Comida comida comida

i heard from a few people before coming to bolivia that the internet is as slow as turtles here and this beautiful city has proven them right. the internet is terrible everywhere. anyway, this week has been pretty overwhelming, frustrating, filled with delicious food, afro-bolivian music, vegan cafes, visits to a rural town near my university campus, tons of reading, abitas, museums and sunshine!! the week was overwhelming and frustrating because of how much school work i have, the fact that i use up 2 hours of my day just to travel to school and back, and the fact that because of these two things i dont have time to explore or relax during the week. i really only have 2 more weeks of serious school work and lectures and then its off traveling to different regions in bolivia, argentina and brazil. this week at school we had lectures on the history of bolivia, the cuban revolution, the bolivarian revolution in venezuela and an economic history and framework of bolivia in the past and present. the constitution of bolivia is pretty awesome, it states water as a human right and recognizes bolivia as a plurinational state with 36 different ethnic groups.

now on to the FUN stuff that i did get a chance to do this week. it all started off with typical bolivian food: saltenas. they are like empanadas but filled with a stew, mine was vegetarian of course. there is a special technique to eating them to that all of the juice doesnt spill out and i ate mine like a pacena ( someone from la paz) until the very end when i looked down and my hands were covered in juice. it was pretty much the most delicious thing i have ever had though aside from "abitas" which are roasted fava beans. you make them like roasted peanuts, except with dried fava beans. a pack of them costs 1 boliviano ( the exchange rate is $7 to 1 boliviano) so they are the cheapest delicious food i have ever had. this week i also ate some figs again, found some prunes, quinoa salad, vegan cookies, cocapi ( a drink made with red api flour, orange peel, spices and coca flour heated up), quinoa lasagna, homony, strawberry ice cream sans milk and the MOST incredible potato to ever exist in the entire world. i am telling you, there has never been a better potato. its called camote and at lunch on friday it was very quiet so i broke the silence with an intense conversation about potatos and made everyone vote to say if the camote was their favorite potato on the planet. its dark purple on the outside and orange on the inside and so sweet and carmelized. i will try to send samples to the US of A.

ok, aside from food i also did other things this week, like visit a rural town near my university campus and hang out with kids at an afterschool program. at the school they have rooms for homework, rooms for playing, a kitchen where they learn how to cook, a huge playground, vegetable gardens, bunnies, llamas, alpacas, turkeys, chickens, ducks and a dining room. the kids are aymara and get a stipend from the government to pay for this afterschool program. the girls were making a bolivian dessert called "bonuelos" which is flour, amarynth tea, salt, sugar and milk and then cooked in hot water very quickly. we are thinking of going to the school one day a week during spanish class to hang out with the kids. the mountain that you see in the picture is Illimani, the famous mountain of La Paz, seen from the school. the mountain used to be covered in snow but now has very little because of global warming. i also went to a talk put on by students from the public university called UMSA, where 4 students presented their senior thesis on the politics of the body and the different ways in which it can be politicized and objectified. it made us all wish that we were taking classes at UMSA so that we could be more involved with students in social movements here and have something to talk about with fellow students. at the UPB university where we are taking classes, the kids only talk to us about getting drunk and partying. so it was a little frustrating to see that there is a university perfect for us and that we arent taking classes there. on thursday night we went to a famous discoteca here, like 3 blocks from my house, where a group of afro-bolivianos come on thursday nights and play a set of music with huge drums and there is a woman who sings. it was SO SO fun!! the music was great, the company was great, this boy taught me merengue and then at 2:30 am we called it a night and my sister Denisse and I went home. my friend eloise also slept over because she lives kind of far and it was too late to go home alone. also, in case you were wondering, breathing hasnt gotten any easier. dancing for about 2 minutes knocks the wind out of you basically. then today i woke up and did a bunch of reading for class so i could get ahead and then my family took me to a famous vegetarian restaurant here in la paz. lunch costs 25 bolivianos which is like $3 dollars and you get soup, steamed veggies, salad, dessert, your main course a drink and bread. i ate brocolli soup, tomatoes, lentils with whole wheat pasta, horchata, flan, plantain, quinoa, potato stew with vegetables for 3 DOLLARS!! very crazy. you also have to eat a lot at lunch time here because nobody eats dinner; because the altitude is so high its reallllly hard to digest things late at night so people dont usually eat dinner. in my house we have a few crackers and tea at around 7 or 8. then after the vegetarian restaurant we went to the art museum in la paz; it was a little boring until the end because all the paintings were of saints and virgens. at the end it was more contemporary. then i went off on my own and found this vegan restaurant and tea house that i have been waiting for a month to find, yes before i even got here i was excited about this place. i went in, got a cup of coffee and did some reading. the menu looks really delicious and i will be back several times. to get home, i took a mini bus. for everyone out there, this is a HUGE accomplishment. they are the craziest forms of public transportation: someone sits in the back or stands yelling where the bus is going, you have to flag the bus down, basically sit on people laps because they get so full and yell to the driver when you want to get off. very intimidating, but also exciting and fun! they only cost 1.50 bolivianos. i hope that this week at school gets better and that we start to make a few more friends; right now we are like animals in a cage being stared at, so i hope that this ends soon.

