I got the travel bug again... so I went to Nicaragua

So last week was Semana Santa or Holy Week. Like all the universities in the US we got the entire week off as our "Spring Break" and it was definitely a welcomed break. Classes have been getting me down lately, especially my Friday night Consecutive Interpreting class. By 7 pm I am ready to walk out of the class, walk out of the program, pack up my life and move back home to California. I don't like interpreting. I like translating. I can take my time to find the perfect work or the perfect way to say a sentence in the other language. My Saturday classes aren't that great either. Of my four classes this semester I DESPISE two and TOLERATE the other two. Its just a bad semester overall it seems. So come spring break and I was ready to forget about the university for as long as possible...so my roommate and I headed to Nicaragua.

I can't say I had ever been really interested in traveling to Nicaragua. It wasn't ever on my life of "places to see before I die" but, as I found out in 2007 I have to have a visa to travel to Panama and that visa takes way too much time to get and costs way to much money. Nicaragua, on the other hand, is open to pretty much anyone and me with my South African passport could basically walk right in for 8 US dollars...which ironically turned out to be about the most expensive part of the trip. Of course no one had to tie me up and throw me in the back of the bus either to make me visit Nicaragua. Traveling is in my bones and after about a year of being no where but familiar places, I was dying to experience "new" again, unfamiliar places, unfamiliar faces, unfamiliar cultures. So Tuesday night I was packed and headed out the door with Kristina at around 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning. We got to Nicaragua about 11 hours later with no problems at the border (except maybe the ridiculous amount of people). The trip by bus was long and tiring, but just finally being in a new place gave me energy. We stayed the first night in Managua, the capital, and the next day we took a tour of the "sites-to-see" which didn't turn out to be much. There are basically two parts to Managua: old Managua and new Managua. Old Managua was pretty much destroyed by an earthquake 30 years ago and hasn't ever been rebuilt. New Managua is, well, new and totally Americanized.

As we were site-seeing I was immediately struck by the amount of begging children on the streets: offering to watch parked cars for a small fee, selling flowers and hearts made out of some kind of leaf, or just simply begging for a dollar or even a single córdoba (around 5 cents). To them there was no shame in doing it, and being children I would even venture to say they make a good living out of it, especially when targeting the gringos (Americans).

After Managua, our tour guide took us to Masaya, location of the Masaya Volcano. I guess the glamour of seeing a Volcano dies after the first experience because it really wasn't that exciting and being around the smell of sulfur for even 5 minutes was about enough to kill me. They say the volcano is active though, although it doesn't spew out fire and lava, rather just sulfur smelling steam. After the volcano we drove to a small tranquil town that overlooked the Laguna de Apoyo. Besides having crystal clear blue water, there wasn't much to see, except the beauty of the landscape from up high looking down. Its obviously a spot couples go visit and there were scores of local music groups offering to play a few pieces of Nicaraguan music in exchange for a "donation." We then had lunch at a local restaurant and then made our way to Granada by public transportation, which, as always, was a journey in itself. Our tour guide dropped us off at the "correct" bus stop but after a while of waiting we grew a little uncertain and asked a woman at the stop if we had the right one. Of course, we didn't and she sent us across the round-about to another stop. Right away I asked another lady there if this was the right one, which it was, but as [my] luck would have it, that day there weren't any buses passing through that stop to Granada. She said we would have to take a bus back to Masaya (right were we were to begin with) and from there catch another bus to Granada. Again, she sent us across the round-about. There we waited a good 20 minutes before a bus pulled up, only to be told that although that bus went in the right direction, it detoured off before getting where we needed to be. I could only laugh, really. Not wanting to wait any longer we got on the bus and walked the extra half a kilometer to get where we needed to be. Fortunately, as soon as we arrived the bus for Granada pulled up and 30 minutes later we were in Granada ready to begin our search for a place to stay (every place I had called before going either didn't take reservations or were booked because of Semana Santa). On our third try we got a room. I'm not the hostal type, but when faced with the possibility of not actually finding a place, I sort of sucked it up for two nights and stayed in a private room at the hostel.

I was immediately taken aback by the beauty of Granada, a colonial town. In the main square all the buildings have been recently painted, all in different, bright colours. The main street was paved in coblestone and alive with restaurants, coffee shops, bars, music, and street vendors selling jewelry, ceramics, paintings etc. On Friday we rented bikes and rode down to Lake Nicaragua (so big its practically a sea). Afterwards we walked around the city, got massages, ate local foods, enjoyed the music and street performers throwing fire or breakdancing. I fell in love wiht Granada, there is simply no other way to say it. Being there made me wonder if I've been wasting my time here in Costa Rica, and my money, when I could be using it to travel around central and south America, meeting new people and learning new cultures. There is always so much more to see than the small world that we surround ourselves by.

