Thursday, 29 September 2011

Para Alicia

More love for the teacher!! Haha and they nearly got it...! What is your name? My name is Karla y Nimia. Teaching the beginners is verrry difficult, although they are the most keen.

Got the oldest ones to answer questions today, on their own in their books! Rather than just copying off the board.

1) Where is the sofa?
2) Where is the oven?
3) Where is the bed?
4) Where is the bath tub?

Example answer being: the sofa is in the living room.

Took some of them a while, but most of them managed to answer correctly :) although one girl showed me her answers; she got the oven is in the closet. I was like hmm nearly..!!

Monday, 26 September 2011

Question of the week

Why does Santa go to countries like England and America where the children already have everything, but he never comes to Nicaragua?!

Didn't know what to say to that.

Knowing what to teach has also been hard. I tried to do 'for breakfast I eat...' 'for lunch I eat...' 'for dinner I eat...' last week. Before realising that they probably don't eat 3 different meals a day when they said they drink 'coffee black' for breakfast and have cola for dinner.

But teaching is sooo funny! Last week they kept giggling coz 'tomato' sounds like 'te mato' in Spanish which means 'I kill you'. And for some reason everyone already knows the word 'chicken'. As soon as we showed the picture of the chicken it was 'CHICKEN, CHICKEN!!' Now this week we try to teach the word 'kitchen' and get 'chicken' repeated back to us lol.

Me: 'What do you have in the kitchen?' (after learning words such as 'oven' and 'fridge')

Little boy: 'err CHICKEN?!'

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Teacher :)

Look what 2 of the girls gave me after class today!!

First day back at school. I now have two more people in my team. American man and a woman from New Zealand. Both don't speak Spanish..! But American man knows everything and never stops talking. We attempted to teach food today..went quite well. Did spelling competition at the end of one class, which they loveddd. Need more easy games like that.

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Good news :-)

The policeman found my blackberry :D went back to the pool today and they were sooooo rude and unhelpful, saying that now I had the police involved they couldn't do anything. They didn't even apologise, just said they can't take responsibility for their guest's stuff at the pool as it is a public place. It is not a public place - you have to pay $5 to get in. Going to write some bad reviews on Trip Advisor.

Then went back to the police station to see what they were doing. Didn't expect anything. Then I got there and they told me the man I saw yesterday wouldn't be in til Monday, so I thought..yep that's the end of my Blackberry, but then no..in he walks and says, "is this your phone?!" HA! So he went to the girl in the pictures house, turns out that was the friend of the girl who took the phone. She took him to the girls house, and he got the phone. Very efficient police service in Nicaragua!! Still doesn't know where my other phone is as the girl claims my bag was already open and they just took my Blackberry. When I got out the pool my bag was closed tho.. Said the girl had paid to go to the pool and was quite rich. The family had a nice house, good car..doesn't know why she'd steal.

So now everyone keeps telling me I should have been more careful. Don't think my phone would have survived the last 3 months if I wasn't. If this had happened in the street then it would have been my fault, but at the private hotel swimming pool where nearly everyone sits at the pool on their laptops, with iPhones and I was 3 metres from my bag.  How more careful can I be?!

Hmmm

Both my phones got stolen today. I have been expecting to be robbed ever since I first arrived in Cuba, so am always soooo careful, holding my bag tight, not taking my phone if I'm going somewhere busy, out at night etc. So today it gets stolen from the nice pool at the posh hotel while I was 3 metres away in the water. Mombacho Beach Club, Hotel Spa Granada - No one go there!!!!!!! Am not very pleased. Was with my phone all day lying at the edge of the pool, then went for a swim for about an hour. Well sat on the step in the pool facing my bag, so I don't know how it happened, but when we got out the pool when most people had left both my phones were missing from my bag :( 

Went and told the woman on the bar who called a man who turned up with his two children to tell me that it wasn't them. She told me to say it definitely was them because they were black and thieves she said. But I don't think it was them. I told her I thought it was these two girls who asked me why I'd only just got in the water. But she said it couldn't be as they were her daughters. So after a while they decided there was nothing more they could do and told me I should be more careful with my stuff, after being quite offended that I was only accusing the Nicas not the other tourists, saying they shouldn't let them in the pool...! 

Then went on Facebook in the internet cafe and found a strange status from me. Turns out to be the name of a girl from Granada, Nicaragua. So I print off her picture and my Facebook page and marched back to the hotel with my evidence. Then there is a dippy American boy as manager, so he didn't help much, he also looked her up in Facebook and tried to call the woman who was on the bar and said I should go back tomorrow. 

I then went to the Police station, and told them what happened, and made a statement. They seemed more interested than I thought they would be. Then he printed it off and off we went back to the hotel to investigate!!! When I arrived back with a policeman was a very different story. American boy and doorman looked quite terrified..ha. Policeman demanded to see the pool etc and said he would be back tomorrow. 

Will see what happens...

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Lake

Had a lovely day at this lake near Masaya. Think its another ex-volcano now filled with water. Me and my German friend got a mini bus from a hostel in Granada with some foreign people..2 other English and 2 other Germans. It took us to a place next to the lake with cabins to rent or you can come for the day. Spent the day floating on woggles and canoeing around the lake.
Was sooooo nice and quiet, and the water was warm and still and so clear and could hear monkeys howling from the mountains.