Weekends

Photo update highlighting the last couple of weekends

September 14th and 15th were holidays here celebrating Nicaragua's and Central America's Independence days. This meant a 4 day weekend for me and a festival at school to celebrate!

Independence Day Celebration at School

Giant Traditional Doll Dancer

Students dancing in their traditional dress

Hopped the border to Tamarindo, Costa Rica for the long weekend:

Tips for crossing the border:

-DO take some sort of service to make border crossing quicker

-DO carry small bills of dollars or local currency

-DON'T take your own vehicle!

-DO make sure you get your passport stamped exiting AND entering

-DON'T look for duty free. Not everything on an internet blog is true.

Bimbo! It's everywhere!

I had dejavu of my old school and Bimbo soccer jerseys

There was a big race here over the weekend. My new athletic friends participated. I took a surf lesson.

Surfing spot in Tamarindo before it got super crowded

Witch's Rock

Drinking a fresh coconut in Tamarindo - $4 well spent!

Monkey crossing!

--Three days later, another weekend!--

Mombacho, Nicaragua for some hiking

Volcano!

All of those black blobs are monkeys!

This was on the way up. 5.5K uphill to the trailhead = desperation

My first experience hitching a ride with strangers!

Crazy looking centipede.

New fact learned: centipedes are mean, millipedes are harmless decomposers

View from Crater Trail. Those are the isletas of Granada.

New friends!

In need of a non-landscape photo

Tropical plants!

Crane chandelier

The Garden Café in Granada

Mi Cocina Nicaraguense

I've been pleasantly surprised by the kinds of ingredients that I've been able to find here in Nicaragua, but have found that imported food here is so expensive. 

So...

New goal in Nicaragua: Learn how to cook local ingredients!

Below are some things that I've tried...

 

Fruit from the local fruit stand guy.

Dragon fruit. It can be white too, but I guess pink meat is pretty common here.

Plantain chorizo hash. First time using plantains to cook!

TIP: Green plantains are good for savory cooking.

Tostones con queso

The tostones weren't too difficult to make (basically smashed/2x fried plantains)

Fried cheese: I used chontaleño which was pretty delicious and not too salty

 

Pipian (left) and Chayote (right)

both squash-like vegetables

Pescozones: sandwiches with the above veggies + cheese

The pipian was basically Korean hobak-jun

Weekend...

I also went to a new beach called Playa Gigante. It was super beautiful with a cool tide that would go super low/high only on sand -- great for laying on the beach. Also had a cool little community that was for locals and not tourists.

Weekdays...

And a picture from my classroom! Last week's star student aka Ms. Lee aka just Miss.

This week I got called "Mister" for the first time. My partner teacher is a male teacher so he just gets called "Mister" instead of his full name.

Los Fines de Semana

Weekend Recap:

A quick day trip to a volcanic lagoon in Nicaragua called Laguna de Apoyo. It was only about a 30 minute drive away from Managua. These are pictures from Laguna Beach Club where we went for the day.

Laguna Beach Club at Laguna de Apoyo

Lounge Area - pretty small and private

Tropical plants

There were kayaks and stand up paddle boards available as part of the day pass.

The water was super warm & perfect to swim in.

View of the lagoon. 

It was overcast most of the day, but still warm & super peaceful.

Parrot in a tree eating a mango.

Is it a pet? Is it wild?

Parrots on a cage eating a mango.

Highlights from the rest of my weekend:
-Iglesia en español. Dios está en todas partes pero I need to improve my Spanish.
-My taxi riding skills have really improved in a month. My fares are almost always about a dollar cheaper than they were a few weeks ago.
-Found Korean Grocery Store #2. I wanted to buy tofu & kimchi but they didn't have either so I just bought some more ramen and jjapaghetti. This one is walking distance from my house though, so that is nice.


Some totally new experiences:

Street Food

On the walk home from the Korean Grocery I finally tried my first street food (pictured below).

Vigorón

This is just a picture from the internet b/c I ate mine before taking a picture.

Yucca, chicharones, cabbage salad and spicy onions served in a big leaf. YUM!

Riding the City Buses

A friend showed me how to ride the bus. It was one of those experiences that would have made a really cool snapchat. But also one of those experiences where pulling out your phone to take a snapchat would have been really uncool for so many reasons. So, some visuals:

I think there were about 20 of us in something like this. The next bus looks crazy, but this was actually the really exciting one.

Then, we got into something like this. A lot of the buses in Nicaragua look like this. They're all painted in different colors with different sayings on the backs of them. Fun!

Miss! Miss Jane Lee!

School has begun!

Here is a little bit snapshot of what my first week looked like:

Days 1-3: 

Such a blur. The first few days went pretty well. Just the normal amount of craziness that is to be expected in the beginning of the year. The students were so cute and excited to be at school. 

I team teach with another teacher so we share two classes of kids for a total of 38 students. This means that I only teach Language Arts and Social Studies and my partner teacher does Math and Science.

My biggest challenges the first few days were learning names and remembering what I did with which group. The kids are lucky because they don't have to learn anyone's name. The students address all the teachers as "Miss." There is one little girl however, who calls me "MissJaneLee!" Luckily my name is only two syllables.

