Life Is Calling... A New Path

Life Is Calling is a series of reader submissions. It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories and experiences about life as a recent college graduate conquering the real world. If you would like to submit a story to this series, shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment with your e-mail. Today’s post is by Ali, she is working as an au-pair and English teacher in Paris.  

Life Is Calling...

One of my best post college experiences was being rejected from law school. For years I thought I wanted to be a big, confident, smart ass lawyer like Alex Cabot on Law & Order SVU. After a summer interning with lawyers, I quickly changed my mind and I couldn’t be more happy things worked they way they did. 

After shocking my parents and most of my friends, I somehow figured out how to move across the Atlantic to France. I've never been one to solidly believe in "things happen for a reason" but while I saw coming to Paris as an opportunity to escape "the real world" after graduating college, I didn't realize how much my future would be affected. After only a couple months in France, I decided I wanted to stay longer and applied for temporary jobs in Paris to extend my stay another year. Now, after 14 months in France, I want to stay long term. Immediately, a question comes to mind, “why?”  

Paris is home now. My parents moved from the house I grew up in outside Philadelphia last April to San Francisco and after graduating from UMass, my college family has spread in various directions around the world. While I love and miss them all, I needed a new place to call home and took comfort in Paris.  

I spent two weeks in San Francisco this past summer. It was my first trip to northern California and first time visiting my parents’ new house. But that’s exactly what it was - my parents’ house. All of my old things were in the house. I have my own room, as does my brother, but it’s not home. I don’t know many people in SF and I got lost more times than not. I fit in with the American culture too much. One of the best parts of living in a different country is standing out. While it was amazing to see my parents after many months, I was very excited to get back on the plane and head to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. One thing I have learned about myself is that I like being different. I have become more comfortable as the foreigner than the native.

My first week back from SF, I started my job as a teaching assistant at a French high school. I introduced myself and the kids asked me questions about myself. The hardest question my students put forth to me was, "do you prefer France or the United States?" My response is still the same. The US is home. It is somewhere familiar where I will always be welcome and never an outsider. It's where my family is and where I grew up. But for the time being, I prefer France. I learn something new every day.

Although, it's not all fun and games living in the luxury land of Paris. It's an adventure with struggle, hardships, and sometimes glamour. It takes courage and will to get through each day. However, it's the daily struggles which make life interesting. Some days are easier than others. I am not French and I will never be French and I'm constantly faced with trying to break negative stereotypes of Americans. But that's what makes it exciting. While I'm not always aware of the fact, I am representing the United States every day. I am not an ambassador or foreign service agent but I am an American and when people talk to me, they take what I say and it reflects on the United States. In some ways, I think it holds higher value. I do not have a political agenda to be in France. I choose to live here to learn, explore, grow, and enjoy life.

One Ring To Rule Them All, Or Something

Peace Corps El Salvador is undergoing some serious changes. The big bosses in Washington have decided that for the amount of security incidences involving volunteers that have been occurring in the Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), we need a safety and security revamp. Among the changes we know about in El Salvador so far are a ban from the capital, travel restriction (temporary for now, but possibly permanent?) and possible ban from public transportation all together. These are big changes for us as a large part of our service is based on travel. Also PC Wash is sending the two groups ahead of me home early. They are trying to get the number of volunteers down to a more manageable number for the types of changes they want to put in place. Peace Corps has also decided to offer an interrupted service option for those who wish to take it. Basically if we feel unsafe or the changes being made are too drastic, PC is giving us an out.

As of now, I have decided to stay. I have big plans for my second year in my community and I just got voted president of the Gender and Development committee. School starts back up next week. There is only one teacher for all six grades that attend the school in my community. Not many kids go to the school, maybe 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon, but still, that is a lot of material for one teacher. So I have plans to start helping out more over there. Also my community is still trying to figure out a potable water project. That battle is ongoing.  Hopefully something can be done. 

One of cramps this is putting on my life is my very limited access to Dr Pepper just got even more limited. (And, clearly, this is the most important thing to take away from this post.) On a lucky trip to the capital, I will be able to find Dr Pepper. But now I have had that chance snatched out of my hands. I kind of feel like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. You know, when he realizes that he lost The Ring to Bilbo. He freaks out. Now I probably would not kill for Dr Pepper, but I totally relate to Gollum right now. One soda to rule them all.

