Advertisement
Published: August 3rd 2010
Lets see well I guess another group of people have started another 6week program so theres some new faces. I met some girl Brenedatte or somethin yesterday playing soccer which was different because I usually dont play at all. Used to be my most disliked sport and after running around quite a bit with little reward I forced myself into the goalie position and actually took a devastating blow from the ball when my old korean friend Pablo kicked it with all his might and I blocked it with my stomache. that was yesterday. Today I went to my first class and really didnt want to read some holy passages wanted to read more of a book. I noticed when arriving to class that John was no where to be found...I actually thought he was going show up but he never did. My first instructor who was a guy pulled out a kids book but actually ended up being quite a read and I learned that when I speak spanish It is supposed to all be slurred together. Wonder where John was hope hes not ill I thought. During my second teacher I had a new argentina woman who was named Illiana who was really nice and was replacing for the moment
my other teacher frogot her name. She was a really nice woman who taught me alot and we shared stories that probably wouldnt have been of nature if it wasnt for the absence if John. My next teacher took me outside and literally we conversed on life and the presence of the mass amounts of time I currently had. She wanted me to play music untill I was 25ish and then told me to get serious about my life which was interesting. NO body ever told me something like that Before. Its true though I imagine I do have alot of time and alot of possibiliities considering my current location but first I need my Visa taken care of then the exploration of other countries comes about. I have looked up the Iguaza falls and have concluded that I am going there some way or another as well as matchupitchu. Definately. Well during my last class my teacher had the movie THE DEVILS MINEr in her hand I was hoping that we were going to watch a movie which is what we did. We made our way up to the 3rd floor and to the DVD room and I glanced out a window Ive never looked through before. ALso wise to do so. The movie was about the silver mine in POTO SI BOLIVIA. Ive come to learn that POTO SI is the highest city in the world at 14000 ft and 8million people or more have lost their lives in the mine. The video was a documentary about some 14yr ol boy who was working in the mine which was kind of a rough watch. People who work in the mine usually die of silcosis which is when all the dust collects and eats away at your lungs untill you cant breathe and many miners die coughing up blood. Most miners dont live past 40 and all of them are men as no woman are allowed to work in the mine they are ment to raise families. AFter the pretty depressing film I was on a mission to go home and eat as soon as I could. As soon as the bell rang I held mild conversation at the stairs with my teacher and noticed no one else around but Brenedatte talking to someone. I walked straight through the door when I heard behind me her call me. I turned around and fumbled with her name really not knowing it at that time and we sat down and chatted about the upcomming adventure to TORO TORO. Um i THink theres a LIST on the wall I said but gave her my email adress and handed her little notebook back to her when others started to gather. Hm..well Yea i definately want to go so hope its on for this weekend but we still have to confirm with Keegan who was directing the trip. Well you should join us for volleyball at 5 I responded as I made my exit before conversing with anyone else. Dont know why Im so anticonversation at the moment I think the movie messed me up mostly. I cant imagine working from age 10-14 in a mine having no contacts or ideas of anything in the outside world where my mom makes 25bolivianos a day. HOw horrible and yet what a life experience for a miner. In the mine was pretty intense because either they hit a Silver/mineral vein and made profit after working all day or they Didnt make anything at all. In the outside world they worshiped GOD but when they were in the mine they worshipped the DEVIL known as TIO in the mine. They believed that they had to make offerings and sacrifices to protect them from explosions and what not. The term TIO is from the term DIO but in quechua the letter D doesnt exist so is replaced by T. I havent walked home in quite a bit and hopped on the 134 truffi which took me a fair deal home but Still left me off at the base of a hill I had to walk 2 blocks up to get home unlike the 115 truffi. For breakfast today I ate an omlete which was delicious! and for lunch had some fideo soup and some carne with noodles and some COCA COLa my favorite way better than pepsi. Pepsis too sweet reminds me of drinking a coors light when I could be drinking a NEW CASTLE or darker ale. Plus when one drinks coke they go AHHHHHH
an effect that pepsi cant replicate. Ive talked to John about this and apparently theres only 2 people in the world who know the true recipe of coca cola and they never put them on the same plane which is quite amusing to discuss. WEll I played some starcraft after lunch a good amount and John then texted me and we were to play some multiplayer online at the school considering that is where the best wireless internet is found. Well meeting at school I arrived first and Played about 2 games or so and was texting my best friend steven Carter who actually said he was looking into buying a plane ticket down here so we can do some traveling after dec 12th when schools over for me. Thats a TRUE FRIEND. Smartest person I know and probably whitest person I know willing to risk coming to Latin AMERICA HELL YES! Hoping to bring in the new year in Buenos Aires or something which will be awesome. I dont understand why everyone wants me to rush my schooling and get it over as soon as possible seems like a horrible idea to get a degree and start working as soon as I can. I have so much time and Im only going to have the legs of a 20yr old well while IM in MY 20SSS!!!!. WEll John arrived shortly with his computer and we set up and won the first game as a team 2v2. then got disconnected from the other game which counted as a loss.
