My Morning at the Court

This morning I walked to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, with my Human Rights professor and a few of my classmates. It was so interesting. I've never seen a legal system in action before, and to be able to see first hand how it functions, was fascinating--maybe I'm a nerd for government related things.

The Organization of American States (OAS), is an organization consisting of member states from  North and South America.  According to Article 1 in the charter it was established to achieve, “an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.”  35 American states are members of the OAS.

A function of the OAS is to promote human rights and find the injustices happening in the Americas.  Within the OAS, there is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (it's seated in San José, Costa Rica), which solely hears cases on human rights violations from OAS member states.  It's composed of judges from member countries of the OAS.  Though every state belonging to the OAS is allowed to bring forth cases to the court, not all have ratified the American Convention, which gives the court jurisdiction in their country. The United States has yet to ratify the Convention. This leaves me questioning the motives behind that decision. 

It looks like the White House.

The case being presented today was between an Ecuadorian military colonel and the State of Ecuador. Here's a quick run down of the case. The military colonel, wasn't allowed to be promoted to the general position, even though he was well deserving of it, and the military officials wouldn't tell him why.  He began to start questioning why he wasn't able to be promoted, and then Ecuador started to threaten him and his family. The military colonel started to have mental illness because of all the negative effects it had on him.  He is accusing Ecuador of a violation to proper legal representation along with other things. 

The hearing was all in Spanish, it was very challenging to understand everything that was going on.  Throughout the whole thing I was concentrating so hard to tune out everything else and just listen to the Spanish, and at the same time wishing I would've arrived early enough to get a headset for the English translation.  I picked up bits and pieces, but it helped significantly that my professor; who is fluent in Spanish, was there taking us aside and explaining the happenings.

Inside the court room.

Seating area.

Besides everything being in Spanish, it was still cool to see the procedure of the court room and the formality of it all.  Instead of the case being presented by the victim's lawyers it was presented by the victim himself.  It's a pretty unique thing for the victim to present his own case, but I felt that made the argument more profound.  He was well versed in the legal terminology, and able to sound educated-- making a good argument.

Days like today where I'm able to do something I enjoy and do something completely new, makes me appreciate being in Costa Rica. It reminds me that I'm here for a reason, which is to learn about the culture, meet people and see new things.  I'm hoping that I'll go back to watch another court case, but I'll make sure to get there early for a headset with the English translation. 

¡Pura Vida!

History Lesson: Juan SantaMaría

Juan SantaMaría Statue

Since I've been here, I've become quite the history buff.  I find Latin American history much more interesting than that of the United States.  There is only so much I can take of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They are pretty cool and did amazing things, but I prefer Che and other Latin American revolutionary leaders.

In the US our heros did very significant things, such as free slaves, lead a revolution for freedom and independence, defeat the axis powers, and fight for civil rights for all people.  In Costa Rica it's a little different, they have one main hero, and his name is Juan SantaMaría. I briefly mentioned him in my last blog, but I wanted to give a little background information on his story.  

Juan SantaMaría was born on August 29, 1831, in the city of Alajuela (that's the city I visited in my last blog post).  He joined the Costa Rican military, when Costa Rica was at war with Nicaragua/William Walker.  SantaMaría joined as a drummer boy for the military.  During the Second Battle of Rivas in Nicaragua, Walker's military had a big advantage because they held command of a house in the center of town.  There were several attempts by Costa Rican soldiers to take over the house, but it only ended in blood and death.  SantaMaría decided to give it a try, and took of for the house with a lighted torch.  He was successful, but ended up dying in the process.  The success of SantaMaría, led to the Costa Rican victory of the Battle of Rivas.  SantaMaría is now commemorated as a national hero in Costa Rica.  He has a plaza, statue, museum and the international airport named after him, along with a national holiday--April 11th, the day he died.

