today is something along the lines of "miss leon" day here in Leon: but as backwords an event as you can only find in nicaragua: it´s participated in by girls from a specific catholic run college, and sponsored by victoria frost, a sort of new kind of beer (the two brands of nicaraguan beer, which EVERYONE drinks, are Toña and Victoria. Owned by the same company, of course. So Victoria frost is like a bit of a new novelty beverage- like clear pepsi or something). So basically, catholic school girls are gonna get dressed up slutty and drink beer for jesus. The main party is today but i guess it started last night; i went to bed and didnt see it, but apparently there were giant floats with giant animatronic santa clauses drinking victoria frost, and girls in heels and those giant brazillian headdresses.
I´m pretty excited about tonight.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
lets talk money
i´ve found the cheapest internet cafe i´ve internetted in to date. 8 cordoba an hour, or 40 cents. They also advertize 4 cordoba cocacolas (yes, that´s 20 cents!) I mean yes you CAN get a 5 cent coke in Barton, VT, but it´s also about the same size as a double shot.
I´ve been thinking about wanting to make a list of things you can get for one cord (5 cents). So far here is my list:
1.a plastic bag full of blessedly cold purified water.
2.a box of matches.
3.a banana (or sometimes two small ones) from a street vendor.
4.a hug from the street kid that sells hugs for one cordoba in the park.
that´s as far as my list goes. but still, not bad, right? for 4 cordobas you could have your hunger and thirst quenched, light your way and get a hug. I love this country!!
I´ve been thinking about wanting to make a list of things you can get for one cord (5 cents). So far here is my list:
1.a plastic bag full of blessedly cold purified water.
2.a box of matches.
3.a banana (or sometimes two small ones) from a street vendor.
4.a hug from the street kid that sells hugs for one cordoba in the park.
that´s as far as my list goes. but still, not bad, right? for 4 cordobas you could have your hunger and thirst quenched, light your way and get a hug. I love this country!!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
inspired by joe: people i´d like to visit around the country
we´ll travel east to west.
dee in boston.
joe and cristina in new york city.
grandpa in ashville.
melissa and libby in new orleans.
asher in indiana.
zach in iowa.
jon in colorado.
colleen in whatever the name of that town is near sacramento.
george in santa barbara.
molly, ben and mike in los angeles.
this country is too damn big
dee in boston.
joe and cristina in new york city.
grandpa in ashville.
melissa and libby in new orleans.
asher in indiana.
zach in iowa.
jon in colorado.
colleen in whatever the name of that town is near sacramento.
george in santa barbara.
molly, ben and mike in los angeles.
this country is too damn big
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
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
Thursday, November 13, 2008
occurences
a few days ago a girl wouldnt let me try on a dress in a shop. She shook her head at me vaguely. When I asked why, she said, looking at me disdainfully "...you`ll get it dirty".
i hit a guy yesterday. Boys hiss at you constantly but it`s not too hard to ignore all but the most insistent ones (which is half of them). However, sometimes they touch you, too, and when you`re wandering down the street lost in blissful thought this can be really, really jarring. This seems to have increased in frequency lately (or maybe the boys in granada are just especially bad) and one morning it happened and i got so fed up i told myself "the next guy that touches me is gettin hit". And so he did. And so i did. He ran from me at first, but we were in a relatively crowded market street and lots of people were watching, and i think he thought he would look like a wuss running from some little foreign girl, so then he stopped and sort of took it for a second before disappearing into an autoshop or something.
the back of the packs of matches all have some drawings of ducks and then a line and some drawings of chickens. This was a bit of a mystery to me for a while. At first i thought it was akin to the drawing contests one often sees on packs of matches in the us. then i read the phrase, also on the back, "Al darlo a los niños, asegurese que la caja este vacia". meaning, essentially: "If you give it to kids, be sure that the box is empty". the plot thickens. Finally I asked my spanish teacher what the deal was. He looked at me like i was a bit of an idiot and said "its a domino". I looked closer. Suddenly it was so obvious! Dominoes! and what a useful use for empty math boxes. Also, I noticed that on the other side of the pack from the kid warning, it said "Dominó de Animales". I think i just assumed domino must mean something different in spanish than in english.
