Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Parents Cont.

We also decided that we would wake up at the butt crack of dawn and take a day trip to Selva Negra in Matagalpa. We were told that we could also find a coffee tour when we got there. Once we got up there we decided that we would do a little hiking first. Before you actually DO the hiking, there is a map of the hiking paths on the wall of a building, of which I am very glad we took a picture because without the map, you see, we would probably still be hiking in the hills of Matagalpa. Although we heard many of the howler monkeys “howling” in the hills, we didn't see any, but we did have the opportunity to see an animal which was a mix between a rabbit and a squirrel, so all in all the hike was much more pleasant than I thought it was going to be once we had arrived. Upon getting back to Masaya, we decided to invest a little time and go to the market and go shopping for souvenirs for the family. We walked all over the market for a good couple of hours and we saw everything from the bread vendors and the fish market to hammock and key chain vendors. One little note for those of you that might find yourself in the markets in Masaya. There are many people that walk around and come up to Americans or White people and begin to talk to them and tell you that they know all of the vendors and they will help you get better deals on the items. Now whether or not you speak Spanish, I would strongly suggest that you let them know you do not need their help. The will ask you every from what you are looking to buy, and how much money you have on you. In the end, these people really do not help you get any lower prices, in fact you may even pay more with these guys on your side. We allowed one of the guys to talk to us, and try to “help” us, and all they really did was translate for us (even though he told me that my Spanish was “very good”) and tell us the prices that they said, and then told us, “Dis iz a berry chip price” when I already knew that the price was not very good. Then of course the real reason came out why he helped us. He let us know that with his help he saved us a lot of money, and we should give him a tip, so I threw him 5 cords; he then followed that up with, “...you should give me all the coins in your pocket.” I let him know that that was not going to happen. Another last note when trying to negotiate prices. When you find something that you like, don't walk up really excited about it (because they know you want it, so they'll charge you more) but rather ask with a kind of disgusted face how much it costs and then act like it's not worth it and you'll find the prices fall faster than the Dow Jones ticker.
Something funny happened to us while we were in Leon. We had decided to pay 2 dollars and go to the top of the main church, and on our way up we were helping my mom, as she is afraid of heights. While we were on the top of the church, we saw great views of the city, and even better views when we walked on top of the domes that were protruding from the top of the church. While getting weird looks, we were trying to figure out why everyone was looking at us with such disgust. Well, needless to say when we were walking to the bottom of the church, we noticed a sign on one of the doors (which we had missed because we were walking backwards to help my mom up the stairs) that proclaimed, “DO NOT WALK ON THE TOP OF THE DOMES”. It wasnt written only in Spanish, but in English as well. Man, did we feel dumb, so we decided to pull the “stupid American” card.
Once getting back to Masaya, I had mentioned that I found it weird while walking through the not-so-monetarily-fortunate neighborhoods that they have casinos all over the place. Once the word casino left my lips, my mom's ears perked up like a dog's when hearing the opening of the Beggin' Bits bag open. So after a few ours of asking, and a couple life threats, we meandered over to the casino to try our luck. We all cashed in 100 cords ($5) and sat down to see what we could do. Well in 30 mins, I was 400 cords in the whole, and thought I would cash in another 100 cords and call it quits. Down to a few coins I won 200 cords, then another 150 and then 200 more, so I decided to quit while I was even. My dad won 400 cords, and then my mom hit the JACKPOT!! 900 smackaroos; well cords that is, so she won about 45 bucks. The casino bit was pretty fun, so we ate a great dinner on the casino, thanks casino!!
We decided to end their trip in Granada. We met up with Liz and Diane and walked around for a while and decided to go down to the Lake (Cocibolca) and take a boat trip to the islands that are found in the lake. On the islands are homes of the rich and famous, and one islands even has monkeys on it (wonder how they got there? Can we say tourist trap?!) When we got down to the lake, it was super polluted with plastic bags, chip bags, and any other trash you can think of. It looked like it was going to rain and the the wind had picked up producing good sized waves, so in the end we decided that we didnt want to have to swim back to the shore. That night, we decided to be really American and take part in KARAOKE!! We went out for dinner, and a few drinks and made our way to “Quijote” bar, owned by 2 American women. We knew that we wanted to sing but we didnt know what songs. After a little liquid inspiration, we decided it was time to sing. Liz and I went to the front of the bar to show off our choral abilities and sang “Come together” a wonderful song from the past. After we were done, and everyone stopped applauding and wiping tears from their eyes, we sat down. Now if they want peace in the Middle East, just send Liz and I over there and I give us 3 songs and well have everyone “come together”, because that girl can harmonize like nobody's business. If you find yourself in Granada or are planning a trip to Granada, I would strongly suggest staying at the Bohemian Paradise Hotel. It is a few short blocks off the main street (Las Calzadas) but a lot less in price. We stayed in the Deluxe room and were pleasantly surprised with the jacuzzi and the AWESOME bathroom. The shower area (which consists of two shower heads, a bench and some local plants) does not have a roof, so you can shower under the stars; and best of all for a Peace Corps volunteer... REAL HOT WATER!!! The cost of this room is $80.50 a night which is a lot less than the $140 La Alhambra or Colon hotel.
The trip back to the airport came and went without problems, and I was a little sad to see my parents (mom) leave. It was nice showing them where I have been living for the last 8 months and things I experience everyday, and not to mention everything we did was funded by my parents' bank accounts and not mine :) Hope you two had fun mom and dad, and I'll see you again for Christmas.

