Metro Maniac

Hey guys!

I have a weird story to tell you, I know I just updated with a post on Lisbon but I'm splitting these up because they have very different tones.

Today I had French for 2 hours and then public health for 5 hours (it was scheduled to be 7 hours). In French something really shocking happened. A woman came in to tell us that my French teacher was on the metro and something happened with the metro but that she'd be here soon and we should wait in the classroom for her. We didn't think much of it because she's always telling us that she has to plan way ahead to get to class on time because of the strikes, and she's always worried that she's going to be late one day. She came in about 8 minutes late sobbing. We all went completely silent and she mumbled that she might not be able to teach today. We waited, and she said she was attacked on the metro. We frantically muttered that we didn't need to have class, or that we could do independent study. A few people kept asking if she needed anything, but she just continued taking big gulps of air and shakily reaching for the class folder from her backpack.

Now, I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but sometimes I have extremely inappropriate reactions to grave situations that have been sprung upon me suddenly like that. When I had that car accident in high school (when I was doing donuts in the street, as dad always says) I laughed before I cried. So this whole time I'm concentrating really hard on not laughing, and a smile is forcing its way onto my face. I had to put my hand over my mouth to control myself. There's a reason for this and its very normal, psychologists say it's because we don't know how to process sudden traumas..or something like that. Anyway I was struggling between wanting to condole her but also trying to restrain myself from being really inappropriate. Finally she asked for us to give her 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes were up she started class as usual. I'm so grateful that she didn't call on me first to answer her question in french because I would've stared at her with my mouth hanging open, still trying to process the abrupt shift we had just made.

After class she told us what happened. Apparently the metro was really crowded this morning and some woman was trying to get on. My teacher was standing in her way but she couldn't move because it was so tight, and there was a stroller behind her. The woman made it on but cussed her out throughout the entire metro ride. She said the woman almost hit her! She ended up asking a man to walk with her out of the station and then she stood with some police for a few minutes.

How crazy is that!!?? We told her that anyone would've been upset after that and she shouldn't be embarrassed. At first I wondered why she hadn't pulled herself together in the bathroom before walking into class, but then after talking with some people we decided that maybe she had been ok before walking into class, but upon seeing us her adrenaline subsided and she just broke down.

It's getting colder but the crazies aren't hibernating!

Love,

Hillary

Yanky DOODLE Dandy

Hi everyone!

I just got back from Rennes a few hours ago and I am thoroughly exhausted. However, I put together a quick post about my notebook doodles!

So, Morgan has borrowed books that I used in high school for her classes in the past and she likes to comment on my random and sometimes frequent doodling. Today on the train back from Rennes I photo-documented all of the doodles from my notebook for one of my classes here and I've compiled them into this post! This is the class that all of the public health students have together, and it encompasses 3 total public health classes. It's also the class that went to Rennes.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that doodling = slacking off! (This is directed to you Mom and Dad.) I, like many people, have doodled since middle school and it hasn't affected my schoolwork thus far. Here we go!

(If you need to enlarge these pictures to play my "find it" games, just click on an image and it should open up in a new window to appear larger.)

Can you find the following objects in this doodle?

-Footsteps, batman symbol, clock, maple leaf, normal leaf, acorn, birds, ocean, octopus, stingray, trees, fish

We had a lot of lectures in Rennes and they were all guest lecturers. One of our lecturers was French-Canadian.

One of our lecturers was explaining how countries use different but specific methods to tackle issues (something that has already been covered ad nauseam back in class in Paris).

Ok, I'll cover this in the Rennes post, but there was a spider in our class Tuesday afternoon, and the spider was huge enough to freak out everyone who saw it (about half the class). Everyone around me was incapable of paying full attention to our lecturer because the spider ended up under the heater directly behind my chair. We all had our feet up on our seats.

I saw this girl on the Metro with a really cute and comfy outfit on so I was taking note of it in my notebook when I remembered it in class.

Two students from the public health school we were staying at gave a lecture on what goes into becoming a hospital director.

One of our lecturers had a shirt that said "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" on it, and it was semi-see through which meant I could see that her bra was neon pink with green ribbon detailing. I thought this was really funny since she's French so she's supposed to be impecably dressed. I wanted to draw her so I could remember to put it in my blog later. First I drew the shirt and then I added her head, short bob, and glasses, but I made her head way too small for the shirt. I tried to fix it by making her hair bigger. I also wanted to include the shirt and bra wardrobe malfunction so I drew a bra over her shirt. Then I realized I was drawing a bra on a woman in my notebook and that anyone could peer over and decide I was really creepy. I drew horizontal stripes on her shirt to disguise it.

I don't really have an explanation for the boy looking off into the sunrise behind a mountain.. I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I could draw a person with normal proportions. (I didn't..I kept having to add hair so his head would match his body).

The doodle below was actually during our group presentations in Paris on a day when we had French from 10:15 to 12:00 and then public health from 12:30 to 7:00. I drew this during the last presentation on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when I simply couldn't concentrate anymore.

Can you find the following objects in this doodle?

Shark, dolphin (2), sun, tortoise, lots of fish, octopus (2), seaweed, clam, eel, squid, angelfish, sunken vessel, crab

Look for a new post in the next couple of days!

Love,

Hillary

Tidbits

Hey folks!

