Hello! It's almost like I can speak live to anyone reading this! This page is being written today (6/3/13 and posted the same day (a new occurrence!)). Anyways, I didn't sleep all that well last night as it was thundering and hot and then a cat knocked crud over and someone was poking around with a flashlight (I think Salvador). Anyways, breakfast was decent (ham and cheese eggs over-easy, B&R and bread). Classes were interesting in that we learned about Matagalpa and Esteli (two cities up north in Nicaragua) and the present tense irregular verbs. Jorge told us about how Matagalpa is a pretty happening place with a city larger than Granada with clubs, coffee plantations, 2 big markets and ecotourism (and lots of trees). It's also cool because the place is ringed by mountains and isn't that big of a tourist area, despite being spectacular. Matagalpa is also quite a chill and relaxed city with many banks, hotels and restaurants. It produces coffee, rice, red beans, milk and black beans. The food is also quite cheap as this is not a huge tourist city. The temperature ranges from about 22 to 29 degrees C (71.6 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). Matagalpa also has the nickname of the "Pearl of Septemtrion" (Septemtrion is a region of Nicaragua) because of its strong economy and good city life. Esteli is also quite a happening place with hotels, restaurants, really tasty cheese, an active nightlife with all types of guitar music, a good climate (24 to 29 degrees C = 75.2 to 84.2 degrees Fahrenheit). Esteli also is in the mountains with nice hills and forests around for ecotourism. The people in the city also produce milk, cheese cacao beans, beans grains and cigars. The night life is interesting with people drinking and then playing quite a bit on guitars etc.
After learning about the two cities, we talked a bit about the political history of Nicaragua and the Revolución Sandanisto. The people of Nicaragua consider the revolution a major time change similar to the change from BC to AD. Before the revolution Samosa and his son (also Samosa) were dictators here. They were buying votes and manipulation the elections. Eventually this dude named Rigoberto Lopez went to this huge fiesta in Leon to celebrate Samosa Sr. and shot out the lights at the party and Samosa Sr. At this point, 47% of the population was illiterate and there weren't many schools (who challenges a government when they can't know what the laws are and what's going on?).The son Samosa Jr. then went to Paraguay eventually was shot by a Cuban there after the Cuban revolution. The 19th of July (1979) was when Nicaraguans celebrated their independence day in Managua with a mega party (which still happens). In 1980 there was a literacy crusade (Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización) to help the illiterate farmers etc to learn essential skills. Carlos Fonseca Mador was one of the founders of the Sandinista revolution which started around this time. Shortly thereafter Nicaragua became involved in the Honduras war (Guerra) in 1983. In 1984 there was a law about the draft (and forcing of the young to serve in the army (ejército). This was also the first election of Daniel Ortega. In 1990 Violeta Barrio de Chamorro won the election (with the Oposición party and capitalism returned to Nicaragua). This also marked the end of the conflict with the US (over the whole Contras war). In 1996 Arnoldo Aleman won. In 2002 Enrique Bolaríos won. It wasn't until 2007 where Daniel Ortega won again and made a revision to the law that said a candidate only needed 37% (or more) of the vote in order to win the presidency (prior to this the percentage had been 50% or more). This revision was made because so many groups had such prevalence in the elections. In 2012 Ortega won again this time with 62% of the vote as he had solved a major power problem where the power went out for 8 hours one time (and garnered many votes). This caused absolute chaos but Ortega worked with Venezuela and Hugo Chaves to get power back and to supply meat to the people of Nicaragua. Also during this time hospitals became public (with some private ones still lingering).
After the political talk the present tense, por vs. para and irregular verbs were lackluster. The same is true of lunch and afternoon classes (learning about oximeters to measure the oxygen concentration in a patient's body non-invasively). We learned about the simple system of two LEDs and a phototransistor (the same principle as a spectrometer) where the sensor measures the transmittance of light to tell how much oxygen is absorbed (more absorbed oxygen -> less transmittance of the light from the IR and Red LEDs). We then did a lab checking the currents, voltages and resistance values in several circuits (suing a DMM and Ohm's law to check values). One wicked sketchy part of this lab was when we were asked to measure the voltage across a resistor using the resistor attached to an 24 V AC transformer (an actual value of 30 V rms). This wasn't super sketch if one connected a larger resistor (upwards of 5 or more kilo ohms), but it could seriously futz up smaller resistors. Another note is that the resistors we were using were rated at probably 1/8th Watt of power dissipation (can absorb 1/8 Watt MAX) with perhaps a few 1/4th Watt ones too. One group connected a 240 Ohm resistor to this 30 V rms AC source and FHOMP! FIRE! Using the relation for power across an Ohmic device (resistor) P = V^2 / R -> (30V)^2 / 240 Ohms = 3.75 Watts of power for maybe a 1/4th or 1/2 Watt MAX resistor. Probably the most exciting thing that happened all day (the resistor Dan and I connected to this supply only got a tad warm). Whew! That's everything that's happened to 5:30 PM today. Something else might happen tonight in which case I shall add, but I doubt it. See y'all tomorrow!
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