When in Bolivia, don't be surprised to see....

People protesting something.  When people are unhappy about something, they take to the streets.  Blockades, marches to the capital, protests.  There are tons of words for stuff like that: bloqueos, paros, marchas, protestas, huelgas.  I haven't heard "huelga" (strike) used except for hunger strikes (huelgas de hambre).  But when people march, blockade, etc, it's also implicit that they aren't at work.  Why would they just strike when they also can march or blockade and get more publicity?
*Also, don't be surprised if you have to walk instead of taking your normal public transit.  You might even have to walk 15 blocks to pick up a trufi when the medical students are blocking all the bridges.
  Just as an example.  :)

Medical students blockading the bridge

Cows/Horses grazing by the river as you cross the bridge (might I mention this is IN the city?)

EXTREME nasal-y voice going “PAPAYA. BANANA. FRUTIA…”  That’s the fruit vendors.  They always talk like that.  My host sister had to translate when they were actually saying.

A lecture that’s supposed to start at 7pm actually start at 8pm.  That’s hora boliviana (aka Bolivian time).  Also, I arrived at the lecture at 7:30pm because I assumed it would start late.

All the buses and trufis FULL at lunchtime when everyone is going home to eat.

Bus tickets for 8-10 hour bus rides that go for under 10 US$.  (Supposedly if you buy right before the bus leaves, it can be as little as US$4.  That’s what I call a bargain!)

Very few white people.  Even fewer black people.

ALL the kids in their little uniforms!  All the schools—public, private, whatever—have them.  So cute!

Bajillions of types of fruits.  We have a massive fruit stand five blocks down the road, and one of these days I’ll take a picture of it.

Women with babies on their backs.  Sometimes unrecognizable as babies because they’re so swaddled.  If it’s a young baby (under 9 months, maybe?) it’s always in a laying-down position, and you never can see its faces.  Just gotta recognize the shape.

People don't stop at quiet intersections--just honk the horn and keep on driving.

Tons of people on motorcylers.  My host dad said they can go for US$700-3,000.  Not that that means a lot to me since I don't know what they cost in the US.  (And often US imports are equally/way more expensive here than in the US.)

People making money on the streets.  No, no like prostitutes.  As in candy vendors, ice cream carts, jugglers, beggars, clowns, orange juice carts, etc.  Here's a sassy clown that entertained us for a while.

He had a whistle in his mouth so instead of words he just "whirrrr"-ed

Diminutives

Now to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart.  Diminutives!  Bolivians love 'em!  English doesn't really have them, at least not to the same extent.  Diminutives basically function by making anything and everything little/cute/friendly/a term of endearment.  Basic structure:
Spanish word + ito/ita/cito/cita
Examples:
pan (bread) + cito= pancito
perro (dog) + ito=perrito
Mamá + ita= Mamita
Lauren + ita= Laurenita

See how fun?!
The weird thing is, you can basically use diminutives ALWAYS.  For example, you can call your parents Mamita and Papito to show you love them.  Or parents can call their kids Mamita and Papito to show they love them.  I call the kids in the preschool 'papito' when I forget their names.  My friend's host mom called a random little boy on the micro 'papito' when she asked him to close the window.  SO VERSATILE.  Food isn't particularly cute or little, but we always have jugito (instead of jugo), ensaladita (instead of ensalada), and fideito (instead of fideo).  TOTALLY going to miss this in the US (or maybe I'll bring it back..?)

GOTTA ADD THIS:
Just had a convo with my 15-year old host brother about brigadeiros (sp?).  They're chocolate yum surrounding an almond, with sugar on the outside.  Like so.

 
Our conversation went (it's better in Spanish):

Andrés: Parece como popo de león.

Me: Pero con azucar.

Andrés: Si. Y un nuez adentro.

In English:

Andrés: They look like lion poop.
Me: But with sugar.
Andrés: Yeah. And a nut inside.

