Beach of the Week #1

El Espino, located in the deparment of Usulutan, is supposedly the most beautiful beach in El Salvador (at least according to my Let's Go book). It was certainly pretty, but I think what I enjoyed most is that it wasn't crowded.

Common Road Obstacles

Common road obstacles include cows, rocks, children, dogs, pot holes, speed bumps, and police stops.

Marañones

Marañones, fruit juice yumminess, and the weird
grey things on top of the fruit are cashew nuts!

First Weeks in San Miguel

The last three months of my fellowship are going to be spent in the eastern part of El Salvador, in San Miguel. San Miguel is the third largest city in El Salvador. I've already been back to San Salvador twice, going a third time on Wednesday, and went to Cuidad Barrios today. Planning to go to Gotera and San Fernando, up by Perquin, on Thursday. It's really, really hot in San Miguel right now, which is draining me of energy by noontime, leaving me pretty much useless in the afternoons. My room is vaguely unpacked, but I'm going from having a whole apartment to myself to sharing what is not really a complete apartment, so there's not space for all the junk I've accumulated. I finally decided to just not unpack everything.

Things I like about San Miguel: really friendly people, the volcano, the licuados, the track that's three blocks away from where I live, the smell of meat cooking in the streets, the tortillas, the fact that they play more salsa, merengue, and bachata here, and the market that I can also walk to. Oh, and it appears that you can domicilio most anything, a feature of life in Colombia that I truly missed.

Things I don't like: dehydration and living at work.

Semana santa travels

So, this holy week/spring break was spent road trip style in Honduras, El Salvador, and maybe an hour in Guatemala. Opie came down from Detroit, so we packed up my car and headed off to Copán with Edwin, another friend from San Sal, to meet up with ELF Allyson and Malcon. Copán is really very close to San Sal, only about 3.5 hours away, and a nice place. I wish we'd stayed around there longer...they had bagels, and other strange foreign influences for being such a small town. Copán ruins were okay, but I should have brushed up on my Mayan history before going, since we didn't pay for a guide. Getting into the ruins was unfortunately extremely expensive as a foreigner, and the pass only good for one day.

It was then on to el lago de Yojoa, a very nice waterfall at Pulhapanzak, Comayagua, and the capital, Tegucigalpa. In all, it was a great trip in my car, although I wish we could have seen more. What did I learn about El Salvador in the process? (1) the roads are way better here, (2) the tortillas are yummier east of the Lempa River, (3) they spray your car with pesticide when you cross the border back into the country, (4) their police stops actually manage to slow people down for a little bit on the highways, even if they don't have the cute life-sized cardboard cutouts of police officers set up at each stop, and (5) not everyone likes pupusas that much!

Check out the pictures from Honduras below:

Semana Santa 2007

Recent Travels in El Salvador

In an amazing change of events, I've actually begun to see more of this country. Turns out there are some
nice things here, some of which you don't even have to leave San Salvador to see.

I went to Puerta del Diablo with Samary a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to take my camera with me. It's close to los Planes del Rendero, famous for its pupusas, but you can see the ocean and the mountains from there.

I've also been on la Ruta de las Flores again, and got to stay in Juayua this time for lunch (see the pic of me eating rabbit, tastes like chewy chicken, really), as well as the opportunity to visit some nearby waterfalls. Ahuachapan, Chalatenango, La Libertad again, El Cuco, Coatepeque again, Tazumal,and San Miguel are also on the list of recently visited places. I'm so very glad that I met this group of people that I've been traveling with, after months of not even going out to the grocery store sometimes!

Semana santa is only a few days away, so I'll be off to Honduras for the week, to Copan and who knows where else. It's time for a vacation, and then when I get back, I'll be moving to San Miguel to work at the branch of the Centro Cultural there. I'm not overly excited about moving again, as I'm just getting used to life in San Salvador, but I'm sure the experience will be great! It's too bad that I'm not used to the heat any more, because San Miguel is going to be very, very hot very, very soon! Last week sometime it was up to 41 (something like 103 degrees?!).

Work has been good, busy as usual, although I'm ready for the break. My project has been renewed for another 10 months, which means I'll be back in El Salvador again next year! I'm excited about the prospect of not having to change countries again, and about being back someplace that I'm fairly familiar with.

