US Gives $5 million to Nicaragua to stop H1N1

On December 18, 2009, the World Bank approved an enourmous donation from the USA to Nicaragua. This was a donation to help prevent the spread of H1N1, or Swine Flu, as you may know. In Nicaragua itself, more than 4,000 people have died out of 185,000 total infections. The amount of money donated was $5 million dollars. Nicaragua wants to use this money in three ways-

1) To mass produce medicines and antidotes to prevent death or sickness from those who already have H1N1

2) To strengthen protection programs and educate important figures in recognizing and preventing H1N1

3) To further spread awareness of the disease across the country via entertainment and other means as a way of making sure civilians protect themselves.

Pen Pal Carta 2

¡Hola! Marcos,

     ¿Cómo estas? Gracias para tu carta. Tu español es mucho fenomenal. En realidad, me llamo Gannon, y soy de Tucson. Aarón es mi nombre en la clase de español.
     Mis animales favorites son peces. Mi pelicula favorita es National Treasure 2. Get Smart es mucho cómico.
     ¿Què te gusta? Me gustan la television, y videojuegos. Soy mucho perrezoso. :) Videojuegos son divertidos. ¿Cuàl es tu videojuego favorito? ¿Te gusta escuela y tarea? No me gusta la escuela y tarea. ¿Cuàl es tu musica favorita?
     ¿Cuàndo es tu cumpleaños? Mi cumpleaños es el once de diciembre. Yo tengo once años. ¿Cuàntos años tienes? ¿Cómo eres? Yo soy cómico y inteligente.

Adiós,

Gannon (Aarón)

Nicaragua Physical Cimate and Topography

Like most of Central America, Nicaragua has a tropical climate, and since it is close to the equator, like most of Central America, it only has two seasons: wet and dry. The wet season yields a lot of rainfall, and is when most plants blossom and the country looks much prettier than it is in the dry season. The dry season is when all the plants start losing leaves and the like, and soon Nicaragua is reduced to a more desertlike, arid climate. No matter the season, however, the temperature stays about the same throughout the year, rarely going down lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit the entire year.

The country's topography is locally divided into three sections: the Pacific Lowlands, the Central Highlands, and the Caribbean Lowlands. The Pacific Lowlands is mostly a flat area, with the only major elevation peaks being a range of young, and active volcanoes. This area is subject to natural disasters, being close to these volcanoes and being on the western part of the country, which just happens to be a tectonic plate boundary. The Central Highlands is made up of high elevations that make up most of Central Nicaragua. The western sides of this area is used by farmers because the highlands protect it from moist winds from the Caribbean. The eastern side of the highlands are covered in rainforests, and make for spectacular recreational activities. The Carribean Lowlands is known for being a very hot and humid area, with not a lot of fertile soil. But it still has a lot of forests and places to sightsee.

A prominent feature of Nicaragua is Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America.

Sports in Nicaragua

As I mentioned before, Baseball is the national sport in Nicaragua. It is their favorite sport, and is favored by most Nicaraguans. Nicaragua's baseball team is considered the best in Central America, along with Panamá. Nicaragua also has some good teams for sports like cricket and football, but they really didn't get as popular as baseball. They do have teams for these, but only recently with the crazes over football they've started playing it. As a result, Nicaragua isn't really recognized for their teams in these particular sports. These are probably the three most prominent teams in Nicaragua, but I'm sure they have teams for other sports.

Pastel de Tres Leches

We had a cooking assignment for us in class, (well, it was either that, or an article review) so I decided to make the most sugar-loaded excuse for a food from Nicaragua. The closest I got was Pastel de Tres Leches. It's a basic cake recipe, but soaked in a mixture of three different types of milk. It's eaten all over Central America, but its origins are speculated from Nicaragua. It's really not too hard to make, just take the cake out when it needs to be, make sure the cream in the topping doesn't turn to butter, yeah. So without further ado, here's the recipe:

Ingredients for Cake:
1 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/2 Cup of Unsalted, Room Temperature Butter
3/4 Cup of Sugar
5 Eggs, Room Temperature
1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla

Ingredients for Milk Mixture:
1 Cup of Whole Milk
1 Cup of Sweetened, Condensed Milk
2/3 Cup of Evaporated Milk

Whipped Topping Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups of Whipping Cream
1/2 Cup of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

Recipe:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour an 8 x 11 inch baking pan.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, allowing each one to get incorporated before adding the next. Finally add the vanilla and continue beating until foamy.
4. Remove the bowl from mixer and fold in the sifted flour until it is well incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
6. Pierce cake all over with a fork, toothpick or skewer. Mix the 3 types of milk together, stir, and pour the mixture over the whole cake.
7. Refrigerate cake for anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, or until liquid is completely absorbed and cake is well chilled.
8. Beat the cream, sugar, and vanilla together to make whipped cream (be sure to take it out before it turns to butter), then cover the cake with it. Then you can serve.

Video 1: Introductions and the like...

Ya. This is my first Spanish video. It's cool. It's  awesome. I bet you wish you made one. Oh, and I'm the one on the right. The others are just so that we didn't have to make a video for each student in my class. They all have blogs, but mine's the most awesome, obviously. =)

Another letter (I was confused about the homework)

Querido amigo,

   ¡Hola! Me llamo Aarón. ¿Cómo te llamas? Estoy bien. ¿Cómo estás? ¿De dónde eres tú? Yo soy de Nicaragua.


    ¿Cuál es tu numero favorito? ¿Cuál es tu color favorito? ¿Cual es tu libro favorito? Mi numero favorito es diez. Mi color favorito es verde. Me libro favorito es Artemis Fowl. 



    Mi papá es Peter, es de Pittsburgh. Mi mamá es Laurel, es de Tucson, Arizona. Mi mejor amigo es Brian, es de Tucson. ¿Quien es tú mamá, papá, y mejor amigo?

Adios,

Aarón