tanyita comes to visit!

well, it has been a little over a week since i last wrote and it was a whirlwind week that went by. the next day i found out my good friend tanya from college was going to come visit me. her dad used to work for american airlines, so she gets an obscenely good deal on travel anywhere in the world. so she actually listened when i told her she should come and see me. of course, flying standby can have its drawbacks, and sometimes you just get unlucky. tanya was supposed to arrive on wednesday night but she missed her flight from miami by literally a minute. so thursday on my lunchbreak i went to pick her up and bring her back to my office where she hung out until my swedish friends came to pick her up and babysit by taking her to get her nails done (they're good at that). we went out thursday night, always a joy to show people what nica is like because it is so different from anything they have seen, usually. its always interesting to gauge people's reaction to the things that have now become part of my everyday consciousness. and what a relief to have some intellectual stimulation from time to time. it happened when rebecca was here as well. i would be talking to these incredibly intelligent girls, some of my best friends, thinking, i have not had these kinds of conversations in such a looooong time. at one point, i was talking to tanya about something and helena's boyfriends just stared at us, eventually telling us, i can tell you aren't from here-- girls from here don't talk like that. and its true, they don't. its not like they are unintelligent or anything, i just don't get to the same conversations that ii do with the people i surrounded myself with back home. which is really why i love having my friends come see me. we can talk objectively, (well that is kind of subjective since my objectivity is totally different from the objectivity here.... maybe i just mean we can talk coming from a more similar background/point of view) about the way life works down here, about politics and economics and the injustices that, i don't take for granted, but that i have become increasingly accustomed to. its always interesting to watch people on the ride home from the airport, passing through some sketchy bits of managua before climbing the hill to the gorgeous house where i am living. some people don't know what to make of the little kids begging in the street; other people have seen it before so it doesn't really affect them.

in any event, i got a lot of good talking in with tanya, and i got updates on her life and recent travels. we talked about ortega, death, fear of flying, superstition, how much we miss mexican food, how crazy it is that is has almost been a year since we graduated, how happy we are when people come to see us (she up and moved to manhattan the day before i came here, so we have sort of been in the same boat), what it means to live a still subsidized life, on whatever level that might be, about getting around and learning about where you live for the first time and contemplating how long it will take you to get to know it, and how amazing it is when you do. there were moments when i was taking us around and i would just tell her, i can't believe i know where i'm going. i mean, obviously i do, i've been here a while, but i keep encountering people who are impressed with the fact that i drive here, or some other thing that is so easy and generally a given-- honestly how would i survive if i didn't drive here? i would literally go insane. i almost did. but it is kind of neat to think about it every now and then, how much has become just part of my routine and the way i do things. i like it.

now that tanya left i have had my time back. which is great since i get to do stuff (like this) or talk to people on the phone, or just hang out and read. i haven't been doing near enough of that. but i miss knowing that i had someone to take around, i really thrive on taking people around and showing them / my home off. tanya was a good person to have come too, because she is the type of person who will be very straight with me, not beat around the bush or anything, and she told me she thought it was really cool what i was doing, that i have a life down here, and that i'm kind of a real person despite the fact that i am still sort of dodging the real world. i'm starting to think maybe thats not what i'm doing, but i'm trying on another world for size or something. because in some respects its a lot more "real" here, if you take into account the extreme poverty and injustice of this country. but even that is basically just outside my car window for the most part-- i don't get much closer than that. which has made me start thinking that i should do some kind of volunteer work while i am here. i am going to talk to the swedish girls about maybe going to the orphanage they work at to see about going in a couple hours a week. i should, i really have no excuse.

more later...

