Day 2 - What the hell's wrong with this keyboard?

You will never know how long it took to me to just write that title. I am on a crazy keyboard where they've changed all the symbol keys to mean something else. For example, the key that is usually a 'dash' is ' on this keyboard. The key that is usually the question mark is a - on this keyboard. Only on accident have I been able to find the actual keys to match up with all the actual marks. All of them, that is, except the 'at' sign. I g'chatted with Alexis and had to ask her to type it so I could copy and paste it into something I was trying to log into.

To clear things up from yesterday's post, I had to get into the bus because it drove us around the entire parking lot of the airport to get into our plane. We were at Gate '25A', which, I think, was an afterthought (and thus, the 'A'), so it didn't actually attach to the airport the way the others do. Still strange.

The book reference yesterday was to the title of Jen Lancaster's first book, 'Bright Lights, Big Ass. Formerly titled, Who are all these idiots and why do they all live next door to me?' or something like that. Congrats to Jenny and Jason for getting it!

Moving on... Day 2 has been great. I decided to come down and write today, because once things start getting more hectic, I'm sure I won't have time to come every day and write, or maybe even every other day, so I figured I'd take advantage of the free time now. I went to bed around 7'00 last night (still haven't found the colon key). I was just exhausted from all the traveling. Plus, it was dark out, so why not? I woke up around 6 and could not sleep anymore. Their 6'00 is like our 8'00; (I just found the COLON! but I'm not going to go back and insert it.) People were out and about, the market was opening up, and it's definitely not too early to expect some places to be open (however, not the internet cafe where you're desperately trying to find out who won the game last night. Little did I know, it would not be worth it). After wandering around and getting breakfast (some little danish type thing with a pineapple jelly in it - really good) I noticed that every school child in Chinandega was marching down the road around the park. It appeared to be some parade or festival of some sort. There were hundreds upon hundreds. And of course, there was no organization to the way they were walking. Teachers appeared to be shepherding them in some way, but the kids were running all over the place, going to buy a coke, sitting on the park benches, just complete madness. I found out later they were all going to some place for some type of celebration for a festival to celebrate 'la feria de la tierra', roughly translated 'Land Day', sort of like Earth Day, I supposed. Only, the funny thing is, as they're on their way to celebrate 'Earth Day', the kids are throwing their breakfast trash all over the ground, just like this entire city does, making their city even more disgusting. I love irony.

I thought again at how different our cultures are, in the sense that these kids were walking, basically unsupservised, through morning rush hour traffic, in the craziest driving I've ever seen. There were cars, trucks, bikes, rickshaws, and crazy people all over the place. My friend Liza's niece did stay home, though, because they were concerned about her running around out there without supervision like that (only normal family around here), but they let her brother go. He's about 9.
After waiting for all the kids to clear, I took a taxi to my friend Liza's house. Liza is my best friend here. She is 29 and lives with her husband, her mom, her sister and her sister's two kids. Actually, today or tomorrow she and her husband, Freddy (our translator a lot of the time, who speaks better English than most of the Georgians that are coming next week (sorry Hartley!)), are moving to a new house they are renting. It's finally time, now that they've been together about FOURTEEN YEARS, to live on their own! It's funny, Liza asked how I can live away from my parents when I'm single, and she is sad to do it when she's married. I just laughed and tried to explain how very different we are... Anywho, I hung out with Liza all morning and afternoon, and ate a delicious lunch prepared by her mom. Then, I needed a nap so I went back to the hotel. I quickly stopped at a nearby kiosk and got a banana 'liquado', basically a milkshake: banana, milk, a tiny bit of cinnamon, blended with ice = amazing. All wrapped up in a plastic bag with a straw, the 'to go' way. Awesome. The timing was perfect, because shortly after I got back, there was a huge downpour of rain for about an hour and a half. That was also perfect timing, because the heat has just been almost unbearable, and it has cooled off considerably now. I watched TV a little while during the rain - what else? Law & Order: SVU! In English and subtitled in Spanish! That was certainly exciting for me to find.

Now, here I am, writing all of this. I'm waiting on a call from Liza. I'm taking her and Freddy out to eat tonight! As an informative reference, the restaurant we're going to is called Rosti Pollo. It is an 'upscale' place, I suppose, in that it has nice dining areas, air conditioning, and the meals are not dirt cheap, per se. I would compare it to a Chili's, ambience-wise. Anyway, we Americans love to eat at Rosti Pollo when we're here. The average meal is probably $4-7, which is really expensive for down here, but it's so good, and you get a TON of food for what you pay. Freddy and Liza have only gone there for their anniversary, except for when we gringos are here. They consider it such a treat.

Tomorrow I'm off to Jiquilillo to spend the night and get some good beach-slash-hammock time, and Sunday I'll finally go see my kiddo.

I'm not sure when I'll be back, but you can always purchase an international phone card and call me at 011-505-837-4629 - that's right, my Nicaraguan cell phone! I love it. I am so very legit.