P.S. My cat, Lupin, is still missing, so I will be getting a new cat very soon.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Parents Vacation

Well my parents are finally here, and their trip in Nicaragua began with a bang! Well more like a loud boom, and a long scratching noise. You see, I didn't understand why the taxi driver was driving so slow to go to the airport, but after we picked my parents up I realized why. To preface the story, one must have a visual idea of this car. First, a small green Toyota Atoz which appeared to have suffered through 3 world wars, a 2 nuclear holocausts, and a rabid partridge from a pear tree. The inside looks like it was left unlocked in Detroit with a steal-everything-inside-of-me sign. There was a tape player, mind you, but the face had been torn off, and only 2 pieces of tetanus bearing metal was visible. I will go out on a limb here and say that in about 5 years the floor boards will go out, and we'll have a genuine “Flinstone” vehicle. Anyhow back to the story... Every time he turned the steering wheel, a loud noise was made from under the car, and we went over a speed bump (which was also followed by a loud scratching noise) We turned onto the highway, we drove no more than 100 yards when all of a sudden we heard a loud BOOM and then the car began to swerve. Once we pulled over we got out of the car to figure out what the hell had happened. We were soon scratching our heads asking ourselves how all 4 lug nuts were able to come off allowing the tire to completely fall off of the axle. Needless to say we waited for our taxi driver's friend to come and pick us up to bring us back to Masaya. In the meantime a whole bunch of organized chaotic driving was occurring on the side of the vehicle...Big fiasco I say. We decided that it would be in everyone's safety that my mom got out of the car, just in case someone wasn't paying attention while driving (just in case, of course) and shit ended the back of the car. We did however have a lot of cultural experiences during our wait; we saw a wonderful display of Nicaraguan fireworks, haphazardly flying every which way; we also met a good portion of the sweatshop workers walking home after their shift ended. (They make 40 bucks a month by the way) To boot, we even got to watch the sun set while standing on the side of the highway. Very romantical!There's more, oh yes my friends there's more. So once our taxi drivers friend quickly drove to pick us up (an hour later (Masaya is 15 minutes away)) we transferred the luggage into the new taxi. While waiting in the taxi, our new and old taxi drivers took a lug nut off of each of the NEW taxi's wheels, and put them on the OLD taxi so they could drive home. I am told that a car can really be drivable with three lug nuts on at normal speeds, but did the new taxi driver drive slow and cautiously? NAY! He was driving as is he were driving to hit up Walmart's “After Thanksgiving day” sale. As soon as we took off, the car was not only shaking left and right, but his shocks needed some work as well, so we were bouncing up and down. Wonderful taxi ride I say, just wonderful!
But the best part of the night...CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! We decided that instead of having presents sent through the mail, that they would just fill a suitcase with stuff and pay the 25 bucks for an extra suitcase and save on the shipping. So I opened my gifts and it was wonderful! I got clothing, a new laptop (which works AWESOME and thanks to everyone involved!!), a lot of randoms and enough dulces to make the insulin of each and every worker at the Diabetes Center of America rise a good 100 points. I'm excited to share the candy with the neighborhood kids, because I'm sure they've never had good old Farm and Fleet angel food candy. BOO YEAH! Well thats it for day 1, and I'll keep you all abreast on the upcoming days of the trip.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Dancing our faces off with a little liquid inspiration

