my journey contines

well friday i DID go to the gym. it’s amazing how simple things become so complicated when you don’t understand the language. for example: there’s a man that works at the gym who helps the women set up a routine. however when he’s telling you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, or do 3 sets of 15 reps with 30 seconds between each set — it’s hard to understand!! regardless, i am sore today. i forgot i had those muscles!

saturday i did some lounging around the house, went to El Coche, went grocery shopping, and just relaxed.

sunday we did some travelling! keith picked us up at about 9am and we headed to Masaya. look at the picture on the right… i live in Managua, the main dot (capital city). Masaya is to the south east…

anyways we went to visit, it’s a beautiful town with many little tourist shops to buy gifts and touristy things. there was a huge celebration today as the people were celebrating one of their Patron Saints. they have a little statue of him (i forget the saint’s name — i will ask and post that updated info). people gather around the church, the archbishop of nicaragua was there, they carry him out and around the town on this massive thing covered in leaves, there’s a parade, everybody gets super excited, they shoot off canons, etc. it was quite something! i’ve taken a lot of pics and taken pics from Marshall and Kiki as well. they’re posted on my flickr so please check them out!!

http://flickr.com/sbrisco

(*Note* As mentioned before, i set the privacy on this link to private so that only my friends and family can view. If you’ve already joined but can’t remember how to view them, login at flickr.com with a username and password — it’s the same company as yahoo so if you have a yahoo login and password try that as well… If you haven’t signed up yet and want to view the pictures, e-mail me and i’ll send you the link for access. But I have put up tons of pics, more than i could ever post here!!)

At one point in the day a little girl came up to me and hugged me. She said, I’ve seen you before! She was so cute and really was staring at us. Immediately, I held my purse tighter. Isn’t that an awful thing to do? I’ve just heard of so many stories of pickpocketers of people having stuff stolen… and using children as distractions. Good news is, nothing was stolen. She was just a cute little girl that for some reason really liked me.

We had some delicious lunch and tropical drinks (passionfruit - mmmm) and then decided to drive out a little further to Granada for coffee and chocolate. Granada is BEAUTIFUL and they’re working hard to make it a wonderful city. They’ve really done a lot of “facelifts” to the buildings etc.

All in all it was a wonderful day, relaxing, beautiful, and nice to get out of Managua! I have a sunburn (oops) and I’m tired, but it was worth the drive and as I said, I’ve got some great photos! Check them out!

Thanks for reading
Shannon

well a few random things i was going to try to write about yesterday before it erased everything on me…

1) i joined a gym. yup! $20 a month, a little gym close to my house. it has separate sides for the women and men, old pictures of Cindy Crawford and Arnold on the wall, and it’s SO so so hot inside that building. who needs a sauna? seriously now. i didn’t work out today but i am going to go tomorrow.

2) work is continuing. i am continuing to research and learn more about a variety of crops and technologies used for planting, harvesting, storing, etc.

3) i love spam. yes, that’s right - laugh it up. i have bought some, slice it for breakfast, fry in with some scrambled eggs. and i love it. i am not ashamed.

4) i still am afraid of bugs. tonight when i came home i saw an ugly bug on the floor. it was like a small cockroach with long antennae and it was dragging like a 6inch leg. ewww nasty. i was afraid it would jump on me so instead i let it go away. i hope it can’t climb stairs.

i still miss you all very much. great days and lonely days — as many of my friends abroad have shared that they are also experiencing… keep in touch!

thanks for reading
shannon

did you laugh when you read the title. some of you did? or maybe only if chris says it… lol.

well it was one of those days/nights and maybe still is where i might express myself a bit stronger than usual…. reading my blog, if you do, you’ll realize that i write pretty much the same way that i speak. so it is normal that emotions will be conveyed through my blogging. today is that day.

last night i cried myself to sleep. i don’t exactly know why. my roommate was already sleeping… so it was a quiet crying but i did. i’ve been here 3 weeks today and i hadn’t cried yet. in fact, i struggled a bit but managed not to cry even at the airport when my parents dropped me off. (if i had started then i wouldn’t have stopped…) anyways… i think just a variety of the differences are getting to me, or got to me yesterday.

