so we had a free weekend and a few of my friends and i decided to go to a little town called Juayua (pronounced why-u-a) and here are some of the adventures we had:
- its like a 2 or 3 hour trip (on 2 buses) and we got there at about 10:30am so when we got off the bus we started to look for a place to stay. we found this cute place called the Mirador thats right on one of the main streets where the market is. we went to our dorm style room to put our stuff down and 2 of my friends went downstairs to try and call a guide for these trails/waterfalls that we heard about. then this boy came up to them and said he could be our guide for the afternoon (we think the staff heard us talking about a guide and called him for us) but it was super random. he said we were leaving in 3 minutes so they came back upstairs and told us to get ready quick and we were off.
- our guide was 13 year old Omar who works as a guide on the weekends. he was awesome and wore sweet shoes so we liked him right away. we followed him on like a 45minute hike through the forest to get to the waterfalls. the first one was gigantic, Omar told us that sometimes people rapel(sp?) down the waterfall which sounded awesome but no one was doing it then. the second one we came to we could swim in. its really hard to describe but the waterfall had like Mayan-looking rock structures that had created like a pool area at the bottom of it so it was a sweet place to swim. we jumped into the pool of crystal blue water and then Omar said that we could jump off the rocks into the water. he went first to show us but he basically scaled the side of the waterfall like 30ft up and then jumped off of this rock that was poking out of the waterfall. of course i was all about that, so i was the first of our group to scale the side and jump in. it was incredible and we got some great pictures from it. the third one we went to was similar to the one before it but to get to the pool of water you could go through this underground tunnel. we followed Omar in this practically pitch black tunnel we could walk through but there was water in it also, at some points up to my chin. the end of the tunnel came out behind the waterfall so we swam through/under it. words cant do the experience justice but it was really sweet.
- we were super tired from the excursion so when we got back to the hotel we ended up taking like a 3 hour nap. we pretty much passed out, ha. then we got up and decided to walk around a bit and find a place to eat dinner. we came across this cute Mexican restaurant that had delicious food, our waitress was adorable, and they were playing Selena...basically an excellent place. then we all wanted to find a bar to chill at or somewhere with music and we heard some playing in the distance to we started to walk toward it. as we got closer we could tell that it was live music so my friend MaryBeth and i started like jumping and dancing in the street until Alexis told us to "be cool. be nonchalant." haha. when we got there we saw a big stage and were so excited for what looked like a live concert. we walked to the back and looked at the stage only to find out that we were standing in the middle of an outdoor Evangelical mass...wah wah. the "concert music" that we were hearing was the christian rock songs being played before the mass started. we were laughing so hard that we almost peed our pants.
- after the slight let down of the fake concert we decided to go to this ice cream place that we spotted earlier in the day that was playing music. we got ice cream but there was no music playing but they did have a jukebox. we picked a couple songs (michael jackson, 50 cent...the usual, haha) and had our own dance party on the porch of the ice cream place with just the 5 of us. then some salvadorans that were looking on put in some money for a couple extra songs too. it was pretty funny.
- sunday morning we woke up early and had breakfast at the rooftop restaurant that was in our hotel. the view was beautiful and the pancakes were delicious. then we packed our stuff up and went to the huge artisan market and food fesival that is held every weekend. so many beautiful things, i bought some sweet sandals and a painted yoyo. then from the food festival i found this incredible veggie sandwich that was muyyyy ricoooo. then we ran into Luiz (the guy who gave me the ring on valentines day that makes jewelry outside the UCA) in the artisan market. we were hanging out with a bunch of rastafarian guys who were making jewelry and i looked to my left and there he was. we both got really excited and hugged and then i was really confused as to why he was there. he apparently goes there a lot because they have a really good market on the weekends. he came up with his brother who is also a artist. he told me where his brother was painting so i went over to say hello but i found that his brother looks nothing like him. Luiz is really skinny with dreads but his brother was like clean shaven, wearing a button up shirt making these beautiful paintings with spray paint. i introduced myself and said that i knew his brother and he said that his name is Hector. his painting are beautiful so i said i loved them but i didnt have any more money with me. he told me to pick one that i liked and i could take it with me right then and give the money to Luiz next time i saw him. I picked a beautiful one of a waterfall with a vibrant red bird in one corner, its hanging in my room right now. He even signed it "para Andrea." we basically hung out with Luiz and the other rastafarians until we left in the afternoon, and he taught us how to make some jewelry. super random to see him there but it was so fun hanging out.