This post is made up of little tidbits from the past week of my life in Paris.

Refund:

We're off the meal plan! So many people complained about the food at St. John's that our program director had to step in. She ended the food contract with St. John's and is providing all of us with reimbursements in cash (to cover rest of our time here) to be delivered via Sciences-Po. The St. John's kids still have to eat the food. It's such a relief to be able to plan when, where, and what I'll be eating.

Fashion Week:

Paris Fashion Week began on Tuesday! Yesterday (Wednesday) I walked around trying to find the supposed TopShop pop-up store in a store called "Colette." (TopShop is a British clothing store that is affordable and very cute). The article I'd read about it online said that there was a special pop-up TopShop being hosted at Colette. I found Colette.. which appeared to be a hip hop music/ guys clothing/ guys shoe store with an Urban Outfitters book section on the first floor, with Hermès scarves and jewelry upstairs, and a restaurant downstairs. I found nothing TopShop related. There were however, a ton of American and Italian tourists with lots of fancy shopping bags. As I walked back across the Louvre Gardens back to my side of the Seine, I passed an incredibly long tent being constructed that read; "Accessory Designers Trade Show." Other than that I haven't seen much Fashion Week activity. The online show schedule has different events happening all over the place, spread throughout the entire city. It doesn't seem to be centralized. I have heard that it's nearly impossible to get in to see a show during the Paris Fashion Week because it is so popular. You have to either know someone, be famous, or be in the industry. Even just being rich isn't always enough to cut it. Seats are in high demand. All I wanted to do was to sit outside and watch all the cool people walking around, but I haven't seen much so far.

Bon Marché:

Yesterday morning before class I ran into Bon Marché (fancy department store with a large fancy grocery store on the bottom á la Harrods) to buy a couple of apples before class. As I was checking out, the cashier-lady laughed and mumbled something in French to me. Instead of saying I didn't understand her, I just smiled and nodded saying "mhmm.." She must've understood that I was foreign because when I left she said "Bonjourno!" So far in my travels I've been mistaken for being Brazilian, Dutch, and Italian. I take it all in pride.

Library Tour:

Yesterday morning we had a "mandatory" library tour from 8am to 9am. I put "mandatory" in quotes because a lot of people stayed in bed and no one took roll. The "tour" took place in a room 4 blocks from the library and was a Power Point presentation on how to check out books and reserve books online. Afterwards I was planning to go back to bed but she said we could follow her to the library and get some free croissants and coffee..so of course most of us followed her. There was a guy there with a camera filming because it turns out this was a grand opening of the new addition to the older library which is across the street. We were the first ones in there, and that place was SO COOL. I literally felt like I was in an Apple store on every floor. There were floating conference rooms and tons of brand new Mac desktops. The floors, walls, and ceilings were all white and the floating conference rooms were stone. There were futuristic looking swivel chairs with little table tops attached, and on one level these chairs were sitting on top of a see-through floor that looked down on the first level. Thank goodness for free food, or I wouldn't have seen it!

Wall Street:

I saw the "Wall Street" Paris premier Tuesday night! Instead of a midnight release (which I'm not sure they do in France) it was an 8:15pm showtime the day before the national release date. We saw it in a gigantic theater with an enormous white screen that felt like something you would see at Universal Studios. There weren't any previews, it felt like we were seeing a sneak peek showing. I loved the movie! It was fresh, by that I mean the director incorporated some new filmmaking styles that I haven't really seen before. It doesn't hurt that I have a huge crush on all of Shia LaBeouf's characters (except in Eagle Eye...ok and not in Even Stevens either).

I plan on relaxing for the rest of the day and then hopefully going to get dinner later with some friends. This Saturday is La Nuit Blanche. I don't entirely get what it's for, but it's free, is geared towards younger people, and is centered around dining, museums, and music. It lasts from 7pm to 7am Sunday morning. I guess lots of places stay open and a few of the metro lines stay open all night as well. We shall see!

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Hillary

"Europeanners"

Hey there!

Today's post will be an assortment of unrelated topics, all of which I want to tell you about but none of which are big enough to deserve their own space.

Topic one: The Metro

The metro is one of the best public transit systems I have ever experienced (second only to the Underground). It surpasses the Chicago El system in every way possible. There are stops everywhere and wait times for trains are rarely over 4 minutes- but you'll know how long you'll be waiting thanks to the digital sign that tells you how long until the next train, and then how long until the next train after that. The newer trains have a digital map inside the train cars: On this map there is a small light underneath each stop, the light blinks when you have arrived at that stop, and the light is extinguished once you have passed that stop. Oh and have I mentioned the speed? It's about one minute transit time in between each stop on the metro.

The Metro is a funny sort of place. You are allowed on the metro, but your personal space has to walk and meet you at your next destination. On the metro your entire cabin may be serenaded with a man playing a guitar and not asking for money, a couple with a stereo may try to start a rave in your cabin, or a homeless person may board and announce very politely that he is poor and isn't being helped by the State and if you would be so kind he would gratefully accept any donations you may have. People-watching on the metro is really enjoyable. Today I saw a boy about my age on his cell phone leaning against the wall of the train with a very tall open Paprika Lays Potato Chips tube in one hand, and tucked under his arm he was carrying a small laptop- with no case. The other day I saw the coolest looking family. The dad had a handsome face with a bit of stubble and was around 40, he was tall, slender and extremely french looking. He had a tattoo on his neck with someone's name on a banner wrapped around a big flower. It was cool looking. The mom was a bit younger with long blonde hair and a trench, and the daughter, who was around 5, was wearing the cutest little dress with little boots on. I have seen women and men of every ethnicity and of every level of wealth. It's really enjoyable.