that whole curve that we studied in cross-cultural preparedness? it hits different people differently. some people never get sad. some never adjust. others crash around 3 months and then it’s all up hill. i’m doing fine, i still love it here! just things getting to me and yesterday was just an off day… i turned on my ipod and fell asleep listening to Snow Patrol and Joshua Radin.

a few things i love:

• having palm trees in my yard and out my window
• hearing music i love (most of the time i like it)
• practicing Spanish
• taking rides in taxis that are similar to rides at wonderland. will you survive? will you fall out? hahaha…
• bartering for the price of a taxi and feeling satisfied when you feel you’ve reached a fair price.

a few things that i’m trying to adjust to:

• not being able to say more then “hello, how are you” to people i meet. (too shy and not sure of my language enough yet)
• having to always be with my housemates (who are great), being so dependent on others
• the ANNOYING dj’s that never let a song play even 1/2 way through without interrupting with “Ay yi yi!!!” or other stuff
• yes doesn’t always mean yes. yes might mean no.
• my neighbours knowing almost everything i do

a few things that are bugging me:

• getting charged way too much for a short taxi ride because it’s obvious that i’m not a local or because i can’t communicate well
• being hot and “glowing” almost all the time because of the heat (but i love that i’m missing winter!!)
• getting hooted at and stared at so often

It doesn’t mean that I don’t like it here. I do!! just thinking “aloud” on my blog. And many of these things I knew mentally before coming… but it can rub you wrong on certain days I guess.

I also really miss having my friends to hang out with and talk to, and my family. It seems like it will take forever to make friends here.

Thanks for reading!
Shannon

it was the weekend… but now is no longer. the work week is here.

yup back to work on a Monday morning! what did i do this weekend you might ask? well even if you didn’t, i’m going to tell you here.

Then i caught a taxi to go to Spanish lessons and after 2 hours of lessons, I went to El Coche briefly before going to Woody’s. Woody’s is the usual Friday night hangout for Americans/Canadians around here — so that’s where I went. Wasn’t there too long before going BACK to El Coche. (I didn’t feel like going home and nobody was going out for salsa) It was really fun! Visited for a while, listened to some music… Then Sobeyda, Saul and Walter came over to my house and we hung out for a while by the pool with Kiki.

I took a taxi “solo” for the FIRST time. Yes, not a big deal - I know. But yet at the same time, it is! Me not being fluent in Spanish and being shy/hesitant to speak unless I’m in small groups, this was a big deal. another thing that’s a big deal is me being a white girl who obviously doesn’t know much spanish… there was a chance I’d get ripped off. SO… I figured out the price first (should be 10-15 Cords… which is less than $1) because the cafe is so close to my house… but at night, it’s not safe to walk alone, especially with my laptop. So I waited for a taxi, held my arm out straight to the side (you don’t put your hand in the air to catch a cab you put it our to the side)… The guy stopped, I told him where I wanted to go, and he said 25C. nope, 15 I said. (I should’ve said lower if I wanted 15) and I got home for 20C. Then I called my parents and told them of my success… hahaha.

Yes, they wear those outfits with metal decor all down the side. sometimes bells.

Sunday was a lazy day for me as I was feeling a little flat… so I stayed around the house, cleaned, organized and backed stuff up on my laptop, did a little Spanish homework, and went to the cafe to write some e-mails. At night I went to a concert!! Chayanne! he’s a very popular latin pop singer. We didn’t pay either, although it wouldn’t have been too much. Rather we drove to the mall, walked up the hill, and stood behind the fence at the very back. You could still hear perfectly and you could see the big screen!

Our view. Pretty good with the big screens and perfect sound! Free!!

Kiki, Keith, Me, Gabriela

I’ve also been able to talk to some of my friends from back home and from school lately. Last night I talked to Noel (in Honduras) on Skype, Dawn has arrived safe and sound WITH her luggage in India, Janell also arrived safe and sound. Matt and Mindy are in Afghanistan… Rebecca and Chris haven’t left yet. I’ve spoken many times with Rosa. Faith is blogging away in Kenya! hehe… Jeremiah is alive and well. So it’s been great!