Many of my friends are leaving with the interrupted service option and many are leaving as a part of PC El Salvador's downsizing efforts. My second year is pretty much guaranteed to be a 180 from my first year of service. It is yet to be determined what life will look like when the dust settles from these new rules and evaluations. But for now I am here, putting one foot in front of the other. 

Free Speech and Chipotle: Why Did I Ever Leave?

I am back from my two week vaca in the States. It was awesome. I spent most of my time in Florida with my parents and brother with a quick trip to Atlanta to visit my family up there. In reality though, I spent most of my time eating. It is pretty gross the amount of food I was putting away daily. But seeing as I have had some combo of tortillas, beans, rice and eggs for almost every meal for the past year, I did not feel guilty. Pretty sure I gained an unhealthy amount of weight. But not to worry, I am back on a strictly beans and tortilla diet. I'm sure I will be back to my svelte self shortly. haha

Here is a short list of things I did in the US of A that I cannot or have not done since leaving a year ago:

*Drive (PCV's are not allowed to drive for safety reasons, I assume. I mostly spend my time dreaming of a time when teleportation will be feasible. Beam me up Scotty!)
*Walking down the street with my iPod out (Down here that would be a huge don't do. But at home it is normal, and apparently iPhones have taken over the world. EVERYONE has one! Crazy)
*Eating Chipotle ( I tried to stay away from all food that could be classified as coming from Central America. But Chipotle never lets me down. A delicious little bundle of goodness, the only bad part is that I only got to eat there once.)
*Getting my hair cut (By the way never get your hair cut hungover. You end up deciding bangs are a good idea. Bangs are almost never a good idea, especially living in a hot and humid country. Only 8.5 more months until they are grown out!)
*Blending in (Being a blond Gringa makes me stick out like a sore thumb down here. In the states blond girls are everywhere, although I like to think I stick out for other reasons. But I don't mind that as much.)
*Being consistently understood (My Spanish sills improve daily, but it is great to have the full command of a language and know that when you are going to someone's house it is to have lunch not kill a chicken...)
*Watching NCIS and Law and Order SVU marathons (As much as I love telenovelas like Soy Tu Dueña, NCIS and SVU will always be my favorites, especially when there are marathons of them on.)

Shockingly not too much changed while I was away, and that was comforting. The biggest change around where my parents lived was the new Rooms to Go. I mean, that is a pretty big deal, but somehow I feel ok with missing out on it.

Cheers!

It was nice to be able to unwind and hang out with my family. Tomorrow marks my living in El Salvador for one year. Crazzy. Peace Corps El Salvador is going through some serious changes right now (which I will discuss in my next post). Even though home was great and times are uncertain down here right now, I am glad to be back. Here is to a productive and fun second year!

Let Me Paint You A Picture

I am back from two weeks of vacation in America. After 12 hours of traveling and three plane changes, I step off the plane in San Salvador. It is 1:15 AM. Everyone around me is tired as we are all filling out our customs forms. I only have a pencil so I ask the flight attendant if that is ok, she says yes. Since it is so late, we are the only group waiting to get through customs. A baby starts crying. The officials usher the mother and baby to the front of the line. My turn with the customs officer comes up. He is speaking to me about my intentions in El Salvador, but it is loud and he is whispering. I have to ask him to repeat what he said 3 times. He shakes his head as though he is sad someone who does not speak Spanish is coming into the country. I want to clarify that I just could understand him, I just could not hear him. I let it go though because it is now 2 AM and is not worth it. I find my checked suit case. I then go to the last area where you declare anything you may be bringing into the country. I get reprimanded for filling out my declaration statement in pencil. I then find a pen and fill out the form again.

 I step outside only to be bombarded with the stares of 100 Salvadorians waiting for loved ones, but instead see me. I am then very aware that I am not in the US anymore. I find my taxi driver who is patiently waiting for me. As I am waiting for him to pull the car around I rest my hand on a wall and take in El Salvador at 2 AM. It is hot. I look over at my hand... there is a large cockroach just chillin on it. Fantastic. On the way to the hostel I stayed at, we almost got into an accident with a drunk diver who was driving on the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness my taxi driver was on his toes at 2:30 AM.

