Ants, Turantulas, and Mice; Oh My!

As you can see from the title of this entry, there have been a few unwelcomed guests creeping into the apartment at night.  We borrowed the neighbor's cat last night to deal with the mouse issue, but I don't think that problem was resolved.  Just another thing to get used to I guess!

School this week seemed unfortunately slow, but it started to pick up on Thursday.  I feel more in the swing of things after the second week of full-time teaching, but I'm a little sad about having only one more week of it.  After next week, I will only be partially teaching and then observing.  My cooperating teacher was commuting to school each day last week (1-2 hour drive) in order to live near her mother in law, but that was quickly ended because her car got hit by a horse!  No one was hurt, but the car was damaged and the horse was pretty injured.  I guess car accidents caused by cattle is pretty common here!  I didn't find out that my cooperating teacher wasn't going to be at school until 10 minutes til class began, but the day went really smoothly and I enjoyed the time with the students! 

By Thursday of this week I was starting to get a little stressed out with thinking about applying for jobs, planning lessons, and my TWS so Laura and two other friends and I went to a little cafe to have a salad (not common here) and just get away from the school for awhile.  The taxi we took wanted to stop and pick up 2 kids from school which would have been fine, except for the fact that there were already three of us in the backseat and one up front. We stopped anyways and picked up the two kids from school and they just took a seat on our laps!  After dinner we went to a movie (The Green Hornet) which was really good!  Movies here are in Enlgish and have Spanish subtitles.  They also only cost $3.00.  I'm not really sure why people who can't speak English go to these movies, but oh well!

Friday was Laura's birthday so we went out for some delicious sushi at restaurant in a hotel located in Managua.  I was cold for the first time last night, even though it was still probably 75 degrees out!  Our taxi ride home consisted of a "pimped out" SUV, which compared to the taxis we normally ride in (no door handles, can't shift to make it up hills, no a/c, etc) it was quite the ride! 

This morning we went to a local marcado and got fresh produce.  I finally got more bananas!  Plaintains are common here, but bananas aren't located at the grocery store we visit weekly.  Laura and I also bought 4 lobster tails for five bucks... total.  I think we'll be having quite the feast!  This weekend hasn't been too eventful, but a few friends and I have been starting to plan spring break.  Spring break (also called Semana Santa) is April 16th-25th.  We have been looking into going to Costa Rica and traveling to Puerto Viejo where there is snorkeling, bike riding, and hiking.  From there, we are tentatively going to Panama to Bocas del Toro, where there are beautfiul beaches and a international park.  We are looking into this great hostel called Bocas Bound.  From there, we are going to Panama City.  There are greyhound buses that travel from Nicaragua to Costa Rica to Panama every day.  It will be a lot of traveling, but I think it will be well worth it!