Topic two: Au Vieux Campeur

Today I went on a quest to find a sleeping bag (to help with my bed bug problem). After googling "Paris camping stores" and then using google maps, I found where I wanted to go. The only problem was that the blog I found that suggested Au Vieux Campeur warned that, although this chain carries everything an outdoorsman could ever dream of, because of limited real estate in Paris, Au Vieux Campeur had about 50 different boutiques sprinkled around the 6 block radius they had directed me to. All of them carrying different things. I took the metro and walked to the address I got from the internet. At that address was a pharmacy and a few shops, but none of them were the camping store. I went inside one of the shops and asked for directions. In a mix of french and english she said I needed to walk two blocks one direction, take a right, and then walk for 5 more minutes. I walked that direction and almost immediately after turning right on the correct street, passed by an Au Vieux Campeur. Inside this one all they sold was skis, but the doorman directed me to the one with "sacs de couchage" (thanks google translator for telling me the word for sleeping bag!). He told me I need to walk 4 blocks and take a right. In between the ski shop and the corner 4 blocks away, I passed 4 more Au Vieux Campeurs. One sold only goggles and sunglasses, another sold only cold weather gear, the third sold trekking gear, and the 4th sold backpacks. Around the corner I found my sleeping bag store, and after purchasing one (I bought the cheapest one for only 15 euro!) I walked up towards the main road to catch the closest metro. The main road was one block away, but on the way I passed three more of those shops, one which sold swim gear, another which sold wetsuits, and the third which sold snowboards and snowboarding brand clothing. I turned up the main road and walked past another one which sold only hiking boots. I saw a shelf inside with some spray cans and walked in and bought some leather protectant spray for my shoes!

Topic three: Zara

I went into Zara today to try to find a light jacket (the temperature dropped yesterday to the low 50s). I found a really cute coat but they only had 3 larges. I went up to the man at the counter and asked in french "est-ce que vous avez sa plus petit?" (Do you have this more small?) I asked that in french!! I don't think it was a perfect sentence but he understood me! He told me no, and said the store by L'Opera had it. Then he asked me something I completely didn't understand, and I asked him in french if he spoke english. He did not, and neither did the woman at the register. I wanted to ask him if he could have the other store send it to this Zara, since it's only 1 block from my dorm, but I had no way of saying that. Eventually he just gave me the address to the other Zara. Oh well, I almost had it!!

Topic four: The language of a New Yorker

When I worked at Ben & Jerry's for the Tennis U.S. Open a couple summers ago, I got a lesson in how to speak a whole different language. I'm not talking about a foreign language, I mean the language of the inner city. Until a couple weeks ago, I thought that it was a language that could translate to any city, but I'm starting to realize that what I was hearing was unique to New York. Do you want to know how I know this? I know because I met a nice girl from St. John's who lives in our dorm and is a native New Yorker. The second she opens her mouth I am transported back to yesteryear, to my ice cream-scooping days. Last night around 11:30 she came into my room as Yomna and I were watching project runway on my laptop (I bought it from iTunes). She wanted us to watch a scary movie with her but we were already watching our show and didn't want to watch "Devil."

As soon as she walked in I knew that Yomna and I might not be able to finish our episode before the night was through. This girl can talk. I mean, I might say four words and she says five thousand. She can talk for 20 minutes with no interruption from me..except an occasional "mhm." Last night one of the topics she talked about was all the St. John's people who say they are from New York, but then she finds out they're from Connecticut or Massachusetts. She explained that one girl on her program is only eating bread and water because she wants to get a bigger chest and butt.

...

I don't know. I'll just say that there are definitely differences between the students from St. John's and the NU students. For one, I never see any NU kids outside the building smoking, but it seems like there are always 2 or 3 kids from St. John's smoking outside. And it's always different people so it's not like it's 3 of them that just smoke all night and day. Secondly, we were all warned to be quiet when talking with windows open, or when walking outside the front door down the passageway in between our building and the church building to the door that leads to the street because the sound gets trapped in the passageway and everyone can hear everything you say. It's the St. John's kids who lean out their windows to yell to each other, or who play "kick the water bottle" in the passageway. But I'm straying off topic, I was just so fascinated that two groups of students- and both from good schools- could be so different. Back to the St. John's girl.

At one point she started ranting about one of our RA's (a subject she hits on repeatedly). She told us that she told him earlier yesterday that "he was f*in stupid- I told him right to his face! Everyone hates his f*in a$$." Apparently one of the reasons for this is that the RA walked into a girl's room who was skyping with her parents and started asking her about being Albanian, saying he felt sorry for her country because of the religious division. Apparently he told her that her religion (she's Muslim) is a violent one. Now, I don't know if that's true, which- if it is that is unacceptable- but this is what St. John's girl had to say about it:

"I told him, 'who are you to talk, you're f*in Polish! I could say a lotta things about you. You from the most communist f*in part of town!!' Yo it's mad rude to be like sayin' 'I feel bad for your country' and sh*t. All these Europeanners don't know how to talk to people."