**sidenote: we´re going on a silent retreat this weekend in Guatemala which i´m super excited about. 1)because i´ve never been to Guatemala and i hear the place we´re going is incredible and 2)because im super excited for the challenge of being silent for 2 days. never done it before but im definitely up for the adventure. **
Friday, February 22, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
praxis weekend
so we spent this weekend at our praxis sites and this is a lil summary of what i did:
- got there friday and met up with a woman from the community named Nancy and her 6 year old daughter Luciana who i stayed with. right away i could see that they both had very big personalities so i figured it was going to be an interesting weekend. They were great! we went to their house and ate dinner (ps i was not a vegetarian this weekend...but it was hard to be because they always made my plate for me and then gave it to me..wah wah). we prepared that night for a grande fiesta the following day for Nancy´s nephew, Diego, who was turning 1. i helped cook a bit and talked a little. there was tons of family around the whole time so it was hard to figure out who actually lives there on a regular basis. Nancy´s sister and brother-in-law were visiting from the states, they´ve lived there for about 30 years. first in cali, then washington, now arkansas (about 20 minutes from the boarder of Missouri...so weird) i was talking to them for a while in sort of spanglish. they kept switching from spanish to english but i responded in spanish. after preparing for the next day we went to bed and i shared 2 beds pushed together with Nancy and Luciana. it was weird because it wasnt weird.
- saturday morning we woke up pretty early (6:30am) and were on our way to Nancy´s work to do a few things. he dad owns a jewelry store that most of the kids work at including Nancy. we got there and she showed me how to make a few things and then i actually made like 5 necklaces for their shop. then i was playing with Luciana and i braided her hair, which she absolutely loved. then about 11:30am we headed back to their house to finish getting ready for the party. the night before we went to Centro Hogar to borrow like 50 or 60 chairs because she expected at least that many people to come. she has a huge family and whoever was in country was going to be there. i had to finish preparing for my english class that i had at 2pm (sidenote: we´ve started teaching english every monday at Anita´s house to people in the community. my praxis partner, Katy, has some experience teaching ESL so she is doing the older students (there are about 6 or 7) and i`m teaching the younger ones. i have 5 students between the ages of 5 and 9, theyre so cute) normally we have class on mondays but because we were at praxis over the weekend, we got to take monday as a free day to relax so we had class on saturday instead. i went to teach at Anita´s which went well and by the time class was over and i was back at Nancy´s the party was well underway. it was huge, 2 pinatas, 2 cakes, about 60 or so people. craziness, but it was so fun. then when the party was winding down we went on a house visit to spend time with and give some of the leftovers to a woman from their church community who just had surgery. its incredible to see the extent that the people here enjoy life but then reach out to others over and over again; its really beautiful. then after the party was over we took the chairs back to Centro Hogar in the back of a pickup truck. we stood up in the back, hanging onto the bar connected to the roof. i felt like i was back in grade school peaking my head out of the sunroof of "the spaceship" (aka my parents minivan) riding around the suburbs of New Berlin.
- sunday we woke up early again and Nancy had to go to the market for a few things so i helped Luciana get ready for the beach because she was going with some of her other family members. then her aunt picked her up and Nancy and i went to the celebration of the word at Anita´s house. It was similar to a catholic mass except there was no priest and they said different creeds and such. every week the celebration is lead by different people in the community and this week was lead by two 14 yr old boys. the homily was left open for anyone that wanted to comment on the readings, communion was pan dulce (sweet bread), and the sign of peace was very long because we practically said peace to everyone. it was really interesting but i have to say that i was mildly disappointed. im not quite sure what i was expecting but i guess i imagined something a bit more radical, it was still pretty similar to a catholic mass, which was not what i wanted. im not judging it yet though, i plan on going back a couple more times to try it out. i just dont find inspiration within the context of a catholic mass (or something similar to one) right now in my life. after mass, pretty much the whole community walked about an hour mostly uphill to another community called Las Nubes that is even poorer than them to have sort of a church community picnic. it was on a hillside with an incredible view of the whole city (dont worry i took pictures). we were waiting for lunch to be ready and i started talking to a man from the community named Gustavo who i felt drawn to from the first time i met him. he teaches guitar lessons to youth in the community (aka im also hoping that he might teach me too...) he was saying that Las Nubes is mostly evangelical but that it really didnt matter that they are a different religion. it doesnt matter what religion anyone is, if there is a need, as people of faith, whatever one that may be, they need to reach out. then i was telling him that one of the reasons i study theology is not just to learn more about my own, but to gain a better understanding of all faiths. religion, spirituality, and faith are so important to so many people in the world that to have a little better understanding of those is to have a little better understanding of people, of culture, of the world. so many things can stem from theology. its incredible what you can learn about a person by learning what things they have faith in, what are the things that make their heart beat faster.