here, if i show my knees, i get hit on twice as much. However, i have noticed that women, especially older women, very often wear blouses that are either so thin or so pale (or both) that you can easy make out every detail of their bra. color, pattern, creases, everything. Why is this cool but me showing a bit of knee screams "i am a whore"?
today was my last day of spanish class in granada. this week i learned preterite, imperfect, future, condicional, subjunctive perfect and subjunctive imperfect, indirect and direct object substitutions, the real difference between ser and estar and por and para. My brain hurts, now. however, at the end of class today i had my teacher teach me some good things to say to the creeps on the street who hiss as me.
por ejemplo:
jogete (fuck you)
vete al diablo (go to hell, apparently worse than fuck you in this catholic country)
hijueputa (son of a bitch)
or, if one of them calls ME puta, i can say...
"mas puta que to madre no puedo hacer" (I couldn´t be a bigger bitch than your mother)
of course, when a fat dude whipped out his penis and started rubbing it in front of me a few minutes ago, all of these phrases managed to slip my mind.
there are a lot of street dogs here, it is pretty sad. this is true everywhere, though. but today over breakfast i heard an american lady explaining to some other american dude how she had sent 7 or 8 street dogs to the united states to live with rich people. This costs around $800, she said, after shots and all that. But then they get to live with people who have private tennis courts. One one level i find this romantically pleasurable: the dogs do have shit lives here, and it is nice to think of them being happy and well fed with some rich people. On the other hand, there are plenty of suffering dogs on the street in the united states, too. It seems a bit misguided to spend almost a thousand dollars rescuing one from here, but i guess when you are rich you can spend your money however the hell you want.
tomorrow i´m off to leon. Leon is like the rival of granada, a little like sf and la, i guess. Both have colonial architecture and...um...tourists? I am not sure exactly where the fight stems from, but there you are.
here, if i show my knees, i get hit on twice as much. However, i have noticed that women, especially older women, very often wear blouses that are either so thin or so pale (or both) that you can easy make out every detail of their bra. color, pattern, creases, everything. Why is this cool but me showing a bit of knee screams "i am a whore"?
today was my last day of spanish class in granada. this week i learned preterite, imperfect, future, condicional, subjunctive perfect and subjunctive imperfect, indirect and direct object substitutions, the real difference between ser and estar and por and para. My brain hurts, now. however, at the end of class today i had my teacher teach me some good things to say to the creeps on the street who hiss as me.
por ejemplo:
jogete (fuck you)
vete al diablo (go to hell, apparently worse than fuck you in this catholic country)
hijueputa (son of a bitch)
or, if one of them calls ME puta, i can say...
"mas puta que to madre no puedo hacer" (I couldn´t be a bigger bitch than your mother)
of course, when a fat dude whipped out his penis and started rubbing it in front of me a few minutes ago, all of these phrases managed to slip my mind.
there are a lot of street dogs here, it is pretty sad. this is true everywhere, though. but today over breakfast i heard an american lady explaining to some other american dude how she had sent 7 or 8 street dogs to the united states to live with rich people. This costs around $800, she said, after shots and all that. But then they get to live with people who have private tennis courts. One one level i find this romantically pleasurable: the dogs do have shit lives here, and it is nice to think of them being happy and well fed with some rich people. On the other hand, there are plenty of suffering dogs on the street in the united states, too. It seems a bit misguided to spend almost a thousand dollars rescuing one from here, but i guess when you are rich you can spend your money however the hell you want.
tomorrow i´m off to leon. Leon is like the rival of granada, a little like sf and la, i guess. Both have colonial architecture and...um...tourists? I am not sure exactly where the fight stems from, but there you are.
Friday, November 7, 2008
hurricane paloma
is just about to make it rain here. like, a lot, i think.
I´m actually fairly excited because it hasn´t been raining hardly at all.
i´m considering moving back to santa cruz....
rather than san francisco
so i can work at new leaf just for 6 months
and then take off again.
