Sabor Nicaraguense

I think nicaraguense is spelled wrong and I don't know if sabor nicaraguense directly translates into a taste of Nicaragua, but nevertheless I had a successful border run last weekend. I got to go to the beach, see where Amanda works, meet some of her friends, and learn some useful slang and phrases that probably shouldn't be repeated.

I really liked Amanda's host family. They were very nice and accomadating as well. I also had a good time in Leon with two of Amanda's friends-Memo and his sister Reyna. They were very fun and helped me immensely with my horrible Spanish. We spoke in Spanish for the majority of the trip and it was good to finally get some practice. It had to be annoying hearing the phrase como se dice over and over again, but they were very patient.

The night before I headed back we had a few drinks with Ana, Elena and Julieta. It was nice to see Ana again. She is pretty funny and hopefully will be able to come for our next trip to Panama.

It was good to see Amanda and the great things she is doing. She is a real inspiration. If you are reading this, keep up the good work sis.
Hasta la proxima

Haircuts and horrible English

I was lucky enough to find a permanent barber at UT that I could go to every month or two without worrying about a bad haircut. I am happy to say I think I found one in Ciudad Colon as well. I went to her for the second time today and she did another good job.

She is very nice and likes to small talk so I also get a Spanish lesson, which is nice. She also likes to show off her English which consists of the words hello, goodbye, is it okay and ready. So we talked a little bit and she tells me I was a little quieter today than I was last time. Then she tries to learn a new word. "Como se dice callada (quiet) en ingles". "The word is quiet". I then tried to prounounce it for her slowly a few times K Y I T. She tried so hard, but her pronunciation was at least 10 times worse than my Spanish prounciation. She said cueits, cuit, and a couple others, before I finally said perfecto so she would stop. But she is very fun, does a good job, and only charges five bucks so her pronunciation can be as bad as she wants it to be.

I am headed to Nicaragua this Friday for my first border run, so wish me luck. The first three months here have flown by.

Boliche y cerveza

Yesterday was by far the best monthly meeting we have had yet. The others were fun, but they didn't quite measure up. We had a guest speaker come for the May meeting to give us some tips about teaching beginners and we also ate home made lasagna. Last month, we watched Office Space and had some tacos. This month, we went bowling, drank some beers and ate pizza. I think it really opened people up and the teachers got to know each other a little better all on Ingles Empresarial's dime.

A couple of us talked and I think we are going back tonight a little later to do it again. It is pretty cheap when you have a lot of people on one lane and it was a lot of fun.

We just hired a new teacher who will be starting class on Monday. It was pretty funny when someone asked her what was the biggest culture shock since she got her. She said she didn't know because she lives in San Pedro (a city very much like the United States) and spent her first weekend bowling, drinking beer and eating pizza.

Hopefully next month will be even better. I think we are going to go paintballing.

Birthday Fun

Quiero dar mis gracias a Amanda y Ana for coming to Costa Rica for my birthday. We had a great time and it was good for Ana to get her first real vacation without her kids. Although there was a little miscommunication (mom) in finding my apartment, everything worked out and we had a fun time in both Ciudad Colon and at Jaco Beach.

I have to do my border run in a few weeks, so I will be headed to Nicaragua to see them soon. Hope everyone is doing well and I will try and update more often in the following weeks.