- got there friday and met up with a woman from the community named Nancy and her 6 year old daughter Luciana who i stayed with. right away i could see that they both had very big personalities so i figured it was going to be an interesting weekend. They were great! we went to their house and ate dinner (ps i was not a vegetarian this weekend...but it was hard to be because they always made my plate for me and then gave it to me..wah wah). we prepared that night for a grande fiesta the following day for Nancy´s nephew, Diego, who was turning 1. i helped cook a bit and talked a little. there was tons of family around the whole time so it was hard to figure out who actually lives there on a regular basis. Nancy´s sister and brother-in-law were visiting from the states, they´ve lived there for about 30 years. first in cali, then washington, now arkansas (about 20 minutes from the boarder of Missouri...so weird) i was talking to them for a while in sort of spanglish. they kept switching from spanish to english but i responded in spanish. after preparing for the next day we went to bed and i shared 2 beds pushed together with Nancy and Luciana. it was weird because it wasnt weird.
- saturday morning we woke up pretty early (6:30am) and were on our way to Nancy´s work to do a few things. he dad owns a jewelry store that most of the kids work at including Nancy. we got there and she showed me how to make a few things and then i actually made like 5 necklaces for their shop. then i was playing with Luciana and i braided her hair, which she absolutely loved. then about 11:30am we headed back to their house to finish getting ready for the party. the night before we went to Centro Hogar to borrow like 50 or 60 chairs because she expected at least that many people to come. she has a huge family and whoever was in country was going to be there. i had to finish preparing for my english class that i had at 2pm (sidenote: we´ve started teaching english every monday at Anita´s house to people in the community. my praxis partner, Katy, has some experience teaching ESL so she is doing the older students (there are about 6 or 7) and i`m teaching the younger ones. i have 5 students between the ages of 5 and 9, theyre so cute) normally we have class on mondays but because we were at praxis over the weekend, we got to take monday as a free day to relax so we had class on saturday instead. i went to teach at Anita´s which went well and by the time class was over and i was back at Nancy´s the party was well underway. it was huge, 2 pinatas, 2 cakes, about 60 or so people. craziness, but it was so fun. then when the party was winding down we went on a house visit to spend time with and give some of the leftovers to a woman from their church community who just had surgery. its incredible to see the extent that the people here enjoy life but then reach out to others over and over again; its really beautiful. then after the party was over we took the chairs back to Centro Hogar in the back of a pickup truck. we stood up in the back, hanging onto the bar connected to the roof. i felt like i was back in grade school peaking my head out of the sunroof of "the spaceship" (aka my parents minivan) riding around the suburbs of New Berlin.
- sunday we woke up early again and Nancy had to go to the market for a few things so i helped Luciana get ready for the beach because she was going with some of her other family members. then her aunt picked her up and Nancy and i went to the celebration of the word at Anita´s house. It was similar to a catholic mass except there was no priest and they said different creeds and such. every week the celebration is lead by different people in the community and this week was lead by two 14 yr old boys. the homily was left open for anyone that wanted to comment on the readings, communion was pan dulce (sweet bread), and the sign of peace was very long because we practically said peace to everyone. it was really interesting but i have to say that i was mildly disappointed. im not quite sure what i was expecting but i guess i imagined something a bit more radical, it was still pretty similar to a catholic mass, which was not what i wanted. im not judging it yet though, i plan on going back a couple more times to try it out. i just dont find inspiration within the context of a catholic mass (or something similar to one) right now in my life. after mass, pretty much the whole community walked about an hour mostly uphill to another community called Las Nubes that is even poorer than them to have sort of a church community picnic. it was on a hillside with an incredible view of the whole city (dont worry i took pictures). we were waiting for lunch to be ready and i started talking to a man from the community named Gustavo who i felt drawn to from the first time i met him. he teaches guitar lessons to youth in the community (aka im also hoping that he might teach me too...) he was saying that Las Nubes is mostly evangelical but that it really didnt matter that they are a different religion. it doesnt matter what religion anyone is, if there is a need, as people of faith, whatever one that may be, they need to reach out. then i was telling him that one of the reasons i study theology is not just to learn more about my own, but to gain a better understanding of all faiths. religion, spirituality, and faith are so important to so many people in the world that to have a little better understanding of those is to have a little better understanding of people, of culture, of the world. so many things can stem from theology. its incredible what you can learn about a person by learning what things they have faith in, what are the things that make their heart beat faster.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
don´t tell me its just one of those things.