I was honestly sad to have to leave Nicaragua. I would have loved to stay an extra day to two, gone to the beach and taken a boat tour around the islands in the lake. Fortunately, as cheap as it is, there is always the possibility of going back for even less than it would cost to take a weekend trip to the beach in Costa Rica. A typical meal cost us only $4, and it wasn't a hamburger and fries, but meat, plantains, rice and salad. Hotel rooms cost as little as $20 a person, a frozen cappuccino $1.50 and a back and shoulders masage only $10. Hopefully before I leave here I will be able to make the trip back for another weekend. I now know some Nicaraguans who are already insisting I go back and they'll show me the "real" Nicaragua.

Of course, as the saying goes, all good things have to come to an end, and classes started up again with full force. I had two midterms and two presentations the weekend I got back, with no end in sight really...until the end of June.

Much of nothing...

I guess considering about two months have passed since my last update I should have a lot to write about... but is that the case? I seem to spend all my time doing something, to the point where I even feel like I need more hours in my day... I complain about being too busy, about being stressed, about constantly being tired, but when I look back and try to figure out what I've been doing... well, I really don't do much of anything. Classes are in full swing. I despise two of them and tolerate the other two. If I ever consider a career of Consecutive Interpretation I give whoever reads this full leave to smack me over the head. Oh and of course there is French... What can I say except, why do the French have to make everything so damn complicated? I do, however, understand a good um... 70% of what I read now, so I guess I'm moving forward. Honestly, I've thought of dropping the class, I'm really not learning like I would like to and I'm not putting the time into it that I should (then of course I'm not doing that for my interpretation class either...), but in the end I'm still there... I still go, even if I have a frown on my face. I'm just not the type to give up on a class. Someone knock some sense into me...

I'm also happy to say that my thesis is going well. I turned in my Introductory chapter a few weeks ago and when I got it back the professor only had good things to say! My writing (in Spanish, of course) has matured, I managed to clearly state the objectives of my thesis and she is certain that if I continue writing that way my project will be a success... thanks, señora, for the added pressure. For the last three weeks (ok, ok, one week) I have been working on Chapters 2 and 3. A sociological analysis and the analysis of examples pulled from the translation I did last semester. Tomorrow I present the two chapters to my class, receive their feedback and then I have one week to "perfect" the chapters before turning them in. I guess next week I can look forward to a lovely week locked in the university library writing... I only manage to get work done when I'm there. Its like, in the library Facebook doesn't exist, nor does MSN chat or the internet. I manage to block out distractions and focus. Of course sitting in the library from 9-3 without eating anything is not desireable either.

I've lost weight. I'm not sure how much but when I was at home in December I had lost 8 pounds and people tell me that I've lost more. I saw a guy yesterday I haven't seen in a good few months and the first thing he says to me is: "wow you're too skinny, how much do you weigh?" Um firstly, thanks for the compliment??? Of course there is nothing complimentary about losing weight to ticos. They like their women meaty and I'm well...less meaty than they prefer. Back in 2007 when I put on about 15 pounds thanks to my host mom's delicious cooking, then I was just perfect... of course to me I was just chubby. Now my jeans don't fit my butt and thighs and I've had to poke an extra hole in my two belts. My attempts of fattening up don't work. I can't say I'm happy that I've lost so much weight. I mean I eat well, so I can only assume it has to do with things unrelated to my eating habits... although, honestly, I don't eat as much as I used to. I eat a good breakfast (occasionally) and lunch, but very seldomly do I eat dinner... usually I'll just eat a few pieces of fruit. I don't generally enjoy eating at 8:30/9 pm when I 've gotten home from class.

I turned 25 about three weeks ago. Its amazing how I felt a change from one day to the next haha...even more so than when I turned 21! Okay so maybe not, but I have noticed a change in my attitude. Gradually I have been thinking more about settling down, finding a place I want to live permanently. Its funny to think that when I was younger I had always wanted to be married and have started a family by the time I was 25 and look at me now, what do I have to show for my 25 years? A degree in political science that now I could care less to pursue and one year left until I finish my master's in translation. And it is only now that I have started to wonder if I've been wasting my time, being selfish. In these last three weeks I've thought more about my future than I have practically my whole life. I've thought about where I really want to settle down, and I know it is close to my mom. As much as I love Costa Rica, I can't spend the rest of my life this far away from my family. I consider myself independent, but in the end, once I start a family I want them to have Grandparents, something I never really felt like I had, and never really missed until I've seen now the relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren. Latinos are very family oriented and spending time with my best friend and his family has made me want to give that to my future children. Ok, wait... I feel like I'm getting too deep into this right now. Maybe I should save this for another day...