She's engaged to be married next year. She's the one that found the mouse in the refrigerator. "I opened the door and saw the mice ran out the refrigerator! Then later that day I was in the kitchen, and I saw another mice!" Oy ve. She's a really nice girl but I'm worried that her grammar is going to rub off on me if I listen to her talk for too long.

And that's where today's post ends! Bon week-end!

Love always,

Hillary

Goodnight, sweet dreams, and don't let the bed bugs bite!!!

Oy ve,

Not again.

A couple days ago a girl on my floor was complaining that while she's been sleeping she's been getting tons of mosquito bites. They were all over her arms and her face. I doubted they were mosquito bites, but I didn't know what else they could be...other than the mythical bed bug (which I know exists but to me it only existed in super gross conditions..or back in the days of straw mattresses). Oh..what a fool I was.

I just woke up from an hour long nap with 4 to 5 semi-itchy bites along my arms. I know they aren't mosquito bites because the only thing close to a mosquito I've seen in France was a monster mosquito/fly/dragonfly thing floating around my room, and a little green mosquito looking thing. I think it's bed bugs. The maids are supposed to wash our sheets for us every 5 weeks. My plan was to wait for the 5 week mark to get my sheets washed. The problem could be one of 2 things.

It may be due to the fact that these sheets are super hard and aren't cotton. They don't breathe at all, so even though it may be really cold in here at night, I sweat like it's 100 degrees in here without a fan. Even in Bolivia the sheets were cotton. They only gave us one set even though we were told "linens will be provided." If I'd known they meant "we will give you one scratchy old towel and one set of puke pink sheets and we won't clean them for 5 weeks," I'd have brought one or two extra sets. And my cotton twin sheets at home are pretty! The pillow case they gave us doesn't fit on the pillow we were provided, so we can't use it. Thank goodness I brought my tie-dye pillowcase from home so that I could have a little piece of home!

Moving on to the pillow- this pillow is not new. My guess is that it is 3-5 years old. The material inside has formed into clumps. If you lay your head on it, it is flat as an envelope within 30 seconds.

I think the bed bugs are either because I sweat a ton at night due to these sheets made of who knows what, OR because this pillow is ancient.

Sigh. Laundry costs 4 euro (2 to wash 2 to dry). There is no guarantee that I can even get an empty dryer tonight. I don't want to sleep in this bed with these sheets tonight.

Love a very perplexed,

Hillary

Frustrations From a Sleepyhead

Hey there!

Today was a long day.

BEWARE: This post may be stranger than normal due to lack of mental alertness.

Last night it took me forever to fall asleep because my roomie (whom I adore) was still writing her paper and had the light on until an hour and a half after I went to bed at 11:30 pm. I really need to find an eye mask. My friend told me she has a felt one that doesn't slide off her face. An eye mask was something I should've thought to pack..wait..I did think to pack it! Then I decided it wasn't important.

Anyway, my alarm went off at 6:52 am and I unconsciously turned it off and woke up to my roommate's alarm at 7:00 am. All the public health students had morning classes today (on Wednesday's we usually get to sleep in because there is no French class on Wednesdays). Our class started at 8:00 am. Our guest speaker gave us a 7 minute break at 9:40 am and then we continued on until 12:15 pm. It was straight lecture..most of our classes are. We then had class with our entire program from 1:00 pm to 4:00. All the kids from my program are mentally dead today. Dinner was pretty quiet. We're all tired.

I'm doing my laundry right now. We have two washers and two dryers. The laundry room is located at the end of the second floor hallway, on the side of the boys rooms. So to get to it, you have to pass 6 boys rooms (it's the St. John's boys). I can always feel them looking at me when I walk past. It smells like deodorant, axe, and sweat over there. I had two loads. As I was putting my first load into the dryer, I heard music turn on- it was Soldier Boy blasting through some speakers- and it was really loud. I resisted the temptation to start dancing in the laundry room alone, just in case someone walked in suddenly. When I went back upstairs I walked past the speakers sitting on a chair in the doorway facing the hallway. The boys in that room toasted (don't ask me with what, we're not allowed to drink in the dorm) with the end of the song as I was walking past. When I went down a little later to switch loads, the music had switched to latin music. I smiled and resisted walking with some hip action.

This time there was another NU student in the laundry room. Now, I've had a few negative run-ins with her since being here. She isn't aware that they were negative interactions, nor do I think she knows who I am. But we have had brief conversations and she is very abrasive and rubs me the wrong way. In the laundry room she'd taken my clothes out of the washing machine and put them on top of the washer. They had to have been done for maybe 3 minutes, max. That didn't bother me too much because I've done it before to other people, but usually it's at least half an hour after their laundry has been done. I do understand however, that we have only 2 machines. What did bother me was the comment she made about the music.

In a mocking tone she said, "It's like a mexican fiesta down here." Then she added a snicker. Should this have bothered me? I don't know, from what I've heard come out of her mouth in the past, she seems to be exceedingly conceited. It seemed to me that this was a jab at the people living on that floor. It could also be that my feelings towards her cloud my judgement, and that I am simply assuming the worst. Nevertheless, it immediately reminded me of something that happened on "The Bachelorette" last season. On the episode, a guy named Roberto showed Ali how to salsa dance. One of the other men vying for Ali's attention said later to the camera (in a heavy southern accent) "I was a lil' upset dude I mean..Roberto did some.. hot-sauce dance or somethin'."