FEBRUARY... what i remember anyway

february, i am trying to think, was a lot of fun but not much happened besides working and partying. it was around the beginning of february that i decided i want to buy a car. it became clear that i needed my own vehicle to get around, as the truck iw as driving was sold for way more than i thought it was worth. that should have been my indication of pricing here. used cars are SO EXPENSIVE. the truck that i would have paid maybe 2500 for in the states, my uncle sold for $7500. i about fell out of my chair when he told me. thats why i still dont have one, i will explain in a bit.

i watched the superbowl here, we went to a party and ended up staying out way too late for a sunday night, but had a lot of fun. thats the first superbowl i have actually watched in a long time, as last year i was in italy and the year before, who knows. the following week was super busy because there was a central american realtor conference and i went to take a course on some aspect of real estate in latin america, and then we had to sit at a booth and sell the product. (condos, lots, etc.) valeria, a girl i work with, and i sat at the table all day for 3 days, telling people the same thing over and over, in spanish and english, trying to get them to come check out the property and buy something. we met a lot of nice people, realtors from the states, develo3pers here in nica, all kinds of different people. there were a couple of cocktail parties which were lots of fun, we danced and then went out afterwards. vale and i got a bit of a reputation for partying and still making it to work at 7:30 am... it was good times and it helped me make better friends with the people at work, which is nice because i dont feel like an outsider.

i dont really think much else happened in february... it was a short month, and it went by quickly. though i do guess this was around the time that i started hanging out with tia lucia mama more. i go to her house and she has me try new foods to culture my palate and expand my horizons. she is a pretty cool lady actually, and i enjoy talking to her and hearing what she thinks about things because she has such a different point of view than do i. plus she knew mama as a kid and thus can tell me about her. which is always fun.

oh, i almost forgot, i went to costa rica again in february (i need to go back soon to get my passport stamped) for the wedding of a first cousin of my mom's. it was the daughter of her mom's sister, irene, and the wedding was in san jose. i went in the car with lucy, tia chagua, tia lucia, and mundo, chagua's husband. i of course got super sick on the drive and was miserable the whole way, and i slept the whole first day we were there. we went around san jose some looking for furniture and stuff for the tios, and then we went to the wedding the saturday night. it was a nice, simple wedding, the priest was funny (he mentioned something about hurrying becuase the mashed potatoes were getting cold) and then the reception was fun. it would have been more fun had i known more people and been seated at a non-kids table, but i still had a good time dancing and talking to some relatives that i didnt know were around. and then i took the transnica bus back to managua, it took us 8 hours instead of the 11 it took on the way there. pretty easy actually, its just a pain crossing the border. but it was air conditioned and not full, so i got a row to myself, reclined, and listened to my ipod. i rode with my uncle guillermo and tia marina and diana, my cousin, so it was nice to talk to them some. and they fed us. all for $25! all in all a good time, once i recovered from my illness anyway.

that was february... march was pretty much the same kind of thing, most of it was spent in anticipation of rebecca's arrival on the 30th for holy week here in nica. no luck in the car department in march. i have contemplated buying an old isuzu tropoper off of my friend, she bought it for 3500 when she got here and bought new tires, fixed the a/c, and put in a cd player. shes been having trouble selling it (she needs money, plus she leaves in 3 weeks) and so she lowered the price from 4000 to 3500 and i think i may buy it because then i do not have to worry about car payments. only gas, which is very expensive, but i dont do that much driving because i just go to work and back, and when i go out i take the little car or ride down and back with andres or find a ride. so i may just do it. i just hope that it doesnt develop any issues. but that way i can have a car tomorrow and be done paying for it. so we will see. otherwise i think it will just be a mess having to deal with a loan and payments when i am making such a small amount of money. plus, if i am really coming back to the states in my supposed year, i only have about 6-8 months left. i committed to my job for a year pretty much, so i am looking at being here until january 2008. it just doesnt seem worth it to spend a lot, especially if i am going to want to buy a car when i get back to the states. its really a shame that they had to sell the truck i drove. i would be a lot less stressed out about my vehicular situation...

i am going to put up some pictures i think.