Brenedatte made an entrance to the student center and broke the news to me that we werent going to TORO TORO as we had a 3 day weekend next week which would work better for all of us who were planning to go. Brenedatte seems really nice and doesnt seem drastically afraid of me and actually approaches me with conversation. shes only been here a week and seems to be a real trooper more athletic and has adapted better to bolivia then me and john had the first week put together. I later found she is more dedicated to weirdness of life and is vastly different than me Ive concluded and have totally thrown the idea of her as a prospect already down the toilet. Im not here to meet woman anway, how well can you possibly know someone in 6 weeks anyway which is how long shes staying. well John helps me out with my ideals as he is never ashamed of what hes doing and always takes pride even when looking at stuffed animal beanie babies on a street corner. HE KNOWS WHO HE IS. For me I DO NOT know who I AM nor do I ever think I will find out who I AM and as far as I am considerd rJ is dead and now I am this character in another chapter of my life called ROBERT ahah or as one person calls me ROBBIE which is a nice change. Well connections especially with americans are nice and can go far in a place like this which is why I havent shut anyone out and have actually made out a good amount of Future friends from all over the world which helps expand my travels if for example I ever wanted or needed to travel to nebraska (KEN), FLorida(brenedatte), COLORADO (Caroline), Keegan (dc) for any reason I have connects or at least at the moment I think I DO. WEll John had explained that at like 5am he started puking and shitting everywhere and thats why he didnt attend class but popped some
Praxis pill and felt fine as the day progressed. WE played about 7 games of starcraft and won 5 as a team which was pretty awesome JOHns really good and I blame it to the fact taht he was playing the beta a great deal before the actual game came out. John wanted to play longer but volleyball was taking place at the institute at 5pm and I wanted to attend as to expend some actual energy rather than mental energy and I was starting to get my first headache and thought some mild exercise would help. John still claimed he was too sick to play and watched as the teams were 6v6. Brenedatte, Some mexican looking dude who worked at the institute was on my team, Stephan the FRiar, KEEGAN who had finished up a 5 week program was here for another 2 weeks, and JOse Luis who worked in the office was on my team and we were against Caroline, KEn, who i still havent concluded if they were a couple or not they always seem to be holding each other but claim to both be in a Long distance relationships, Kevin who was fairly new spending 5 months in bolivia as well, Some crazy korean lady who sucks at volleyball, pablo,
and Some other person cant remember. About half way through playing volleyball the ball wasnt exactly soft at all and was making my arms red. Hmmm...When i would serve I decided to hit it as High as I could in order to inflict as much damage to the other team as possible how ill willed is that but they were just doing the same and actuall messed my arm up a great deal. It is still sore 1 day later and still hurts to clap. I recall learning from school that there is over a 100 different bones in each hand so it wouldnt suprise me to know if I possibly fractured my wrist somewhere. Its probably just a broken blood vessel and Ill hope for the best. Brenedatte and Keegan I overheard were discussing a trip to the Mountain PEAK TUNARI and I claimed I was down considering Keegan was leaving soon. I also figured if Brooke and TOM did it successfully it should be no problem for a 21yr old. If I accomplish this/if the trip actually takes place it will be the highest peak Ive ever been to in my life almost reaching 17000ft. Highest place Ive ever been was Pikes Peak colorado at 14900ft. Well I actually ceased playing volleyball due to the intense pain in my right wrist and actually problem killed future games that were going to take place. I made my goodbyes Long after John left and went to the student center to make sure Starcraft worked offline as before it hadnt and I was unable to play at my house without the internet which mildly
