Back in El Salvador

After a surprisingly long car trip down to Chicago with Fr. Mike and Joe (14 hours) I found my plane back to El Salvador and arrived in half the time it took to reach Chicago. (the car trip was way more fun though!)

Something Fr. Mike said on the way down really stuck with me. He said when learning another language, you're a different person. It's true. I am not myself when I converse in Spanish, mainly because it is very difficult to be humorous when I don't know the words. I have learned to make various types of jokes and so still am able to laugh with people, but having lost something so basic to my identity really changes how people perceive me. I realized that I have no idea what everyone here thinks of me, hadn't considered that I come off differently than I normally would. I'm going to think about that more.

When I got to El Salvador yesterday I got my first surprise when I went through immigration. I am in the process of getting a residential visa and since it was taking a long time (more than the 3 month tourist visa I had) I got an extension to July 13th. I was hoping that by leaving the country I would be able to purchase another tourist visa for another 3 months.

Well, I did have to purchase another tourist visa. I thought I was getting another 3 months. No. Because I had left the country while still in the process of applying for a Visa the extension to July 13 was null and void. The lady in immigration had me buy another tourist visa and graciously gave me 10 days to complete my application for the Residency Visa. sigh. All right. I wonder what will happen if I don't have the visa after 10 days? Next week should be a stressful week. We'll see how it goes.