el queso, la piscina, y Fergie - dw

Sabado, 6 de Octubre

(make sure you read lauren's blog listed just below this, we just posted it and this one this morning)

I’m very happy to inform you all that I am typing this blog update from our new apartment. We packed up and took a taxi here with all of our bags this morning. It was wonderful to stay with Doña Mara but we are ready to take the training wheels off (a little bit) and be on our own. Oh, Doña Mara sent us off with an appropriate farewell breakfast – a plate of gallo pinto and a piece of the sick cheese about the size of a deck of cards. Clearly we wrapped it up in a napkin and threw it in the street trash.

Upon arriving at the apartment we unpacked and started some laundry. I think we have the laundry process down. Pulling our dry, clean sheets off of the line this afternoon was quite satisfying.

In yet another example of typically easy tasks being harder to complete in Nicaragua, I spent a good part of the morning trying to hook up the water filter to the faucet in the sink. A piece of the threading on the faucet snapped off during the process, and I am hoping my jerry-rigged setup lasts for a week.

The internet seems to be connected although we need a username and password to authenticate the service, so we have to wait until we find a coffee shop with wireless to post this update. A woman from the cable company called this morning and, I think, I scheduled them to visit Monday afternoon to, again I think, get the internet to work.

We had lunch with Brad and Esmir at an El Salvadorian place. It was enjoyable and very inexpensive, about $2 a person. After lunch Lauren, Esmir, and I went grocery shopping. Lauren and I are really excited to prepare our own meals and had fun picking out lots of produce and high-protein items. We purchased a huge amount of food. The bill came to a little over 1,800 cordobas, which gave us a brief scare before we realized it was about $100 – a good deal for all of the food we bought.

This afternoon we chilled by the pool with Esmir, talking about the Nicaraguan school system, places to visit on weekends, and planning Lauren’s birthday party for next Saturday. I am not going to disclose any of the details yet, but I will say that it will probably be the best party Managua has seen in a long time. Ok – one detail – there will definitely be a piñata.

Tonight we went to a roadside restaurant with Esmir and Brad since our gas is not working for our stove. I had a comically large plate of chicken, fried plantains, salad, fried cheese, and gallo pinto.

Now Lauren and I are relaxing downstairs. Lauren is reading and I am watching the Rockies-Phillies game in Spanish. We didn’t know that cable tv came with the internet, but evidently it does. I just hope they don’t turn it off when they come on Monday!

Tomorrow we’re going to church and then returning here to study for the afternoon since we didn’t do any homework today. I am tired so I’m going to go. Hope all is well back in the States. Please know that while we are really enjoying ourselves here we truly miss all of you immensely.

Much love,

dw

One item of note – Lauren and I have an open-door policy and strongly encourage you to consider visiting us here. Flights are only about $400-$450 round trip and we will take care of everything when you get here. Think about it…

Another interesting note – The Black Eyed Peas and Fergie are performing in Managua tomorrow. If we didn’t have so much work Lauren and I would definitely go. Just kidding. I do like that song Fergie does, I think it’s called “Big Girls Don’t Cry” though. Don’t judge.

p.s. (about an hour later) – We just enjoyed about a 15 minute firework show! The fireworks were set up from somewhere very nearby, as they looked like they might land right behind our apartment. Nicaragua again finds a way to surprise us!