Blogs can be frustrating sometimes...

Last night, I tried for almost an hour to make this blog work so I could upload pictures....but alas. That mission failed. Hopefully, this attempt will go through...though I don't have the patience this time around to deal with photos.

It's Thursday and I haven't posted in here since Monday, so you would think I would have a lot of catching up to do...but honestly, this week has been rather normal (other than the unexpected death trip to the gym; those bicycle seats make sitting down rather painful the next day...). I've been going to school everyday, taking a little siesta/rest in the afternoon, busy in the evenings. You know, just living life.

Tonight, I went out with Gracia and the entourage of people that always seem to come along by default-- of course, the group seems to change everytime, so I'm always meeting new people. We managed at one point to squeeze 11 people in a 5 person car-- and no worries, this is a fairly common sight/practice in El Salvador.

Anyway, Gracia & Co. and I we went to a sort of mini-opera in what I think was an art museum. I, of course, enjoyed the performance. I feel like I'm getting to do some interesting cultural stuff here. The ballet, opera concert, the gym (trust me, it was a cultural experience) and papusas with just about everything. After the concert, we of course went and got papusas and chatted for a while.

Today is one of those days when I feel like my Spanish is getting better-- I could understand a lot of the conversation at the table (as long as Gracia wasn't talking. She goes a mile a minute in both English and Spanish) and I also met an American missionary who's dating one of Gracia's friends. He's really fluent and the little small talk I made with him encouraged me in my quest to learn more.

So. That's all for now folks. I'm going to go and think about what I have to say tomorrow night in the youth service-- I'm giving the offering message. I don't know exactly what I was thinking when I agreed to do this...wish me luck.

Izalco and Sonsonate

First, I'd like to say, thank God for the weekend. I enjoy sleeping. And secondly, that on Mondays, it is SO hard to get out of bed.

So, for this weekend-- I've been here for a little over 3 weeks now, and it has been wonderful. Difficult at times? Yes. Have people laughed at my expense? Of course. But am I learning a lot and thoroughly enjoying this beautiful country and the people I've met? Absolutely. But anyway. The weekend.

Saturday, I went to Izalco with Gracia and her family to visit friends and attend the one year memorial mass of the mother of the aforementioned friends. The church was gorgeous and is one of the oldest churches in El Salvador. I also tried the yucca that Izalco is known for-- at the moment, I forget the specific name for it, but its kinda mashed a little and made with some special sauce and a few vegetables. It kinda tastes a little like potatoes this way...but not really. It was delicious, of course.

The majority of Sunday was spent in Sonsonate helping with the opening service of the newest edition to the growing number of church's or "celulas" under CEFAD (the Maeda's church here in San Salvador). I was in a drama and I died. :( But, of course I got to hug Jesus and wear a crown and do a little choreographed dance for the rest of the skit.

I honestly could write more about the weekend, but I'm exhausted right now. Gracia invited me to go to the gym with her tonight...and boy, was it an experience. Aerobic class was more like dance class. And I, unfortunately, am a gringa and therefore lack the significant amount of hip action that this class required....At least I stood in the back. And then, after the dance class, it was on to a cycling class. Let's just say, that afterward, I needed help from Gracia to go down the stairs. And that I was sweating so much, that even my shorts were soaked, and it looked like I wet my pants. Yeah. It's bedtime.

Oh, and I don't have the camera right now. So I'll upload pictures from the weekend soon, tomorrow hopefully.

Ballet pronounced "Ba-let"

So, you know how in English and French, the "t" at the end of the word "ballet" is silent? Well, in Spanish, it's not. And with Dome, I went to my first "balet" ever tonight in San Salvador celebrating the twentieth anniversary of El Salvador's ballet company. There were dancers from Nicaragua, Panama, and Cuba (the Guatemalans were a no show) that performed in addition to those from El Salvador. I don't even understand how people can be so skinny, jump high, and still manage to look graceful and make the stunts they're doing seem effortless. God gives special talents to everyone, I suppose. But yeah. Super chivo (cool) night.

