vacation - twice as nice with no shoes

my parents are visiting me for vacation and that of course is a happy happening, but I think the best of the best was when we spent an entire day without shoes.
I really don't like to wear shoes. We lived for two years in Japan when I was little and my parents say that that's where they picked up the tradition, but however it came about, it stuck. We always take off our shoes as soon as we walk in the door. But I also like to be barefoot outside. In fact, I prefer being barefoot outside. It just feels...right.
So when I was able to spend an entire day - no, longer - probably about 40 hours, without shoes, I would have to say that that was an incredible day. My parents and I stayed at an eco-lodge on a beach in El Salvador. It's on a spit of sand wedged between an estuary with mangroves, and a beautiful white sand beach. Our second day there we had breakfast in the open air restaurant - with no shoes on, then went walking on the beach - still no shoes on, then to the pool, then lunch, after was hammock time, then the bar for happy hour and then dinner. All without putting on a single shoe, not even a sandal, flip flop or gina. It was glorious. I highly recommend it. Even if you stay in your house all day, still try to do it without shoes on. It just feels so much more like a vacation.

everyone say it with me *ahhhhhh*

chitin'

Soooo, my dog's in heat right now and that's not so fun. The lady next door complained to the security guard who mentioned it to my housemate who told me one night - "listen, that dog of yours, she whines a lot during the day." I'm sorry if the dogs that walk by the house just smell so attractive to her and she decides to whine/opine/lust after them!!! (I promise, I will get her fixed soon 'cause I for one don't want little puppies, much less want to make my neighbors angry, but I'm just saying, dogs are dogs. Your babies whine too, but you don't hear me saying anything!) So she whines.

And I know why. But I still try to keep her quiet. So I *chit* her. It's that corrective sound like Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer, does. It's really effective. It's also a very salvadoran sound so people always look at me like, "who are you and where did you learn that?!?" Or they just laugh at me. But it's the perfect sound for a dog because its distracts them for just long enough that they stop what they're doing. So she knows that whining is bad because I've *chit*ed her doing it. So now she kind of does this deep, short grunt, kind of like a hrrmph. It's like she's saying I really want to whine at the top of my lungs, but I know you won't let me, so I'm just gonna....hrrrmph! Sometimes its kind of like a sigh, other times like a moan, but whatever it is, it makes me laugh. Because it's super quiet and she looks at me with this pleeeeeease let me be loud?!? look on her face. It just makes me want to hug her. She's my Monkey. 

She's such a good dog. She makes me happy every day.

my daily chuckle

a few days ago I saw a bus plastered front to back and top to bottom on all sides with a Coca Cola Christmas ad - you know the one with the smiling Santa, right? Well, that one. However, some genius at Coca Cola, or maybe someone at the bus company, decided that the bus needed even more flair so they strung up Christmas lights around the outside of the bus. But not just any Christmas lights - purple, flashing Christmas lights. I was coming home one night on a bus and saw this special edition Christmas bus coming down the street. (If that crazy bus had pulled up at the bus stop I was waiting at, I don't know if I would have gotten on. Maybe just to see if it was decked out on the inside as well...) But anyway, both buses stopped at an intersection and my bus driver (driving the plain, generic, boring bus) gave the other bus driver (the one driving the Christmas extravaganza) a little head nod. I think that head nod was meant to say "Dude, I'm soooo sorry that you have to drive around in that crazy bus, but the fact that it's you and not me just makes me laugh even harder." Or at least, that's what I would have said.

this morning I saw a man sitting on a park bench texting. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Except it was in a park, it was in front of a McDonald's. And the bench wasn't a normal bench, it had one of those plastic Ronald McDonald figures in the middle so people can take pictures sitting with him. Well this man was texting with his hand holding the cell phone resting on Ronald's knee. (I mean, let's be honest, texting is tiring. It's only natural to look for some support, right?!) The moment could have been romantic, if it weren't for the plastic-y yellowness of Ronald. But it was mostly just a good chuckle for me.

and the ever popular misunderstood t-shirts. Classic favorites - the granny wearing a "gansta fo life" t-shirt, a 10 year old boy with "gold digger" plastered on his shirt, or the adolescent boy sporting a long sleeve t with "preggers princess" across the chest. Those are enough to make anybodies day.

how about a nice afternoon at the beach? that sure makes my day!

sunshine

Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine. 
When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I see out of my window is the San Salvador volcano. Most mornings, there is a little cap of clouds sitting on top. The sunrise lights up this little cap and makes me smile.

When you possess light within, you see it externally.  ~Anaïs Nin

have the courage to live your life with happiness

A few days ago as I was finishing organizing my new room, and doing the requisite purge of stuff that accumulates, I came across a paper bag with notes from fellow Peace Corps volunteers from our last get-together - our close-of-service conference. Most of the messages said something nice or mentioned some mutual memory or event we had attended together, but one post-it note stuck out.
It has a simple drawing of a sun and a simple quote. nothing more. And the quote reads "have the courage to live your life with happiness". I think of myself as someone who lives her life with direction, or purpose or focus, but I realized that too often, I forget to live my life with happiness. And so I'm trying to change that. I plan to focus this blog more on happy happenings, or just happenings. Daily snippets as it were.