so in our philosophy class we recently read a book called ´the Unbearable Lightness of Being´(which i would recommend) and we´ve been talking about whether life is heavy (in the sense that everything matters, every move you make, every decision you make has an affect on your life...essentially the weight of everything happens for a reason and is connected) or if life is light (in the sense that nothing is connected, chance events happen all the time). well after class yesterday my friend Karina and i were walking back home from the UCA and then we decided to look at some jewelry of some street vendors. there was this rastafarian bob marley lookin guy who sits on the sidewalk everyday and makes jewelry and we both crouched down to look at his pieces and he said hello to us. the first thing that caught me off guard was that he was speaking english to us. we talked for a bit and found out his name is Luiz and he learned english when he lived in california and hawaii for a bit. he said he liked to practice with gringos because he didnt want to loose the skill. i dont remember exactly what he was saying after that, i think something about these aluminum rings he was showing us. he said something about the differences in jewelry , how some can be heavy and how some can be "not heavy" he was trying to find the right word and then i said "you mean light" and he said, "yes, exactly." Karina and i looked at each other and almost fell to the floor. how "random" (or maybe not random at all...) was it that this guy we just met was talking about lightness and weight. then he gave both of us one of the rings as a valentine´s day gift and we were on our way.
strange strange strange how the world works. but dont tell me its just one of those things. these things happen all the time...
strange strange strange how the world works. but dont tell me its just one of those things. these things happen all the time...
Thursday, February 7, 2008
little of this, little of that.
a few things:
-so one of my goals since i got here was to force the creation of a new rule for the orientation packet and i´ve successfully done so already...let me explain. in the orientation packet there are a bunch of rules/guidelines to remember while we´re here. some of them make complete sense but some you can tell were added later because of certain things that happened. for example, one states that we are to refrain from putting furniture on the roof and living up there...cuz that apparently happened one semester. so my rule says that we are to refrain from harming (or attempting to kill) our CC (community coordinator) with the oven (basically to use caution when using the gas ovens). so last tuesday my friend Andy and I were on dinner duty which means that we have to set the table and warm up the food. easy enough right...think again. its a gas oven and since we had gotten in salv ive used the stove top countless times to heat up water for my tea. well i guess i forgot the oven was also gas (i know i know, im an idiot...throw me a bone) so i put the pans in the oven and "turned it on" aka turned the gas on but didnt light it. (you can see where this is going...) so it had been on for i would say 3 minutes and i opened the oven to see how things were going but i was confused because nothing was even a little warm. so i got nervous and turned it off just then remembering that it was a gas oven...oops. so i told Megan, our CC to ask for some help lighting it, and yes i mentioned that i had turned the gas on for a bit. we apparently had not waited long enough because Megan lit a match with her arm extended as far as possible to be careful but when she moved it towards the oven a big whoosh of flames spit out and me andy and megan all screamed. have no fear though, no one was actually hurt (not even the food). the only damage was to Megans leg hair, which was singed off from the heat. my bad.
-milk is really expensive here so instead of buying the regular stuff, we have powdered milk (basically add water and poof...instant "milk"). Jim, one of my fellow Billikens, who lives in the same house as me decided one morning last week to make some more milk since the pitcher was low and grabbed what he thought was the powder for the milk. he stirred it up and and everything seemed to be fine. megan even poured some in her cereal and thought that it tasted a bit funny but then thought it was just her being crazy and forgot about it. then at dinner we were getting everything out, including the milk and we noticed that it was pretty much completely separated, clear on the top, white on the bottom. we opened the top and tried to stir it but found that it was basically paste...he had used flour instead of the powder...haha. we all laughed pretty hard about that one.
-ive decided to try being a vegetarian while im here. i dont really have any hard core reasons...im kind of just curious. not only that but i think if i could do it anywhere, it would be in salvador. here's why: although i truly do love meat #1.) i have pretty strong willpower (aka...I'm a stubborn German) and #2.) the cooks in our houses make so many delicious vegetarian options because there are a hand full of other vegetarians. I've found myself picking them anyway. I have confidence that I'll at least be fine while I'm here...but no promises for when i get back to the states since there are so many tasty chicken/beef/pork/ham/etc temptations.
