Wow!  I have only been in Nicaragua for one week and I feel like it has been at least one month.  My Spanish is coming back to me quickly, which is a relief!  When our group arrived here we were sent to a compound and didn’t speak a word of Spanish, so I didn’t really feel like I was in another country.  Now I definitely do.  It hasn’t been difficult to adjust though because of the family I am living with.  I live with my house mother, Soledad who is 53, her two daughters Sole and Hilda-25 and 30 and my brother Andres who is 6.   They have been sooooooo nice to me.  I really feel like part of the family.  They are always looking for ways to include me and things for me to see- different parts of Nicaragua and introducing me to everyone.  I live in a small town in the province of masaya where everyone knows everyone.  It makes me feel safer because everyone knows there is a gringa in town and who I live with and that I am working with peace corps.  There are three other volunteers that live in this town with me and we all have class together.  We speak the same amount of Spanish, so it makes it easier to learn.  It is amazing that peace corps puts us in such a small class.  I have already learned so much and have only had two classes!  They are six to eight hours a day though, m-f, and trips to different popular places on sat. so that we can get used to public transportation etc.   I wake up at 5 or so in the morning because there are a ton of roosters here..and motos and dogs and parties that begin super early and birds and sooo much more.  I kind of like it though!  My only complaint is they didn’t give us the most honest advice on what we as women should wear in nica.  Everyone wears jeans and a t-shirt.  No one wears skirts or dresses unless going to a really formal event.  My sister Hilda is a teacher in the high school here and to school wears jeans.  So I almost always feel over dressed because I only brought skirts and dresses.  I will have to go shopping for new clothes!  Luckily the clothing here is very inexpensive…  T-shirts are a dollar or two and jeans I think are between 5 and 20 depending what you want.  It isn’t as hot as I was prepared for, which is nice.  Also because I live in a town, not the country, so I have a normal toilet and shower.  The only problem is the water only works for six hours a day, so you have to take your shower then, and flush the toilet with a bucket after.  But none of this is so bad.  I also have been enjoying the food.  I haven’t really gotten sick at all, but am still waiting for it to happen.  The diet is different.  Rice, beans, fried meat, pues, everything is fried, plaintains (fried), fried chicken, which is lucky for me because I love fried chicken and a lot of fresh fruit.  My only complaint is that they use a lot of sugar, and I am having a difficult time explaining to them that I don’t like sugar…at all really.  They make me coffee in the morning and it has like 3 tbs of sugar in the glass and the fruit juice has that much in each glass too.  I am scared to try the deserts… Maybe I will get used to it, but I don’t really want to.  They other thing I think is strange is that the coffee is instant.  What is strange about that is Nicaragua is famous for the coffee they grow in the mountains.  They export it everywhere, Europe, the US, and it is very expensive, but the people here don’t drink it.  I don’t know why.  It isn’t expensive to buy here….  Anyway, that is all that I have for now.  Hope this gave ya’ll and idea of what my life here is like.  I do have internet in my house, which is incredibly lucky.  I think I am the only person in peace corps Nicaragua who has it, so I will be able to be in contact fairly often…but I must warn you that my days are soooo full here that I normally don’t even have time to check my email, let alone write a long blog like this one.  Hope everyone is doing well!  Please don’t make fun of my jacked grammar… It is hard to think and speak in Spanish all day, they write a blog in English.