First Impressions

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Sucre Bolivia was a great choice at first impressions. I´ve been here 24 hours and it feels good anyway. The sky is blue with white fluffy clouds, the breeze is fresh and it´s warm but not hot. The architecture here is quaint with a beautiful church on the main square and lovely details on the buildings. I think there are a million walks to take to discover the city. There is something to be said for painting everything white....grill work, geraniums, stand out. I was walking through the big market yesterday and kept having flashbacks to the big market in Cherkassy, Ukraine. No fish but everything else looked so much the same. The people here are quite beautiful...and very friendly. There is NO choice but to use my Spanish and no one is laughing as I find the right words. I love the challenge of trying to express myself in another language and am in awe of people who do this easily. I really like being able to communicate here even if it´s a bit rough now. My classes start Monday but really the minute I flew into Santa Cruz it began. No one wants to speak English so it´s a good place to be. It´s a nice pace. I volunteered yesterday in an english class helping a teacher with her class. They were working on past tense so I was the pronounciation expert. I´m hoping to work wtih adults, too. These students were 18 yr old. The other students here have volunteered in an orphanage but I dont´think my heart can say goodbye to any more orphans. We´ll see.

I´ll go look for the radio station on Monday and am really excited to work there and learn!

My homestay is nice except for a really badf bed. I´m not sure that we are going to make it together as the dip onto hard boards is a bit rough on me. I put my pillow in the divet...it was that deep...and it reminds me of a yoga posture so i gave that a whirl. I will be like that commercial back home where the peole fall into their bed and say how much they missed it! Did yoga up on the deck this morning looking out at the hills but it got hot up there. Think maybe I´ll ahve to give myself a nigth class instead of early morning. My family has an indigenous woman who cooks for them. I adore her. She has a huge smile and I can tell that I´ll be spending time in the kitchen learning how to cook. I asked her if she would like to learn English and she does so I think that will work. Lunch today was a soup that was only so so but that´s okay, eh?

I´ve got lots to learn about life here, the history, the politics and am thinking that I might drop in to one of the colleges here to maybe meet up with kids studying to be translators like in Ukraine. So, that´s it for now. Gotta go buy a gorgeous looking papaya and some bananas. take care. joyce (oh, a catch on the photo thing. I have my camera but not the attachment taht will connect it to this internet cafe. urgh....so i´ll add the photos when i get home I guess.)

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