Comments like these bother me.

P.S. I just walked down there again to take out my last load from the dryer. I found my clothes on top of the dryer, and I found her just beginning to put her clothes into that dryer. Which means- they'd been done for maybe 30 seconds. When I looked at my clothes on the top of the machine she said "Are those yours? They felt a little wet.." Then I said "Yeah those are mine..hmm." Then as I seemed frustrated she said "I didn't touch them I swear." I responded "No worries, I understand."

But riddle me this: how would she know they were wet if she hadn't touched them?

I'll leave you with that as food for thought.

Love,

Hillary

Lessons in Using a Mouse

Hey guys!

I took the GRE this morning, but it almost didn't happen.

My test was scheduled for 9:30 am this morning. They ask you to arrive half an hour early so I wanted to be there a little before 9:00 am. I got up at 7:45, ate breakfast, and left around 8:25. I had looked up the location of the testing center on google maps the night before, and it looked like it was right around the corner from the Louvre. Between my dorm and the Louvre there aren't any direct metro routes and it's only a half hour walk from my dorm, so I walked. At 5 minutes to 9:00 I turned the corner and found the address I was looking for. What I found there was a door- locked with a chain around the handles- and a sign that said "149 Rue St. Honoré." Below the sign was an arrow pointing to the right. The only thing on the right was a keypad for typing in a code. The correct code definitely wouldn't have unlocked the padlocked door, and there was no doorbell. I looked to the building on the right, and it was a fitness center. Then I thought, "uhm..maybe I'm at the wrong entrance..?" So I walked a bit farther on my left. The only thing in that direction was a big old church-like building. "Wait a minute!" There was a door in between these two buildings! This door was wide open... and it was full of dumpsters. I thought.."maybe I can sneak inside through this back entrance?" I peeked my head inside the garbage room but there weren't any doors. I pulled out my notebook and confirmed that I was at the right address. In my notebook I'd also written down the number of the test center, so I tried calling. I tried with a country code, I tried without a country code, I tried it with the area code, and I tried omitting one of the numbers in case I'd transcribed the number wrong, nothing worked.

I was starting to panic. I walked into the fitness center and, after asking the man there if he spoke english, asked if he knew of a testing center nearby. "Uh...Oh yes! Around the corner!" I walked around the corner (the way I'd come) and found two very big doors that led to a very fancy foyer. I found the right floor and was lead to the testing area. There was an office with lockers for bags and a computer screen with 12 videos monitoring each person at their computer. On the other side of the wall was a room full of computers. The GRE is a computerized test. There were already people in the room who were already taking various other tests (and maybe the GRE too). I sat down in front of the computer assigned to me completely ready to take the GRE. A screen popped up explaining that the GRE was a computerized test (just in case I hadn't figured that out already). First, it said, it would take me through a tutorial on how to use a mouse.

After explaining what a mouse was and where to find it on my desk, it taught me how to click. After clicking practice, I learned how to point and move my cursor. After that, it taught me how to scroll up and down. I also learned how to cut and paste, and how to type in a box. I learned how to delete, and how to highlight a row of text.

After the test I walked back to my dorm and stopped at Gap to buy a t-shirt. I also tried really hard to find a cute, loose, short dress to wear over tights. I stopped in 4 or 5 stores, but the only thing under 100 Euro was from Guess and A) I feel weird buying clothes over here from American companies (unless its a tee from Gap), and B) it didn't fit right. On my walk back I eyed an older couple who I pinned right away as being British. And by golly, they were! It was the blue blazer with the gold buttons on this older gentlemen that gave it away. If one is bored on the streets of a foreign country, I find it amusing to try to spot the Americans (or the Brits) and then walk near them to see if they're speaking english. The tricky part is spotting them from afar, because once you are anywhere close to them the combination of english being your first language, and the fact that Brits and especially Americans tend to be louder, means your ear will hear english from a mile away. Later I was wrong about an American girl who I thought was French, so I guess my score for today is back to zero.

Anyway that's been my day so far!

Catcha on the flip side! Love,

Hillary

La Última Fin de Semana en Bolivia

Hi everyone!

I've been having a fun extended weekend and I finally found time to sit down and tell you all about it!

Wednesday:

Thursday was my last day of work. The head doctor and director of the clinic, Dr. Romero, came back from his 6 week vacation on Wednesday, just in time to take me and the head nurse to La Cancha to spend my mini-grant on necessities for the clinic. Wednesday we hopped in a cab and spent a couple hours at La Cancha buying office supplies, kitchen supplies, a space heater, thermometer batteries, and a modem. After buying the office supplies we had a huge bag full of heavy things like hole-punchers and staplers. The head nurse is almost 6 months pregnant and she'd been carrying this bag so I tried to take it from her but she switched hands to her other side so I couldn't take it. Every time we bought something the doctor would take the bag from the saleslady and hand it to the head nurse. All he was carrying was a bag with 3 hand towels inside. The head nurse was carrying all the office supplies, all the mugs for the kitchen, a space heater, and more. And she is 6 months pregnant! I couldn't believe how chauvinistic the doctor was being. I'd already known that I didn't like him because he's sort of creepy but this was too much. Bolivia, and lots of South American countries, tend to operate in a chauvinistic manner. There are campaigns to foster equality of gender that I've heard on the radio and seen on billboards, but they still have a long way to go.