Somewhere west of Puerto Libertad

This was yet another car trip to La Libertad, which is really only about a half hour or forty minutes away from San Salvador, at least when there's no traffic. I was highly regretting my choice of standard transmission on the way back though, when that half hour became three hours! And supposedly semana santa is even worse, when the whole country either heads to the shore or to Guatemala. I'll be on my way to Honduras instead, with a friend from Ohio.

And how had I managed to be here for seven months without having been to the closest beach? Good question...that many months without real sun turned my skin from pasty to lobster waaaaay to quickly. At any rate, nice conversation, fun with sea urchins and hermit crabs, and a hamaca.

San Salvador's Cathedral

My car and where I've gone with my car...

So, my most recent salvadoran learning experience has been looking for a car, and then actually buying. I thought I'd found one, but they sold it mere hours before I got back to take it to the mechanic. Friday night I stopped by a lot close to my house, and found another one, a 2001 VW Gol. So, I went back Saturday morning with a friend, she test drove it, and I ended up "reserving" the car so I could take it to a mechanic on Monday to have it looked over.

And now I have it, ha ha ha! And a license! And I've only stalled it once (it's a standard, which I haven't driven for a while), and that was because I forgot that I wasn't driving an automatic anymore. This is exciting, since traffic is not much fun in San Salvador (check out this person's rantings for more on that, in Spanish), but I've yet to drive anywhere other than work and back on a weekday because I'm not yet sure how to deal with the craziness. By craziness, I mean the following: (1) no one follows the traffic rules unless the police are around, and maybe not even then, (2) most roads have no names, and if they do have a name, most people don't know it, (3) which makes it really, really hard to find anything, unless it's a large enough landmark to be visible from Google Earth, (4) drivers have no respect for other drivers, or pedestrians, (5) you're not really supposed to make left-hand turns in most places, and (6) there's very large, steep hills with lots of these kinds of drivers.

I took my first road trip yesterday with a friend to Coatepeque and Santa Ana, which are about an hour away from San Salvador, and not so awful far from the Guatemalan border. I was excited to drive my car, she was excited to drive the lancha, and there was good food involved, so it was a success overall! Only bad thing was that I had two sets of camera batteries die on me, so I lost some pictures. I also haven't seen much of the country other than a beach or two outside of travel for work, so it was nice to get out of my house, out of the city, and away from my computer. I came back exhausted, then went out and danced. It's funny how after months of not having much of a life, I all of the sudden have things to do (not even depending on the car, really).

Then today, I went with some people from CCS on the ruta de las flores, which involved more food, towns with cute plazas and beautiful churches, and a nasty breeze, since the weather all of the sudden changed last night and got cold. The lady visiting from New York thought it was amusing that we were all cold, coming from snow and negative digits. Only bad thing is that I slept most of the way back, so between that and numerous unmarked turns, I'm not sure if I could find these places on my own!

Happy Valentine's Day Podcast

Since I'm taking another course in using technology in the classroom through TESOL EVOs, here's my second annual love poetry podcast, featuring William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116.



And here' s the link to last year's edition. Happy Valentine's Day! On another note, someone at work decided that it would be a good idea to have wine and cheese to celebrate at lunchtime. It's two o'clock now, and there's some very happy administration wandering around!

Travelling Woes, and Thanks

So, here I am, still in San José, Costa Rica. I came last Tuesday on TicaBus from San Salvador, a ride that took about 20 hours and $20 in border crossings. I've done long bus rides before, but I must say that this one was particularly uncomfortable. I presented at the annual NCTE conference at the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericanco, which was a good experience. I talked about Blogging across Boundaries: Connecting Students through Online Journaling on my own and presented Moving out of the Comfort Zone: Innovative Teaching through Self and Peer Evaluations with a co-worker from CCS.

And why am I still in San José, even though it's now Monday afternoon? The other ELF had just left, and I was packing my suitcase (not even a big one, for those of you who have seen me moving from country to country with large cardboard boxes, just a little carry-on). I was sitting on the floor in the hotel room, zipped the suitcase closed, and then reached over to push it upright...when I threw out my back. This was about a quarter 'til 10...took me 40 minutes to get back up on the bed and roll over to the phone. Which didn't work, because I didn't have the list of numbers to be able to call down to reception. Finally, at noon, checkout time, they called up to see what had happened to me. I couldn't hardly move at this point, let alone stand up. So, the reception girl basically ignored me for another two hours, until the bell boy got there, and they helped me move to another room, since the one I was in was taken for that afternoon. A friendly maid from Nicaragua lent me her cell so I could call my friend that was still here, and brought me some tea and pain meds that she had been taking for back problems.