-safety is always something we talk/think about here. its strange because i have a really hard time not comparing salvador with nicaragua but i do that with safety too. i feel safer here then i did while i was in nicaragua. maybe its the part of town were in, or the fact that we have Saul/William guarding the houses every night. on wednesday when i was at praxis, we were talking with the women at the soy project and they told us that the morning before, a 17 year old young man was killed on the same street we were on. they said that the police didnt say how he was killed but my guess is that it was maybe gang activity since thats such a huge problem in the country. its just things like that that make me remember where i am. i think i still have a romanticized version of salvador in my head, which is good cuz no one wants to live in fear, at least i dont, but its important to remember the reality of the situation too. salvador is a beautiful country with so many things to offer, but there are still some very ugly things that happen here and its important to recognize it for both.
-so one of my goals since i got here was to force the creation of a new rule for the orientation packet and i´ve successfully done so already...let me explain. in the orientation packet there are a bunch of rules/guidelines to remember while we´re here. some of them make complete sense but some you can tell were added later because of certain things that happened. for example, one states that we are to refrain from putting furniture on the roof and living up there...cuz that apparently happened one semester. so my rule says that we are to refrain from harming (or attempting to kill) our CC (community coordinator) with the oven (basically to use caution when using the gas ovens). so last tuesday my friend Andy and I were on dinner duty which means that we have to set the table and warm up the food. easy enough right...think again. its a gas oven and since we had gotten in salv ive used the stove top countless times to heat up water for my tea. well i guess i forgot the oven was also gas (i know i know, im an idiot...throw me a bone) so i put the pans in the oven and "turned it on" aka turned the gas on but didnt light it. (you can see where this is going...) so it had been on for i would say 3 minutes and i opened the oven to see how things were going but i was confused because nothing was even a little warm. so i got nervous and turned it off just then remembering that it was a gas oven...oops. so i told Megan, our CC to ask for some help lighting it, and yes i mentioned that i had turned the gas on for a bit. we apparently had not waited long enough because Megan lit a match with her arm extended as far as possible to be careful but when she moved it towards the oven a big whoosh of flames spit out and me andy and megan all screamed. have no fear though, no one was actually hurt (not even the food). the only damage was to Megans leg hair, which was singed off from the heat. my bad.
-milk is really expensive here so instead of buying the regular stuff, we have powdered milk (basically add water and poof...instant "milk"). Jim, one of my fellow Billikens, who lives in the same house as me decided one morning last week to make some more milk since the pitcher was low and grabbed what he thought was the powder for the milk. he stirred it up and and everything seemed to be fine. megan even poured some in her cereal and thought that it tasted a bit funny but then thought it was just her being crazy and forgot about it. then at dinner we were getting everything out, including the milk and we noticed that it was pretty much completely separated, clear on the top, white on the bottom. we opened the top and tried to stir it but found that it was basically paste...he had used flour instead of the powder...haha. we all laughed pretty hard about that one.
-ive decided to try being a vegetarian while im here. i dont really have any hard core reasons...im kind of just curious. not only that but i think if i could do it anywhere, it would be in salvador. here's why: although i truly do love meat #1.) i have pretty strong willpower (aka...I'm a stubborn German) and #2.) the cooks in our houses make so many delicious vegetarian options because there are a hand full of other vegetarians. I've found myself picking them anyway. I have confidence that I'll at least be fine while I'm here...but no promises for when i get back to the states since there are so many tasty chicken/beef/pork/ham/etc temptations.
-safety is always something we talk/think about here. its strange because i have a really hard time not comparing salvador with nicaragua but i do that with safety too. i feel safer here then i did while i was in nicaragua. maybe its the part of town were in, or the fact that we have Saul/William guarding the houses every night. on wednesday when i was at praxis, we were talking with the women at the soy project and they told us that the morning before, a 17 year old young man was killed on the same street we were on. they said that the police didnt say how he was killed but my guess is that it was maybe gang activity since thats such a huge problem in the country. its just things like that that make me remember where i am. i think i still have a romanticized version of salvador in my head, which is good cuz no one wants to live in fear, at least i dont, but its important to remember the reality of the situation too. salvador is a beautiful country with so many things to offer, but there are still some very ugly things that happen here and its important to recognize it for both.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
la playa!
