December 11th: but really this is all of November and then some

HEEYY! Long time no see. I guess thats my fault but whatever.. So last time I wrote on here it was October and I have no idea what I was talking about. A lot has happened since then. Who knew that there was so much to do in such a small, small country. Anyway, I'm going to start with Halloween. I went to Chinese class and came home and spent all day at home.. We forgot to buy candy so when the one group that came to our house rang the doorbell, we sent them away empty handed :( I planed on watching Halloween Town or something but I ended up watching American Horror Story instead.
November was relatively uneventful. I hung out with my Chinese teacher a lot and we went to this vegetarian Taiwanese restaurant that her friends owned and it was DELICIOUS. Wow, I ate so much food there and it was only like $2.50 for a plate so full I thought it was going to spill off the sides. Around November 7th, my Chinese classes through the Academy ended so my teacher and I ended up just having our classes at a Starbucks at the mall 2-3 times a week. They were more "let's make sure you can remember all the thing's you've learned" type of classes instead of "let's cram your brain with more Chinese language goodness" type classes. I enjoyed them and had fun hanging out with Hui Lin (my teacher).
Another perk to classes being at the mall was that I could people watch all day long since most days, I didn't get picked up until Nine got off work at 6pm. I tried perfecting my spanish listening skills by listening in on some weird conversations, I hunted cute boys, and I drank lots and lots of coffee. I also got a lot of my online schooling done but that's not as exciting as the other stuff. That's basically how all of November passed for me, it was the same nice routine every day. On thanksgiving, I ate mashed potaters and a store bought pumpkin pie (pie is not easy to come by down here, it's something of a rarity).
With December came a heat that was so nice but also made you feel like a vampire jumping out of the sun every time it's rays hit your skin. Let's just say that if you stood directly in its light for 10 minutes you would be nice and tan (or if you're my dad or Jordyn; you'd be burnt to a crisp). Within the first week of December, I met 3 different groups of really rad people. First was a group of boys that worked at sears and happened to see me at Starbucks on their break. We ended up talking for about and hour and they were super nice. Before they left for work, they literally got into a single file line to have their pictures taken with 'the american they met' like I was Goofy and we were at Disney. I didn't mind too much, I was feeling really confident in my overalls. The next day, I met a pastor and his missionary daughter. They are from Oklahoma and are some of the nicest people I have ever met. We talked for about an hour before my Chinese class started and I had to go, but not before we managed to exchange numbers so we could keep in touch. The third group I met was a group of college/church students who are studying abroad here. They were so nice and invited me to a Christmas party (I couldn't go because I didn't have a ride) and we are going to be making plans to hang out soon.
I am so glad that I am outgoing and am not afraid to strike up a conversation with random people at Starbucks because this past Tuesday, I ended up going to a beach house with the Pastor, his daughter, Katie, and her friends. It was so much fun! We went swimming in the pool and the ocean and took some stellar pictures (not with my camera because while I remembered the camera, I forgot its battery). One of Katies friends was a boy named Chad who is 18 making him the closest person to my age that I have met. Katie is 23 and most of her other friends were around her age too. Unfortunately Katie is leaving in a week to spend Christmas with her family, but Chad will be staying here until May, so we're going to hang out more.
Today I watched some Supernatural, ate lots of fruit and enjoyed the wonderful Climate here in El Salvador. I have less than a month left here and I fully intend to make the most out of every day! Let's see if I decide to keep writing in this thing more often. Who knows, I might even add a few pictures. Tata for now, I hope everyone in Minnesota is enjoy the nice icy cold snow :-)

October: whoops Katie was right, I stopped blogging in October

I've fallen into a routine here, I wake up at  6:30 during the week so I can eat, shower and drop Ari off before chinese. After class, Idalia and I drive around running errands for Ari's 3rd birthday party (it's Frozen themed and they may or may not be trying to dress me up as Elsa..) it's going to be fancy and I'm actually really excited for it. after class, we go home to be treated my Estella and whatever food she made for lunch that day. It varies between vegetables, rice, beans, and salads. I normally do my homework, watch some tv (I started and finished Baby Daddy and last night I started American Horror Story (Katie don't try watching it, you'll freak)) and sometimes I go for walks. I found a little cliff area where I can see the ocean from on a clear day. It's my new happy place; I can see everything and I feel like I'm on the top of the world.

Ari and I have fun playing together everyday. It's weird taking care of someone everyday. Being the youngest, I never knew what I was missing out on, and as tiring as it may be keeping 2 girls under the age of 3 happy, I'm having a blast. We have played pirates,

we danced at my homecoming away from home,

she tries on my things,

even things that aren't clothes,

and we have fun playing with her toys.

I love that we eat typical dinners like rice and beans with fried plantains

and guisquil filled with cheese and tortillas with peanut butter (okay so maybe the peanut butter part is my american twist on this meal).

I still go running at least 3 times a week (the other nights it rains so much I would be carried away by the rivers in the streets). I like finding high spots at night so I can see all the lights and the stars at night.

