the very first day

oh hey, so i'm in bolivia !

since i don't have a camera, i must rely on the imagery of description. i will conjure the scenes around me the best that i can for you.

first day victories:
figured out how to get (patchy) wifi on my lap top in the volunteer house
went to the tienda by myself
returned from the tienda without getting lost
purchased several items including milk (important), mozzarella cheese (more important) and chocolate snack pack "pudin" (most important)

peeps i have met so far:

kids from SIT: there are lots of them. i hung out with them yesterday during our super long journey to cochabamba, during which our flight got in late to la paz, so we toured around until nighttime and took a plane to cochabamba then. thank you SIT for the complementary tour and fancy shmancy lunch! anyway i got to hang out two girls on SIT that i share mutual friends with, and they are awesome. i'm excited to hang out with them more.

british girl named maia: met her at the airport. she is staying in la paz for a week and then volunteering with sustainable bolivia for almost a year. she is very nice and accented and we have the same name!

nice taxi driver: he was watching a horror movie in english and drove me from the airport to la plaza sucre, where i met

eric: director of sustainable bolivia. he is nice and has a cute young bolivian girlfriend and they appear to be muy enamorados. he took me to the volunteer house and showed me my room for the next week, which is huge. its like, bigger than a double in stewart, i should have a party, jeez.

gary: older guy who lives in back of sustainable bolivia. has lived all around the US, most recently in new mexico. he quit his job there and moved down to cochabamba three years ago with his now ex-wife. gary has many stories. he's had lots of jobs, including working in restaurants, gardens and schools, and most recently with "emotionally disabled" teens. he loves to cook and is obsessed with fresh produce, though unfortunately right now he has a hernia in his chest due to excessive eating and drinking during his trip back to the US last month. he also likes to check the cleveland indian scores on the computer downstairs.

devan: assistant director of sustainable bolivia. she told me lots of things. most interestingly: my host family is an older couple who live downtown on the 15th floor of a high rise apartment. they are, supposedly, one of the most popular home families because it's a nice, laid back place to stay and have long conversations in spanish. sounds good to me. devan is also setting me up with a tour and a spanish tutor for tomorrow. i'm gonna take a few spanish lessons so they can assess how good my skillz are before placing me with a volunteer organization, but basically, the hope is to set me up with an organization that works with street kids in cochabamba called PAI tarpuy. we'll see.

my blanket is blue.
i can see a giant jesus christo statue from my window.
the apple juice here is phenomonal.
i am wearing jeans.

ok, i think i've told you pretty much every single thing.
besitos!
maya