Saturday 28 January 2017

Vacation means VACATION :)

Wow! Sorry we’ve  been MIA in Bloglandia…When school let out and we wrapped up graduations we took the word vacation very seriously…and stopped blogging. Ha! But we are back and gearing up for another school year. Classes begin on February 6th and we are ready to start out English classes again and reconnect with the students and teachers.

December and January have been a great mix of relaxation, connecting with our community, San Nicolas fiestas partonales (homeland parties! Complete with bull riding, approximately 10 parades and lots of food and drink) visiting places in Nicaragua we had not yet seen, and hosting friends and family! We enjoyed having Kyle’s brothers for a visit when we were able to explore the island of Ometepe for the first time (AMAZING!) and then my siblings came to visit the week following Christmas. We went volcano boarding and celebrated the new year in Leon! It was a lot of fun. And great to be surrounded by family around the holidays.

Christmas day looked VERY different for us this year. We were ALONE! It was, honestly, quite relaxing, and we enjoyed it. But we are also looking forward to being surrounded by our families again for future holidays. While we enjoyed a relaxing day of Christmas snacks and movies, it just didn’t quite feel like Christmas, especially with no snow :) We did spend Christmas eve with our host family and shared some of our favorite dips and Christmas treats with them (spinach artichoke dip and Pretzels with a chocolate kiss in the middle). We also made a few other cookies and  treats and delivered plates to our neighbors and friends. I would say a pretty successful Christmas :D

We have continued to host our adult English classes and help out at the high school as needs arise. The school director had been on a well-deserved week-off, so we have also enjoyed our time at home, cleaning the house, sprucing up the yard, and inviting friends over for meals. We just recently arrived back in Nicaragua after traveling through Central America with my parents. We had a great time reconnecting with them and seeing beautiful parts of this slice of the world. Now we are refreshed, ready and excited dive back into the 2017 school year! We are ready to see our students and fellow teachers and we are excited to continue to our work with English and building relationships.

I think that about sums up our vacation time so far! Here are a variety of pictures from school vacation 2017 :D

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The Bishop came during our town’s fiestas patronales in San Nic to lead a mass. Our priest (padre patricio) is in the white shirt and khakis. Fun fact: he is also our landlord :)

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Kyle and his brothers at Volcan Masaya

20161216_172618_Richtone(HDR)One of the amazing lookout points on Ometepe

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I love this picture :D We did a tour of Flor de Cana Rum factory tour with Kyle’s brother and had to get this shot!

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Flor de cana tour

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Kyle helping a friend with some accounting/excel work.

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We were lucky enough to cross paths with my lovely aunt and her super fun family! :) Thanks for letting us crash your party!

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Pizza making with some of the high school students

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My siblings visited and we did a lot of puzzles :) We also visited Leon and went volcano boarding.

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New years eve dinner in Leon!

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With my siblings, we visited Somoto Canyon and jumped, floated and walked our way through the canyon. Beautiful!

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We made a delicious lunch with our friend, Albertina. She brought veggies from her beautiful organic farm.

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Albertina preparing the salad in our kitchen.

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Hanging out with your parents is so much more fun when you are older :D

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Lovely dinners, great weather, and lots of laughs shared!

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And, of course, amazing sunsets at every turn. I swear that Nicaragua has some of the best sunsets in the world! Can’t beat these views!

Happy 2017, let’s make it a good one!

Love. 

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