Nicaragua

So I'm leaving tomorrow morning bright and early to go for orientation.

We fly to Miami on Monday at 6am, and then catch a connecting flight to Managua. We'll be on the island of Ometepe, then a week in Granada, and another week in Leon. It's a total of four weeks long.

SO as you might guess, I won't be able to post for awhile. I also won't have Facebook, a cell phone, or internet access. This is hopefully going to be a life changing experience to open my eyes about volunteering in a new country.


HOWEVER! I have made a reader of the week posting for the next four weeks (May 6, 13, 20 and 27th) . There will be a new posting every Friday so make sure to check back!

I will return to Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule starting June 3rd. 

This week's Reader of the Week is Michael, who has hopefully recovered from his awful cold.

Oil Change

I have an awesome motorcycle.

It's a 2005 Kawasaki Ninja 250cc. I've had it since I was 16 and it's my baby. I got into my head today that I would give her an oil change, and a new oil filter.

I whipped out my owner's manual and it seemed simple enough.

1.) Warm the engine
2.) Open the drain
3.) Drain
4.) Remove oil filter
5.) Replace new filter
6.) Fill with oil.
7.) Warm engine.
8.) Check oil and top up.




So I got my tools together, and crawled under the bike to unscrew the first nut.








Here's what I saw underneath.

 

So I tried the first wrench. 

 

Too small. Next wrench.

 

Too big. Wtf. Oh. These are imperial. *search for metric* AHA! 

 This one fit, but somehow the pipe and the farings were in the way JUST so I couldn't turn the wrench. So this time I used the socket wrench. And I pulled.

 

I pulled so hard that I shook the whole bike.

 

Lying on the ground, having the bike shake like that, I got really scared.  Sooooooo I called up my dad.

Sitting on the front steps, covered in grime, the mailman delivered my mail (Plus my new shirt from 11:11 Apparel).

AND I waited. 

About an hour later my dad showed up to lend his muscles. We cranked it open, and let her drain into an old cookie tin I had (since the oil pan is mysteriously missing).

And that was when we realized that it wasn't water (or oil) tight.

 

Long story short, I made a mess. Then I had to remove the oil filter and added even MORE oil to the floor! 

I loved smelling like oil, exhaust, and getting down and dirty.

 

Can't wait to hit the road. 

Bad Luck

Some days I have colossally bad luck.

Today was no exception. 

I went out to the farm today, and stopped in at my fav fast food joint after about an hour of driving. 

And who do I run into? The guy that's broken my heart ohhh.... let's say.... a billion times. And I wish I could tell you he came in looking something like this.

But no. With my luck he waltzes in with his brand new uniform, looking polished, professional.... and damn.... I think I've mentioned my thing for uniforms....(here)

He tried to hug me, I shoved him off......annnnddd cried silently in the car for the rest of the drive.

So I get to the farm, ready to test drive the new horse (an ex race horse now to be used for breeding). I brush her down, and she's really sweet. She even let my clean her hooves and waited patiently to be tacked up.

 

Then we got the saddle on her....

 

But after a few rounds on the lunge line she settled down and was just peachy.

 

I mounted up and rode her down the corn field, and we came to a small ditch, only an inch or two wide. 

 She stopped.

She snorted.

She sniffed.

She tried to turn around.


I held her in place.

Then, it's almost like she suddenly realized her donkey lineage.... or she decided to be an ass. 

 And then.....

 I held on for dear life, deeply regretting not bringing my helmet. I calmed her down and walked back to the barn.

 She was fine. I continued to ride her for an hour, even moving up to a trot with no negative consequences. So I moved it up a notch.

Cantering.

She went fine on a short stretch of lane leading away from the barn. But when I turned her around to show off.....

Turns out she snapped her bridle, and pulling on the bit had become futile. She charged to the barn like the racehorse she was bred to be. 

I managed to get her cornered and she came to a dead halt. We fixed up the bridle, and, still shaking, I took her for a cool-down walk. Down the corn field. Back to the ditch.

This time I held her there, gently urging her forward, quietly calming her.

It was a repeat of the first time, except my reins snapped. 

She tried to bolt to the barn again, and I held on doggedly to the remaining rein, turning her in a tight circle.

When she calmed down enough to halt, I threaded the broken leather strap through the bit then quietly slipped out of the saddle.

"We are WALKING home" I said to her. 

Can't wait to ride her again though.

If I can still walk tomorrow, that is.

AND the reader of the week is Len, who read Internet this week and totally helped me solve my computer problems! Thanks Len! :D

Internet

I'm not very tech-savvy.

Today I seem to have a problem with my internet.

I was just surfing the net today, and maybe I had too many tabs open

 

Watching a video on college humour.....

Creepin Facebook....

 

And trying to download my course notes to study.

Then, IT happened

.

 

Internet Disconnected. Wtf. 

Okay So I do as we usually do, go downstairs and do that magical thing that makes gadgets work again.

So I return to my room and pull out my new gadget, a Kindle ereader.

I then discovered that it could access the internet.

So I did what anyone would do.....

 

Log into Facebook. But of course it wasn't that easy.

 

 

Because I'm signing in at a new location I had to change my password. Somehow Facebook thinks my Kindle is from Phoenix.....

 

AGHHHHHH! Okay. I am DONE with the Kindle. It was taking too long to load anyways. Lets check how the computer is doing. 

 Right. Internet disconnected. Here we go again.

Alright. Enough slacking, lets get those course note downloaded.

 It's lookin' good... 97% downloaded. I look away for a second and....