I do really want to work at rainbow, but
they will need a commitment
and i won´t be able to come hang out in nicaragua for months and months
which i think i might really want to do.
it´s just fucking impossible to know what i really want.
except it´d be reeeal nice to have a friend here. crap.
I´m actually fairly excited because it hasn´t been raining hardly at all.
i´m considering moving back to santa cruz....
rather than san francisco
so i can work at new leaf just for 6 months
and then take off again.
I do really want to work at rainbow, but
they will need a commitment
and i won´t be able to come hang out in nicaragua for months and months
which i think i might really want to do.
it´s just fucking impossible to know what i really want.
except it´d be reeeal nice to have a friend here. crap.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
some nicaraguan boys
are really short. like shorter than ME. and i am fucking short.
today was nostagia day. I watched the season finale of weeds and i'm watching the first episode of season three of 30 rock (both were excellent, by the way). Now that the end is in sight I'm beginning to allow myself the pleasures of home again. Like internet television. And listening to music, and nostalgia and dreams. Like... i may actually see my friends again. And i'm building it up, of course, and it won't be as great as it seems right now, and my friends will be busy with their lives and we'll all remember the things we didn't like about eachother and reality will be reality yet again.
but!
i still can't wait.
today was nostagia day. I watched the season finale of weeds and i'm watching the first episode of season three of 30 rock (both were excellent, by the way). Now that the end is in sight I'm beginning to allow myself the pleasures of home again. Like internet television. And listening to music, and nostalgia and dreams. Like... i may actually see my friends again. And i'm building it up, of course, and it won't be as great as it seems right now, and my friends will be busy with their lives and we'll all remember the things we didn't like about eachother and reality will be reality yet again.
but!
i still can't wait.
Monday, November 3, 2008
things just keep on getting better, really.
so:
i have my own private room now. it's AWESOME. i can lay around naked and smoke weed and study spanish and completely avoid making small talk about which places i've visited so far with other travelers. My room has a light and a fan and two places to put things and a hangy thing on the wall and shit, man, i love it.
it's expensive. $11 a night, and no kitchen to boot. but right now i'm happy. right now i love it.
if i stay another week, though, i'll probably move to another place, where i can have my own (larger but darker and smellier) room for $7.50 a night, but with a kitchen, which is just so nice. eating out all the time is both expensive and annoying, and not that much fun by yourself anyway.
in other news! i started spanish classes again today and i love my new school and teacher. It's all great. I walked in on a total whim- the name of the place is "School Xpress", which makes it sound like a fast food restaurant or a laundromat- but it looked like they had a nice patio. really at this point i judge everything- places to stay, to eat, to study, by how nice their patio is. And by patio i mean internal enclosure that is outside. What the hell is the word for that? I suddenly don't know.
anyway so yes. room check, spanish school check. And! I finally got to smart talk some of the boys who were making kissy faces at me. This happens, y'know, dozens if not hundreds of times per day as i walk around, cuz i'm foreign and alone and sometimes i wear short skirts. It's pretty harmless though it does get a bit old, but i always wish i had some biting comeback. Today I walked by about 6 boys who were all doing working on a house or something and every single one of them commented "oye, preciosa" etc etc or made kissy faces at me. so i took a few more steps- turned, looked one of em in the eyes and said, incredebly apologetically,
"necessito un hobre real, lo siento" and turned with a flourish.
they all commenced to crack up.
yes!
i win.
anyway, plans for today include getting stoned, buying my ticket home (i was waiting until obama won, but shit, i think i should just go for it. It's almost like a vote of confidence.), washing my clothes, sitting in a hammock reading, possibly watching a movie this evening. And i have spanish homework- I need to write a page or so in preterite tense, about my travels in europe. Should be, well, not fun, but good practice.
shit granada rules!
so:
i have my own private room now. it's AWESOME. i can lay around naked and smoke weed and study spanish and completely avoid making small talk about which places i've visited so far with other travelers. My room has a light and a fan and two places to put things and a hangy thing on the wall and shit, man, i love it.