oh one other thing i did in march was play hooky and go to the lake in granada, to go boating and hang out on one of the isletas, the little islands in the lake where rich people have houses. it was gorgeous and a great way to spend a day not working. here i will put some pictures... well, i tried, but my computer isnt finding the ones i want. so i will put up randoms.


well here is the only one i could find that is somewhat current. and its from december. i need to rectify this situation. soon.

tomorrow it's may... but this is about january

well, now its REALLY been a long tiem since i updated my life on this medium. i am sitting in my room, i just got back from playa el coco near san juan del sur, and i watched the last episode of LOST that i have been downloading since i got here. i was about to lay on my bed and read, or go out, or do something, and i decided, its time to resurrect this obviously out-of-date account of my life and experience here. i just keep thinking of mama saying that i am going to regret it if i dont do any writing while im here. and sure enough, i wish i had been doing this at the very least once a month. so i have 5 months to condense into the abridged version, and then i fully intend to be better about posting things in a timely and interesting manner. its nice that i really do have things to write about, i just never actually do. so on that note, here we go. i am going to do a quick summary of each month until this past one, which i will write more detail about since it has been a full one.

JANUARY
i got back to managua on the 14th, a sunday evening, and got back into life in the tropics. the first few days were nice, a chance to catch up on sleep and decompress. then the job search began. i remember being so frustrated because craigslist doesnt exist down here. it really was a challenge to even find out what opportunities are available, as many of the classified ads are not directed to someone with my experience (limited in any lucrative industry) or education (mine is more than many). i was very much wanting to be the one to find things on my own, without asking for help from anyone. well, sure enough that wasnt working. i had an interview at a new company, but it ended up being for a job answering phones, which, for $400 a month, is not going to happen. that day, i was using my uncle jorge's car to get to the interview, and then i had to take him his car afterwards. he works for a development company doing their telecom stuff, and miraculously he was at the office that day. well i started talking to a man from oklahoma who was there, and he invited me to go to the property that afternoon. since i obviosuly had nothing else to do, i took him up on his offer and went to check it out. turns out he is the VP of sales at Gran Pacifica, the company, and he knew that the big boss was looking for someone with writing skills in english to help with the website and the newsletter, among other things. so we go to check out the property, its pretty nice im thinking, and i am talking to all sorts of interesting people looking for prooperty in nicaragua. when we were all leaving the property, mike, the big boss, asks if anyone wants to ride back to managua with him. i offered, figuring if nothing else, that it would be interesting to hear about his experience here in nicaragua with two little daughters. so we were driving back to managua, its about 25 min on a dirt road until you reach the paved highway, and he was asking me about my life, my college, what im doing here, etc. by the end of the dirt road he had offered me a job. i pretty much sealed the deal when he asked me what i had been reading since i got here and i told him i had just finished the fountainhead, but i liked atlas shrugged better. he nearly stopped the car and asked me who had put me up to it, as it is his favorite book. so he was impressed and i had a new job. it was pretty exciting. that was a thursday, i started that friday, and that has been my job for the past 3 months. basically i put together all the material to be sent out in the monthly newsletter, i edit shareholder reports, translate documents, try to improve the content of various websites that mike has going, and help with any other random stuff that the bosses need. also, since i am technically in the marketing department, i see a little bit of the sales side of things, and i get to go to conferences and seminars that have to do with everything from real estate to the positive effects of CAFTA on tourism in nicaragua. pretty interesting stuff, and i am also meeting a lot of people that are involved in the world of development here in this country. i like this because nica is so clearly poised to be the next big thing, and so constantly seeing the new things that are happening is fun and i feel like im part of it. now if i could just get my parents to buy in while its still cheap....

more in the next post, i need a snack....

im still here!

