Friday, November 21, 2008

leon leon leon!

dudes,
i had the best day today, srsly! it was great. And it´s only 4:12 in the afternoon.
I went to spanish school in the morning, which is finally getting fun because i now am familiar with all fourteen (14!!!) of the spanish tenses. So now it´s mainly just review, trying to cement it all in my mind. My teacher isn´t as good as my teacher in granada, but she gives me a shit ton of homework which is real good for my memorization. I´m getting it down. I think i now know when to use por and when to use para a good 80% of the time! and that is saying something.

then i went back to my hostel and fed myself, which was lovely, and drank a beer because they only cost a dollar even from a hostel and it just goes so well with beans and rice. And, it´s friday! woo! and then i went with danny to the entomology museum, which was so so cool. 50 cents to get in and it´s really a research station, or office or whatever, with tons and tons of nicely displayed specimens. And then the head researcher guy came out and told us all about everything, and took out a giant ass beetle and let me hold it! this thing was bigger than my palm, i am telling you. It was sweet.

Then i took an awesome bucket shower, so now i feel clean and amazing.

Leon kinda rules. Granada was great, prettier, but Leon is a much bigger city and is more vibrant. The violent protests are dying down, generally just a few rounds of shooting mortars into the air every night, no real marches or riots or anything. Which is a bit of a relief. Also I have friends here, including this 20 year old swedish girl sophie who kisses all the nicaraguan boys and then wonders why they follow her around all the time, begging her to be their girlfriend.

On a street near my guesthouse (which is also awesome, by the way, and i´m paying $4 a night for a nice, really comfortable bed. also the place has a sweet courtyard with a giant grapefruit free, and a huge stack of pirated dvds, and a kitchen AND a refrigerator) there are something like 5 used clothing stores. there are a lot of used clothing stores in nicaragua, which is awesome. clothes generally go for around 10 cords a piece, or 50 cents. I keep buying things from this one awesome one, and then cutting them up to sew on things. Today i bought this silklike scarf with dogs heads in pink, aquamarine, and brown. it is great.

so yes. I love nicaragua. I am sad to leave as i am sure my real life will be dissapointing, but of course there are a few people that i cannot wait to be in the same room with again, and that should be really, really nice as well.

this sunday i´m going to leon viejo, or old leon, which is much closer to the volcano and was destroyed in, yes, you guessed it, a volcano eruption. Now it´s a cool old antiquey ruins you can go visit. AND, on the way, you change busses in the town where they INVENTED the quesillo, the best nicaraguan food EVER. I feel i may have already discussed quesillos, but i can´t remember, so i´ll talk about em again:
flour tortilla, a big dollop of mozarella like cheese, grilled onions. all cooked on a special sort of stove that makes em hot and delicious instantly, and served with sour cream and homemade salsa. fuck yeah. and quesillo places generally specialize in cacao as well, the best drink nicaragua has to offer: milk mixed with ground up cacao beans, and sugar. Shit that stuff is good.

Another thing about nicaragua which is awesome is the aprons. All the people who sell food on the street (which is like, 30% of the population) wear these distinctive, incredebly frilly aprons to keep their money in. Most of the people cooking on the street are woman, but some are men, and they wear the frilly aprons too. Earlier today I saw a buff dude with a shaved head and, yes, a pink frilly apron on. I know i´ve been here a long time because I didn´t even notice until danny giggled and said "lookit that guys apron".

alright, enough for now.
i fly back in two weeks.
it´s gonna be weird.

e

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