Fun in the Sun

THE SUN IS OUT! Has been for two weeks now. It's super lovely; I think we might be finally easing into the dry season. :)

Geoff and I have spent two beautiful weekends in a row at the beach, in good company. Last night, there was a music festival in El Tunco, so we (and apparently everyone we knew) decided to stay at the beach for the night. :) One of the bands was a rock cover band, and played such amazing old hits as "You Gotta Fight for Your Right." It was a great night... I won't divulge many details, but there was some spontaneous Charleston going on, with cheering Salvadorans. I almost had an asthma attack when we got back to our hotel, from trying to keep up with the crazyfast latino drum beats. Good times!!

Next week, we head off to Austin for our friends' beautiful wedding, and after that we will be in Tikal over the first (long) weekend of November! I LOVE this pre-holiday time of the year!! :)

Affirmative.

Coming back to the States only once or twice a year is pretty funny, because it's like flying into the future. I am constantly amazed by how wired everyone is in the States. In El Salvador, I literally don't carry a phone with me half the time. I have only rough estimates of what time it is, at any given moment.

Here in the States, our friends are constantly checking their phones to look up videos or to check train schedules on the go. In Los Angeles (where I was recently), literally everyone owns a GPS; my high school friend can't even drive around in our home town anymore, without her GPS. Our friends from NYC were talking about how there are devices that upload your TiVo online, so that you can log in and watch your recorded shows while you are away from home. The Kindle is also huge now -- I was sitting next to two different people on the subway, each reading their own Kindle -- Amazon.com is even releasing a new version that's $50 cheaper (around $135?) that will run solely off of wireless connections, instead of the 3G network. My friend Tim was just saying that now, instead of Netflix sending you DVDs in the mail, they just send you one generic software CD that you can pop into your Wii, and you can stream movies off of the wireless connection that is built into the Wii. Geoff and I just got back about 30 minutes ago from the local grocery store, where they have vending machines for DVD rentals. All you need is a credit card, and they'll charge you $1 a day for the rental, absolutely no subscription or storefront needed. Not to mention the 3-D television sets that are popping up everywhere (you can sample them if you go to a Samsung store near you, but they give me a headache, for some reason); our friend Yomi said that his company is working on figuring out how many cameras they are going to need to broadcast the Olympics in Brazil with 3-D technology.

It's pretty ridiculous how technologically advanced everything is. It's pretty awesome, in a way, but in a way it also creeps me out a bit just how reliant we are on technology. Is it just me? Are we going to start saying "affirmative" instead of "yes"? ZerozerozerozerozerozeroOne.

My Second-Favorite Decade

This one is a special shoutout to my awesome friend Amy, who is incredibly busy finishing up her electrical engineering doctorate from the prestigious CMU, :) but who enjoys some silly dance moves now and then:



--Do I hear a 90s dance break? :) :)

By the way, here is a neat list of all the math-related strips from xkcd. Regrettably, most of the others don't make you want to dance like you've got no shame.

...Sometimes I think we miss our childhoods because things back then actually were better. Lady Gaga's got nothing on these guys!

Good People

We had a really fun and relaxing weekend. On Friday, two other teachers Dave and Beth hosted a rockin' house party, and somehow at 1am, I found myself surrounded by musicians after everyone else had left the party. Geoff, Beth, and Eric took turns jamming on the two guitars they had and harmonizing softly, and Dave played percussion along to their melodic voices. I was given a set of bells -- very appropriate, considering that I can barely hold a beat on the drums -- but after a while, worked my way to "playing" a less obnoxious small drum. They played all kinds of classic rock songs, and time literally flew by until everyone looked bleary-eyed and we had to call it a night. By the time Geoff and I finally got home, it was already 3:30am! (On a Friday, for teachers, that's really late.) It really was a beautiful time. :)