Ruta de las flores

So, in El Salvador (and many other Spanish speaking countries I think), they actually have a holiday to honor their teachers called "El Dia del Maestro" and there's NO school on this day. I think it's a wonderful idea that the United States should add to the list of holidays already existing for veterans, MLK, dead presidents, and labor unions. Anyway, because today was this very special day here in El Salvador, instead of going to school, the Maedas and I took a scenic road trip through two of the western "departamentos" of the country, Sonsonate and Ahuachapan on a road called "Ruta de las Flores," a beautiful route that most admirably demonstrates the beauty of the Salvadoran mountains and countryside and also winds through a few beautiful little towns.* We stopped for lunch at "El jardin de celeste" and ate a delicious (but perhaps a little expensive) meal surrounded by beautiful gardens.

 One of the many beautiful flower arrangements at El jardin de Celeste

  Yummm, lunch! 

(This big plate of food was split btw 4 people)

This area of the country is located in the mountains, and it therefore goes without saying that it was much much cooler than the weather in hot, muggy San Salvador. Probably the coolest thing about the day was getting to watch the mist kind of roll off the nearby mountain and envelop the restaurant (which was more or less outside). When Daniel (Dome and Brenda's cute 3 year old nephew) saw this happening, he exclaimed, "Esta lloviendo humo!" or "it's raining smoke!"

A beautiful little church on the garden's grounds

On a side story about Daniel: Now, someone with light skin, and light eyes, and lighter hair (my hair gets called "blonde" quite often) sticks out like a sore thumb in El Salvador, for while there are a lot of people here with lighter skin (who are given the nickname "chele"), they almost always have dark eyes and/or dark hair. And if they have blonde hair...well, it's more than likely not "real" blonde hair. Anyway, the combination of the three characteristics
automatically screams "foreigner" and draws a lot of curious looks sometimes. Now, after lunch today, we went to this other place where there supposedly was a little zoo, and while we were getting out of the car, two vans pulled in to the lot full of young people with lots of blonde hair and light skin and Daniel said, "Amigos de Natalie!!!" It was so cute.

Me and Dani, the "chele"

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing day getting to see some beautiful sights. School tomorrow though. Hmmph.

*For those of you who saw me write on facebook that I was going to the beach, we were going to the beach...but at the last minute, there was a change of plans.




A mural in Ataco

Beans and soccer

So, this past weekend, was spent doing a myriad of things, including "cleaning" beans for a soup on Saturday night and spending 3 hours watching El Salvador play Panama in the Copa de Oro soccer tournament. I felt very El Salvadoran to say the least. 

Bean cleaning doesn't really involve any real cleaning-- just going through 5 liters (a lot) of beans and picking out the ones that were no good. There are these little bugs called gorgojos that get into the beans and make holes in them, so you more or less inspect a group of them and make sure you weed out all the beans that have been visibly contaminated by gorgojos. The resulting soup on Sunday after church was incredibly delicious and enjoyed by a table crowded with family members eating very fast. El Salvadorans devour their food-- I asked for a smaller portion of soup and I still think I was the last person to finish eating...

 Sorting through the mountain of beans

Unwanted, overly wrinkly, gorgojo beans are on the left

The futbol game vs. Panama wasn't quite as successful as the sopa de frijoles. Sadly, El Salvador lost in a penalty kick shoot-out (I think that's what it's called, but I'm not a soccer buff so don't make fun) after a tied game of 1-1. At least the United States is still in the tournament...I told Dome that I was just a teency little bit happy that El Salvador lost, because if they would've won, they would've moved on to play the US! How am I supposed to choose between my home country and another that's starting to feel like home, huh?? She agreed. And told me that had El Salvador advanced, and I subsequently chosen to cheer for the wrong team, I would've had to sleep outside.