My Normal

Here in Bolivia, people blockade roads.  And have strikes.  And protest stuff.  On Monday my micro (aka bus) had to take a different route since there was a blockade.  When I told my family, they were just like "Oh yeah, that happens a lot.  Someone's always protesting something."  Today there was rumored to be a strike.  Last night I heard about it and was a little concerned I wouldn't make it to classes on time (I live 3 miles from class, and 2 miles from my adviser's house).  Class was moved to my adviser's house, but walking 2 miles is still a bit of a hike and running with all my notebooks (which were due today!) was clearly out.  Luckily there were taxis when I woke up this morning (at 6am, to finish my journals and print my 8000230000 page-long ISP proposal).  But here, people protest stuff.  It's really intriguing because we have nothing like it in the U.S.  If some group of people blocked Route 84, a) It would get cleared almost instantly b) People would just detour some other way until it was clear.  In Bolivia, blocking a highway between 2 cities is a way to get some serious attention, because sometimes/often there only is one highway between 2 cities.  (This is mountain country, highways aren't a piece of cake to build.)  So is it good that people are more politically active/aware, or is it bad that they can't express their discontent within the political/judicial system?

Also, just want to say: Going abroad makes you learn a lot about yourself, your assumptions, things you take for granted.  One thing I just learned about myself--I CAN NOT spell adviser.  I just changed it in about 20 different locations from advisor to adviser.  Fun fact.

Tidbits

So I have trouble remembering what I write on my blog, but I feel like I should give a rundown of some things that I forget aren't normal to USA-ers.

-stuff is cheap.  I bought a pair of headphones for 30Bs, or a little more than $4.  I got TOTALLY ripped off by a taxi driver who charged me 75Bs when I probably should have been charged 40 or 50.  But that's still $10-ish

-stores here mostly don't have windows, they just have metal garage doors they open every morning

-people drive fast, and you have to cross the street assertively

-our house has one bathroom...really not as big of a problem as I'd have expected

-all the houses have water tanks on the roof, and sometimes the tank runs out at the end of the day and you don't have water till morning

-you don't buy eggs in dozens, you go to the store and say how many, and then you carry them home in a plastic baggie

-every morning my family gets fresh bread, which is SOOOO delicious and soft

-I have not seen Ziploc baggies (aka yummy bread does not stay that way past a day)

-bricks are bigger, and have six square holes in them....it seems like having holes in bricks would be unsafe, but practically all buildings are built with them, and I guess cement blocks do it

-houses/buildings all have fences, of cement or metal

-the fences usually have metal prongs on top, or barbed wire, or electric wire, or pieces of broken glass stuck in the cement

-vendors have little carts on the street where you can buy gum, cookies, crackers (which in Spanish are also called cookies), or yummy peanut butter bars, for cheap

-you can't put toilet paper in the toilet--there's a little trash can next to the toilet

-most of the showers I've encountered (including at my house) are not separate stalls...there’s just a shower head in the bathroom and once you’re done you use a rubber scrape-y thing to push the water into the drain…I actually prefer it to a stall shower since I like cleaning up the water (¿OCD much?)

-the micros (MEE-crows, aka minibus) and trufis (TROO-fees, aka XL hippie van) don’t have stops, you just wave when you want them to pick you up, and yell “ESQUINA POR FAVOR” (corner, please) when you want to get off

-Cochabamba is NOT a tourist city; it’s rare to see other non-Bolivians except the ones in my program

-I forget words/spellings in English and there are always those phrases that just DON’T translate into English (of course these also happen in reverse but I expected that)

-graffiti is EVERYWHERE, and it’s political

-I have my own room

-the windows in our house don’t have screens

-all the fruit here is organic and from Bolivia

-SO much variety of fruits. also potatoes

-“salsa” does not mean the stuff you put on tacos.  If you say “salsa,” people will ask “what kind of salsa” because salsa means sauce

That’s all I got for now.  I’ll add on later if I think of anything else!

Bolivian Truths

-Sometimes flossing is too much effort

-I usually swallow my toothpaste

-Once I used the sink water to rinse my toothbrush.  I lived.

-Skirts never get dirty

-Street dogs are not your friends

-Smile and nod

-Baby shampoo doesn’t actually clean hair

-Don’t hail a taxi from the street, always call one from your phone

-Street dogs still aren’t your friends

-It’s totally okay to call someone a gordito (fatty/fatso)

-1/2 hot water, 1/2 cold water makes tea drinkable right away

-Waving your hands around makes people understand you better (*sarcasm alert*)

-Don't ask for a photo unless you want to pay for it

-Sometimes the taxi you call doesn't come, even after a hour of waiting and two follow-up calls

-It's hard to write correctly in English after so much Spanish