Not in order of importance, just as they come to mind!

Mind you, I guess I should list them as ways to improve your mastery of a Second of Foreign language, LOL!

1. cable TV! - don't laugh! back when we first got cable here in ES, there was ONE cable company, and they had SEVEN channels only...all in English and no subtitles!...Grandma had it installed in our house...if we wanted to watch the "cool" programs, we had to make an effort to understand them!...it certainly helps train your ear!

2. books - At school they gave us summarized versions of books geared towards ESL (English as a Second Language) or EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students...but I also had my father's book case replete with "real" books...and he let me choose whichever I wanted!

3. Magazines- if you finished your work fast, our teacher would give you either a National Geographic or Time Magazine to read quietly while the rest of the people finished theirs.

4. Friends/family - when you have friends/ family members that don't speak your mother tounge, you tend to learn pretty quickly!

5. Getting rid of the shame- NO ONE speaks perfectly...I consider myself well educated and, still, will sometimes say things like "imprimido" (instead of "impreso") or "morido" instead of "muerto) ...I generally recognize the horror the minute those words leave my mouth, turn beet red and correct myself, but, the point is I DON'T speak perfect Spanish (not to mention there are probably 100,000 mistakes I make that I don't catch!)...so, if I'm not perfect in my own language...how can I be expected to be in another one? We all make mistakes...live with it!(plus, as a foreigner, one should get some credit just for TRYING!)

6. Etymology and phonetics classes- which I took at the university...knowing where a word came from really helps!
those funny little markings next to the dictionary made sense after that!...

9. Composition lessons- one writes as one thinks, if you're thinking is disorganized, like mine, you really need this!

8. Practice, practice, practice! - I've been blessed that I've had the opportunity to practice my English on a daily basis for the past 20 years!! ...unfortunately, my German is almost "lost", since I HAVEN'T had this opportunity!

It doesn't fit anywhere on the list, but one of the things I find fascinating about learning/ practicing a foreign language is that it gives you wonderful insight into other cultures!

he said there's no indication of anything neurological wrong with me (yay!)...but, he said my blood pressure is high...he prescribed some blood tests to check for the usual (cholesterol, tryglicerids, etc)...gave me some gynko biloba (sp?) and some b-6 vitamins and told me to come see him again in 1 month...
he said I could be suffering from chronic fatigue...Yep, I'd say that's a possibility! LOL!..

I had a migraine again today, and slept most of the afternoon...

I'm going to try to have a more regular sleep schedule!

As I was saying, seeing all those numbers made my head swim, and it was actually kind of scary... so I went into Excel and tried to "map" it...here's what I came up with:

YEAR 1

This helped me realize, for example, that I cannot stop saving for taxes after the 2008 taxes are covered...because it's not like I won't have to pay taxes in the followin years! (if anything, I'd have to pay MORE!)

YEAR 2


YEAR 3


YEAR 4

Found a great deal on tires! woo-hoo!

I had to explain to Ale this morning that the fact that the school is allowing them NOT to wear their uniforms the last 3 days of school does NOT mean students can wear whatever they want... she wasn't too happy about it, but, I know she now probably thanks me (as it seems some of her schoolmates had to be told this AT SCHOOL, BY THE TEACHERS!!)

What bothered me about Ale's clothes this morning:

1. mini-skirt: she was wearing what used to be a mini skirt 2 years ago...it barely covered her while sitting down, even with shorts underneath it!
2. shoes: black ballerina flats that were pretty when bought, but after almost 1 year of abuse look like she rescued them from the city dump...it's a miracle they don't have holes in them, but look very worn and ratty...AND, they make her feet smell if worn without socks!!!
3. shoes: she changed into crocks...definetely not a choice of footwear my grandmother would have thought appropriate for school! - it's as if she had worn sandals: too casual!

So I sent her to change again and she found a skirt that was about 3 inches above her knees and she decided to wear her Hush-puppy sandals...

She gave me an evil look...and I explained to her...I asked her if she had noticed that I never wore my work-clothes on the weekends, or viceversa...

I told her that is because eventhough I don't wear a uniform, there are certain rules we are required to follow when at certain places (no bare shoulders at church, no jeans at certain offices, etc)...

She seemed to have accepted it by the time we left for school and, coming back from lunch I got a message in my voicemail that said: "Mom, we can wear our normal clothes to school today, but we cannot wear 'ycras'...do you know what 'lycras' are?" (they mean short biking pants)...I'm guessing there's a long list of other stuff as well!

