So guess who's back in the US and bored out of their mind? I AM!
After an interesting flight back to the US, in which I made friends with a soulless French Canadian and a nun, did not have my bags searched by customs (grrr), and fought with the baggage people in Miami, I am finally home, and looking for things to do. Tomorrow Sam, Claire and I will be playing ukulele in the park in exchange for life advice, so if you're around, come life advise us. Also tomorrow night, we're going to Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philly (http://www.chrisjazzcafe.com/) to see my friend's band play...so you should come too.
On Thursday I leave for New York for my DAAD training, and I won't get back til Sunday night, so after that, we'll party. So yeah. Call me/text me for things to do, before I reverse culture shock like it's my job.
Adios!
August 17, 2009
August 12, 2009
Pictures
Finally! The hostel computer works for uploading pictures. yussssss.
Anyways, here are some of my personal favorites of the photos that the kids have taken:
by Maribel, age 17:
by Alison, age 10:
By unknown kid:
By Andres, age 12:
by Belen, age 11:
by Eddy, age 11:
by an unknown kid:
by Rolando, age 7:
by Maribel, age 9:
By Marco, age 11:
by an unknown kid:
by Ariel, age 9:
by Beymar, age 12:
by Leo, age 7:
By an unknown kid:
by Richard, age 10:
There are like a gazillion more, but I guess you´ll just have to come to our exhibition in the fall to see them :)
Adios!
Anyways, here are some of my personal favorites of the photos that the kids have taken:
by Maribel, age 17:
by Alison, age 10:
By unknown kid:
By Andres, age 12:
by Belen, age 11:
by Eddy, age 11:
by an unknown kid:
by Rolando, age 7:
by Maribel, age 9:
By Marco, age 11:
by an unknown kid:
by Ariel, age 9:
by Beymar, age 12:
by Leo, age 7:
By an unknown kid:
by Richard, age 10:
There are like a gazillion more, but I guess you´ll just have to come to our exhibition in the fall to see them :)
Adios!
that´s what she said and ukuleles
I would just like to write a victory post to the best that´s what she said joke ever, made by yours truly, right before we went out drinking with a couple of brits last night.
I had just gotten ice cream, and we were all sitting on a park bench waiting for me to finish so we could go out. I didn´t feel like eating the rest of it, so I offered it to everyone in turn. The one british guy declined, and when I made some inane comment about really really really not wanting it, he said "just put your tongue in it and lick out all the good stuff." Hee hee. Hee hee. That´s what she said.
Michelle fell over laughing, but the Brits just kind of stared at us, until the guy said "I handed that to you on a silver platter didn´t I." Yes British man, you totally did. They laughed eventually.
In other news, we were playing ukulele by the pool yesterday, when another British dude wandered over and asked if he could have a go. He said he played guitar, so I was like "sure british dude, knock yourself out." He totally rocked out on the ukulele, and then started singing some crazy improv song about pirates and their parrots picking out the eyes of his enemies. It was awesome, and for that alone, I´m glad I am where I am. Yet again, Tina converts a guitar-playing soul to the ukulele.
In other other news, there´s yet another british dude in the hostel who has the sickest porn mustache I´ve ever seen in my life.
So that´s about it. Going into the center of town today to see if there´s anything interesting going on. Michelle leaves tonight, so tomorrow, it´s just me all lovely day. Will post again before I leave, see you all in two days!
I had just gotten ice cream, and we were all sitting on a park bench waiting for me to finish so we could go out. I didn´t feel like eating the rest of it, so I offered it to everyone in turn. The one british guy declined, and when I made some inane comment about really really really not wanting it, he said "just put your tongue in it and lick out all the good stuff." Hee hee. Hee hee. That´s what she said.
Michelle fell over laughing, but the Brits just kind of stared at us, until the guy said "I handed that to you on a silver platter didn´t I." Yes British man, you totally did. They laughed eventually.
In other news, we were playing ukulele by the pool yesterday, when another British dude wandered over and asked if he could have a go. He said he played guitar, so I was like "sure british dude, knock yourself out." He totally rocked out on the ukulele, and then started singing some crazy improv song about pirates and their parrots picking out the eyes of his enemies. It was awesome, and for that alone, I´m glad I am where I am. Yet again, Tina converts a guitar-playing soul to the ukulele.
In other other news, there´s yet another british dude in the hostel who has the sickest porn mustache I´ve ever seen in my life.
So that´s about it. Going into the center of town today to see if there´s anything interesting going on. Michelle leaves tonight, so tomorrow, it´s just me all lovely day. Will post again before I leave, see you all in two days!