Geoff and I had planned on visiting El Tunco over the weekend. Ali has been somewhat overwhelmed by work, so we figured it'd be good to go down and party with her and Bamba at least one night this week. And, as it turned out, the other teachers were already planning on a trip down there as well! We ended up spending Saturday night hanging out with a group of really good people from school. Geoff and I stayed out for a while down at the beach, checking out a local dance spot. (It had mostly reggaeton music -- not our favorite. But, the company was good, and I knew Geoff had been yearning for a late night out on the town, so I did my best to hang...) By the time we finally got back to the beach hostel, we were soaked with rain but satisfied from all the fun. --In the end, the only shame from this weekend was that the waves were huge down there this weekend, so we couldn't take any surf lessons! Maybe next time.

Life couldn't be more perfect right now. I'm loving the teaching gig, and thus far, I've been reaping a lot of rewards from the lessons I have planned. It being my fourth year of teaching, everything feels different. The kids are nice; I'm feeling completely in control; and that leaves me with so much energy to make the lessons the most fun that they could be. Having great textbooks to use as a guide is also no small advantage. I am still tired from school each day just from the sheer enery it takes to teach 100 kids, but I love it.

Zones, Roads, and Mail

The country of El Salvador is divided into 14 departamentos, or states. Within each state are many cities, or ciudads. Geoff and I reside in the city of San Salvador, which is also located in the state of San Salvador. This city is the capital city of the country, but even within it there appears to be a vast disparity in wealth. The city further subdivides into zonas, or zones. Our apartment is in Colonia de San Benito, which -- depending on whom you ask -- is either itself a tiny zone spanning a few blocks in diameter, or is embedded in a bigger zone (Zona Rosa). In any case, we finally got some sort of address for the apartment when we signed the lease, but even without it, our mattress delivery guys had figured out where to find us based only on the zone information and the building name. Because the city is so small and compact, things are easy to find here and addresses are not too specific.

That said, we still need to test out our address before we set up permanent mail-forwarding from the States. Geoff has been doing a good amount of research, and it looks like we can either get a service that scans in our mail, or one that forwards them periodically without examining the mail. I think we are going with the latter. For now, all of our mail is sent to and held by Geoff's parents in New Jersey.

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Speaking of geography, trying to find a good city map here has been nearly impossible, and I have just about given up on the notion altogether. A free map that we got from a local restaurateur has turned out to be the best thus far. It highlights the roundabouts and major streets, even though it does unfortunately omit certain smaller streets. The roundabouts are important, because here you are very restricted in where you can make left turns. I would say maybe one out of every 6 or 7 streets allows left turns, and -- because the streets themselves curve -- before you know it, you are already going in the wrong direction altogether. The roundabouts are useful in allowing you to make all kinds of turns. Another traffic peculiarity here is that when you come to an intersection of two major streets, where there is no roundabout there is often a road bridge that raises the traffic from one road to be above the other. This avoids unnecessary waiting at the intersection, and is actually very useful, if you're familiar enough with the roads to anticipate the intersection. Their labeling of the roads is different from that of the States. When I get a chance, I'll take a picture. Geoff and I had a wild ride on the first day, trying to figure out what those signs mean and where we were on the map...

But, all is well. :) Still missing internet and phone services, but for now Geoff and I are stealing wireless bandwidth from our neighbor, so things are OK. I also miss dancing, but until we buy a car and are able to get out more regularly, my assignment for myself is to expand my jazz collection and jazz knowledge. It's something I had always wanted to do, but hadn't had time for. If you have killer jazz playlists, please do send them my way. :) Adios!

