Granada

This past week marked the beginning of one of my English classes in Farito, which helped me to feel a bit more productive. Since I was used to the end of the semester numbers of around sixty students, it felt a bit overwhelming to be standing in front of a room of over one hundred (mostly) strangers. Some of my students repeated the class from last semester and it was so good to see them and tell them about my holiday break. I forgot how exciting it was to feed off the energy of students and get them engaged in class, and I'm very curious to see what this semester will bring.

Another exciting part of my week was travelling for the first time since coming back. My roommates and I headed to Granada for the weekend, leaving the house bright and early on Saturday. I also got up at 5:30 on Saturday to do a sunrise hike with my roommate Arthur (since I had missed the group one on Friday morning), and then we were on the road by 8:15.

Upon arrival we sought out a couple hostels to stay in, settling on Hostel El Momento and Oasis. Our first plan was to do a tour of the isletas in Lake Nicaragua (shoutout to Madi and Jackie for that great idea). It was $8 for transport to the boat, an hour boat tour and a half hour of swimming time at a restaurant/bar that was on one of the isletas. Luckily, our guide was flexible with time and we ended up spending closer to two hours on the tour.

As we were exiting the boats following the tour, Matt was asked by a man with a microphone if he spoke Spanish. He said yes and I laughed, curious to see what would follow, but before I knew it I was also being asked and when I responded yes, we were brought towards a cameraman at the end of the dock. We underwent a short interview about whether or not we had visited Nicaragua before, so it's safe to say my career in broadcast television is launched, and I will sign autographs on my return to the States.

After that, we went back to our hostels to change, and met up at the Choco Museo (thanks to Jackie Yeaton, I finally followed up on that recommendation!) We enjoyed a free tour with Alejandro and sampled some chocolate rum shots after. We then decided to head down towards a strip of restaurants closer to the water. Along the way, we got sidetracked by the opportunity to climb the bell tower of the cathedral for $1. We spent plenty of time taking pictures, doing handstands, and climbing things (that maybe we shouldn't have) and just basking in the lovely view of the whole city.

It was a long day, but an amazing trip. I'm so glad that we all got the opportunity to travel together, I forgot how easy and fun it is to take a quick weekend trip here. There will definitely be more to come in the immediate future.