The last day of vacation

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August 12 – Today is my last day of vacation. I woke up early and talked to Jeroen and the kitties on skype. Then my mom called on skype and we talked for about two minutes before we started to argue about politics. I also called my grandma and chatted with her a bit. I met Kati at 9:30am for our farewell breakfast down at the Irish pub. I ordered a breakfast burrito and a peach banana drink. Yum and yum. Sour cream should accompany every breakfast. Here's to hoping I haven't gained too much weight on this trip. It was a nice breakfast and then Kati and I said our goodbyes. We had a nice time together and spending the last few days with her really was a great ending to my trip.

Back at the hotel, I talked to Gerry for a minute and then in to pack the last couple of items. I realized that I left my umbrella at the restaurant – I brought it because it looked like rain – so I said goodbye to Gerry and the puppy and went to collect the unbrella. Then it was a short walk to the bus to Managua. It wasn't full so I thought it would be a long time in leaving, but it left quite soon after I arrived. In an hour I was in Managua and before the bus even stopped, I had annoying taxi drivers trying to get my business. They started with $10 (236 corbobas). I said 60 C. We were haggling and one of the guys was yelling 100C at me. I looked at him and asked him in English why he was yelling at me. He laughed at repeated it nicer. I said 70 C and a new taxi driver said 80C, so I went with him. He offered to take me to the airport in the morning for $15, then $12 when I said no. It should cost $4-5. He dropped me off at the guesthouse and I checked in and got settled.

I chatted with Jeoren for a bit again and then decided to go to the mall to look for a movie. I was in luck, sort of. It was almost 1:30pm and there was a movie starting then that I hadn't heard of. I decided to go for it. It was called Shame, and it was terrible, though nicely air conditioned. Shame on the director. When it ended I looked again, and Total Recall was just beginning, so I went to see that as well. I had seen a thousand commercials for it in the last few days and told Kati yesterday I would never watch it. Not the best movie ever, but far better than the first movie of the day.

After the films I was quite cold, and went to find some food in the mall. It was even cold walking around, so unusual. I got a Subway sub to go, and walked back to the guesthouse. It rained while I was in the theater and it was cool in my room, always a surprise. After my (last) cold shower though, it felt a little warm so the fans are on again. I'm watching the closing ceremony for the Olympics, and proud to say that the Americans won these Olympics. 😊 I was worried about China but we kicked their asses in the end. How PC is that?

Tomorrow I will get a cab at 5:00am or so and the long haul back to Switzerland begins. My flight leaves here at 7:45am and arrives in Atlanta 3 hours later at 1:30pm. Three hours and some food from Chili's later, my flight to Zurich leaves. Nine hours later at 7:45am, I should be ready for passport control, customs, getting my bag, a train, another train, a tram and a bus back to my place. And having a warm shower and a desperately needed blow dry, followed by trying to remain awake as long as possible since I have to try to sleep before work the next day and the jetlag is always bad going in this direction.

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