On the weekends, we normally go grocery shopping, go to church and every once in a while we hit up the mall. I love the sights, the city, the mountains and the ocean. Everything about this place is amazing. I made a habit of stopping by a fruit stand to get coconut water and the meat for 50 cents. 

I miss my friends and family but I'm so glad I decided to come here and explore parts of the world. 

October 3rd, 4th & 5th: The Weekend

    This weekend was all grocery shopping, going to church and having dinner with Nine's grandma and uncle. I finished the Divergent trilogy in under a week and I'm really regretting reading them so fast. On the bright side now I have one less distraction when it comes to school. Too bad I still have 3405978 other distractions so I'm still not on track. I'm getting there thankfully.
    Today on the way to church I brought my camera and took pictures of most of the things that have become a part of my everyday life here. The views, the buildings, the people. I forgot how different it is here compared to the USA. Seeing people walk along all the streets, jump on and off moving busses, selling things in the roundabouts, and having the signs be in spanish have all become normal for me now. I don't give any of them a second thought; that doesn't stop me from thirstily taking in every view of the country when we drive places. I look like a lunatic staring out the window with a wide grin, squinting to read things, gasping at the new things, and 'aww'ing when I see yet another stray dog wandering the streets. My favorite part of the city is the graffiti and the people. Grandma and grandpa would love some of the graffiti here. They have bible verses everywhere and walls saying "Dios venga, alabado sea su nombre" which is their version of "Christ is coming, glory be his name". I'll post pictures when I'm not ready to collapse over my laptop at any given moment.

October 2nd: Gelato and a Bat

    I got ice cream today. After class, Idalia did't have any errands to run so I suggested we go the Gelato Factory next to Ari's kindergarden. I got coconut and berry mixed and I enjoyed every last bit of it. After we got Ari, we went home where I took a chair outside a read until I finished Insurgent (the second book in the Divergent trilogy; it only took me two days to read the 450 page book). I ended up burning like crazy. Who knew that Minnesotan skin didn't do well in El Salvadorian sun? Oh well, at least I won't come back as pale as everyone in Minnesota now.
    I didn't run today. Instead, I helped Estela make pupusas and I worked on art stuff until we heard Ari scream. We ran to the living room to find her curled up on the couch hiding from the baby bat that was right outside. I thought it was the cutest thing in the world so I ran to get my camera and went into the small enclosed square with it earning myself a shocked look from Estelita who hates bats. I got some cute pictures of it and then turned the light off and went inside so it could fly away in peace.  Now I plan on going to bed. It's only 8:31 but I am dying of exhaustion and I think a long night of sleep will do me some good.  Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

October 1st: I ran again

I didn't have Chinese today because it's Wednesday so I got to sleep in. When I did finally get up, I made a list of all the things I needed to do today and set off to get them done. First was Econ; I took a quiz and did a practice assignment. Next I had to do Psych but Google Docs froze so instead I started reading Insurgent. I read all day until 8 when I decided to run. It wasn't as long as my normal runs but 25 minutes is better than nothing at all. 

    I have grown to love running. At first I did it to even out all the new foods I was trying but now I do it for fun. It's not the same fun as playing a game or hanging out with friends, it's a satisfying type of fun. It fills me with a sense of accomplishment when I run without stopping. I can't run until my legs hurt, but I run until I know that my lungs will give way if I take one more step and for me, that's the same thing. I still don't have the neighborhood memorized but I can find my home easily from almost anywhere now. Going home in the winter is hard because I won't be able to leave every night to lose my self; treadmills aren't the same. 

    I should probably sleep so that I don't fall asleep during class tomorrow. Here's a picture of Ari from when she got into some of my stuff today. Enjoy

September 29th & 30th: The mall, the mall, and the birthday

    These past two days have been more on the active side. Monday, I got up at 6:40 so I could be ready to leave by 7:35 to take Ari to kindergarden. After we dropped her off, Idalia and I went to the Academy to practice her English and my Chinese before our classes started. I really think I'm getting the hang of Chinese and I hope I'm learning enough to be able to join the class half way through the school year when I get back.
    After both our classes were over, we went to the bank where I sat and read Divergent for an hour as Idalia did whatever it was that she needed to do. Once we left, we had to go directly to pick up Ari so we weren't late. After we picked her up we went to the mall to change the batteries on the car remote opener thing. While Idalia went to Radio Shack, I went to hunt sown a coffee shop. After 5 minutes of not finding one, I ducked into a chocolate and gelato shop and got some mango/berry goodness. Finally, it was time to head home. On the way home, I read my book in piece until we hit a small bump in the road and when I looked up, I saw PEOPLE PUTED A FULL GROWN COW INTO THE BED OF A PICKUP TRUCK. It wasn't a trailer, it wasn't a few cows, it was one single cow hearing the bed with like 5 other guys and I still don't know what to make of it. It was crazy.
    I got home and did some school stuff and watched the Friends finale and for the first time since I got here, I cried like a baby. Wow that was such a good series. After I finished it, I ate some dinner and called it a night.
    Yesterday started out the same, I got up early, dropped off Ari, went to class, picked up Ari and went the mall. The only  difference was this time, when we went to the mall, Idalia's husband was there waiting for us. I had never met him before and he seemed nice enough. We bought Idalia'a plane ticket for the states this November (she's going to spend the month with Doris; Luis Edwardo's mom). Then we headed off the the food court where I ate some new things. I went to a restaurant where everything was made from or with corn and boy oh boy was it good.

