An Adventure in Granada!!

The kids flew out of the classroom making noises of all kinds on Friday afternoon, and I knew that I was ready for the weekend. The week was great in so many ways: the students were well behaved and my lessons went well. But, there is something about the weekend that I can't help but long for, and this weekend was no exception. This weekend was the trip to Granada, a beautiful colonial city on Lake Nicaragua.

Erin, another student teacher, and I started out our trip by taking a taxi from NCA to the UCA station which is like Managua's bus station. This our first time taking a taxi so we were kind of nervous about it. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long and when we got to the UCA station, the taxi brought us to the right bus. It was nice to not have to search for the right bus, although, I am sure that we could have found one pretty easily.There were people everywhere yelling names of cities or places where buses are going. They are all in competition, so as soon as one bus heard that we wanted to go to Granada, we were guided right onto a bus. Thankfully, we got there in time to get a seat. Even though we were in the micro bus and not the big city buses (school buses), the still like to pack people in so there were people standing in the aisles for most of the trip. When we got to Granada, the bus brought us right by the Oasis Hostel where we had made plans to stay.

We checked in at the Oasis and then we walked around the city a bit. It is a beautiful city with colorful buildings that have a colonial look to them. Our hostel was close to the city square which was packed with market booths, people, carriages, and vehicles. It was fun to stroll around the city and take in the fun atmosphere. We strolled down a touristy street and had supper at a pizzeria. We also made reservation plans for Saturday morning and afternoon. After this, we headed back to our hostel, checked our email, and crashed for the night.

On Saturday morning we slept in until 7:00 and checked out of our hostel. We had some pastries for breakfast at a bakery and relaxed for an hour. At 9:00 we headed to the place where we made a reservation and we headed out to Mombocho Volcano for our....drum roll.... canopy tour!!! We did a zip line course through the beautiful forest. Erin and I were the only two people in our group so didn't have to wait to go on each line. We had 3 guides with us who were funny and friendly. The zip line was so much fun!! I was a little nervous at first, but it was so cool to fly through the air! We got to try some tricks on the zip line like superman and upside down!! It was a great experience, and I would definitely do it again.

After the zip line, we came back to the city and strolled down to the lake, did some shopping, climbed a church bell tower, and relaxed at a cafe. Our next activity was a boat tour through hundreds of islands around a peninsula on the shore of lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America. It was formed from Volcanic activity and at some time was a part of the Ocean. This is the only lake in the world that has fresh-water sharks!! Historians believe that the sharks were trapped in the lake because of the volcano's. There are not as many there anymore, because thousands were killed by the government during the Samosa Dynasty. Our tour guide was very funny and he had information on the history of the lake, city and on the birds in the area. We had another group of people on the boat tour with us and one of them was filming the whole time. They were a part of some promotional or tour program. At the end they asked Erin and me if we liked Nicaragua and the boat tour. They gave us their blog, so we have to check and see if we made it on the video!!

Right after the boat tour, we went right to the bus stop and caught a bus and then a taxi back home. It was a great relaxing weekend for both of us. Now that I know how to get around, I will be anxious to visit other places in Nicaragua with a travel buddy.

birthday weekend!!

I am getting bad at forgetting to update my post! Agian, I have to add two weekends at the same time...o well! Here is all of my fun from LAST weekend!!

As many of you know, it was my Birthday on Monday the 15th. To start my birthday off well, I went to a women's bible study retreat at the Skylark Center outside of Managua. That night, Jessica and I got to wack a pinata for our birthdays! We had a grand old time and a work out to boot!! The retreat was enlightening and relaxing which was awesome!

After I got back from the retreat, I went to a lovely restaurant on the edge of a crater in the city. Because it was Valentine's weekend, the place was all decorated with red, pink and white. The best part was that they had a live band and salsa dancing!!!! Of course we made our way up to the dance floor and released some of our stress from teaching all week! Later they had a DJ and they played some songs like the YMCA and some Elvis too. I can't deicide who my favorite dancer was. It was either the 75 year old woman who could still groove, or the little girl who was just learning to ramba!

On my birthday, which was on Monday, I got to go out for some icecream with some friends and catch up on skype with family and friends! It was great to recieve so many messages and calls!

5th grade- a whole new world

This week I have been teaching full time. It has been an interesting week with MANY learning experiences. My cooperating teacher, Kate,was sick the beginning of the week, So she has only been in the classroom for 1.5 days so far. But, she is feeling better and it is great to have her back, giving me advice and support.
Wednesday was hump day. I generally look at hump day as a fun thing, "Yay!We are half-way through the week!" However, this week, it was more of a "Oh no, I am only half-way there!"
On Wednesday...spit balls. Do I need to explain any further? Okay, well, it is complicated. While I was courageously trying to help the students understand the concept of ordering fractions, several of my student's brains were else where. (I know, surprise, surprise!) I could sense that something was going on throughout the lesson, but I couldn't figure it out. Turns out, every time I turned my back to write down a problem, some of the students were blowing and throwing paper balls at each other. I got down to the bottom of the issue and discovered that this fun game that started at recess had continued in the classroom. I asked the class to be honest and after several discussions, I had 5 culprits.
So, today the students faced their consequences which include apology notes, a paragraph on respect, and time out of their recess and lunch breaks. One of the apology notes said, "Dear Miss. crued I am sorry what happen yesterday and the next time I will not do it again the next time I will be respefull." I couldn't help but laugh at that one. Apparently he hadn't seen my name written out before.
As frustrating as it was, I can now add "dealing with spit balls" to my teacher tool box.

