ho hum

first of all, for those who do not know, you can find pictures and a more detailed report of the activities that have been accomplished so far on the trip at the goshen website, specifically at www.goshen.edu/sst/ under the nicaragua blog (make sure you click summer 2011 if for some reason that boggles your mind).

We went to the atlantic coast this last weekend. It was really fun, the landscape is beautiful, and it is a lot quieter and nicer than the pacific coast where we are stationed for the rest of the trip. People speak in Creole, which is basically just english, so it is also easier to get to know the people who live out there and such. If it were up to me, we would have just stayed out there, because even though it was a lot more impovished than the pacific coast, the people were nicer, and the atomosphere was a lot more chill. It is basically like living in Jamica, except you are on a mainland rather than an island. Also, it smells like dead fish a lot of the time outside when you are near the town (we specifically were at the town of pearl lagoon), but it is much cleaner than Jinotepe, and there are less drunken perverts and trash on the ground.

For the rest of this week then, we have been back to the normal classes and lectures and stuff. Today our lecture ended up getting rained out, which was a sweet relief from having to take copious notes via our translator, and attempting to dissect the one question out of 2 and a half hours of material everyday that our leaders decide to test us on. ridiculous!

Also, apparently they do not have mint chocolate chip ice cream down here. Travesty! The things that I would offiically state that I miss so far are Pop Tarts, anything cheese related, and Ice Cream that is not Eskimo brand. Its cheap, but its not so great.

We are going back to Managua tomorrow for a day trip to the US Embassy, and some MCC thing. Not sure what that is going to be like, but it is in Managua, so it will likely be superbly hot. The heat of Nicaragua is practically unliveable, so its a good thing that we are getting more into the Rainy season now.