Buenas noticias

I found a bank that accepts my debit card and can give me money, in either dollars or Cordobas.
I just finished my first morning of class, and will be heading back to watch a video on the Contra war at 4 p.m.
Ronaldo is my instructor, he´s very nice, and intelligent. He has many interesting stories, such as when he sold his AK 47 to the government in a U.S.-backed program, and bought a computer with it. AK47s, by the way, are common sight. All the police carry them. Though, the police are surprising laid back, not that I have had any experiences with them.
We were talking about government corruption in Nicaragua, of which there is plenty, and I also told him of the corruption in Detroit with Kwame. He was very wide eyed while I told him, and I think he is going to look up the scandal while I am out and about. He says my Spanish es ´muy bueno¨ but there are certain things we need to work on. But I understood 90 percent of what he said during our four hours of class.
Cold showers here, but that´s OK because it´s already 90 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky since I got here. Lots of interesting things, totally different world, but with many of the same comforts as home. I could buy whatever i need at the pharmacy or a giant supermarket about the size of any at home, slightly smaller than a Kroger. Everything is really cheap, which is good. The food at the house is pretty good, rice and beans and bread, also eggs and ham and tortilla, instant coffee, and a few native nicaraguan dishes. I haven´t been brave enough to try to street food yet. But so far, I haven´t had any gastro issues.
It´s getting much easier to understand people, but some are still really hard to understand. Many people with experience with foreigners tend to speak more slowly, and I can understand a lot of it. Speaking is still difficult, but being thrown into it like this means there´s nowhere to go but up. I´ve met a lot of nice foreigners many from canada, germany and the western US. also have had some great conversations with Nicaraguans of my age.
I realized I forgot to mention one small detail of my first daunting day here. After being awake for 40 hours, I tried to sleep a little early Saturday night, and as soon as I closed my eyes, I was shaken awake by fireworks. The bar next to the beauty salon I am staying at was lighting off bottle rockets or something for five minutes straight every 15 minutes for well over an hour. Thankfully, it wasn´t all night which was my first thought. It was so loud, that my ear plugs barely even muffled it. Apparently it was in the name of some patron saint. Not up on my saints.
Last night I ended up getting escorted home from Via Via - a bohemian hostel and bar which had a clown band playing that would make the pirate band seem like led zeppelin - on a bicycle by a girl named Kristin from Oregon and Donaldo, a guy who rents bikes here. This was my first time riding side saddle on a bicycle with two other people and I´m really glad the ride was only for three blocks. Donaldo claims he can fit 5 people on his mountain bike, and ride up a volcano. I expressed my doubts.
I also discovered the difference between classes in Nicaragua over the past couple of days. There are people here who live in the city dump, or who live in shacks outside the city. Then there are people with iPods and cars. It´s not anywhere near as well off as some people in U.S., but the disparities are pretty overwhelming. More on this inequity later. And more on the home stay later as well. The people are nice, but I am thinking that I might rather stay at a hostel when I get to Matagalpa. It is somewhat awkward to be a guest in the home of someone who doesn´t speak your language. There are so many opportunities to speak Spanish, hardly anyone speaks English, or at least not much if they do, that I think staying in hostel would not really hinder my learning, but we will see.
Right now I´m trying to figure out Skype. But calling the U.S. here is less than one cent per minute, and using the Internet is about 50 cents U.S. an hour, actually I think less.
Would write more but it´s stifling hot in this cafe, one reason why the lack of hot water is totally fine. Leon is bustling with markets today. I think I´ll go in search of some fresh mango or papaya.