hey all. ive got some extra time today and this keyboard works okay so im going to give a brief update on my life. its been a little while.... i think the last update was after less than a week of being here and now i have been here over 2 months and i am past the halfway point. which really blows my mind. it is also strange that it is starting to warm up where you all are, and i missed the entire season of winter basically.
its amazing how normal things can be become no matter where you are. i am far far away and my life here has become pretty predictable. i have fallen into a groove. going abroad sounds more special and crazy and exciting at first, and when looking from the outside, but it really becomes home just like any other place and the newness wears off and now i don´t have to cope with being in an entirely new place, but rather staying here and not being able to leave. i do want to stay, and do and see more and learn more as well, but i still ache for home. for english and familiarity in everyday things. i am also starting to get sick of the food here. at first the food was great and different and exciiting. now it becomes the same old same old and its really greasy as most everything is fried. it doesnt taste healthy outside of the bowl of fruit i have in the morning.
as time goes on, things get easier and things get harder. i am understanding more and more spanish as the days go on and i am getting more and more comfortable walking around and living normally. but the longer i am here the further i am away from family and friends and i am starting to miss places as well as personal things like my car.
overall, i cannot complain. and i dont mean to, and if this sounds like a pity e-mail im sorry, because i dont mean it to be one. i am in a very beautiful place and i am safe and im learning an incredible amount both about myself and the world around me. i am very lucky to be in this position. a couple weeks ago i had a week off school and our group took a trip to nicaragua and northern costa rica. we went to a coastal town, the really old town of granada which i really liked, saw volcanoes, went to a market, and rode horses in the mountains and took a canopy zipline tour. so i cant complain too much. its just that sometimes i find it really hard to be content with where i am. and i think that im not alone in that. right now im looking forward to coming home and having summer and earning some needed money and then going to school in the fall again. and then im looking forward to graduating someday and so on and so forth. sometimes i look so far ahead that i miss whats going on right now. and if i never experience what is happening right now then im never going to experience anything.
one thing that particularly amazes me is how similar people are all over the place. it really boggles my mind. things are so much the same here, from desires, thoughts, cares, worries, personalities.....etc. its all the same. so many things are different, but people are the same. its one thing to learn that in a classroom, but to actually experience it and fully realize it is another story. its amazing that all these people who come from completely different backgrounds and countries and genes and yet we are so similar. we laugh and cry and tease and joke about the same things. we get upset about the same things. there are the same human problems here as anywhere else. the other day jenna´s 13 year old host brother was getting teased by his mom about a girl that likes him at church. me and the 5 year old boy i live with make funny faces at eachother. the language barrier is no doubt a huge barrier, but sometimes i think we make language into something bigger than it is. we forget that language is just a tool, like a pencil or a paintbrush or a screwdriver, and it becomes something a part of us. and maybe that doesnt make any sense, but that is what i am realizing. im realizing this because ive had that tool (english) that i rely on so much taken away from me. its only then that i realize that my language isnt actually what makes me me but often times that is how we define ourselves. what we say defines ourselves, but in reality, language itself is not me, or anyone, but a tool we use to define ourselves. well, that started to get a little heavy and i apologize if i dont make any sense, but if i do, i think its an interesting thing to note.
i think thats going to be about all for now. thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. feel free to write if you feel so inclined and i will write back.
