Daily Differences

So I had a request from Justine (hey girl hey!) to write a little about how life here is different and/or the same as home...there definitely are a little of both!
Showering, bathing, teeth brushing---Usually pretty similar-we have running water for 3-4 hours in the mornings and at night, which means I get a shower! Now you need to know this shower is much less water pressure than at home, which I miss; and the water temperature is about 200 degrees colder, but I´ve gotten used to this and even look forward to the freezing cold water that helps to wake me up early in the morning. During the afternoons when I need a shower, I get a bucket shower-basically theres a huge bucket inside the shower with a smaller bucket-if there is already water inside the bucket, you´re ready to go. If there is not, you need to fill it up from the huge jug that sits outside of the shower. From there you throw water on yourself a couple times, sud up your hair, body etc... and then rinse! The rinsing part is the hardest because with the way my hair is growing, I need a lot of water to get all of the shampoo and conditioner out. The bucket shower leaves you feeling somewhat cleaner than when you first stepped into the shower. Teeth brushing is exactly the same...nothing exciting there.
Electricity & Technology---we do have electricity all of the time. No microwave, we do have a refrigerator and an oven/stove. A lot of the families here only use the oven for storage but my host mom actually uses it to cook which is exciting! That means I get meals that are cooked in ways other than frying...so great. Definitely no internet or computer in my house, but a couple of the other trainees do have wireless internet in their houses.
FOOD---Breakfast-I always have coffee and it is always DELICIOSO-its just really good coffee...I love it. Usually have some kind of fruit-fresh mandarin oranges, bananas, mangos, watermelon-it depends on the day and what is in season. There is also some kind of bread-they are crazy about their bread here...all of it is amazing. They have pan relleno-which could be filled with jam, cheese, butter, chicken salad or just straight up sugar. Pan dulce literally means sweet bread and there is also a huge variety with this type-mainly a pastry type bread. Pan simple is regular bread-also really delicious.
Lunch-lunch is the meal that varies the most other than a couple staples that always find their way onto the plate-rice, beans and plantains-always. ALWAYS. To go with this I´ve had: pulled chicken with peppers and onions, steak, a whole fish (so amazing), vegetable soup (by vegetables I mean yuca, potatoe, plantain...mainly starches) etc.. My two favorite meals so far have been arroz valenciana which is a take on paella- rice with meats and veggies-still am not sure of all the types of meat that are included in this, but its good, so I dont really care. My other favorite meal was this soup made out of this green vegetable that was the consistency of an avocado- tasted similar to it too, but definitely was not one. You bake the veggie, spoon out the insides and then blend it up with a little bit of salt, add mozzarella cheese and bake again-seriously incredible. I have no idea what the vegetable is but it tastes so good.
Dinner-the staple dinner here is gallo pinto, tortilla, and either queso or a fried egg. The gallo pinto is kidney beans and rice, fried a couple times. I personally really love it and even though the cheese here is waaaaay waaay over salted, it´s quickly growing on me. (okay I actually loved it the first time I ate it with my gallo pinto)
Some of you may be wondering, "But weren´t you lactose intolerant when you were in the US? How come you can eat so much cheese there?" I am wondering the same exact thing...I have no idea. Somehow my lactose intolerance has disappeared and here I am an avid salty cheese fan. I also have had ice cream twice and I am still alive. Not quite sure why the difference in dairy here, but I´m okay with this positive change.
Transportation---I walk pretty much everywhere-to and from spanish class, to the internet cafe, food store, soccer, yoga class etc...Masatepe is areally easy place to walk around and it helps to even out all of that heavy fried foood that I just wrote about. When I´m traveling outside of Masatepe, we either take mototaxis, which are these small open aired taxis-you can fit a lot of people somehow but they really look tiny...comfortably you fit 3 in the back...last weekend we fit 6. Don´t ask me how. Mototaxis are for traveling to the town next to mine or to the other side of town-definitely shorter distance trips. When traveling to Masaya (the capital of my department) or to Managua (the capital of Nicaragua) we either travel in camioneta, which is like a 24 person van ish thing, or in an old school bus. The school busses are cheaper and they literally pack people on like sardines. There are 2-3 people in every seat and the aisle has 2 rows of people-with the blasting music, the sweaty bodies, people selling foods and other cosas on the bus, it´s a really interesting and exciting trip...always.
So basically life here has some differences, but all in all it´s really pretty similar to life at home! Love and miss you all and keep the questions coming!