¡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
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2 comments:
i checked this on a whim, not expecting a new entry. i'm so glad you finished your presentation and accomplished the impossible. i knew you could. it made me sad to hear about the woman you visited in the hospital but i know that you will take that experience and harness it to do amazing things. she would be very happy to hear of your accomplishments i'm sure. i hope you enjoyed you last few days since i'm assuming you'll read this once you're back in your washington. love as always, zeta.
congrats on the presentation. dance it up tomorrow, give big goodbye hugs, and have safe travels back.
ps- somehow I totally forgot about how commons does special things for finals week, until they recently reminded us. junkfood jaboree won't be half as good without you (hmm, does that mean that if I eat twice as much, it'll be approaching that? I'll try...)
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