Found in Translation

So now I'm rounding about a week of living here in Nica as it affectionately called by the people here, at least the young ones. Already I am learning so much Spanish. It's strange to imagine yourself being able to truly speak another language if you haven't been taught since birth but if you have no choice, things fall into place a lot faster. Thank goodness for those natural instincts.

I am getting along well thus far. I have met some great people through my program and will meet three other exchange students this weekend. Of course there have been some shocks (cold water for showers always) and mistakes (there is a key difference between the word coger and recoger, ask a native speaker) but still I have adjusted well the country, especially the...

FOOD

I could write a whole book about how heavenly the food is so i'll save that for later, however

a great thing happened

on the morning of Tuesday the 20th, I awoke around ten and walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water. I went back to my room, showered, got dressed and began to watch the festivities on CNN. When I returned to the kitchen to get more water my sister, Maete was fixing special drinks. I asked her what they were for and she responded "la celebracion" I asked of what and she said "La toma de poseccion de Barack Obama." A bit in awe I asked, "So you are going to celebrate as well." She replied "Por supuesto, es bueno por todos." I sat with her and my host mother Marina and watched most of inauguration in Spanish. It felt good to have people around me who were excited as I was on that day. I suppose its safe to say that some things are so wonderful, so important in history that they cross language barriers.