GG 2016: Granada, Nicaragua

Behind me is the beautiful city of Granada!

This summer I was able to have the best experience of my life. I was part of a program called Global Glimpse which allowed me to travel to another country for 2.5 weeks. I travelled with 20 other students to Nicaragua. There were students coming from different places in the US which were New York, Seattle, Boston, and Philadelphia. We all joined together and stayed in the beautiful city of Granada. In Granada, I was able to experience the most amazing culture and I was able to admire what nature has to offer. In my time over there I witnessed many things that made me look at the world in a different perspective and how I can make a change in the world no matter how big or small the change is.

Each day I would be so excited to wake up and find out what the new adventure would be. My favorite days on this trip was Culture Day and our Free Day #2. On Culture Day, my group and I visited a few people who used their talent to embrace the Nicaraguan culture and share it with others who wanted to learn about this incredible culture. The first person we visited was a lady who had a business of making and selling maracas. She showed us the process of how to make maracas and she even let us create some maracas and paint them as well. At the end of her demonstration she surprised us with 2 maracas for each person and all the maracas had our names and Nicaragua engraved. Once we left the lady we went to a man who was a famous artist in Nicaragua. His specialty is pottery. He does all types of pottery with the help of his remarkable family. He gave us a demonstration on the process of pottery and what you need to do in order to make the perfect pot. At the end of the demonstration the man surprised us with our own little pots which we were able to paint and take home as a memory. He also let us experience the process of pottery by letting us create our own pot which was very messy but a lot of fun. That day we were all saying that it felt like Christmas because we received many gifts that we will cherish forever. On Free Day #2, we were able to explore the city of Granada and we even see a volcano! I was so surprised to see a volcano because I have never seen one and I didn't think I was going to see one on this trip. We were able to see the volcano erupt a little bit and we saw real lava. It will be something that I'll never forget because I never thought in my life I would experience this and this summer it was the experience of a lifetime.

My amazing maracas!

El Volcan Masaya!