Last week was my final week as a sophomore in college! Wow! Half-way through already. I survived finals week...barely...and then began packing up my room to move home. That was an adventure. I had so much stuff in my room! It's crazy how much you can fit into those tiny dorm rooms. One of my roommates also moved out at the end of finals week and that was hard to see her go. All three of my roommates and I had a great year together, so it's hard to say good-bye to that...but HELLO, summer and being done with another year of college! Aaand the beginning of a whole new adventure.
For the summer I will be living in Nicaragua for 3 months. I am going down with Goshen College's SST (Study Service Term) program. This program is 6 weeks of classes and 6 weeks of service, and we also get a full semester worth of credits. I leave for Nicaragua in four days and I can't believe the time has already come. I am super excited to go, but also very nervous. It feels like I don't really know much and I am just getting thrown into another country and culture. However, I know that Goshen College has done this SST thing for many years now and that we will all be safe. It's just a little intimidating to be flying to another country without knowing who you will be living with and not REALLY knowing much of the language. Yikes!
I must say though, I am very excited that there will be other people my age, who are going through the same thing. I will be taking classes for my first six weeks there with 22 other Goshen College students, which I think will lessen the culture shock a bit. At least for the first six weeks I will still have some of those Goshen College connections. The second six weeks however, You move out of the city into the country or a more rural area. This is the service part of the term and it last six weeks as well. Often times people are placed with other students from the Goshen College group. I am not sure what my service assignment will be, but once we arrive in Nicaragua we have many conversations with our leaders about what types of service we are interested in.
Today I went shopping for a few of the supplies that I will be needing for when I head south. It's interesting thinking about packing for 3 months...I have mastered packing for a 2 or 3 week vacation, but 3 months?! wow. They usually say to take about a week or two worth of clothes because you do laundry often enough to stay clean. So that's what I am working on at this time, getting everything packed. It's hard to think of what to take since I am not exactly sure what the "style" is down there. I don't want to be underdressed or overdressed, but I think I will try to error on the side of overdressing. And definitely not exposing myself too much. I think that my blonde hair and blue eyes and my HORRIBLE spanish will make me stick out enough.
Here's a map of Nicaragua if you want an idea of where I will be...
I will be flying into the capital city, Managua. We will then be doing our study portion of the term in Jinotepe it's a smaller town, similar size to Goshen, and it's just south of Managua (about 45 minutes, i hear...). Lake Managua will be really close, as well as the coast. I've heard that their beaches are pretty great, and supposedly a few of our "field trips" will be in that direction : )
Also, before I left we had to get some family pictures in. It's like they think I am going to die or something, so they had to get me in some picture before I left. Ha. Just kidding. The pictures turned out pretty good on my Dad's camera, but the picture that Brenda Miller took will be even better.
So I guess that's all for my first blog...Exciting, huh? I will try to keep it updated as much as possible. And I think I will be mass e-mailing as well. So either way, you will get to keep up with my summer adventures.
Until then,
Allison Jae
P.S. go to YouTube.com and search "Spinach and Spanish" it's a cute insurance commercial. It made me smile. And included a little bit of spanish, too. haha : )
