Great news! I weighed myself at the med office and I’ve lost at least 14 lbs. since arriving to Nica (less than 3 months)! Pretty incredible considering carbs and fried food are shoved in front of me every single day, but it’s all about moderation and sweating a lot! I still have a daily routine of taking my plate back to my host mom and scraping off at least ½ of the food on my plate. She still thinks I can eat 3 pieces of chicken, plus 2 scoops of rice, plus 5 fried pieces of bananas, plus a salad, plus 2 tortillas, and finish it off with 2 glasses of juice. I don’t think so! Maybe I can eat 1 piece of chicken, ½ a scoop of rice, 2 fried pieces of banana, a salad, ½ a tortilla and 1 glass of juice. Thank goodness I do get enough fruits and veggies, but once I have true control over my diet I’ll be able to get a lot more healthy stuff in my body. I’m excited for the Soy Chorizo one of the stores sells in Somoto! Eggs in the morning with chorizo and some Tapatío on top…yummy!!!
Dietary fiber and iron are the hardest nutrients to get into my body at the moment. Everyone is probably saying, eat more beans then! Eat more gallo pinto! Oh yeah, have I mentioned that I hate hate hate gallo pinto!!?? Gallo pinto is the mixture of red beans and white rice, aka the main staple to the Nica diet. I can’t stand the sight of it, never have, never will. Watch, as soon as I get back to the U.S. that’s all I’ll ever want to eat! Haha, wouldn’t that be hilarious!
I could kill for a good bottle of wine right now. Over two months and no wine, that’s like a record for me after the age of 19. I’m partially surprised I haven’t had any withdrawals….haha, just kidding. Course my mother swears that wine slows down her metabolism, therefore it must slowdown mine. Hence, that must be the reason I have already dropped the weight so fast right? I’d say it’s the good 8 hours of sleep I get every day (when the stupid bombas don’t wake me up at 5am), the non-stop sweating, and the lack of snacking in between meals. I guess cutting out my weekly Grey Goose Martinis and Newcastle brews helped too, but I think cutting wine out of my diet would have a minimal effect. I’ve seen some OK Chilean wines in the grocery stores but they just don’t look like they are worth C$140 (over 7 bucks), which is ½ of our weekly allowance. Plus, I would have no glassware to enjoy my wine. I have seen a wine store in Managua that I have been meaning to hit up, maybe I will when we are there in 2 weeks. I’ve also heard that the supermarkets in Estelí have a decent selection, so it will only be a short time before I am reunited with my grape juice friend :) Woe is me right? So for all of you who are in California, please enjoy a glass of wine for me! Just make sure it’s not White Zinfandel (or any other pink wine, unless it’s a true Rosé), any wine out of a box, any wine sold in quantities greater than 750ml (unless it is a true Magnum size), any wine that is called “Charles Shaw”, or any “wine” that is called Boones Farm…that stuff is not wine!
I know a lot of you have been asking me what I want/need, but the truth is I haven’t reached that point of desperation quite yet. Once I’m in Somoto I’m sure I will start having some major cravings.
Training is sooooo close to being done!!! I’m sad to leave my family but happy to not wake up for class every day. Course, I’ll be waking up every day to teach class...I’m sure I’ll miss our language classes after a couple of weeks in site.
Sunday marked the beginning of Fiestas Patronales in my pueblo and I was not a happy camper to wake up to the celebration at 5am passing by my house! The procession was a very loud and off tune marching type band followed by at least 100 bombas (potent cherry bombs that burst in the sky) right above my house. I was sort of hating life at that moment. But, luckily I was able to fall back asleep till 7:30am when the band just HAD to pass by again! I had to get up this time but thank goodness my mamí was complaining very loudly about the “malditas bombas” as well. I understand that the people in my town want to show they are really really happy about the arrival of Santa Ana...but really, do they have to do it at 5am? Don’t they care about other people sleeping? The answer is a firm no. I would love to go into the “fatalism” topic I have yet to type up but I know my brain cannot finish certain opinions without me sounding like an ethnocentric maniac. In the next couple of weeks I will compose a commentary about the presence of religion in daily life in Nica, using more objective anthropological wording instead of blantent subjective opinions. Anyways, this celebration with the band and the bombas will continue until the 26th...meaning for the rest of the time we are in training. Good times right!?
