Hola amigos y familia! It has been a few days since I last updated, and so much has happened. On Sunday we met our families for the first time and it was quite emotional. After all of the anticipation, I finally met my host mother and couldn't remember a single word in Spanish...it was terrible. Afterwards, I broke down crying in relief. It was absolutely crazy, but after the inicial shock/relief wore off, it was great. My mother, Edu, used to be a Spanish teacher and was a hard core feminist (and still is to an extent). I have an eleven year old sister named Heyling who likes to dance and loves High School Musical (obviously we get along well) and my eight year old brother, Eduber, is kind of quiet and a bit of a troublemaker, but he is a ton of fun to spend time with. My aunt, Mirna, will be staying with us for another couple of weeks because my mom is recovering from Bell's Palsy and needed help around the house. La Colonia Maximo Jerez is a working class neighborhood so it can be dangerous at night, but I love the sounds (there are tons) and the way everyone knows each other and helps each other.
In Nicaragua, electricity is very expensive, and especially in Maximo there is a water shortage so we only have running water from 2AM to 7AM. All of us in the house get up around 6AM to shower and get ready while the water is running, and afterwards we have to use buckets to shower, wash dishes, and flush toilets. My favorite part of this experience is flushing the toilet - I want to do it this way when I return to the US too.
CULTURAL EXPERIENCE EXPERIMENT #1: After using the toilet, instead of using the handle to flush, fill a small bucket with water and pour it into the bowl. The pressure will flush the toilet. IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!
Besides that, classes started yesterday and they have been incredible. Is it possible to love working hard? Because I am really enjoying this.
I'll post pictures soon...I promise! For now, I hope everyone is doing well and all the Batesies are having a great first day of classes. I miss you all, but I look forward to hearing from you (this is me passively suggesting that you comment, email, and write...)!
Love,
Nicole
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3 comments:
Good to hear from you! Your family sounds lovely and I'm glad you made it through the initial scariness of meeting them. And I'm thrilled that you're enjoying working hard! Classes actually start tomorrow for us, and I hope I'll be enjoying work as well. I made a blog so that you guys can read about Bates happenings if you want (don't read it if it'll make you Bates-sick though!) Love!
Nicole! I'm so glad to hear you like your host family. (Your host sister likes High School Musical!?) My host family is nice too, but I think I need to learn a bit of Danish... :)
THAT TOILET THING IS SO BOMB. i'm trying it in pgill in approximately two minutes. i just need to find a bucket.
in other news, i miss you a lot. i'm glad you're having so many adventures though! this blog thing was a good idea... i'll write you a longer email later, i have 90 pages to read about islam. yikes.
i love you more than i love the way zac efron sings "bet on it!"
loooove,
paquita
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