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....