ok, aside from food i also did other things this week, like visit a rural town near my university campus and hang out with kids at an afterschool program. at the school they have rooms for homework, rooms for playing, a kitchen where they learn how to cook, a huge playground, vegetable gardens, bunnies, llamas, alpacas, turkeys, chickens, ducks and a dining room. the kids are aymara and get a stipend from the government to pay for this afterschool program. the girls were making a bolivian dessert called "bonuelos" which is flour, amarynth tea, salt, sugar and milk and then cooked in hot water very quickly. we are thinking of going to the school one day a week during spanish class to hang out with the kids. the mountain that you see in the picture is Illimani, the famous mountain of La Paz, seen from the school. the mountain used to be covered in snow but now has very little because of global warming. i also went to a talk put on by students from the public university called UMSA, where 4 students presented their senior thesis on the politics of the body and the different ways in which it can be politicized and objectified. it made us all wish that we were taking classes at UMSA so that we could be more involved with students in social movements here and have something to talk about with fellow students. at the UPB university where we are taking classes, the kids only talk to us about getting drunk and partying. so it was a little frustrating to see that there is a university perfect for us and that we arent taking classes there. on thursday night we went to a famous discoteca here, like 3 blocks from my house, where a group of afro-bolivianos come on thursday nights and play a set of music with huge drums and there is a woman who sings. it was SO SO fun!! the music was great, the company was great, this boy taught me merengue and then at 2:30 am we called it a night and my sister Denisse and I went home. my friend eloise also slept over because she lives kind of far and it was too late to go home alone. also, in case you were wondering, breathing hasnt gotten any easier. dancing for about 2 minutes knocks the wind out of you basically.

today, sunday, i went to " la feria de 16 de julio" which is a HUGE flea market in El Alto, the Aymara city above La Paz. It stretched for miles and was the craziest market i have ever been to. people were literally selling everything from tires, to a handful of mushrooms, matchbox cars, toothpaste, used clothing from the US, organce juice, yogurt, basically anything you could ever need or want could be found there. i also went to the famous farmers market here callled " mercado rodriguez" which was also miles long. everything looked so beautiful and delicious and i bought a mango, carrots, camote, brocolli, bitty baby brussel sprouts and some ginger. then i got lost on my way home and made friends with this 80 year old woman who helped me find my mini bus home. great day, now for the homework! i miss everyone at home very much and mexican food from holy guacamole and tacos por favor. if anyone thinks of a way to send me these things, as well as flavor queen or flavor grenade pluots from the farmers market, please let me know or just send them my way!