Yep, that's right. Crazier than a year in India...I think. This is it: right now, Amara, my younger sister, and I are here in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua for a month without our parents. Katie, who used to babysit us when we lived in Kansas, is here as our adult supervision for the first three weeks until our parents meet us here for the 4th week. I'm here to teach basic music concepts to 3rd/4th graders at the local public school, and Amara is here to help me with that and teach paper quilling (you should look that up if you don't know what it is because it's pretty cool). I wrote all the lesson plans by myself and it was mostly my idea to come here and actually carry this whole shenanigan out. And at first, I was pretty confident that this would be super great and mostly easy and not scary at all.
I was wrong.
I'll start from the beginning. Our flight from Seattle to Miami was supposed to leave at 9:30pm (or sometime thereabouts), putting us in Miami with a five hour layover until our flight from Miami to Managua, Nicaragua. Five hours is annoying, I know, but at least it gave us lots of time. We got to the SeaTac airport nice and early to be extra safe. Then, our flight got delayed to 10:30. Still ok, though, because of the 5 hour layover. At this point, we're still fine, we just have some extra time to hang out at the airport (oh joy). But THEN, plot twist, our flight is delayed to 1:10am. Our five hour layover, giving us lots of extra time, has now disappeared, and the flight to Miami lands at the same time as the flight to Managua boards. This is when the panic sets in. Those of you who know me personally know that I'm usually a very calm, levelheaded person. Those of you who know me personally, then, would probably not believe what happened next. I lost it. I panicked hardcore. I have no idea what happened, but I freaked out like never before. I was terrified that we would miss our flight and be stuck in Miami for who knows how long. But then I started thinking about what exactly we were going to do in Nicaragua, and I started to freak out about that too and I started to think that maybe being stuck in Miami for who knows how long wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.
We were on our way to Nicaragua by ourselves, where I would be teaching music. I've been playing viola since I was 4, so the music aspect of that really isn't what worried me. What worried me was the "Nicaragua" part of that whole scenario. Nicaragua = Spanish. Teaching a curriculum that I've never taught before in Spanish. What also worried me was the "by ourselves" part of that scenario. Traveling in the US by ourselves? No problem. But flying to a third world country whose main language is not English? PROBLEM. Granted, I've been taking Spanish for a really long time, like seven years or something, but I was still scared sh*tless.
I was panicking a lot. We called our parents and got the whole flight situation sorted out, and we ended up making our connecting flight to Managua with no problems. However, I was, and still am, scared to death. We made it to Nicaragua. But this whole being here alone thing? It's terrifying. It's like that first day of school excited but scared feeling that you get, except really heavy on the scared side and add the deathly hot temperatures and stifling humidity and what you have is a horribly terrified, sweaty, frizzy-haired 16 year old girl and her younger sister and used-to-be babysitter. Yeah. And I'm the only one who knows enough Spanish to communicate and translate.
I feel lost, worried, and lonely, and did I mention terrified? This trip, a whopping two days in, has made me realize that I think I have mild separation anxiety, no lie. I really don't like being this far away from my parents & boyfriend with no way of communicating with them unless I have the internet (yes, we do have internet here, obviously, or else how would I be posting this, but it literally works in one specific place in our bedroom and in the lobby, which is not air conditioned therefore it is very very hot). This whole situation is just incredibly scary. I want my mommy and daddy. There, I said it. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know how I'm gonna teach these kids anything, because I've never done it before and what if they hate me or they learn nothing or my curriculum fails or any other horribly bad thing that could happen. It's so scary. And yes, I know, anything that I teach them will be more than what they already know, and it'll be valuable because it's a once in a lifetime thing for them. And yes, I know, my Spanish is pretty good and has been good enough to get us around this far. And yes, I know, my parents are only a Facebook message or a Google Hangout away. And yes, I know, a month isn't that long and it'll go by really quickly if I just don't focus on how long a day is. But that doesn't help! It's still freaking scary and I literally feel like I have no idea what I'm doing any time I try to do anything and I have this permanent pit in my stomach and that pit is where all the emotions and overwhelmed-ness and worry and nervousness live. ahhhhhhhhhwdruwoidfusoiahwwfhewailurg
Anyways. Today was our first full day in Nicaragua, and it was a holiday called San Juan Day. There was some crazy stuff going on, such as parades and dancing and a few guys climbing up a very smoothed down tree with no branches that was covered in oil. Yeah, I don't really know what that's all about. It was cool, though, and I now know that if there are no other musicians in this teeny tiny beach town, there are at least 2 trombone players and 4 trumpet players, all of which were surprisingly good, considering the fact that they probably haven't had any formal training. We've walked the majority of the town a couple times already because it's so small that basically everything is in walking distance here (which is why I find it odd that there are so many taxis here). We've reconnected with the people we knew from last time we were here in 2010, and that was good because it helped us not feel so out of place.
To sum this all up somewhat quickly, though I am usually a very calm, stable person, this trip is bringing out a side of me that I didn't even know I had--the very fragile, scared, nervous side. Turns out that traveling to a third world country with no parents as a teenager is really overwhelming--who'da thought? Nicaragua is extremely hot and today was a holiday (the history of which I really don't know) which was interesting and I learned that there are at least 6 musicians in this town. Also, before I started typing this, I only had one mosquito bite, and now I have like 6. This experience is insane. I'm sure that by the end I'll see it as a good insane, but for now I'm gonna leave it at that. It's insane.
