Thanksgiving!!!

15 and a half things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving:

1) I have a job that keeps my life semi-interesting.  I’ve done everything from help my brother harvest bananas in a forest on a mountainside to dance with the tortilla lady at a community meeting for a free notebook.

2) My years of watching the Discovery Channel are finally coming in handy.  Whether it’s about the leaf cutter ants in my backyard, remembering the episode about things living on bananas when people cut them down and for some reason still deciding to carry them up on my shoulder without checking them (I’m thankful I only got bit by one of the army ants), or knowing things about the Howler Monkeys I hear when I wake up. 

3) Pan dulce (sweet bread).  I’ve gone from just eating wheat bread in the States to only eating white breads coated and filled with sugar here.  It’s great! 

4) Telenovelas.  You really have to appreciate quality acting when you see it.  Plus I’m finally starting to figure out the plot of one of them!

5) My mosquito net.  It’s the cocoon that saves me from the things that creep, crawl, and bite at night.

6) I haven’t had a parasite or bacterial infection in a month and a half! I know this will probably jinx it, but I’m just happy it’s lasted this long!

7) The draft that results from the small gaps between the wood planks that compose the walls to my room allow for good ventilation.

8) I am able to hear the 70s and 80s songs that are regularly on the radio, being played in the busses, or on people’s phone speakers.  I heard the song “Funky Town” three times in the past two days.  Most of the songs here are in Spanish, but the market for bad 70s-90s love songs is through the roof.  It’s pretty great when a real masculine guys starts playing the Titanic song.

9) I get cold when it hits 70 degrees with a light breeze

10) I found a bug that looked like a bean in my rice and beans the other morning.  As long as I don’t know I’m eating it, it looks like I found a way to supplement my diet with more protein!

11) My Malaria medicine can give me some pretty awesome vivid dreams. 

12) I’ll hopefully be using a flushing toilet and will be showering with warm water (or anything more than an oil barrel filled with water and a bowl to pour with in the backyard) tonight in my hostel!

13) I didn’t ‘have’ to run the Thanksgiving morning 5k after eating a bunch of deep-dish pizza the night before.  Every year it seemed like such a good idea…who can say no to Giordano’s? 

14) I didn’t have to watch my dad win the LVP (Least Valuable Player) award yet again at our annual “Toilet Bowl” Thanksgiving football game.  It’s about time he lets someone else win it!

15) My annual goal of not listening to Christmas carols before Thanksgiving was much easier without having the “Holiday Lite” starting carols the day after Halloween.   

The Half) The half is actually the longest one!  But seriously, I still missed home this week.  I have more traditions surrounding Thanksgiving than any other holiday, and it’s been hard to miss all of them.  This will be the first year since 1998 that I haven’t gone out for food at Bill’s Hotdogs with my Dad and brother the day before Thanksgiving, the first year since I was 12 that I haven’t gone out to breakfast at P.J. Klem’s and then played in the Toilet Bowl on Thanksgiving morning, and many others.  That being said, I am starting to feel more and more comfortable in my town here, and also have a good group of PC volunteer friends as well.  I know this is super cheesy, but I’ll end by saying that I’m thankful for all my family and friends that I’ve been able to keep in touch with at home.  I’m also thankful for my family and friends here in Nicaragua.  There are definitely days that are harder than others, but they are really making this feel more like I place that I can learn to call home for 2 years.