Another thing happened today that made me laugh pretty hard. Some of the boys were a little wound up in Library, which is the last class on Thursdays. I caught one of the boys, who is a leader in the class, pulling up his track pants almost to his armpits. At first I laughed, but then I started to see other boys doing the same thing, so I put a stop to that. They thought they were pretty funny. What I don't understand is what made them think of doing that? Haha, another memory from the world of 5th grade.

Happy February!

I can hardly believe that I have been in Nicaragua for a month now. Where does the time go? Before I know it graduation will have come and gone and I will be preparing for my new teaching job. Speaking of teaching job, I found out more interesting information this past week.

On Tuesday I got an email from ICS saying that they had asked someone else to take the position I applied for. However, they asked me if I would consider the 4th grade position. So, i have been thinking about things in a whole new way this past week. Not only am I thinking about two different schools, I am thinking about two different age levels. I have never thought about teaching anything under 5th grade, so this definitely makes me think. My plan right now is to receive my contract from Indonesia and look into things more there and to hear back from Thailand about how soon I need to decide whether or not I would like to be considered for the 4th grade position. And of course...prayer. Thanks to everyone for your encouraging words and support in prayer, it is truly uplifting!

I should end this post with something fun, so I will tell you a fun story about my week at school, and then about my adventure today.

This week Friday, the students did living history presentations in social studies. They came to class prepared to act out the interesting facts of a celebrity from the 1920's or 30's. One of the students came to class as the boxer Jack Dempsky. He was prepared with an interesting costume. To make himself look buff, he had taken two white t-shirts (one for him, and the other for his friend-assistant) and drawn six-pack abs and pecks on the front of the shirts. What was even funnier is that his shirt was too big for him so part of his six-pack was below his waist! Haha, Kate and I had a good laugh over that one.

Now for today. I went on a day trip to the volcano Cerro Negro (black hill) with Aimee,Deborah (Aimee lives with her and her family) and two of Aimee's church friends, Billy and Roberto. This volcano is the youngest volcano in Nicaragua and has been fairly active in its short lifetime (I didn't know this until after I did the hike). It is famous for its black ash and unveggitated slopes. People come to this volcano to do what is called Ash-boarding (sledding down an ash hill). My plan was to do the ash boarding, but when I saw the steep hill and heard about the recommended body suits and goggles, I thought twice about it. I was wearing shorts and the thought of wiping out on volcanic rock didn't particularly appeal to me. So, we just did the hike instead.

The hike started on the side of the hill and lead us over lava rocks and up the back of the hill. We followed the edge of the crater until we were at the front of the hill. At the top, we could look into the distance and see a range of volcanoes, some of which were steaming. It was also cool to look down into the crater from the top and to see and smell some of the leaking gases/steam. As nice as that was, I was ready for the fun part of the hike-going down. We basically ran/side stepped/ slid down the front of the volcano. I soon discovered that the hot rocks/ash on my ankles and in my shoes was not the nicest feeling, but I powered through because it was just too much fun. (Aimee got a few videos of us coming down.) After stopping for a few pics, I decided to just run down the rest of the slop. Running was actually more fun than plodding/jumping down because I got fewer rocks in my shoes. When I reached the bottom, I cleaned out my shoes and looked back at my accomplishment. I had just climbed up and ran down a volcano. Awesome!!(Don't worry mom, no crazy eruptions happened while we were there.)

At the bottom of the volcano, we stopped to have a lunch break at the information center. We also got to see some snakes and lizards. I was happy to see them in cages.

On the way back to Managua there were periods of dozing and car-dancing to songs from the 90's and possibly 80's. However, after a long day, we were more than happy to arrive back at the house and find a wonderful nica meal waiting for us. Yolanda truly is a gifted woman.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is going to be an unevetfull day, so this will be my last post for a while. If this coming week is anything like last week, I will be super busy with planning, especially because it is finally my week of full-time teaching. Here I Go!

The Last weekend of January

I just realized this weekend, that I didn't really share any of the fun details from last weekend.

Friday night I went out to supper and dessert with some friends, which was very nice and relaxing after a long week. Saturday night, Erin and I were invited to dinner at Aimee's house. I learned how to make corn tortillas, which are actually simple in theory but difficult in technique. We had a delicious Nica meal, thanks to Yolanda who rocks the kitchen! We closed the evening with girl talk and hammock hanging. Sunday, we took off to the beach. It was my first time seeing to Pacific ocean in Nicaragua. It was beautiful. I dodged a few waves, layed in the sun, played some pepper volleyball with Erin, and worked on my photography skills. Once again, it was great o experience another part of Nicaragua. I try to get out whenever I can. Here are some pics from my adventures last weekend.