six things that surprised me this week

1. We have run into more Salvadorans that we know that are now living in LA than people from the US. Elvis's college classmates, an old co-worker on mine from the school in San Salvador, a childhood friend of Elvis, etc. I love how much El Salvador is incorporated into our everyday lives.

2. I was surprised  yesterday that I wanted to go running. I am not a runner nor do I pretend to be, but it was 83 degrees outside, and I wanted to go  JUST BECAUSE I COULD. I haven't been able to run outside by myself in approximately 6.5 years for safety reasons, and it felt good just to be able to walk/run down the street without fear of getting hit by a car/bus, getting mugged, or having black bus smoke blown in your face. Just a little piece of El Sal that I don't miss.

3. Everybody wants to try pupusas. A classmate and her husband took us out to the Salvadoran restaurant last week (and it was yummy!), tonight we are (ok, Elvis is) making pupusas for Gabi and her parents, and we are (ok, Elvis is) teaching a vegetarian cooking group how to make pupusas in February. And we have requests to make them at home for some other friends. I love that everyone wants to eat pupusas.

4. 70% of our neighborhood (the surrounding blocks) speaks English + another language. I am doing an in-depth research project on our neighborhood for my Urban Studies class and was surprised about this. 52% of our neighborhood is Hispanic.

5.  We got filet mignon last night for free from the Trader Joe's donations!

6.Some of you know that Suzy has an imaginary friend named Paki, who only speaks Spanish. This week, Elvis was showing her some pictures of people in El Salvador, and he showed her a picture of his dad (who died 5 years ago). When she saw the picture, she said, "Hey there's Paki!" And then she pulled out her "cell phone" to call Paki, and she asked him what Jesus had said. And I said, "Jesus?" And she said, "Yea, Paki with Jesus!"  

Whoa.