frustrated me. Almost embarassed at what I was doing Pablo and everyone soon were around me observing me. Great...kind of embarassed but really trying to be more like John tried not hide who I am to these people as I am and probably always will be a gamer. Even Brenedatte was curious what I was doing and LAter keegan came up to me and sort of embarassed playing starcraft did what I had to do and started bringing up converstations about items on my desktop. Then came the topic of me being a DJ/musician or what not with discussion of this icon FRUITY LOOPS. WEll they actually were quite interested but Music is my hobby and I Do it for myself Kind of like my BLOG wouldnt bother me much If no body ever read my blog or heard my MUSIC as it is FOR ME NOt THEM. WEll because I was still lingering around the school with my computer I had an invite from KEEGAn to go to the bar tonight at 9 which
I found quite pleasing and I was definately attending possibly with purpose to turn my current heachache into some greater feeling. WEll Caught the 115 and crammed into the back. This particular Trufi took me almost directly to my house which was nice for 1.50 boliviano. WEll grabbing leftovers for dinner I still had somewhat of a headache which frustrated me and I thought maybe it was because of all the starcraft maybe staring a comp for several hours had something to do with it. WEll I read some and sooner before I could realize I was on my way to the institution to meet up at the front gate at 9pm. It was around 845 and I hopped on the 16 bus which was fairly empty. It dropped me off with about a 2min walk to the institution. Apparently as it seems I am the only student who lives about a 30min walk from the institution which isnt as bad as it sounds like a 4min trufi/bus ride if no one got off. WEll at the front gate of the institution it was like 850 and no one was around. Hmmm...hope at least keegan shows up for this is his idea. Well the guy at the front gate let me in and I sat next to the front gate waiting. AT around 905 some others started to show Keegan and Ken were the first to show out of the darkness of the night and then Caroline who said she was supposed to meet KEVIN 15 till at a street corner but he never showed. HMMM..where we Brenedatte and KEVIN we all wondered but soon they showed. I just kept
Yawning and yawning with tiresome feeling in the back of my skull that I hoped DRINKs would solve. Well we walked and Did some sort of money resolvement and hopped on the nearest taxi and were on our way downtown. I was crunched in the back with caroline,bRen,and KEN and was somewhere in the middle and after some odd jokes we had some excellent laughs and I was starting to like this group of people. We were meeting the friar STEPHAN at the bar and after the taxi drive we actually met him in no time. We walked around the illuminated downtown down some odd street that looked pretty shaddy in a way but were greeted in aN irish pub. VERY nice! I told keegan and noticed that the place really wasnt smoke free. Hmm...this is kind of small but then we went upstairs and thats where the action was. WE actually went into our own room/booth which was nice but with little ventilation. We all rearranged
the couches to our comfort and I sat down Brenedatte sitting next to me. Before even ordering our drinks Caroline snapped a picture of us..hmmm...But she took pictures of everyone so it was all good. Funny cuz I wanted some RUM and KEVIN recommended me to get what he got which IS what I did taking his advice with little hesitation. Brenedatte ordered an ORGASMO haha what a drink that must be I THOUGHT but didnt question it really. Well our drinks came and Kevin and I were really disappointed with ours and my drink seemed to intensify my headache and now the smoke was starting to get to me. Hmm..Brenedatte actually took a drink of my drink and was disguisted haha I thought Wat a girl but it really was horrible like really sour tequila not rum at all. I didnt bother to try the orgasmo that would have been an awkward conversation. Well We talked and talked me mostly remaining silent due to my weird feeling in my head that was now almost making me want to throw up. I ordered a water and took