Thursday:

Thursday was the day before Bolivian Independence Day. Most people got work off on Friday and some also took off Thursday. Thursday afternoon I walked around the Prado (main road/ city center) with a friend to watch the festivities. There were chairs lining the streets, lots of sunglasses and food venders, rides for kids, and a parade that lasted from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. The parade was made up of marching bands from almost every school in Cochabamba, military bands, and children dressed up as famous Bolivian historical figures. All the girls older than about 10 and all of the women in the parade were wearing ridiculously tall heels. Most of them were also wearing heavy looking marching band costumes or pants suits. When I watched the parade around 1:00 pm it was scorching hot. The parade line was directly in the sun and most of the kids looked flushed, unhappy, and uncomfortable. I wanted to give all of them water so badly. As I walked around my neighborhood Thursday there was no one around- it was as if the entire city was either in the parade or watching it.

Thursday night I went to a goodbye dinner with a bunch of friends and then stopped by a cafe with a few people for a drink. I was really thirsty and tired so I just got water but the owner of the cafe sent over a shot of maple whisky or something that was ridiculously sweet that we all passed around and sipped to be polite. I mentioned this in an earlier post but at midnight the music was turned off and the national anthem was sung by everyone present. Firecrackers were set off and a few Bolivian women started dancing traditional scarf dances with napkins in the center of the room. It was a great feeling of national pride and community that we all commented on as lacking in the states.

Friday:

I assumed Friday would be even more chaotic in the Prado, but to my surprise there was barely anyone outside no matter where I was on Friday. Apparently, Friday is when all Bolivian families have huge barbeque lunches and everyone spends time at home. I had heard something about a parade happening Friday but I never saw anything all afternoon. No stores were open Friday and the few restaurants we tried were sold out of everything on the menu.

Saturday:

My airport friends and I had been planning for awhile to hit up this "hot springs spa" we'd heard about that was supposed to be very close to Cochabamba. Saturday we finally did it. Clara had to purchase tickets ahead of time at the place's sister hotel located in the Cochabamba. Tickets for one day including lunch and afternoon tea cost 70 Bs a person. Saturday morning we met up north near Sarah's apartment to grab breakfast and then catch a micro for 2 Bs to Quillacollo, a city half an hour outside of Cochabamba. I was starved and so for breakfast I ordered donut holes from a donut shop and then a pastel and jugo de durazno (pastry and peach juice) from our breakfast place. I also hadn't had a salteña yet (it's like a strictly Bolivian item that Bolivians eat as breakfast and is an empanada with soupy goodness inside). I had avoided eating it because I've seen people eating them and everyone makes a huge mess due to the soupiness of the inside. Being a messy eater, I decided it would be wise to avoid it for as long as possible. My airport friends couldn't let me go any longer without having one so we ate salteñas for breakfast as well. I only spilled once and it was only a little on my sleeve!

After breakfast we caught our micro and got off 30 minutes later in bustling Quillacollo. After a 20 minute ride in a separate micro we were let off on the side of the highway across from La Cabaña. It turns out La Cabaña is less of a hot springs spa and more of a crowded country club with a pool and a couple of jacuzzi tubs. We were as happy as could be because all we wanted to do was lay out in the sun, chat, relax, and maybe read. We found a spot on the grass and settled in. I lathered on the sun screen because I've seen too many episodes of Oprah where they show sun spots under people's skin and how much older people look when they didn't protect their skin against the sun when they were young. I was also thinking about skin cancer but as a secondary concern. Anyway we sat and chatted for a little while and several times an older man in his 70's or 80's with socks and sandles and a polo shirt kept coming over to us to tell the other two to put on sunscreen. As I french-braided Sarah's hair he came over and began to braid a tiny braid in her hair too. He was harmless but a bit too friendly. He said he'd traveled a lot in the U.S. and knew a bit of english but spoke to us in spanish. He also told us that the tiny braid he'd made was called Ernesto (his name I assume..). Sitting in the sun bores me pretty quickly so I got up and did a little bit of exploring before lunch was served.

Lunch was really cute, they had all reservations marked on little name cards to indicate who was sitting where. We were served a little salad, an egg-drop soup, and then a plate of chicken, potatoes, and rice. Sometimes being out in the sun for awhile zaps my appetite, so I was full before the soup came out. I barely touched my main course and the manager was worried that I didn't like it. If I thought I could force myself to eat a few bites without throwing up I would have, but for some reason I was really full. Maybe it was our big breakfast only 2 or 3 hours earlier.

After we ate we did some more exploring together. We found a really cool suspension bridge and crossed it to find railroad tracks that ended abruptly on both sides after about 100 feet.

As the sun moved in the sky we came back to find out little area halfway in the shade. We moved our things over to the empty soccer field and spent some time there reading. After half an hour a gringo girl that I'd been seeing all day came over and asked if I knew Becky. It took me a second but I realized that this was an SB volunteer who I'd met very briefly through her friend Becky who was in the "Yale" group from the Salar that we kept running into during our tour. We talked and she said her name was Dina (good omen!). She spelled it just like my mom. We chatted and it turns out she's going for her masters at Michigan and just ended an internship with Direct Relief, which is an organization based in California that I'd considered applying for this summer! I got her e-mail address and plan to contact her if I decide to apply to Direct Relief in the future.

