Guess who's back.

I am.
I got back last night around 5 after a full day of flying. I flew back with my brother Joel and for the first leg of the flight we sat together. Lucky Joy got to sit between him and this guy that smelled like smoke and was wearing socks and flip flops . Other than that it was pretty uneventful, Just My Luck was supposed to be on but instead they played Little Man. I didn't put on the headphones and tried my hardest not to look up because I was pretty sure that I would get stupider if I did, and lets face it I don't have IQ points to just throw away. In Houston we were able to get on an earlier flight that made our layover 3 hours shorter, that was nice. So during that flight, with no movie, whenever I started to get bored out of my mind I would just think that my other option was to be still sitting at the airport. That flight I wasn't sitting next to Joel, but in between two older ladies. I wasn't in my assigned seat because I guess people have problems reading the numbers so just sit where ever they feel like, and I am just too kind to ask them to move. The lady on my right was playing the handheld Nintendo thing. It cracked me up because she was old, but I guess still hip, hipper than I am since I don't even know what those things are called.
In San Fransisco got picked up by my whole family, I told Joel that it was expected for the return of the prodigal daughter. My niece Emma came and about 70% of the ride she was showing off that she knows my name. She calls me Doy, I would be offended but she is only 1 1/2 and other relatives, that are much older, still call me Boy.
So far I have done some really exciting things in California. I do like the fall season, and it is cold here, so today I got to wear layers, but not Nica layers like two tank tops, but a tank top and a long sleeved shirt and a jacket. And the coolness made taking a hot shower even more amazing, I really forgot how clean it feels when you can put your whole body under the water instead of just one limb at a time, and wow my hair is completely different. I also got to drive an automatic. And I went to lunch with my sister at the coffee shop formerly known as Tackers. Also I talked on the phone, for all lengths of time and I never had to think about if what I was saying was really worth $.30 a minute (but maybe it is good to think of that).
Today I had to make some photo copies, just 15 and I brought my own paper. Anyways my mom gave me a pre-paid card but when I took it to the counter the lady told me that it would make more sense to just pay the $.75 because the pre-paid card was for the price of the copies if I used their paper. Sadly I had to tell her that I didn't actually have $.75, so I went to see if I had any in my car but there was only 4 dimes. Finally she told me that she would just use half of the card I brought it, over all it was a pretty pathetic experience. Maybe tomorrow my big outing will be to the ATM.
I guess some people think that I should continue these while I am in the states and in theory I agree, we will see if it happens in reality. I mean I don't want to leave you in suspense about whether or not I made it to the ATM. Plus I do have some pretty exciting job prospects that should make for fascinating stories. It is funny what jobs people think of me for, I think it stems from being perpetually poor.
So brief recap I am back in the land of milk and honey and would love to hear from you, so much that I'll probably answer my phone.
Love, Joy

Q: what has four wheels and flies?

