Matagalpa

!Hola familias y amigos!

On Sunday, we arrived by bus to the beautiful city of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. It was a change of scene moving from the rural town of Concepcion to a more fast paced larger city. We learned quickly why people say that Matagalpa is the Portland of Nicaragua, with all the trendy shops and cafes on every corner. We immediately fell in love with our new home.

This week consisted of classes at Colibri Spanish School in the morning and fun activites in the afternoon. These included visiting a local school, salsa dance classes, a cooking class, conversing with a class of English students at the University, and a morning of playing games in the central park. We quickly drew lots of attention from the locals, being 10 girls playing “Ninja” in the park.

Living in Matagalpa was a little different because we werent living together as a group, but alone with local families, This was a new experience for a lot of us, but we were placed in families that were so welcoming and full of love. For the first time, we were put in situations where the only way to communicate was through spanish (and some Charades). This was an amazing opportunity to practice what we learned this week in spanish school! I personally learned how to laugh at myself during awkward interactions with such a loving Nicaraguan mama.

Since we weren’t together as a group too often this week, we made sure to reconvene for a fun Italian dinner on Wednesday and ice cream at Bésame. This was a great night for us to share some fun stories about our first homestay experiences. We are coming to the part of our trip where were beginning to gain deeper relationships, and we are now very comfortable making fun of each other. For example, Brynne cannot take a candid photo for her life. We all laugh when Kevin takes out a camera because she instantly strikes a pose.
Every time I look at Krystal, she’s packing on another thick layer of bug spray, in constant fear of getting the dreaded “chikungunya“.
Our little jokes are always full of love. Our little family is so close already, sometimes we cant believe we only met 3 weeks ago.

Today, (Saturday), was our day off after a busy week at Colibri Spanish School, and we chose to take a tour of a local chocolate factory in the morning, and spend the afternoon at a local waterfall, swimming and reflecting on our week in Matagalpa.
I think I speak for the rest of the girls (and Kevin) when I say that we had very little complaints:-)

!Hasta pronto!

Erin