So its been a while since I updated my life. I guess all of a sudden I had things to do, things that interfered with my keeping a timely record of my doings and goings-on. So where to begin, as it has now been more than a month and I have been doing quite a lot. So I will spare some details so that I can at least tell what has been happening event-wise.
The last time I wrote, it was the day before my family was leaving for the States. That following week I really should have written here because I had so much time, but I also really had nothing that exciting going on. I woke up at 6 every morning to take my little cousin to school by 7:05 and would then go to work from 7:15 until around 2 when I would leave to go pick him up at sschool, then go home and have lunch, then usually take a nap or watch tv. However, I did finally start going to the gym, for no other reason than I literally had nothing else to do. That weekend was lots of fun because no one was around and my cousin was at a friends house the whole time, so I basically reverted back to life as someone completely independent, not having to tell anyone when I’d be home or what I was doing. It was so much fun, going out without worries of waking anyone up when we got home. My friends Elin and Helena came over a couple times and we talked and got to know each other a loittle better, which is nice since I am finding more and more that we have quite a bit in common and I enjoy hanging out with them a lot and talking. That Friday, the 17 of November I think, we went out and were at the club until 5 AM, when we came home and the guard dog almost bit my hand off (she’s really nice unless she’s lying down, but if she is down then you cannot pet her—I didn’t know that, and so she snapped at me when I went to let her know it was me). The next morning we woke up and had a huge breakfast and then laid out by the pool for my first time since getting here. It was a very nice and relaxing day. The rest of that weekend was relatively uneventful; I picked up m y family on Sunday and then Andres and I went to rent a movie and we hung out the rest of the afternoon.
That was the last time that I really didn’t have much to do. Ever since the fam got back, I feel like I have been going nonstop. The thing is I didn’t have to get up early anymore to take Chele to school, so I went to work later and naturally left later, then went to the gym later and did everything just a little later. I didn’t even have dinner with the whole family until a week after they got back. We all had things to do, I’d go have coffee with the girls or out, especially since that was thanksgiving week, so the American school got out wed and everyone went to party that night. I took Thursday off work (I refused to work on a sacred holiday) and hung out with the cousins all day, and then went to the reopening of a club here in Managua. This was probably not the best plan considering I had to be up at 5AM to go to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere on Friday, but you know me, I couldn’t pass it up.

i will post details on that and write more soon, i PROMISE

i am sitting here on my bed, freshly showered and glad i didnt go out tonight (its raining and i am beat) and i just thought, i LOVE the sound of nighttime here. it is very different from hearing the waves crash in santa barbara, but the air is just teeming with life sounds. it is extremely palpable how much is alive right outside my door.

we had a very strange afternoon weather-wise. very sleepy hollow-like in the foggy sense, and windy and rainy. i just hope its sunny tomorrow...

well its friday afternoon and i gave myself the afternoon off work. there was hardly anything for me to do so i ran some errands-- got some stuff i needed and treated myself to a manicure. it was a short week but it felt super long-- i didnt go to work until tuesday (monday after the election is a holiday), but i worked 8 or 9 hours everyday without really taking a lunch break. and theres only so much to do while sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. but its nice, they hired a new woman to do all the administrative stuff, so shes finally getting some organization into the office. she and i rearranged everything in the office, which, by the way, has the worst feng shui of any space i've encountered in a while-- even worse than the worst of the houses in isla vista. but we made the most of the monstrocities they call desks and have been figuring out more and more what it is we need to make the office function efficiently.

so the election was on sunday and it was a pretty chill day; i slept in and then hung out with cousins all day. in the early evening we went to one of the voting sites where apparently a fight had broken out because someone wasnt allowed to vote or something, i wasnt very clear on that. but man, the polling places are mostly schools, if not all, and these schools, i have to tell you that they are so basic and old and hot. and there were so many people at this place, supposedly one of managua's more dangerous neighborhoods. andres and his friend and i waited in the car after checking it out while lucy talked to people. while were waiting in the car, a little boy on a bike came up and started talking about politics with the boys. he asked for some change and did tricks on his bike in return for 5 cords (about 28 cents). he was so cute and dynamic and was loving the attention. thats how the kids are here. they are so dirty and their shoes are little falling-apart sandals and all they want is a little attention or some spare change. but they are smiling. its quite striking to be honest, because people wouldnt know what to do if they saw these kids in the street back home. its just a completely different consciousness here. it takes some adjusting, but its a part of life here. but seeing the schools is pretty depressing. and i just found out the average grade of dropping out in the poor areas is fourth grade. FOURTH! so that makes the work i am currently doing seem much more important and worthwhile, even if i am only organizing the office that is doing the actual work.