Anyways I need to get back to translating this resume. (http://freetranslation.com/) hehe

Thanks for reading!
Shannon

Happy Birthday Janell!!

there’s been so much that i’ve been thinking about lately and it’s been “oh! i totally have to write about this on my blog!” and now, as i’m sitting here, my mind blanks. it may be because i’m tired. (late night, paper writing last night) it may also be because my brain is tired and is shutting down since Friday is finally here!! whatever the reason is, i haven’t blogged in a couple days because i’ve been running around trying to do work, do research, read and write a few papers. sorry

it’s been raining a lot but usually not until the evenings, which is nice because we have to walk a little bit after language school. how is that going, you might ask? great. i started off learning the alphabet as mentioned. A-B-C-D… the letters are pronounced totally differently and there’s a few extra letters. then i’ve been learning regular verbs and pronounciation. i SOUND great! if only i knew vocab. haha.

i’ve definitely relied on a lifeline of contacting profs from Eastern… i was talking with dr. bronkema yesterday… although there were many things that i KNEW and had HEARD about prior to coming, relating to cultural differences etc…. when you experience something it’s quite different. here, when you ask if somebody wants to do something or when you try to make plans, and they say “yes yes yes, great!” it doesn’t mean yes. perhaps it will sometimes… but other times it means maybe. and other times still, it simply means no. people do not want to offend others or make them feel bad, so instead of refusing or saying no, they simply agree. nicaraguans are incredibly friendly! but adjusting to this is taking a little while for me… there’ve been a few times when i make “plans” and then one by one people have a reason and we’ll do it “Saturday!”… hmmm…

anyways in terms of the food i’m adjusting. i’m not really eating real nicaraguan food since i’m cooking much of the time for myself or downing delicious panini’s at the local cafe. i’m still going there as we’re waiting for the Internet guys to come install it at our house. we’re coming in 2 days!! but they came yesterday when nobody was home… well, we will come next week, someday! so make sure somebody is home every day! :S

i truly am enjoying language lessons, although it’s been a little difficult with the power being out from 2-7 in that neighbourhood. the heat, sweat, uncomfortableness of sitting in one spot for 2 hours makes it more difficult to be attentive.

my spanish instructor is amazing! i was speaking with her yesterday and she was telling me about her routine. she is 25 yrs old, married, has an 8 yr old son, is pregnant expecting a baby in December. she wakes up about 5:30 am to get her son ready for school and prepare food for the family, catches a bus that takes 1 hour to get to work, and is at work for 7:30am. She works 8-5, catches a bus at 5:15ish to go to University until 7pm. Then she goes home to make food for her family and do her homework with candles because she has no electricity. She will work until just before having the baby, as long as everything continues smoothly, at which point she will take 1 month off work before returning. on saturdays, she doesn’t work, but she goes to school all day. one strong lady!

anyways, i’m so glad as previously mentioned that it’s the weekend.

one more note, before i finish up for today… my dear friend janell was/is (not sure how long the travel is) on her way to liberia. this has been a dream of her for quite some time! anybody who knows her, knows this. and today is her birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANELL! i’m sorry i can’t talk to you directly but i hope you have a fantastic day, be it travelling or sleeping off the time difference or whatever it might be…. and also a fabulous week, month, year!! wish i could celebrate with you. starbucks? =) love you! (shannonann)

Janell & Our good friend, Jacob

thanks for reading
shannon

tomorrow will officially mark my 2 week point of being in Managua, Nicaragua. the first week was pretty much easing in, getting settled in my place, getting to know my house/workmates and trying to find my bearings. last week was work every day with lots of work “coming home with me”. i was really quite overwhelmed (still am) as i’m a little bit of a perfectionist and i like to know that i’m submitting good work. which i still think i am, but it’s just hard to find information when i can’t find it or when i don’t know what i’m doing (re: agriculture) etc.

a typical day includes waking up at 6/6:30, shower, breakfast (they have skim milk here!! YAY!!), get my backpack together (which is HUGE when i had only my computer in it. it’s a good pack but it’s a little bit big…), catch a taxi and at this point have kiki and/or marshall bargain for the price to work (usually about 60 cents each for 3 ppl), get to work, turn on computers, check e-mail, start working. then we either order lunch in as i’ve mentioned before (about $1.40 incl. delivery) or bring lunch from home (which i did today).

then it depends on the week — the brown outs/power outages go in cycles so last week power is out 2pm-7pm, this week it’s out 5pm-9pm in the area where we work. at this point depending on the day, we either catch a taxi home at 2ish and then chill at home for a brief time before going to “El Coche”, the cafe near us with A/C and free wireless Internet access or we stay and work till 5pm and then go home, eat dinner, go to El Coche.

this morning we woke up pretty early to have a kick start on the work day. got to the office shortly before 8am and did some work until we left for Leon. I was able to go to a meeting with different people involved in the same field of work. Based on some description I’d heard prior to going, I had believed that it would be in English. however, i was wrong. i sat in the meeting for 2 hours wishing that i was fluent in Spanish as people discussed much of what i’m working on right now, asking and answering questions, with me not understanding a word. also, i was one of 2 women in the midst of 20 men AND i was the youngest in the room. 2 strikes… it was interesting nonetheless but i wish i understood.

