"The Drop Off"

So I have two days of Nicaraguan adventures to talk about tonight. First I need to update everyone on what happened in Leon. Yesterday we were driven to Leon in our beloved bus with our beloved bus driver Juan Pablo. When we got to the outskirts of Leon we pulled over, and our AD told us that we would be pairing up and then being scattered around the city. She gave each couple a question in Spanish that we had to find the answer to through any research methods. Lindsey and I were partners and our question asked what the history of Subtieva is. As we walked down the street we started asking people that looked friendly. Most of these people were actually young students who were always really excited to get the "chelas" attention (white girls). kids love to talk to us and hear us say hola. but as we were talking to people either our pronunciation sucked or the people just didnt know, because we werent getting any information. so we decided to head for the big cathedral we could see in the distance, we figured it would be the center of the city, which it was. when we got to this cathedral and by this time sweat was pouring down our bodies we decided to try a new "research method". that's when i said to lindsey, "hmm you know what we need? a library. where can we find a library?" then i turned around and there it was, a biblioteca! we walked inside and went upstairs where we found a bunch of school kids doing their work. im sure you can imagine the look of shock when they saw us walk in. so we started looking around and these two girls kept watching us. finally they came over and asked us what we were doing. long story short they spent the next hour with us helping us find information about subtieva. we ended up finding out that it is a barrio in Leon that was founded by indigenous people and is well known for the indigenous people that still live there, speak the language, and look native. the girls were Nancy (11 yrs) and Ana (13 yrs) and they were incredible. They would correct our messy spanish and put up with our dumb questions. When we finally had enough info, Ana reached in her backpack and pulled out her notebook. She asked me if I could help her with her English homework! haha. it was amazing! it was so much fun, she was really nervous about reading some sentences she had written in english aloud to her class, so i helped her with pronunciation. then we took the girls out to lunch to thank them. as we were walking in leon i saw this huge wall with grafitti on it that said "bush genocidia". kind of the common sentiment in nicaragua. after lunch we explored some more, went to a ruben dario museum and walked to the barrio subtieva. it was really interesting and the city is amazing. its very colonial and some of the churches were still standing from the 1600s. it is also an important city because it was where the first Somoza was assasinated in the 50s. That is thought of as the start of the revolution.

Then today we had our interviews for placement in our homes and spanish classes. tomorrow i find out who my family will be and what classes i wil be in. im so nervous to meet my family! After the interviews we all walked to the Mercado Central where I bought a cell phone. If anyone wants or needs to get in touch with me....my number is 505-485-9704 and the country code is 011. try that and see if it works. sometimes you need the city code too which is 2. just mess around with it, until it connects. i would love to hear from you guys!

Next time I'll let you know how the homestays go!

Brittany---I miss you and you are almost done with lifeguarding for the year. congrats! i love you i love you i love you.

East Coast Fam---I miss you guys and please let me know how everything is going. J Bird don't forget the secret handshake!