And thus it began...

Two weeks into classes and I'll swear I never even had a 2 month vacation.... There was none of the first day go-over-the-program-and-then-go-home nonsense, and there was DEFINITELY none of the no-homework-on-the-first-day-because-all-we-did-was-go-over-the-program bull. First week, first round of two-and-a-half-hour-long-lectures, first impossible-to-understand readings, and first wreck-my-brain-for-the-right-word translations. And here's an impossible question: how the hell do I translate the compound nouns we can only create in English??? Needless to say, it is 6pm on Saturday and I am exhausted. I can't blame it only on the 9 hours of class I have beginning at 7am, I mean I haven't been able to sleep well for the past two nights because of the wind that howls at my windows, but make no mistake...sitting in class from 7 am to 4:30 pm is excrutiating. At the beginning it sounded nice--class only two days a week and the rest of the time for homework and...fun...but as it turns out, come the end of the weekend all I want to do is rest and homework is the last thing on my agenda...and by last I mean, maybe I'll get to it on Thursday and have to cram everything into two days.


Of course all the "fun" starts this semester with my thesis paper. In two weeks I have to hand in Chapter 1: at least 20 pages of...well I haven't figured that part out yet. What is my chapter one. Here is when I start to wish I had taken the professor's advice six months ago and read more than I stared at a computer screen talking to people online or changing my Facebook status. But eh, we make our choices and we have to live with what comes of them. I'm not stressing out...yet...but all I can say at this point is that it isn't going to be the easy semester I had one year ago, where the beach didn't seem like an impossible dream, when I had visitors and we spent time talking about things OTHER than what the hell I'm going to write about in Chapter 1, when I traveled to other countries and missed class because, well, it was my birthday. I guess in the end all I can be thankful for is that I only have this year left. And what IS left of this year? That would be 279 days, 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 25 seconds, OR 9 months, 6 days, 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 25 seconds OR 39 weeks, 6,706 hours, 402,393 minutes, and 24,143, 605 seconds...and NONE of those makes it feel any shorter. Here's to hoping I make it out alive.


P.S. Side note, just so you know. My birthday is in 21 days :-) At least there IS something to look forward to this year. The big 2-5 :-)

And here we go again...

2/09/2010: Today I saw one of the most amazing sunsets I can remember, and since I've been here I've seen quite a few memorable ones. What is it about a sunset that no matter how many you see, there is still something completely and utterly magestic about it. And today, from high on a mountain, it was just that: magestic. The sun was a deep orange red colour and the sky around it was painted red, orange, pink, and purple. I was mesmerized. How can something so natural, so predicable, take my breath away? And then I know why I love Costa Rica. I'd been forgetting these last three weeks, wishing I could be back in California, wishing the Master's was over or that this year would just magically fly by. I had forgotten the reason why I fell in love with this country back in 2007 and although the people played a big role in that, the beauty of this country did too.

2/11/2010: I made it through my first French class today. There is something so utterly appealing about learning French in Spanish. My mind switches between English and Spanish and as the professor is talking (in Spanish) I noticed I was taking notes in Engish. Then I see French words that are almost, if not completely, identical to ones in English and I write down their definition in Spanish. What will be interesting is when I try to seperate the three languages in my mind. What happens when I get a full handle on French? To what language do I translate? Spanish since that is what I learned French in? Or English since its my mother tough. And if I translate to English will I actually be translating from French to Spanish to English all in my mind? I'm excited really to see what happens. Its an intesive language course focusing more on reading than actually speaking, but I guess I have to start somewhere and this is the only time I could take the course with my host brother. In the end I'm learning French and that makes me happy.

What doesn't make me that happy is that the classes in my Master's degree start tomorrow. Friday from 6-9pm and Saturday from 7am-4pm...No. Fun. But then again I should be almost used to it now since it's basically the same schedule I've had for a whole year now. Although waking up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning is not someone one gets used to easily...Anyway, I'm just hoping on have a good year, that my thesis will not stress me out too much, and that in approximately 10 months I will have my degree en mano. Pray for me.

