School, valentines day and my bday

School is quite the interesting place. i definitely have my work cut out for me. there are so many things i wish i could change about the educational system but to keep my sanity im going to try and focus on what i actually can change. for example i cant change the fact that dust blows into the rooms all the time. so ill just have to deal with that. i cant change the fact that there are way too many students in classes, etc. what i am hoping to change are some teaching methods and classroom management...i asked one teacher what classroom management techniques he has used and he asked me what classroom management was.... i dont want to make it seem like the teachers here are bad. honestly they're not. i think they do an amazing job with the experieice, preparation and tools that they have. and i am looking forward to learning from them. unfortunately the only teaching style ive seen so far is dictation and copying. not exactly the most conducive for learning. one other thing that drives me nuts is that teachers and students sweep in the middle of class. ok i realize its dusty but seriously the dust can wait. its going to be quite the task of teaching all the routines ill be implementing because routines are definitely not the norm here. but i think it will be a good challenge and thats why im here.

valentines day...somehow hallmark made its holiday spread to nicaragua. there were lots of celebrations...obviously not in my town but in other towns. i went to a dance with a group of friends..an experience i probably wont ever forget. first of all i felt a little like i was back in junior high...going to a valentines day dance at a school. second...transportation...yeah so there arent buses at night but who needs buses when you can put 4 people on a bike. luckily the bike i was on only had 3 people. i got the lucky spot of sitting on the cross bar..not the most comfy position but it works. i give props to those boys who can peddly multiple people down a dirt road in the dark (the town in 4k away fyi). so we get there and its kinda an all ages type thing. it was mostly young people alhtough its impossible to tell peoples ages here but i would say the majority were between 13 and 25. some older people and some younger people... who just happen to be my students...hey profe when you are going to teach again? why hello students im glad you dont find this swkward al all but i sure do! cultural differences...gotta love them. so music...a wide variety. a few bachata, a few reggaeton, a few slow, a few disco, a few random english songs, etc. kept things interesting. overall it was very fun. and we all rode safely back home.

my birthday! wow im getting old! as tradition here goes, my extended family woke me up at 4am singing las mananitas. (btw the 15th is also my host sisters bday...she turned 13). so everyone was singing at my house first, not knowing that i slept with my sister that night. finally they realized that no one was at my house and they figured out i was with my sister. so they came over and we popped our little heads out the window. after the song was over we served them coffee and 'things from the oven' as they are popularly called, that my host mom and i made the day before. i went back to sleep at 5 seeing as i didnt go to bed until 2. i slept until 930 which is by far the latest ive ever slpt in this country! since reception here is bad and i cant charge my phone so its off most of the time, i was super sad when i realized i had missed phone calls from friends in the states and spain. (thanks for trying...love you guys!) so i decided to plop myself down in the 'park' (3 swings) where there is signal for the remainder of the afternoon. i got to talk to some volunteers, my bro, my parents and aunt and uncle. so that was pretty sweet. the day before some friends had talked about having a little dance party for me but then we had some issues finding a place we could have it that had electricity. so i didnt think we would end up doing anything. but as soon as i got off the phone, my friend grabbed me and said lets go its time to dance. she had found a stereo to use and we had it at her house. she also told all the youth and even got my a piñata. i had no idea and was super excited. shes a sweetheart. one of my other friends gave me apples...such an amazing present! so we whacked at the piñata and danced for a few hours. it was great.

im super happy to report that after 3 weeks of no electricity...i now have it again!!!!! wohoo!!! the other day i was with some friends on the highway when the power lines started sparking and cought on fire. another pole fell...but not all the way otherwise it would have landed on someones house. after a few minutes they stopped sparking. we were lucky the trees didnt catch fire. so there went the power for all of my town. the next day people were working on it so that was exciting until i found out that they put the power back on for all of my town except where my family lives. so once again everyone had power except for us. i was super annoyed. however, the next day i came home and as i neared my host familys house, i heard a familiar sound...the music of the soap operas...could it be true? did we finally have power? yes! but not in my house my host dad informed me. i though he was joking..nope he wasnt. but after he spent a few hours in his hammock...meanwhile im dying because all i want is cold water after my 4k walk in the sun at noon...but finally he connected for me. cold water is possibly the best thing ever. and i cant wait to buy milk again. and its watermelon season...which is also pretty darn amazing.

thats pretty much it...going to the beach tomorrow to celebrate my bday. so thats exciting. thanks for all the birthday wishes...wish i could have spent it with all of you! lots of love!