En Cochabamba

We are now here, in Cochabamba, our new hometown. By town I mean half a million people live here, but it does have the peacefulness and friendliness of a smaller city. We are quickly adjusting to being surrounded by conversations we don´t completely understand and words we are eager to learn. It is quite amazing how much smiling, laughing, kissing and hugging, knowing a polite gracias, dancing enthusiastically to Bolivian music, and sharing a bottle of cerveza or tequila can communicate! I guess that gives you a brief glimpse of how some of our time has been spent in the past few days.

We are loving getting to know our host family- Esperanza is the 59yr old mother of Michaela, who is the 27 year old mother of little Lucas, who´s 2 and a half. You´ll here more about all of them in the days to come, I´m sure. Lucas has taken quite a liking to Chris, who he calls G-Ceel! He calls me Geeah, which sorta means aunt. It´s a fun combination and has given us many opportunities to make fools of ourselves as we attempt to speak! Each morning we get up and have bread with jam-cheese-dulce de leche and tea. We usually spend quite a while sitting at the table, talking with Esperanza and hearing her stories. We have been studying Spanish both on our own and together, and Espi likes to help. Cochabamba is a sunny, springlike city. Set in a valley, it´s surrounded by mountains and covered with colorful,fragrant flowers...it´s quite a view even from the internet cafe from which i write and the 75degree breeze is blowing in the door. It´s quite lovely, I must say. We read that it has a Mediterranean feel, and we most agree. People greet each other on the street and take advantage of the many parks- for futbal, volleyball, or just visiting...most always wearing hats and taking advantage of shady spots or just going inside for a rest during the warmer hours of the day.

We arrived at a great time, because this whole weekend has been full of celebration and fiestas since yesterday was the city holiday- Cochabamba Day! This meant that our host sister Michaela, or Mickey, got to show us around a bit and take us out to get to know some of the beauty of Bolivian culture. Which also meant today was a much-needed day of rest. Saturday we went into the center of town, where people were cooking amazing foods on the street, and dancing, and celebrating. We ended up in a little place, drinking Bolivian cerveza with Mickey and her boyfriend, while beautiful people of all ages danced unabashedly to their favorite songs. Last night, we too, joined in the dancing! Not knowing what the hell we were doing, we had a great time and seemed to not draw too much attention to ourselves. Needless to say, being in Bolivia so far has exceeded our expectations! We look forward to starting at our language school, which is just a bus ride away- bright and early tomorrow morning! More to come on the complex political situation here (yes, amidst all the beauty, we are much aware of the struggles going on here and get to watch it each day on the news and talk with Espi about it. People here are very politically aware and involved)...Chris will fill you in a bit more and share some pictures soon! Alright, dears, as is often said in this beautiful land- Ciao!