August 11, 2009
sakdfvhnjksabvhl
So I´m back in Santa Cruz, and it´s just me here (til Thursday) and one other girl from the program (til tomorrow). The rest of the group left , and for reasons that I can explain later, I tried to do the whole fly-standby thing and get out of here this morning with everyone else. As it turns out, American Airlines wanted to charge me 230 dollars just to fly standby, because they blow like no other. So now I´m back in the hostel, chilling out, and trying to think of some interesting things to do.
Last night we were all chilling out in one of the rooms playing "One time, in Cochabamba..." and keeping the other people in the room awake. It was really fun, but now I´m kind of sad. Guess who doesn´t want to be in Santa Cruz? I DON´T. urgh ness.
So I should probs stop moping and go make friends with the two swedish guys I met last night. adios!
Last night we were all chilling out in one of the rooms playing "One time, in Cochabamba..." and keeping the other people in the room awake. It was really fun, but now I´m kind of sad. Guess who doesn´t want to be in Santa Cruz? I DON´T. urgh ness.
So I should probs stop moping and go make friends with the two swedish guys I met last night. adios!
August 10, 2009
Last day in Cochabamba
So we´ve officially said goodbye to the kids in the orphanage-that sucked. Then we had our last day in Loma Pampa--that was fun. Then the photography mural I made for the community center got ripped apart by people who wanted the photos--that sucked.
All in all, last few days here have been kind of bittersweet. On one hand I don´t want to come home, but on the other hand, I feel like my time in Bolivia is over and it´s time to move on to other things. As a sidenote, there is a giant group of Germans staying in my professor´s hotel, and I made friends with one couple who told me that they had to listen to me talk for awhile before they heard my accent. YUSSSSS. Although they were probably just being nice.
All in all, last few days here have been kind of bittersweet. On one hand I don´t want to come home, but on the other hand, I feel like my time in Bolivia is over and it´s time to move on to other things. As a sidenote, there is a giant group of Germans staying in my professor´s hotel, and I made friends with one couple who told me that they had to listen to me talk for awhile before they heard my accent. YUSSSSS. Although they were probably just being nice.
August 7, 2009
Toro Toro ridiculousness
So Toro Toro was pretty much ridiculous, and also the three most physically grueling days of my life. The first day we were there, we went on a 2K hike, and then spent three hours running round inside a cave. And while most of the cave wasn´t so bad, there were some parts where you had to literally squeeze your body through tiny little rock crevices and twist around to drop into little tiny holes and all sorts of silliness. We were told that it was a test to see who could physically handle the cave on Saturday.
Friday was a long long long hike. 10Ks through the Andes, up and down giant rock cliffs and scrambling over boulders until finally we got down into the bottom of a canyon, where we got to play in the waterfall. However, the waterfall turned out to be full of recently melted glacial water, and it is my personal opinion that diving into a pool of ice would have been warmer. However, now I can say that I have swum in a pool of recently melted glacial water.
Saturday was the hardest day by far. I decided to go try the really really hard cave, and the first 30 meters were you pulling yourself through a crack in the rocks along a rope. And it didn´t get easier after that. Some parts of the cave, we had to shimmy with our backs against one wall, and our hands and feet against the other, with a river down below. Other parts, we had to slither on our bellies through miniscule holes tht you didn´t think you could fit through.
The scariest part inside the cave was the first time we had to swim, mostly because it was dark, and the water was deep enough that we couldn´t touch the bottom, but we couldn´t see it either. After I got over that, the swimming was actually kind of cool.
However, the scariest scariest scariest part was when we got outside the cave. Our guide (who was a crazy little spider monkey man) told us we would be swimming out through the waterfall. Apparently something got lost in translation because we actually came out over top of the waterfall--and then had to scale a rock face on a slant with no handholds of footholds, and oh yeah, if you slipped, you feel six hundred feet into a gorge. So I had a mini freakout because I don´t like heights (note to self: six hundred feet above a gorge on a rock face is a bad time to get sensible). After scaling that one part of the rock face, we then had to shove our tippy toes in a crack in the rocks and shimmy the last part to the trail. It was the scariest thing I´ve ever done in my life and I am currently working on forgetting that it happened.
For the record, I wasn´t sore at all after any of the Toro Toro days, even though it was very physically demanding. I am, however, still sore from jiu jitsu on Monday.
Tuesday we had our despidida, our good bye party with the women´s group. I missed most of it because I got put on babysitting duties (not that I mind). We taught the kids how to play duck duck goose (pato pato gallina), stuck in the mud, and then somehow erupted into a spontaneous conga line (if you check out my professor´s blog, there´s a picture of me and said conga line.) It was quite fun. Today we have our goodbye party at the orphanage, at which I fully intend to cry my eyes out.