Happy day before Thanksgiving!!
I was having problems making this update flow so you are getting bullet points instead of paragraphs. Really important things I put in bold. This is all to your benefit because if you are super busy bullets make for a a quick read, but if you have lots of free time you can take this as an outline and rewrite it in letter form.
-Although I'm in Nicaragua we still get to celebrate Thanksgiving. Actually I've already had two Thanksgiving potluck dinners. They were both nice enough although they couldn't really compare to the Thanksgiving potlucks we had in college. The ones here had a better food to person ratio. And a better space to person ratio.
-My brother Joel is in town again so actually that means half of my immediate family is in Nicaragua, but not necessarily the half that is best at cooking. So tomorrow I get to put my skills to the test and try to make a whole Thanksgiving meal, except Cristina is making the potatoes because I don't want to be considered a sell-out.
-On Sunday night my apartment made some really nice hand turkeys to hang on the wall.
-Nicaraguans obviously don't celebrate our Thanksgiving but that means here Christmas is already everywhere.
-I made gallo pinto again today but this time the maid helped me so it is much better, and I guess the beans I used last time were too old so that is why they never got soft.
-I have been driving a lot more lately. On Saturday I drove to the airport and yesterday I drove to the beach to pick up my roommate's family. I still get frustrated by driving on the road with ox-carts but I am learning to adapt.
-Last night I talked, through the computer, to my college roommate that is living in China. Since we both live in developing countries the technology is a little lacking, or maybe we are the ones lacking. There was about a two minute delay so it was impossible to figure out what she was talking about but over all that makes a pretty amusing conversation.
-On Monday morning I got a call saying that the secret friend gift exchange party, that I hadn't bought a gift for, was at 11. So I ran to the store to buy a present then got dropped off at school for the party that ended up starting at 12. We had to play games, I really don't like public speaking in Spanish.
-A: a garbage truck
-Friday there are promotion ceremonies at school so I guess I'll see which students actually passed to the next grade.
-I am coming back next year, I don't know what all that entails but it means that I need to be back here by the last week of January. I also don't know what grades I will be teaching, our school is most likely expanding to include secondary grades. Traditional Nicaraguan schools are open to primary grades in the morning and secondary grades in the afternoons. So if I teach the older grades I will have a longer work day, longer than the 3 hours I was working this year.
Committing to coming back has definitely taken a load off but also it means I have a lot of work to do. I finally bought shelves to store all my school supplies instead of leaving them in my suitcase under the stairs and really feel I can settle down more. On the other hand I now have the task of coming up with an English curriculum for nine months instead of nine weeks. I think that means I will have to teach verbs and sentence structure instead of just nouns and adjectives.
-I'm coming to California in less than a week, well, barely less, thanks to a purely selfless donation from my parents I was able to change my flight to come home November 28th instead of December 18th. I figured if I'm coming back down anyways whats the point of being here now. I can't decided what I'm looking forward to the most (besides seeing you, of course) but I know that taking a hot shower is very high on the list.
Love and Thanksgiving, Joy

Pictures, illness, birthdays, and philosophical thoughts

Hello, don't worry the time has come for y'all to sit back relax and enjoy my weekly update. I actually considered not writing one because I couldn't think of anything to say, but then I remembered this me and, as you probably know, I always have something to say. First topic of discussion (discuss:to consider or examine by argument, comment, etc.):

-I already shared the story behind the first picture, "The volcano of enlightenment." I think that seeing this picture will help redeem myself if you thought I was just a wimp, yes we were supposed to climb up that. And on a less bitter note I am standing with 2 of my roommates, Aimee(the blond one), and Rachel(the one in green), I'm wearing the red hat but if you couldn't figure that out stop reading this.

-This is a picture of two of the boys in my third grade class, Mauricio and Engels. They may look cute but later on Mauricio was in class trying to choke another student with that same balloon as the other teachers stood by and laughed and I tried to keep my hand between the balloon and neck. I haven't seen them in a few weeks but the promotion ceremonies are next Friday, I think.

-These are the girls that I tutor from across the street, Natasha is on the left and Sophie is on the right. Now focus on those lovely pieces of artwork, designed by yours truly. Today we read the book Thank You, Brother Bear, and although the title doesn't mention it, the moose plays a very important roll. Not that Natasha would know, she spends most of the time rolling on the floor and wiping her snotty nose on the throw pillows. Too much information? Sorry I had to witness it.

Now on to illness, I think without being graphic the phrase, "I lost my lunch," could be used if you times it by about eight. But that was all on Sunday night/Monday morning and today I am feeling much better.
Yesterday was my nephew Elijah's first birthday, I made a carrot cake, that I heard was nice (I still wasn't up to food), for the party and I'm sure he'll have fond memories for many years to come, similar to those I have of my first birthday party except he didn't wear a dress.
I am reading a book by George MacDonald right now and today I came across a quote today, "A man ought never to feel rich because of riches, nor poor because of poverty. The perfect man must always feel rich, because of God is rich." I think that is an important realization, if one is perfected in Christ all these worldly standards don't even matter. Even when we have nothing, we have everything. More and more I have to see that living here isn't about giving people material things, teaching them English, or doing whatever other humanitarian work that comes my way. But demonstrating the riches we have because of who our Father is. All of this is quite a load off if you really think about it, I'm poor and suck at teaching English.
Well, as I like to say, nos vemos.
Love, Joy

