¡Bienvenidos!

Hola! Hace casi dos semanas desde llegue a Nicaragua y ya he aprendido mucho! Its been almost two weeks since I arrived in Nicaragua and I have already learned a lot! (or at least thats what I hope I wrote)

For those of you who know me, hola :). For those of you who happened to stumble upon this, were shown this by a friend of mine, are stalking me, or for some other reason are reading this but don’t really know me, hola tambien! My name is Cali and I am junior in college studying sociology and Spanish. In order to deepen my understanding of social justice, inequalities, consumerism, and other social structures, as well as learn a little bit of spanish along the way, I decided to study abroad in Managua, Nicaragua, for this fall semester 2011. I am living with a host family and studying at a university here. Since this is the internet and all, I’m not gonna post super specific details (I did learn something in cyber-safety workshops), so if you have a question, shoot me an email/comment/owl/wallpost. 

So like I mentioned, I arrived in the beautiful country of Nicaragua a while ago. Its been quite the whirlwind of new food, millions of words, heat, food, meeting friends, noise, food, dancing, dogs, and food as well. Its been fun, frustrating, overwhelming, invigorating, and raining everyday. 

Now that my computer has been fixed, I can finally make a blog! There is a ton ton ton of stuff I want to share, but for now I thought I’d just write a little bit about what I’ve learned...

• No matter where you are and what language you speak, when someone falls, its pretty funny
• I’m pretty sure that they don’t have mosquitos here but rather microscopic vampires because I think I’ve lost half my blood already
• It’s socially acceptable to swear at the dinner table (at least with my host family)
• When it comes to swearing, Americans got nothing on the Nicas. Quite the colorful bunch.
• There are different levels of “bitches” when you want to say “son of a bitch”
• Obviously, all I’ve learned so far are swears
• I don’t think I’m going to feel dry til I’m home. Rain, humidity :P 
• People like to dance. A lot. And la musica... que buena :)
• The dog (Bruno) knows Spanish better then I do.
• I’m pretty sure there are no safety codes here because I almost fell out the door of the bus (which are ridiculously old US yellow school buses painted all sorts of different colors with half the seats either broken or missing). Most of them have sayings like “Dios, me guarda” and now I understand why. 
• I like to eat. So do the Nicas. Match made in heaven.
• There are more varieties of fruit here then there are people who live here. Fact. (not really, but still)
• I should have kept my wardrobe from middle school because all anyone wears are jeans and American Eagle or Hollister branded shirts.
• There is a lot of poverty here. Kids begging in the streets. But there is also a ton of social activism. Slowly I’ll figure out what all of it means. 

Thats all for now. I’ll keep learning and I’ll keep posting :)