a Giant sip and almost yaked everywhere. What is wrong with me I BETTER not be getting sick again I thought. Well KEn and the FRIAR were splitting half a bottle of JAMESON That i really wanted to drink but had a massive lack of energy and attention into anything anyone was saying. Brenedatte asked me how I got into dJing and I explained my security job and Was center of attention for quite a bit of time and educated people on the bolivian instrument called a CHARANGO. I plan to purchase one of these ukulele type instruments in the near future and by the end of this trip I should be shredding on it. Well at almost Eleven O CLOCk I told KEN my situation and he said whenever I wanted he would walk me to the nearest TAXI. Thanks I told him and about 10min later threw a 20 on the table and was out with KEN with little effort on my goodbyes but KEN and the others seemed to understand. DUDE my hands stilled messed up too I TOLD ken and he laughed "Well the last time you said you werent feeling well was actually last time we played volleyball too and you ended up in the hospital yo so I better help you out." THanks again I told him and we refused the first white taxi for Ken thought itwas a bad idea considering it looked like one that kidnapped you. Ken and Brenedatte seemed to get along in the most peculiar way KEn being a graduate in pOLY SCI which I gave him props on this considering that was the first class I got a D in in my life and Brenedatte being a history major about half way through also with a focus in POLY SCI the two got along quite well. Brenedatte said something about studying in cuba after BOlivia which I thought
was impossible but she said she had a Swedish ID VISA or something that allowed her entry WTF! I WANT ONE! I thought. Well handing the paper to the Taxi driver of where I lived I asked him if he knew and he did. I was off to the point of hurling very near got to my house handed the driver a 20 and he gave me 5 back which was what we negotiated on. I walked in my house and DAniellea and LUis were still awake, them being the ones who prepared me dinner of leftovers as MIRZA was not around. Left overs are very common in BOLIVIA i TAke it and is something I am going to have to get used to even though eating the same thing twice really isnt something Im entirely fond of. I recall at the bar talking about blogs and KEVIN and CAroline both had like blogspot or something and I didnt even mention mine to them considering I do include them in alot of discussion that Id prefer them not reading and Told ken this and asked him. "Why dont you blog man dont you want to remember your trip and everything it entails?" and he explained that he used microsoft WORD for this and we laughed. WEll Luis and DAniellea asked me if everything was ok an were wondering why I came home so early but I said everything
was well I just need some sleep and went upstairs and passed out in my jeans not even bothering to take a shower anything. MY HEAD! Ikept thinking but soon enough was embraced by sleep.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0374s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bernadette Stocker
non-member comment
Wowzers.
Rob, this is AMAZING!!!!!!!!! I meant to just skim through the first page to see if the link worked, but wound up reading all the way through them because they were so wonderful. I love the stream-of-consciousness thang you have going on. It´s just like how I journal and e-mail, but it´s way more interesting for me to read because I´m a character in YOUR story. I´ll be reading this years from now to remember these six weeks. But juuust for the record, my name´s Bern. And I ain´t Swedish (close tho... I´m Swiss). And I´m sorry-- didn´t mean to seem bitchy about the orange peels... I´ve just been brainwashed by years of hiking with my Dad. And yes, I´ve been quoting that awesome comment you made about how stars are like people at quite a few of my friends. And I can´t believe you called me and Keegan that early on. And yes... I do embrace the weirdness of life. Amen. This rocks! It´s like a poem in prose. Thanks so much for taking the time to write and share it.