First Weekend in Granada

I've been here for less than a week and it already seems like an eternity. I feel like I am in a timeless place, no dwelling on the past or worries about the future. (Although I do need to start thinking about what I want to do once my three weeks of school are up. It's already in the 90's here and everyone keeps telling me it's going to get much hotter. So I need to think about traveling to a cool place. Any suggestions? Please let me know.)

Last Friday night, I went to dinner at Tercer Ojo (the Third Eye) with my classmates (four 50-somethings from NYC) and their host families. It was their last night in Granada before they headed out to a pueblo to build houses. It was fun--I speak better Spanish than any of them and helped translate for everyone. After dinner, some of us went dancing at Cafe Nuit, which I'm told is the best dance club in Granada. They had a live band and also played Latin and American music between sets. (Everyone I've talked to about it says they like it, except my teacher today, he said Granada doesn't have any good clubs and that it's better to go to Managua.) One of the host brothers taught me to meringue a little and it was fun, though way too hot to dance a lot.

Saturday, I mostly just walked around the city and got to know it a little better. I walked along Calle Commercial (Commercial Street), where 'you can buy anything'. It was crazy busy, but nothing like the grocery store and market I went to, which were chaotic and totally packed full of people. Oddly, I didn't find any prepared foods to buy, just ingredients for people to cook themselves. Perhaps I wasn't looking in the right place. My teacher told me today that we will go to the market tomorrow as a 'visual class' so I'll ask him about it.

Saturday night, I went to a free piano concert at La Casa De Tres Mundos (the House of Three Worlds). The pianist played along with recorded background music, which I found rather odd, but it was good. I especially liked the songs where he invited his friends on stage to sing.

Sunday, I tried to invite myself to go to church with my host family. I thought that everything was clear Saturday night, until the last minute when I was about to go to bed and asked Fatima exactly what time I need to be ready to go with them and she told me that she doesn't go to church! I get so confused sometimes! So I slept in (until 9:30 instead of 7:00) instead. After breakfast, fruit and cereal, I went to a museum in the former monastery that's part of the Inglesia (church) de San Francisco. It contains some beautiful, colorful "primitivist" paintings and some other dark and abstract ones, all by Nicaraguan artists. Also, there is a map of Granada built with miniatures. I didn't realize how big the city is, as I have mostly been in the central part. The museum also contained some pre-Colombian statutes (unfortunately without any dates) that were part person, part animal and displays showing how people used to live in the past. It was a nice way to spend the morning and very breezy inside compared to most of the city, as it is located on the top of a small hill.

Sunday night I went to a movie. Finally, a place with air conditioning! The title on the marque was La Conquista del Honor (the Conquest of Honor) and I thought that it would be some movie in Spanish that I would have to try hard to understand any of. Instead, it ended up being The Flags of Our Fathers with Spanish subtitles. Not the best movie ever, but at least I understood the whole thing. The movie theatre is only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and only shows one movie per week. Next week is Ghost Rider, which I will be seeing for the AC if nothing else.

Today I went to class and then came back to the school after lunch and a siesta to walk to the cemetery with my teacher, Javier. There is only one cemetery in Granada and it's huge! I don't even know how big. I couldn't see the end from anywhere we walked. It's divided into three parts, one for the rich, one for the poor, and one for everyone else. The poor part is by far the biggest and saddest, everyone there is buried in the dirt with only a cross made out of metal or plastic or whatever. I took some pictures and will try posting them soon. I tried earlier today but it made the computer freeze, so I guess I did it wrong. I also found out that my teacher was part of the Sandinista movement during the war, about 20 years ago. He said that he shot semi-automatics when he was a teenager, but that he's a pacifist now. It was a really interesting experience.

Okay, I'm off to dinner. Hasta luego!