Ok. Here is the very first of my 52 New Restaurants in 2012.

I had lunch at Sakura with a group of coworkers to celebrate a birthday lunch. Sakura bills itself as a Steak and Seafood House & Sushi Bar. I'd recommend going with a group and sitting at a hibachi table do you can watch the chef create your meal!

As always, I'm a few weeks behind on writing, so my first few restaurant posts won't be the best. I really should take a picture inside and outside of each restaurant. I'll make that a goal for February.

Happy 2012. As you can see I took a two month hiatus from the blogging world. It wasn't because I wasn't on the go. I was! I think I was mostly just lazy. I'm hitting the road again tomorrow to go back to Boston for a few days. Hopefully I'll be doing some cool things to write about.

Some things to look forward to this year:

More Travel: Looking forward to another year of work sponsored travel to Boston and Chicago. Keeping those frequent flier and hotel loyalty programs active so that I can get some good vacation travel in there too.

Amanda's 30 by 30: My good friend Amanda is turning 30 this year, and has decided to do 30 new things before she turns 30. I've had the good fortune to be included in a few of the adventures, and have done some awesomely cool new things in the last few months. Check out her adventure here: Amanda's Blog.

A Challenge of My Own: In December I took a quick trip up to Minneapolis to visit my college friends. One of them, Sarah, gave me an amazing idea: eat at 52 new restaurants in 2012. That's an average of 1 a week. I've already got 5+ new places under my belt! I'm trying to remember to take pictures at each of the places so that I can write a quick post about each of them.

So, standby for what promises to be a great 2012.

I spent the entire first week of November in Chicago for work, and was thrilled to spend the last few days of my trip with my parents, aunt and uncle. I always enjoy combining work trips with tourist time, and this trip was no different.

I'll craft a post that details our adventures in a bit, but I wanted to share some pictures from the Smith Museum of Stained Glass, which is located, oddly enough, on Navy Pier. According to the Museum's website, it is the first museum in the US to be dedicated to Stained Glass Windows, and features 150 windows! Several of the windows are the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, and showcase master craftsmanship.

The Museum is a pretty cool gem, hidden in an otherwise over-hyped tourist attraction. Check out some pictures of the beautiful works of art.

In the neverending quest to do cool things with cool people, my friend Tyler and I stumbled upon an amazing event: Pyrates, Pigs and Pints. It is an annual event hosted by Heavy Seas Brewery in Baltimore, MD, makers of the most amazing beer in the world: Great'er Pumpkin Ale. The event is hosted inside the brewery, features bacon dishes made by around 15 different local restaurants and beers from the brewery. The $45 admission was a ticket for all you can eat and drink for four hours. Tyler and I tapped out, with full stomachs, at the 2.5 hour mark. It was an amazing concept, and a cool way to try new food and beers. We even sat down and had a great conversation with the owner of the brewery. Nice guy.

(Each restaurant had a table like this, where they were serving sample sized plates of their bacon dish. This restaurant had bacon lasagna, and bacon that was coated in chili and cocoa powder and then fried. Delicious.

(Bacon lasagna on the left, choco bacon on the right.)

(Heavy Seas beer with Bacon Wrapped Crab Dip. Yumm.)

(Several different bacon dishes, down the line. Do you see the sign for "food of the gods?")

(From L to R: Bacon and Beans, Bacon Wrapped Scallops and Bacon Chili.)

(Massive amounts of bacon on the grill.)

(Outside of the brewery. FULL.)

(Capital Beer and Bacon Bash: Our tickets have been purchased and we will do it again!)

My day in Connecticut included visits with UCONN School of Medicine and Hartford Hospital. I wrapped up with all my work things at about 2pm, and decided to swing by the state capitol building. I mentioned in a previous post my love of state capitol buildings, so I'll spare you the background story now.

Hartford is a pretty, small city. Based on the shops and restaurants, it is home to a very diverse population, including lots of latinos! I would go back again to hang out, and eat, if given more time.

The capitol building was open, so I went in and gave myself a self-guided tour. It was pretty quiet, which gave me lots of good reflective time and picture taking opportunities. Constriction on the building began in 1871, and was completed in 1879, at a cost of just over $2.5 million. It is a beautiful marble and granite building.

(A view from outside, looking up at the dome.)

(Nathan Hale, better known as "The Genius of Connecticut.")

(This picture makes the building look very small. It is not.)

(The House of Representatives.)

(The Senate.)

(Looking up at the Dome.)

(A display case in The Hall of Flags - Flags carried into battle by CT soldiers.)

(Amazing details on the outside of the building.)

I landed in Boston right around 10am. That gave me a lot of free time before I could check into my hotel at 3pm. And this is why I love having an iPhone. I did a quick search for the Samuel Adams brewery, but was bummed to find out that it is closed on Sundays. With the idea of a brewery tour in mind, I googled "Boston Brewery Tours." That's when the Harpoon Brewery popped up, I read that they are not only open, but also offer brewery tours, on Sundays. Plan set!

I first started going on brewery tours when my friend Sally and I lived in Minneapolis. We would come up with grand plans for the day, call it "adventuring," and be off. We've toured in 3 different states: Summit (MN), Leinenkugel's (WI), and Yuengling (PA), and I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one other here. Each time I tour a brewery, I buy a pint glass there, and am working on one mighty collection for the day that I finally own a home and have a place to unpack my boxes.

Anyhow. This was the first time I was all alone on a tour. Thank God Peace Corps taught me how to do anything I want to do, and do it alone. No more awkward alone-ness. I GPSd my way down to the brewery, found some parking, and went in. For $5 I got a tour of the brewing and bottling facilities and a nice long time in the tap room, doing what the brewers called "finding your new favorite beer."

I won't describe the process of beer brewing in depth, but it involves water, a starch, yeast and hops, some heat, some cold, some time and some love. The difference in flavors comes from using different ingredients as the source of starch (some options include malted barley, cereal, rice or corn). Brewers often make seasonal brews by adding all kinds of different flavors like pumpkin, fruits or spices. The end result is, in my opinion, the intersection of art and science.

Harpoon Brewery was founded in 1986 by two college buddies after a trip to Europe. They saw how important small breweries were to the sense of community, and wanted to bring that back to New England. In 1987 they received the first permit to be issued by Massachusetts in twenty five years to brew and package beer commercially. They've grown quite a bit since then, and still brew fantastic beers.

Since you couldn't come on the tour with me, here are some pictures of the Boston Brewery.

(Inside the Tap Room, a wall of beer cans from around the world.)

(The Lauter Tun - Extracting the liquid from the solid ingredients.)

(Shiny equipment in a beautiful old building.)

(Fermentation Tanks - letting the yeast eat the sugars and and make beer!)

(Pouring beer straight from the fermentation tank - this is the freshest beer you will ever drink.)

(This is what the freshest beer in the world looks like.)

What a great way to kill some time, explore a city, and learn something, all while trying to find my new favorite beer!

Day 4 of my trip to Boston this past week took me down to Providence, RI. It was another new state for me. In addition to visiting new states, I have a thing for visiting State Capitol buildings. It goes back to being involved in the YMCA Youth in Government program throughout high school. As an aside, the program is amazing, and I would recommend it to any civic minded high school students or teacher. I had amazing access to the WI state capitol building, and have taken every opportunity to visit capitol buildings on my travels.

I was excited that Providence was the head of government in Rhode Island, so I drove by the State House on my way to my meeting at Rhode Island Hospital. I would have gotten out and walked around, but it was cold and rainy and the building was still closed.

(Rhode Island State House - Little State, Big Building. I would have liked to get inside.)

After my meeting with the hospital, I had a little bit of time before I needed to be at Brown University School of Medicine for my next meeting. I drove all over town, checking out downtown and the University neighborhoods. It's a cute place, and I'd love to go back to have friends show me around. It was raining, and parking is a nightmare in Providence, so I didn't get out. I mostly holed up in a coffee shop reading the newspaper.

(A quirky, inquisitive dragon looking down from the top of the Children's Museum.)

(An interesting addition to the signage/an ambiguous political statement.)

When I was a little girl, my dad used to take me to a place called The Palace. It is a run down shack in the woods with no electricity or running water. He and his buddies have used it as a hunting and fishing cabin since before I was born. We spent lots of quality time there; Dad, Tim and myself. It took me years to realize that maybe The Palace was a funny name for the place, because I was always happy to be there. Maybe that was early training for Peace Corps living?

Tim and I grew up shooting a bow and arrow and our BB gun until we were old enough to take a hunter's safety course. Then we were taught all about responsible gun ownership and use (some of you are probably trying to figure out what this world traveling, city dwelling, liberal woman is doing writing about guns) and were allowed to go hunting and target shooting with dad.

Now, I don't own any firearms, it's just too much work for my present living situation and budget. But, every time I go home, I make it a point to spent some quality time out at the club with my dad, shooting sporting clays. When I was home in September, we made it a family outing. For the first time ever, the four of us went shooting together. So much fun! I hope it becomes a new family tradition whenever I'm home.