Anyways, that´s the story of my life right now. Leaving Cochabamba Monday, and Bolivia on Thursday. Will be home Friday. Do not want to leave :(
Friday was a long long long hike. 10Ks through the Andes, up and down giant rock cliffs and scrambling over boulders until finally we got down into the bottom of a canyon, where we got to play in the waterfall. However, the waterfall turned out to be full of recently melted glacial water, and it is my personal opinion that diving into a pool of ice would have been warmer. However, now I can say that I have swum in a pool of recently melted glacial water.
Saturday was the hardest day by far. I decided to go try the really really hard cave, and the first 30 meters were you pulling yourself through a crack in the rocks along a rope. And it didn´t get easier after that. Some parts of the cave, we had to shimmy with our backs against one wall, and our hands and feet against the other, with a river down below. Other parts, we had to slither on our bellies through miniscule holes tht you didn´t think you could fit through.
The scariest part inside the cave was the first time we had to swim, mostly because it was dark, and the water was deep enough that we couldn´t touch the bottom, but we couldn´t see it either. After I got over that, the swimming was actually kind of cool.
However, the scariest scariest scariest part was when we got outside the cave. Our guide (who was a crazy little spider monkey man) told us we would be swimming out through the waterfall. Apparently something got lost in translation because we actually came out over top of the waterfall--and then had to scale a rock face on a slant with no handholds of footholds, and oh yeah, if you slipped, you feel six hundred feet into a gorge. So I had a mini freakout because I don´t like heights (note to self: six hundred feet above a gorge on a rock face is a bad time to get sensible). After scaling that one part of the rock face, we then had to shove our tippy toes in a crack in the rocks and shimmy the last part to the trail. It was the scariest thing I´ve ever done in my life and I am currently working on forgetting that it happened.
For the record, I wasn´t sore at all after any of the Toro Toro days, even though it was very physically demanding. I am, however, still sore from jiu jitsu on Monday.
Tuesday we had our despidida, our good bye party with the women´s group. I missed most of it because I got put on babysitting duties (not that I mind). We taught the kids how to play duck duck goose (pato pato gallina), stuck in the mud, and then somehow erupted into a spontaneous conga line (if you check out my professor´s blog, there´s a picture of me and said conga line.) It was quite fun. Today we have our goodbye party at the orphanage, at which I fully intend to cry my eyes out.
Anyways, that´s the story of my life right now. Leaving Cochabamba Monday, and Bolivia on Thursday. Will be home Friday. Do not want to leave :(
July 29, 2009
Charque and caves
So on the way back from jiu jitsu the other night, I totally made friends with the cab driver, who then felt compelled to point out all the interesting sites along the way to where I live. This included bars, cafes, restaurants, etc etc etc, until finally he said "Look! That´s a charque place. Do you have charque in America?" No. No we do not.
So how many of you have heard of charque? Probably none of you. But here´s what you need to know about it: you shouldn´t eat it. Why someone would feel compelled to eat an animal as magestic, glorious, and and noble as a llama is beyond me, but apparently, it´s is the big meat around here. Mean and stupid-ness. SAVE THE LLAMAS. EAT MORE COW.
Anyway, not much interesting has happened in the last few days. For the record, monkeys apparently enjoy going up to bird cages and strangling the poor parrots. Probably the parrots annoy them. Tomorrow we are off to Toro Toro, where we get to see some sweet caves, and then have to choose whether to see dinosaur footprints or shell fossils (dinosaurs, duh). Apparently one of the caves we have to actually swim down to get to...woot!
Photography project is going well, even though one of the cameras got stolen last week. Will attempt to post pictures in the next entry.
Adios!
EDIT: Soooo, uploading pictures is not functioning, looks like you guys may have to way for photos until I get back to the US of A. I´m sorry, please don´t hate me
So how many of you have heard of charque? Probably none of you. But here´s what you need to know about it: you shouldn´t eat it. Why someone would feel compelled to eat an animal as magestic, glorious, and and noble as a llama is beyond me, but apparently, it´s is the big meat around here. Mean and stupid-ness. SAVE THE LLAMAS. EAT MORE COW.
Anyway, not much interesting has happened in the last few days. For the record, monkeys apparently enjoy going up to bird cages and strangling the poor parrots. Probably the parrots annoy them. Tomorrow we are off to Toro Toro, where we get to see some sweet caves, and then have to choose whether to see dinosaur footprints or shell fossils (dinosaurs, duh). Apparently one of the caves we have to actually swim down to get to...woot!
Photography project is going well, even though one of the cameras got stolen last week. Will attempt to post pictures in the next entry.
Adios!
EDIT: Soooo, uploading pictures is not functioning, looks like you guys may have to way for photos until I get back to the US of A. I´m sorry, please don´t hate me
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