May 22, 2013

Trip Home

Last month, I (Cassie) took a trip back to the snowy north (yes, there really was snow in May!) in order to complete my Continuing Education Hours for my Social Work License.  I was able to attend a few different conferences and really enjoyed being back in the world of Social Work.  Although I am practicing in a sense with my work here in Managua, it felt wonderful to be back in the classroom, learning about the latest research and methods for applying this to our practice.  I was also able to fit in some friend and family time.  Below are a few pictures from my time at home, I won’t bore you with pictures of the classrooms I sat in for many hours.

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I was glad to come back and still feel a bit immersed in the Latin Culture.  I was able to use my Spanish off and on and was glad to know that I hadn’t forgot it!

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I enjoyed a wonderful 24 hours with my oldest niece Lauren and SIL Carrie.  It was so good to see them and it meant so much that they made the trip.

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Some family time with food.  I had my first burger at the famous, Matt’s Bar and we enjoyed brats at the Minneapolis farmers market.

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I spent a day at the Jubilee and Ten Thousand Villages sale selling these beautiful handmade cards from South Africa.  I also co-taught with my mom for a day in her English Language Learning (ELL) classroom, using a Nicaraguan book called Mi Delantal.

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I spent one weekend in Chicago celebrating my friend Mandy’s Bachelorette Party.  It was a fabulous weekend and I can’t wait to stand by her side in August.

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I made sure to eat the foods that we miss so much in Nicaragua – Thai, Ethiopian, Indian and Korean.  I wasn’t able to bring any of these foods back for Kevin, but I did pack a bag of apples (he was sooo excited!) and some other favorite treats of his.

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My sister flew in for a day from Colorado to surprise me.  It was a quick 24 hours together, but so incredibly sweet.

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And just a few more pictures with friends and family.

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And on another note, the electronic world has really changed since we left in 2011 for Nicaragua.  A few things that were most markedly different were:

  • Everyone seems to have a smart phone.
  • The gates at airports are no longer rows of chairs, but rather booths with ipads (see picture above).
  • You can buy your newspaper with a credit card.  This is quite different from how we get our papers here.
  • Friends of mine stream live videos of their dogs while they are at doggy daycare. 

All of this was a bit overwhelming for me, the gap between these two worlds seems so great at times.  But I do know that there is good in both.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was so good to see you!
Sarah