Here's a glimpse into my Wisconsin life that might take some of you by surprise. You would have probably never guessed that I'm actually a pretty good shot!

(What a beautiful day to shoot.)

(Tim, Mom, Dad.)

(See that bright orange clay pigeon? It's moving really fast. This was by far the most fun station, because when you hit the bird correctly, it just disappears into thin air.)

(Me shooting, with mom pulling and keeping score.)

(What a great family photo!)

On my way up to Maine, I drove through the south east corner of New Hampshire. A new state is always a big deal for me, so I had to get out of the car and walk around a bit. I checked out the path the GPS had me on, and decided that Portsmouth wouldn't be too far out of the way, and would be the most promising stop.

I'll be honest. I know nothing about New Hampshire apart from the fact that it's important for the presidential primaries, and I think it's known as the "Live Free or Die" state.

I parked at a park down by the waterfront and did some walking around. I gather that Portsmouth is a port city, they do some lobster catching nearby, someone still makes wooden boats with minimal use of power tools, history is important, and the city council has done a great job of making sure that the historical architecture isn't lost.

Not sure what else there is to do in Portsmouth, or NH for that matter, but I'm glad I stopped to walk around for a bit.

I'm on a plane right now, headed home to Virginia after a solid week in Boson for work. This was a great trip, as I was on the go every day.

I'm proud to say that I've finally made it to Maine. I spent Friday touring the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. What a cool place! The campus is in Biddeford, about 20 minutes south of Portland, and right on the beach. Students literally live in beach houses. It was the quintessential New England place.

I did a quick drive through of Portland, and have decided that Maine is a place that needs to go on the list of places to return to for a visit.

Beautiful fall leaves, the ocean and such nice people. What more could you ask for on a work trip?

Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself:

Now that I'm finally back in the USA, I'm trying to soak up as much culture as I can, in pretty much any form. Once my crazy hectic summer schedule ended, I started going to baseball games. I was pretty excited to make it to three new (to me) ballparks in less than three weeks. Fenway to check out the Red Sox, Camden Yards to watch the Orioles and Nationals Park to watch the Nationals. I still need to catch a game at the new Target Field. It looks beautiful and the Twins are my team.

Here are some pictures from the games. I'm trying the new Blogger app for the iPhone, so this might not format the way I want it to. I'll reformat when I get home, because let's be honest, I'm at the airport and on the go today.

While "Emily finally getting a paycheck larger than $300 a month" was a notable event this summer, it wasn't the most anticipated event of the summer. This summer was all about Tim (my big/only brother) and Michelle (his now wife) getting married.

It was big for several reasons:

1. There are only two of us. I'm sure not close to getting married, making Tim, by far, the first of us to get married.

2. My parents realized that their babies were all grown up.

3. I actually went home to Green Bay, WI for an event that wasn't a holiday.

4. I wore a dress. A dress that matched the dresses of all the other girls. That won't happen again for a LONG time.

That being said, the wedding was beautiful. My folks hosted a super laid back rehearsal dinner at our house the night before, and we all got to chill out a bit. Happy Birthday Dad was also going on at the same time. Being a bridesmaid was way more fun than I expected (No; I haven't seen the movie yet). And as an added bonus, I got to see my favorite family members.

The photographer did an awesome job, so I'll leave you with some pictures of family fun times/Tim and Michelle's Wedding.

(One of my FAVORITE pictures - I'm still a daddy's girl.)

(Bridesmaids and Bride.)

(The making promises part.)

(Hanging out with my little cousin Noah.)

(The new family.)

(Sibling Love.)

Congrats Tim and Michelle on an awesome day, and a beautiful future together!

One of the super neat features of Blogger is that you can add things to the side of your blog. I added a visitor map, that logs the location of my readers, and turns it into a map. You'll find the map on the lower right side of the blog, but I pasted a picture in tonight.

Each little blue dot on the map represents a visitor location. For example, there is a dot that represents everyone who has visited the blog from Green Bay. I seem to be most popular in the eastern half of the USA, but I wonder who the heck in Texas is linking to me. I think it's cool that you can see the dots moving south along the west coast of S. America and then back up again along the east coast of S. America. A friend of mine took a long motorcycle trip that followed this path, and she must have been reading the whole way!

I know most of these dots represent friends and family, but a good chunk of my blog traffic comes through the University of Denver Korbel School of International Studies website (I'm a featured writer of their Master's International Program) and through a site called Peace Corps Journals that lists all Peace Corps bloggers by country and shows the most recently updated blogs at the top of each country page.

Isn't technology creepy/amazing?

The best part about being home for just over five months now is that some of my favorite Peace Corps friends are coming home now too! The crew that started six months after us are home! I took my first, and much needed, vacation after a crazy summer in mid-august when I went to Western NY State to visit my good friend Ros. She had a joint birthday/homecoming party and I was stoked to be invited without having to wear a costume (Remember last year's R themed costume party??).

I flew in on a Friday night, and Ros was sweet enough to pick me up at the airport. In a bit of a travel nerd aside, I was able to add a new airport to my list: Buffalo! I can't remember the last time I flew into a new airport. It's probably been 3+ years! We spent Saturday celebrating everything that was Ros, and spent Sunday recovering from Saturday. Let's just say that Mrs. Marohn makes really good coffee.

(I'm the one that didn't go to college with any of the others.)

Everyone else had to go back to work, but I took some vacation days to play tourist. On Monday Ros was a great driver/tour guide, and took me up to an adorable little town in Canada called Niagara on the Lake. I for some reason didn't take any pictures. The town is nicknamed The Loveliest Town in Canada (glad I didn't drive too far to see that and hope the rest of Canada isn't that underwhelming) and famous for being a stop on the Underground Railroad as well as home to the annual Shaw Festival. The region surrounding Niagara on the Lake is known as wine country, and was covered by HUGE vineyards. I wish we would have had more time and money to stop and enjoy that aspect. The whole area reminded me of Door County, Wisconsin, and Niagara on the Lake felt like Egg Harbor. Only, it was in Canada.

So - to get there we obviously had to cross the border. We drove, and it wasn't too much of a pain. They actually asked us more questions leaving the US than they did when we came back. This also marks the third time I've entered a new country on foot. It also means I'm 3 for 3 on entering a country on foot and not getting a stamp in my passport. That seems sort of sketchy, but oh well.

On Tuesday we got up and drove to Niagara Falls. Special shout out to Ros for giving me the tourist experience, even though I'm sure she's done this a million times with visitors. We checked out the falls park area a bit, and like troopers, we got tickets to go on the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you right up to the falls. Below are pictures from the observation deck above the falls, and from the ride on the Maid of the Mist. It was a pretty cool experience. Water is a very powerful element!

(A view of the huge observation tower off to the side of the falls, from the Maid of the Mist.)

(Ros and I rocking the ponchos on the boat.)

(Coming into the small part of the falls, some serious mist and water falling.)

(Everyone else on the boat about to get all wet.)

(A view of the Canadian part of the falls, the Horseshoe Falls. Look how tiny the Maid of the Mist boats look going into the falls!)

(The American Side of the falls - smaller, shorter and more violent!)

Did you know that I'm from Titletown, USA? That is correct. Not only am I from Wisconsin, but I am from the most Wisconsin of all Wisconsin cities: Green Bay. Did you know that the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl last year? You should know that. I know it, and I was living in a developing country with only two hours of running water a day!

One of my favorite parts of being home is the ability to watch Packer games on TV, without the power going out, and without the announcers talking in metric (I don't want to know how many kilos a player weights or how many meters tall he is!). Last weekend I flew home for a family wedding. I knew I would be home in time to watch the Packer game on TV, and made plans to hang out with my brother to watch the game at his house. (Sibling bonding is much easier when you are both in the same country.

When I landed in Milwaukee, I turned on my phone to a picture message from my brother that looked like this:

(The message said, "We are going to the game tonight.)

So, I got home, changed into some Green and Gold, and made my way to Lambeau Field, passing Holmgren Way. If you ever doubted that this town is all about football, you just have to look at the names of the streets to see the legends memorialized.

As I was driving, I just kept thinking, my brother is pretty cool. I hope these seats are as cool as he is. And, they were. Great seats in the south end zone corner. Below of the pictures of the game:

(Green Bay, in the process of beating the Chiefs.)

(A very full Lambeau Field.)

I've clearly been going to too many sporting events on the East Coast, because I mentioned to my brother just how darn pleasant everyone was at the game tonight. Maybe it's the fact that there are 100,000 people in Green Bay and the stadium fits some 65,000, so everyone bascially knows each other? That, or there is just something magical about Lambeau Field.

Last I posted, we were picking up the few pieces from the earthquake, and moving on to the prep for Hurricane Irene. If there is anything I've learned here, it's that Americans (and maybe more so, Washingtonians) freak out when anything is out of the boundaries of "normal." The media coverage of this impending storm of doom was incredible. See photo below for a snip of what the news looked like for days on end:

On Friday afternoon, I decided that I should be a good kid, and make myself a little prepared. I found a flashlight in my car, but made a swing by Home Depot to look for another. They were ALL OUT of flashlights and batteries. The woman working there looked at me like I was crazy, trying to buy flashlights and batteries!