I had to go to the supermarket today...didn't intend to, but none of the corner stores had powdered milk, and we ran out...I went there on an empty stomach- bad, I know!...but, the one thing I craved was a salad with yogurt dressing...so I bought a lettuce and some tomatoes (no salmonella here!- or maybe we are just inmume already! LOL!), a cup of plain yogurt and a bottle of nutmeg (not used in this recipe, just one of those "basic" spices that we didn't have at home!...)

The dressing: yogurt, mustard, ground pepper, salt, vinegar (tiny amount) and basil leaves...simply divine!

yum!...and Nanny had cooked some chicken with a red sauce that was delicious, and some rice w/veggies...so I had a VERY nice dinner!

ugh! I was looking at the office's travel budget (we need to send an update on projected vs. budget) and, we had "left over" money ....we KNEW there had to be a problem, and thought maybe I had left out some trips or something...I went over the trip allocation twice....and then proceeded to re-check the other numbers...ah-ha! turns out the "remaining available funds" figure I used were NOT ours, but another country's!!

Ok, I just finished one translation work. It was a 2 hour job, and it will bring in $40! yay!

As is the case with many Catholic rites in Latin America, this originally was an indian rite adopted/adapted by the Catholic Church: at the beginning of the rainy season, to ask the gods for a bountiful harvest, the pipiles used to make offerings of fruit. Now those offerings are made on May 3rd (Day of the Cross in the Catholic calendar) and placed at the feet of a cross. People put up these little crosses in their yards, with garlands and fruit. We put ours in the living room (to guard the fruit against Tonio and Fiona)

The cross in El Salvador is made of a special wood called "palo de jiote" (don't ask! I don't know!)... the peculiarity is that the bark peels off and leaves behind a very smooth surface. It is believed that the indians saw in this wood a representation of the Xipe Totec - an important Mayan god who wore the skin of the dead

There's some information here: http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/sanromero/message/39

The top of the page is in Spanish, but if you scroll down, you'll find the info in English.

I will deposit the cheque on Monday...
Yay!- and they still owe me $258!

Niece got her Dad to give her giftcards to a clothing store instead of him buying the clothes for her! so all 5 pieces she bought fit/ she likes them! yay!

It's "official"! we both said yes!...they don't have any work for me right now, but they are expecting some soon!...it's a very nice project translating scripts...yay! Pay is not much, but, it is light work (they sent me some samples of a job they just delivered, also the corrections made by the end customer)

I am happy, because a friend had scared me a bit about putting my $40 towards savings, quoting the inflation and rent increases...but I had already decided I was going to try to make it at least for 6 moths, figuring I could offset the increases through translation money.

sis and I are constantly teasing Niece about her having 1,0000 shoes, while we only see her wear the same pair....same with clothes...

I guess anticipating getting a ton of new stuff for her b-day, she decided to clean her closet last weekend...

I got a pair of shoes, as did sis... (please note sis wears a size 4, I wear a size 5 and niece wears a size 7!....)

What niece discovered was that:
she has 14 pairs of shoes (after the ones she gave away)...but of those, 5 she "absolutely loves" and were "total bargains at half off"...but they hurt her feet so she doesn't wear them.... hmmm...

Of her many blouses....some are too loose for her taste (bought by her father, LOL!), some are already too small and others are not really her taste (gifts)...she gave some of the ones that are too loose to my sis...and I asked her to pass the ones that are too small to Ale...I suggested giving away the ones she doesn't like (plenty of people will be more than happy to have those!)

She has 13 pants, between jeans and "regular" pants...but "can only wear 1 pair"...the other ones...you guessed! either they don't fit (too loose) or she doesn't like the way they fit! ...ok, keep those that can be fixed and fix them, give the other ones away!...

I think she finally understood that we WERE right, that she DID have a closetful of stuff she wasn't wearing...I also hope she realizes how silly it is to keep a closetful of stuff that doesn't fit or that you don't like!...

is April 30. As long as she remains in El Salvador, she will ALWAYS be able to have a party ON her birthday...See, May 1st is Labor Day here, and a National Holiday!!!

We had an early dinner here last night (7pm), so she could then go for another dinner with her father and then go clubbing with her friends!....

Sis got her a watch (she has a boxfull of watches that she never uses- yes, I've given her quite a few myself....her excuse? 1. She likes to be able to color coordinate her watches with her outfits, and 2. Most need new batteries!)...
Ale and I got her a picture frame (in purple, her favorite color) and a teddy bear (which I suspect Ale is hoping wil end up sitting on her own bed instead of Niece's!)- just to make it financial: I spent a total of $6.50 on both presents!