it's expensive. $11 a night, and no kitchen to boot. but right now i'm happy. right now i love it.
if i stay another week, though, i'll probably move to another place, where i can have my own (larger but darker and smellier) room for $7.50 a night, but with a kitchen, which is just so nice. eating out all the time is both expensive and annoying, and not that much fun by yourself anyway.
in other news! i started spanish classes again today and i love my new school and teacher. It's all great. I walked in on a total whim- the name of the place is "School Xpress", which makes it sound like a fast food restaurant or a laundromat- but it looked like they had a nice patio. really at this point i judge everything- places to stay, to eat, to study, by how nice their patio is. And by patio i mean internal enclosure that is outside. What the hell is the word for that? I suddenly don't know.
anyway so yes. room check, spanish school check. And! I finally got to smart talk some of the boys who were making kissy faces at me. This happens, y'know, dozens if not hundreds of times per day as i walk around, cuz i'm foreign and alone and sometimes i wear short skirts. It's pretty harmless though it does get a bit old, but i always wish i had some biting comeback. Today I walked by about 6 boys who were all doing working on a house or something and every single one of them commented "oye, preciosa" etc etc or made kissy faces at me. so i took a few more steps- turned, looked one of em in the eyes and said, incredebly apologetically,
"necessito un hobre real, lo siento" and turned with a flourish.
they all commenced to crack up.
yes!
i win.
anyway, plans for today include getting stoned, buying my ticket home (i was waiting until obama won, but shit, i think i should just go for it. It's almost like a vote of confidence.), washing my clothes, sitting in a hammock reading, possibly watching a movie this evening. And i have spanish homework- I need to write a page or so in preterite tense, about my travels in europe. Should be, well, not fun, but good practice.
shit granada rules!
Friday, October 31, 2008
granada is the best
ok i have only been here a few hours but i think i really like it a lot. It´s beautiful and colorful and cleanish and they have the best casa de culture i´ve seen yet, with things like dance and singing classes (!!!!) and a movie theater (!!!!!) and, i don´t know. I just really really like the feel. I was worried it would be hideously touristy but really it is not so bad. Nothing like San Juan! I think i´m going to stay and at least do a week of spanish classes and maybe more. huzzah.
when i was just walking into town, right by the place i wanted to stay, some guy called out at me from the neighboring hostel "hey! where are you from?" and i said "where are YOU from?" and he said "guatemala" and i kept walking. I thought he was a proprietor for the hotel trying to make me come stay, and i was having none of it. Then, a few hours later i was walking around and this sweaty guy with a backpack is all "why did you ignore me earlier?" and it turns out it is the same guy, and he is actually travelling also. I talked to him for a bit, he was switching guesthouses for a cheaper one, and he invited me back to get high, and well, you know what a sucker i am for getting high. so i went with him to this other hostel which was hellza cheap, $2.50 a night for a private room. Not hideously nice but not bad, certainly nicer than some places ive stayed in for double that. And so we got high and talked a lot and i practiced spanish and he practiced english, though as he lived in the states for 10 years he didn´t need all too much practice, really. Anyway, he seems like a cool enough dude, though of course he has already offered to teach me salsa, spanish and share his room (which has two beds, i´d be paying slightly over a dollar a night). So obviously i am keeping my distance a bit, but he didn´t even try anything. Hurrah! I suspect he will eventually, but whatevs. Y´know? Either i´ll reject him and he won´t be too upset or maybe by then i´ll think he´s cool enough to be ok with the idea. Anyway, i am currently paying $7 a night to sleep in a dorm, and i´m considering moving to a private room here for 11. Which is expensive. But i do really like the room, and i also really like having a place i can lay around naked in and smoke weed in and study spanish in. y´know? so maybe i should move to the cheap place. But i guess i´m thinking maybe i´ll treat myself to a week in the fancy place, and then if i decide to stay longer i´ll move to the cheap place. We shall see.