(No worries, my roommate has kerosene lamps.)

(Amanda did her part in the preparedness battle by rocking a rain slicker and sweet boots.)

After a failed attempt to purchase batteries, I went to Target to grab a few things so I could use the rainy day making care packages for my kids. I figured it would be helpful to have some limes over the next few days, and was disheartened to see that Target was fresh out:

(The bottled water section looked the same as the limes: empty.)

People were taking this hurricane preparation business seriously, which actually made me worry a bit for my lack of preparation.

Luckily for us, the story wasn't so bad here. I know the Carolinas, and the Northeast got hit with lots of flooding, but the only thing that flooded here was the inside of my car. Sad day. Thankfully the dealership repaired a faulty seal in the windshield this week and my car is almost dry!

(A sad, wet back seat. No, the water did not come from the water bottle.)

We lost power for a bit on Saturday, and most of the day on Sunday. Special thanks to Amanda for helping me get through the stir crazies that come with power outages by inviting me over to her place for dinner. Although her building featured several lovely announcements saying the power was out, her's worked like a charm!

(Must be some backup generator in that building.)

The only thing I don't quite understand is this: In El Salvador, we had several tropical storms that brought 3-5 days of non-stop rain. Hurricane Irene came and went within 24 hours. How does that happen?

The title of tonight's blog comes straight from the subject line of an e-mail I received from my dad tonight. There was no actual body text in the e-mail, just a subject line. So, I guess I should write about the day.

At 1:51 PM the Washington, DC area experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. I was at work, on the 7th floor of my office building in Tyson's Corner, Virginia. It was a slow, rolling quake that slowly gained strength. I've experienced my fair share of earthquakes (some I've even written about here) while living in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, and I was more than a bit surprised that there would be an earthquake in DC. At first, I thought maybe a car or truck had hit our building. I was about to go back to my normal work, but my boss said we had to leave the building, and everyone else was doing the same. When I was in El Salvador, we never did anything after an earthquake. We just went about our lives. However, adobe homes with clay tile roofs, no water pipes or gas lines are probably not as susceptible to damage.

Anyhow. After about an hour of waiting in the parking lot, watching firetrucks whiz by, we were let back into the building to gather our belongings, and were dismissed for the day. I'm glad I hopped into my car and went home when I did, because it was widely reported that traffic/public transportation was a mess (Read the Washington Post article by clicking here). Cell phone service was down for about an hour after the quake because so many people were making phone calls.

There was no damage to my office building or my home, but there is this video (Video of Earthquake Damage) which was taken in Tyson's Corner, the neighborhood where I work. I'm not sure which building this is, but I'm glad that isn't my car!

Yesterday brought it's own interesting frustrations, when we got an e-mail from our building facilities manager at 3pm saying that the major intersection of two highways right by the office was closed because a construction crane had collapsed (See a video/read the article here). Of course one of those roads is my road home. Good thing the Chili's next to the office has a great happy hour!

Tonight the Weather Chanel has this picture up on it's home page:

Earthquakes and hurricanes, oh my! Now that the collapsed cranes and the earthquakes are over, it looks like we might get some heavy rains this weekend in the form of Hurricane Irene. Sounds fun, right? It's probably my fault, since I washed my car yesterday!

After two years of eating beans and rice every day, and where diversifying the diet meant eating rice and beans, it's great to be back home where there are more food options than I can imagine! My friends have been taking me out, reintroducing me to culture and food, and generally showing me a great time.

I for some reason have been really enthralled with the amazing food we've been eating, so I decided to take pictures of some of the best meals to date.

First up would have to be Shrimp-A-Palooza, hosted by the great and wonderful Tyler Savoy, a native of Louisiana. There must have been at least 25 people at his house for this real southern home cooked shrimp broil, my first, but hopefully not last! There are no words to describe the amazingness of this meal, so pictures are below:

(One of Three giant pots of shrimp.)

(Tyler and Embo - quite the duo.)

(Shrimp, making itself delicious.)

(The shrimp was cooked with lots of veggies and sauce and sausage then laid out on paper all down the table for everyone to just dig in. It was DELICIOUS.)

Another night my friends Shannon, Jenn and Sam got together and decided that we needed to go out for Hot Pot, which is the Chinese version of fondue. Shannon, having lived in China for a while decided we should try out a place called Mala Tang, a hot pot place in Arlington, VA. The restaurant's website has this to say about hot pot: "If you wander around Chef Liu's hometown of Chengdu, you'll find the streets filled with diners sitting at tables gathering around bubbling hot pots, in which dozens of dried chilies bob up and down in an oily red broth.

Meals notoriously last hours as locals chat, sip beer, and dip morsels of food into a simmering liquid of "hot and spicy" broth. One of the most popular dishes in Sichuan, this delicacy is eaten by rich and poor alike, whether in a fancy restaurant, or on construction sites where workers hunker down to eat it, paying a small sum for a skewer of food to plunge into the spicy broth.

The hot pot itself is a saucepan that sits on a portable burner, surrounded by an array of small plates piled high with fresh ingredients. Guests select pieces of food and drop them into the soup to cook, and then dip them into a delicious mixture of seasoned sesame oil and chopped garlic.

While hot pot can be found throughout China, Sichuan is famous for its ma la hot pot, which is characterized by the yin and yang effect that the sichuan pepper and the red hot chilies create when combined together." Again, delicious. Photos of the hot pot experience are below. We had so much fun eating, that we forgot to take pictures of us.

(The silver hot pots, and a wide array of things that were dunked and cooked: cabbage, noodles, tofu, chicken and more.)

(America is great, because you can get beer from anywhere!)

(Fish balls cooking away in some hot and spicy hot pot.)

Ok. Then I left DC and moved up to Boston for the summer for work. It was fun and exciting, but involved me spending two months straight living in a dorm and then hotel room and eating all of my meals in restaurants. That gets old really fast, and there is no reason to get excited about going out to eat. However, I did enjoy the day we went out for sushi and came across this very Boston sushi menu. They sure do love their sports teams there.

My only awesome food day in Boston was July 1st. I remember the day, because I had been eating at restaurants for a month, exactly. My great friend, and amazing human being, Erin Gannon, made me a home cooked meal at her apartment. We went to the market, bought all kinds of great veggies, stopped by the greek place to get some falafel to go, drank some grape soda and hung out with these fish while we waited for our food. Amazing.

(Grape middle eastern soda. Delicious.)

(Fresh fish at the market.)

(When I got home from Boston, Tyler threw me a welcome home from Peace Corps and Boston/You're actually back for real now/Happy Graduation party. We grilled meat, smoked cigars and made s'mores. America is cool.)

(And of course, last week in a fit of missing El Salvador, I went to my neighborhood pupusaria alone and got some pupusas so I didn't feel so far from home. Bachata blaring, single men downing Corona, telenovelas running in the background, I felt at home.)

I've been back in the USA for 4 months exactly. I went home to WI for a few days, moved back out to DC to take a temporary summer gig with my former employer, got a promotion, moved to Boston for the summer to run a program there, traveled back and forth between Boston and Chicago, went to Green Bay for my brother's wedding, and just got home to DC last week. I have been ON THE GO! Now that I'm back home, it's time to get back to blogging.

When I first set up this blog almost three years ago, I didn't want it to just be a Peace Corps blog. That's why it's not called something like "Embo in El Salvador." So, over the next week, I'm going to attempt to pack in all of this summer's On The Go adventures, and get better and keeping up to date.

On Monday, my good friend Megan said she had extra tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. Megan and I work together, and this visit is part of one of the conference we run. I've been in and out of DC for the past six years, and still never done this. So, I jumped at the opportunity and met Megan and the students for an 8pm ride to the top. I was bummed when the park rangers said that the monument had been closed because of the near by thunderstorms. Megan gave the students some time to hang around and take pictures, and just when we were about to leave, the park rangers re-opened the monument. We got ourselves in line, and entered at the base of the monument, took a 60 second elevator ride up to the 500 foot level of the Washington Monument, and walked around. If you've ever seen the monument, you know there are windows on the very top, just below the flashing red lights. That's where we were. The views are beautiful, and it was an incredible experience. I was just a little bummed that the windows were dirty, and it was difficult to get an ok picture. But, I guess it's tough to get someone out there to wash the windows.

Here are some pictures of the evening.

(The WWII Memorial, empty Reflecting Pond, and Lincoln Memorial with an orange sky in the background.)

(The Washington Monument.)

(Washington, flags and Lincoln. There was a beautiful sliver of a moon just over Lincoln that doesn't show up well in this picture.)

(The flashing red light, from the inside.)

(Storms off to the left that almost thwarted the day.)

(The Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial.)

(The National Mall and Capitol Buildings.)

(The White House - just left of center behind the ellipse.)

(The circles at the bottom are the WWII Memorial, with Lincoln in the background.)

(I think the Washington Monument is more beautiful at night.)