Earlier, as I'd been doing some exploring of the grounds on my own, I'd spotted a zip line across the small man-made lake. Before we left Clara and I decided that we had to do it and so we wandered over there. After seeing a fully-grown man cross the lake on the zip line, we were confident that the line was sturdy and that it would hold us.

Can you spot me on the left in the air?

On our way back to Cochabamba we had to stop in Quillacollo again. We picked up some ingredients for dinner and got back to Sarah's apartment around 5:00 pm to prep the pizza dough we were going to bake later. I'd never made pizza dough by scratch before but it was amazing to see yeast working on sugar and water. I also didn't realize it had to sit for a couple of hours to rise. After we prepped the dough we all split up to relax before returning to Sarah's to bake the pizza at 8:00 pm. I made a huge fruit salad and Sarah had made a really good pizza sauce. By 9:00 pm we were tucking in to our meal and it was superb. Around 10:00 pm Dave (Sarah's boyfriend) took us to a swanky club for a drink to celebrate Clara's last night in Bolivia. Walking up to this club felt like being in Vegas. There were brand new BMWs parked outside and inside were the most beautiful Bolivians I've seen yet. I don't know where the BMWs are during the day, or the well dressed Bolivians, but I know where to find them at night!

Everyone was very dressed up and we were a tad underdressed but we had a nice time chatting over our drinks.

Sunday:

After sleeping in and relaxing all morning, I met Sarah, Dave, and Clara at the soccer stadium for a game between Cochabamba (the reigning champs) and Oruro. The game was a lot of fun and went quickly.

We left after one half (45 min) because we wanted to get something sweet to eat and say goodbye to Clara before she left to catch her cab to the airport. We split a chocolate sundae dessert and hugged her goodbye as she got into her trufi to go to her house, grab her suitcases, and leave Bolivia. It was sad to say goodbye because we 3 have gotten close over the summer, but we made plans to meet up sometime early next year.

Today:

I took all my clothes to the laundromat this morning for the last time. I had to bring a backpack and an empty cardboard postal box in order to get everything there. When I got there he raised his eyebrows and asked if this was all for one person. At first he said I could come back tomorrow in the evening, but as I left he said "Wednesday in the evening!" So, I'm going to try tomorrow anyway to see if they're ready so I can start to pack because the last thing I want to do is pack at the last minute. Not to mention that the only things I have to wear until then are a few dresses that never got worn due to the cold at night, and a soccer jersey. Oh, and laundry guy called me niña (little girl) which I'm not sure how to take..

Anyway that's it for now! More on my final few days soon,

Love,

Hillary Quinn

Where's Waldo? Also: Strike!

Hey guys!

So at my job I work with a man named Waldo. He's middle aged and is really awesome. He likes to talk about politics and is always joking around with us. He is a huge Evo Morales supporter. He's the guy who I work with directly in the morning. He's really patient and I love working with him. He is also the best dressed Bolivian man I have met. He always wears dress slacks and rotates through a few beautifully made knit sweaters and a few different pairs of leather moccasins. I've never seen clothes made this well in Bolivia, so one day I asked him where he got all his sweaters and shoes. "Spain!" he said. Apparently he has a sister in Spain who sends him these things for Christmas. He gave me her card so that I have a contact when we're there in December. Last friday he told me to bring my laptop in to show him pictures of my family and pictures from my Chapare/ Villa Tunari trip. The entire week he'd been asking us when our last days at work were and asking us what we wanted him to get for food for our going away "parties."

Matt (the other volunteer) and I got to work on Monday (me with laptop in tow) and after 30 minutes with no Waldo, we asked where he was. Kati, the less patient but friendly lady in the office told us that he'd gone on his vacation and wouldn't be back for a month! Well, we said,...bye Waldo? It was really weird because we have a really strong relationship with him and he hadn't even said goodbye. Around 9 o'clock on Wednesday morning Waldo strolled into the clinic.

"Waldo!" I said. "I thought you were on vacation!?"

"I am!" he said. "I have something for you and Matteo!"

Waldo then pulled out a cloth placemat from his briefcase and handed it to me. It was really pretty but I was really confused and had to stifle giggles. Also, aren't you supposed to have 4 placemats? Maybe it isn't a placemat..I don't know. I'll bring it home and use it as a cloth to put a vase on or something cool. Then Waldo pulled something else out of his bag that he was about to give to Matt. He showed me what it was and it was a sort of small cylindrical purse with tassles. It looks like something you'd carry a glass of wine in because it doesn't shut. I told Waldo I thought it was very pretty and wished I was able to see Matt's reaction when he received it. If I didn't know what it was I was sure he wouldn't. After chatting to the doctor for a quarter of an hour, Waldo was out the door again. He assured us that he'd come back again before we left to say goodbye. I'm going to start bringing my camera every day so I can take a picture of him.

Let's switch gears.

