my journey contines

It’s my other housemates birthday today… so Happy Birthday Marshall!!

so in Nicaragua they do not only celebrate love on Valentine’s Day, they also celebrate friendship. what a wonderful concept, because we all have friends (although we might not all have a special someone *sniff sniff* hahaha) anywhooo with red balloons in the coffee shops and cut-out hearts on the windows of the stores, today is recognized for all types of relationships - platonic and romantic.

asides from the repeated statement that nicaraguan men have hearts so big that they have room enough to love 3 women each… and that the ratio is somewhere like 3:1 for women to men… there are some beautiful people here and i’ve made some wonderful friends. took me a little while to adjust to some of the cultural differences, and i’m probably STILL adjusting. some friends i’ve made just recently, having met in Matagalpa last weekend… or at work today. jajaja… it’s nice to meet new people

another friend i’ve made while being here is Kiki, my housemate. and today just happens to also be her birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kiki. She told me that she has red hair because she was born on Valentine’s Day, and the good news is that if you don’t have a Valentine you can love her for Valentine’s Day

and since my other housemates birthday is tomorrow, we had a little party at our house to celebrate both of them. i will upload pics tomorrow

happy valentine’s day

thanks for reading
shannon

tonight a bunch of my friends were in Philly visiting each other, and they skyped me! it was so great to talk to you guys! Rebecca, Chantelle, Janell, Dawn, Faith, Chris… it was so cool. i miss you guys a lot. and it was kinda sad me being here and not being there with you, but at the same time it was great!

today we have another birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSA! I trust this year will be wonderful for you and you have many exciting things, such as a wedding! wow. hehe… All the best

(Miss you!)

Okay, well press on. Keep on keeping on… right? or something like that.

Thanks for reading,
Shannon

another friend celebrates a birthday today…

it’s that time again… another birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH! I would have put a pic up but I don’t have any on my computer right now (new one). I don’t know if you’re still in Philippines or if you’ve gone home now, but I hope and pray that you have an awesome year full of new opportunities and joys! Can’t wait to hear the EP!

My Brother

twenty-one years ago today a bundle of joy came into my life. my little brother was born — and i wanted to exchange him for a girl because i wanted a sister. but i got a massive cookie that i got to east in congratulations of becoming a big sister so it all worked out okay.

(He might not like me after this pic but I thought it was hilarious!!)

really he turned out to be a lot of fun. i got to be a mean big sis for a while (sorry!!) and then he grew up and was a mean lil’ bro for a while (*ahem*) and thankfully now we are both grown up and becoming better friends all the time.

it’s honestly been amazing to see my bro grow up so fast, especially in the last year. he’s not a phone/email/blog guy at all — but he’s made an effort to keep in touch, sent the occasional e-mail and he even reads my blog!

so here’s to you lil’ bro — I hope you have an awesome day, a wonderful year and that God will bless and enrich your life and guide your steps. you are awesome and i am so fortunate to have you as a brother. i’m also incredibly proud. (no — like really, if you were here right now you’d see i’m sitting here with a big grin on my face like a weird, the people in the cafe are probably wondering what’s wrong with me) hahaha.

i met Wendy first at MEDA training in Waterloo, prior to coming to Nicaragua. But I actually got to know her first on September 4th, the night i arrived in Managua. she’s been so incredibly helpful as she and Keith looked for a place for us to live, helped us to get groceries, showed us around, etc.

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