Semana Santa

Call it "holy week," "spring break," "Easter vacation," or whatever you want...but here in Central America, the week before Easter is Semana Santa.  Of course there's no school, but what's even better is that from Wednesday until Sunday, the whole country pretty much shuts down!  Ok, I might be exaggerating a little, but the grand majority of businesses, stores etc. are closed, which means everyone gets a few days to completely relax and forget about life for a while!

I started off my week "arreglando" or straightening up my house.  Then on Tuesday, I got invited to head out to San Jorge, one of the beaches on Lake Nicaragua.  I almost declined because I was invited by a group of guys my age - which has the potential for causing some serious "chisme" (gossip) since girls and guys don't generally hang out together here - but I'm so glad I went.  Two of the guys in the group are really good friends of mine, so I knew it would be a fun day.  It was absolutely gorgeous with the view of the island of Ometepe out in the water, and we played beach volleyball and swam all day long.  Lunch was amazing too since we all brought along different goodies.  I think all together we had avocados, watermelon, pineapple, sandwiches, soda, mangoes, and thanks to my grandma, GOLDFISH!  So have I heard any gossip about it yet?? No, but I'm sure word has made it around town that I piled into a taxi with 5 guys, plus the male driver to head out to the beach. Eh...if I let gossip run my life here, I'd never leave the house - haha which would lead to gossip about me being proud and anti-social. I just need to give credit to these guys and say that not once did I feel uncomfortable around them, and that not one of them even considered hitting on me!  It was such a chill day. =)

The rest of the week, I spent in my training town with my old host family. <3 On Wednesday, we baked literally all day long.  This is a typical tradition here in Nicaragua during Semana Santa - because after Wednesday, everything is closed, so people need to have their bread and pastries to eat!  Since my family has an oven and owns the "molino" or place where they grind corn into "masa" for baking, basically the whole town came over with their ingredients to bake.  We literally baked from 8 o'clock that morning (they started heating the oven at 6) until after 11 at night!! We made rosquillas (a ring shaped pastry), tortilla dulce (basically homemade sweet cornbread), and bread.  Let me just say that bread is a LOT of work!! Like literally a work out!!

So, after all our hard work, we spent the rest of the week hanging out in hammocks, listening to music, talking, playing, and just generally relaxing and enjoying life.

Since it was "holy week" there were also processions everyday in every single town here.  Palm Sunday was awesome because someone dressed up as Jesus and rode into the church on a donkey while we all laid palms on the street in front of him!! I'm so mad I didn't have my camera! On Friday, the procession was very sad, complete with depressing music and the people of the church carrying around the Jesus from the crucifix on one of those beds they carry queens around town on - aka a funeral march.  We walked for more than 2 hours all around town, and ended in the church for a quick blessing.

Easter Sunday's procession was much happier, complete with firecrackers and a band "making a joyful noise" to celebrate the resurrection.

All in all, I have to say Semana Santa was pretty awesome.  I got to experience some really cool Nica traditions and got to just chill and relax.  Of course we went out to dance on Saturday too. =P

Happy Spring everyone!! =) Speaking of your spring...my summer has gotten to the point where after showering and reaching for a shirt to put on the other day, I pulled my hand back in disgust at the realization that my shirt felt like it had just been taken out of a drier.  Never felt heat like this before in my life.  Maybe I'll break down and buy that fan...