Hola, from your soon to be Socialist

Well here we are again, week 10 of me being down here according to my Hello Kitty planner. My life here has slowed down quite a bit, which is hard to imagine. But this free time has had some benefits, I actually watched the American news today for like 30 minutes(but do they really need to keep cutting into normal shows). So right now I am, by far, more informed about both Nicaraguan and US politics than I have ever been in my life. Our elections here were on Sunday and results came in yesterday. Daniel Ortega of the FSLN, Sandinista party won. Last time he was in power 50,000 people died and people had to wait in lines to get soap. Obviously he ran a different campaign this time, and these same problems are not supposed to occur. No one will actually know until January when he takes over.
This morning I went running, it was my first time running here by myself. There is a road right next to our complex that has a new housing complex at the end, the guards are nice so they open the gate. It's no "tree city USA" but it does the job. Then at ten the two girls from across the street came over to learn. Yeah, they only pay attention for like 30 seconds even though I've been coming up with some really entertaining activities. The longer I stay in this country the less likely I am to ever have children of my own. Today my afternoon time with was canceled but that is OK because yesterday our worksheet had questions with the words do, does, and did. But not the regular verb "to do" but the one used in questions like "do you like puppets?" The question "do" doesn't translate to Spanish, and that is just confusing.
Last week I made cookies, real ones just like home. But then on Sunday I decided to make Nica food, I made Gallo Pinto the national food, beans and rice. I had never even made beans before, let alone mix them with rice. The beans were a little on the hard side, but Leo said some time this week we can make it together. So people be ready for me coming back with my cooking repertoire expanded to contain Nicaraguan foods.
My brother came down this weekend, not actually to see me, but my mom sent me down some new Khakis with him. Hopefully I'll have better luck in these ones, but since I don't have school again until February we will all have to just wait in suspense. Actually if anyone remembers this incident next year I'll give you a dollar, or a memento from Nicaragua.
So what's going down on the home front?
Love, Joy Joy
"Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in Thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee." -Psalm 143:8

i love you, i love you not

Today was my last day of school. Or that is what I heard when I got there, so obviously I didn’t have any end of the year activities planned. Tomorrow is a national holiday for Day of the Dead and then we don’t have school Friday or Monday because of the elections on Sunday. Final exams start next Tuesday but I’m not giving exams because my students don’t know anything. I’m still here until the middle of December so I’ll have to figure out what to do with myself. Well, I’ll still have my other two jobs, I think. The communication here is definitely lacking, but that is what is to be expected in a country that has four to five hour power outages every day.
On national news, the presidential elections are Sunday. Monday schools are cancelled because of anticipated riots. The US embassy recommends that we avoid large crowds, which puts a little damper on my plans to protest.
Now back to the electricity issue, in honor of the elections, there is a rumor that we will have power for ten days straight. But these inconveniences don’t really matter, what would be the point of living in Nicaragua if everything was the same. Plus, when the electricity is out we are forced to take time out from all the amenities that no longer work and come back to the simpler times. Times without running water, lights, television, or internet. Last night we just sat at the dinner table for 2 hours because none of us had anything better to do.
Monday night I went to the movies. So Cristina was just going to buy both of our tickets because she had a 100 cord and the tickets are 50 cords each. But then the girl at the counter asked if we wanted the package deal. At first we said no, because you never really need the package deal. But you know what it was? 2 tickets, a soda, and either a hot dog or nachos, for 99 cords. Yup, it was 1 cord cheaper to get the special and it included a beverage. So there we have yet another positive aspect of Nicaraguan life.
Peace out, Joy
P.S. I have one pair of khaki pants and as of today I have worn them to school three times. And every time I have worn them my driver has forgotten to pick me up, coincidence? Or are my pants being persecuted? Or is there another option that I am overlooking?