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BIO

2009-11-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

La vida es un baile...

2009-06-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

So. It's been a while, once more. I am getting used to saying that. It's just not as easy to always remember to update this thing. Anyway, things have been really busy around here. We've had a great experience enjoying a lot of what Nicaragua has to offer. We have some exciting trips planned for the upcoming weeks, so I'm looking forward to doing some cool traveling adventures.
Aside from the workshop, Justin and I have been participating in a "dance group" with a bunch of kids from the church's institute of religion. It's been a lot of fun. The group is called "Ritmo en la sangre", and we spent ALL last week practicing for our performance that happened this last Saturday night. It was a good time. I am posting the video of the performance here so that all can see. Truly, it's nothing too great or spectacular, but it was definitely something new for me, and a good challenge. For those that can't tell, I am constantly in the back left corner...if that doesn't help, I am one of the 2 gringos, and I am the shorter of the 2. There. That should suffice.
Anyway, aside from that, we had a cool opportunity today to teach the workshop to about 45 students at UPOLI, the polytechnical university of Nicaragua. I don't know if the word in English is "polytech" or "polytechnical" but I'm sure you get what I mean. Anyway, it was a 3 hour lecture/conference that we did and while it was exhausting to try and cram sooooo much information into such a short amount of time, I felt really good about it. One of the biggest newspapers in the country came and interviewed me, while one of the big news networks interviewed Justin. It was cool, there was definitely a lot of press involved which was a pretty neat experience. I hope that my newspaper bit turns out okay--or at least that I sound like I know what I'm talking about. We'll see.
Anyway, here are some pictures and the video of our group's "dance performance" from last Saturday. We have another performance on Friday...here's to improvement ((raises glass of Diet Coke))!

Más diversión..

2009-06-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this blog really has become more difficult to keep up than I wanted it to. I know no one reads it, so it feels like I'm writing in a journal, which I'm not very good at either. Regardless, the show must go on...
I am not going to take much time to explain what's been going on lately, because it's much of the same: some travels, teaching workshops, etc. Anywho, here are some pictures from some of the various activities lately...Most of which are from our day trip to Laguna de Apoyo which is outside of Masaya (for those of you that were really wondering). Enjoy.

Mi vida nicaragüense

2009-05-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Ironically enough, I updated my Nicaraguan blog more before I came to Nicaragua. For my few readers, I've been in Nicaragua for only a week and a half now, though it's already feeling like home a bit. I've had a great time so far, and learned a lot in the process.
Justin and I arrived last Saturday night. We're living in Colonia Bolonia--around where Daniel Ortega lives...we haven't hung out with him yet.
Well, there's a lot to recap since I haven't written anything at all since I got here...

I'll start from the beginning:
I took a red-eye flight from SLC to Atlanta where I was able to be with my family for about 12 hrs, which was nice because I was able to see all of my nieces and nephews

It was a nice time.
Anyway, from there I met up with Justin to take our flight down to Managua, which was a nice flight, pretty quick, really. I was able to fly first class on both flights which was extremely nice. Anyway, we arrived and were greeted by our manager Pedro Avilés, a really great guy that runs the LDS Employment Resource Center down here. The following day we attended church here in Barrio Alta Gracia (our ward)...the members are very kind there, we feel pretty at home. Anyway, the week began and instead of us teaching the employment workshop, we were able to sit in on the two-day workshop taught by our amigo and assistant manager (not assistant TO THE manager, rather assistant manager) Nelson Eddy Cortez. During that workshop we met our friends Araceli and her sister, Silma. As we spoke with them, they asked us what our plans were and we mentioned that we wanted to get out of Managua and head to Masaya, which is a nearby city known primarily for their artisan work in their markets. Luckily, they were planning on heading down on Saturday, so they offered to take us along...and so we went. It was really sweet...we first went to the volcan Masaya (Masaya's volcano), which was really pretty cool. I'm including a short video clip from there. Following that we headed to Masaya where we walked through the markets, but didn't end up buying anything--neither Justin nor I really have much interest in buying "souvenirs" until we heading back to the states, but regardless we saw lots of cool stuff. Most hammocks.
Following our time in Masaya we headed a few kilometers down the road to Catarina, a tiny pueblo that is really only known for it's "mirador" (which in english is something like a look-out point), as you can see, I've posted pictures from there as well. It was an incredible view and albeit a bit hot, there was a nice breeze. The 4 of us just hung out there for over 3 hours listening to marimba music and talking, which really just fried my skin (as the pictures clearly show). We finished the day/night off by going back to the girls' house to hang out with their family, who has since become our family down here...really amazing people.

Anyway, I don't feel like writing much more, because I doubt that anyway has even made it this far in this post, but I'll just say that Justin and I taught our first solo workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday and that it went really well. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to try and help others in this capacity, it truly is a blessing from Heavenly Father to work with His children to better their lives and find employment! We started another workshop today, which is a lot smaller, and kinda nice for that reason alone. Tomorrow we'll finish and then go dancing and have the weekend to catch up on homework and sleep. Additionally, Sundays we always travel to give trainings about the employment workshop in other departments (which are the equivalents of states). For example, last Sunday we went up to Jinotepe, where we had a meeting with Stake Priesthood leaders. All-in-all, it went really well.
I'm really enjoying Nicaraguan life so far. The food is great. The people, especially the people we meet in the center are incredible. The movie theater prices are sooooo cheap ($2 US), though we saw Angels and Demons tonight, which really disappointed me. Anyway, I'll post more later.

