As we speak I am uploading pictures via my free internet! Woohoo, I love free internet. I am going to be uploading pictures onto facebook because as of right now I have yet to figure out how to do it on here. Most of you are my friends on facebook who read this, but for some reason if you are not, you can see my pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2482017&id=10703387
If we are not friends, make me your friend!
Since I have last updated you all not much has changed. I went on a "field trip" at school today las isletas (islands) and we hung around on hammocks for about an hour. It was very relaxing. On the boat out to the islands we saw some monkeys! They were within 10 feet of our boat, it was very cool!
I have made a friend from Switzerland named Olivia. We are the same age and she has also traveled a lot. She is here just to learn Spanish, she came here knowing none. I was supposed to go out with her last weekend but she never showed up (I think I wrote about that on here?) but it turns out she accidentally fell asleep still adjusting to the time zone change! So all is well and she is really nice. In two months she will be in SJDS for a month so it will be cool to have someone to hang out with.
Tomorrow, Olivia and I are going to tour around Granada and see some more sights that I have yet to see. It is hard to get a lot done during the day because it is soo hot. We are going to wait until 4 or so when the sun isn't so hot and you don't sweat to death. I keep thinking that I am adjusting to the heat....but no! Blah. And this is the "cold" season. I am so excited for the hot season!
A few people have asked me about the food here so I thought I would talk a bit about that. The food has been well...interesting. Mainly due to the fact that I am a vegetarian. I am fairly lucky though, my "mom's" sister is a vegetarian and has a vegetarian restaurant in Mangua so she is very farmiliar with soy and other veggie products. Usually, the food is fine. It is extremely bland, I have yet to see salt anywhere (seriously) and for me that is tough because I am a salt-aholic. Everything tastes better with salt. A typical day for food for me looks like this:
For breakfast (desayuno) I generally eat alone and have either rice/beans/tortilla sometimes with scrambled eggs, I have had pancakes twice, once served with peantbutter on them, and she often makes me these toasted cheese/tomato sandwiches. Which are good, but would be a lot better sans the tomato.
For lunch (almuerzo), which is the biggest meal of the day, I often have rice (nearly always) and usually some type of soy product mixed up with carrots and potatoes with a side salad. A "side salad" consists of two leafs of iceberg lettuce and 45 tomatoes. Usually I fold the tomatoes into the lettuce to try and disguise the taste a bit, then choke it down. I also try to give Fiona a lot of my tomatoes! I am getting better at being able to eat them though.
For dinner (la cena), it is the smallest meal of the day. I often have two tortillas (small, about 4 inches or less in diamater) covered in refried beans and cheese. Or rice/beans/tortilla, and I have had soup a few times. All meals are served with fresh juice. And by fresh I mean my hostmom asks me, "limonada o naranja?" (lemonade or orange juice) and then she goes and picks the fruit and squeezes it! It is awesome! It is the best tasting lemonade I have ever had.
The food is generally ok until she tries to get creative with the veggie options. That is when the licorice tasting spaghetti happens (2x), lasagna that was...interesting and other weird combos of vegetables which generally include a ton of onions and tomatoes....yuck! But for the most part, the food is good. I have my own special water, in one of those dispensers that you would find at an office. She makes the ice out of that water so I get to have ice too.
So far, I have avoided, for the most part, all of the unpleasant side effects I had while traveling through Central America last spring due to drinking the local water. There definately have been a few "incidents" but nothing like the sickness that I encountered throught my entire trip!! So, lets hope it stays that way!!!
As I am sure you saw from the post below, I now have a cell phone (un celular)! Yay! The contact info is below. If you would like to talk to me, your best bet of getting me on the phone is if you call me. haha. To do this, buy an international phone card (unless you have a plan already) at a gas station or, the best value is the $20 international phone cards from Costco. Those will give you hours and hours of talking time with me! Although I CAN call the US from my phone, it is very expensive, around $10 an hour. A comparison: the costco phone cards will get you rates of anywhere from 3-7 cents a minute, or about $1.80 an hour vs. the $10 an hour for me. I can also be found on skype: kimberlycalkins so that is another alternative for you all. I can also send/receive texts which is a lot cheaper for me.
Well, I think that is about all for now. I can't wait to get to the beach and my "home" for the next 9 months! I leave Sunday from here and probably will not be updating again until I am settled in SJDS.
Hasta luego!
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