*drumroll* then at 3pm i started Spanish lessons!!!! i’m in the very first level and yesterday i started with some vocab (door, chair, table, pen, glass, etc.) and learning the alphabet. i felt like a child but really in the language as far as that’s concerned, i am… i’m like how hard can the alphabet be. but the letters? well there are a couple extra…. “ll” and “ch” are their own letters in the Spanish alphabet. as well as another “n” letter that i can’t make on here w/ my keyboard. “J” is pronounced “hota” and other ones etc… so learning how to SAY the letters will take me a while. there’s no song!!! you know when you’re trying to think of a letter do you still ever sing that little song we learned in school? hahaha… oh well, i do. but i can’t do that now!

then we caught a cab to the grocery store, bought some more things, went home, showered again, and then i went to El Coche to use the Internet for some work and homework. we don’t have Internet at home yet… then, my excitement for the night (Kiki and Marshall didn’t go to the cafe) i was sitting when all of the sudden the power went out. it was strange because the power was on across the street in the other restaurants… then i noticed that the electrical wire at the closest pole had sparked and burst into flames…. it died out, they plugged in the generator, and on went the night. just wanted to share that with you.

miss you and thanks for reading!
shannon

p.s. i also like when you send me e-mails. when i check my e-mail in the morning and i have some from back home, i also smile.

Kiki & Marshall hard at work in our “office” at work. I told them to act “casual” Pretty good, huh? hahaha… That’s where I spend most of my day.

So here I sit, on the balcony at this cafe near my house which has become one of my hangouts. In the last week it’s safe to say i’ve been here 7/7 days… it’s so nice!! they make awesome paninis, chai lattes, have A/C, AND free wireless Internet. so until i get Internet at home here i’ll be.

I’m learning a lot about a variety of things I didn’t know before! For example, although I worked in a garden centre for a while i really know nothing about agriculture, plants, farming, etc… so anything i’m learning there (a lot!!) is totally foreign to me. So that’s been one thing - plus being at work, there are deadlines and such so i’ve been learning it quickly! then of course the language! i’ve been picking it up as i chat with the people that work at this cafe. they’re incredibly patient hahaha and put up with me for long time periods. and finally… i’m starting to learn my way around a bit! it’s difficult at first… there aren’t street names or house numbers. “it’s over there” “where?” “right there!” hahaha… that’s typical.

Work was busy this past week and by the time the weekend rolled around, I was DELIGHTED. it really started on thursday night because Friday/Saturday are holidays here in Nicaragua — September 15th being Independence Day.

Friday morning we went to the language school to find out where it is and also to arrange our schedules for beginning classes. I’m going to be taking 2 hrs a day of one-on-one spanish classes so here’s hoping I learn quickly! Although you can find many things really cheap here (great food, taxi, etc.) quality language school isn’t one of them. But i’m excited! also went shopping to get a few more things that we needed around the house. i didn’t bring jeans because i was thinking they’d be too hot - which most of the time they would be. However, i found myself wishing i’d brought them a few times so i was also able to pick up 2 pairs of jeans. they are cheap - $20 each. Tonight we went to our normal Friday night hangout for a while and had some dinner. Delicious!! Then we went to a little local bar/restaurant and hung out for a while. Always fun.

Saturday was totally just a lounging day. Very relaxing although it rained a lot. At night I went out to see “License to Wed” w/ Jim from THE OFFICE!!! And there’s 2 other characters from the office in that movie. haha… Anyways it has him, Mandie Moore, Robin Williams. It was cute. For that 1 1/2 hours I felt like I was back at home in this big air conditioned movie theatre. At night I slept really well.