Now, I know that I need to take more pictures and upload them to my facebook and/or blog of all the little things that are different and stuff that I do during the day. I just forget to take pictures! And I don't want to look overly conspicuous. But yeah, I'll get on that.

Last thing-- I was talking to my brother Nate on Sunday and told him how I found a pretty decent sized El Salvadoran cockroach dead in the bathroom after I had seen it alive on the wall the night before (and left it there bc I was too scared/grossed out by it). And I started singing the song "La cucaracha, la cucaracha..." And his response was "What?!? Wait. That's what cockroach means in Spanish?? I didn't know that! Why did you tell me that?? Ugh. I can't ever sing that again." Needless to say, I laughed for about 5 minutes. 

Father's Day cont.

I colored this for you too. Some of the kids helped me color it. Love you!

Father's Day

Dad! Look what I made for you in class this past week for Father's Day! The kids all wrote on theirs "te amo papi" but I thought I'd do it in English just because. :) I love you so much and I wish I could be there with you and everyone else today! Xoxo.

Funny little interactions during the week

So, on Wednesday, one of the teachers from the elementary school (I think maybe 1st or 2nd grade) came and found me in my class to ask me how to pronounce "pirámide" (pyramid) and "cilindro" (cylinder) in English. After I told her, she laughed and said that she had been saying pyramid with a long "i" sound for the "y" so it sounded like "pieramid." I felt so useful. :)

And then Thursday, I was helping the teacher of my class Miss Habith (pronounced "habeed") finish up the craft for Dia del Padre (which is today); I got to use this glittery glue stuff to decorate these little blue foam guitars that the teacher's assistant had cut out, and the kids were mesmerized by the sparkle. Enrique and Illianna, two of the adorable students in the class, were trying to ask me something. And I didn't understand them at all. I asked "que?" (what?) and still, no comprehension. So, I just did what I normally do when that happens and kinda smiled, but looked confused at the same time, and said "si." Then Ilianna proceeded to whisper something in Spanish to Enrique, and the conversation proceeded like this:

Enrique: Ella dice que no puedes hablar espanol.
Me: Si, no muy bien. Pero, tu no puedes hablar ingles como yo.
Enrique: Que? Habla en ingles.
Me: Say something in English? But you won't understand me.
Enrique: Que?? Que es eso?
Me: Ingles. Dije que tu no puedes entenderme cuando yo hablo ingles.

And Enrique kind of scrunched up his face in a cute way and walked off.

And then on Friday, during another conversation with Enrique, he informed me that I talked weird. Sometimes, little kids have such a great way of saying things just right.

Pictures I tried to post...

 The view from the backdoor into the garden

My clothes hanging out to dry...

Early to bed

I'm currently in my room wearing a tank top and shorts with the ceiling fan on high and a cup of water next to my bed to quench any late night thirst (with a lid on top of course...lots of bugs). Yeah, it's about 10:30, and it's actually my bed time. It sounds weird, I'm sure, especially to all of my friends at school, and especially those who haven't forgotten my late night escapades from freshmen year. But hey--people can change, right?

Right now, it's POURING rain outside. I love the sound though. Most of the houses in San Salvador are built open to the outdoors-- the windows have no panes really-- only a plastic sort of shutter that you can open and close. The window in my room shares a wall with the kitchen, and the window in the kitchen doesn't have any shutters at all! And neither does the back door. Just an iron kind of grate at the top. So, I can hear just about everything outside. It's very nice, especially if it's rain. (I was going to upload a picture of the kitchen window and door, but the site is being uber slow and not letting me upload the picture. So, maybe tomorrow.)

One week in El Salvador

Well, today is Saturday, and I've been here in the beautiful country of El Salvador for a little over a week. And I'm lovin it. Granted, I still don't speak Spanish very well, but I'm going to be here for almost nine weeks, so no worries-- there's still plenty of time for improvement. I just have so much ground to cover, sometimes I feel like it's impossible. Ugh.