My friend came and took me to a clinic here (Clinica Biblica, is that a sign or what); via a very nice taxi driver who didn't even charge us. I was there for five hours, I think, in which they gave me various iv's, pills, and something called an infiltracion directly into the ligament in my back. From there, the next twenty or so hours are a little blurry. The doc said no going back on the bus, and that I shoud rest until Tuesday. So, tommorow it is, back on Taca to San Salvador. And, to top it all off, Citibank decided to deactivate my banking card completely and not bother to tell me about it. Everywhere I went it came up "negado." I spent an hour talking to them this morning, and they're going to overnight me a new card. What a mess! I'm glad that I had another card with me. And I'm so thankful for the people here that have been helping me out...Greg, Frank, Ana, Scott. It's nice to be around Christians again!

Should we call him Elvis or Yesaidú?

The crazy names that parents give their kids in Latin America...check it out in today's New York Times. I had a class with at least two Darwins in it in Barranquilla, some Leidys (also with several other spellings and various pronunciations), a Boris, and a Janer. I've ran into some different names here in El Salvador, too, like Iluvny (I love New York), and several Elvises. And you gotta love Yesaidú (Yes, I do)! But I like the fact that parents are free to use their imaginations to come up with new names and spellings! I applaud the man that named his daughters Yusmary Shuain, Yusmery Sailing, Yusneidi Alicia and Yureimi Klaymar!

Lo que siento por ti

"Pero si no sientes lo mismo que yo
Quiero pedirte un gran favor
Daría toda mi vida
Si te ofendí
Por que perdones a tu amigo
Que se enamoro
De ti "

Alux Nahual

Resolution #11 for 2007: try to not take my bad culture shock days out on certain other people that most definitely don't deserve it, even though I know they understand it just happens sometimes!

Ferias y Fiestas de Colombia

This is what I love about Colombia. The first puente (long weekend) of the new year, del Reyes, and this is how many places have a party going on:

Riosucio
Manizales
Cartagena
Popayán
18 antioqueño towns
2 tolimense towns
Boyacá (Duitama, Moniquirá y Cucaita)
Coveñas (Sucre)

Back here in El Salvador, there's no puente, which means I have to work on the day that my beloved Buckeyes play Florida for the national championship. Actually, there's no puentes, ever. They don't know what they're missing!

http://www.eltiempo.com/vidadehoy/viajar/feriasyfiestas/index.html

Resolutions for 2007

1. Buy a car
2. Find a church I like (when I get a car)
   
3. Stop eating tortillas at lunch
4. Publish at least one paper this year
5. Sign up for estimated tax payments
6. Go to the gym (if I get a car)
7. Keep up with salsa lessons (if I get a car)
8. Get back to work on the third language (if I get a car)
9. Read more
10. Convince salvadoreños that pedestrians should have the right-of-way and that arms, hands, and heads shouldn't be used in place of a turn signal.
    

Colombia Vacation, December 2006

Colombia Vacation, December 2006

Las cuatro fiestas

Colombia, here I come again! For as much as I didn't like vallenato in the beginning, that changed when I could listen to a song and understand the lyrics first-time 'round. Diomedes Diaz, you said it:

Por la rivera se ven
arbustos y cocoteros (bis)
Y los negros pescadores
en canoa vienen ya

Como lanzaban hundiendo
sobre lobo su cañal
Las noches iluminadas
me recuerdan a El Edén
(Por todas las desprendidas)
estrellitas que allá se ven

Rema rema
que va llegando Juan
Rema rema
que va llegando ya
Rema rema
rema ligero Juan
Rema rema
que vas llegando al baile

Que linda la fiesta es
en un 8 de diciembre (bis)
Al sonar del Traqui traqui
que sabroso amanecer
Con ese ambiente prendido
me dan ganas de beber
La pascua que se avecina
anuncia la navidad
Un año nuevo se espera
que dan ganas de tomar

Toma toma
tomate el trago Juan
Toma toma
que vamos a bailar
Toma toma
tomate el trago Juan
Toma toma
vamos a amanecer

Pero que sabrosas son
las fiestas de carnavales (bis)
Con carretas y disfraces
las comparsas vienen ya
con el golpe de tamboras
a la ........
Con la batalla de flores
el desorden se formó
con carrozas y a las reinas
alegran el corazón

Baila baila
baila la cumbia Juan
Baila baila
que llegó el carnaval
Baila baila
baila la cumbia Juan
Baila baila
Vamo' a carnavalear

Que linda la fiesta es
en un 8 de diciembre (bis)
Al sonar del Traqui traqui
que sabroso amanecer
con ese ambiente prendido
me dan ganas de beber
La pascua que se avecina
anuncia la navidad
Un año nuevo se espera
que dan ganas de tomar

Toma toma
toma el trago Juan
Toma toma
que vamos a bailar
Toma toma
tomate el trago Juan
Toma toma
vamos a gozar

Por la rivera se ven
arbustos y cocoteros (bis)
Y los negros pescadores
en canoa vienen ya
Como lanzaban hundiendo
sobre lobo su cañal
Las noches iluminadas
me recuerdan a El Edén
(Con todas las desprendidas?)
estrellitas ya se ven

Rema rema
Rema ligero Juan
Rema rema
que vamos a llegar
Rema rema
rema ligero Juan
Rema rema
que voy llegando al baile

I've never seen what he sings about, but the spirit of the song brings back good memories and makes me excited to go on this trip. Although I'm going to miss family and friends back in Ohio, and new additions to my life in El Salvador, I'm thrilled to get to be a part of the holiday season in Colombia this year. Now, if only I could stay until it's carnaval time!

A little Caliche

Caliche is Salvadoran Spanish. Everyplace has it's own way of saying things; here they take Nawat words and some crazy uses of English and put it together, resulting me having to learn a whole other dialect! I have to be careful here, too...some things that were just fine in Colombian costeñol are most definitely not okay to say here. Here's some fun Caliche for y'all:

cipote, cipota- young boy or girl
choto- for free (like all the concert at San Miguel's carnaval)
chucho- dog
cabal- eactly, certainly, yeah that's right
chivo- cool (same as chévere, bacano, etc.)
guanaco- salvadoreños might use this to refer to themselves, although it could also be used in a negative sense
paja- lie
garrobo- iguana
vá- an interjection used to stress an affirmative statement
púchica- a nice way of saying damn or the barranquillero favorite, hijo de puta
chulón / chulona- naked, nude, unclothed; there's a statue on Boulevard Constitución in San Salvador fondly refered to as La Chulona

There's also a lot of veggies that are called by their Nawat names: ejote=habicuelas=frijoles=green beans, elote=mazorca=corn on the cob. And so on.

Carnaval de San Miguel

I went to San Miguel's Carnaval yesterday. People were trying to tell me that it was bigger and better than Barranquilla's, which was most definitely not true, but it was still fun. I met up with the Fulbright guy and a huge group of Peace Corps people later on, but I think I actually had more fun helping decorate the CCS carroso. The parade started around 8, with floats for each of the neighborhood queens, amusingly named Yesica I, Yanira II, etc. After that, the streets were shut off with stages for 42 different musical groups. I got to see Grupo Niche, with some of my favorite Colombian salsa, and a huge number of Mexican/Salvadoran style cumbia groups. It really amazed me, though, that at the Niche concert, no one was dancing except the crazy group of gringos! People were singing along and all...can't wait to see them again in Cali for the feria, where everyone will be dancing and singing! Check out La Prensa Grafica and El Diario de Hoy for pics, since I didn't take my camera along.

Thanksgiving Update

The Cold. Cold nose, fingers...first time in a year and a half that I've worn closed-toe shoes to work. Current temp at 11:00 am is 70°F. Temp last night at about 11:00 pm was 55°F. It sounded like a nasty, windy November day in Ohio. I most definitely didn't want to get out of bed. People assure me that this isn't normal and that it will go away soon. Hope so!

Called some friends in Barranquilla last night and it was pouring...a salvadoreño friend had told me that it was raining somethin crazy in Colombia. Looked on El Heraldo, found this pic of the fabulous Calle 84 arroyo sweeping away a taxi...you'd think they'd learn. Can't believe I actually miss arroyos! Seems that there's crazy, abnormal weather in a lot of places right now.


The Work. Everything's going well, although I sometimes feel like it's all I do. I've been helping out with some workshops for the ministry of education on the weekends, went and gave a workshop on teaching language through functions at a university in Santa Ana. The projects I have at CCS are progressing, albeit a little slower than I'd hoped. Students have started coming quite regularly to the conversation clubs. I'll be going to present on blogging and peer/self evaluation at the National Conference for Teachers of English in Costa Rica in January.

The Play. I've been in San Miguel two weekends this month, and am going back this weekend for the carnaval migueleño. People there are more relaxed, and in my opinion, more friendly than in San Salvador. It's warm, there's an active volcano, and people take me out to dance. Not to say that I haven't met some nice people here, but not like San Miguel. I started karate lessons last week (me, three nine or ten year olds, and a fourteen year old) and salsa lessons this Monday and Tuesday (L.A. style with the rueda, and ). I also went to the Marine Ball, but it was a little too pupy for me. All I really require is some hole-in-the-wall place with great music that doesn't require me to pay a cover or dress up in anything more than jeans! The best part was getting home and not being able to get in the apartment cause the lock broke (long story, not my fault)! Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful...just a little lunch at work and several days looking for cheap pecans, which I never did find, so I wouldn't have to pay $20 for a pie! A friend took me out later on to los planes de rendero overlooking the city for some tasty pupusas.

Another quality product...Choker Light hot chocolate mix

Ibagué Ibagué

Bogotá and Ibagué, October 2006

My trip to Bogotá and Ibagué was a welcome break after a couple of weeks of a lot of work. I went to present on blogging in the language classroom at ASOCOPI's (like TESOL) annual conference. It was the first time I'd presented, and it went well. E and I had sixteen people there, which was fine by me. Ibagué was beautiful! The rumor that there's a lot of good-looking guys there seems to be true, but at any rate doesn't compare to the paisajes.

I got to Bogotá on Thursday afternoon, after an extremely unstressful flight from San Salvador through San Jose, which I didn't really expect. The lack of security in San Salvador surprised me after the US and Colombia. They x-rayed the bag I checked and then the only other thing I had to do was walk through one screening thing where I swear they didn't even look at the screen for me or the ladies in front of me who had their huge boxes of Pollo Campero to take with them (just like the barraquilleros taking boxes of Dunkin Donuts back from Bogotá). Thursday night I had dinner, then another dinner with some friends from Barranquilla.

Back on Colombian time, my idea of leaving for Ibagué at 8 in the morning on the Friday slowly turned into 1:00 or 1:30, after running into a friend for breakfast and then walking around in the rain for no real purpose, but certainly enjoying it! The bus ride was supposed to be 3.5 hours long, but turned into around 8 hours with all the accidents on the rode there. Two-lane highway, lots of bogotanos fleeing the city for the puente weekend, and lots of other running towards the city for the same reason makes for lots of fun! Among the 7 or so accidents I saw, there was a truck that had dumped its load of empty Aguila bottles al l over the highway, making a mess of broken glass, and a semi that had somehow managed to completely lose its back axle, an amazing feat, seeing how the traffic couldn't have been moving any faster than 35 mph in most places! Turned out those who flew from Bogotá to Ibagué, all of what, twenty minutes in the air, had to wait around just as long in the airport. I got there, had some nice, greasy empanadas, then went out to dinner with more barranquilleros. We went someplace that had arepas de choclo (kinda like cornbread), which were the first Colombian arepas that I can actually say I liked so much that I wanted to eat them again.

The conference itself was very laid-back, which I appreciated greatly. Go to session, coffee break, talk, maybe go to a plenary, coffee break, lunch, session, coffee break, talk, and so on. I miss that! I got to see a lot of friends, since everyone seemed to have some sort of conference in Bogotá or Manizales. We ended up hanging out with a group of people from our conference in Ibagué, that we randomly found at a bar while we were waiting for some other friends to show up. This group didn't know each other before the conference (from the capital, around Bucaramanga, Buenavista, and others), nor did they really know us (except for the guy that'd seen Kathleen's presentation at another conference and had gone to it again), but they were so friendly! Sometimes it takes moving away from a place to appreciate certain aspects of it that you might not have even noticed before. I noticed the friendliness and openness while I was wandering around Bogotá, too. I had some fabulous conversations with vendors on the street.

I went back to Bogotá on Sunday afternoon with Pablo and Jorge...much better this time at about 4.5 hours. We went out to a place that had salsa that night and met up with yet more people from Barranquilla. It'd been too long since I'd last danced! The change in altitude beat me up, though; I could only get through about two songs with Ernest before I had to sit down and rest. Monday was spent shopping, filling up my bags with things that I can't get in El Salvador, like maracuyá and lulo pulp, mix to make sancocho and ajiaco, milo, and panela, cheap good café or that are way cheaper in Colombia, like my new hamaca. In all, it was a great trip, both to give me new ideas for work, see friends, and just relax for a while!

