sunshine on my shoulders

this week i got pupusas with dary (from that epic thunderstorm) and his brother henry. dary is out of work, he said something vague about being dismissed from his job at the church. sketch. henry is 17 and in 9th grade. he was sounding out words while reading the sports page. that is sad. dary and henry did a lot of chatting with people we ran into or who came around the pupuseria. they also kept looking around nervously ("for the police, we ran away one time because henry lied about his age"). henry showed me his blackberry (!!!?) which he said is "borrowed," which is suspicious, but it is full of pictures of their family, so i guess that is good. we also played the fun english-spanish game i like to call "translate this song in real time." i used to do this at the gym i went to in madrid. the uruguayan step aerobic teacher LOVED house music. we stood in the middle (for stereo balance) of the giant aerobics room listening and he looked at me earnestly as the singer yelled "i want to dance dance dance" and i replied in monotone "quiero bailar bailar bailar." likewise, henry held his blackberry up to my ear and i translated such classic as "every breath you take" or whatever that song is actually called. conversation didn't flow particularly smoothly, but at least in el salvador silence isn't awkward. even when you don't have a lot in common as far as background, there is always music, sports, and the universal language of sass. thankfully i am conversant in sass, and people love it when you sass their brother.

yesterday i met up with a big ol group of people from couchsurfing, which is a fabulous organization. of course, we went bowling. possibly the only bowling alley in all of el salvador, but it was quite authentic. i started off with two strikes, talking big about my jersey heritage, but my game suffered after we ate some weird pizza. i felt like i was in any old bowling alley in new jersey, except the bathrooms were impeccably clean. it was a lovely group which included a french canadian guy traveling from mexico to argentina, and an english guy traveling from argentina to mexico. criss cross! somehow i did not pay for this excursion - there is a custom of men paying for women when going out, even between friends and apparently also people you just met. i do not like this custom. it makes me uncomfortable. but it is rampant among the upper class. a veritable EPIDEMIC. it's not really a showy thing - when it's happened to me, i go to pay and i just don't owe anything. i think it is seen as more of an obligation for the men to make sure the women are having a good time. i do not like it.

later we went to some new bar/club where a band was playing "hey jude." there was free champagne for women (wednesday is ladies night in many places). the place was swank because there were umbrellas on the ceiling - you know they are trying. one french canadian woman who has been here for a few years noted that in el salvador, the number of people who have money to go out, even $5, is so small that by now she pretty much knows everyone in that scene. interesting to think about the divide between people who have money to go out for fun and, well, the rest of the country.

i found a store tucked into the bottom level of a shopping mall called "delights from the middle east" and i ate a wonderfully buttery date-filled cookie there today. i also had breakfast at the market in santa tecla - two big fried plantains and cheese pupusas and hot chocolate. super rico!!