¡Hola amigos y familia! This is Becca reporting from a scorching hot but beautiful León. It has been a very busy week, what with adjusting to a new location, but I think everyone has officially settled in and is having a great time!
Like Rachael said, we began our time in León by meeting our families. Unlike the homestay situation in Xela, the majority of us are staying two to a family. This definitely makes it easier to communicate and at least attempt to understand what our families are saying. We spent Sunday getting to know our families, eating gallo pinto (mixed rice and beans- the traditional meal of Nicaragua) and exploring the city a little, as well as preparing for another two weeks of spanish school.
Most of the group had a difficult time starting back up at our spanish school, Casa Dariana. We were all definitely a bit rusty with our Spanish, and we were not prepared to talk in Spanish to a native Spanish speaker for 4 hours straight. To make matters worse, Nicaraguan Spanish is not easy to understand- they talk unbelievably fast and don’t pronouce ‘s’ sounds at the end of words. However, all of our teachers were very accomodating and willing to meet us at our respective level.
We begin each day doing “normal” spanish class activities: taking notes, reading article, doing exercises. However, to keep our attention, the teachers often take us on field trips during the second half of class. My favorite field trip was to the Museum of Myths and Legends. The building itself is actually an old prison that they used to hold political prisoners (one of our spanish teachers was actually held there when he was a Sandanista). The museum contains handmade lifesize dolls that each represent a different Nicaraguan myth or legend. One of the more interesting myths was that of “La Chancha Bruja (The Pig Witch).” In this legend, a woman thought her husband was cheating on her, so every night she said an incantation to turn herself into a pig. That way, she could follow her husband when he left the house. Legend says that if a man is cheating on his wife, he will be followed by a black pig, representing La Chancha Bruja. Other activities have included visiting the local cathedral and watching a documentary on the Nicaraguan Revolution.
Since we didn’t have class today (it is Saturday after all), the group took a trip to one of the local volcanoes to go sandboarding. We got up bright and early (7:45 to be exact) to take our favorite form of transportation, the open-backed truck, to the volcano Cerro Negro. Cerro Negro is a beautiful volcano covered with black volcanic ash (hence the name) and situated amoung several other volcanoes, including Telica and El Hoyo. With our sandboards strapped to our back, we hiked about 45 minutes up the volcano. On the way to the top, we stopped to see a large crater and the sulfur formations that covered the crater. Once we finally made it to the top, we put on our gear consisting of a bright green jumpsuit, goggles and gloves (we looked like a hazmat crew), and rode down the mountain two-by-two. The ride was exhilirating- we reached speeds of 35 miles per hour! Although the actual ride down the mountain only took about a minute, it was definitely worth the trek up to the top. After a short break, some members of the group decided to go for a second run while the others laid on hammocks back at the rest station. To make a great day amazing, we all received free t-shirts when we returned back to the city!
Tomorrow, we are going to the beach to relax and rejuvinate before we have to go back to school. Hopefully our second week in León will be as exciting and eventful as the first!
Love and verb conjugations,
Becca
PS- At the request of both Meghan and my parents, below are a few photos from the past weeks:
