Its Sunday, and it has been a much needed day of rest. Yesterday I was overtired and overwhelmed at trying to communicate and learn about where I was. Today I woke up to the sound of fireworks. Unlike in Jamaica they were really fireworks. In fact I can still here them right now. Apparently the churches let them off at the end of mass. I'm not sure if this happens everyweekend, or if it was a special celebration. Bottom line we need to adopt that tradition!

We had breakfast with Daysi, who is probably the most kind and patient person ever. She sits and watches cartoons and tv shows with us and makes us talk about them with her in spanish. I cannot wait until I can really talk to her and tell her how much I appreciate all that she is doing for us. Until then she'll have to settle for a lot of "muchisimas gracias". She also helped fumigate my room today... My perros are no longer allowed in my room! Ratta and Burro brought these discusting blood sucking bugs into my bed! wooo! They look a lot like ticks (one of which I chased out of my bed this morning after I saw a black spot on the inside of my bug net) there were probably hundreds of them. I popped one in my hand to see if it really was a tick, but instead I got a gush of Burro blood. hahaha Daysi took all the sheets off my bed, sprayed some strong stuff, and remade my bed for me. I thanked her profusely and told the dogs it was not ok, and that I think they are dirty. (in spanish of course so that they could understand) They still follow me around though, so I'm guessing they like tough love. Overall it was a comical morning!

Afterwards we hung out in the front yard and read the paper (or tried to). I started taking pictures of everything and Don Milton allowed me and Kristina to go up to the terrace! We could see all of Managua and the lake. It was absolutely breathtaking. We could see the volcanoes and the statue of Sandinista off in the distance. I cannot wait to go see all of these places up close! We would have loved to stay up there, but today it was around 100 degrees and very humid. Then we got to eat lunch with Don Milton and Andrea. We had fried fish, avacado, salad, rice, beans, limes (from our tree) and steamed vegetables. It was delicious and we were really excited to finally share a meal with the family. Carmen is still sick, but I did get to meet her today. She was very nice, and it is considerate that she has stayed in her room this whole time as to keep us from getting sick. I tried to keep the conversation flowing at lunch, and not to toot my own horn, but I held my ground the whole meal! I told them all about Fairfield and a little bit about our trip to Jamaica (We had sorel tea again and I couldn't resist). Then Kristina and I decided to walk to school, and see if we remembered how to get there. We did pretty well, and only got confused once. The three students that we are here with are living right across the street from school so we picked them up. Then we showed them how to get to the supermarket and the convenience store and finally our house. Hopefully they made it back! hahaha The market was more clean and organized than any supermarket I have ever been in. I could see my reflection in the floors. We got some water and Shampoo and juice. Then we sat outside for a while and tried to stop sweating profusely, but its still around 98 degrees and we're wearing jeans and long pants! hahaha Just trying to fit in as best we can.

We'll probably be hanging around tonight and spending time with the family. Tomorrow we go for our spanish language test to see what we really know. Maria Dolores our site director is coming to pick Kristina and I up at 8:30am. I am excited to see her again, she is all smiles all the time. I'm not sure what the rest of the day will bring, but I am perfectly content chilling under the palm trees!

hasta manana!