The statue calls home to Alajuela, his birth place.  Interesting fact about the statue, it was made in France.  The French sculptor, who made it, replicated it after a French soldier in a French uniform, not SantaMaría.  Even though the statue doesn't look like SantaMaría it doesn't stop the Costa Rican people from being proud of it.

¡Pura Vida!

Juan SantaMaría Museum (it used to be a jail and army garrison)

Replica of the Juan SantaMaría statue

Closer look at Juan SantaMaría Statue

Exploring Alajuela

The view from the Juan SantaMaría Museum.

Saturday, I decided to leave the house and travel to the city of Alajuela.  Here's the summary, 6 Americans who just wanted to get out of San José with no set plans and eager to explore a new city--it was great.

We were living the tico life during the trip, care-free attitude with no sense of time.  Our plans were to meet up at 9:30am to catch the bus to downtown.  After nearly missing two buses and picking up a fellow American on the way, we finally made it downtown at 10:30am. Nobody really cared that it took us nearly an hour to get downtown, which was the best part.  There was no rush or hurry.

I would describe Alajuela as a mini-San José. It's the capital city of the province Alajuela, so it's a popular and busy like San José, but not as quite that bustling.  It has parks, museums, plazas, stores and everything a big city has.  Other than size the different climates sets apart, Alajuela and San José.  Alajuela is much hotter than San José. It was about 90 degrees and sunny in Alajuela, while 80 degrees in San José.  

We decided to check out the local farmers market, when we arrived. It is supposed to be one of the largest and best markets in Costa Rica.  Hundreds of people were there buying and selling fresh produce.  It was living culture.  We walked around looking at all the fruits and vegetables, stopping at some stands to ask what the names of some things were.

Alajuela Farmers Market

Sometimes being a foreigner has it's perks.  See people pay more attention to you just because you look different. Several times we were offered free samples of fruits and vegetables.  One time I went up to talk to a man selling small, green banana-looking fruits.  I asked him what they were and what not.  He ended up giving me three of them, to try.  I offered money, but he said this to me in Spanish, "it's free to you because you are a foreigner." I'll take it.

When we were done at the market, we walked through the town to the central park.  There was not an open bench to be found, the park was filled with families, couples and kids.  Seeing people spend their day in a community spot is a common sight in Costa Rica. After finding ice cream and McDonald's, how much more American can we get, we sat down and watched kids sing and dance to Disney song's in Spanish.  "Honor to Us All" ("Nos vas a brindar honor"), "Under the Sea" ("Bajo del Mar") were my favorites, and I attached the links to the Spanish YouTube videos.

The Juan SantaMaría museum was directly across the street from the central park, so we went and
checked it out after the music ended.  It housed military artifacts from the Second Battle of Rivas and artwork spanning from colonial art depicting the Second Battle of Rivas to satirical pop art.  The Second Battle of Rivas was fought between Costa Rica and William Walker, a man who at the time was trying to control Nicaragua, and had a future goal of controlling all of Latin America. The battle also gave Costa Rica their national hero, Juan SantaMaría.  Walker was an American, and has very interesting endeavors in Latin America.  


After a day of exploring a new city, it was time to head back to San José.  At the end of the day, I'm always excited to get back to San José, back to my host family and house (I know it's not my house, but it feels like it is).  
¡Pura Vida!

Back to Monteverde: Ecological Photography Rendition

 
                                                         
A few weekends ago, my ecological photography class took a field trip to Monteverde.  It was quite suiting that an ecological photography class went to Monterverde, because it's a cloud forest with mass amounts of nature. It was a short two day trip, that ended up being one of my favorite weekends in Costa Rica. It was free, relaxing, and the only obligation I had was to take pictures--it wasn't too bad. 

Saturday morning we left for Monterverde.  This was my second time going to Monteverde.  The first time I went, was my first weekend in Costa Rica.  If you remember back to my blog post about the trip, you will know that, the travel up the mountain to our first stop was not enjoyable.  This time I was better prepared, and was able to enjoy the gorgeous view of the mountains.