So glad Megan thought of me and got me a ticket!

I think my favorite project of my Peace Corps service was the food festival. It was something totally different than what the rest of my colleagues were doing, something I could be proud of, and something my community could continue doing after I left. We had the last food festival of my career on March 27th, and I'm thrilled that the food festival committee is now the host organization for another Peace Corps volunteer. Here's to hoping that they take great care of her, and work even harder for her than they did for me!

Below are photos of the festival. The committee double billed it as my town wide going away party (seriously, we had a month of going away parties) and the local cable channel did an interview of me before the event so they could run a story on my leaving, my projects, and the festival. They of course came to film the event too. It ran on tv for the next week. Hm. No wonder I feel so un-special here in the USA.

(I made the TV guys interview my boss too!)

(We ditched the canopy and moved the party into the park. MUCH better idea. It was beautiful.)

(Prettiest park in El Salvador.)

(With Fatima, Carlos Mario and Alejandro.)

(With my favorite bolo [town drunk] chumbero).

(Getting an award from the food festival committee.)

(Jefa, Carlos Mario and Yours Truly.)

(The Mayor, his wife, and all of their gringo children. I love this picture. Also, a good one for Jesse's mom so she can see he is still alive.)

(Elotes LOCO)

(The Mayor gave me an award too. And the TV station filmed it all. Funny.)

In addition to having more than a few despedidas with my favorite volunteers and Espartanos, I also wanted to make sure to say goodbye and thank you to the outstanding Peace Corps El Salvador staff. They however, are impossible to get all together in one place at one time. They pretty much only do that for Obama.

Not in chronological order....the photos from two rounds of staff despedidas:

(Lunch with the amazing Youth Development team. They aren't my bosses, but whenever they came to do site visits up in my zona, I'd ride along so they wouldn't get lost in the campo. It was always a good time.)

(Celebrating two years of service in El Salvador with a trip to...Benihana?!?)

I have the lovely Rosellen Marohn and Molly McMills to thank for putting together the other despedida with staff, and fellow volunteers who couldn't make it out to paintball/swimming in the river. They took us to Gourmet Burger Company...which is sort of like a Chipotle for Burgers...you just keep working your way through a menu of delicious toppings and sauces. Amazing. Started by a guy who used to live in the US, and I wish there were one in the US!

(They have a cube to explain the burger building process.)

(With my favorite staff members, from L to R: Clelia, Jaime, Mayra and Mayra)

(That's a good looking crew. I was lucky to find them all.)

(Explaining the complexities of building burgers to the boss man.)

A few weeks ago somebody gifted my neighbor/landlady a chicken. She tied it up in my backyard, and gave it food for a few days before it turned into soup. One of the days it managed to get it's foot out of the knot and started roaming around the backyard.

I was ok with it until it pooped on my tile floor, but again, no harm done. Then the darn bird decided to go into my house! I would not let it be. Thankfully Brian and Natalie were around to help with bird removal. Brian and I cornered the chicken behind a bookshelf while Natalie captured a great video (which sadly will not upload properly). Brian made his move, and grabbed the bird, flipped her upside down, which apparently keeps them from flapping, and let her go outside. Crisis averted.

Those are some pretty great skills I've picked up in Peace Corps. Now I'm wondering how I can turn this anecdote into a teamwork related answer to an interview question.

(This is where soup comes from.)

A big part of the Salvadoran culture is celebrating achievement, and saying goodbye. Thus it is traditional for Peace Corps Volunteers to have a despedida, or good-bye party. I decided that I should probably have a few different despedidas.

Since it's tough to get volunteers together in one place (other than San Salvador), we had to plan this one for a full month before my actual departure date. On a previous visit to Perquin, I decided that we should all meet up sometime to play paintball. I mean, after two years of being shot at (not really) it would be very liberating to shoot back, even with just paint.

Krystal works with the guy that runs the paintball place in Perquin, so she made some calls and got us a group reservation. She even reserved a great cabin in the woods at my favorite place, the Lenka. Then we got our fijate que (Spanish polite for "I'm not actually going to do for you what I told you I would do) the night before the big day, when paintball guy called and canceled. Krystal worked her magic, made some phone calls and instead reserved a micro bus to take us all to the rio sapo for some swimming and cerveza sipping. We all decided that it was a much better, less work intensive way to save the day.

I was able to spend a beautiful day together with my favorite people, celebrate two years of Peace Corps service and relax. Below are pictures from what turned out to be the first of two river-themed going away parties:

(Ros bought Erica and I camo shirts to wear paint balling. We wore them swimming instead.)

(This should probably be some kind of Peace Corps promotional photo. Hanging out at the cabin with the dog before making our way to the river.)

(Life is better in the river.)

(Swimming can be tiring.)

(The Rio Sapo is the cleanest river in El Salvador, and beautiful!)

(I got lucky and made some pretty great friends in the last two years.)

(Relaxed.)

(We're probably talking about how we are going to hang a hammock in our apartment in DC.)

(Awesome people. Awesome times.)

Remember back when I lived in Denver and was a graduate student? Well, I still am. At least until I graduate in June. Before I can do that, I need to write my thesis, or as the University of Denver calls it, a Substantial Research Paper. My SRP needs to be about my experience and work as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I could probably just write about all the cool things I've done, but I'd actually like to put some original thought and research into it.

I've settled on writing about ADESCOs, or Communal Development Associations, because the bulk of my work has been in legalizing ADESCOs. Instead of just writing about how I went about working with the ADESCOs in my community, I'd like to write about the history of ADESCOs in El Salvador, how the idea came about and the role they play in the development process of rural communities.

With that in mind, I've been doing some research. So far I've found that there is basically nothing written about ADESCOs. I've found two theses that contain a bit of historical information, both written by students at universities in San Salvador. One I was able to download from the internet (oh the miracle of technology)! The other was available online...but the section I needed was not.

Thus starts the great thesis resource hunt. I don't have a DUI (Documento Unico de Identidad) which is the national Salvadoran ID. The library at the university requires you to present a DUI to enter and use materials. My boss was so incredibly helpful and called the library, explained to the Director why I don't have a DUI and managed to secure for me permission to access the documents. I printed a map (a struggle in itself here), walked myself to the university without getting lost or robbed, actually found the library on the campus after asking 3 old ladies and two armed guards, and found the Director. She was SOOOO helpful. She got me the thesis, let me read it, and made a photocopy for me. I came prepared with: a copy of my US driver's license, my foreign resident card and copies of both my passports. I was not about to let anyone deny me access to these documents!

The thesis I found was helpful in that it referenced a few other documents that will be helpful. One is a manual printed in 2002 by the Ministry of the Interior. This is where I start shaking my head and say damn you El Salvador. The Ministry of the Interior no longer exists. It's functions have been taken over by the Ministry of Government. Their website and phone tree is a mess. My boss called them, but nobody knows if the document exists anymore. End of the line on that one.

The other document referenced was written in 1989, by the Instituto Salvadoreño de Desarrollo Municipal, which is the government body that helps all of the mayors offices. Since the document was written so long ago, it obviously does not exist in digital form. My boss went with me to the office to get a copy of the paper version. Thankfully I'm friends with a member of their board of directors, and throwing his name around a bit we were able to get a meeting with the Director of the archives. When we got to her office, we found it all in disarray. They were moving from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. Everything from the archives was in (poorly labeled) boxes. The ONLY COPY IN THE WORLD of the report I needed (and the only official government report in El Salvador that talks about ADESCOs) had been "misplaced." ARGH. Miracle of all miracles, the director called my boss today to say that she had finally found a copy of the report, and she could come make a photo copy.

I'm flying out tomorrow morning. Thanks to the best boss in the world, I'll probably have a scanned and emailed copy of the report in my inbox when I arrive.

My boss and I joked that I should just write my thesis on the process of writing a thesis in El Salvador. Thesis writing in the developing world is a major pain!

(Me and the boxes of really important government documents.)

(Super well labeled boxes. Maybe the only copy in the world of the only resource on ADESCOs is in one of those.)

"We are not trying to build things, which makes the job difficult to evaluate, but trying to build a spirit of self reliance and self respect in a people who have never developed this and have always been done for and not given credit for being able to help themselves." - PCV in Colombia, from the book "Letters From The Peace Corps."

I'm winding down my service, and haven't had time to blog in over a week. I promise I'm taking lots of pictures, and will have many good stories to tell soon.

Home in Green Bay on April 5th.

Here in El Salvador....just getting around can be an adventure. On the way out to the gold mine, Don Juan showed us a road project he was responsible for overseeing as a member of the Santa Rosa de Lima Town Council. The road had already been there, but they were working to make it wider and flatter. Here is a how you make a road.

1. Find a large hill of dirt/rock. Bring a big machine up that hill and start carving away at it.

2. Fill dump trucks with that dirt, and have them drive it down to the road. They'll dump the material, called balastre, on top of the crummy old road to make it better.

3. Have another machine (I don't know there names, everything here is called "la maquina") spread that dirt over the road so that it is a bit more flat.