-Old blog entry-


So I just got done watching The Biggest Loser, and I am so excited that Michelle just won! She had been my favorite since the first episode and I knew that she was going to win. Then came on Momma’s Boy, BLAH so I decided to write on my blog.
Last week, I went to visit Liz in Granada while her site-mate and everyone’s favorite “chinita” was in the states on vacation. He had a lot of fun doing absolutely nothing. We did do a little walking around the city, and we came back to the house and enjoyed singing along to the Beatles and random music from our MP3 players…she is one hell of a singer… in a group of mutes, SHE would defiantly win in a singing contest! Therefore, in our singing mood, we decided to go out to Karaoke and watch the local singers. Some were better than others, and others made our ears bleed. Liz and I decided that next weekend we are going to do a little singing of our own. I don’t want to toot our own horns, but when we sing together, people cry; it’s almost like two angelic cherubs singing to greet the “man” for his second coming. OK well, there is no second coming, and people do not really cry, but we can harmonize like nobody’s business. I think we will probably sing something from the Beatles, or something fun, but it will be a blast, and something you should not miss.
I have recently been trying to organize my parents’ visit here to Nicaragua, and I am FINALLY done with the hotel reservations and everything… AHHH feels so good to have everything done; now I can’t wait for them to come down here and see where I have been living the last eight months. I’m pretty excited not only to see them, but I’m getting another laptop to replace the one that I ever-so-unselfishly donated to a fellow Nicaraguan (AKA I got robbed). Matagalpa should be fun, we are going on a coffee plant tour, and are going to the Selva Negra which I have heard mixed feelings on, but we’ll see. I already know that they are going to like Granada, because they liked Granada in Spain, and this is very similar…well kind of.
A few other volunteers and I were talking about how this Christmas just does not really feel like Christmas. I know for me, a Wisconsinite, 10 feet of snow on the ground makes it Christmas and maybe that’s why it doesn’t feel so. Also we are so used to being around our family and friends during the holidays, and now we are with our new family and friends here yet still it doesn’t seem the same.
On a brighter note, I have decided to go to Granada with a few of the other volunteers for Christmas, and then after Christmas we are going to Chinandega for a little time on the beach. I am not sure what I am going to do for New Years but I’m sure I will have a great time.
Well nothing else really to report so I’m going to get back to my Harry Potter book, and jump back into the wizarding world; check you “muggles” later!


So I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Because mine here was great! We had a huge feast with homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing from good old America (thanks mom!) chicken…oh my. We decided that we were going to marinade the chicken with a little of this, and a little of that and then cook it in the oven, but after two failed attempts of trying to light the ghetto style oven, and almost 6 (would have been) accidental deaths (due to exploding ovens) we decided to pan cook the chicken. After the Christmas feast we headed down to San Juan Del Sur. In three words to describe San Juan, I would throw out: Overpriced, mediocre, and not-worth-it! Blah I say, Blah. Although we did splurge and get a wonderful lobster meal in a restaurant on the beach, spending a good portion of our monthly allowance, we decided to blow the old proverbial Popsicle stand, and made our way to Granada. Being alone in the house alone, Stephanie, Patrick and I, we noticed there was music playing and a bottle of rum. Unopened. LIQUID INSPIRATION. With 3 light bulbs going off at the same time, we took care of that and decided to have our own “Dance Party America Extravaganza 2000” and we literally danced our faces off. After taking a quick minute to find our faces, we called it an early night. 3:30AM. Once we fell asleep, and sugar plums began dancing in our heads, what night would be complete without the neighborhood band playing music while parading down the street. Waking up, with our heads pounding, (must have somehow drank some tainted Coke) we continued to enjoy our New Years Eve morning. During the night, we headed over to a house that was being rented by the parents a fellow volunteer (hello Richman family) we listened to the music of a Nicaraguan band. After the New Year came, we headed downtown to see if Karaoke was still going, but it wasn’t. we headed home and stayed up for a while longer and reminisced about our wonderful night. The next morning, Andaring with Goma, I headed back home.
Now I am waiting for my parents to begin their journey to Nicaragua, getting my house settled, and cleaning it. Which really reminds me, I should really get back to that. Here are a few pictured below of what’s been happening. Oh yeah I got a cat. I named him Lupin.



WHILE DANCING OUR FACES OFF


ONCE PUTTING OUR FALLEN FACES BACK ON...some of us had problems


YAY STOVE TOP, AND I HELPED!

SELF PERFORMED RHINOPLASTY. IVE SEEN BETTER, BUT IT WORKED

ME AND MY GATO