Easter

I know Easter is long passed but I thought I would still do a post on the tradtitions here now that we have access to some of our photos. On Good Friday, local school and church youth groups get together and make large murals of easter scenes on the street. The street is a pedestrian mall so they dont have to worry about cars running over their art. The large murals are called alfombras (carpets) in Spanish. They are made of sand, saw dust and grated cheese dyed different colours. Here are some of the ones we liked best.

This one was dones by our nephew Wil and his youth group.

Jesus with the woman at the well.

Piles of coloured sand.

Can you believe this is all done with sand, saw dust and grated cheese!

So colourful! 

Levi enjoying the murals!

At night we returned to the pedestrian mall to see the Easter procession. Local catholic church members basically march through the street signing songs and carrying religious symbols: a case with a statue of a mouring virgin Mary and a casket with a staute of Christ. It was really interesting to witness this event. Very different than our typical Easter celebrations.

~ Sylvie

Coffee Culture

Coffee beans. Photo taken at El Boqueron volcano,
as we sipped on  some delicious high altitude coffee.

One of the great things about El Salvador is its coffee and its coffee culture. I love that every afternoon people stop what they are doing and indulge in a cup of coffee accompanied with pastry. I find it particularly interesting that for the most part, coffee shops don´t sell coffee to go. If you do decide to buy it to go, you are most likely going to get it in a small cup and it will not have a lid. In other words, coffee is simply not made to be enjoyed on the run. People stop in the middle of the day or after work and really enjoy a cup of coffee. In general, coffee culture here encourages people to slow down, whereas in North America it seems that coffee encourages us to run faster. I love coffee and being here has taught me that more than a drink, coffee is also an experience.

-jgm

Say what?!

Alright. So I  thought it was time for another installement of Say what?!  Here are a few more funny language mishaps. Enjoy!

- Chulo means cute but the other day I said that my son was so cholo, which means chunky and broad.

-Also the same thing happened when I called him bisco instead of buso. I meant to say he was alert but instead said that Levi was cross-eyed.

-When telling someone your are getting married (casarse), make sure you don't inadvertently say castrarse (castrated). (Berto´s nephew told him he was getting married but Berto heard him wrong and thought he said he was getting castrated! They all had a good laugh!)

~ Sylvie

Meandering in San Diego

I recently travelled to San Diego, for the International Studies Association Annual Convention and as much as I enjoyed the conference, the best part was checking out a new part of the world and meeting the people the live there. San Diego is a beautiful port city. Its diversity is evident in their architecture which mixes old and new, as it is in the political views of the people, given that we are talking about a hippy California city with a strong military presence. To give you an idea of my adventures in San Diego, I have decided to compile a list of favourites... and not so favourites!

Favourite pub to strike a conversation with random professors: Fields Pub in the Gaslamp district (formerly the Red Light District, where all the sailors stopped to get acquainted with the ladies of the night!).

Favourite tourist attraction: a statue of that famous photograph taken in Times Square.

Least favourite time at an airport: After a number of tornadoes damaged the American Airlines fleet, a number of flights were cancelled, including the one I was supposed to take to San Salvador, following the conference. After much, much waiting, arguing, exhailing, and plotting against the airline, they were able to find me a flight to my final destination.

Favourite day in San Diego: I ended up having to wait 9 hours until my flight to San Salvador, so I decided to walk around and to explore the city. I was so tired by the end and slept through the entire overnight flight to San Salvador!

-jgm

MIA

So, we have been missing in action for a little while now and I must apologize. I do have valid reasons however! :) We lost our computer cord and none of the stores carry a universal one that has the right connection. (Yeah, I know...they call it universal but it clearly isn´t...what can I say?! Take it up with the manufacturers!)  Thankfully, we can borrow a computer but our accesses is a little more limited.

Anyways, we also have been  quite busy touring the country visiting different tourist attractions all in the name of research!  It is so nice that hubby needs to play tourist for his work!  I will post some photos once we sort out computer stuff. For now, this will have to suffice.

~Sylvie