My place in San Salvador

Trying out the new Picasa web albums...click on the photo to see the album.

Apartamento en San Salvador

Thinking back...Lower Price Hill and Sister Marie

I had the pleasure of living with Sister Marie Werdmann at 2108 Hatmaker during the year I worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer at LPHCS. Before that time in my life, I don't think I'd ever even talked to a nun, let alone dream of living with one. I've learned much from Sister Marie in the little time that I've known her.

I remember her telling me her dream of turning the front room of the house into a small cafe, a quiet place for the women in the neighborhood to come relax and find some peace in their hectic lives. She was at meetings and community events continuously, or out visiting neighbors, students, and friends to see how they were doing. I often wondered how, at twenty-four, I couldn't keep up with her!

Sister Marie helped teach me what it means to serve others. We spent a lot of time that year in the back yard, taking care of the garden and the flowers. She was never upset when the crows ate all the veggies or kids would borrow the tomatoes.

Sister, you'll be missed in Lower Price Hill, but know that your many works and love have left a permanent mark on me and others whose lives you have touched.

Despedida de Barranquilla

I finally got internet at home, so I can now go back and post all those pics from the last couple months that I haven't had the time to get around to. These are from August 11 and 12, my last days in Barranquilla.

Despedida, August 2006

Where I live and work

Isn't Google Earth great?! Top yellow circle is where I work, the bottom one is where I live. The big oval in the lower left-hand corner is the stadium, or at least one of them!

More on life in San Salvador

Where am I at right now? San Salvador. From there, it’s about 2 hours to San Miguel, where I’ll be working the last couple of months I’m here. Supposedly San Miguel has a carnival in November…we’ll see. I'm also headed to Metapán this weekend to see what CCS is doing there, which is a little over two hours away, right on the border with Guatemala.

Daily life in San Salvador still makes me feel like I'm living in the US again, especially after this past year, but I'm slowly getting used to it. I'm slowly but surely getting to see other parts of the city. I'm still amazed at the lack of vacations and free time, and at how much time people spend working here.

Lately I’ve been keeping myself fairly busy, although it’s completely with work. I taught the teacher training course students eliciting this week and last week, which was fun. I miss teaching on a regular basis! Next month, though, I'll have at least one regular course during the week. I went to the embassy on Friday to meet people from different English-teaching institutions in the city, and was once again required to speak in front of a group in Spanish. I continue to find it extremely amusing that I speak more Spanish when I go to the US embassy than I do anywhere else here! I was also sick a good part of the week, which didn’t help me any in being productive.

I’ve gotta shape up, though, in getting stuff done. I go to Ibagué next Thursday to present for the first time at a conference! But, I haven’t finished my presentation yet, or really gotten very far with the article I'm writing to go along with it. My plane tickets finally got here, about two weeks late, so at least I've got that going for me. I'm flying with Avianca (yea, good frequent flyer program and stylish flight attendants). This trip is going to be a blast. Alex and Sarah are coming down to Manizales for some AEISIC thing, Grandfield’s going to a conference in Bogotá, some Uninorte people will be in Ibagué, too, and many other people I know from Barranquilla are going to be in Bogotá! I can’t wait!

Other interesting facts that I've learned this week: there’s apparently a crying ghost in the girl’s bathroom at CCS. Also, my apartment is close enough to the stadium that I should be able to hear Marc Anthony singing tonight for free!

Joya del Pacífico

It was nice to see the Pacific again after four years. Too bad I didn't learn how to surf while I was in Zihuatanejo! This place I went to on Saturday was on the Costa del Sol, about an hour from San Salvador.

In San Salvador

So, I’ve been at my new job at the Centro Cultural Salvadoreño for three weeks now. I’m enjoying having the time to work on projects, but I’m also missing teaching all the time and being up, moving around. I just moved into my apartment on Saturday…pretty nice! It was wonderful to finally be able to take all my clothes and stuff out of my suitcases and really know what I’d thrown in them in my quick 24 hours in Ohio. I keep thinking that, oh, where did I put this or that? And usually, I left it in Colombia, or I said, no, that weighs too much. It looks like I’ll be in San Salvador for about six months, and then the rest of time I’ll be in the eastern part of El Salvador in San Miguel. Good news is that the whole country is about the size of Massachusetts, so it’s really only two or so hours away.

