A list of things I love or love to not love about being here:

Liberal interpretation of Spanish words so that in one sense, I really don’t need much vocab after all.

Mix of regional vocab and Quechua words so I do actually need a lot of vocab help.  Today I learned that there is a separate word for a bull calf that’s really too old for milk, but continues to drink its mother’s milk, thus leaving the cow dry for the farmer (you have to keep them separately in the afternoon and overnight to avoid this in the mornings).

Lunchtime/naptime is totally respected (don’t try to do anything between 12-2, or 3)

If it’s raining, you can take it easy; if it’s hot, you can also blame being tired on that.

Like I mentioned in the Dia de la Madre entry, the amount of variations on cheese and carbs that are eaten as very distinct foods here.  You have ground corn and cheese dough that can be shaped into circles (“empanadas”), doughnuts (“roscas”); flour dough with cheese inside (“empanadas” again), if fried, this is a “pastel”, if it’s a doughnut shape and fried it’s a “rosquilla”; yucca flour-and-cheese baked heaven a.k.a. cuñape…and I’m sure there’s more.  But nobody seems to eat grilled cheese or cheese sandwiches (except me).

The accent (who really needs the letter “s” or the ends of words anyways), which I’m apparently picking up, according to my friend a few hours away.

People don’t get too mad when you don’t do something until the next day.  “Later” can mean a few days later.

You write formal letters to people you know really well to tell them anything.  Like, when I leave site, I’m supposed to write a letter to my counterparts (though I’m not great at that, I’d rather just tell them).  The other day I got a letter to thank me for my letter of introduction.  Seriously, it contained no more information than, thanks, we appreciate your support and we’ll be sure to ask you for help.

Beautiful mountains.

Pigs and cows are hilarious animals-always make me laugh.

People tend to have their sweater, jacket or hat or outfit that they always wear, which makes it easier for me to identify them from a distance.  I definitely don’t feel weird wearing my purple Disney Tinkerbell sweatshirt (Bs. 25 = $3 in Santa Cruz, and it totally rocks) half the days of the week.

Dracula.  I actually think he’s a boy (he’s growing up a bit more so that’s becoming more obvious…but who knows).  I don’t know if this really fits into the list, but he is a Bolivian citizen, and is something I love, so it counts I guess.  (it’s my kitten, if you haven’t been reading along, not a boyfriend).  He’s super annoying (why must he bite everything, including his new favorites: books and the corner of my laptop) but super cute all in one!

The dairy products: even though I don’t eat much dairy here, I’m always impressed with the non-wasting.  The major dairy/beverage company is Pil.  They make powdered milk (for times like right now when most of the cows are far away eating grass in the Yungas mountains, and thus are not here for fresh milk), bagged dairy milk, bagged soymilk (which they render totally unhealthy by adding sugar and coloring and overdoing the flavoring-it ends up with very little protein and lots of carbs and fat), bagged chocolate dairy-soy drink (called Chicolac..yummm), cheeses, margarine (which is made extra special when they add milk to it…defeating the purpose of a dairy-free spread), yogurt (also made unhealthy with all those additives).  When I say non-wasting, I guess I refer to the fact that they use the whey from the cheese-making process to make another drink, called Pil-Frut (that’s pronounced “peel-froo” where I live).  It’s also very sweet, but actually has nutritional value from the whey and fruit juice—and kids (and adults) totally love it, but they don’t know it’s made from the very unappealing whey.  During training we would have debates (not very interesting ones) about whether Piña, Manzana (apple), or Durazno (peach) was the best flavor.  I drink/use the Pil fat-free powdered milk…Pil “Sbelt.”  When you consider that b=v here, they really mean to be calling it Svelte, and I just love that I drink Svelte milk.  I also now make my own yogurt…I got sick of the sugary stuff that was more like a drink than a solid food, oh the skills I’m learning!