Amazing Rainb

After getting to the hotel, we set off to lunch and explored the town.  We climbed hills, ate our weight in casados, explored cute craft stores, saw an amazing rainbow, and took pictures. I felt like I could have found the pot of gold if I would have walked a little more--it was so close to us.  Overall it was a great afternoon.

After a few hours of looking around the town, some of us girls decided to get a snack and smoothies from a cafe next to our hotel.  The restaurant had a bunch of hammocks surrounding the building, with a grill and picnic tables sitting outside.  It had a homey feel to it.  It looked liked someone's kitchen when we walked inside.  If you sat inside the restaurant you would have been able to watch the cook prepare the food--it was pretty cool. It was unique and fit well with the town of Monteverde.  Monteverde is filled with art and craft stores and one of a kind restaurants/cafes--it's definitely a quaint, unique town.  It takes special kinds of people to want to live in a the mountains and live hours away from real civilization. 

Anyways at the cafe, we ordered smoothies and the most amazing cookies.  If they wouldn't have cost $1.00 per cookie, I would have walked out with a whole bag.  They were a combination of honey, oatmeal, almonds and chocolate--delicious.  It was a lot of fun, and we were able to get to know each other better during that time.  Most of us, hadn't known each other very well before going on the field trip, because we were all in different programs. Also, this was my fifth week in Costa Rica, so a change of people to hang out with for the weekend was also refreshing.



That night consisted of dinner and going out.  It was relaxing and filled with great food.  The memorable thing about the night, was that on our way to dinner we saw a one-handed sloth make it's way down a power line and into the trees.   It was a pro.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with, so I couldn't take any pictures.  Sloths are the one animal that I really wanted to see while I was in Costa Rica.  I've seen sloths I think three times now, and have never been able to capture a decent photo of them--it's weird.

The next day the group went on a hanging bridge tour through the cloud forest.  I was so excited about this, because last time I went to Monteverde I only went zip-lining, so I wasn't able to see much.  Our group had a guide who took us on a 2.5 hour tour through the forest, and pointed out plants and animals.  He spoke mostly in Spanish, that was a challenge.  I don't even know plant names and science terms in English, how would I even begin to understand in Spanish.  While he talked, I took pictures--it was a much better alternative.

Cloud Forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging Bridge

Overall it was a great trip.  I'm so glad I got to go back to Monteverde, it is such a neat place with so much personality and nature. The relaxing weekend was much needed.

¡Pura Vida!

Weekend Trip to Montezuma

Playa Montezuma

I spent this past weekend in a beach town, called Montezuma. It's about a 6 hour bus/ferry ride from San Jose--it's located on the peninsula of Costa Rica. I've heard only good things about Montezuma and wanted to check it out for myself.  It's a small town, with a peace and love feel to it, and reggae music radiates the streets.  The locals were incredibly chill.  Even though, it was a popular tourist destination, it hasn't lost it's local culture like many other towns in Costa Rica.

We arrived in Montezuma around 12:30, after riding three different buses and a ferry--I feel like getting somewhere in Costa Rica, is always a  challenge. All I can remember is that it was so HOT! It must have been 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. I was literally dripping sweat on our trek up the steep hill to our hostel. All I could think about when I got to my room was that I wanted to put my swimsuit on and run into the ocean and stay there all day long. It was so hot.

The four of us, got our swimsuits on and walked real fast to the beach--we were determined. The water felt so wonderful. It was warm, but so so refreshing. We spent the entire afternoon at the beach, laying out, jumping waves and people watching. It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.

So after a long day in the sun, we went back to our hostel. Now let me tell you about the hostel. It supported eco-friendliness. They had low-pressure, cold showers, biodegradable soap, re-usable dishes. Actually the cold shower wasn't too bad, after being in the sun all day long, a cold shower was nice--I couldn't complain.

