Tell me the truth about this squirrel.

If you can say that sentence without effort, you're probably a native English speaker. Congratulations.

Recently I have been meeting with a couple guys to help them practice their English- both people who I met because they randomly approached me on campus one day and asked if I spoke English (ah, the joys of being so obviously a foreigner). It is a somewhat entertaining, and also fulfilling, experience. Both Eliseo and Pablo can read pretty well but need help with pronunciation. We went over words that I never considered would be hard to pronounce, like “truth” (that’s a lot of consonants!), “this” (the Th and the short I are both killers), and “squirrel” (oof). We also went over some choice four-letter words and idioms like “sort of” and “oh well.” In exchange, they helped me with rolling my double r’s (a sound which I thought I had down but it turns out I’ve been faking for years), and taught me some other choice phrases.

Last weekend I had another great adventure in the Nicaraguan countryside. Our group took a trip up north to an absolutely breathtaking piece of Mother Nature called Somoto Canyon. The canyon is more like a ravine in between two huge rock faces that was carved out by a river thousands of years ago. We had a guide take us on an epic trek. For the first couple hours we wound our way through the mountain trails until we got to the river, where we loaded all of our stuff into a (semi) waterproof container and, with the help of our life jackets, bobbed around in the currents and let ourselves be carried by the rapids. For probably a couple miles we swam, waded, and climbed over rocks to get down the river. One part of the adventure entailed jumping off a 13-foot cliff into the river in order to bypass a waterfall. I think that was a first for me. The terrain was so rugged, green, and beautiful. It was rejuvenating to be out in the fresh air and, yes, out of the city.

I have five weeks left in Nicaragua, and I have to say I am excited to come home and am glad that it will go by fast. Still, I have lots I want to see and do before I leave, so I am excited to see what other adventures I can cram into my time here.

Until next time!