I had thought I'd be getting about $20 more per pay period...but the payroll stubs came today and I will be getting $43 more per pay period!...I will splurge this pay period (Friday) and buy a ticket to go see a Mi guel B ose in concert ("general" locations are $20)...and I will make arrangements to have $40 withheld towards my savings account with the co-op starting the next pay period (May 16th)

I was lathering some of the (prescribed) hand lotion today, and, I suddenly realized.... the Dr's fee ($20) and the creams (~$20)were an unexpected expense...paid for in cash....without me having to be late on payments for anything to be able to use those ~$40!... I didn't even have to touch my meager savings or put in on a cc (putting it on a cc didn't even cross my mind!)...True, I had to wait 2 paid periods, but since this Dr's visit was just so I could get my passport, it was not an emergency and could wait...

This is real progress! I was reading my Jan 2005 entries and I was complaining about not being able to get $33 to bring my cc up to current status!!

I feel accomplished!!

1. I wish I had known they were NOT inmortal!- it may sound silly, but, part of me still believed they'd be around forever!
2. I wish someone had told me that, no matter how prepared you think you are (long lives, long illness, etc), you are never fully prepared (emotionally) for your parent's to die!
3. I should have thought of making "keepsake" boxes for Ale- she was so young when they died, some days she is anguished because she cannot fully remember them!
4. I wish I had written down some of Mom's recipes! - some are gone forever!

There are probably more things, but these are the ones that jump at me right now!

got a referral from my sis...the brother of a friend of hers needs translations.
I just wrote to the guy and sent him my contact numbers (the brother had sent me his e-mail, only)

This is good...another "direct" customer!! (potential, anyway!)

Ale recently wondered how children who don't have a father living in the house can get a present for Mom without asking her for the $$$ (as that would be both tacky and unfair!).... I told her they don't necessarily have to BUY a present...her eyes lit up!

So, today I have to provide her with: wrapping paper, glue, markers and some yarn from our homework box.... I'm not allowed to know what it is for...other than it is for my Mother's day present! (I'm also supposed to be confined to my room while she works!)

Isn't that sweet?

I made eggplant lasagna (again!) - because Ale didn't get to eat from the last one...and made a chick-pea/eggplant soup from a recipe I found on the internet...
both were huge hits (except, Ale liked the chickpeas, but not the soup)...that's ok, I can make the soup for everyone else and serve her something different... at least, we got out of the routine, ate something delicious/nutritious and cheap!

I totally confused the payperiods!!!...I got paid LAST week...which means there's still a full 8 days until the next payday!!

How could that be? How could I get confused like that? Either the mucus or the medicines are destroying my brain!

I'm getting better! LOL!
I was reviewing my entries and I've gone from $0.48 to $11.51 in my account before payday....Yay!

that's the balance in my pension fund (got my account statement today!)

And if this sounds low, consider this:
under the old pension fund regime, some people retired with 10K COLONES, at a rate of exchange of 8.71 Colones per 1 USD!

Nanny had a problem and couldn't come to work....I left my office at 3:00pm and am now making phone calls to try to arrange some appointments for a visitor that is leaving on Thursday!...I made a list of #s and brought it home with me so I could do that; not really required, but, since I already took half a day off yesterday to get my passport, I'd feel guilty if I didn't do it!

I thought since I am here, I'd make a lasagna...only to discover that the horrible little pasta bugs attacked again...my beatiful lasagna pasta is infected! -

I did find 3 potatoes (haven't been able to go to the market for the produce yet), so I'm thinking meatballs and mashed potatoes instead (good thing I still hadn't prepared the meat sauce!)

I don't know what it is, but there's a very bad virus going around....Ale got it last week, and, wouldn't you know it? It hit me on Thursday. I did go to the office on Friday because there were several things outstanding that could only be taken care of on Fridays (don't you just love bureaucracy?), but got sent home at 4pm, on account of "looking terrible"...I spent yesterday coughing and sleeping, and today coughing, sleeping and sneezing...not a nice combo, let me tell you!...I think I may be feeling better, though, the coughing is less frequent/ painful and I actually want to have a shower!
Sis had to leave for San Miguel (2.5 hour drive) to drop off my nephew at the rehab, and niece left to have lunch with friends...as I was really in no condiiton to cook, and there was nothing that could be heated in the microwave, I bought a pizza for Ale and myself. Spent $6.50.
ouch! the coughing has returned!

ex-hubby came to dinner yesterday (I served him my now-famous eggplant lasagna and garlic bread, with a nice Concha y Toro white wine) This was his birthday dinner, which I promised to make because I couldn't attend the birthday party he hosted in January!