Now the living situation was similar to a cabin living experience--it brought me back to Girl Scout summer camp. Bunk beds, wooden floors, screens acting as windows. I mean for $15.00 a night I can't expect a 5 star hotel. I got what I paid for--mass amounts of mosquito bites, a cold shower, gallo pinto for breakfast, a squeaky mattress and no air-conditioning.

Even though the actual hostel wasn't too great, being able to meet young people from all over the world was really cool. During the weekend stay I met someone from Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, England, Costa Rica and some fellow Americans. It was fun learning about other cultures and hearing great accents. One night one of my friends and I stayed up playing games with someone from Florida and Denmark--it was a lot of fun. One of the games we played was where each person picked a famous person, wrote the name on the piece of paper then passed the paper to another person playing. So at the beginning of the game, each person had a famous persons name, that they didn't know the name of, and had to ask yes and no questions to figure out who it was. We ended up picking more historical international figures than just famous Americans, in respect to the non-American.

The next morning we set off in the morning to go hiking to the

Montezuma Falls

Montezuma Waterfalls, with some of our new friends from the hostel. It was about a 10-15 minute hike to the waterfall with a swimming area surrounding it. Again it was such a hot day, and the cold water was so refreshing. It was fun to relax, swim, talk and look at the beautiful waterfall. It's funny because in Costa Rica, going to see a waterfall is no big deal, because they are all over the place. Since I've arrived in Costa Rica, I've seen three waterfalls.


Overall I had a great weekend relaxing at the beach and meeting new people.  The hostel living is something I will definitely try again.

¡Pura Vida!

Drake girls at the Montezuma Falls.

What to do?

Since my daily, 4 hour Spanish class ended in January, I've had a lot of free time. I would have killed for this kind of time at Drake, but now that I have it I don't ever know what to do. So far, I've done a pretty good job at keeping busy, but two months of no morning plans, is going to get to me.

Luckily, my program director plans group outings for those of us not in Spanish, to keep us busy. So far, I've gone to the zoo, Gold Museum, National Museum of Costa Rica and Artisan Street with my program. It's fun being able to leave the house for the morning and see a new parts of San Jose. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of San Jose, I've found the city does have a lot to offer--they have several museums, cultural centers, shops, restaurants, parks and historical monuments. A random tidbit of information: every museum that I've visited has offered a discounted entry price for ticos. I think that's such a great idea! It's a way to make things affordable and accessible by the locals, so they are able to enjoy their own culture.

Anyways, other than going to places with my group, I've been trying to think of ways to keep myself busy at home. Today I started reading Alice in Wonderland in Spanish (Alicia en el País de las Maravillas), it's challenging and will keep me busy for awhile. I asked my tica mom a few weeks ago, if I could borrow some of her easier books, so I could keep up my Spanish while not in class. I've also set a goal to learn 10 new Spanish words a day...so far it hasn't been too successful, but I'm going to try to pick it back up again.

Other than trying to practice Spanish, I'm trying to go on walks everyday. Since I have the time, I want to stay as active as possible. I even want to try running outside, I'm just really afraid of falling in a hole (no joke) or hurting myself in a crack on the road. So far I'm going to wait on the running and continue with the walking. I feel like daily walks, will become my new thing--as grandma-like as it is, I don't care.

CNN is my new go-to when I get bored. I have an app on my iPod, it's my homepage on my laptop and I even get the tv channel in English. It's great. I feel so update to the happenings of the world. Staying up to date on current events is something I missed while at Drake--I felt like I didn't have time to sit down and watch the news or read more than just the headlines.

Anyways back to Alicia en el País de las Maravillas! My goal is to finish chapter 1 today. 4 pages left!

¡Pura Vida!

El Plato Típico: Casado

Casados, are the names for the typical plates of Costa Rican cuisine. What is a casado exactly, well it's a plate of food consisting of rice, beans, salad, tortillas, fried bananas, some type of meat and a natural fruit drink. They are found in almost every restaurant in Costa Rica and are fairly cheap. I've paid as little as $3.00 and as high as $6.00 for a casado.

