She's alive....gawrrrrr

She lives! I greatly apologize for the delay in photos and stories...February was a crazy crazy month and March has proved to be the exact same. I had my camera stolen in February, which also helps explain for a lack of photos :( However, my parents sent a new one down with my friends who came to visit me. Thank you so much mom and dad!!!

February marked the start of school, so I have 6 classes at the public school which is located on the opposite side of Somoto from Fabretto's Somoto Oratorio. I work Tuesday through Friday at the public school, the rest of the time in between the classes is spent in the Somoto Oratorio (remember that is the NGO). At the public school I see each class for 1.5 hours one time a week, with 4 classes in the morning and 2 classes in the afternoon, spread throughout the week. It's exhausting with 40+ kids in a small classroom but I'm confident they will learn something this year. More to come and lots of pictures of these kids!

The intent of this post is to put up some pictures so everyone knows I'm alive, I am writing about my adventures in more detail for the next post...basically everything will be the abridged version at this moment. Don't worry, I have so many more pix to post to accompany the stories!

More exciting for me was a vacation with some girlfriends who studied abroad with me in Chile, way back in 2006. Kristin flew in first and I picked her up at the airport, then we took a bus back up north to party it up in Esteli for 2 days before Nishma and Arielle came in. We went out and partied with some Nicas, drank some fabulous Flor de Caña 7 year rum, and hiked to Estanzuela Falls nearby. It was great to salsa it up again and we had fond memories of our salsa class at the Universidad de Chile with our gay Cuban teacher.

Kristin and I on the bus up to Esteli! Start of an adventure!

The hike was pretty easy...

Kristin strikes a pose on the trail!

We didn't have to walk up one of the big hills thank goodness!

Behind Kristin lies Esteli

The falls weren't at their full power since we are in the dry season, but still pretty nonetheless.

I braved the chilly water, it felt nice.

Nishma and Arielle flew in 2 days later and Kristin and I traveled back to the airport to fetch them, to then fly off to Corn Island on the Atlantic side. I have a whole other story for this that involves Arielle freaking out and me thinking "thanks Nicaragua for once again messing things up".

Boarding passes...they are very hard to get apparently, even if you have a little thing called a reservation!

Corn Island here we come! Shot of Big Corn.

Merriment in the 12 person plane, though I thought we were going to crash...what is it with me and being paranoid in small planes?

The one beautiful day (out of 3) that we were able to enjoy few winds and a gorgeous ocean.

Arielle and Nishma with our new friend Minnow, the dog owned by Carlos the hostel owner. In Arielle's hand is part of a water bottle we used for drinking homemade Nica Libres.

What to do on an island? Pick coconuts and eat them!

Dale pues Kristin!

The one beautiful sunset we got to enjoy.

The view 10 ft. from the front of our cabaña. $40 a night, couldn't beat it!

Just keep swimming swimming swimming...

EAP Chile 2006 reunited...but still missing Michele, Tracy and Mack Dawg

How lucky to get 4 out of the original 7 together!?

Peel that coco! It's harder than it looks actually!

The Dutch are everywhere? Why can't I run into Priya then? (Priya is my Dutch friend!)

So after Corn Island we headed off to Granada after our plans were foiled to go to Ometepe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. But things always happen for a reason I guess...we stayed at Hostel Oasis in downtown Granada (Dad remember, I'm talking about Granada and not Grenada which is an island. Granada is a colonial city of Nicaragua.) for 2 nights. The first day we were there we were recovering from a long travel day from Corn Island and having some tea and coffee when a nice girl asked to sit down with us. Turns out, our new friend Stephanie was studying abroad in Costa Rica and was at the hostel with the 3 others in her group and their study abroad "director". Turns out, they had a truck to drive everywhere...so we were able to ride around with them and hit 4 major tourist spots in less than 10 hours. We had a great time and we thank them a million times over for bringing us along!

First we hit up the Masaya Volcano...from the left, the girls, new friends: Ryan, Don, Court and Steph.

Arielle you aren't the shortest!

Why do chicks love Jesus? Or, "the hills are alive..."

Nice pose as always Nish!

Janksters! That one is for you Mack Dawg!

They have quite a few rangers at the volcano, very good to see!

Next...Laguna de Apoyo

This shot reminds me of Van Halen's "Jump"

With my 3 partners in crime!

Teaching the eastcoasters about the "Thizz Dance"

She was just in a posing mood that day...

Again the Fab 4!

This is Court's modeling "look"...Blue Steel was already taken...

Try to catch me Ride n' Dirty! Arielle's hair mixed with mine.

More truck shots! Thanks Jon for the bruises on my nalgas (he hit a couple hard bumps, more than one let's just say)

Boat ride in the Granada Isletas!

The Isletas, or Little Islands, are privately owned by various people and you can see how nice some of them are. Some vacation here, some actually live on their little island, some rent it out, depends. The islands are located right off Granada in Lake Nicaragua. It's sad how dirty the water is, but it was still gorgeous.

Got some good sun! I'm a couple shades tanner!

Another fancy house bridging 2 islands!

Gives a little bit of an idea of the variety of sizes.

The guide also took us to see the resident monkeys! One just came abroad and hung out for a bit! It looked through my bag, climbed on Arielle, violated Nishma and wrapped it's tail around Kristin.

She was laughing really hard!

Volcano Mombacho, which we didn't get to visit, but it was very pretty in the distance around sunset.

Thanks again to Jon, Court, Steph, Don and Ryan!

We then headed up north so the girls could see Somoto. Mike made us a great dinner and then the next day we just chilled out in town. On Monday we went to the famous Cañon de Somoto!

Work it, work it!

Before getting to the Cañon, you have to hike a bit!

Wow factor #2, as Matt my sitemate describes it.

Kristin "borrowed" an innertube so some of our stuff wouldn't get wet in the crossing.

Thanks to Kristin, Nishma and Arielle for coming to visit me and bringing me lots of goodies! I miss you girls so much! Thank you also to Mom and Dad for sending me replacement stuff that got stolen, to Jan and Mamow for more letters, and to Priya for sending me a card!

Happy late Bday to Greg, the World's Tallest Leprechaun!

Later this week: Stories from my vacation, Agriculture-Business Workshop, the School Year in general, and future plans.