Home sweet ... Costa Rica

So after almost two months visiting my friends and family in California I am now back in Costa Rica. I definitely had a great trip "home" and it was hard for me to leave. I missed my mom and my black lab, Gus, even before I had touched down in Tico-land. And even though I missed my friends and "tica-families" here when I was back home in CA, I am definitely having mixed feelings about being here. It was amazing having two of my best Costa Rican friends pick me up at the airport and take me out for dinner, but seeing them made me realize I was here...and no longer home. And yet...I am home. I was happy to get back to my apartment and start cleaning and settling myself back in. When I'm here, I miss CA, when I'm in CA, I miss it here. When will I ever be happy?

It has been nice seeing everyone here again...just as it was seeing everyone in California. I've enjoyed cooking again and telling everyone the stories of being back home (although its generally quite short: I didn't do anything, I had no job and I don't have a car anymore...the end.) Quite sad. Anyway in the end I know I'll get settled back in, but part of me was left behind this time...a larger part than before.

Yesterday I found out that my classes don't begin the first week of February like I thought...scratch that...like I was TOLD...they only begin THE SECOND WEEK! That means I have another whole week to occupy myself before classes start. Another whole week to procrastinate getting my translation perfected. Another whole week to wonder every morning what the hell I'm going to be doing with myself that day. Maybe I should take this time to get settled in, get back into my running routine, keep cleaning, and....RELAX because I'll bet you ANYTHING this semester is going to be a killer.

The devil always gets you when you're down...

I swear it feels like just yesterday that I was in Las Vegas bringing in the new year with my little sister and one of her best friends...just yesterday I was standing there saying "Oh crap here we go, another year just beginning...another full 12 months to go through"...and then...BAM...its the middle of January. January 15 is only...3 hours away. What is this? Where are the years going? I was walking with my brother yesterday and he asked me where the Rams are now, I answered St. Louis, why? He said it was because there was a bumper sticker on a car that said the Los Angeles Rams but he knew that they weren't in Los Angeles anymore. I couldn't tell him when they moved but I said that car could be like 12 years old...and then I realized 12 years ago was only 1998 and that car was from waaaaay in the '80s I'm sure. Anyway the entire point of that story was to say when did the first decade of the 21 century pass? I rememeber my high school graduation like it was just a couple of years ago...being so excited to FINALLY be out and moving on to college. That was 6 years ago. I remember August of that year being so nervous and excited to move away from home thinking how long the next four years at Mars Hill would feel. And then, before I knew it, I had graduated. Almost two years ago now.

And as I sit here waiting for sleep to come over me (I should probably get off of the computer for that....) I think to myself that already in these 15 days of 2010, I have had one of the worst years I can remember. On January 1st I brought the new year in with a speeding ticket, which, thanks to the 1. overworked police department and 2. amount of speeders on the road will not be posted for around 21 days during which time I can do NOTHING to get it taken care of. Unfortunately I will be in Costa Rica when the time comes that they get around to establishing the fine and I have no way to go to court and argue that I really wasn't speeding and see if they will lower it. Anyway, lovely. Then a couple days later the computer that I had already sent into HP Technical Support for a major problem starts acting up again...WITH THE SAME DAMN PROBLEM. Of course I don't have to reiterate that I will be in Costa Rica in two days so couldn't send it BACK to HP for them to again, do nothing with it and hope the problem goes away by itself. And the worst of it all? I was selling the computer so I NEEDED it to be working 100%. So about 5 calls to tech support and 3 pit stops to repair centers later, no one could do a damn thing and it was I who came up with the idea of how to narrow the problem down and it will probably be....ME....who ends up fixing it. Got to love the support service system in the United States. Ok, well as if THAT isn't enough. I'm already tired, angry, upset, stressed, you name it, and I get in the car to go pick my mom up for lunch and BAM, not kidding, the car won't start. An hour earlier it was working just fine, not even a hint of a problem, and then just as if a light had been turned off, the car would not start. When I get frustrated I cry. And yesterday I must have cried for at least 6 of my waking hours. When life hands you lemons....

And here I am, one day later and I'm still really not over it. Sure I'm not crying, or frustrated, but it just makes me have to laugh...no it just amazes me, depresses me, you name it, to think that when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. But then look at it from another angle. A friend of mine hit it on the nail: my year can only get better from here on out...my karma depends on it! :-)

"Watching you walk out of my life does not make me bitter or cynical about love. But rather makes me realize that if I wanted so much to be with the wrong person how beautiful it will be when the right one comes along."