Today we had our first free day in Nicaragua! We all got the opportunity to go out on our own to explore the city and do some shopping. The group I went out with today went to Central Park, the smoothie shop, internet cafe, the super market, and some clothing stores.

Responsibility was a big key to our day. We were all trusted to go out on our own today with the promise that we would be back on time for lunch and dinner. Fortunately, everyone was committed to the promise and got back to the hostel on time.

The street venders in Leon were surprisingly very kind and funny, as well as very curious as to where we were from and what our program was about. One person we met happen to be a young girl who was selling souvenirs with her parents in Central Park. She began to sing Justin Bieber to us and showed off some of the bracelets she made from elastic bands. She even gave some away to some of the Glimpsers. Even though not a lot of the people in our group could speak Spanish, we all still tried hard to communicate with each other and it made everything a lot more funny.

Being Leader of the Day required a lot of responsibility and courage. I had to make sure everyone knew what time they had to be back to the hostel and to make sure no one was missing. I also had to be extra loud and stand up in front of everyone, which is something I’m not really used to. It actually wasn’t as bad or hard as I thought.

To end the day outside the hostel, the whole group went out for a movie! We got to watch Transformers which luckily was in English.

I think the first free day was a success and we all enjoyed it!

Oh, and hi Mom!