Güegüense

 

Demonstrations in Managua: December 3, 2011

 

This message is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to demonstrations that have been planned for the morning of Saturday, December 3rd in Managua.

 

Political opposition and civil society groups are planning a march in protest of the recent national elections.  The march is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Rotonda Centroamerica and end at the Supreme Electoral Council headquarters near the Rotonda Metrocentro.

 

Typically, protests in Managua take place at major intersections or rotundas.  Activities observed during past protests include, but are not limited to, the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, fireworks, rock-throwing, tire burning, road blocks, bus/vehicle burning and physical violence between members of rival political parties.  Police have often been slow to respond, and reluctant to interfere in violent confrontations between rival political factions. 

So my accent, I speak Spanish with a Chicana dialect, sometimes fucks me over and some people (taxi drivers) try to take advantage of me.

In order to avoid this I usually do counterintuitive things like take the shittiest taxi in sight.

You know, I get on and just try to avoid the fact that the engine light is on, or that the car smells like its leaking gas, or that the back bumper might be completely missing.

I figure, his car is so fucked up he is desperate to give people taxi rides at decent prices.

I mean it doesn’t matter if the driver is half blind, literally with only one eye.

He’ll take me where ever I need to go for 22 cordobas or less (the equivalent of U$1)

I also try to get into taxi’s with only old drivers. You know like grandfather or great grandfather status.

I figured they are just trying to make a living and won’t consider mugging me.

Unlike younger taxi drivers that can try to take advantage of me.

I’ve been lucky enough to not be in an accident while in a taxi.

I don’t want to jinx this too early but I’m going to continue to use these standards when getting into taxi’s.

P.S. One of my biggest pet peeves is getting into a taxi with the other students and then they immediately think its ok to talk english.

Like wtf! I don’t want this guy to know I can speak English.

I usual respond in spanish in hopes that the guy won’t think of me as someone from the US.

Damn white kids why do you always have to break my cover.

I was walking with one of the (white) guys the other day through the park talking about their false sense of security, and out of nowhere some of the guys at the park start yelling:

Ey! Ey! Justin Beiber! Justin Beiber! Goodnight.

I couldn’t (and still cannot) keep a straight face. I was like wow, you are being compared to a teenage boy that looks like a girl. I mean he doesn’t look like Justin Beiber, he just happens to be white, blonde haired, and blue eyed. I think what makes it more hilarious for me is because I know his personality. He is a very serious econ/poli sci/ debate team kind of guy.

I also get the sudden urge to call him Justin Beiber.

I know almost all of us are on stress mode right now because it just so happens to be finals week wherever you may be.

Or like me might have a research paper due in exactly one week.

The solution.

I’ve allowed questions to be asked.

I even allowed anonymous mode.

If the questions get out of hand then I will disable it.

But for now I think the questions can provide alot of much needed humor during this stress period.

I’ll try to answer them when I need a break from my paper.

Much love,

Angeliquita

I want to go home already

I miss my mom’s home cooking

I miss my spicy Mexican food.

I woke up dreaming about a nice plate of posole.

and I miss warm showers!

Water is scarce in Nicaragua. The government lets everyone with access to water have it until only 10am. Those that are lucky and can afford a water tank fill it while water is accessible. So I let the water sit in the tank until about 2pm and then shower with lukewarm water. It’s better than showering at 8am with freezing water (I think the water comes from the lake or ocean)!!

I mean I love my family here but I think that my legs have been mutilated enough by mosquito bites (pictures up soon).

I also have a reaction to bug bites where my skin around the area of the bite swells up. Not cute.

I have to spray RAID in my room at night to prevent being eaten alive while I sleep.

The weather is still at 90degrees!

I forgot what it feels like to wear sweaters for winter or cuddle under a blanket for warmth.

I can’t wait to be home for christmas.

I miss my Mexican tamales, my tortillas de maiz that aren’t the size of my face, and CHEESE!

I can’t eat milk products abroad because most of them are whole milk or unpasteurized and they make my tummy sick.

My host family has been good about making sure I don’t get sick off the food. This just means that most of my food tends to be bland.

White rice and beans for 4 months, not so yummy now.

I miss diversity.

I realize how priveldged I am to have diversity in my life.

Diversity in languages, cultures, food!

I miss my Indian, Thai, and Salvadorean food.

I miss hearing people talk Spanglish.

I also miss fresh air.

Today is trash day and on trash day if your trash does not make onto the dump truck most people burn it. (YES THIS IS EXTREMELY BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT)

So now the air is polluted and smells like shit.

Oh well, two more weeks until I go home.

P.S. I am going to stop tagging this with Nicaragua in case my study abroad groups follows the Nicaragua tag on tumblr.

Nature finally got the best of me.

It fucked up my Macbook charger :(

The plastic on the charger melted from the heat!

Now I have to either pay $160!!! for a new one or suffer the next 9 days writing my 25-30 page research paper on a 199X desktop.

FML

I am not about to spend 160$ for a charger, my Macbook thankfully has insurance. I’ll have to wait until I get back to the US to get a new one.

For now I’ll borrow someone else’s.

It just makes me wonder how other students/teachers/other people that use computers do it.

Oh wait, computers here are only for the most privileged.

That means that even the most privileged can afford a mac charger I can’t.

Being poor student abroad sucks.