no fly zone

so i went home for thanksgiving. i flew out of guatemala, not el salvador, because the airfare is roughly twice as expensive from el salvador. on my way back to the states, the bus stopped at the border in el salvador and an immigration official came aboard and looked at passports. it seemed he didn't like mine when he looked at it. then he took it and reassured me "i'll be right back." yeah take your time WHAT ARE YOU DOING OH NO AHHH. then he came back and said "can you please get off the bus." no i won't get off FLOOR IT AHH. as it turns out, my completely faulty assumption that aug 20 - nov 19 was fewer than 90 days slapped me real hard. $114.85. why the 85 cents? really? i was two days over my tourist visa. i was very angry but i really could only be angry at me, and that made it worse. plus, the whole bus had to wait for me. it took a shockingly long amount of time. they stamped my passport with a very unfriendly stamp that said "you have 5 days to get out of the 4-country zone." then they released me and we drove across the bridge into guatemala and they stamped my passport "you have 4 days to get out" and the official asked "when are you leaving the country" and i said "today" and she said "good." thank you for your hospitality, central america.

it was chilly in america, and sometimes even cold. i did not appreciate that. i did, however, enjoy casually tossing toilet paper into the toilet, slurping greedily at public water fountains, ordering tap water at eating establishments, and pie for breakfast and lunch and later. i liked that there were no flies. i accomplished little and didn't see all of the people i meant to or do all of the tiny errands and collect all the small things i yearned for. i distributed the horchata i made with vilma, and people liked it or did not like it.

but most importantly, i learned how to change a tire. i heard a loud bang while driving in dc, the car got clunkety and made sounds of stress, and the tire deflated. i pulled over safely and all that and stared at it for a few minutes, seeing if perhaps it would transmogrify. nothing. i called roadside assistance and they estimated 50 minutes. while waiting, i decided to fiddle about with the tire, because i had that one experience where creepy whatshisface private investigator kinda taught me how to do it but wouldn't let me actually do it ("id hate to see a woman changing a tire by herself") yeah, well id hate to see a man get punched in the face. the tirechanging in dc went swimmingly. various dudes on bikes and in pickup trucks approached to rescue me but mumbled "oh you seem to have it under control" and shuffled off. when the geico dude got there, he said, i just want to shake your hand, you are the first woman i've ever seen take the initiative to change it yourself. well, i'm glad he'll never be able to say that to any women changing tires from now on. all he did was screw the lug nuts on tighter, probably because my fragile lady hands were too slippery what with all the scented lotions. i admit that he tightened them much more thoroughly, but he also used a drill, and that is cheating.

now i am back in el salvador. i am wearing a purple dress and flip flops and i sweated a little bit on my way back from getting groceries. the guardians on my street were extra enthusiastic today. however, i am probably moving soon. anyway, blogging hiatus is OVER. oh, an update in the spending money on good food campaign: today i spent $19 on groceries and $11 of that was a 2.5 pound bag of prunes. yayyy!! next time, almonds.

this is what i did at home!
i broke the cork and almost totally ruined this bottle of wine which had been brought from spain by my family's spanish exchange students
but it turned out fine

i wasn't even hungry in this picture