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i was about to lay on my bed and read, or go out, or do something, and i decided, its time to resurrect this obviously out-of-date account of my life and experience here.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....
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....
posted by greta esmeralda at 9:27 PM
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