4. Have a water truck go over that layer of dirt, spraying water so that it gets a little bit wet.

5. Have a heavy duty roller machine go over the wet dirt and pack it down so that it doesn't erode (it will anyway once it starts raining).

In the end, you have a very nice looking road. When Erica and I were bouncing around in the back of the pick up truck, and I said, "this is a reallllly nice road," she just laughed at me and told me I'd been here too long.

Sometimes in Peace Corps, really cool things happen to you. A few weeks ago, one of those cool things happened when my friend Erica and I had the opportunity to go to the gold mines that are only about a 20 minute drive from her site.

I was at Erica's site visiting for the night, and having a conversation with her counterpart, Don Juan. At some point the conversation went like this:

Don Juan: So, you know we have these gold mines really close. When are you going to let me take you there?

Emily: I don't know. Maybe next week?

Don Juan: OK. What day?

Emily: How's Tuesday sound?

Don Juan: Tuesday I'll take you to the gold mine. What time are you coming?

Emily: Can you go in the morning?

Don Juan: Come to my house at nine. I'll take you to the gold mine.

It was that easy! On Tuesday morning I took the bus down to Erica's house and we went over to Don Juan's house. We loaded up with bottles of water and climbed into the back of the pickup truck. His little guy, German (age 4), hopped into the front seat and we were off to explore the gold mines.

We drove up a long dirt road, and we could see the top of the mountain where we were headed. Neither of us really had a clue what we were in for, which made the day quite an adventure. Along the way Don Juan had us take pictures of all kinds of big trucks that were working on repairing the road. I'll have to write a post about how you repair a rural dirt road later, because obviously I now know how to do that too.

We got to the top of the mountain, and the gold mines, which were little tunnels carved into the earth. All along the side of the mountains we could see teams of 4-5 men around the mouths of the tunnels. Here's the story we were told by the miners. A while back (who knows how long) gold was found in these mountains. International mining companies brought teams of miners to El Salvador to mine the gold. Santa Rosa de Lima (my big shopping town) was known for it's brisk gold trade. People in the west of El Salvador say that the streets in Santa Rosa are paved in gold. They are not.

The mining companies must have extracted everything they thought they could get out of the mountains, because they eventually left. Now these teams of men have taken over the mountains and are mining on their own. One told us that they haven't had a big find in over two years, but they are still out there every day working hard. We were told that a gram of gold goes for about $40, so even a little bit is useful. One of them also told us that they don't have the proper chemicals to extract the gold from the rocks. So, if they extract a rock with gold flakes in it, they can grind it down, but eventually have to sell it to "the company" that extracts the gold.

Every day these guys show up, and dig their tunnels a little further into the earth. They don't have any fancy tools. They fill up buckets or wheelbarrows and carry them out of the tunnels, where another guy looks through the pile for gold. There is all kinds of shiny but worthless fools gold.

This picture above is of Don Juan, his son, and a miner inside the first tunnel. The dirt tunnel quickly turned into solid rock. I don't imagine they make much progress each day.

Here are Erica, German and myself inside one of the mines. It went about 20-30 meters into the side of the mountain. You can see that we have to crouch down to move through the mine, which is carved out of the dirt and mountain, and "supported" by wood beams. Of course, it is incredibly dark in the mines. What I didn't expect was how hot it was inside. We came out sweating. The men that were working came out dripping in sweat. They looked like they had just jumped into a river with all of their clothes on. The air is thick and hot and wet and not at all comfortable. The miners told us that they can only work in the morning, because once it gets too hot inside the air turns into "veneno" or poison. If you look closely at the miner in the picture above, you will see he isn't wearing shoes! None of the miners were wearing shoes, and this guy was the only one we saw wearing a hard hat. Incredible!

German is rocking the headlamp my friend Laraine gave me before I left for Peace Corps. She served in Togo (West Africa) and told me that it would be the one thing I would use all the time. I must lead a posh life, because my power hardly ever goes out, and the most action it's ever gotten was inside a gold mine.

Each team of guys works their own mine. They have little shade shelters set up outside the entrances to the mines where they can take breaks. I love this picture, because it is so typical of Peace Corps. The American woman just sitting on the rocks with the Salvadoran guys, learning the ins and outs of gold mining. I wish more people could come visit me and have days like this that are so laid back and interesting. I also wish I had more time in the US to just sit around and visit with people. Actually, I wish it were culturally appropriate in the US to just sit with someone you don't know and have an incredibly interesting discussion.

Erica crouched down in another mine. She had much more courage than I did. Turns out I don't really like going to far deep into the earth in mines with zero safety precautions in an earthquake prone country.

(Safety and the outside is just on the other side of that little light at the end of the tunnel. That white stuff above is moisture that is sweating out of the rocks.)

The only safety precaution the miners use are these old gas lamps, which are multi-purpose. First, they offer light deep into the mines. Second, when there is not enough oxygen they go out. When the lamps go out, it's time to leave the mine. Battery flash lights might be brighter, but they don't tell you when you're about to die!

(This guy was in charge of heating up tortillas for lunch over a fire.)

(Headed up the hill to another mine. You can see the rock slides above Don Juan's head and in the upper left corner of the picture, which show where debris has been excavated from mines.)

(Bright and beautiful, but worthless, fools gold.)

This guy above is testing the excavated rocks to see if they contain fools gold or real gold. First he takes the rock and grinds it down with a metal mallet on this rock, until it is just powder.

Then he puts the powder into the hollow inside of a cow's horn and adds water. He rubs it together a bit, then tilts it down. If the shiny stuff sticks to the sides it is gold. If it settles to the bottom of the water in the horn, it is not gold. This was not gold. I told you this was a seriously low-tech mining operation!

(German and I deep into the mine.)

(Life saving lamps and long sleeve shirts hanging on the trees, looking out down the mountain and the valley below at the next mountain range.)

Gold mining day was such an incredible experience, one that I never imagined I would have in El Salvador. Erica and I were talking about how this is one of those experiences that tourists or travelers never get to have in a country, but it gives such an insight into the lives, hopes and dreams of the people. The only way the day could have been better would be if we had found gold!

The owner of my home has decided to do some "home improvements" recently. There have been four very nice gentlemen at my house every day for the last month working on projects. One of said projects was fixing the roof.

To do so, they completely removed a section each day, taking off the clay tiles, lifting off the metal lamina, sweeping and inspecting the wood beams. If they decided the beams were rotten, cracked or eaten by bugs, they removed them and replaced them. Then before going home each night they put back down the lamina, nailed it in place, and replaced the tiles. Section by section I got a new roof! It was a slow, loud and very dirty project. Hopefully now the roof won't leak in the next rainy season. Too bad I won't be here to experience it. The next volunteer has it so good.

This is what it looks like to have your roof replaced in El Salvador:

(My big room, all messy but with a temporary skylight, and my favorite contractor.)

(Looking up at the missing roof, and down and the dirty floor.)

The roof is totally replaced, and now it seems like all kinds of neglected odd jobs are being done. My doors are being repainted, the walls painted and new concrete laid in the back. Good thing I like the contractors!

Peace Corps turned 50 on March 1, 2011! What a long and storied history. I'm honored to have been a part of such an organization.

Peace Corps El Salvador is planning an entire year of events to celebrate the anniversary, and hosted a kick-off event at the US Embassy in San Salvador last week. It was a star studded event, with participation from the US Ambassador, Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores (The Salvadoran version of Secretary of State), two Salvadoran Congressmen, high level Peace Corps officials, Peace Corps El Salvador staff and past and present volunteers. Only 20 volunteers (out of 162) were picked to attend the event, and I was excited to get my invitation. Good thing I brought a suit back with me from my visit home in November!

All of the dignitaries gave short speeches about the role of Peace Corps in El Salvador and it's history. Several Salvadorans also talked about the personal impact that Peace Corps volunteers have had on their lives, and how that impact has gotten them to where they are now. It was a very moving evening. On a side note...the Embassy also always has really good food and drinks!

Our Peace Corps staff put together an amazing video with video clips and photos (I might just make a short appearance in the video) and put it up online. If you want to see more about the impact of Peace Corps in El Salvador, I recommend you watch it:

You can also read the nice write up the Embassy put on their website by clicking HERE.

(Evin, Krystal, Ambassador Aponte, Me, Daniel and Jessica.)

(You'll never see so many volunteers this well dressed again.)

(Posing in front of a volunteer photo exhibit which is on display at the Embassy and will then go on tour of the country.)

(A picture of Jesse, for his mom!)

(Not even a hot shower in the Capital can make me look as nice as our staff members.)

The end of February brought about our fifth food festival. For the first time ever, we managed to hold festivals two months in a row (just like we said we wanted to do when we started this thing a year ago.), and I'll consider it a big success.