From now on, I’m going to write my entries in English and in Spanish. We’ll see how long it takes before I get lazy.

US Franchises I’ve Seen So Far, the obvious and not-so-obvious: McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, Subway, Tony Roma’s, Cinnabon, Office Depot, Payless Shoes, Avon, Dell, Little Cesar’s…and Wal-mart is coming soon. There’s Hot Pockets and Lean Cuisine in the grocery, as well as Starbucks Frappacchinno and Welsh’s juice. Fruit is imported (what??!!). What, that people consume, is actually from El Salvador? Good question.

This is not to say that I don’t like San Salvador. When the sun’s out and the pollution a bit lower, the surrounding mountains and volcanoes are beautiful. It’s winter, or the rainy season, so it’s cloudy much of the time, and it rains at least once a day. People are super friendly. I simply wish that the consumeristic way of life had never touched here. I wish that people made their juice in the blender instead of taking the “easy” way out and buying it ready-made. I miss being able to buy “real” juice for $1.500 pesos. I had to go out and search for a place that sells licuados and jugos near my house. The señora that runs the place laughs at me because I’m there almost every day. I asked her if there were other places close that sell juice, and she said no, good point. There was a 5.0 earthquake the other afternoon. It’s certainly been interesting!

San Salvador is very different from Barranquilla and the Colombian coast, and from the country as a whole. For me, it’s so quiet here. I end up putting on my salsa or meringue or vallenato (she listens to vallenato!) every night in order to be able to sleep. No Heraldo o aguacate guy out yelling in the street at 5:30 in the morning. There are supposedly bread sellers around, but I’ve yet to see or hear them. No calling for domicilio to the tiendita around the corner for three eggs, a tomato, and an onion. Sigh…the things I miss! But with time, I’ll find those little details here as well. For now, working, missing friends, looking forward to meeting new people.

Spanish version coming soon!

Colombia?

I've got just about two weeks left here in Barranquilla before I'm off to DC then to El Salvador, which is hard to believe. Even after a rather rough first eight months here, I was ready to come back and stay for another year. I'm enjoying my last days here, though, and who knows, maybe I'll be back next year. I had a quality tear gas and mob madness experience at the Junior vs. Nacional game last weekend, as well as many equally quality experiences going out with costeños. I've met a lot of fabulous people in the past few weeks; where were they before?! After an uneventful stay in Ohio, coming back to Bogotá to spend a couple of days with Adele, Alex, Sarah, and Ernest was a relief, even though American (I'll never pay to fly with them again) lost my bags in Miami and I froze in my flip flops for three days before they were able to find them. There's a wonderful breeze many days here lately, which is quite a contrast from what I remember when I got here last July. It scares me to think of how hot San Miguel will be! Barranquilla's not a cool place by any means, but San Miguel is much warmer.

I'm hoping that my post in El Salvador will allow for a little travel time, since Mexico, Argentina and Providencia are calling my name. And Germany and India, to visit all of the people that I've met this year. This weekend I'm taking spontaneous trip to Venezuela with a friend who needs to cross the border for visa reasons, so at least I'll be able to say that I've been there!

Up Next?

I'm back in Ohio for the time being, and what changes are up ahead! At least I think so... I got an email from the ELF program (organized through Georgetown University and the U.S. Department of State) saying that I've been offered a job in El Salvador with the Centro Cultural Salvadoreño on Tuesday. It was completely unexpected and it's been hard trying to decide what to do. I've already said that I would go back to Barranquilla for another year. So much for making plans, je je! I left a lot of my things there, bought my plane ticket back to Bogotá, made my appointment with the consulate; in short, I've prepared myself mentally to go back and am actually looking forward to it. But this job offer is one that I shouldn't turn down. There's an enormous amount of room to use my experiences in the work there, as well as abundant learning opportunities for me. They gave me a little over two days to decide whether or not I want the position. Speaking to two lovely women that work with the program today made me feel much better, as well as all of my friends and family who told me to go for it. It's just hard to have in your mind that you're going one place and then to all of the sudden be going somewhere else, somewhere that you don't know a lot about and where you know no one. I'm becoming accustomed to the idea, however, and I think that in the end, it will be a wonderful experience! I'll have to change the name of the blog, though.

