Liiiife.

Lord. I don't even know where to start! Oh wait, yes I do...

Yesterday morning. 5:30am. Morning after one of the most exhausting days of my life. I had specifically told my host family I was at least going to sleep until 8 that morning. But of course, I had no such luck with "sleeping in." My 22 year old host brother started BLASTING religious music at 5:30am. AND THEN HE WENT BACK TO SLEEP! Like, are. you. kidding. me? I laid in bed shoving my earplugs into my ears as far as they would go, and finally started drifting off to sleep again around 7, when I was woken up again by my host brothers shoving sticks into the cracks of my windows and throwing rocks at my door. Like, are. you. kidding. me?!

Anyway, I stormed out of my house and asked my host bothers to not ever do that again. And then complained about the music (these people are so far on my nerves I don't even care if I offend them at this point) and this is what my host mom said, "Oh, you don't like music?" NOT AT FIVE FREAKING THIRTY IN THE MORNING I DON'T! Is this real life?!

Anyway, to get away from all the religious music, I put on my shoes, packed a sandwich, and started up the mountain on my census. I refused to let my host sister come with, despite my host mom's wishes, and I had probably the most enjoyable walk of my life. It was hot as hell and it took way longer than I thought, but I met some nice people, enjoyed some awesome views and found a really shady tree that I'm going to hike to occasionally to do some reading. Without all the noise pollution from the radio or the television!

Oh, I also didn't bring my cell phone (on purpose) and when I came back I had 4 missed calls from my host dad. I had only been gone for 3 hours, but he was convinced I was lost. There's one road up the mountain. And the same road brings you back down. No chance for being lost.

Later that afternoon I took the neighborhood kids down to the cancha (futbol field) and we played softball and soccer for about three hours. So fun. They all FREAKED when I brought out my camera and so our photo sesh was very entertaining. A few of them said they knew how cameras worked, so I let them take a few pictures of me (that one's for you mom!) so check out facebook in the next few days, I'm going to try and get them posted asap.

This brings me to my latest discovery here in El Tablon, and that is "charramuscas." This is frozen juice in a plastic bag, and it is God's gift to Usulutan in April. They cost 5 cents and are the most refreshing thing to eat in this country. I bought one for all the kids that played soccer with me, so I now have 15 new friends! All under the age of 12, of course, but whatevs. It's something.

Anyway, today I went to San Miguel to meet up with my friend Kristina. It was SO nice to get out of site for the day. I bought a new pair of sandals and we spent the day eating delicious food, sitting in comfy department store couches (plastic chairs get old real quick!), and of course, half of the day was spent in the public bathrooms because we both were sick...but whatever. It was totally worth it.

Which brings me to my ride back into my community this afternoon. I rode, standing in the back of a pick up truck, through the woods, along the side of the mountain, during sunset. It was gorgeous. I had the best view of the sun setting behind the volcano and I didn't even mind that I was being smacked in the face repeatedly by tree branches!

Bueno, I'm off! Bed early. I'm sure to wake up with the roosters tomorrow.

Salu, pues!

xoxo