As I am headed back to my site, I am a little apprehensive about what it will be like after two weeks in the States. I always feel guilty when I am away from my community for more than a day or two. I am feeling even more guilty about having gone to the States so easily. Most of the people who have been to the States here spend their life savings only to risk their lives for three weeks to get there illegally. But that is a story for another day. When I finally get back my host family/ next door neighbors come running over and all give me big hugs. I am glad to be back and ready to get to work. Vacation update to come soon!

Expect The Unexpected

I have been living in El Salvador for almost a year now. I had two months of Spanish classes, but other than that my language learning has been very hands on and not so much hitting the books. I am not fluent, but I am light years ahead of where I was when I first got here. I feel pretty confident with the Spanish I know, and most people go easy when speaking to me. I appreciate this. But everyone has miscommunications in any language, fluent or not. (Remember the time I thought I was going fishing with people in my community? And I show up at their house only to sit with them for 7 hours and then be asked to kill a chicken for their entertainment? Classic.)

It had been a while since I had had a serious translation confusion. This brings us to last month. I was visiting my friend, Joelle, in her site. She lives very close to me, only two communities up from mine, so I visit her often. She lives with her host family, and when Joelle left the room they called me over and in hushed voices told me of their plan to throw Joelle a surprise party for her birthday that was coming up. They asked me to invite our other friend Carolyn. I told them I was in. I explained the plan to Carolyn and she said she was in as well.

A week ago I was in Joelle's site again for an unrelated birthday party. Again when Joelle had left me, her host family came up to me and we confirmed the plans. Carolyn and I would head to the community around 4pm on Friday, bake a cake with a woman, Judith, in the community and then head to the surprise party. This whole time Joelle is in the dark. Everyone was so good about keeping the secret.

Friday rolls around, and Carolyn and I take Joelle out to lunch in Santa Ana. She thinks this is the end of the birthday celebrations. Joelle heads home. Around 4pm Carolyn and I head to Joelle's site. We are lucky and get a ride all the way to the house where we are making the cake. Judith shows us in and tells us to put our bags in the bedroom. This was weird, but we just figured she wanted us to get them out of the way. We are hanging out making the cake and talking about the lunar eclipse that is going to happen the next morning. We want more information so I call my mom. While she is telling me the results of her lunar eclipse google search, Carolyn is chatting with Judith. All of a sudden Carolyn shoots me a look and mouths 'I need to tell you something!' I hang up with my mom. Carolyn informs me that while talking to Judith about the eclipse, Judith says that we are going to be able to see it as we will be up at 4am the next morning. Needless to say we were confused.

I decided to call Joelle's host family and clear the matter up. I call and Carlos answers. I tell him that Carolyn and I want to know what time the party is starting. He tells me 4 am. This is the first time I have heard this. Apparently the plan the whole time was for Carolyn and I to stay the night at Judith's house and then get up in time to wake her up by singing at 4am. I am sitting there on the phone thinking to myself, I know my Spanish isn't great, but I really didn't think it was this bad.  

So for lack of any other plan, we spent the night at Judith's. She had known what was going on the whole time, so the only people that were surprised by this were Carolyn and I. We had pupusas for dinner and went to bed early. We got up and by 4am we were headed, with other members of the community, to Joelle's house. Once we got there, we were greeted by Joelle's host family. We stood out side her door at 4:10 and started singing. There were about 20 people there. Carlos played the guitar. Another man played the base guitar. Another man shot off fireworks. All while we were singing a very long birthday wake up song outside her door. Joelle emerged from her room and was appropriately shocked to see Carolyn and I standing there with her community.

When the song finished, we all sat down and had cake and coffee and told her the story. Carolyn had to catch a bus back to her site at 9. So we walked her down to the bus stop. I stayed another night and celebrated with Joelle for the rest of day. I may never figure out how that miscommunication occurred, maybe I should crack my Spanish books open again....