We did a few things differently as a committee this time. Instead of having the same band come play, we had a gentleman from Las Marias come sing. Everyone loved him, but I thought he was more like a fake Vicente Fernandez at a karaoke bar. He brought along his cousin, who also sang a handful of songs, much to the crowd's delight. We brought back the pinatas, which kept the kids happy. Also, we were accompanied by my neighboring JICA volunteer, Sachiko, who brought along one of her colleagues. They are both working on recycling projects, so they talked to the crowd about the importance of recycling and played recycling games with the kids. They also brought along some traditional Japanese clothing and allowed the people in attendance to try it on and take pictures. That was a smashing success, and we will be inviting them back again!

This festival was the best attended and all of the vendors sold their food. Some were sold out by 11:00am. I think people in town are finally starting to buy into the idea and are looking forward to the festival. This month we're switching things up a bit, and want to try the festival in the afternoon. I'm so proud of my committee for sticking together all year and being so successful. They're going to be the official counterpart agency of the next volunteer who is replacing me, and arriving here in March 18th!

(Sachiko, Myself, Don Luis, Tyler and Machiko.)

(The church ladies rock the pupusa venta!)

(The look of success.)

(Erica and her jewelry group came up to sell their product. Here she and Jesse are selling like great street vendors.)

(My favorite panes con pollo lady.)

(I was holding Felipe for a while, but then had to pass him off to Jesse, in whose arms he promptly fell asleep.)

A few weeks ago I received a fantastic care package from Jan Kasper and her family. Jan works with my father, and reads my blog. The care package was stuffed full of good things for all my favorite little ones. It included bubble gum, candy, glowing snap bracelets, coloring books, crayons, temporary tattoos, silly putty, and a shoots and ladders game. It is an understatement to say that we have been fully enjoying everything in the care package!

Thanks Jan and family!

(Rodrigo sitting in my door step to color while wearing his glowing bracelet!)

(Mario, Wilmer and Carlos Mario learning the rules to Shoots and Ladders.)

(The 2nd-4th games of Shoots and Ladders were more heated, and moved to the floor.)

(Angie was not happy that she didn't get the red piece.)

I finally presented the last of the dental health classes in February. This time we presented at the Amun Shea school in Perquin, Morazan with PCVs Daniel and Tyler. We used the same format, and had the same amount of fun!

Thank you again goes out to everyone who was involved in donating products, sending them or hand delivering them to me. In the end over 250 Salvadoran youth at seven schools learned the importance of proper dental hygiene and seven Peace Corps Volunteers were trained to implement the dental health course.

(Daniel and Tyler talking about things that are good or bad for your teeth.)

(Candy makes your teeth look gross, just like this drawing.)

(Daniel, using the students as a model mouth to teach them proper brushing techniques.)

(Daniel and I [2/3 of the University of Denver Master's International contingency in El Salvador] hanging out with some of the kids after class.)

I've been spending all kinds of time outside of the Mayor's office, which means I've taken lots of photos and have all kinds of interesting stories. Now I have a little bit of time to upload the photos and start telling the stories.

About two weeks ago I went with the Sindico (President of the Town Council) and two councilmen on a visit to one of our very rural communities. It is about a 90 minute drive from where I live. There are roads, but they are of very poor quality. A large chunk of the community doesn't have electricity. We were there to meet with community members and to gather their signatures so that the town hall can solicit an electrification project from Fomilenio for the community. I think we gathered about 20 signatures.

I also had an opportunity to talk to several community leaders about the importance of forming an ADESCO. They seem like a very enthusiastic community, and we are planning to set up a date when I can go with the town hall to help them form their ADESCO. The community is so far away, and has no public transportation, so I need to rely on the town hall staff to get me there and back. Good thing they are putting all kinds of importance on legalizing as many ADESCOS as possible before I head back to the US.

(The view of the road into the community. Long and dusty.)

(Gathering signatures from the community members at the home of one. The man writing is the Sindico. It would be fair to say that 95% of the people that arrived are unable to read or write.)

(A pig, with a whole bunch of little piglets.)

(Three children of community members. They were so quiet and patient as we signed everyone up.)

(The home of a community leader, where we met with the community. It is made of adobe bricks with a wood and tile roof.)

Continuing the trend of "Things I Did While in Perquin" posts, I think it's time I write a little about the experience of watching the Super Bowl in El Salvador. I have tried over the two years to catch some NFL games, but not having a TV at my house makes it difficult, and I don't want to be that annoying girl that shows up at peoples' house just to watch TV (I've done it before!).

Daniel talked to Ron, the owner of the Perkin Lenca hotel and a friend of ours, to make sure it would be ok if we came over to watch the game. Ron has satellite TV, which includes the lovely channels FOX Deportes and ESPN Espanol. Since I'm from Green Bay, I really wanted to make sure I was able to watch the game this year. It was an added bonus that I got to watch the game in the company of amazing friends who also enjoy and understand American Football.

(Krystal and I wearing green and ready for a Packers win!)

We got to the Lenca early, and claimed the conference room, which is the only place on the property with a TV. In true Salvadoran style, the giant flat screen TV was out of commission. So, we set up the very small TV on a table directly in front of said giant TV. A small TV is better than no TV. We also set up two tables as our snack bar, and put a few chairs out in front.

(The Salvadoran Super Bowl Setup. Note the gigantic non-functioning TV behind our small functioning TV.)

Daniel made miracles happen in the kitchen, whipping up some home made cornbread, chili with cheddar cheese(!!!) and chip dip. It was almost as good as being at home for the big game.

(Deliciousness)

(Emily, Ron and Mateo enjoying the game in the comfort of a sofa...er a wooden bench.)

(Our front row seats for the game action!)

One of the joys of Peace Corps is filling out the absentee ballot. I'm still registered to vote in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Although I haven't actually "lived" in Green Bay in about eight years, it is still the closest thing I have to a place of residence. I'll pause here and thrown in a special thank you to my parents for always welcoming me back with open arms from whatever adventure I happen to be taking. Since I'm infrequently in Green Bay, I've gotten absentee ballots for all those years. I think I've only actually been in Green Bay to vote at the polls twice in my life.

I've gotten really good at casting my absentee ballots. I bet Debbie at town hall, who is in charge of coordinating the absentee voting process, probably wonders who the heck I am and why I keep requesting my ballots at places further away each year.

Here is how the process works. Debbie e-mails me the ballots and all kinds of paperwork, but she also sends me a big yellow envelope that contains my ballot and a certified envelope in which to send back my ballot. The most difficult part of voting from afar is trying to figure out what the candidates stand for, and how I want to vote. Sometimes I check with my parents, but we differ on political opinions quite a bit. Candidate websites are ok, but some of these low level elections don't merit websites. So, I do a quick WI newspaper search. Sometimes I feel incredibly uninformed. Luckily I'm not terribly affected by who wins the County Executive seat.

Then I fill out the big paper ballot, always with a #2 pencil, fold it up and put it into the envelope. I have to fill out all kinds of information on the envelope, and find another US citizen who can act as my witness and also sign the envelope. Thankfully there is a steady stream of volunteers passing through my town. The envelope is prepaid for postage from within the United States, but I'm not in the United States. That, and the mailman said the white envelope had so much written on it in English that it would confuse the postal system here. So, I have to run to a tienda, buy a bigger envelope, address it, and then pay to mail in my vote. All with the added bonus of the fact that my vote has to arrive on or before election day to count....and it will only be counted if the election is close. Bah, it makes me feel like all the effort almost isn't worth it!

(The packet full of voting ballots and envelopes.)

(Cast by a military elector...er Peace Corps Volunteer....)

One of my favorite places to hang out in El Salvador is in Perquin. I think there are two reasons for this. One: The volunteers that have been there during my two years have all been great friends of mine and; Two: The mountains remind me of Colorado. It doesn't hurt that because of the higher altitude, the weather is much cooler. There is something fantastic about sleeping in a pullover and snuggled up in a sleeping bag.

Also, morning in the mountains is beautiful, especially when you wake up at 6am like I do. My friends Krystal and Daniel have a great house that has a stellar view of a mountain range from their front door. I know pictures never do the mountains justice, but I snapped one anyhow. I really enjoy standing in their front door drinking coffee in the morning and just staring out at the mountains.

Morning at Krystal and Daniel's is always made better by the presence of Lantis, the boxer that belongs to the owner of the nearby hotel. She's a playful little thing that has taken to Daniel and Krystal, and spends most of her time hanging out at their house. She also enjoys mornings sitting in the doorway looking out at the mountains.

I'm going to miss these slow, quiet mornings when I'm not in El Salvador anymore.

One of my favorite exercises we used to do at Envision with our scholars was to have them reflect upon the experience by writing a "Dear Me" letter that we sent to them a few months later. I was in charge of doing a review session at Band of Brothers camp, and decided to adapt the idea. I was totally blown away with the letters the boys wrote, and how well they followed the prompts.

Here is what we asked them to write:

Dear Me,

Here at Band of Brothers camp, I learned:

1. 3 ways to transmit HIV/AIDS

2. 2 ways to protect myself

3. My favorite activity from camp

4. My favorite food from camp

5. A goal for my life

6. How I am going to respect the women in my life.

Here is the card that one of the boys wrote. His answer to the last question is:

1. I will respect women and not use catcalls with them.

2. I won't insult her.

3. I will not mistreat her and I will obey her because that is the most beautiful gift God gives us.

4. I will not make jokes about them.

5. I will not rape them.

I'm not really sure where number five came from, but I'm glad he won't be doing that to any woman!

