Spanish Lessons Begin

We spent 2 nights in Granada, a nice old colonial city with lots of historic buildings. We stayed at a very social hostel, met lots of great people, and did a bunch of exploring.

Next on the agenda was finding a school to take Spanish lessons at. We didn´t have lots of criteria; only that the school had some good reviews, was in a decent location, and offered accommodation with a host family; preferably a family with a dog. We were pretty set on Nicaragua because we like the locals (Nicas), we feel very safe and comfortable here, and everything is a decent price.

After searching around and calling a few places, we decided on a place near Granada that is situated on the Apoyo Nature Reserve. This won our pick because it´s the only not-for-profit language school in Nicaragua, it´s the oldest in the country, and the beautiful location includes a nice big lake in the creator of an inactive volcano. The school is also a biological research station whose projects attract volunteers from all over the world.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, had some lunch, and went for a swim. The lake is so clean and its temperature is just right. The school has two dogs, Simba and Kooko. Our host family has at least 4 dogs, including a very young puppy, as well as some goats. We are staying with one of the cook´s families about 200 metres from the school. There´s tons of people in and around the house at all times which keeps it interesting.

The first night we played cards with some of the volunteers here. I asked that we play anything but A-hole, so a Canadian girl introduced us to a combination of A-hole and Poker which was pretty fun. We headed to bed pretty early (about 9:45) to find that everyone in our house had gone to bed already. We were greeted by every dog barking away at us and a goat standing in front of us peeing. Had a good laugh at that.

The next morning I was up good and early for school - the first time I had to get up for school in almost 2 years! Class runs from 8am to 12:30 and takes place under a tree in the yard, with one professor teaching both Tara & I. After class on Monday our teacher took us out for a nature walk around the area. On Tuesday we took out kayaks after class in search of some hot springs we´ve heard about. We never found them but got some good exercise and enjoyed the view during our 3 hour paddle (at a pretty relaxed pace).

That evening we were invited by our host family and their neighbours to join in on making a traditional Nica dish. This involved roasting corn seeds on a pot over the fire and later mixing them with cocoa beans to make a festive drink that I`m hoping we`ll eventually get to taste. After this we played with the goats for a while...one of them really likes pushing us around with his horns and nibbling on any exposed skin...I´m not sure if that´s his way of showing friendship or trying to get us away from his family, but nonetheless it was very entertaining.

We played a couple rounds of cards with our host sister and learned about her family. She has 4 kids, her sister (who was helping me play the card game) also has 4 kids, and in total there are 8 siblings. We didn´t get to actually finding out how many of the eight siblings live in the house, but it certainly starts to explain why there are so many people around at all times. Despite the chaos of all the adults, children, babies, dogs and goats, our host family seems very happy and loving and they have kindly welcomed us into their house.

After the card game we went back outside and played with the goats some more, took some pictures (which will be posted when I get a better connection) and headed to bed. Now it´s back to class...I`m hoping we´ll find those hot springs this afternoon.