Greetings from Bellevue, Washington!

It's true, I'm officially back in the United States! It had been a difficult few days back in Managua, and now I am home in the loving arms of my estadounidense family.

I had an especially hard time saying goodbye to my mamá, and I still don't really know how I feel. The transition back in the life in the United States has been incredibly easy and absurdly difficult in many ways, and I still need some time to adjust to everything.

The Gritería on Sunday night was absolutely insane - at 6PM, the firecrackers started going off everywhere, and everyone started going around to different houses and singing to their altars of the Virgin Mary. The louder we sang, the better the gifts were, so we screamed, and I ending up with about three pounds of sugar, a bag of rice, Nicaraguan candies, orange juice, apple juice, and some tupperware after only three houses. This was by far the best trick-or-treating experience of my 20 years!

On our last night in Managua, we had the closing presentation for our Nicaraguan families, and my mamá and I finally did our dance in our insane costumes. It was slightly embarrassing because I didn't know what I was doing, but it was absolutely worth it to be able to be on stage with her.

And now? It is time to move myself slowly back into my old way of life. For example, I couldn't BELIEVE the price of gas when I was coming home last night...$1.83? I think the last time I saw that price on a gas billboard was when I was 13 years old. It is also really cold, so I am definitely not looking forward to skin-melting-Maine weather in January. But these are the least of my worries...I miss my Nicaraguan family!

Here are some pictures of us from the last night...

With my family. My mamá and I are in the traditional dance costumes that we made, and check out Eduber's sweet shirt that he wore just for the occasion!
with my hermanitos! Eduber and Heyling
My fabulous mama!


Most importantly, I would like to thank all of you for reading my blog and engaging with me during this experience. Your support, encouragement, and thoughts really helped me keep going and I really appreciate all of your interest in my life.

Until next time...¡cuídense y les amo!

Love,
Nicole

¡Dios mío! Only three more days!

¡Buenas a todos y todas! The news of the day: I have finally finished that which I have been dreading ever since I signed up to come on this program - the ISP! Today, we each had to make 20 minute creative presentations in Spanish about our topic... so it ended up being quite a long day. We started at 8:30AM, and only finished at 4:45PM with an hour and a half lunch break. I was super nervous, as usual, but I finished and that is all that matters to me at this point. I can now proudly say that I actually achieved what I once thought was impossible!

On the subject of ISP - last Tuesday, I went to turn in my paper to my advisor, and she told me that the woman we had been visiting at her home had died in the hospital last Friday. It absolutely blew me away - in other parts of the world, people live with HIV for 15 to 20 years, and this woman only had five years because she couldn´t afford treatment. In these situations, I just feel so terrible because I can´t do anything about it, but I want to help so badly. Even more than ever, I know that even though this month is over, my work definitely doesn´t stop here.

In other news, we are now at the Casa San Juan again until Tuesday morning for the Evaluation and Re-entry period. Here we will have our Spanish exit interiews, our final interviews with the academic director, and have a few lectures tomorrow and on Sunday morning about what we should expect as we re-enter the United States. Supposedly, our parents have already received a list of things that shouldn´t surprise them when we get home, like throwing toilet paper in the trash can and refusing to buy anything because it costs too much...so we will see what my family has to say about me upon my return.

Some other exciting events for this coming weekend:
On Sunday, we will be returning to Máximo for la Gritería, a Catholic ceremony that Aynn describes as a mixture between 4th of July for the fireworks, Halloween for the tricks, and Christmas for the presents. That night, everyone will go out in the streets to celebrate the conception of the Virgin Mary, or la Purísima, which is the next day. Basically, it is going to three or so hours of a lot of the locals getting drunk, going to peoples houses and singing loudly/off key in order to get random gifts such as oranges, candies, and toothbrushes. Who wouldn´t be excited for that?

¿Quién causa tanta alegría?
¡La concepción de Maria!
¡MARIA DE NICARAGUA!

On Monday morning, we are going to a beach, and then in the evening we have our closing presentation (when my mamá and I are going to dance!), and suddenly I am on a plane to Miami at 10AM on Tuesday. How did this semester go by so fast?

I am not sure, but this may be my last blog post from Neecoragua...! However, I will hopefully be able do one more once I get home to let you know how it all went this weekend and about my first experiences of reverse culture shock back in the good ol´US of A.

Thanks again to everyone for reading - I really appreciate your interest in what I have been up to over the past few months and for all the comments and emails I have been receiving.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Love,
Nicole

¡Terminé! ¡Terminé!

Greetings folks! A much less stressed and much more exhuberant Nicole here to say hello and tell you all that as of 12 noon yesterday, I HAVE OFFICIALLY FINISHED MY PAPER!

This my friends, is not just 30 pages bound between two pieces of plastic...it is SUCCESS.

It is a wonderful feeling. Earlier this morning, I wrote out my abstracts, so now all I need to prepare is my presentation, which I plan on doing in the breaks between hanging out with my family, making my costume, dancing, and eating ice cream. That´s what I´m talking about.

Here are a few more updates from Managua...

Yesterday, after I finished, I went with my family friends Carolina and Guillermo to their daughter´s graduation from high school.
6th graders in front, 5th years in back

On the way home, we achieved what Guillermito (their son) and I believe to be a new record...10 people in one taxi.

Here is Guillermo looking hilariously squashed in the trunk across from me...note that the trunk door is not actually closed...
Afterwards, I had my first ever Spanish music dance party with actual Spanish speaking people at the graduation party (don´t worry Tom, ours are SO much better). I got a lot of laughs for being the only white girl dancing to Reggaeton with high schoolers, but that is what I live for. On Thursday, I get to do it all over again because I will be going to my little sister´s graduation from 6th grade, for which I am extremely excited.

Other news to report: in addition to my new cockroach friends, the mice have come to my house to hang out. I have only seen one so far, but I swear I hear more of them at night. The reason that this wasn´t a problem before now was because we had a cat named Tufito that did an excellent job at eating them all; however, a couple weeks ago our crazy neighbor poisoned and killed Tufito because he didn´t want his daughter to play with him. Before that, he had also thrown hot oil on Tufito to scare him out of his house. I mean c´mon, does that really merit scorching and killing an animal? Why not just tell your daughter not to play with the cat? This is defintely beyond my scope of comprehension.

Anyway, I am now basically FREE. This Friday after the presentations, we head back to the Casa San Juan for the program evaluation period, and then I come back to the US next Tuesday! It is all going by way too fast.

That´s it for now...I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, good luck to all the Batesies that are working hard for the finals that are coming up way too soon, and I can´t wait to hear from you!

Love,
Nicole