New Beginnings

Before I moved to New York City, I had (what I considered) a pretty awesome life back in Seattle. I worked at a fairly established tech company and had excellent rapport with my coworkers. My best friend shared the same office space as me, and in between meetings and intense coding sessions, we would tell each other off-color jokes and disparage the new college hires via email lists. (We would always look up people's photos in the directory when they made stupid comments / posed stupid questions to an email group, and I would usually make fun of that person's picture. Paul usually tried unsuccessfully to soften my "hate", even though my teammates all agreed that my sarcasm was usually pretty entertaining.) Sometimes, we would practice handstands out in the hallway. One Christmas, we stole the life-sized Elvis displays from the company party while drunk, and brought one of them into work the next week as our third officemate. I'm not sure, but that could also have been the same Christmas when we got our boss to sing bad Christmas carols every time he stepped foot in our office during Christmas season. :) I had made a group of amazing friends in the area, and was starting to build a regular schedule of mentoring, hanging out, and dancing... Most of all, I loved living next to a farmer's market and the water, among people who biked everywhere and who adored books and coffee.

When I decided to move to New York to teach, I actually felt more anxiety than excitement. New York was going to be a big city, and I was going to come here alone. I did not know if I had made the right decision. My boss and his boss tried to keep me. I wasn't swayed, only because I had already made a commitment to the NYC Teaching Fellows. Somewhere out there, I had believed, was another life for me to live -- an experience that would help shape me.

--And, it most definitely has. It is now three years later; I feel the same way about New York now, as I had once felt about Seattle. I can't say that I am the same person I was back then. New York -- or age -- has calmed me down much. My students certainly have changed me, for better or worse. I find these days that I have less to say in casual conversations, but I am also less self-conscious and more direct. I am more appreciative of people and situations, because I know that things could always get worse. (Kids could be throwing carrots inside your classroom daily and requesting a class bunny.) Now, as my next big move approaches, I feel anxious as I once did -- but mostly because I know that I will miss swing-dancing when I am abroad. It has become such a huge part of my life; I have met some wonderful people in New York because of it, that I can't fathom how I am going to transition out of this life.

But, I know that another life awaits me. :) Things I probably can't appreciate now, I will learn to, in time. For me, that is why I keep moving around, even though loss is inevitable in that process. It helps me appreciate new things, and new people. Brilliant engineers, bikers, marathon-runners, inner-city teachers who work tirelessly, dancers who will do anything to stay in New York, entrepreneurs who couch-surf until their next paycheck... I look back often on the places and people I remember, and it fills my heart with joy to know that I am still blessed with those friendships, near and far, and that those memories will always remain in my heart.

There are places I remember
All my life
Though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone, and some remain...

What brought me here

I began my first blog in 2001. I blogged when I didn't yet know that there was a coined term for it, before I knew that there were websites devoted to blogging. Over the years, I have tried blogging in various forms, via various sites, and have generally written prolifically. I have shared, from time to time, excruciating details about my personal life, and -- like all bloggers -- have reaped both tremendous rewards and some consequences from it. Recently, it has dwindled into writing only for my good friends (ie. not open to public), and then almost not writing at all. Life has caught up with me, and I am no longer diligent in the same way I had been for years.

...The truth is, I miss it. I miss distilling my feelings into a few lines, or a few words. I miss having a good story and being able to write it down for myself to come back to, in the future. I miss being able to tell my story, without imposing it on someone else. True, I could keep a private journal, but I am a mess when it comes to backing up my own files, or keeping track of my personal physical belongings. (As Geoff could attest to.) So, keeping it on a website somewhere is my lazy way of keeping a dumping ground. Not to mention that it is always nice for me to read about and catch up on other people's lives, so it seems only fair that I do so in return. :)

Soon, I will be moving to El Salvador, for two years! Now seems as good a time as any to start writing again. The other blogs that I semi-regularly update will still serve their purposes, but this one will be public and focus on Geoff's and my adventure in Central America. So, stay tuned!

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The name of the blog comes from a Jack Johnson song, called "Breakdown." It sounds cheesy, but I think that in a few years, I will still love this song for the beautiful sentiment that it embodies. Most of us run the courses of our lives, and never discover what lies outside of the train tracks until that train breaks down. May my life always be a broken old train, so that I can meet the people I was never meant to meet, and experience the life that was never meant to be mine.