Oh, you can title these things.

Days 7-11

Nicaragua is so loud! If its not barking dogs (dogs roam the streets in mass) or crowing roosters (always the subtle one, I told my host sister today how my favorite food is rooster), its blaring music or people screaming. The Baptist church next door (I can’t escape them!) was still raging at my grandpa bedtime of 9. Then at 530 in the morning someone was banging a hammer. Maybe I’m alone in the opinion that there is no construction work worth doing before 7a.m. I’m getting used to it, but thank sweet mother jesus for my earplugs, or I would never sleep.
For the last few mornings, I have been getting up early to run. It’s pretty bizarre jogging here though. The scenery is gorgeous, but Nicaraguans don’t jog for exercise. So most of the town that’s up just laughs at the silly gringo jogging around the town as I go by.
I’ve adjusted to the food easier than expected. Besides the avocados and mangos (So plentiful! So delicious!) , I generally just eat things without thinking too hard about what they are. There are vegetables here that I didn’t even know existed. I had a soup a couple days ago for lunch that had like 10 different kinds of vegetables in it, the only one I recognized was onion, so I’m calling it onion soup. The cheese isn’t very good in Nicaragua, but they have so many different kinds of delicious frescas. Yesterday, I had a pineapple and something else one. Not exactly sure of the ingredients, but it was pink, and tasted like pink things should.
This week as a whole has been pretty exhausting. We have Spanish class for like 7 hours a day and then there’s always PC (shout out, Rachel, sometimes I confuse myself with the PC thing) readings and assignments to do after. Also, trying to speak in Spanish for most of the day is mentally draining. The heat isn’t helping. It’s not so much the actual temperature (which I’m pretty sure has been a little over 100 in the afternoon for most of the week), but more so the lack of air conditioning. There is none. That seems pretty obvious, but it’s hard to imagine until you’re sitting inside and it’s still 100 degrees. At whatever moment you read this, I will be sweating, it’s a fact. I do love how we have class outside, literally in the jungle. Paradise.
Today we had a field trip of sorts to Masatepe where all the trainees met up to get rabies shots and talk about dangerous diseases with the medical staff. We headed back before noon so we could still have lunch with our families, because nothing gets your stomach grumbling more than talking about scabies and diarrhea. This afternoon me and the other San Juan trainees walked around town and chatted with local artists. We met some amazing people who had been making ceramics all their lives. Most of them sell to galleries and such in the States (I’ve taken to calling it the States, it makes me feel worldly, deal with it). My plan next week is to start posting on Mondays and Thursdays, those are the best days for me to hit up the cyber café near me. I forgot to load up the pictures from my camera this time, opps. I’ll have extra next time.