La capacitación

2009-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile, and I know that all three of you have been wondering where I've been and what I'm up to. Anyway, the story goes like this: I'm in Salt Lake City at a hotel going through training for the internship. It's crazy to think that I'll be in Nicaragua in a matter of days...so I'm excited. This whole Swine flu thing is getting uber-scary for people that are susceptible to all sicknesses in their various forms ((me)), but I'm cool with it. Well, not with the disease itself, but you know.

Anyway, I guess I'll have some more exciting information soon, but I'll say for now that this is a pretty cool experience so far; I'm really excited to get to help teach people principles that will help them through the difficult times of un/under-employment. Now, I'm tired and I think that I will watch a movie.

Hasta pronto.

La tonta más tonta...

2009-04-02T13:53:00.001-07:00

I cannot for the life of me understand how this is possible...

"A veces en la vida hay que saber luchar no sólo sin miedo, sino también sin esperanza."-Alessandro Pertini

2009-03-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

Life truly throws some interesting curve balls. That's for sure.

Crazy as it may sound (and it's not that crazy, because I know that you, the reader of this blog, have thought this at least one time before), sometimes when I am alone in my room, walking around campus, watching a ball game, etc. I'll have this strange thought like, "What if all of this is fake and my life is really just like The Truman Show?" Eerie as it is to think, would there be any way to really, I mean REALLY, know if it wasn't? Taking the gospel point of view from it all (I do hope by now that nobody reading this is really convinced that I am seriously considering this to be possible, rather thinking, "what if..."), because obviously we could be very analytical about it and argue things like "but answers to prayer..." and "the Spirit would tell you..." and that is all true. But I am just saying, what if really there was a huge audience watching your every move? What if all the crazy things that happen in your life (such as the one spawning this rant) were just purely for the entertainment of others (referring to that huge television audience).

Ok.
Sit for a second.
Think, contemplate it.
Now, admit that this thought has crossed your mind at least once...

Thanks.

Anyway, Nicaragua preparations are coming along alright. I still need to check up on my shot information and see what else I need. I am getting excited because the day is coming quite quickly--I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Still coughing like a madman, unfortunately.

Oh, and just to leave on a humorous note, I read this partial essay (by Eric D. Snider, a former BYU student and current humor columnist) about LDS dating that left me cracking up:

"In a normal society, people ask other people to dances merely by, well, ASKING them. But for some reason, at BYU, you have to do something clever. For example, a guy might bake a cake with a note inside of it. When the girl eats the cake and reads the note, which says, 'Will you go with me to Homecoming?' she responds to the invitation by, say, setting the guy's bed on fire. Then, to indicate that he received her acceptance message, he has to use computer-hacking techniques to erase all electronic evidence of her identity. She responds to this by maiming one of his family members. And it escalates like that.

"Only at BYU does asking someone on a date require careful planning, extensive props and, occasionally, pyrotechnic devices. The number of fingers lost and eyes poked out prior to Preference and Homecoming dances, due to creative asking methods, is probably enough to create several new people."

El viaje

2009-03-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

Though it may not have a lot to do with me going to Nicaragua, I have to say that my final "hoorah" with my friends was sick. In a totally good way (not in a "Oh man, I just ate menudo" kinda sick). Anyway, Crew 201 and Co. went to Dana Point, California and had a blast..I will surely post my "video montage" when I'm done with it...but for the meantime this will have to suffice:

La verdad

2009-03-12T23:23:00.001-07:00

Well, no really "new" updates about Nicaragua. Essentially I'm just counting the days and stressing a bit more about school-related things. Not too much longer though! Anyway, this post is really more to highlight something that is not at all "nicaraguan" in nature (riiiight): the temple. LDS temples have become a matter of question, comment, and, at times, criticism. I, however, believe that the church has done a great job offering a BRIEF insight into what the temple is and why it's necessary:

El Inicio

2009-03-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

So here it is. My Blog. Finally. I've done it. It's been done.

Okay, well, I figured that I ought to start this thing before I actually go to Nicaragua, because I get bored and I imagine that I will update it a lot before I even go, which could or couldn't be a good thing. Depends on how you feel about it.

So just a little run-down about what I will be doing in Nicaragua (and why I felt that I should make a blog to tell about it):

-I am going to teaching employment workshops throughout the country. It will be an awesome opportunity to serve the people down there...that will be exciting.

-I will continue taking classes but via internet.

-I will have a "teaching companion" of sorts. His name is Justin T...I'll refer to him as JT (not to be confused with Justin Timberlake). We'll travel to the various spots, teach the workshop, hopefully get to the beach, and loads of other stuff. He's a cool kid. They assigned us to work together the other week.

Anywho, the primary reason for me making this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family seeing as how I've still opted not to go the "facebook route" (though there is no doubt that it'd be much easier).

Oh, and in case you haven't seen it yet...