Day Three in Nica (el 4 de enero de 2009)

Today I woke up feeling grogy with a sore throat and stuffy nose, it may be due to the climate change or the dust in the air. Today started with a tour around the parts of El Sauce that I'll need to know. The sun was blazing out but with SPF45 only my neck got slightly burnt. We spent 8 to 12 exploring the sites of El Sauce. The simple grid-system in El Sauce is very easy to memorize. The key-points are where we each live, how to find the office, the ice cream store, and the house I'll be working on. We made some stops by the high school and an elementary school that a professor in Geneseo founded. After we passed by the rodeo we saw the baseball stadium and decided to stop in and watch the game. Kris went to get pictures of the players in the dugout while Meredith slept :P During the game I got to explain some baseball moves and rules to Yacarely. Afterwards was lunch which wasn't my favored but at least I got some chicken meat (it was chicken soup with lots of vegetables, very flavorful but not exactly my flavor). We all reunited at the office and did my favorite thing so far in El Sauce, swimming. We went to a small river called Peroles. It was a 10 minutes mo-ped ride from town and there was a group of teenagers hanging out there. When I saw the kid jump off the rock from 35 feet up I had to follow suit (and I did it like 3 or 4 times). The worst was the foot-flop, like a belly-flop on the bottom of my feet. After an hour or so of swimming we went back to the office for a meeting about the goals and objectives in these two weeks and long-term ideas. I'll be waking up bright and early at 6am for breakfast and wall-destroying at 7am. My schedule will be the 4 walls project from 7-12 and 1-4 and then English teaching from 6-8. That will be my schedule for the next two weeks so I hope it isn't very rough manual labor. After a long day of swimming I ate an entire plate of gallopinto and my favorite melted cheese-bread that my host-mom makes. Odds are I will be so hungry after tomorrow that I will eat even more. Chau (The photos: My host-family, the hallway, and bueyes en la calle)