baby steps

It's been three days in Granada and I'm loving it.  It is a beautiful city and the hotel we are staying at is a 5 minute walk from Lake Nicaragua, a fresh water later with 365 islands and fresh water sharks.  I can see the Mombacho Volcano from the balcony of our hotel room.

Today our group, Nica 54, was given a surprise which was a boat ride on the lake for about 2 hours.  One of the islands is owned by the richest man in Nicaragua who makes Flor de Cana, the most well known rum in Nicaragua.  Another island had monkeys on it who jumped on a couple of our boats (not mine unfortunately) but they were adorable and eating lollipops people gave them.  Sooo.. we are all kind of curious what the Peace Corps is actually about because we've been having a pretty upscale lifestyle for the past few days.  To acclimate to the culture, we definitely are taking teeny tiny baby steps but I'm not complaining!

We've also been having training on literally everything-- safety, culture, language... you know, our job for the next two years.  We were placed in our Spanish groups today after an oral interview and then a mini class this morning with others who were on a similar level.  For the next three months I'll be living in Santa Teresa, a town in the region of Carazo, with my host family!!  Along with my host mom and day, I have two host sisters but word on the street says there are usually a lot more people living in the house.  I'm really excited to meet them tomorrow morning.  The next 3 months consist of intense Spanish training for 4 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon Monday through Thursday.  Fridays are usually for situating other things like meds and more training on culture and safety.  On occasional Saturdays, we have technical training which means I'll learn how to start a garden, make compost, and other things relating to the environment and how to teach it in the schools.  There are three other volunteers in my town and I'll be with them everyday learning Spanish with our Nica facilitator.  Needless to say, it's an exhausting 3 months but completely necessary for me whose Spanish is certainly not up to par.

I'm off to go downstairs to our hotel pool and outside dining area where we're having a huge dance party and probably getting some salsa, cha cha cha, and merengue lessons.  You know my dancing skills are unfortunate so I've got a lot to learn.

Another post will be coming soon to tell you all about my family!