Mi Familia Boliviana

[Written Friday, about Friday.]

Today I took my Spanish placement test…I’ll find out about how I did tomorrow (or eventually—this is Bolivia and we’re mad chilled out here.)  There was a written part and an oral part.  We have three Spanish teachers and they all are super cool—Chichi, Marta, Beba, y Mechi.  My oral exam was with Mechi and she was super nice.  She just asked me about my life in Spanish.

My roomies, Emily and Amelia, and I are listening to some Juanes right now.  They are also fans, which is fun.  We have some awesome convos.  Everyone on my program is super cool.  This semester is going to be fun!

…And I MET MY FAMILY TODAY!!!  We went to a restaurant and ate with them, and tomorrow we move in.  We talked in Spanish and they told me my Spanish was good!  We talked about tons of stuff…they asked about what I could eat since they knew I was a vegetarian (but I said I only ate a little cheese—flex-eganism)…they love to cook and we’re going to cook food together (I’ll teach them to cook tofu and desserts and they’ll teach me to cook Bolivian cuisine)…they said they’ve had vegetarian students before but never a strict one, but they were super okay with …they asked about why I’m a veg and I talked about how I like animals and how it’s a way for me to give back to the Earth and they thought that was cool (reciprocity is a big thing in Bolivian culture)…they asked about sports I like and we talked about track and running (they said it’s better to run on a track since street dogs sometimes try to bite you)…I told them that I came to Bolivia to learn Spanish so I can teach my future kids to speak Spanish and they were excited about that.  They have two dogs, one of which my host siblings found on the street and took in, but he likes to chew things up (although I also think he doesn’t have teeth--?).  They told me he has all his shots now, so he is safe to have around.

Then after dinner (which included yucca—yum!) we danced for about 3 hours.  Bolivian dancing involves lots of quick steps so we got mad tired.  There was a live band that included a ten-year-old boy playing the drum.  I danced with my host mom and dad (my sister and older brother weren’t there and my middle brother was hanging out with one of his friends who was there).  We did a lot of joining hands and dancing around.  I would think the song had ended, but it always would start up again—I think it’s a style for Bolivian music to have little pauses like that but I would have appreciated a lil break.  I did rest a few times to drink jugo de duro (peach juice).  The juices here are really sweet!  My host dad was serving everyone ice, and my host mom said “NONONO she can’t have the ice!  We don’t know if the water here is okay [for me, they could have it]”  (The water in Bolivia isn’t safe for us to drink, since we aren’t used to it.)  And then she told me that the family makes their own ice, so in my host family’s house I can always have the ice.  It was nice they were so concerned about me!

Now I have to take a shower since I got soooo hot from dancing.  The shower here is the entire bathroom—there’s just a shower head between the toilet and the sink, so the whole room gets a lil damp when someone showers.  (By damp I mean soaked.  But it’s really not hard to get used to.)  Cochabamba also has some water problems, so we have to shower quickly to not waste water.  It’s 12:45 at night, so I have to shower (ducharme!)  I’ll probably be able to post more when I’m at my host family’s house.