In Spanish, casado means "married." I thought it was a little weird when I first arrived in Costa Rica that casado was always written on menus. After a little research I've found two possibilities of why a casado is called a casado. One being that the plate of food has a marriage or togetherness of all the flavors. The other reason I found was that these plates were served in restaurants, and customers would say they wanted to be treated as casado or married, meaning that married men ate this type dish when at home. I'm going with the first reason, it seems more reasonable.

For the meats typically you can choose from fish, beef, chicken or seafood (depending where you are in Costa Rica). I normally go with the fish, because the beef here is much different than what I'm used to in the U, and I like to take advantage of paying $4.00 on average for a fish fillet.

The natural fruit juice is my favorite part of the casado. There are so many different types of fruit available in Costa Rica, it's unreal. The typical varieties that a person is able to choose from is, pineapple/piña, blackberry/mora, cas, watermelon/sandía, papaya and iced tea/te frio. Cas, pineapple and blackberry (mora in Spanish) are my favorites. I explained what cas was in one of my earlier blog posts.

Despite the blandness of the casado dish, I do like it for the most part because you get so much food, able to have some variety and choosing and it's really cheap.


¡Pura Vida!

Highlights of My Nicaragua Trip

There are too many memories from my trip to write one entry about them, so I'll give the quick rundown of my weekend in Nicaragua.

1. "Is that really our bus?"
I laughed when I first saw the bus pull up. It was small and showed no signs of a restroom. 8 hours on a bus, no bathroom and being forced to sit next to another person = an unhappy Emily. On the plus side we got drinks and snacks for the ride there...it didn't compensate for the sore back and uncomfortably, though.















2. Zip-ling for the second time.
When I found out I was going to be zip-lining again, I wasn't happy. For some reason, I didn't want to go. I have a control issue and zip-lining is not for the control freak, because you have little to no control on that thing. Even though I didn't want to, I decided to do it. While I'm over here I've been trying to do things despite not wanting to--I just tell myself that I should take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way.This time the instructors let us do different positions than just the standard one-person going forward. The first time I went backwards with the instructor and another girl, who decided to go upside down. The second line, I went superman style. It was a lot of fun and nerve wracking, but I'm so glad I did it. I liked it better this time because we were in an open area of trees surrounding a lake.





























3. "Ok, I don't want to buy your hammock, now let me eat my cheesy platanos and drink my smoothie."
So my first night in Granada my friend and I walked around the town. We ended up at an outdoor restaurant ordering smoothies and cheesy platanos ( I don't ever know why I thought they would be good) . Anyways, this young man came up to us with hammocks for sale. Now, I've wanted a hammock since I've arrived in Costa Rica, so I was about to jump at the oppurtunity to buy a $10.00 hammock. I went up to the woman who owned the restaurant to get change to give to the guy, and she advised me not to buy it--so I didn't. My friend and I told him several times as we were eating our food we didn't want the hammock. He stood 5 feet away staring at us, at times he had evil in his eyes and at other times he had puppy-dog eyes. It was annoying. He didn't end up leaving until the woman yelled at him to go away.

4. Masaya Market.
I love markets with all my heart. Markets is one of the simple joys in life. They are so great because you can buy such unique things, that is guaranteed to come with a story. Also the most interesting people are in markets--I could people watch for hours in markets. At the Masaya market I ended up buying handmade jewelry, pottery and paintings. The Masaya is one of the popular Indian tribes in Nicaragua.

5. Masaya Volcano.
The volcano is still active and emits sulfur gases. We were only allowed 20 minutes, because if we would have stayed longer, the sulfur could have caused respiratory problems. On top of a hill overlooking the crater, was a tall wooden cross. It was put on the hill by the Masaya Indians because they believed the volcano contained the devil, and they wanted to the devil to leave.





















































6. Typical Nicaraugan Dish.
I'm pretty sure every meal I had in Nicaragua except for one was the typical Nicaragua dish. Gallo Pinto (rice and beans), salty cheese, beef and salad. I'm getting sick of the typical dishes, that are so popular and are every where. I enjoy variety in my food, not the same the same dish every meal.