I went to church this morning, which was about a 15-20 min. drive. It was nice to be around all/mostly English speaking people. It was a church with a congregation mostly composed of missionaries here for various reasons. Some more “traditional” definition of missionaries and others more in the field of development and business-development.

Now… I sit at this cafe AGAIN. and start my homework for this week.

thanks for reading!
shannon
Today I’ve just been lounging around as well.

hola!

well, i’ve been here for one week now. i’m pretty much settled at my place and i REALLY like it!! still adjusting to waking up early, but because i’m going to bed “early” it’s getting easier. i don’t hate my alarm clock quite as much…

no easing into the adjustment work-wise though… i’m really busy with lots to do. not to mention the 2 classes online… but who works best under pressure? *this girl* (janell-ism)

i’ve been working at the office in the morning for about 5-6 hours and then i go home and hit up a cafe. it’s awesome to be able to connect to the Internet and if you can find a place w/ air conditioning! haha.

i miss all of you (from home and “from Philly”)… so thankful for the net so we can easily keep in touch.

and…. before I go. HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA!!! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you. But next best thing? Blogging about it? ahaha…. I hope you have an awesome day. You are a great friend.

thanks for reading!
Shannon

Sleeping in is great. Bed is great. I love sleeping in, which I got to do today. Woo hoo! Then I got to go outside and go for a swim in the pool. Also so nice, it’s like a little piece of paradise right behind the walls of our compound.

I feel the need to describe this a bit, so that you can try to imagine where I live. Plus I’ve snapped a few pics (you know me…) First of all, I’ll be the first to say I’m blown away and blessed by where I am able to live. It’s lovely and I’m so fortunate. We live in a nice neighbourhood close to Managua that is a nicer/safer/cleaner part of town. Dirt roads, gated houses (iron-bars), and loud music is common. When you turn the corner of a dirt road, you come to a corrugated sheet-metal gate. After honking the horn or knocking, one of our guards will come and open the gate to let us in. Inside is nicely manicured and like I said, like stepping from one world into a mini tropical piece. There are two buildings which each contain 2 apartments. An apartment is 1 ½ floors. Does that get confusing? Hopefully it sort of describes it. I’ve attached some pictures.

I live on the 2nd floor (the ½ portion of 1 ½ - haha). The bedroom has A/C, a closet, 2 twin beds, and a bathroom. I just turn the A/C on when I’m here (not sure how much it costs yet). I have a little gecko that’s in my room, he scurries around. Really, I’m totally fine with that – they won’t hurt me and hopefully they’ll keep some of the bugs away! Bugs… I haven’t seen any cockroaches yet (knock on wood) and saw one spider which Kiki killed (yay!!). Haha, for those of you who don’t know I pretty much have arachnophobia… Marshall also lives in a bedroom upstairs. Kiki was sharing the room w/ me since the downstairs bedroom doesn’t have A/C, although she’s going to try living down there because it seems to be pretty cool. We’ll see – she’s a fun roommate though so either way is cool.

Downstairs we have a dining room table w/ 4 chairs, a stove, fridge, microwave, toaster (just purchased), a separate laundry room inside, and then outside a place to hang the clothes to dry and a pilla (a scrub-board type thing, common for cleaning… re: if our washing machine broke). There’s the 3rd bedroom, as mentioned, a bathroom, a tv w/ a bench, 2 chairs and 2 rocking chairs (which we brought in from outside).

That’s my place!! J

The three of us went shopping today to get a few things for our house, sheets for the bed, some more groceries, cutlery, etc. It was nice – we walked a lot!!

I’m still adjusting, which I might be for a while, to all the people staring at me as though it’s completely normal to stare when I walk by. “Gringo!!” and stares are common it appears when we walk by.

The three of us went out to dinner tonight. There’s a strip o f restaurants close by and we hit up a sushi place. This will NOT be a norm, it was quite expensive (relatively speaking). Cheap if we got all of that in Toronto. Expensive around here. But absolutely gorgeous!!
When we got home, we found out there’s a big banquet/party hall across the road from us. They were having a party, apparently a regular Saturday night thing. BLARING reggaeton and other music from 8pm until at least 1am. Very hard to sleep, will definitely take getting used to. So loud that my parents could hear it pretty clearly on the phone.

Our Kitchen

Our Fridge haha

Our Kitchen Table

Pool in the Yard

At the sushi restaurant

Thanks for reading! Zzzzzz
Shannon