Im a murderer

Hello all of you beautiful people out there reading my blog! How are ya? Me? I'm doing just great! Today was a great day, we got to meet up with the business group, and we had a few activities together. It was nice to see them all, as it doesn't happen very often. One of the best things of all, we finally got to find out where we are going for our volunteer visit. We do the visits so we can see what life is really like before we go to our sites. I am going to San Jorge, in Rivas. Ryan is also coming with me, as his volunteer canceled at the last minute so we are the only ones going as a pair. I hear it is on the beach, so I think we will have a good time. I will be there from Sunday until Wednesday, so if you call me and Im not answering thats probably why.

So, the other night while I was writing in my journal before going to bed, in the corner of my eye I saw a little cockroach run from under my door, alongside my floor/wall and then under my bed. I decided that this one's time on earth will soon come to an end. I dashed to the other side of my room (if you know my room and how small it is, this means I leaned over to the left) and grabbed my best friend... RAID!!! I grabbed a flashlight and my camera and laid on the floor. I gave a few sprays of Raid and as soon as the raid hit the cucaracha, it jumped onto it's back and began its slow and painful death. The following picture and video are proof of my matanza (killing).




Things are still going great here in my training town, although a few people have fallen ill. One of the girls believes she may have gotten e-coli, as she spent three days in the hospital in Managua. I hear it's like a five star resort there, with CNN in English and air conditioning to boot! Once I heard that I thought about drinking some tap water to see if I can secure myself a reservation for a 2 day stay.
I am still taking language classes, but I hope that once we have our second language interview, I can jump up to the advanced level from my current intermediate-high level. If I can achieve that, this means I will not have to take any more language classes. There is also a part of me that knows if I do get to that level, then I will be told I have to teach more English classes instead of taking Spanish classes.

I ALSO GOT MY PACKAGES!!! I was sooooo excited to see Douglas the bus driver walking up with a bunch of packages for the volunteers. When I got home I was excited to see the t-shirts and shorts I was sent. Also I got a small, mouse for my laptop, and a headset for SKYPE (if I ever get the chance to use it) I also got kool-aid packets sent to me and it was oh-so-wonderful. When drinking my American lemonade I felt like I was back in Wisconsin on a hot summer day... even thought it only lasted for a few seconds, it was a great. I also got the movie Across the Universe sent to me, I cant wait to watch it..again.

This last weekend, we traveled with Lara's mom to Granada. It is a really nice city, but very very touristy. We sat down under a canopy and ordered a coffee. While smoking a cigarette and taking in the city, I thought that I was in Spain again, with the way the city looks, as it has a very colonial feeling to it. That was until I got a sip of the coffee. Then I was thrown back into reality that I was in Nicaragua, and not Spain. Even though Nicaragua has a large export of really good coffee, you rarely go anywhere and find the “good” kind of coffee, it's mostly instant coffee crystals. I digress. We were approached by a man who asked us if we wanted to take a boat ride in the Lake of Nicaragua and see all of the isletas or islands. There are about 365 small islands in the lake, and quite a few of them have homes on them where rich Americans and rich Nicaraguans make homes to which they visit once or twice a year. On one island, a rich Chinese family built an awesome home, with a Pagoda-ish roof. We also were brought to an island where there were monkeys.. YAY for monkeys right? I asked the driver, “How did the monkeys get on the island, its pretty weird for monkeys to be on an island in the middle of a HUGE lake.” Then he let me know that the monkeys were brought there pretty much so they could use them as a selling point for the tours. Oh well, better them then me I say! Overall I think that Granada would be a great place to bring my parents to, as it doesn't seem too dangerous once you get out of the bus station, walk past the people outside singing for money, and past the pick pocketing nuns from the local convent. I'm kidding... there were no people outside singing ;)