The crepe looking thing is rigua and it is a corn crepe filled with chess and beans. The patty thing is a tortita de elote (corn tortilla) and it is a corn and plantain bases batter that was fried and it tasted a bit like a hush puppy. The drink thing is called atole and it's actually a soup that is made from grounds corn, vanilla extract and some cinnamon with corn sprinkled on it. It was all so crazy good and I devoured it in minutes.

After lunch we did the El Salvadorian thing and went to a coffee shop for coffee and donuts. I didn't get any donuts but everyone else did and they looked amazing. Here, they most common donut shop is Mister Donut. It's basically a Dunkin' Donuts but they also serve breakfast lunch and dinner and they are as common as a McDonalds. After donuts, we went to Idalia's husbands car and got bins and boxes full of fruits and vegetables. Apparently he gives us fruits and veggies every time he see's Idalia. I love it because that means I get all the bananas I can eat. 

    On the way home, we stopped by the grocery store to order sushi, then we went to a bakery to get a cake and stopped by la Neveria for ice cream. Let's talk about the bakery. It was filled with all different sorts of sets and breads and crumbs of heaven. 

Last night was Nine's birthday and we. ate. good. As soon as Luis Edwardo and her got home from work, we dove into the sushi (vegetarian for me and crab and something else for the others). After we gorged ourselves with sushi, we brought out the cake. Let me tell you a little something about cake here. They take it seriously. You will never find people eating boxed cake unless they are more on the poor side. They cakes are divine and I want to learn how to make them so badly. It was a vanilla cake with a caramel type layer in the middle and almond slivers scattered throughout it, with vanilla and caramel frosting and nuts sprinkled on it. I was in my happy place while eating that cake. For the ice-cream, it was chocolate and vanilla cookie and I had my fair share of that too. 

    I know I should have ran last night after eating so much but instead I sat down on the couch and finished reading Divergent. If you haven't read that book, stop what you're doing, got to your nearest bookstore and get it. I don't care how old you are, that book is a godsend. It is so good and it's really interesting to see how Veronica Roth created it. She was studying exposure therapy in the treatment of phobia (confronting a person with the thing that scares them repeatedly, in a safe environment until their brain rewires and they aren't afraid of it anymore). That was where she got the idea for the dauntless faction. 

     After almost falling asleep on the couch, I dragged myself to my room where I collapsed in my bed and slept a sound sleep until this morning.

September 28th: The Party

    Today started out dull (me doing school stuff) but turned interesting when Nines brother came over with his girlfriends and her sisters. They stayed for lunch (Pollo Campero chicken, rice and celery) and O got some weird looks when I whipped out the peanut butter for my celery. They were really nice and we talked a lot about  lots of things. After lunch, they headed home and Ari, Nine, Luis and I got ready to go to a two year old birthday party.

    I know what you're thinking.

"A two year olds birthday party, wow that's boring" but holy poop, they go all out here. Thankfully I brought my camera because this was probably more well decorated and better planned than most people's 21th birthday. The theme was the Wild West and so upon arrival, all the little kids got sheriff badges. I immediately went to go check out the cake and what not in the back. It was so cute and fancy. 

They had piles of party favors and cute mini bottles of water for all the kids. 

After a half an hour, a clown showed up. I get the feeling he was more for adult entertainment because he was telling jokes that went straight over the kids' heads (and mine). 

He had a few games for the kids to play all planned out and the winners got prizes. 

They also had a bouncy house. Maybe it's just me but I thought the party was absolutly amazing and a bit much for a two year old. 

They served us a dinner of (they had waiters come out with trays of food) pizza for kids and burgers for adults. I didn't mind that it wasn't vegitarian because I had already filled myself on popcorn and candy from the center pieces.

After dinner, it was piñata time. The clown lowered it down from the ceiling and gave made sure all the kids got a chance to whack it before picking an older girl (around 7 years old) to break it open. 

The kids went ham and the floor was cleared of any trace of candy within a minute. 

Finally the time had come to sing happy birthday (suprisingly they sang it in English not spanish) and cut the cake. In the end I ate two pieces which was more than enough because it was extra sweet but boy oh boy was it good. After spending 3 1/2 hours at the party, we said our goodbyes, prayed Ari away from her friends (and the bouncy house) and left to go home where I spent the rest of the night studying Art (and watching 2 episodes of friends).