It´s been a little more than a month, and at times it feels like it´s all gone by really fast, but I feel like I´ve been here for months and months already. Either way, I´m enjoying every minute.
I´ve found myself venturing off to the country side every weekend, to escape from the big city. The first weekend, was the rainforest. Next I went to Suchitoto, a little town in the north tucked between mountains on the edge of the largest lake in El Salvador. It was very beautiful and exactly as I imagined El Salvador. The little quaint town is centered around a huge square/park with a great church in the center. From there the "downtown" stretches out combined with little houses. The streets are cobblestone and the houses made of brick. It rained quite a bit the weekend we went, but we were able to hike down to some waterfalls and also eat some delicious pupusas, the official Salvadorean dish. That sunday we came back it rained from sun-up to sun-down. A lot of the country was on Red Alert for flooding, as Hurricane Matthew passed over. In fact the bridge to Guatemala was swept away and the border was unpassable for a few days.
I also experienced my first earthquake the following Thursday, a 5.6 that shook the ground. I heard it before I felt it and it only lasted about 10 seconds. I was in the living room, it was at about 9:20 at night. We all scrambled under the door, and waited. I wasn´t really scared, in fact I didn´t realize it was a earthquake until my host mom was yelling out "en la puerta, la puerta!"
The following weekend I was sick and stayed home, but went to the Cine, to catch a movie.
This weekend, I was in Barra de Santiago, a small fishing community on the south western beach. So peaceful, and hermoso. I tried surfing for the first time, with no such luck. My souveniers included bruises and a fresh sunburn.
I have finally settled into San Salvador and am familiar with my surroundings, places to eat, shops, and bus routes. I feel very comfortable and happy. And although sometimes I feel like my Spanish is horrible, I have improved tenfold since I came.
I´ve also ditched my English speaking volunteers (for the most part..) because I met a bunch of University students who I´ve been hanging out with. They´re all language students and a part from teaching each other the Caliche/slang and malditas/bad words, I´ve been learning a little bit of French, taught in Spanish. I really like all my friends here and just about everything else.
My English class is also going great, I have 12 students but only about 7 students are there per class, but whoever comes I teach my lesson for the day. We´ve been acting out skits, and listening to songs, as well as watching CNN clips and reading and analyzing. I really like all my students and really respect them for their work. One student is a mom of two, a university student, a worker and she drives her husband and kids to work and school. Her day starts at 5am and ends at 8pm everyday with no break. It´s pretty inspiring.
I hope to get a hike in on the Volcán de San Salvador this week.
´ta luego.
