What's Up El Salvador

Someone jokingly advised me that “Central America loves diplomas”. I forget the context, and thought it was a strange statement altogether. Who doesn´t like diplomas? I like diplomas. This week I learned what he meant. I recently got a job here, as a part time English teacher. Pretty cool job I hope (I start next [...]

I can not stand the taste of Cilantro. Cilantro is nasty.  Basil however is awesome, tasty, aromatic in a good way and makes things taste good. It also makes awesome salsa. I made a really nice Basil Guava Salsa last night that is pretty darned awesome. Everything we bought from either Super Selectos in San [...]

You cannot make certain purchases while living in El Salvador without a NIT, (Salvadoran Tax ID Number). We were able to set up phone and internet service without one, though I had to go through extra steps, like staring blankly while holding a credit card for extended periods of time. Today my husband and I [...]

It’s been a more than a month out of school for this kindergartener, and some tremendous changes. After a couple weeks trying to get her into La Escuela Panamericana early (rather than waiting until August), we decided to check out some small schools nearby to where we are living in San Salvador, El Salvador. Several [...]

North Americans hear too much about driving in Central America. The roads are rough, the signs are not always well placed, and there is a general air of apparent lawlessness. But is it really all that bad? I don’t think so. I have been here a few weeks, and adapted to the new rules, and [...]

TweetThere are a few small differences in renting or living in a home here. Here are a few. Agents-unlike in America, you are very likely to rent the home via an agent. Most adds I called on were attached to agents, but I found this to be a good thing because they each have multiple [...]

Today was the first frightened and tearful night with my tiny expat. At five years old she has been here for longer trips with us before, but she knows this is different. Her first efforts to play with other kids were not perfect, but from the outside looked pretty good. One child spoke some English, [...]

We chose to drive to LAX from San Diego. Our past trips have involved layovers much longer than the three hour drive to LA, so we replaced one travel headache with another less stressful one (driving through LA on Friday night). Its seemed a good idea to gaze at the Southern California landscape and make [...]

One week ago we packed up. We left San Jose California with what seemed like very little. We gave our furniture and other useful items to our sons, Jacob and Aaron for their new apartment, gave a few things to friends, sold a few things on Craigslist and gave the rest to Salvation Army. What [...]