And I'm scared.
Thanks for reading, yall, more later.
Aneesa
I was wrong.
I'll start from the beginning. Our flight from Seattle to Miami was supposed to leave at 9:30pm (or sometime thereabouts), putting us in Miami with a five hour layover until our flight from Miami to Managua, Nicaragua. Five hours is annoying, I know, but at least it gave us lots of time. We got to the SeaTac airport nice and early to be extra safe. Then, our flight got delayed to 10:30. Still ok, though, because of the 5 hour layover. At this point, we're still fine, we just have some extra time to hang out at the airport (oh joy). But THEN, plot twist, our flight is delayed to 1:10am. Our five hour layover, giving us lots of extra time, has now disappeared, and the flight to Miami lands at the same time as the flight to Managua boards. This is when the panic sets in. Those of you who know me personally know that I'm usually a very calm, levelheaded person. Those of you who know me personally, then, would probably not believe what happened next. I lost it. I panicked hardcore. I have no idea what happened, but I freaked out like never before. I was terrified that we would miss our flight and be stuck in Miami for who knows how long. But then I started thinking about what exactly we were going to do in Nicaragua, and I started to freak out about that too and I started to think that maybe being stuck in Miami for who knows how long wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.
We were on our way to Nicaragua by ourselves, where I would be teaching music. I've been playing viola since I was 4, so the music aspect of that really isn't what worried me. What worried me was the "Nicaragua" part of that whole scenario. Nicaragua = Spanish. Teaching a curriculum that I've never taught before in Spanish. What also worried me was the "by ourselves" part of that scenario. Traveling in the US by ourselves? No problem. But flying to a third world country whose main language is not English? PROBLEM. Granted, I've been taking Spanish for a really long time, like seven years or something, but I was still scared sh*tless.
I was panicking a lot. We called our parents and got the whole flight situation sorted out, and we ended up making our connecting flight to Managua with no problems. However, I was, and still am, scared to death. We made it to Nicaragua. But this whole being here alone thing? It's terrifying. It's like that first day of school excited but scared feeling that you get, except really heavy on the scared side and add the deathly hot temperatures and stifling humidity and what you have is a horribly terrified, sweaty, frizzy-haired 16 year old girl and her younger sister and used-to-be babysitter. Yeah. And I'm the only one who knows enough Spanish to communicate and translate.
I feel lost, worried, and lonely, and did I mention terrified? This trip, a whopping two days in, has made me realize that I think I have mild separation anxiety, no lie. I really don't like being this far away from my parents & boyfriend with no way of communicating with them unless I have the internet (yes, we do have internet here, obviously, or else how would I be posting this, but it literally works in one specific place in our bedroom and in the lobby, which is not air conditioned therefore it is very very hot). This whole situation is just incredibly scary. I want my mommy and daddy. There, I said it. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know how I'm gonna teach these kids anything, because I've never done it before and what if they hate me or they learn nothing or my curriculum fails or any other horribly bad thing that could happen. It's so scary. And yes, I know, anything that I teach them will be more than what they already know, and it'll be valuable because it's a once in a lifetime thing for them. And yes, I know, my Spanish is pretty good and has been good enough to get us around this far. And yes, I know, my parents are only a Facebook message or a Google Hangout away. And yes, I know, a month isn't that long and it'll go by really quickly if I just don't focus on how long a day is. But that doesn't help! It's still freaking scary and I literally feel like I have no idea what I'm doing any time I try to do anything and I have this permanent pit in my stomach and that pit is where all the emotions and overwhelmed-ness and worry and nervousness live. ahhhhhhhhhwdruwoidfusoiahwwfhewailurg
Anyways. Today was our first full day in Nicaragua, and it was a holiday called San Juan Day. There was some crazy stuff going on, such as parades and dancing and a few guys climbing up a very smoothed down tree with no branches that was covered in oil. Yeah, I don't really know what that's all about. It was cool, though, and I now know that if there are no other musicians in this teeny tiny beach town, there are at least 2 trombone players and 4 trumpet players, all of which were surprisingly good, considering the fact that they probably haven't had any formal training. We've walked the majority of the town a couple times already because it's so small that basically everything is in walking distance here (which is why I find it odd that there are so many taxis here). We've reconnected with the people we knew from last time we were here in 2010, and that was good because it helped us not feel so out of place.
To sum this all up somewhat quickly, though I am usually a very calm, stable person, this trip is bringing out a side of me that I didn't even know I had--the very fragile, scared, nervous side. Turns out that traveling to a third world country with no parents as a teenager is really overwhelming--who'da thought? Nicaragua is extremely hot and today was a holiday (the history of which I really don't know) which was interesting and I learned that there are at least 6 musicians in this town. Also, before I started typing this, I only had one mosquito bite, and now I have like 6. This experience is insane. I'm sure that by the end I'll see it as a good insane, but for now I'm gonna leave it at that. It's insane.
And I'm scared.
Thanks for reading, yall, more later.
Aneesa
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