Further update from the last entry: Dome, informed by my lack of a camera from reading my blog, is allowing me to use a digital camera while I'm here. Good news, yes? So, that means that I'll be able to post lots of pictures, either here or on facebook of all my wild escapades...if only I actually remembered I had a camera to take pictures sometimes...

Here's a food update: I love El Salvadoran food. It's very different, and I have rice and beans with almost every meal (not really...but maybe), but the beans are so much better than the tex-mex version I don't mind one bit. The tortillas and tamales are different here too, but still delicious. I've also had watermelon juice. And not suprisingly, it tasted just like watermelons.

School update: 5 year olds are exhausting. But still, quite cute. But I accidentally said kind of a not okay word in front of a few the other day in Spanish. I was trying to call them bad little kids, right? They were being perverted. So, to make words smaller or say "little" you put words into a diminutive form. Like mesa (table) becomes mesita (little table). So, I called them ninos malditos...and their faces were priceless. I didn't know at the time that I had said a quasi-bad word (translates as damn it, but it's not really considered a swear word in Spanish, or so they tell me. Just a bad expression.) but their reactions definitely clued me in. Hopefully, this will be the only slip up...

Horchata y elote loco

Elote loco or "crazy corn" is a fun twist on a typical El Salvadoran food. Mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, "salsa negra" and cheese all piled on a very large piece of corn. It actually was quite delicious once I got used to it. Horchata is also a traditional El Salvadoran drink that I had on Sunday at this beautiful park-- it tastes kind of like milk with cinnamon and some kind of cream. I could feel the granules of cinnamon on my teeth when I drank it- que rica!

Today was my first day going to school-- I'm in a class full of kindergarteners and their vocabulary is much more advanced than mine. I feel like I need to be the student, not them. But they are so precious and full of life! I love them already. When I told one little girl, Ilianna, that I was from the United States, her eyes got HUGE and she threw her hands up in the air and said "Los Estados Unidos? De verdad??" It was so cute.

Oh, on a side note-- I apologize in advance for my lack of pictures on this blog. My digital camera was stolen at the end of the school year so all I have right now is a party camera. Any pictures that I post will more than likely already be posted on facebook, courtesy of one of the Maeda's picture phones. Like the picture above.

When it rains, it pours

When I was writing the previous entry and talking about the weather, I was reminded of this picture from the side of a salt container. I seem to remember it from childhood, but I think my mom still has the same container...maybe.

Beginnings

Well. Here I am, happily situated in my room en la casa de mi familia en San Salvador, El Salvador. I cannot believe that I am really here-- and that it's been over two years since I was last here! What a different climate (weather-wise and politically) than last time! As opposed to my previous visit, there isn't a hotly contested presidential race going on and it's the rainy season. And boy, it rains. Hard. I'm going to definitely need to invest in a sturdier umbrella...

For all of you wondering, "What on earth is Natalie Avery doing in El Salvador?" lemme tell ya-- For the past few years or so, I've been study Spanish at university; however, I find myself to be severely lacking in the area of speaking skills, which is a rather important part to second language acquisition...so what better way to actually learn Spanish than to be constantly forced to speak it? And in a different country, no less. So, considering that living in a foreign country is the best way to learn a language, that's what I'm doing. And what group am I here with? What organization? Nadie! My parents know people who know people who know people (es complicado) and these people (the Maedas) attend a church that also has a school. Dome (la hermana mediana) y Paty (la madre) work at the school and I will be joining them-- in what capacity, I'm not entirely sure yet. But still, they say it is a great place for me to practice my novice speaking skills.

I've never had a blog before (thank you to Susanna Whittaker for recommending that I start one for this summer), so please, bear with me as I attempt to navigate this new tool to tell you about little bits and pieces of my time here. I'll try and post as much as possible. Keep me in your prayers.

Gracias,

Natalie