A few short stories...

Hey, everyone! Ok, so I’ve been thinking about what to say in this email...I kind of feel like you might be getting sick of all of my long stories, so I’m going to try to keep those short. But I do have a few things that I’ve found to be pretty funny that I’d like to share:

1) Kathy Russell...you’re going to love this one. So...the other night, Danira, part of my host family, tells me that there is something wrong with her computer. She asks me if I can help. Basically, every time she sent this document to the printer, Word would shut down. She said it was happening with Excel too. So, I first attempted to create a new document to see if the document was the problem. Well...You all know how I like the keyboard commands. So I start stroking away like mad at the keyboard to do all this fun stuff, and all this weird stuff starts popping up. Danira is looking at me like I’m an idiot because I’m basically not doing anything. I tried again. Same problem. So I use the mouse to go to the menus. Yeah. SOME of the keyboard commands are the same and MOST are totally different. So while CTRL+A in the US is select all, I have to do CTRL+E here in El Salvador. Now, since this is how I do everything on the computer, I’m basically going to look like a total idiot for awhile while I learn all these new commands. But (Russell), this does NOT mean that keyboard commands are inferior!! I’m just going to know them in 2 languages now. :) And yes, I finally did resolve the problem. :) I can hear you laughing so hard right now, Russell!

2) So I told you the other day about the craziness on the bus...how it looks like a deodorant commercial in the US? Well, I’m going to type out part of what I wrote in my journal last night to give you an idea of just how fun it gets:

I met John, Tara, and Andrew in the park at 6:45 so we could all go to San Vicente. Well, we walked to the stop and waited. And waited. And waited. 40 minutes later, a bus shows up. As you can imagine, it’s overflowing with people. I mean, people are hanging out of the bus when it pulls up to pick up the 10-15 people waiting at the stop with us. We just looked at each other and said, ¨Well THIS is going to be interesting!¨ So, in true Salvadoran style, we all piled in somehow. Tara and I were holding on for dear life in the front door and John and Andrew were doing the same in the back. I’m talking, bus moving at 60 miles per hour and all of us hanging out of the doors. The guy sitting in the 1st seat offers to hold my bag which was AWESOME. So now, I only have to keep myself in the bus. By this point, Tara is IN the bus and I’m still in the door...although now I’m on the 2nd step. Progress was being made! Well, we get to the next stop, and the first person (I assume because I was blocking the rail) grabs my pants to pull themselves up. But they grab right in the crotch area, so I just feel tugging in a not-so-public area of my body while I’m hanging on for dear life in the open door of this jam-packed bus. Good times. Then, just as I recover from this, an oversized woman somehow manages to squeeze past me (I’m certain people here acquire some power of condensing their bodies when moving around on buses) and stops in the aisle right in front of me (right above the steps). I’m holding onto a vertical support at this point to stay on, and she crowds as close as possible to this bar that I’m using. She’s so close that my hands that are gripping this support so I don’t fall out are smashed by the tummy fat of this woman. I mean, my hands were both encased with fat! I’ve never had this experience before. I’ve decided I don’t want to be fat now. :)

3) I was thinking more about the care packages. Again, this is not asking for anything...I’m just offering suggestions to those who have asked. A couple more things that came to mind...

A) There are towels at Bath and Body Works that are made of micro fiber. I have a small one, but it would be awesome to have a larger one. When I travel, a regular towel takes up tons of room in my backpack (which is awesome by the way, thanks AIA) and it would be so cool to only have to pack a lightweight one that actually covers my body.
B) Photos...I definitely didn’t bring enough of these!
C) Rechargeable AA batteries
D) Parents only...I bought a book before I left called "501 Verbs..." and it accidentally got packed up with my other books. If you could send this to me, I would appreciate it. It would help with my spanisha lot!!

OK. This is way longer than I intended it to be. Sorry. I’ll work on condensing the stories!! :)

I miss you all very much and think about you often! I’m going to try to take a video this weekend of where I live so you can actually see what’s happening with me.

Talk to ya soon!