I can't say that El Salvador has ever been on my list of countries to visit, even though I know it has a lot to offer, but then again, neither was Colombia. And here I am, wanting to go back. I'm not sure I'm ready to live through that complete period of culture shock again, to make friends again, to learn the ins and outs of a culture. In a year in Barranquilla I didn't come close to accomplishing any of this. But as my wise Canadian roommate said before she left in April, "you want to come back here?" Yes, I do. Why, not sure yet. I'm ready to not move every year, let alone every 5 months, which is what will happen with the ELF job. One reason that Barranquilla is sounding good. Even my month at home has been hard. I'm feeling restless, wanting to be in my own place. I've been going all over the place, though, since I've been home, which doesn't help much. Various parts of Ohio, Missouri, to Chicago in a couple of days to go back to Colombia. Will it be to stay? I have to decide by tomorrow afternoon.

Good things that happened today, as I'm not sure yet whether all of this is good or bad or what: found out that bloguear is a verb!

Trabalenguas / Tongue Twisters

The eleventh graders at IEA taught me these trabalenguas last week.

El cielo está enladrillado quien lo desenladrillará el desenladrillador que lo desenladrille buen desenladrillador será.

Si Gustavo gustara del gusto que gusta mi gusto yo gustaría del gusto que gusta Gustavo, pero como Gustavo no gusta del gusto que gusta mi gusto, yo no gusto del gusto que gusta Gustavo.

Fruit Update

Fruits that I still need to try:

Remolacha: saw it in the grocery yesterday for the first time. Looks like a beet. Yum, beet juice...

Huchuva or uchuva: looks like little yellow tomatos. Tastes good on salads and in jelly. Not so sure about the juice version.

Chontaduro: was told that it comes from "el valle." Which valle? And why doesn't anyone know what it tastes like?















This is some strange looking fruit I bought in Bogota. Tastes like maracuya, aka passion fruit. Was told its name, but don't remember. Does it start with a "c"?















I bought the maracuya-like fruit at this market in Fontibon, in Bogota. Barranquilla has nothing like this. Which makes me sad.

And finally, this is nispero (accent over the "i" which I'm too lazy to figure out how to type in...just like the "a" in Bogota). Tastes like yumminess!

Wimpy Burger

Were they trying to make me laugh when they name this place? Who wants a Wimpy burger?!

One month left

I've really not been good about posting on this blog. There's still pictures I need to put up from Semana Santa travels and I have written in who knows how long. The semester is almost over here; exams start the middle of next week. Time has gone quickly since I came back in January. When I first thought about looking for work in Latin America, I figured that things would be more laid back, especially coming out of a masters program. Was I ever wrong! It's true that time moves differently here, but I feel like the amount of time that I put into work here is significantly more than in Ohio. I'm an efficient person, but when you're surrounded by people who are not worried about being as efficient, it makes it impossible. Waiting in bank lines, doing crazy paperwork, riding the bus, going to meetings, grading papers...it all adds up to a long day. I sometimes feel like I haven't used my time here wisely, but then I remember, what time?! It's taken me 9 months to find a church that I feel comfortable with, that I want to go to every week. And it's taken the same amount of time to find volunteer work. So at least in the end, even if I don't come back here, I can say I was truly content for about a month. Barranquilla's not my favorite city in the world (or second, or third...), but I'm okay here. Now the question is this: is okay enough?

I've started going on Fridays to teach at the Escuela Experimental, which is a high school for intelligent kids that otherwise wouldn't have the resources to go to a good school. They don't have to pay anything to attend the school, which is grades 6 through 11. The teachers are mostly college professors. And get this...the students at the end know English and French well, plus German, Italian, Russian, Greek, and Latin. And no, they don't get to choose a language, they all take all of them. It's crazy. They're studious, curious, respectful, motivated, responsible, and so on. It makes me feel relieved to go there to teach after a week with my Uninorte students, many of which are not many of those things (not to say all, but certainly a good number).

What else is going on here? I'm taking casino style salsa lessons (fun, but frustrating sometimes). Heather, my lovely Canadian roommate, left two weeks ago, so the apartment is a little lonely. I went to Cartagena again last weekend with some friends and saw the kind of house that I've dreamed about living in since I've been here (picture to come). And that's about it. Colombia's presidential elections are at the end of the month. I just got an email from the US Embassy today warning me that there might be trouble. Maybe in Bogota, but not here. The biggest action has been the little earthquake that we had on Monday afternoon (the tree in my office swayed back and forth, but that was it). The birthday is just a little over a week away and what would I like? To know where I'm going to be working come July!