when i was just walking into town, right by the place i wanted to stay, some guy called out at me from the neighboring hostel "hey! where are you from?" and i said "where are YOU from?" and he said "guatemala" and i kept walking. I thought he was a proprietor for the hotel trying to make me come stay, and i was having none of it. Then, a few hours later i was walking around and this sweaty guy with a backpack is all "why did you ignore me earlier?" and it turns out it is the same guy, and he is actually travelling also. I talked to him for a bit, he was switching guesthouses for a cheaper one, and he invited me back to get high, and well, you know what a sucker i am for getting high. so i went with him to this other hostel which was hellza cheap, $2.50 a night for a private room. Not hideously nice but not bad, certainly nicer than some places ive stayed in for double that. And so we got high and talked a lot and i practiced spanish and he practiced english, though as he lived in the states for 10 years he didn´t need all too much practice, really. Anyway, he seems like a cool enough dude, though of course he has already offered to teach me salsa, spanish and share his room (which has two beds, i´d be paying slightly over a dollar a night). So obviously i am keeping my distance a bit, but he didn´t even try anything. Hurrah! I suspect he will eventually, but whatevs. Y´know? Either i´ll reject him and he won´t be too upset or maybe by then i´ll think he´s cool enough to be ok with the idea. Anyway, i am currently paying $7 a night to sleep in a dorm, and i´m considering moving to a private room here for 11. Which is expensive. But i do really like the room, and i also really like having a place i can lay around naked in and smoke weed in and study spanish in. y´know? so maybe i should move to the cheap place. But i guess i´m thinking maybe i´ll treat myself to a week in the fancy place, and then if i decide to stay longer i´ll move to the cheap place. We shall see.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
verdict: san juan del sur sucks. well, mostly.
So, i´ve finally left estelí (after almost 5 weeks there, which pretty much flew by). I stayed a few days in masaya, a town which we´d heard sucked but actually turned out to be kinda awesome (artisan´s market in a giant, block-long and wide crumbling gothic fortress, gallo pinto, cheese, tortilla, plantain chips, salad and chile all wrapped up in a plantain leaf for 22 fucking cordobas, which equals about a a dollar and ten cents), though it did pour the entire time. I´d been vaguely following the hurricane news and we seemed totally clear; but then i didn´t look at it for like three days and the next time i looked there was a giant fucking tropical storm directly over central america! Guatemala i guess got the brunt of it, but it warned of flooding in honduras, el salvador and nicaragua as well, and fuck, it was right. It´s the rainy season so obviously it´s been raining a lot, but this was pretty extreme. I guess Managua got hit really bad, there are pictures in the paper of cars in the water up to their headlights, and a dozen people or so have even died. fucked.
however! today was the first day of sun, just a brief shower in the afternoon. And it was fucking hot. I´m in San Juan Del Sur now, where i arrived yesterday, and initially i thought it was the craptown of craptowns. Some lovely tidbits i overheard in my first few minutes of being at my (horrible, surfer infested) hostel:
"what do you think, boys? either german or israeli for sure". -a group of shirtless, drunk boys, trying to decide what nationality beth (welsh) and i (american, obvs) were
"i think it might be better if i just puke"-a sick boy in my dorm, at around two (!!) in the afternoon
"i was gonna snort some viagra, but then after we made out we never even hooked up, and i didn´t want to just be sitting around the hostel with a giant boner all night"
so. first impressions were grim.
however, i sucked it up and went out last night, mostly because this dude adam kept vaguely saying he might smoke me out; however, i actually really don´t even like smoking after drinking, and i don´t really like smoking at night because it just keeps me awake. I´d much rather smoke and go to the beach, or smoke and organize my bag, or smoke and study spanish. But i think i´m a bit in the minority there, at least as far as lame western boys who are in this town go.
I lasted till a bit past midnight and then gave up and went to sleep.