I spent last Saturday and Sunday up in Perquin helping facilitate a leadership and reproductive camp for young boys focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. My friend Anna organized the whole camp and invited me up to help facilitate a few of the sessions. She brought several young men from her site, as did my other friend, Daniel. A few of us came without kids to help offer our support. In total we had 19 young men, most between the ages of 13-17. There is precious little reproductive health taught in schools here. Most kids don't know anything about the prevention of STIs, especially HIV/AIDS, or about contraception. Most classes or information is presented to young women. This camp gave us the opportunity to talk to young men about not just reproductive health, but also about general themes in their lives including teamwork, planning the future, dating, and how to treat a woman with respect.

I was blown away by the work of my fellow volunteers who came together to put on an amazing experience for these boys, most of whom had never spent a night away from their homes. The boys were on their best behavior, were incredibly respectful, made great friends and hopefully learned a thing or two.

(Anna and Daniel solicit help from the boys as they develop the guidelines for camp.)

(Boys and Laura sitting in a circle ready for a discussion.)

I got to co-facilitate the workshop focused on trust and teamwork. Brian developed several exercises the boys had to complete as a team, and my group worked together so well. Here they have to use a bench, rocks and bamboo poles to cross a "lava river."

(Working as a team to climb the hill without entering the area between the bamboo poles.)

(Crossing from one side of the "spider web" to the other without touching the rope or using the same slot more than once. Great display of teamwork!)

(A view from above as Sarah teaches the boys about proper condom usage.)

(Practicing how to correctly use a condom. The boys were great at getting rid of their shyness and learning a critical skill.)

In one workshop, the boys learned about how HIV/AIDS can spread quickly in a small community when people aren't in monogamous relationships or using protection. We put up pictures of eight models, and each boy had to sign up with three models to go on dates with. Later it was revealed which models were HIV positive. Anyone who slept with that model contracted HIV, and then anyone who slept with a model who slept with one of those boys also contracted HIV.

(Signing up for a date with Scarlett.)

I borrowed heavily from my days at Envision for some of my sessions. In this one, I asked the boys to think about a respected leader in their communities and draw pictures of what they think the ideal leader is. I was impressed with their answers, and how culturally different they were from what the kids in the US come up with.

I also did an activity with them on leadership, teamwork and non-verbal communication. They had to work as a team to toss water baloons from group to group, without breaking them, to the end of the line. Only the team leader was allowed to talk. After a few rough starts, both groups got the activity down and ended up tied with 15 balloons each.

(Looking up at everyone with their diplomas!)

(A group photo of all the young gentlemen and the PCVs.)

The camp made me realize how much I miss working more with kids and facilitating leadership camps. I also feel really good about the new knowledge they went home with at the end of camp.

Last weekend I was up in Perquin to help facilitate a boys camp that was lead by a fellow PCV. Each of us were in charge of several parts of the schedule. My good friend Brian came and shared his specialty: tissue paper hot air balloons. The construction of the balloons is a fairly simple process, although detailed and time consuming. Throughout the camp Brian led the boys and volunteers through the construction process. It involves gluing together several sheets of tissue paper to make the four panels of the balloon, trimming them to size and gluing them together. Then adding a thin metal wire square that holds a cloth soaked in wax and allowed to dry. To fly the balloon, one must hold it up and open and light the cloth. The hot air from the flame fills the inside of the balloon, and propels it upward, causing the balloon to take flight.

On the final morning of the camp we took the balloons out to let them fly. It was a bit windy, which makes it tricky for the hot air to fill the balloons. Almost all of them flew successfully, and the campers were thrilled!

(Brian and Daniel demonstrating how to fold and cut the paper.)

(A team of boys and PCVs holding their balloon while it fills with hot air.)

(View from below of the flame and balloon filling.)

(Lined up along the wall watching the balloon fly away.)

On Monday afternoon I was reading the paper when I came across an article that said the national soccer team, the "Selecta," would be playing a friendly match against Haiti here in El Salvador on Wednesday night. I knew I had to be in the capital all week for medical appointments and figured it would be fun to go see the team play one more time before heading home. We managed to get a group of friends together, picked up tickets and made it to the game.

From what I heard in the news, the soccer federation didn't expect the game to be well attended. As an incentive to get people to go to the game, tickets were 2 for 1. That means our $20 tickets turned into $10 tickets. Also, the sub-20 (younger guys) national team played the sub-20 Mexico team first. Tickets included admission to that game as well. The sub-20 team played a great game, which ended tied 1-1.

The national team game started almost on time. It was great seeing both teams take the field and have their national anthems played. After two years here, I almost have the whole national anthem down! While I do feel a little bad about cheering against Haiti, I loved cheering for my adopted country. El Salvador pulled off a 1-0 win in the game.

All told, it was a great night with good friends. I almost felt like a normal person again, sitting in a stadium watching a game. The fried plantain, peanut and panes vendors quickly broke that illusion. Sitting in the stadium, waiting for the game to start, I found myself lost in thought. I was thinking, that moment gave me a good sense of closure. I got to go to one last Selecta game, cheer on the country I love so much, celebrate with my Salvadorans, swear at the other team in Spanish, and feel such pride when we won. I can't wait to wear my blue and white and cheer on the Selecta next time they play a friendly match in the US!

(El Salvador [blue] sub-20 team vs. Mexico sub-20.)

(El Salvador and Haiti lined up for the national anthems. Look how much taller the Haitians [in red] are!)

(Sort of a group shot.)

(Lara, Emily, Hagan and Lauren. Two years into service and still cheering for the Selecta.)

I'm currently in Perquin, Morazan, facilitating an HIV/AIDS leadership camp for young boys with a group of other Volunteers. I'll write more on that later, but right now I want to share pictures with you of the gigantic grasshopper that was hanging out at our hotel last night when we got in. The thing is at least six inches long. I took a picture of it next to my flip flop so you can see how big it is.

It stayed still long enough for me to take a super close detailed picture:

I'm glad it didn't jump on me!

When I first arrived in site 22 months ago and was completing my community assessment, one of the potential projects that came up was Arte Poste, which is the removal of all political propaganda from the light posts in the pueblo and the decorating of said posts with paintings. In March of 2010 we won a grant from a US organization called Kids to Kids (click to see our project profile). By the time we got ourselves organized and the money came in, the rainy season had begun. I'm sure you can understand why undertaking a large outdoor painting project (with water based paint) wouldn't be successful when it rains every day.

Summer (dry season) finally started in November, and when we finished our Christmas soccer tournament, my youth group was ready to start. It helped that kids were on winter break and had all kinds of free time. My visions of a well organized project, headed by the kids, and starting with an art class fell through. Instead, I got a group of excited kids together and said, "you know what, we're just going to go out and paint a few posts today and see how they turn out." Mission accomplished. Other kids walked by and saw what we were doing, and got excited about the project. Thanks to the help of Tyler, who was stuck here on injured reserve for a week, we have made major progress on the project. There are 120 light posts in the pueblo, and I would say that 40 or so are already fully painted with designs. This week I went out and painted another 20 or so posts white so that when the kids get out of school this afternoon we can go out in force and paint! Thanks go out to fellow PCVs Brian, Tyler and Anna, for all of their help in painting! The mayor and the Alcaldia is totally behind the project and excited about how things are turning out. Check out their photos they have posted on their Facebook page. The mayor is even going to sign a new law that says people will be fined if they paint or glue anything over the posts.

I could write more, but I'm really excited to show you pictures of our progress.

(This is what the posts look like before. Others are covered in political propaganda.)

(First you have to clean off the old paint.)

(Then you paint a base of white. Thanks Brian!)

(My kids painting.)

(An almost finished post: corn and fruit.)

(This project has been awesome because the girls are participating!)

(Tyler and I in our paint clothes, with a post we painted.)

(Once the kids felt comfortable with their abilities to paint, the ditched the stencils and started with their own designs. This post is a work of art!)

(Good bye FMLN election propaganda.)

(Hello pretty post.)

(This is one of my posts, and the little guys that kept me company while I painted!)

We finally got around to hosting another food festival this past Sunday. I was a little worried when we only had two vendors at 7:30am, but who are we kidding. This is El Salvador, and nobody shows up on time. Everyone was in place by the time Mass let out at 8:30, and sales were good! The festival lasted until about 2:00pm, which is a bit longer than normal. If felt like our preparation work was much easier this time around, which I'll take as a sign of everybody starting to get the hang of things. Having now hosted four food festivals, I think we have a good little tradition going. More and more people are getting interested in the event, and I'll take the fact that we haven't failed yet to be a sign of success.

Special thanks to Tyler, Erica and Jesse, my fellow Peace Corps volunteers who came out to support the event, and Sachi and Akifumi, the JICA volunteers who joined us. It truly was an international event. I didn't take many pictures of the actual event because they would have looked exactly like the previous three festivals. But, I did manage to snap enough shots to make a blog posting.

