Week #1 in Nicaragua- Girls. Love. Orange. Cookies

So... there's this awesome thing here called Girls Night. The first thing we were told was NOT to find it on Facebook because things can go downhill pretty quickly... We left with our wonderful ISEP advisor, Mary Helen, and a few other ladies around 6:30 on Wednesday night, and headed to a beautiful house in Las Colonias. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a host of women from all over the world, and the best part was.... they all spoke English! 

Post-Girls Night

Girls Night happens the first Wednesday of every month and is held at various houses around the city. It was an evening totally devoted to chatting, meeting new friends and speaking lots and lots of English. Needless to say, in the middle of our first full week of Spanish classes, this was a needed night of rest. I met some wonderful women doing incredible things in Nicaragua including JoAnn, who runs the Nicaraguan branch of Medical Ministry International. She has been in Nicaragua for over twenty years and graciously answered all of my questions about the health environment of Nicaragua. She even offered me a job! Of course, I told her I would have to finish school first, but who knew knows what the future holds~ One of the only other "under 40's" at the party was an adorable, lively young woman named Jeanette. She has been in Nicaragua for over six months working with an organization called Fabretto Children's Foundation. Other women from Fabretto were also around including Monica, the CFO, and Katherine, a volunteer from the States who is spending a year with the organization. We talked for hours and enjoyed delicious food and drinks. I was so thankful to Mary Helen for letting us tag along to such a spectacular event!

The next day was Valentine's day and the end of a long school week, so all of us single exchange students, plus a few Nica friends, spent a night on the town at a local sports bar. It was great to get off-campus and out the house. The restaurant, Hippos- pronounce EE-POs here, is well known around Managua and has a few different locations. All over the restaurant are giant wooden carvings of- you guessed it- hippos. We drank a few too many Toña's between the nine of us, but made it home safe and sound to wake up for another bit of orientation on Friday. 

Orange Day is a huge welcome day for all of the students studying at CUSE, the College of University Studies in English here at UAM. None of us ISEPer's got the memo to wear orange... The day started a great lunch where they served a local Nicaraguan dish called Caballo Bayo. The special part of this dish is the blood-sausage and rice squares that are served on top of other meets and veggies. From what I could tell, I didn't miss out on much. The rest of the day consisted of team-building activities, a scavenger hunt and information about how to get involved. 

Jessica and I ended the night by going to the movies, one of the more "normal" activities around, which is incredibly less expensive than back home and quite a bit comfier.

Our other activity of excitement this week was helping our host mom, Katia, decorate a surplus of cookies that had been ordered for Valentine's day! 

We had a great time trying to get the hang of things, but she showed us some lovely tricks and added things of our cookie didn't turn out so well. I'm sure this will turn into a weekly activity and it was a great way to practice speaking Spanish. You just can't get frustrated when you have a cookies all around!

 

- Maggie  Frazier