this past friday we had history with a speaker named Luiz Cardenal who was super interesting. his family was from nicaragua, but then they moved to salvador during the war...only to enter another war. there`s a ton more to the story but i`m just giving you a little bit...he ended up getting into politics and actually ran for the mayor of San Salvador a couple years ago under the ARENA party(which is known to be the economically conservative party) but he lost. it was so interesting to hear his story because he went to college at the UCA and the 6 Jesuits who were killed in `89 were some of his teachers. he was telling us some personal stories about them giving homework and their personalities...stories you cant really get from the history books, it was really great to listen to him. then our history teacher Gene came over to my house (casa silvia) for dinner because we were having pizza (delicious homemade pizza might i add) and ended up talking to us at the table until like 9 or 930. he`s really great, so many stories, so much knowledge and life experience (during the war in the 80s he was the full time correspontant for the NY Times in salv).
on saturday we went to la playa (the beach!) with the bacarios/as (the salvadoran students) which was AMAZING! although im not a huge fan of the salt water...actually im just not used to it at all...it was a blast. and i didnt get burnt which was a definite plus. i basically layed out in the sun all day reading my book for philosophy, wind blowing to keep us cool, accompanied by dips in the Pacific to jump the massive waves every time it got to hot...muy riccccoooooo
then sunday we went to Kevin and Trena`s house for a mass for Trena`s dad (about 2 weeks ago he died so Kevin, Trena and their 3 girls were back in the states for the last part of orientation for the funeral) the mass was beautiful, filled with so much love and community. the backyard was full of people who came to support Trena. how wonderful to have two incredible communities in 2 different countries willing to support you like that.
................
as some of you may or maynot know....i am a runner. i have been since i was very young...i even have wings tattooed on my left ankle (an addition that was made this past august) i ran in college for a year or so at SLU but stopped because it was taking up more time than i was willing to give to that one thing. i guess you could say, my heart was in other places. well consequentely when i quit the team, i also basically stopped running. i think at the time i was a bit burnt out...i had fallen out of love with running. since then ive wanted to get back into it but every time ive tried, it just doesnt feel right. i want to WANT to run...i dont want to run because i think i have to. well since ive been in salvador i`ve started running a bit with a couple of my friends here. the first one felt good, the second one didnt. the third felt better but still not right. alas i didnt give up. then yesterday i went on a run, sorta by myself...but actually i just left like 3 minutes before the rest of the group...and it felt incredible. one of those runs you finish and cant help but smile from ear to ear. i havent felt like that in months...maybe years. with sweat dripping off of me right after i finished stretching i grabbed my journal and wrote "running is like meditation for me and I´m finially starting to remember why." i´m not sure if its the place or the timing but i think im starting to fall back in love with running. finally.
on saturday we went to la playa (the beach!) with the bacarios/as (the salvadoran students) which was AMAZING! although im not a huge fan of the salt water...actually im just not used to it at all...it was a blast. and i didnt get burnt which was a definite plus. i basically layed out in the sun all day reading my book for philosophy, wind blowing to keep us cool, accompanied by dips in the Pacific to jump the massive waves every time it got to hot...muy riccccoooooo
then sunday we went to Kevin and Trena`s house for a mass for Trena`s dad (about 2 weeks ago he died so Kevin, Trena and their 3 girls were back in the states for the last part of orientation for the funeral) the mass was beautiful, filled with so much love and community. the backyard was full of people who came to support Trena. how wonderful to have two incredible communities in 2 different countries willing to support you like that.
................
as some of you may or maynot know....i am a runner. i have been since i was very young...i even have wings tattooed on my left ankle (an addition that was made this past august) i ran in college for a year or so at SLU but stopped because it was taking up more time than i was willing to give to that one thing. i guess you could say, my heart was in other places. well consequentely when i quit the team, i also basically stopped running. i think at the time i was a bit burnt out...i had fallen out of love with running. since then ive wanted to get back into it but every time ive tried, it just doesnt feel right. i want to WANT to run...i dont want to run because i think i have to. well since ive been in salvador i`ve started running a bit with a couple of my friends here. the first one felt good, the second one didnt. the third felt better but still not right. alas i didnt give up. then yesterday i went on a run, sorta by myself...but actually i just left like 3 minutes before the rest of the group...and it felt incredible. one of those runs you finish and cant help but smile from ear to ear. i havent felt like that in months...maybe years. with sweat dripping off of me right after i finished stretching i grabbed my journal and wrote "running is like meditation for me and I´m finially starting to remember why." i´m not sure if its the place or the timing but i think im starting to fall back in love with running. finally.
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