after that polling place we went home where i did more homework with the kids until lucia mama had to go back to the school where this house voted, because she was responsible for taking the people in the junta (people working the polls and counting the votes) food and drinks, seeing as they were there from 4am until 11pm or something like that. we waited there for about 2 hours while they "finished up" counting the votes and writing up the results. we then took them to the office of the winnig party for that location (in our case, the party was ALN, eduardo's party, which was good for everyone here). it all felt so... i dont want to say illicit because that is not the case, but its like, who am i, going with the official results, to drop them at party headquarters? it was pretty cool but i must say, i do not envy the people the responsibility of counting all teh votes. it is a looong process. we didnt get an official answer until monday evening. and sure enough, ortega won. i actually woke up in the middle of a dream monday morning in which he had won, and later that night it was official. weird. but since eduardo came in second, i guess he can be the president of the assembly, so all is not lost. i still dont get politics here, but im learning, bit by bit. ortega does not assume the presidency until january, so at least for now, nothing major is changing. people are just really bummed out over it. i was in traffic in managua for about 45 minutes on wed night due to a gathering ortega was having. i wanted to drive by and take pictures, but it was too complicated. the people here love their politics though, thats for sure.

wednesday i went out with my swedish friends, elin and helena, which was fun but i was tired and came home early. i did, however, stay long enough to have my picture taken for a party website here in nica. as soon as i find the link again i will post it... its pretty funny.

last night my boss had me over for dinner with our salvadorean boss and her own husband. she made italian food and it was realllly good. i havent had any since i got here, so it was a very welcome change. but there is no doubt in my mind that they love me in that office. they told me i cant leave them. which is good while i have nothing else to do, but once i have something else im outta there. probably... theyre really nice people though, and it was fun to talk about things other than work.

lucy, jorge, and andres leave for the states tomorrow to go visit colleges and meli, the sister i replaced here. they will leave me and chele for 10 days i believe, so i get to take him to school at 7am everyday and pick him up in the afternoon. the house is going to feel so empty. but itll be nice to have it almost to myself... im looking forward to just laying by the pool this weekend. its about time i started working on my tan...

in completely random news, 3 or 4 separate people informed me of the end of the spears-federline marriage. no one saw that one coming. i just wanted to make sure everyone out there knows of the really important news out there.

but really, how bout rumsfeld and the elections back home?! i was so shocked when i heard about everything... and a female speaker of the house? thats pretty sweet. i felt bad not voting anywhere this year, especially since everyone in this country who voted still has an ink-stained thumb...

all my love to everyone!!! keep me updated on goings-on up in the US, i love getting news...

la gringuita arrives

well, it's official. i have been here a month. 4 weeks and 3 days. october 4 to november 4, though i guess since its 1 am its technically the 5th. but i figured, or rather was prompted by my mother, to begin writing a blog to let others know what i am up to down here, but also to keep a record for myself, a handwritten journal is so far out of my consciousness, even though i think i should keep one and know i would love it in 20 years. but i guess this will work.

oh, and for those who dont understand the title: a gringa is a girl from the US. clearly, i am a gringa. a gringuita is a little gringa, also clearly me. and i am in nicaragua.

