Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

So there's this tree across the street from my house that is a fungus mansion. Some photos friends: The fungal garden. These look like pieces of bread with jam on them. This fungus looked like mushrooms, but they were growing directly out of the side of the tree. And finally, the fungal garden at the bottom of the tree looked like bundles of flowers growing in various stages: Baby fungus. Bloomin' (not really, cuz they're not plants.) After their peak.

Today I needed to go pick up something from my boss's house, and he asked if I would bring a bunch of books from his office for him to pack up. I didn't mind at all, but figured this would go better with a cart or dolly. I got a cart, loaded it up, and wheeled it across the Wardlaw courtyard. Sounds genius, right? Not so much. With every bump, at least 1 book fell, and so I kept having to stop and pick something up. I felt ridiculous. There was a girl in the courtyard talking on her cellphone, a bunch of academic types walking all around me, and no one even looked at me with sympathy. I get as far as I can go, to the edge of the curb, about 20 feet from my car. While trying to pick up a stack of books, things started to slide and basically almost all of them hit the ground. there were quite a few people on the nearby sidewalk, all of them just walking by and sort of gawking at me. Finally, two men pass by and asked me if I need help, and not only do they stop the immin...

I know I'm behind, but hey this "I was in Nicaragua" excuse should be good for at least a period of time equivalent to how long I was gone. Therefore, I'd like to say that I just really discovered Josh Ritter, and I LOVE him. Some select lyrics from To the Dogs Or Whoever Deep in the belly of a whale I found her Down with the deep blue jail around her Running her hands through the ribs of the dark Florence and Calamity and Joan of Arc I love the way she looks in her underwear I lose my page then the plot then the book then I swear She makes the most of her time by loving me plenty She knows there’ll come a day when we won’t be getting any Oh bring me the love that can sweeten a sword A boat that can love the rocks or the shore The love of the iceberg reaching out for a wreck Can you love me like the crosses love the nape of the neck?

I found it rather difficult to find time to blog during our road trip, and on top of that I couldn't have posted pictures because I was an idiot who left my camera cable in SC. So, here's a lovely photo blog of what we did. Western Louisiana on the way out West. VERY flat, but green. Muenster, Texas. Yes, those doll things do move. The house where my mom grew up. Her street. I find it so strange that my mom grew up in the suburbs in the late 50s/60s. When you hear my dad's stories from the same time period, they were just getting indoor plumbing. It must have been a really strange transition for her. Her street also now has a Buddhist Temple. Pretty, but unexpected. The recreation of the falls in Wichita Falls. A flood wiped out the original falls. The Texas panhandle. Trevor with his new friend at the Albuquerque aquarium. My amazing shrimp picture. The Sandia Tramway. You go from the bottom to the top of the Sandias in about 15 minutes. It's lovely. My mom an...

First, I am still driving around in a rental car because they still aren't done fixing my car from what I thought was a relatively minor fender bender. Apparently not. Here are some pics of my car after it got backed into. They are replacing that back side panel, so they have to replace the panel and paint it and everything. I guess that takes a while. As a result, I may not get the car back in time to take it to get serviced this week, which means my mom and I might not be able to leave for our roadtrip until the 20th, 2 days later than planned. Speaking of the roadtrip, I think I'll have the occasional chance to update and post pics. Hope so anyway. ************************************************************************************* Also, tomorrow I get my second tattoo. I wanted to get it before I went to Albuquerque so TJ can see it. I'm nervous because this one will be a little bigger. I am getting it done at the Purple Lotus and Shavon does beautiful work. ...

So Briana said I might have something interesting to offer - my view of the US after 7 months in Nicaragua. I honestly can't imagine how coming back would be after two years. Here's some of the weirdness I have noticed. 1. Grocery stores are large terrifying places. I know that I used to go to La Union every now and then, but in the US, the sheer variety of things is overwhelming. There's 600 kinds of everything, all in full fat, low fat, non-fat and with infinite tiny flavor alterations. Would you like black bean dip, chipotle black bean dip, or lime chipotle black bean dip? I don't know, where are the beans, I'll make my own!! My old sensation of being paralyzed in the grocery store is back, but it's a million times worse now. 2. I'm still dreaming in Spanish. I actually kind of like that since I'm not practicing Spanish much during my waking hours. However, this can lead to serious cognitive dissonance when suddenly awakened from Spanish wor...

