Puchica!

This past weekend was our first real free weekend(though really our third), after what still feels like two weeks of orientation. A few days ago it really hit me that I’m here for four months, and the honeymoon stage of orientation and first week butterflies is almost over. My roommate Michelle said to me Sunday evening, “Wow, this place is starting to feel like home.” I agree with her. But, back to our fun weekend! Friday morning started off as usual with my 8am Theology class with Sister Peggy (what we talked about in those three hours alone could be an entire blog entry in itself). After class we had our weekly community lunch at the Romero House, and then some headed off to History class in the afternoon. I, on the other hand, took advantage of not having class and spent the afternoon watching movies in our room with Michelle, who was running a fever because of a 24hr bug…not good. Everyone in our program but myself has been sick with either stomach issues or some sort of virus. I did have a strange reaction to something in Cedro last week, leaving me with hives for about 5 days, but I’d take that over bacteria and amoebas in my intestines any day!
That night was our first official meeting with all of the becario students (Salvadoran scholarship students). Up until that point I really only knew the two girls who live with us( Suzanna y Reina) and some of the other who live in the two other houses. Before sitting down to a delicious dinner of chicken tamales and fresh fruit, we played some “dinamica” games to get to know each other. I was paired with a boy named Salvador who also spoke a little French and is studying Education…what a small world was all I kept thinking. Following dinamica and dinner, one of the becarios picked up his guitar and began to play typical Salvadoran folk music. The female becarios then each grabbed a partner (me, being one of them) and began dancing. Ten songs later, the party died down and people started to leave. Though I was having a lot of fun, I was tired, sweaty, and wanting to get back to Michelle, who, after dinner wasn’t’ feeling well again. The goodbyes were quick, because all of us knew we’d see each other just hours later, the next morning.
I had no problem waking up early Saturday morning. Michelle thankfully was feeling better, so we both put on our bathing suits and layered ourselves with sunscreen, knowing that the sun here is so much stronger than at home. Outside of Silvia, there were two buses. One bus was quickly filling up with mostly Casa students, and initially I started for its door, but then I decided to sit on the other bus with the becarios. I knew I had made the right decicios when the bus driver BLASTED regaetone the entire way there, and all of the becarios sang and danced along.
Costa del Sol was even more beautiful than I remembered (I was there in January with DePauw). The black sand and hammocks were peacefully familiar and calling my name. The first two hours I spent in the water, though not very deep because the waves were the biggest I had ever seen. I also played three games of volleyball and two games of futbol with the becarios. Both of these left me extra sandy and exhausted. For lunch we all enjoyed grilled chicken, fresh vegetables, and of course rice and beans. Surprisingly we also were given dessert, vanilla icecream, which I haven’t had since I’ve been here. Following lunch, I took a nice long nap in the sun, which sadly at the end of the day left me with a nice sunburn, since I failed to reapply sunscreen.
We returned home to the casas, and all showered, then attempted to devise a plan for the open night we had ahead of us. Finally, we decided to go to a local bar, La Luna and check out the scene there. When we got there, we quickly figured out it was not going to be a typical bar night out in El Salvador, or at least not one we would expect. Going on at La Luna that night was, “Rock Night”. We saw two bands play different covers of The Rolling Stones, ACDC, Led Zepplin, etc. On top of already standing out as a blondeish haired, blue eyed, gringa, I was the only one wearing a color other than black in the bar that night…bright green and pink to be specific. Needless to say, after one Pilsner, and my watch read 11pm, I decided I needed to go home. It was quite the experience…