birthdays & the cat formally known as "cheetarah"...

26!! i´m officially closer to 30 than 20 now. at least i´m off to a good start... instead of celebrating my birthday with blizzard like last year, this year I was able to hang out in granada with some of my friends. warm weather, steak, american breakfasts, margaritas & toña and dancing! here are some pictures from the festivities.......

The cathedral and view of the downtown Granada.

with Cara in the park...

two of my favorite people in nicaragua, Cara and Cesar

Me & Cesar, after our meal of steaks and red wine...yum!
Dancing at "El Club"

i´m also now a "proud" pet owner. i´ve adopted a cat from a couple of other volunteers, mainly to control the little mouse problem in my house. they had named her cheetarah, apparently after one of the Thundercats, but i decided to pick a name thats a little bit easier, "mimi". well, she´s run off the mice, but i now have the pleasure of being woken up at 5 am everyday!!! fun, fun. i guess life is full of these little "trade-offs".....

"mimi"

A little update for the new year...

Once again I am way past due on updating my blog. I should have made it my New Year's resolution to keep it current, but no one ever keeps their resolutions anyways!!

Thanks to my wonderful parents I was able to come home for Christmas. I took full advantage of the hot showers, good food and being able to drive. I was only able to go for 10 days, but it was great to see everyone. I was actually ready to come back to Nicaragua though, because I couldn't deal with the cold! When I left Omaha it was 15ºF and when I landed in Managua it was 95ºF!!! Quite a difference in temperatures....

This is me, freezing.....
Leslie, Me and Tracy
Family Christmas

I spent New Year's here and then went "on vacation" to Quepos, Costa Rica. My friend Brandy and her generous parents invited me to join them on their trip. I had an amazing time there, its a beautiful country. I went on a zip-line canopy tour, went deep sea fishing and caught a 100 lb sail fish and got a nice tan relaxing on the beach and by the pool.

My sail fish

Beach at the National Park, Manuel Antonio

Costa Rican sunset

Ready for the canopy tour!!

Aside from my trips, not much new is going on. Classes started last week so things have started to pick up here. I have a feeling this school year is going to fly by!