Today was better, though: the sun came out and i went to the beach and swam in the pacific which down here is blissfully warm (if perhaps a bit, y´know, dirty). That alone made the trip worth it- having been in portland and vermont and new york and then estelí, it´s been over three months since i´ve seen the sea. I missed it.
the other good thing about san juan: the food. because there are so many fucking americans and brits and australians and etc etc etc here, they serve things BESIDES gallo pinto and eggs and tortillas! I ate a fucking bagel today, i kid you not. With cream cheese and tomato and avocado. It was freaking heavenly. And you can get vegetables, like good organic salads, and fresh juice. Nicaraguans pretty much subsist on protein and carbs and eat very little fruit and veg, which can get a bit old. Whenever i eat a piece of fruit i feel like my cells are suddenly coming back to life with the introduction of vitamins into my system.
the only downside: prices are almost as bad as california. A small salad is 2.50, a large 5; my bagel cost me something like 3.50. I´d gotten to the stage where $2 seemed a bit steep for breakfast, so it is a bit of a shock. But, the diversity is welcome, and i´ll be leaving soon, so.
I´m out of time now and this is getting a bit long so more later- but hopefully i´ll be volunteering on an organic farm before too long (!!) so wish me luck!
however! today was the first day of sun, just a brief shower in the afternoon. And it was fucking hot. I´m in San Juan Del Sur now, where i arrived yesterday, and initially i thought it was the craptown of craptowns. Some lovely tidbits i overheard in my first few minutes of being at my (horrible, surfer infested) hostel:
"what do you think, boys? either german or israeli for sure". -a group of shirtless, drunk boys, trying to decide what nationality beth (welsh) and i (american, obvs) were
"i think it might be better if i just puke"-a sick boy in my dorm, at around two (!!) in the afternoon
"i was gonna snort some viagra, but then after we made out we never even hooked up, and i didn´t want to just be sitting around the hostel with a giant boner all night"
so. first impressions were grim.
however, i sucked it up and went out last night, mostly because this dude adam kept vaguely saying he might smoke me out; however, i actually really don´t even like smoking after drinking, and i don´t really like smoking at night because it just keeps me awake. I´d much rather smoke and go to the beach, or smoke and organize my bag, or smoke and study spanish. But i think i´m a bit in the minority there, at least as far as lame western boys who are in this town go.
I lasted till a bit past midnight and then gave up and went to sleep.
Today was better, though: the sun came out and i went to the beach and swam in the pacific which down here is blissfully warm (if perhaps a bit, y´know, dirty). That alone made the trip worth it- having been in portland and vermont and new york and then estelí, it´s been over three months since i´ve seen the sea. I missed it.
the other good thing about san juan: the food. because there are so many fucking americans and brits and australians and etc etc etc here, they serve things BESIDES gallo pinto and eggs and tortillas! I ate a fucking bagel today, i kid you not. With cream cheese and tomato and avocado. It was freaking heavenly. And you can get vegetables, like good organic salads, and fresh juice. Nicaraguans pretty much subsist on protein and carbs and eat very little fruit and veg, which can get a bit old. Whenever i eat a piece of fruit i feel like my cells are suddenly coming back to life with the introduction of vitamins into my system.
the only downside: prices are almost as bad as california. A small salad is 2.50, a large 5; my bagel cost me something like 3.50. I´d gotten to the stage where $2 seemed a bit steep for breakfast, so it is a bit of a shock. But, the diversity is welcome, and i´ll be leaving soon, so.
I´m out of time now and this is getting a bit long so more later- but hopefully i´ll be volunteering on an organic farm before too long (!!) so wish me luck!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
la di da
well, i´ve already written a bit about dance class but i feel it needs to be reinforced. Dance class ruuuules. I´ve decided on my next venture, which is heading to san juan del sur in the south for surfing. Cheaper and amelia recommended. plus, last night i met some guys who i went out drinking with who live there and have businesses there, one of them drunkenly promised beth and i (awesome welsh girl who i think i´m going down there with) that he would get us access to a private beach if we gave him a call. he also promised to get me stoned. so hurrah!
in other news: i have a date on monday. yeppers, a real one. well, maybe. It´s hard to be sure, i guess. And the boy is certainly not really my type. He´s american but his parents are nicaraguan and his dad lives down here and he´s here taking care of his dad who is sick. Anyway, he has hair with gel in it and passes for nicaraguan, so it´s a start, right?
