I finally had the opportunity to visit El Salvador for the first time and I was really

nervous to go to El Salvador and finally meet my family there that I have never seen or met

before in person. The flight was exhausting. It was a 5 hour flight and I had no sleep at all. The

plane seat was so bad my back hurt the whole time and I could not fall asleep no matter how hard

I tried. Once we landed we were picked up and greeted by my family, my uncles and aunts and

my cousins. I never met any of them before so I was a bit shy to talk to them and they were also

shy as well I can tell right away. Unfortunately not my entire family was able to come to this trip.

The most important person was left out and that was my dad. The family we are visiting is my

fathers family. My mom is from Mexico and my dad is from El Salvador. It was a bummer that

he was not able to come because it's a dream of his to retire back in his home country. He was

not able to fly because he does not have his papers to do so. Other than that he was so happy we

got to go to his home country and visit his brother and sisters for the first time. He called us

everyday and sent us more money than we can spend. I met my cousin Angel and we hit it off

right away. He loves soccer, loves to work and is a very funny guy. The economy is weird in El

Salvador. Angel told me the minimum wage was around 300 dollars a month for some people

they paid in US currency as well. He would tell me that he walks about an hour to go to school

everyday and would play soccer whenever he had the opportunity. We got to visit the beach in El

Salvador in a place called Surf City. The beach is so beautiful. Huge waves were there at night

and we saw pink lighting right away. I was stunned but my family just acted normal. They told

me that it was normal seeing lighting around most of the time. I got a haircut in El Salvador and

it was a good haircut until I had to pay for it. When it shocked the hell out of me my barber

charged me one dollar for the hour he took cutting my hair. I pay 35 dollars here in the US for

my haircut every 2-3 weeks. I don't understand why or how someone got paid one dollar for an
hour of work. I paid him the dollar but also gave a 20 tip because it really felt to me as a crime to

only pay one dollar. The minimum a citizen in Salvador gets paid is up to 30 dollars a day for an

8 hour shift. The first place we got to visit was a place called Playa El Tunco, like I said which

was in a surf city. The beach is so beautiful I saw lots of Americans which surprised me. A lot of

Americans go to the hotels next to the beach to have a vacation which is really cool. Ever since

the breakdown of the gang violence in El Salvador it shows how much the country has grown

and become a beautiful work of art. After like the 3rd day I started to hear myself having the

Salvadoran accent when I talked which was so funny to me because my dad has the accent but

only when he is around other Salvadorians which is so weird but funny. I would make fun of him

for the accent obviously not as hate but I just love the way my people speak. It's such a cool

accent to have in my opinion. Definitely plan a trip to El Salvador my dad is also building a

house there which has come out to be really huge. The house has 3 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms. It

looked like a mansion when I got to see my dads house he was building. In his little pueblo a big

house at the top of a hill has emerged. I'm grateful to have met my uncles. We hit it off very well,

had a BBQ and vibrated the whole night. I hope my dad can get his papers this year or soon so

we can all go back one day for another vacation that can last a lot longer than a week.