None of the vendors decided to sell sodas this month, so the lady who runs the tienda next door (see that building in the picture below with all the posters on it) made some good money selling them. A can of soda costs $0.50. A 2.5 liter bottle costs $1.50. Of course Jesse, Tyler and I went in on a bottle. Instead of using cups to share, people in El Salvador use plastic bags and straws. I got us 3 bags and 3 straws and we enjoyed the soda to the fullest. I am a firm advocate of the fact that food and beverage always tastes better when consumed out of a plastic bag.

(Me and my bag of cola.)

(Tyler has the bag drinking down to a science.)

(Jesse makes bag drinking look classy.)

(The cheese on CM's riguas was stringy, and he opted for the hands free approach.)

(Peace Corps, JICA and my Mayor with his son. Quite the group.)

(La Chanchona and the Mirimba. Some good music in the park.)

A few weeks ago my food festival committee had a holiday dinner party. Everyone had to bring a dish to pass, and I brought carrot Crasin bread, which was a huge hit. A group of the ladies asked if I would teach them how to make the bread before I finished my service. On Wednesday afternoon the called to see if I was free that night for a baking class. I brought the Crasins, and my ladies brought everything else.

They decided to make the recipe times four! That is a lot of bread. We broke out some big bowls and mixed up all kinds of flour, eggs, sugar, butter, carrots and Craisins. Using my great fondness of experiential learning, I had them do all of the hands on work. It was a blast! After we got everything mixed together and the pans greased and filled we put everything into the oven and had a good time sitting around visiting while we waited for bread. It turned out great, and I'm happy about the success of the skills transfer. Plus, it was really cool to finally feel like I was giving something back to my community, even if it was just a new bread recipe.

These ladies just finished a several week long bakery course taught by Fomilenio, the branch of the Millenium Challange Corporation here in El Salvador. They now have some technical training in bread and pastry making, and are motivated to start a small business here in town. I want to try to help them as much as I can, but I know I am running out of time. Wouldn't it be a cool project to help open a small business? Maybe if they stay serious about the idea, the new volunteer that will be replacing me at the end of my service can help them with it! If nothing else, we made great bread and I have breakfast for the next few days.

(My ladies, making break.)

(Five loaves, ready for the oven.)

(Done!)

The Catholic Church in town recently organized an excursion to the town of Juayua as a fund-raising activity. Juayua is a beautiful pueblo in Western El Salvador, and is known for pioneering the food festival idea. As most of my food festival committee is also active in the Church, they invited me along, and I accepted with enthusiasm. Why not help with fund-raising and also go with them to check out what is by far the best food festival in El Salvador? Plus, I would gain some serious community integration points.

They loaded up a big bus and left Esparta around 4am, stopping to pick me up in San Salvador around 8am. Two hours later we were in Juayua, and hopped off the bus to enjoy. The president of the committee and I wandered around, making mental notes of how they organize their festival. We had a great conversation with one of the vendors, who happens to also be one of the organizers of the festival and a member of the Juayua town council. Turns out they started their food festival 15 years ago! They've come a long way, and it was interesting for my ladies to hear that they had the same problems we are having when they started. I was super excited that my mayor was along for the trip, and also got to check it out. I think now everyone is on the same page with a vision of where we could be someday with our festival. Sometimes a little vision is all you need! Based on the awesome conversations we had at our meeting on Tuesday night, everyone took back some valuable lessons and everyone is inspired to keep working hard. I took all kinds of pictures, because it was such a fun day.

(Their vendor stands are set up like mini restaurants. So formal!)

(Meat and fish. I applaud the food selection and presentation in Juayua!)

(Rabbit)

(Frog)

(Tents full of people that come for the food festival. Will ours ever look like this?)

(We have a nice banner too!)

(The Church there is famous for having a Black Jesus.)

(For $3 you can get a 90 minute ride on the Conga Bus, a party bus that goes on a super scenic route.)

(Juayua, nestled below the volcanoes.)

( A mountain range of volcanoes.)

The rainy season is finally over and summer is in full swing here in El Salvador. That means scorching heat, dust everywhere, and sweating all the time. However, it also means that the arrival of good fruit is just around the corner.

Right now my backyard is littered with baby mangoes that fall off the tree when the wind blows hard. In a few more weeks they'll be big enough to start eating. Since fruit in the US is only sold when it is ripe, Americans don't know about the joy of green mangoes. I LOVE green mangoes. They are hard and acidic. Once the mango gets to full size, but before it turns orange, you peel off the skin and cut it into slices, or shred it. Sprinkle on a little salt, maybe some vinegar and hot sauce and enjoy! Soon after green mango season passes, the rest of the mangoes will be ripe and ready to eat! It's not unusual for me to eat 3-4 a day!

(Baby mangoes)

I'm also excited that my lime tree is starting to flower. It was new when I arrived, so we didn't have limes my first year. Last year the tree produced some, and I took full advantage. Limes go in everything! This year the tree is flowering out of control. After the flowers bloom, itty-bitty limes start to grow. Soon they will be big and juicy and ready for consumption. I love lime season! I usually have so many extras that I pick them and give them away to my favorite ladies, who in exchange feed me many, many delicious meals!

(Really little limes.)

(A little bit bigger limes.)

A lot of my free time is spent hanging out with my crew of little kids. We do all kinds of cute and adorable things together, but there is never anybody else around to take pictures. Thankfully, Tyler was around this week, and I made sure we took a few photos. These little guys make my life all kinds of fun, and they fill it with love. I know my experience would have been very different without them, and I'm going to miss them like crazy.

(Strong with Wilmer.)

(Tyler taking a spin on Wilmer's new bike.)

(Tyler playing with a very tiny Mirian.)

(Me. Mirian with Tyler's glasses. Wilmer with my glasses.)

(Too much cuteness for words.)

For weeks now, Carlos Mario and Angie have been asking me to make lasagna with them. Since the banana bread class went well, I figured it would be at least possible to give it a go. Tyler and Rosellen came up to help with the effort. Actually, Rosellen lead the charge and made her family's recipe. I helped a little bit and took pictures.

Carlos Mario stepped up and was a big help in the kitchen. He offered to taste test every ingredient before we used it, just to make sure everything was good. Turns out the kids LOVED lasagna and garlic bread. There was none left by the end of the night! It was a blast finally getting to cook for the family that has taken such good care of me, and invited me to so many meals at their home. Hopefully I'll be able to do it again before I leave.

(Then you add the cheese...)

(A sneaky smile as he watches Rosellen work.)

After dinner was over, we started making Christmas cookies. I brought back some cookie dough mix (just add water and butter!) and cookie cutters. Rosellen brought powdered sugar to make frosting, and we found sprinkles at a grocery store. I think it was the first time the kids ever made Christmas cookies. It was so much fun for me to share with them a tradition I've always enjoyed with my mom. Now I know how much of a saint my mom is for putting up with us kids and making cookies with us every year. It was exhausting!

(Four spoons mixing up the dough.)

(Teaching the little ones how to frost cookies. I now realize there was a reason why my mom always frosted and only let us put on the sprinkles!)

(A cookie!)

I always post pictures of my care packages, freshly opened and on display on the table. However, I hardly seem to take pictures of us enjoying their contents. Last month Ashley sent me a care package with several issues of The Economist and three packages of toys for my kids.

The toys were those little sponges that come in plastic pills. You drop the pills into luke warm water, and let them dissolve. You are left with small, bright colored sponges in various shapes. These came in the shape of safari animals, cars and farm animals. My little buddy Steven got one of the packages for his 6th birthday last week. The other went to Mirian and Alejandro. The third package went to Carlos Mario and Angie.

We spend New Year's Eve dropping the pills into water and waiting to see what would emerge. I used to play with these things all the time as a little kid. Heck, I even seemed to always have a package around the field office when I was working for Envision. So, I was surprised my little kids here had never seen them before. They LOVED them. Now I know what I can send them in care packages once I'm back in the States. Thank you, Ashley, for such an awesome gift. You blew the minds of several of Esparta's finest youngsters.

Last night, Brian and I stopped by Carlos Mario and Angie's place for dinner. Their mom reopened her restaurant...and yesterday was opening day! Finally she is making pizza again and has the big flat screen TV up again. Now I have a place to watch the NFL playoffs and Skype at night! I'm back to living a plush life.

(Carlos Mario, getting in some serious TV time.)

To my surprise, Carlos Mario and Angie hadn't yet lost the sponges. They brought them over to the table and we had a good time playing with them, as can be seen in the pictures below:

Playtime turned into a quick photography class. I taught Carlos Mario how to use the digital zoom and take up close photos...of sponges. It was a thing of beauty. This is one of the pictures he took:

The night quickly degraded into a funny face making photography session, which Carlos Mario was more than delighted to document. Sponge sailboats are delicious.

Thank you for sending awesome care packages. As you can see, my colleagues, kids and I all really enjoy them!