He brought by the standby airline tickets (called "passes") AND, get this: he wants to pay for Ale's park entrances! this is to be her b-day present!

(what can I say, there IS a reason I fell in love with this guy! -- you have to remember: he's not Ale's dad! and, in a culture where men divorce the children when they divorce the wife, it really is a large gesture to give such an expensive gift for another man's child!)

He told me to go ahead and purchase the tickets, and then mail to him the amount I paid so he can reimburse me!

You should have seen the look in Ale's face when I told her!

First, let me say that translating is a lot like teaching, in that just because you are proficient in a language (or more) that doesn’t necessarily mean you can teach others how to do it / translate to or from it. Teaching requires an additional set of skills, as does translating, it requires an understanding of the language (you may be fluent in a language and know when you have to use “I, me, my or mine”, but you may not be able to tell WHY – in the case of teaching. Or, you may not really know when to use a certain word instead of another – in the case of translation, otherwise, you’ll end up with the type of translation you get from those translation softwares….with things like: "The ghost is willing, but the meat is weak!")

ES is a very small country and, traditionally, not many people speak a second language- this is reserved mostly to the elite; the few fortunate ones to either have attended a bilingual school (misleading name, since there are a couple ones that are actually tri-lingual!) or that have lived in foreign-language speaking countries and have learned abroad.

If you take those 2 things into consideration, you’ll have: 1) a group of people who don’t speak a second language and 2) a smaller group of people that do speak a second language fluently but that don’t feel proficient enough to translate to/from it.

"Standard operational procedure" if you belong to groups 1 or 2 is: call someone who is considered to be fluent and ask if they are willing to do it. Since I know many people who are fluent, I just let them know that I DO translate, give them my fees ($0.05/word) and my phone number….so, if anybody asks, they refer them to me!

ES is a very small country, so Word of mouth goes a long way!

Another option is to sign up with one of the (very few) translation agencies in the country. They generally have a pool of translators that they use when the owners can’t do the job themselves (due time constrains or just because the topic of the document is not their area of expertise).

A few freelance translators publish small ads in the classifieds, but people generally prefer to go to someone they know or that is referred by someone they know (they figure it’ll be cheaper and, since they are being referred, they feel they have assurance of the quality of the work – as a friend wouldn’t recommend someone whose work they don’t know!)

I am starting to get a reputation now; a very good one. Generally, the saying is: fast, accurate, cheap: pick any 2!....My prices are market prices (average is $0.05/word or $10-$15/page…), I’m GOOD (I take pride in that and, I double and triple-check unfamiliar words/expressions to make sure they are what’s used by the specific industry or area related to the document) and, I’m fast! (I translate at night, after Ale has gone to bed, and, generally average 5-7 pages per night….and I’ve been known to translate up to 80 pages in just one weekend!-again, with good quality!)

I have done consecutive interpretation (“oral” translation is called interpretation), in which the speaker will make a pause so I can interpret what s/he said in the target language….I have never done simultaneous interpretation, though (where you interpret right as the person is speaking- I’m not sure I could do that, though I’m told is just a matter of training and, giving that I CAN type a letter while listening to a conversation without having one intrude into the other one, it’s fair to presume that I could do learn it quickly)….Interpretation is the BIG money maker, since you can make anywhere from $200- $300/day

Some day, I hope, I’ll be able to do this full time (after I pay off all my debt, and have a small fund set aside, since, as you can see, payments can be a little unreliable) I’m not going to lie to you, it IS a scary thought! – but it is also exciting!

my current debt total is $9,828.46
My next goal is to bring it to $9.5! I hope to do this before the end of May!
(wish me luck!)

If things go well, I could be debt free by the end of 2009...we'll see, since the translation business seems to have slowed down a bit!

Hopefully, it'll recover in the next couple of months!

well, I generally check all my accounts on line, but I forgot my password and blocked my "Evil Card" access (real name of the company is A V A L Card, so I call it Evil Card....

anyway...I had to look up their phone # to check my current balance....

the phone number for Evil Card is:
2280- 3666

I got paid today!...$675 after taxes!...I already allocated it and tomorrow I will deposit it into the proper accounts!

Now I'm only pending collecting from customer #1, who is still not due and who always pays on time!!