my sweet gringaraguarican accent

April 4

I had a low key day today. the preschool class I am assigned to didn't meet today so I had the day off. I checked my e-mail, went to bookstore, did some grocery shopping, came back home and read, took a nap. . .it was just easy. It's nice to have a day like that because I have been so busy. Anyway, because not much happened today I am going to fill you in on the people in the Santa Lucía house (the house I am living in)

Tuija (formerly spelled Tooey, which is how her nickname is pronounced, her full name is pronounce too-ya)- is my roommate and is from Finland, she is always really nice and has shared her coffee with me and is always really friendly. She is interested in learning about different cultural differences so so we have had a couple cool conversations about the differences between Finland, the US, and Nicaragua.

Asya and Kris- They are a couple from the US. Kris is from NYC and Asya is from Jersey. Asya always states what she thinks including her opinion that New Jersey is the best state is the US. However, I personally find her reasoning a little faulty because her reasons are like "Jersey has syringes on the beach". I don't quite follow how that makes New Jersey a great state.

Andrew- Andrew is from the US and while originally from Boston, now lives in Cleveland. He is eighteen and going to college nex year so we have a lot in common. I don't really see that much of him but he seems fairly cool.

Tui and Brian- Tui (also formerly spelled Tooey) is also from Finland and Brian is from the states. They are easy to get along with. I see more of Brian than I do Tui and I am happy to report that he is is on the pale side of things as well. April 5The day was pretty low key but the night was eventful because there was a party at the Santa Lucía house. There was definitely drinking, but it was a lot easier than I thought to not drink any alcohol. Maybe it was because it was my house no one tried to serve me alcohol, I don't know but it wasn't really an issue. Whew! That makes me feel way more confident about my living situation. I know it will be OK.
Anyway, at the party I ended up talking to this guy for a while and I was so proud of myself because our conversation was not in English but in Spanish (actually at the end we spoke some English because he wanted to practice his English). It wasn't a short conversation either, it was like an hour!! It makes me so happy because there is no way I could have done that when I first arrived in Costa Rica. Yay!April 6Today was nice because a bunch of the volunteers (me included) went to an island that is in a lake that Granada is on the side of. We just hung out the whole time playing Spanish scrabble and jungle speed, talking, and swimming. There was also a nice breeze and we were in the shade so I felt the coolest I have been outside in about a week.Yesterday and today we got a couple new additions to the Santa Lucía house. Yesterday Jay, an American arrived. He studied peace and conflict studies at Berkley and has spent the past three weeks surfing in Costa Rica. I talked with him a bit on the way home and it's kind of interesting to think that we have both spent time in Costa Rica and our experiences were completely different. He was camping out and he spent hardly any time in the city and I spent most of my time in the city and hardly any time at the beach. Today, after we got home, the other new guy showed up and his name is Christian and he is from Italy. Right now, that is basically all I know about him because he arrived right about the same time that I was getting ready to go to bed.April 7Today was my first day solo at the school. Every day prior to today Ellen, another volunteer, was with me in the classroom. Ellen has since left to go home to the states, so I am the only volunteer in the class. Most of what I do in the class is just help the teacher any way I can, mostly by trying to keep the kids in track with what they are supposed to be doing. It can be really frustrating because there isn´t much discipline in the class and so sometimes a stubborn kid is just left to do what ever he wants during class. Sometimes kids don´t just don´t show up. Today, only about half the class showed up so there were only 8 kids there. I am still adjusting but I think I got the basics down which is a relief.


When I was probably 12 or 13 I watched the Disney channel and every month a new Disney Channel Original Movie came out. Now, there was one that I was particularly interested in because it came out in July (my favorite month) and it was called Gotta Kick It Up and it was about a bunch of cheerleader who can't dance who do get along with the teacher who ends up coaching their team and leading them to victory in the cheerleading championships or something like that (by the way, I do get how cheesy that is now, but back then I was totally drinking the disney channel kool-aid). Anyway, the school was mostly Hispanic and I remember that their cheer was ¡Si se puede! which means yes you can! in spanish. Well today, in class there was this little boy that said that he couldn't do something and so I of course, remembered that movie and said ¡Si se puede! That seemed to stick with the kid and throughout the rest of the the day I would hear him say that. It totally made my day.Another personal victory- I bought a soda, a sliced mango, and a taco, for about a dollar and ten cents!

April 8

Well, I made a decision about college. For the past couple months I have been going back and forth between my top two colleges, Hiram and Eastern Mennonite University. I have gone back and forth between the two, discussed to death, and made a pro-con list. After what seemed like forever, I have finally picked. . . . EMU. I knew that I want to be a nursing major but I also really wanted to be at least a Spanish minor and when I talked to a EMU Spanish professor about it, she was really encouraging and actually wants me to try to be a double major with Nursing and Spanish which I know would be really hard and maybe unrealistic but I want to at least try. Also, I would be able to have a whole semester abroad. I also like the idea of living in a area outside of Ohio and even though I originally liked the idea of going to a college where I didn´t know anyone, now I am happy to be going to a school where I know a few people. Right now, I am really relieved that I have made my choice and am looking forward to college.


April 9

Well I think it is time I talked a bit about Spanish. I am struggling a bit. I have gotten better at conversations where I am introducing myself but I am a lot worse at having casual conversations with people I already know and talking about my day. I am also having issues talking with some of the volunteers from Europe that don't know English. Christian the new housemate from Italy, actually lives in the south of Spain. Now, I am getting better at understanding central American Spanish, but Spanish Spanish spoken with a thick Italian accent? Way harder. I am also realizing that my Spanish at the end of this walkabout is going to be a little weird because I will have picked up weird Costa Rica and Nicaraguan things and mixed it with a strange gringa accent. For example, in Nicaragua, a lot of people drop the s at the end of words so "adios" becomes "adio" and "gracias" becomes "gracia". I have definitely started to do this and I have heard that this is something other central Americans make fun of Nicaragua for. uh oh. like I need another issue with my Spanish. great. Actually, it's ok though. I with just learn to speak really great Spanish here with a really cool sounding gringaraguarican accent. I always wanted an accent. . .

April 10

I had a really sad conversation with Lady (my Spanish instructor) today. We talked about all the natural disasters that Nicaragua has to deal with. They have hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, and sometimes floods. We talked a while about Hurricane Mitch and how devistating it was to Nicaragua. It killed so many people and then in the aftermath, the president stole money from the aid that was supposed to help people recover. Lady said that they don't know how much money he took, but it was probably close to 8 million dollars. In addition to this, a lot of people were suffering from different diseases like dengue fever, malaria, and cholera. All this information just makes me so sad. I knew most of what she said, but to hear it from her and realize that she was alive when this happened. Hurricane Mitch is a part of her life. It really made it seem more real than when I read about it in a book.