Ok, enough for today, enjoy the pictures below. Miss you all! Hope the fires are better!
Dietary fiber and iron are the hardest nutrients to get into my body at the moment. Everyone is probably saying, eat more beans then! Eat more gallo pinto! Oh yeah, have I mentioned that I hate hate hate gallo pinto!!?? Gallo pinto is the mixture of red beans and white rice, aka the main staple to the Nica diet. I can’t stand the sight of it, never have, never will. Watch, as soon as I get back to the U.S. that’s all I’ll ever want to eat! Haha, wouldn’t that be hilarious!
I could kill for a good bottle of wine right now. Over two months and no wine, that’s like a record for me after the age of 19. I’m partially surprised I haven’t had any withdrawals….haha, just kidding. Course my mother swears that wine slows down her metabolism, therefore it must slowdown mine. Hence, that must be the reason I have already dropped the weight so fast right? I’d say it’s the good 8 hours of sleep I get every day (when the stupid bombas don’t wake me up at 5am), the non-stop sweating, and the lack of snacking in between meals. I guess cutting out my weekly Grey Goose Martinis and Newcastle brews helped too, but I think cutting wine out of my diet would have a minimal effect. I’ve seen some OK Chilean wines in the grocery stores but they just don’t look like they are worth C$140 (over 7 bucks), which is ½ of our weekly allowance. Plus, I would have no glassware to enjoy my wine. I have seen a wine store in Managua that I have been meaning to hit up, maybe I will when we are there in 2 weeks. I’ve also heard that the supermarkets in Estelí have a decent selection, so it will only be a short time before I am reunited with my grape juice friend :) Woe is me right? So for all of you who are in California, please enjoy a glass of wine for me! Just make sure it’s not White Zinfandel (or any other pink wine, unless it’s a true Rosé), any wine out of a box, any wine sold in quantities greater than 750ml (unless it is a true Magnum size), any wine that is called “Charles Shaw”, or any “wine” that is called Boones Farm…that stuff is not wine!
I know a lot of you have been asking me what I want/need, but the truth is I haven’t reached that point of desperation quite yet. Once I’m in Somoto I’m sure I will start having some major cravings.
Training is sooooo close to being done!!! I’m sad to leave my family but happy to not wake up for class every day. Course, I’ll be waking up every day to teach class...I’m sure I’ll miss our language classes after a couple of weeks in site.
Sunday marked the beginning of Fiestas Patronales in my pueblo and I was not a happy camper to wake up to the celebration at 5am passing by my house! The procession was a very loud and off tune marching type band followed by at least 100 bombas (potent cherry bombs that burst in the sky) right above my house. I was sort of hating life at that moment. But, luckily I was able to fall back asleep till 7:30am when the band just HAD to pass by again! I had to get up this time but thank goodness my mamí was complaining very loudly about the “malditas bombas” as well. I understand that the people in my town want to show they are really really happy about the arrival of Santa Ana...but really, do they have to do it at 5am? Don’t they care about other people sleeping? The answer is a firm no. I would love to go into the “fatalism” topic I have yet to type up but I know my brain cannot finish certain opinions without me sounding like an ethnocentric maniac. In the next couple of weeks I will compose a commentary about the presence of religion in daily life in Nica, using more objective anthropological wording instead of blantent subjective opinions. Anyways, this celebration with the band and the bombas will continue until the 26th...meaning for the rest of the time we are in training. Good times right!?
Ok, enough for today, enjoy the pictures below. Miss you all! Hope the fires are better!
My bosses (from the left), Head Trainer Ashley, APCD Georgia (my direct boss), Project Specialist Erick (2nd boss), Trainer Ernie (former PCV)
Me and Matt (one of the TEFLs)
La Canchita (Little Pig) playing with a toad during the rain, she is so cute!
Our youth group, or whats left of them
1 comments:
I had two glasses of wine last night for you!!! And it was a CAB!
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