Orientation

I decided to just have a Nicaragua blog instead of a general adventure blog to use in the future...

During Orientation, we are based in a hotel in Managua. We have air conditioning and wireless. It feels like SIT is slowly letting us adjust to culture shock. We have been talking about health, safety, and the academics. On Sunday, we go to our homestays. I am getting used to cold showers and lots of rain. Even though I am not using the awesome rain jacket that I bought at REI, you dry off very quickly. People seem to use umbrellas more than jackets here. Also, these umbrellas are LOVELY with butterflies and flowers.

I should probably stop trying to fit in with dress and such because I will always look like a gringa. Nicaraguans or Nicas are shorter and a lot of them have curly hair. Aynn was telling us that 'planchar el pello' or to iron the hair is becoming popular. Her young daughter (11?) is already becoming obsessed with ironing her hair.

Eating: There is a lot of RICE AND BEANS! We also are having a delicious chile/salsa/onion topping that is heavy in vinegar and spice. You can put it on chicken or something else. For breakfast, it is more rice and beans as well as eggs and coffee. Nicaraguans also like to fry food. Personally, I love fried food, but I may not tell my homestay this because then they may fix it for me all the time :)

The politics: Already, I can tell what a political country it is. Aynn (our program director) told us that you can tell someone's political views by what radio station you listen to. For example, taxi drivers may be playing their favorite station. However, sometimes they may play another station to see if you like it and thus, assess their passengers' political views. Graffiti is common with 'viva FSLN' (FSLN = the Sandinista political party) and 'viva Daniel' (Daniel Ortega is the current Sandinista president) as popular sights. Of course, you will also see 'viva la revolucion.'

You can also see the politics in the statues or public monuments...I may tell these stories in another blog.

The drop off: Evey SIT program seems to do a drop off where students are given questions to find out the answers to as we begin to use field research methods. We went to Leon on Friday to do this. Amber and I had to find out about the UNAN and la Gigantona. Leon is a great colonial city that is centered on the UNAN or Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua. Thus, the university is autonomous or separated from the church and the government in its decisions. It does receive almost all of its funding from the government.

Now, we are back in Managua for 2 more days of Spanish language testing and matching us with our homestays.