New Address

Not like I´m expecting anything... haven´t recieved anything so far (are you all starting to feel guilty yet?) But my new address is:

Casilla 2
Bermejo, Tarija
Bolivia

And if you should send some Recess Pieces or National Geographic Magazine make sure it´s in a small box or padded envelope under 4 pounds and the value extremely low balled. And I have a cell phone (yeah... I´m a baller) just send me an email for the number. As always, I hope everyone is doing great!!

Other Uses for Orange Peels

I had recently arrived in Bolivia and was walking down the grubby streets of Cochabamba, probably no doubt lost after following the good intentioned, but ill informed directions of a fellow pedestrian when I noticed a little old Cholita infront of me pull an orange peel from her pocket. ¨Humm...that´s curious.¨ I thought to myself. So I continued to watch the old woman. And to my shock and surprise she brought the orange peel to her nose and proceeded to blow her nose into it. And if that, in of it´s self, wasn´t odd enough consider this. One, she pulled the orange peel out of her pocket. Meaning, after she peeled the orange in the first place, she didn´t just throw the peel on the street like any other Bolivian (and now myself) would do. She must have conciously saved it for some purpose. To blow her nose into? Really? And two, after blowing her nose into the orange peel she then returned the ¨used¨ peel back to her pocket! Was she going to use it again! That was just too much. I couldn´t help but to laugh out loud to myself right there on the street. Now I really knew I wasn´t in California anymore. But I quickly had to check myself. As if I wasn´t drawing enough odd looks already... a wide eyed blond gringa (obviously not knowing where the hell she´s going) walking the streets of Cochabamba.

I hadn´t thought about that little old woman and her orange peel for months until just the other day...I was eating my fruit salad and suffering from my second cold in less than a month. Snot began to quickly run from my nose. I looked around for a solution. The toilet paper was in the bathroom. No! No time for that! I quickly looked down at my sleeves. No, that won´t do! I want to get at least a few more uses out of this before I have to wash it again. So logically, I grabed the next closest thing. And as the orange peel hit my nose that moment on the busy streets of Cochabamba came back to me with the clarity as if it had just been yesterday. And I thought with alarm to myself ¨Ahhh! I am that crazy old woman!¨ And again, I had to laugh at myself. And you know what? I gotta say that cholita was really on to something. While the absorbancy of an orange peel leaves something to be desiered... it´s soft and moist. Gentle on a tender nose. And it smeels good too. Maybe she wasn´t so crazy afterall... or maybe she was and I am too.

Engordar (to fatten)

Yes... estoy engordando. We were warned plenty of times- the boys will lose and the girls will gain, but I thought ¨Oh no... not me.¨ But sure enough I have. I probably haven´t gained much more than three pounds, but on me you can definiely notice it. Because of instead of nicely dispersing itself throughout my body and giving me some, oh I don´t know...curves, it has decided to concentrate it´s self solely on my belly. It would be a cute belly if I were three months pregnant, but I can assure you I am not. Instead it is just freakin´me out! I know most of you are rolling your eyes and saying ¨yeah... your really getting fat there Allison¨ and there are probably others with a self satisfied grin saying ¨Ah hah! I knew it would catch up with you sooner or later!¨

It all started during tech week. When we were eating out for every meal and I had an unsatiable appetite. Really, it was rediculous. I was hungry all the time! By the end of the week I was eating two plates of fried chicken and french fries for dinner and everyone was joking ¨Ut oh... Allison´s tape worm is getting angry. We better feed it.¨ I probably gained a few pounds just during that week. But by the time swear in rolled around I was back to eating the regimented light breakfast, soup for lunch and some kind of meat/ rice combination for dinner. I got back more or less to normal. But ever since swear it´s been down hill. Eating out in Tarija, going crazy buying groceries. Now that I´m finally able to make my own food I definitely go overboard eating three times as much as a normal person would, just because I can. And the street food is so tempting! Everything is fried -fried empanadas, fried beef and egg and papas in a lomito, fried dough with queso and powdered sugar (so delicious!), fried hamburgers and hotdogs. Then there´s the pastries everyone is selling. And it´s all so cheap! 50 centavos here a Boliviano there (which is the equivalent of 12.5 cents) You have to get at least two! And then there´s the fact that soda is really the only thing sold in restaurants. The fruit refrescos don´t really seem to be too popular down here in Bermejo. And by the way, people don´t drink water in Bolivia. I have yet to see any Bolivian drink a glass of water. I think foriegners are solely keeping the bottled water industry alive.

My eating habits have changed so much since coming to Bolivia. Soda?! I hardly ever drank soda. Only at fast food places. And all this fried food! And seriously, I have eaten more french fries and bolied potatoes in the last few months than I have in my entire life. And I´ve started eating beef again. I haven´t eaten it for over seven years. But I´m in the land of beef and wine and I´ve got to try it right? I was never much of a fan of it before, but I have been converted. It´s so good! But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone tells me that I will get over the fried street food phase. And the food here is at least prepared from fresh ingredients. It´s not the packaged crap you find in the states. And I am eating a lot more fruits and veggies than I normally would. So it´s not all bad. I just have to learn not to eat so damn much! ;)