Celebrating the Fourth of July

[Let me start with a brief side note to explain the double posting I've been doing lately. For the past couple of weeks I have not had internet access at home so I have had to wait until in the office to make blog posts. To minimize the amount of time I spent doing "non-work related" work I started drafting blog posts in word documents at home, which eventually led to a small back-log of thoughts I wanted to share. The internet glitch has been resolved so I wanted to get caught up with my posts and as of this post I will be.]

This was actually the first time I have been out of the US on the Fourth of July (yet another first) and I was honestly a little torn about it. Part of me would have loved to spend another Fourth in DC and part of me is glad I missed the outrageous number of tourists who come to the area for this important national holiday. Still I wanted to celebrate and Mark was also eager to avoid spending an entire weekend sitting around the apartment so we went in search of some entertainment.

Before we started, however, I was in desperate need of clean clothes so I had my first experience with hand washing ALL of my clothes. My host does not have a washer or a dryer so buckets and soap are my only option. Call me spoiled, lazy, whatever you wish but that process is horrifically time consuming and although my clothes have been hanging to dry for two full days, they are still wet. Trust me, I'm going to be looking for alternatives in the future.

Anyway, after I spent my morning doing that I got a call from Mark asking if I'd be interested in going to the national art museum. I was, so off we went courtesy of a friend who drove us. There was a $1.50 entrance fee and Mark and I went off to enjoy the works of Salvadoran artists. The collection was very interesting although fairly small. Maybe I am just too used to the expansive Smithsonian collections. Still, it was a very pleasant way to spend an hour. Afterwards we attempted to visit the Anthropology museum but we arrived only 30 minutes before closing so we saved that for another day.

Later that night we again ended up in the Multiplaza mall for dinner and a movie. After agreeing on our ideal criteria for dinner (full service and not Mexican food) we ended up, a little ironically, at Tony Romas. We didn't consciously plan it this way but we ended up in an American restaurant on the Fourth and had some really good BBQ. We then met up with another friend and watched Wall-E at the theater in the mall. Overall it was a very pleasant night of BBQ, cocktails and storytelling. It was the first phase of "celebrating the Fourth".

We did hear of a celebration at the Embassy that we would have been welcome at but we decided to bow out of that one. We've seen parties at the Embassy. They're not that entertaining. There was to be another celebration of the Fourth on July 5, however, and for lack of anything better to do we decided to go to there. I can't explain to you the extent of the wildness of this party! (Sense the sarcasm). It was attended by a lot of embassy workers with their families, a group of Peace Corps volunteers, and the two interns from Georgetown. Mark and I entertained ourselves with joking remarks about the "party", the music, and the food. It wasn't very expensive, however, and all told I think we both enjoyed ourselves. We were warmly greeted by the Ambassador's wife and later the Ambassador himself. If nothing else we each got to shake hands with him and hear his very bad joke at the end of his welcome speech. Mark has reserved the right to retell that story so you'll have to wait until he gets his blog up and running. The party ended with a nice fireworks display (that set off almost every car alarm in a 5 mile radius).

Now, before you conclude that Mark and I don't know how to "celebrate" a holiday, there is one last phase to our celebration. Once again our friend Luis picked us up and took us to a couple of bars where there were PLENTY of other Americans "celebrating". Our first stop was La Ventana (The Window) which is apparently a popular hangout for "extranjeros" (foreigners - predominantly Americans in this case). I was able to get a couple of Guinnesses so I was in heaven. Luis forbade the use of English for the night, which means I didn't talk much...at least for the first hour or so. Luis and his friends that joined us were convinced a few beers would loosen my tongue and it turns out they weren't far off. Mark, always more brave about speaking did very well throughout the night.

After a couple of drinks we moved to a nightclub/restaurant that I wish to high heaven would branch out and come to DC. The music was an entertaining mix of salsa and American pop and the food to die for. By this point there was a group of five of us so they ordered a huge platter of delicious meats. (My apologies to any of my vegetarian friends who may be reading this but I've never made it a secret that I am a carnivore.) That is truly the type of dinner I always crave when drinking. For the rest of the night we watched some very drunk Americans do their version of salsa dancing. Thanks to my Salvadoran companions I now actually know how locals look at us crazy Americans when we cut loose in other countries. Trust me, we are funny people. No one at my table seemed to stop laughing.

It was a great weekend and a Fourth of July to remember. Happy Independence Day everyone!