7. Boat tour of the Isletas de Granada.
There are 365 Isletas (islands) of Granada and in the surrounding water are all types of fish and reptiles. We took a boat around the islands for about an hour or so and saw all types of birds, animals and trees. We stopped at one of the island named "Monkey Island" and three monkeys jumped onto our boat! One monkey named Lucy, walked and climbed all over our boat and sat on my lap! It was great. The boat tour was definitly one of my favorite memories from the trip.
















8. Soy Nica.
While I was walking down the street with one of my friends there was a store named Soy Nica. With a name like Soy Nica and handbags for sale I had to go in. When I walked into the store it was so modern looking, much different than any other store I've been to since coming to Costa Rica. Inside were handmade leather bags, key chains and purses. I ended up treating myself to a new leather bag while I was there--it was too cute to resist. Not only was the store itself different the owners were as well. The owners were from the Netherlands and had one daughter. They decided a few years ago, after falling in love with Nicaragua from a vacation that they wanted to move to Nicaragua. Neither one knew anything about making handbags, but they learned how, and opened up the shop. In the back of the store is there workspace--where the workers make the bags.
















9. Walking through the central square of Granada.
Every time I walked through the square I was greeted by music, a new person or temptation to buy something. The central square is the most happening place in Granada. There were groups of people scattered on benches and tables throughout the square, food stands and tables with handmade artwork. It's also where I encountered the most begging children. It's kind of like the Buckle, you can't walk through it without being approached by someone--in this case it was begging kids instead of store clerks. All the kids looked sad, hungry and dirty--I felt bad but really I didn't have money or food to give.

Masaya Indian playing music in the square.

































10. Chocolate Museum.
I went to the Choco Museo with one of my friends and program director in Granada on one of our free nights from the trip. We looked around, learned about chocolate and the uses of it during Mayan and Aztec time and received free samples--it was great. Afterward my friend and I decided to stick around for awhile longer and participate in the chocolate workshop. We were able to go through the process of roasting the beans, cracking them open, grinding them and making our own chocolate bar. I ate chocolate, had fun, learned a lot and hung out with old married couples--do I know how to have fun on a Saturday night or what.


































Masaya Lagoon. It's a water volcano now.


























Granada Cathedral

My New Found Love for Cuba

At Veritas University I'm taking a Contemporary Latin American History course for one of my three electives. So far during the semester we have learned about the independence movements of several countries through Latin America, and are currently learning about the Cuban Revolution.

Not going to lie, at first I didn't enjoy my history class. I thought is was so boring, and all we did was take notes--typical history class, right. Though now I'm starting to really enjoy it. Last week we started to cover the Cuban Revolution and Che Guevara. I fell in love! I'm seriously becoming obsessed with learning more about both Che and Cuba. In high school and college I never found something that peaked my interest like this. It's so exciting to actually find something that you want to learn about, not just something you have to learn about. It's fun!

If you don't know who Che is, I would recommend you read about him--he's a really interesting person. I'll still give you a brief synopsis of his life though. He was born and raised in Argentina. After high school he became a doctor, and decided to ride around Latin America with his friend on motorcycles in 1951. Throughout the trip he learned about other cultures, and saw many things that started to change his thoughts about the world--including poverty, economic gaps in society and political structures. He came to believe capitalism and imperialism are detrimental to an equal society. He went to Mexico and met the infamous, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul (the current president of Cuba). Che joined their revolutionary movement to overthrow the current government in Cuba, and went to Cuba with the Castros. In Cuba, Che fought in the revolution, supported literacy programs, fought against imperialism and advocated Marxist ideals. He later on died in Bolivia, where he was killed by the CIA and the Bolivian government.