i don't even really know where to begin with what my life is down here. it feels both like i have been here forever and not that long at all. in terms of being with my family, it feels like no time has passed since i last saw them; we just sort of picked up where we left off last year (minus all the trauma of not knowing if my dad was going to live when i got back to cali). i am living with a cousin of my mom's, lucia (lucy), her husband jorge, and her two sons andres (16, senior in high school) and jorge, who goes by chele (12, 6th grade-- chele is a nickname for someone fair or blonde, or so i thought until someone called me "chelita" when i went to the market. i guess it is anyone who has lighter skin than the native nicaraguan people...). lucia's mom, also lucia, my mom's aunt, lives in a little house in the backyard. lucy's daughter just left for college in the fall in pennsylvania, so i sort of took her place. the family is great and have been so welcoming to me. and their house is gorgeous and has a pool, not to mention it is on a mountain above the city of managua, so it doesnt get as infernally hot as it does down there. i have my own room and bathroom, my own a/c, AND they have an old mazda pickup truck that is mine to use whenever. its pretty old and really bad if i dont slow down enough to go over speed bumps, and the brakes are... interesting, but it gets me around. and the a/c works. but the trees up here are probably a million years old and huge and gorgeous, i keep waiting for a monkey to throw something at me from the tops of one. it rains almost everyday, big heavy rainstorms, and it is so humid i swear i can drink the air. quite a change from super dry santa fe. my hair hasnt really decided yet if it likes it here or not;its just kind of bigger than usual. the food is delicious, the fruit is amazing, and the nicaraguan beers are quite tasty. and everything seems so cheap compared to back home. which is a good thing since i am not making that much money....

which brings me to my job. i flew in late on a wednesday night, hung out on thursday and friday and the weekend, and on monday started working. a friend of my aunt's needed a helper for 2 weeks to plan an event that was the launch of a program put on by USAID and a company called RTI international (research triangle institute), the company for which my boss works. it is based out of north carolina and calls itself a scientific research and development institute. the program they are joing with USAID to create is trying to establish alliances between the private sector of nicaragua and its people, specifically in the ares of health and education. so for the first two weeks i helped them with their database of 800(!) invitees and made phone calls and just generally helped them with errands, etc. that was a good way to ease into my life here, and it was made easier by the fact that the woman i work for is also a gringa and so we speak in english most of the time. the event went really well and i got to hear the US ambassador speak, as well as people from the ministry of health and the ministry of education down here. i also got to meet some interesting people, including some from the largest coffee exporting company in the country. i had an interview with them the following week and currently am awaiting a response from them. but it seems they are waiting until after the elections. which are tomorrow. more on that in a bit. even though my job was only supposed to be a 2 week stint, i have been going for the past 2 weeks, which is nice becuase it keeps me busy and not feeling like a useless bum. since they just moved to a new office, they needed a LOT of organizing, and somehow i got roped into starting their filing system and answering their phones, among other stuff like translating and buying office supplies. but my boss, cristina, is super nice and really helpful. she has already told me that she will help me find a job if this other one doesnt pan out, and she says she is pretty good at getting people jobs. plus she likes me a lot so i know she will give me a good recommendation to anyone. it has been nice though, to establish a sort of routine, even though working from 8:30 to 6 is a little more than im used to. plus the fact taht i had to get p extra early the first 2 weeks so i could shower and brush my teeth before the power went out, as early as 7 am some days. there is apparently a pretty major energy crisis right now, although for the past few days we have been lucky. although before that it went out for about 5 hours one day. usually outages only last one hour. but i welcome the routine. i come home super tired, read a little, have dinner with the fam, read a little more and help kids with homework (one of andres' teachers congratulated lucy at a conference last week on his grade improvement. she was pretty stoked to hear that a cousin had been helping him at home...), and then go to bed. i have been getting in a healthy dose of LOST as well, as i have gotten both cousins hooked on it. its kind of fun though, to have little brothers. it is a new thing for me, as fern was the only other one growing up with me. but they are great. the younger one already wants to get me a boyfriend so that i wont want to leave and leave him alone, and he says that the empty feeling the house had right after his sister left has been filled. hes so sweet and affectionate. these latin parents have really got it down. and the older one, hes just so interesting to talk to, and he constantly surprises me with what he has to say. im just glad im with smart, capable, really nice kids.

