Alternate Vision

While passing through immigration earlier today, the lady officer at the desk couldn´t get over the fact that she was conversing with an Indian. She must have been in her early twenties, straight out of college. Every few seconds, whilst attending to my documentation, she would glance up at me and break into this radiant smile. Her English was impressive; I commended her on it. My Spanish speaking skills are limited to basic introductory verses. As much as I have barely a week here, I still insist on grasping as much of the lingo as I possibly can. I learned how to ask for silverware,napkins and introduce myself properly. Roy Kampos was at the airport to pick me up, with cigarrete in hand and dressed to kill. Tata was stuck in a meeting, so Roy volunteered to take the afternoon off work and come pick me up. Awfully generous of him. We headed straight for the popular Puppuseria district. Revueltas (pork,cheese and beans) are my favorite and sell for a mere 35cents. By default, I tend to break out into Portuguese each time I want to say something and then instantly switch over to Portugnol before slowing down to what is inevitably a sorry attempt to complete the sentence in Spanish. I love that people are receptive to the fact that I am learning and so willingly correct my mistakes. That and I am not afraid to make a fool of myself. The meagre 4 hours of sleep from last night caught up with me this afternoon. So I napped for 3 hours only to be woken up this disgruntled voice shouting "Puta, onde ta vc, vc e´viadao, mierda, filho da puta.¨ The plan for tomorrow has changed. Come early evening, we are to drive across to Guatemala city to attend a cocktail party and hopefully, assuming I don´t get arrested for crossing the border illegaly, return to San Salvador for the Batucada on the beach on Saturday night. Pilsener is the preferred choice of beer here. Brazilian Brahma has made its way into the beer market here, but they were forced to change their name to Brahva from Brahma. Apparently in Spanish Brahma has a completely different connotation: ¨dog in heat¨or something like that.
I have two TNs who are interested in matching with me for this summer. One is a marketing research/project management position in Adana, Turkey and the other involves teaching English to little kids in Bangkok. It remains to be seen what the outcome of this will be.