The Big Vote

Bolivians have decided 'si' (yes) on a new Constitution. I'll leave it to you to figure out what this means for Bolivia . . . I cannot pretend to know everything about the changes but if you google it, I am sure you can find a good breakdown. The Democracy Center is a good site.

I went to the polls with my host family on Sunday afternoon. It seemed very much like Cleveland, WI's voting procedure. Except we don't have to dip our index fingers in ink afterwards. Voting is mandatory here. If you don't vote, you get fined. It's an exciting time to be here and now I wonder how (or if) I will be impacted. . . well, we'll see! Below are some shots of the polling center. It's pretty low-key.




One of my host cousins worked the polls. (the guy in the middle)


This is a picture of my host mom's hand after she voted.

Tour pix

The language school gave us a tour of Cochabamba last week, and one of the sites we visited was the Cristo de la Concordia. The statue is huge and very impressive. You can see it from almost everywhere in the city.












Since the Cristo is up on a hill, it gave everyone an opportunity to take shots of the city below. You can actually climb inside of the statue and take pictures of the city. Here is an example:















This is a picture of Michelle and I. Michelle works for the same organization as I do and will also be working in El Alto/La Paz once language school is over. It is great having a ´ready-made´ friend here! :)



- I know my blog has been rather picture heavy. Know that I am doing well. My host family is great and they are all taking very good care of the ¨gringuita¨ in the house. The food has been too good - I will probably start gaining weight at this rate, which is the opposite of what they told us at orientation. We eat a lot of potatoes, eggs, rice, vegetables and fresh fruit. Like Megan in Arizona, I get served fresh orange juice every day. It is delicious!
- Language school has been interesting to say the least. My vocabulary is growing but I have to remind myself to be patient. Daily. Or hourly. I want to know more! And as a US national, I want it know it all NOW! ha, ha.
- I am looking into some volunteering possibilities while I am living in Cochabamba. Hope to have picked something within the next month. Will keep you all posted.

School days, school days. . .

I have officially been in language school for a week. As I mentioned before, I am in an intermediate class. In our class of 17 students, only 4 of us are in the intermediate classes. We are split into two groups of two. There are four classes a day, each around 45-minutes long. The idea is that we also study on our own for 3 more hours every day. Hm. My first language partner was Ray. Ray is a retired professor and CSI-type person. He wants to become fluent in Spanish so that he can do volunteer work abroad someday (with his wife). He is super sweet. On Monday, I will get a new language partner for a 2-week period of time and then will be re-evaluated. If I may be so bold, I would say I am doing pretty well with Spanish so far. All the coursework we've gone over is review, and I have no problems talking with my host family. We even chatted about politics over dinner recently. I have a ways to go before I am fluent, but it is encouraging that my vocabulary hasn't completely abandoned me since I lived in Spain. Here are a few shots of my school:



The sign that shows us which way to go to get to class.


The door to the main sala.


Another part of the school from the outside.





The main sala where we gather between classes.











A classroom. Each 45 minute period there are usually 2 students to one teacher.







This is a picture of me with my classmate Ray. He and I were assigned to the same class for the first week.


This is one of the courtyards on the property. (We typically eat lunch out here.) There are also tennis courts, a volleyball court, and racketball courts, not to mention a chapel, and the residency of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. It's a pretty piece of land and has been maintained well. (The pictures don't show that we are completely surrounded by mountains. Nor that there are flowers everywhere. This really is one of those 'beautiful places' on Earth . . . at least in the summertime!)

NOTE: I am living in Cochabamba, Bolivia for the next 5+ months. This city is known as the land of eternal spring and we enjoy a very temperate climate. When I move in June/July, I will be in La Paz/El Alto, where it will be MUCH colder and more moon-like. :) I've been told that La Paz is also much prettier than Cochabamba. Wow! I guess beauty is to the eye of the beholder, but I am anxious for my first look at La Paz since Cochabamba is so amazing.

I made it!

Hello! I have made it safely to Bolivia. I am settling into life here. I mostly ate and slept the first few days and language school started on Monday. There were two days of orientation and on Wednesday I started Spanish classes. I am in an intermediate class at the moment, which means I got to skip everything basic. Yay! The grounds of the school are magical. I will have to post pictures of the school next, but first. . .

My host family is great! They are Alfredo (dad), Mary (Mom), Ronald (middle brother) and Marcos (the baby of the family). My brothers are in their mid to late 20s. The whole family seems to speak a bit of English and my brothers are fluent. Here are some pictures of the house and my room. You can tell which room is mine from the outside because I also have a balcony. My room is a nice size and I have my own bathroom. It's pretty sweet.





On a side note: I got bitten up by mosquitoes last night - even on my eyelids - and my left eye has swollen almost shut. Who do I get to thank for my delicate skin????

Also wanted to thank everyone at home for their last minute contributions:
to Jen and James - the suitcase was AWESOME thank you, thank you. Also love the mp3 player. very light and easy to use for exercise.
to Janiecakes - the packing job was great. I even took pictures of my suitcase while I unpacked it so I can re-create what you did. teehee!
to Caryn and Kate - thanks for getting my camera to work and calming me down my last night at home.
to Kate - thanks for the camera case!
And thanks to everyone else for your support! Love to you all!