i have tons of other cousins down here too, and i am constantly meeting some new aunt or uncle who knew my mother in elementary school or who knows i was born in hong kong or who remembers some obscure fact about my family. its pretty fun actually, especially seeing people that i remember but have not seen since i was a little kid. its also fun to see the people that i do remember, my younger cousins especially, getting to be all grown up. its fascinating to talk to them because i just cannot imagine growing up in nicaragua, especially having actually grown up in the bay area. they are just two completely different experiences. my moms brother, guillermo, and his kids are still some of my favorites, i just love them. i dont see them as often as id like because, like everyuthing else down here, families have interesting dynamics. sometimes certain different parts of the same family can seem so different, and be so different, and its strange to come in from somewhere else and see what has been "the way it is" the whole time when you werent there. it can make things a little awkward, especially when these already very different branches of the family also differ hugely in politics. and the big thing right now is politics.

the election that is happening tomorrow, or rather today, could very well change the country's course. daniel ortega, the sandinista leader who ran the country back in the 80's (he raped/violated his own step-daughter, and just helped them ban ALL abortions in the country, even ones that are necessary to save a womans life... not a good guy) is running for president for the 4th time, but the scary thing is this time he might win. (read this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6112942.stm ) his biggest opposition is the liberals, but they have been split into 2 parties each with a different candidate. (i was lucky enough to meet both of them, eduardo montealegre and jose rizo) the problem there is that the votes that could easily defeat daniel (they refer to some of them by first name, like daniel and eduardo) are now split between two, making it easier for daniel to have more than both of them. but, if he does win, hopefully it will be a close enough race that there will be a run-off, in which case the liberal candidate who will be second (because one of them will) would win hands down, because all of the people whose votes were split between two would be voting together. but its crazy to think about ortega winning, and i have had to think about it a lot. people keep asking me what my plans would be if he won. in all honesty, i didnt think it was an issue that serious. but i hear all my relatives talking about moving to the US if he wins. i know they are not entirely serious, but it makes me think. maybe i'll be coming back sooner than expected. although at this point i hope not-- i have really begun to like it here and i feel like this could be my life for a while. i just want my job situation to be more concrete; the uncertainty upon which i usually thrive in my life is driving me crazy for the first time. maybe im finally growing up and realizing that i sort of need a plan. thats a scary thought...

other than getting to know how politics and people work in this country, i have been keeping a pretty low profile. i have been reading a lot, feeding an addiction to sudoku, and sleeping more than i ahve in a while. i finished ayn rand's the fountainhead, a couple of garcia marquez stories, some ruben dario poetry (most famous nicaraguan poet, also called the father of modernism in poetry), she's come undone, and most of salman rushdie's the jaguar's smile, its about his trip to nicaragua in the 80s. i am also starting some nietzsche (thus spoke zarathustra) and i bought 100years of solitude in spanish to practice my reading, and david foster wallace's the infinite jest. so i have a lot of material to work with, and im so excited. i have only gone out once, and it has been a nice break. although the bars here are FUN. i went out with some new friends last friday night; i went with my aunt to the swedish embassy to have tea (yes, tea) and her daughter is living here with a friend until may. so i get to go out with two tall blonde swedish girls. we dont stand out at all. especially when we wear heels. but we went to a couple of bars here in managua and had a great time, talking to a lot of people and enjoying the cheap drinks. if partying here is any indication, i definitely have latin blood running through me... people know how to have fun AND they know how to dance. i am looking forward to going out again soon although this weekend was slow due to a ban on alcohol all day before election day. i suppose thats a good call to prevent drunken voting.

well enough for one post. if anyone made it through in one sitting i am impressed. but thats all i can think of for now.... i will write more about the elections tomorrow.... should be an exciting day!