I remember when we were little, our mom had the family share "happy happenings" every night at the dinner table. She would write down, uncensored, whatever we said in a notebook. I don't specifically remember any of them, but I'm sure my 4th grade self had some awesome happy happenings. Today my tomagochi pet learned how to roll over! So I'm taking a page from that old notebook, wherever you may be! and I'm beginning with my own happy happenings.

I went for a run this morning, and decided to focus my run on effort, or lack thereof. By this I mean that I tried to run as effortlessly as possible. I've been doing some research lately into different ways to run. Specifically the 100 ups, Pose method, and Chi Running. (Two caveats - 1) these methods are also used to encourage barefoot running. I am not discouraging or encouraging barefoot running. Decide what is best for you. 2) Some sport scientists say that these methods of running reduce "economy" i.e. speed. While that might be true, I for one am not looking to win any races, I'm looking to go long distances, hard, without hurting myself.) They all focus on mid-foot striking instead of heel or toe striking, which has never been a huge problem for me, but more importantly they encourage you to focus on quick leg pace, picking up your knees - marching band style, and picking up your feet - kick-butt style. Elite runners (and all runners really) often warm up with high knees and butt kicks but it's not just to stretch muscles, it's because those are the motions that your legs should go through when you run. Going faster by extending your stride is a sure-fire way to injury. Instead, focus on picking up your feet more quickly. The more time your feet spend on the ground, the slower you go.
So in short, I did all that, or tried my best to do it, and let me tell you, my run was amazing. It felt light, effortless, free, even painless, so I was able to do more distance, and able to do it faster than I normally do. So a great workout is my happy happening for today. What's yours?

Happy happening from last weekend - releasing baby sea turtles into the ocean! My job is awesome.

doors of opportunities

When life throws opportunities your way, you should take them, right? Well, I've tried to live my life by that dicho (saying) and so the next chapter begins. My Peace Corps service is quickly coming to a close and it's time to move on to other things. I was offered a job in the capital, San Salvador, and will be starting mid September. I will be in charge of fundraising and corporate partnerships for a national non-profit, FUNZEL, that works for the conservation and protection of the salvadoran wildlife. They are most known for their sea turtle protection programs, but also have a wild animal vet clinic, connections with the national zoo, environmental education programs for schools and other similar programs. I am very excited to see what other areas I can help out in, not just fundraising, though I'm sure, especially at the beginning as I'm learning the ropes, I will be up to my eye balls in work. I don't have lots of experience in that area, so it's a pretty big stretch for me, but I like a challange. (But - geek alert - I'm really excited cause I think a lot of my work might involve spreadsheets!!!) My other big challanges are to get a work visa and find a place to live. Hopefully within the next few weeks, those things will start to come together.

In the mean time I am beginning to wind things down here in site - saying good-bye's, writing final reports, and deciding what to do with all my stuff! It feels incredible that two years have flown by; it really does feel as if I just arrived. I think that is compounded by the fact that I finally feel as if I've hit my stride and have gained the confidence and friendship of many community members. Therefore, it seems a little unfortunate that I'm leaving, but in terms of professional development and future goals, it seems like the best choice.


So as one incredible experience begins to wind down, another one begins. I will continue this blog as a record of happenings in my life.

pictures

thought it might be time to post some photos of this country and what I've been up to. So enjoy!

we visited laguna olomega and we decided to make "little faces"
one of my favorite way to take photos of people is to ask for their "biggest fact" and then "little face". you get some great shots that way!

laguna el jocotal
it's a Ramsar World Convention Wetlands Site and we went there as part of our teacher training to show teachers how to do field trips and be more active in their teaching styles, specifically when it comes to environmental education.

web of life
same teacher training as mentioned above, and all teachers were given a piece of paper with a component - biotic, or abiotic - and then we "wove" the web of life, depending on the relationships between all those components (photosynthesis, predator/prey, water contamination etc.) and then talked about how one action can effect all components. really effective activity. one of our most successful.

laguna de alegria - a sulfuric crater lake
the line on the rock is from last year when the lake flooded. Most of the trees around the lake have been scorched by the chemicals and have died. It has left a very interesting landscape behind. We also visited this site as part of the same teacher training.

black sand beach of Isla de Meanguera
went on a mini vacation with fellow volunteers and a friend from the states to this beautiful island in the Golfo de Fonseca that is in between El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. It's a gorgeous, but 1 hour long, motor boat ride from land. Well worth the trip. We stayed with a family to save money, but there is a swank hotel on the island.

learning to make pupusas with a friend
I couldn't allow myself to leave this country without mastering the art of the national fast food dish. they're super simple to make - i think they are even easier than tortillas. and hey, if job hunting turns up nothing, I can always open up a pupusa stand in the states!

other black sand beaches of Meanguera

the pile of fire wood that my school uses to cook the school provided snacks
we are in the final stages of our fuel efficient stove project and with the new stoves installed, we will reduce the use of fire wood, as well as the smoke that issues from the stoves. more pictures later!

Monkey!
I can't not include a photo of her in this group. She makes my tough days less tough and my good days even better. she is becoming more and more well behaved every day - she is a year and a half old, and I think that's a big part of it. Currently kennel shopping so that we can start getting used to it for the big haul!