Days 4-7:

Adjusting like crazy this week and learning a lot...

1. Teaching different grades in elementary can really be like completely different jobs.

2. 9AM rolls around and it's tough - we're all starving (students + teacher). Days start really early here. Kids are in my room at 6:50.

3. 9AM - also the hottest part of the day.

4. Finally on day 7 I learned to strategically position everyone under the fans and have them eat a snack with a timer. 9AM on day 7? Exponentially better. Small successes like these can make a teacher's day.

5. Why with a timer? Because of instructional minutes! Schedules never include passing time.

6. There's a lady at school that calls me "Miss Jahnay" but it sounds like "Miss Llane" when she says it. Funny every time.

7. Mosquitoes are my biggest problem.

8. Mosquitoes are everywhere.

9. Today I ran out of my room because I moved a box and a swarm of mosquitoes came flying out from under.

10. All I want to talk about are mosquitoes.

Some photos of my classroom:

Something else I have always believed but never experienced firsthand until now -- The importance of students having teachers that look like them or have a similar background as them. There is a sizable Korean population at the school (maybe 1-5 per grade) and some of the kids have approached me in the cutest ways. A couple of 2nd grade girls approached me during recess and gave me a vocabulary test to make sure I was "really Korean." I'm glad that something so simple could be exciting for them.

The day I don't have any mosquito bites will be the day that is exciting for me.

La Playa y La Comida - Algunas de Mis Cosas Favoritas

T MINUS TWO DAYS UNTIL STUDENTS ARRIVE

The beginning of a new academic year is always such a stressful time. Kids aren't the only ones who get first day jitters. Especially when you're new. Preparations for the new school year have nearly come to an end, and although I don't feel as ready as I'd like, that is no surprise being in a new country, at a new school and in a new grade. I'm sure this was how I felt in the beginning at my last home and everything ended up being great (awesome students and colleagues), so not too worried. I know that soon enough I'll have a bunch of new amiguitos (3rd graders) and lots of good classroom stories to tell! Teaching was never dull in California and I'm sure it won't be here either.

In any case, even with the effort to have a positive outlook, pre-school anxiety is real!! So given the three-day weekend thanks to Santo Domingo, Managua's patron saint, I went on a trip to San Juan del Sur!!

San Juan del Sur Getaway

This was considered "crowded" at Playa Maderas. Not crowded at all by my standards!

Sunset at Playa Maderas

Playa Coco - Body surfed here and got some mild jellyfish stings.

Playa Coco

Something that is really special about Nicaragua is how relatively untouched the beaches are. Because tourism is still not huge here, the beaches are super secluded and serene. However, that means that the beaches are pretty difficult to get to. Both of these spots were a pretty rocky ride away from the main part of town.

Something else great about Nicaragua...FOOD!

Whenever I go to a new place, one of my biggest concerns in food. Gracias a Dios, Nicaragua has not disappointed!  Just some things I've had since I've been here:

Lots of chicken here

Rosti Pollo is all over Managua

My first fast food here and first tacos. Nicaraguan tacos are kind of like Mexican flautas.

Kathy's Waffle House - popular restaurant in Granada

They're famous for waffles but I got Nicaraguan breakfast. The thing on the left is deep fried cheese!

THIS IS SCHOOL FOOD FOR TEACHERS AT MY SCHOOL. So amazing and delicious!!

Beef dish

More school food!! 

Pork dish

Beachfront restaurant at Playa Coco

Garlic Octopus

Not my photo, but something I've eaten a few times now that is super delicioso.

Tostones con queso - plantain patties with fried cheese blocks on top

Más aventuras

It's gonna be a long one! It's been a week since I've arrived in Nicaragua and while I still have so much to learn, I know so much more about Managua than I did before!

Adios mosquitos

Let's start with my little gecko friend that I found in my house. I'm hoping he grows and learns to catch mosquitoes. My house is currently the number one spot for mosquito bites. Chikungunya is a disease that you can get from mosquitos, which the locals have told me can be really terrible. I hope my gecko does his job.

Tour de Managua

The following are some photos from a city tour of Managua that the school took us on. These are some more of the beautified spots in the city. Interesting and sad to hear about everything that has stunted development here. Major reasons seem to be government corruption and earthquakes. There was a huge earthquake in 1972 that destroyed a lot, including what used to be Managua's downtown.

First sighting of Sandino

Model reconstruction of Managua's main strip pre-earthquake at the Puerto Salvador Allende

More Sandino and huge metal tree. These metal trees are all over the city and light up at night. 

Sandino

Excursión a Granada

On Saturday, the school arranged for the new teachers to go to Granada, a colonial city about an hour away from Managua. It was a fun and beautiful trip with great people. We got to take a boat around the isletas of Managua.

The boat tour around the isletas in Lake Nicaragua. We left from Puerto Asese. 500 córdobas (about 20USD for all of us) for an hour tour! Our boat captain was great and gave us a ton of information about the area.

People live on the islands

Some of the isletas have resorts

Cooling off later with some local beers

Overall, it was an action packed week and I am pleased with all of the new adventures that I've had! The people that I've met have all been great and I look forward to another week.