I feel like my interest stems from the fact that Cuba is this unknown country with a bad reputation in the US. In school I was only taught about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the United States' embargo on Cuba. Basically those two subjects result in, Cuba = bad. Just now I'm learning the opposite side of the story. Not just the opposite side of the story of Cuba but other Latin American countries as well. The United States imposed their power and influence on several countries in Latin America.

My perspective about the United States and their government are changing. I wasn't ever ignorant to the United States imperialistic policies, but I was to the real consequences it has had on other countries.

¡Pura Vida!

¡Me Encantó Nicarauga! January 28th-31st

Nicaragua was absolutely amazing--I fell in love with it's rich culture and history, the bright colors and friendly people. It has me wishing I could say Soy Nica (I'm Nicaraguan)! Washington DC has moved to my second favorite city behind Granada, Nicaragua--I didn't think it could be done, but it has. I have so many memories from the past four days--it's absolutely crazy.

We arrived in Granada, Nicaragua around 8pm on Friday night. We settled into our hotel rooms and then I decided to walk around the town. It was just another girl and myself walking around the town, checking out the central square and getting a feel for the Nicaraguan culture. Now if we would have been in San Jose, we wouldn't have ever thought about walking around downtown at night by ourselves--with purses in hand. From day one, in Costa Rica I knew walking around at night wasn't a good idea--even in groups. Surprisingly, Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, is much safer than Costa Rica.

Granada is this colonial town with tons of brightly colored buildings. Everything truly looks colonial style--you can't find many modern buildings. I'm not sure how someone could be sad in Granada, the bright colors and the lively people are enough to turn any frown upside down. Granada is what I expected San Jose to look like before I arrived in Costa Rica. I expected bright colors, hot weather, friendly people, living history and a friendly atmosphere.

Walking around the first night was my first experience with the beggers in Nicaragua. Primarily, they asked for food and money. It was annoying at first but I just got used to them after awhile. The worst though was the kids asking for money and food--I felt bad for them, but I realized I couldn't help them all, so I just chose to not help any of them. Adding on to that, our tour guide said that some of the kids aren't really that poor and are sent out by there parents.

My best memories from the trip are from walking around Granada, sightseeing, people watching and talking to locals. On Saturday night, I was walking down one of the main streets with one of my friends. We were looking at the tables of jewelry for sale and stopped at one stand and got to talking with the man who had made all the jewelry. I just got to talking, in Spanish! Having conversations in another language is so rewarding. It's genuinely hard to learn a foreign language and knowing enough to have a 30 minute conversation with a local is an awesome feeling. I love learning Spanish so much because it allows me to communicate with so many more people than I would be able to if I just knew English.

The Nicas (the locals of Nicaragua) are so incredibly nice. Over the course of the weekend I never encountered a mean one--they were only kind and welcoming. All the people genuinely wanted to talk to me--or at least were really good at pretending. They would be patient with my broken and slow Spanish, and willing to help me learn--it was great. There were several times when I was walking down the street and the Nicas would walk up to me and want to talk and shake my hand. It was really strange, and I'm not sure why it happened. I don't know if it was because I was white, a girl or they wanted money--I'll never know.

Another thing I noticed through talking to people is that Nicaraguans are proud to say "Soy Nica." Nicaraguans are incredibly proud to be from Nicaraguans and to have a rich culture. I don't think I ran into one that didn't saying something about their love for their country. It was funny too because if I mentioned that I was studying in Costa Rica, they would make some sort of comment comparing the two countries--it usually went something along the lines that Nicaragua is better than Costa Rica, Nicas are friendlier or something about the strong culture of Nicaragua compared to Costa Rica. What's interesting is that even though Nicaragua is a state with many problems ranging from social to economic, the strong Nicaraguan culture hasn't faded.

The Nicaraguan culture is beautiful and makes me want to learn more. The first night I walked around Granada made me sure that I wanted to visit again.

Ending the post with Pura Vida, seems wrong, so Ciao!