also i made out with a real american boy last night. and, well, today. we´re sleeping in the same dorm. it´s pretty silly, really. i´m not even attracted to him, though he does do good magic tricks and is funny and intelligent and a decent kisser. sigh. but it is nice to touch someone.
anyway, this is supposed to be about travel!
so i guess to sum up i´m having a nice time, leaving town wednesday, probably going to take more spanish classes, still excited about travelling home over land.
oh!
and last night i left my wallet in a fucking taxi coming home drunk from the discoteque, and i thought i was completely fucked because my bank cards were in it and i had absolutely no way of taking out money.
luckily, the most lovely cab driver in all of nicaragua realized, came back that night and gave the wallet to beth, who is sleeping with oto, the sexy hunky nicaraguan who works in the cafe, and she didn´t wake up to give it back to me until 9, about 20 minutes after i´d realized i´d left it in the cab. so, freaking out occured, but not much.
and that´s all for now.
in other news: i have a date on monday. yeppers, a real one. well, maybe. It´s hard to be sure, i guess. And the boy is certainly not really my type. He´s american but his parents are nicaraguan and his dad lives down here and he´s here taking care of his dad who is sick. Anyway, he has hair with gel in it and passes for nicaraguan, so it´s a start, right?
also i made out with a real american boy last night. and, well, today. we´re sleeping in the same dorm. it´s pretty silly, really. i´m not even attracted to him, though he does do good magic tricks and is funny and intelligent and a decent kisser. sigh. but it is nice to touch someone.
anyway, this is supposed to be about travel!
so i guess to sum up i´m having a nice time, leaving town wednesday, probably going to take more spanish classes, still excited about travelling home over land.
oh!
and last night i left my wallet in a fucking taxi coming home drunk from the discoteque, and i thought i was completely fucked because my bank cards were in it and i had absolutely no way of taking out money.
luckily, the most lovely cab driver in all of nicaragua realized, came back that night and gave the wallet to beth, who is sleeping with oto, the sexy hunky nicaraguan who works in the cafe, and she didn´t wake up to give it back to me until 9, about 20 minutes after i´d realized i´d left it in the cab. so, freaking out occured, but not much.
and that´s all for now.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
travel blog
look ma, i created a travel blog!
i think i´m too lazy to really write in it right now, also vaguely depressed because today, for the first time, not one single person emailed me or wrote something on my facebook or whatever. Obviously this should be fine, but goddamnit, yesterday i even wrote a few people, who clearly have no interest in writing me back. ok. I am insecure. In any case i´m doing lots of vaguely interesting things here and some boring ones, i don´t know where i´m going next and suddenly i realize i don´t hardly know anyone who has travelled in central america to ask. Except amelia. So. when i am less lazy i will do that.
now i am going to go back to my hostel and study spanish for a while, and then maybe do some drinking for it is simon´s last night here. which is too bad.
in a week or two i may go become scuba diving certified in honduras, wouldn´t that be kinda neat? i think so. It´s $250, but that´s far cheaper than anywhere else in the world, and the bay islands are the second biggest (or coolest or something) coral reef after the great barrier reef, so it seems a bit like a ¨may as well¨scenario.
alright!
more later.
i think i´m too lazy to really write in it right now, also vaguely depressed because today, for the first time, not one single person emailed me or wrote something on my facebook or whatever. Obviously this should be fine, but goddamnit, yesterday i even wrote a few people, who clearly have no interest in writing me back. ok. I am insecure. In any case i´m doing lots of vaguely interesting things here and some boring ones, i don´t know where i´m going next and suddenly i realize i don´t hardly know anyone who has travelled in central america to ask. Except amelia. So. when i am less lazy i will do that.
now i am going to go back to my hostel and study spanish for a while, and then maybe do some drinking for it is simon´s last night here. which is too bad.
in a week or two i may go become scuba diving certified in honduras, wouldn´t that be kinda neat? i think so. It´s $250, but that´s far cheaper than anywhere else in the world, and the bay islands are the second biggest (or coolest or something) coral reef after the great barrier reef, so it seems a bit like a ¨may as well¨scenario.
alright!
more later.
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