That last week was a bit of a blur and a bunch of the stuff I did that week never made it to the web, so today I was feeling homesick, listening to music from Nicaragua and looking at pictures and I thought it really would be a shame if no one saw these. In no particular order… One of the beautiful folkloric dances that some of the elementary school girls performed at my going away party with the teachers. My original counterpart organized them and they practiced just for the occasion and everything. They looked beautiful and they made me cry. Yes, that is a man in a coconut tree. He was climbing them to pull down coconuts and dead branches with no tools to speak of. He just climbed up there with bare feet and hands. I watched him go up and down about 3 teams. It was impressive. The kids from my host family in the mango tree in front of the house. I miss that crazy bunch of kids. Tereza at my going away party at Caballito’s Mar that last evening. We ate slightly unripe, stolen m...

Some people have asked me if I will be continuing with this blog, and honestly I'm not really sure. I'd like to think my life is as interesting as ever, that I'm just cool enough to warrant maintaining a running public dialogue about going to the grocery store. However, the whole reason I started this blog was because I was going somewhere interesting that people wouldn't know about. I was writing about a new culture. I think it might be an entirely different thing when I'm writing about some of the same people who might be reading. Lines crossing, weirdness ensuing, all that. In the sense of audience pleasing, I think the conclusion would have to be to just end gracefully. However, I find that I gained quite a bit by maintaining the blog. Oddly enough, it forced me to live more in the moment, so that I could write about it later. If I was at home and there was the opportunity to do something fun, something perhaps worth documenting, I took that opportunity ...

So I'm leaving, oh, tomorrow, and have been reflecting on my experience here. So here's my list of lists: Things I've Loved From the Start: 1. It's amazingly beautiful here in general. Ometepe more than other places I think. On the island there are 2 volcanoes, a laguna in the top of one of them, cloud forest, a black sand beach, petroglyphs, 2 waterfalls, a river with two types of jicanas where you can go kayaking, monkeys, and a natural spring pool. I'm sorry, but when will I ever live in another place that amazing? 2. The people are the nicest I've ever met. This has really changed my outlook on things. In the states we've come to accept a certain level of rudeness from people I think. If your doctor is brusque with you, or your dentist or whoever, we think, "Well, they're busy. I'm here to receive a service, etc..." After having been here, I find the return to that sort of culture a little disappointing. There's no reason w...

Okay, no time for a real post, but I felt that I should let everyone know that I'm coming home sometime next week instead of in July. See you then!

So, in the past month, I have had oddly swollen feet / ankles for no apparent reasons. See exhibits 1 and 2 below. This isn't even a bad day. After running urine and blood tests and having everything come out normal, Peace Corps sent me to an orthopedist, who looked at my ankles and said they're fine. I also told him about the odd knee pain I have had after strenuous bike-riding or hiking. After he looked at my knees, I was informed that my kneecaps don't line up correctly with the rest of my knee, resulting in pain, which usually worsens in the mid to late 20s. Great. As a result, I got an ultrasound of my leg veins, so see if the swelling was a circulatory problem, and knee X-rays to check out my kneecaps. Luckily my veins all appear normal, as that would be pretty scary, but still leaves us ankle swelling clueless. I find out the results of my X-ray analysis in April when I go back to the doctor. I am a little worried about that visit, as he said that if it was ...

Happy Easter!! Can I just reiterate how much I love my site sometimes? Semana Santa is the week leading up to Easter here, and it’s a big holiday. There’s no school all week long (so we work on side projects of course), no buses on Thursday or Friday, and many fiestas. It’s also a tradition all over Nicaragua to go to the beach for Semana Santa, and the island is no exception. It’s interesting because if you go to the beach here normally, there’s almost no one there – just people washing clothes or taking a bath, but this week, people were swimming, kayaking, chicken-fighting (but they do it standing up on each other’s shoulders), or just hanging out. One family also set up a fritanga (place to buy fried foods) on the beach. They also had ripe, delicious mangoes. One of my friends gave me one, which I promptly chowed down on. Two hours later I learned yet another valuable lesson in humility when another of my friends informed me that I had orange mango stuff all around my mouth....

Hola to all. I know, for the past month I’ve been plenty slack about posting. First there was vacation, and now there was a Spanish workshop. So, a few random things, and then an activity update. Rain o’ plenty… I have recently been introduced to jocote, which is a bright red fruit when ripe, and a dark olive green before that. There is a jocote tree in the front yard of my house, along with a mango tree. The little grape looking things are jocote and the darker green leaves with still green fruit are mangoes that aren’t ripe yet. Well, there are so many jocote falling off the tree, I can’t walk across my yard without getting sticky fruit-juice feet. Here’s a pic of my jocote wealth. For reference, if you make a circle with your pointer finger and your thumb, tips touching, that’s roughly the size of a jocote. Yes, they’re edible and sweet, but there are so many that I can’t possibly eat them all. They have big pits and orange, squishy fruit like a m...