No hablo Espanol

In other word...i don't speak Spanish!  Ah!  Sarah and I have been in Nicaragua for 3 days now.  It's definitely been and adventure of sorts.  I'll just walk you through the last 3 days.
*Note it's really long so I labeled the days and then did a brief overview at the end :)


Day 1-CRAZY scared, what am i doing here

The flights were perfect.  I really wasn't even nervous until we flew over Managua. We were worried about making out connecting flight in Houston but we got to the gate in time to go to the bathroom and have them check our passports and then load on time.

We went through customs which was a little confusing because again no Espanol.  We got to the greeting place and were met but 3 men that work at the school, none of which spoke English.  Sarah and I kind of freaked out because they just grabbed our bags and took off.  But we followed dodging traffic on the way out to the van.

This city and country is really poor.  I don't think I was ready for the poverty that is here and it came as a culture shock driving through the streets from the airport.  People stand in the middle of the road and sell things from water, to Disney towels, to juggling for money.  It's a whole new world down here and something were told we are going to have to get used to.

We arrived at our apartment wondering what in the world we got ourselves into!  Sarah and I both broke down for a while.  We had no internet so we went to the office so we could email our parents and maybe get some food.  Emailing was the hardest and i started crying but didn't want my parents to really know all that was going on with me.  We exchanged some money and went to the supermarket.

 We bought some food but then when we got back to make supper realized we have to have something to light our stoves and oven with...which we don't have any lighters or matches. So we had PB sandwiches. I brought PB in my suit case just in case this would happen. Their milk is SO weird...it came in a bag!  Yesterday we opened in an put it in our coffee pot...very interesting. 

We also came back to all of these ants of various sizes all over the aparment.  I went on a little ant masacre with my Deet bug spray.  Not sure if it did any good but it made me feel better. 

We do have air conditioning in our bedrooms, it's really loud! But so are birds and owls around our apartment.

We have a bathroom.  We don't have to go in the jungle luckily!  We can't put our TP down the toliet so we have to put it in the waste basket which is gross but I guess i'll get used to it.

We watched the Proposal before going to bed.  It was like a comfort activity.

Day 2- tour and stop crying day

Woke up and had internet.  Made our morning because we can now communicate with the outside world...and people who speak English.  I got emails from my parents which was so good.  I also bought some skype minutes so i can call anyone in the US from my computer, which is really awesome!  We also met a woman who works in admissions named Carola.  She is amazing and has been so helpful!  She was able to give us some really solid advice on what we are going to have to get used to in the culture and opened her office up to us as a place to talk which was a wonderful thing to have.  She even offered to take us out to La Galleria which is a mall and has lots of really good restaurants.  We also got a tour of the school which was BEAUTIFUL!  I think I'm really going to like teaching in this school. 
Sarah and I also decided that we might go to Granada this weekend which is about 45 km away and is a very colonial city in Nicaragua.  So update there later...in other words we'll see what actually happens.


Day 3- mall and pool day


Today was a great day.  Took my time getting up today...a read a little and just kind of lounged around.  When we got up we decided to see if we could go the Metrocentro which is a near by mall.  We decided it would give a break from our mac and cheese and we could get a cell phone...haha
Getting a cell phone was hilarious.  I have decided my way of dealing with not being able to communicate is to just laugh.  I feel so stupid and embarrassed not knowing the language that I have developed this nervous laughter.  So I laughed all the way through our attempt a buying a phone...we talked to him for about half and hour and ended up not buying any minutes just buying the phone.  WHoops!  The only reason we were able to make this discovery is that WE MET SOME NEIGHBORS!  
I left our doors open in hope that someone might come by and sure enough tonight around 5:30 three girls came to our door.  It was wonderful to meet them.  One of the girls was just visiting, one of the girls is an eighth grade teacher and the other girl is with the peace corps.  Alex is the girl that lives here and she was able to give us great advice on how to use our phone, using taxi services, how to find the laundry and just be in Nicaragua.  I think we are going to hangout with them tomorrow.
Tonight we went to La Galleria con Carola.  It was so nice!  Nicer than any mall in Iowa, which was a bit of a shock.  She took us to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  Sarah and I have discovered our stomachs have shrunk since being here.  But it was so good and we learned a lot about Nicaragua: the government, the poverty, the issues with young people, pretty much lots of cultural information.  It was very interesting and Carol has been such a blessing!  
We also found out about this thing called VIP movies.  Be prepared for you world to be rocked....k?  You can go to specific movies that are in VIP theaters.  Here you have lounge chairs...aka lazy boys....and people bring you food.  I mean you have to order it but you can get sushi and wine and pretty much anything you would like.  We asked her how much it cost.  She told us double...Oh ok...how much does a regular movie cost.  "Oh around 3 dollars."  HAHA!  we can have VIP service for under the price we pay at home to go the the movies!  LOVE IT! :)  Sarah and I decide we definitely have to try that out! :)


I know it is super long so her is the brief version:
It was hard getting used to all of the differences.  The first day was major culture shock, but it's just keeps going up and up.  We are meeting new people everyday and have begun to really enjoy it.