the barrio where the bus station was situated. Keiko and I had a great time in Managua! We met up with some friends there and drove around looking at the main sights of the city, then went out dancing at a club. Overall, Managua was very scary, but also very fun.
The next morning at 4am, we left to go home to Honduras. So there it is...my whole trip in summary. It felt great to be back in Tegucigalpa. I was happy when I realized this because maybe it means that I'm finally starting to feel like it's home here. I've been super homesick over that last 2 months or so, and to feel that twinge of "I'm glad to be home in Tegucigalpa" gave me hope that maybe I won't be homesick forever. :)
Check out my photos website because I've got some from Nicaragua up.
peace
alice
I'm getting very excited for the upcoming holiday vacation because my baby brother, Danny, is coming to visit! Yay! We're going to travel to El Salvador to surf, to Guatamala to climb a volcano, and back to the coast of Honduras to snorkel, swim, and fish. I'm really looking forward to the break and traveling around. I guess I'll be testing out my Spanish skills because I won't have a native Spanish speaker along with me to interpret at all. But, my Spanish is definitely passable right now, and I can do just about anything I need with my current skills.
Yesterday, I hit a milestone in my o-so-very-young teaching career because I had one student ask me to write her a letter of recommendation. Wow.
I know I only wrote briefly about Nicaragua, so I'll try to fill you all in a little better now. I drove down through Nicaragua with Keiko, a student teacher at Discovery, Liisa, the 6th and 7th grade Humanities teacher at Discovery, and Tolmek, Liisa's boyfriend. The border crossing was quite interesting. I've never seen so much chaos. I had relatively little trouble getting into Nicaragua and returning to Honduras because I got my residency (for Honduras YAY) about three weeks ago. The first city we went to was Granada, which is a really pretty Spanish colonial town near El Lago de Nicaragua. There was a really huge volcano, Momotombo, very close to Granada that can be climbed in a day trip. Unfortunately, we did not have time to climb it though :( Keiko and I stayed at a really cool hostel very close to the main parque of the city. Granda is full of old cathedrals, a fort, and amazing architecture. It's definitely a city worth visiting again.
From Granada, we drove down the world's-most-pothole-filled road to San Juan del Sur, which is essentially a surfing town on the Pacific Coast. The town is very tiny and has a great beach with easy access to better beaches for surfing. One huge different I noted between Nicaragua and Honduras on this trip was how much safer Nicaragua felt. I saw far more gringos (white people/travelers) in Nicaragua than I've ever seen in Honduras. It was actually okay to walk around the streets in the dark, something I haven't been able to do since I moved here almost 4 months ago. In November, June, and July, the San Juan del Sur beaches are filled with sea tortoise laying their eggs. I wanted to go on a tour to see this, but I had to leave to go back to Honduras. But, again, I need to return.
Our whole group was supposed to travel next to Ometepe, a huge island in Lago de Nicaragua with two enormous volcanos, but our plans were thwarted by a late night out. Entonces, Keiko and I hopped in a collectivo (taxi for like 5 people) and rode back to Rivas, where we caught a "chiken-bus" to Managua. Wow. I don't know if I ever want to do that again. The ride really wasn't that bad, but we were stopping to get people at every dirt patch alongside the road for the whole 2 and a half hour trip. It was really nice to travel with other Nicaraguans and locals though because that's definitely a very different experience than traveling in the huge airconditioned tourist buses.
When we finally arrived in Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua, we hopped in a taxi to Ticabus, from which we would leave the next morning. When we got the bus station, we were mobbed by a bunch of young men trying to sell us hotel rooms at the nearby hotels. This was a little bit scary because I was the only Spanish speaker, and I had to translate everything for Keiko, but we made it okay. We got a hotel room in Casa Roja (never stay there), and promptly got a taxi to take us somewhere to eat--somewhere away from the barrio where the bus station was situated. Keiko and I had a great time in Managua! We met up with some friends there and drove around looking at the main sights of the city, then went out dancing at a club. Overall, Managua was very scary, but also very fun.
The next morning at 4am, we left to go home to Honduras. So there it is...my whole trip in summary. It felt great to be back in Tegucigalpa. I was happy when I realized this because maybe it means that I'm finally starting to feel like it's home here. I've been super homesick over that last 2 months or so, and to feel that twinge of "I'm glad to be home in Tegucigalpa" gave me hope that maybe I won't be homesick forever. :)
Check out my photos website because I've got some from Nicaragua up.
peace
alice