Work, Harry Potter & Weekend Treks

Work is great. I am truly enjoying everyday of grownup life. I stroll in, latin american time, at 9 am, take a goood hour lunch, and head out at 6. The workday includes a lot of translating, summarizing and attempting to articulate succinctly that we have done good work. I have had meeting with an ostrich expert & black bean expert discussing how locals could improve their farms. I could tell you a host of information about ostrich egg incubation, and how to prevent weasels from entering your bean crops now. Interesting no? And I have excellent company with the two other interns from the States. One of them is living with me in my palace, that we have dubbed the House of Doors.

Funny Story: So, one day after work I was talking about Harry Potter with my roomie. She had already read it in english before she came. I am about half way through the photocopy spanish version i bought on the street - before the real spanish version came out. it was about 600 pages, not 800.. I thought, maybe you say things more succinctly in spanish? I was talking about how it is kinda a lull,´ he is playing Quidditch right now` i said. (if you are not a harry potter fan, bear with me). Quidditch??, she said. He doesnt play quidditch in the book..... And it all began unfolding. Now for you harry potter lovers, let me tell you that although my version of the book turns out to be COMPLETELY different... it makes sense, and i was enjoying it. Now i havent read the other book, but here is what my plot included..... if you have read the 7th, apparently this is pretty entertaining: Harry gets picked up at the beginning by one person and he goes to their house, before the weasley wedding... where nothing exciting happens. he goes back to Hogwarts, like normal, on the train, with ron and hermione. things are often akward with ginny. McGonagal takes Dumbledores place and does a good job, and lets harry, ron and hermione run free.. as they search for the peices of Voldemorts soul.. in voldemorts old house, in harry´s old house. They start up Dumbledores army again, but rename it Harrys Army. there is no snape, and so far no one has died. ..... i am enjoying it, and debating whether or not to continue reading the WRONG version. People teased me too.. saying, what if you are reading a different version and you didnt know. hahaha. :( (hint: i wouldnt mind if someone sent me the english version) well, very disgruntled. although entertaining nonetheless. does that mean someone somehow wrote an entirely new story just to sell on the street? ponder that....

so ambitiously us three ´pasantias´(interns) decided to take off after work on friday to Cochabamba on a night bus. we bought seats for a bus cama (bed). we show up, and the misleading title ¨bus cama¨was a mentira. it was a regular bus with a little extra leg room... which made our 8 hour bus ride a little less comfortable than expected. We rolled in at 6 am for the longest day of tourism in all of Bolivian history. We saw and tasted everything and walked more than any Bolivian has ever walked before. From old churches, artisan fairs, museums, to 3 glasses of fresh orange juice off the street.. it was only noon. we climbed a mountain (1254 steps) in the afternoon to a 33 meter tall christ statue that overlooked the city. (a meter for every year of his life, plus some) and by the end of the day felt like true ¨cochabambinos¨because we knew the city inside and out. It is a lovely, flat suburban feeling city. Very managable and comfortable. A vespa type of city, but a little dirtier. If I lived there I would implement bike lanes... and get some of these people out of their cars. A very nice, full, yet relaxing weekend. And it was so wonderful to have such kind, likeminded company. We took a late afternoon bus back on sunday.. prepared for the leg room situation, where we watched the Simpsons Movie dubbed.. and you could see a head in the bottom corner of the screen. Classic pirateing.

Got back midnight sunday. And monday moring (5:30 am) i left to do fieldwork in the northern region of Bolvia. An adventure like absolutely none other en mi vida.