Three months in

Pineapple banana smoothie in a bag. Delicious.

Wait, it's October!? I cannot believe that I have already been in Managua for three months. The days have been blending together. I am more than halfway done with my semester and realize that I have not yet written about how my classes are going. Well, I'll tell you. I am enrolled in four classes here at UNAN-Managua. One class is taught by Hector, our program director, and only the five of us take that class. It is titled "Poverty, Revolution, and Neoliberalism in Nicaragua" and has probably been the most interesting class here. The other three classes are taken with Nica students and professors. I have the same professor for two of them (Latin American Social Movements, and 20th Century Nicaraguan History), and he is very cool. He'll frequently ask me for my perspective on things and to clarify historical facts about the US, which I like but it means that I have to always be paying attention and make sure I've got my facts down (by the way, when they tell you that you should freshen up on the policies and history of the US when traveling somewhere, make sure you do that. Especially in Latin America, where we've played a huge role in their history. Because you will be quizzed and debated with, and you don't want people to think Americans are ignorant. Don't ruin it for all of us!).

 My other class is a seminar on Central American history, and I despise it. There are about seven of us and it is mainly discussion based. The professor speaks very quietly and mumbles a lot, which makes him very difficult to understand. He is also constantly tearing down the US, which isn't what really bothers me, I don't mind hearing it from a different perspective, but sometimes he just sounds straight up ignorant. Unlike the other professor who will ask me for my opinion from a more neutral perspective, this guy will make me defend the actions of the United States that were clearly wrong. It gets really old. He told me that when I get back to the States to ask my local representative about when the US will stop messing in Latin American affairs. "You got it sir..." He also shows no sympathy to the fact that I am not fluent in Spanish, so if there's something from the reading that I may have not seen, he thinks it's because I don't read and don't do any of the work and will constantly call me out. The students are very nice however and will always help me out if I missed something during class.

What has been fascinating about being here for three months is noticing the huge difference in traveling somewhere and actually living there. When you travel to a different country, you stay in your sort of "bubble" so to speak. Your perspective stays the same. You really never adjust to the local society, customs, even language. You form a sort of barrier between you and the local culture. Everything is foreign and exotic. You are always on the outside looking in. But after a few months of living in a different country, those barriers start to come down. Things become familiar and not all that strange. You know how to get around the city and travel to other ones. It starts to feel more like home. I don't want to say that there aren't things that still surprise me and seem odd or funny (like a family of four on a dirt bike always gives me a good chuckle for example), but there are many things that I have adjusted to since July. Although I am probably missing a ton of things that would have been odd to me at first, here's some that I can name:

• Cold showers
• No A/C, the heat in general
• Stray dogs
• Riding the bus (always a good time)
• Streets with no names ("It's two blocks to the lake (north), one block up!" (up is east))
• Car alarms at all times of day
• Rebecca, the parrot, that lives across the street. "¡Buenas!" "¡Hola amor!" For the first few weeks I thought it was some kid yelling at people as they passed by.
• Riding in pick up trucks
• Loud music
• People with machetes
• Ants and lizards in the house
• Every street light painted red and black (FSLN colors)
• Revolution and political graffiti. Seeing Sandino's picture everywhere
• Drinking out of bags
• Bargaining with cab drivers

What I have not gotten used to here are the clouds. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. These things are MASSIVE and they make the coolest shapes and not to mention ridiculous sunsets, which occur every day if it's not raining. This was one I caught the other day...

I've also found out that all you really need in the world is an internet connection. Anyways, there's still a bunch of places I still want to see and things I want to do (like sand boarding down Volcan Cerro Negro!), so I hope the next few months are equally as cool as the first three.