So I've been reading this book called Dignity and Defiance that I borrowed from one of my airport friends. I think I am going to buy it when I get home because it is all about Bolivia's entrance and resistance to globalization. I'm still on the first chapter but already I feel like I've learned so much that I wish I knew all of this much earlier in my trip. Right now I'm reading about Cochabamba's water revolt in 2001. Apparently a U.S. mega-corporation Bechtel bought the rights to Cochabamba's water system in the late 1990's during a time when Cochabamba was having serious problems getting enough water from mountain run-off to serve its growing population. Bechtel raised prices by over 50% in most cases, even before they'd fixed the water problem. It's really interesting but in the end the citizens were able to chase Bechtel out of the country and cancel the contract. The way residents get their way in Cochabamba is to blockade all main roads and essentially shut down the city. Shop owners, taxi and trufi drivers, and many others simply stopped working and refused to pay their bills. They held off police who were armed with tear-gas cannons by using slingshots and other devices. This brings me to today.

So last night was fun, I made brownies and had some friends over and we watched Shutter Island and ordered Pizza. I didn't get to bed until a little after midnight. I got up at 6:30 to go with a friend at 7 am to the bus terminal to buy tickets for a bus to Sucre for tonight. (We tried to go Wednesday to get tickets but the bus companies told us they didn't plan that far ahead so we had to come back Friday morning). After buying tickets for our group, we went outside to catch taxis to our jobs. I was waiting for Trufi #131 and he was trying to catch a cab.

Definition: A trufi is a cab with a 3rd row of seats that has a set route and takes several people instead of just one person. You can stop anywhere along the route it follows.

After several minutes of waiting, a woman selling things on the street told us that the trufis and the micros were on strike; something about the feuding labor unions. At this point it was a bit after 8 am. I usually get to work at 8 and finish my job around 9:30. From the bus terminal it was going to take 30 minutes in traffic to get to my job, but the kicker was that I had no idea how to tell a cab where I work! If the trufis weren't running then a cab was my only option. At this point I decided it wasn't worth it, and if I couldn't get to work Matt wasn't going to be able to either. I didn't know the name of the road I worked on but I knew the trufi route by heart. So now I'm back in my room at 9:00 am writing this post.

This weekend I'm going to Sucre, "The White City." It's called this because all of the buildings in the city center are white (I think..). There are a lot of museums and I'm hoping to make it to the textile museum to buy a tapestry. Someone just told me that the textile museum is boring so we'll see what happens. She also said she was really ill when she visited it and wasn't in the mood to admire textiles.

Have a great weekend and I'll update again with details of my trip to Sucre early next week! I can't forget to wish a happy early birthday to Harry Potter! (Harry's birthday is the 31st of July- technically I believe he is 30 this year, but I'm going to pretend he's turning 21).

Love,

Hillary

The Sights and Sounds of Bolivia

Hey folks!

My time in Bolivia is nearing its end! I've been here for 7 weeks and have a few weeks left but I'm still seeing things that shock me. I'm going to share with you what I saw a couple days ago on the main road near my house as I walked home from the post office.

I was walking down the sidewalk in the sun without shades so I was kind of staring at the ground. Even though I wasn't looking much around me I still noticed a (homeless I assume) man sitting on a concrete block, asleep. I also noticed his skin was really ashen looking and he didn't have shoes; his feet were filthy. Instantly as I glanced over at him I noticed that there was something very large on his shin. At first I'm pretty sure my brain realized what I was looking at but something wasn't clicking, maybe I didn't want to truly see it after all because I thought he'd spilled jam on his leg or something. But no.

His entire shin was gone. His leg was still there but it didn't look like a leg. The best way I can describe it is that his leg was sort of, open. It was as if there was a special window that let me see inside his leg but something inside wasn't right. There was no bone where there should've been bone, and no muscle where I thought I'd see muscle. Inside his leg was orange/pinkish bits of what looked like jello except it wasn't transparent. His wound went so deep that I was really preoccupied by the fact that I couldn't see his bone. It was enormous and it took up the entire length of his shin. There was yellow pus oozing out of it onto where his skin began.

I saw all this in about 4.5 seconds as I walked past him. I stopped about a block down from him to turn around and see how other people were reacting to it. No one seemed to give it a second thought. It definitely wasn't a burn and it couldn't have been a puncture wound either. All I can guess is that he has some sort of infection in his leg from what may have began as a smaller wound. I have never in my entire life seen a wound that bad. I didn't really know if I should be crying or throwing up, because I felt like doing both. I also didn't want to stay nearby because I felt like just by looking at it I was going to catch something.

I know this post was a bit more somber than usual! I apologize for the graphic detail but I wanted to share with you all of my experiences here, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Much love,

Hillary

Living in Bolivia-Oddities

Hey guys!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the jungle! I know I just posted that so if you haven't read it you should do so now, and check out the video at the end!

I realized the other day that there was one quirk about living in Bolivia that I'd been meaning to tell you all about since I got here!

In Bolivia, when you go to the bathroom, you throw your used toilet paper into the bin next to the toilet instead of into the toilet. Every Bolivian bathroom I've been in has a small trash can for this purpose alone. It took me like a month to get used to it, and re-adjusting back at home may prove difficult too! No one has mentioned why this is a norm, but I guess it is because the plumbing isn't strong enough to take toilet paper without clogging.

Another weird thing I wanted to mention is that last week all schools were canceled for the entire week. The reason? It was too cold. Last week when I'd go to work at 7:30 am I would wear jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt with a scarf. That was it. I'm not sure what the temperature was in the morning, the coldest part of the school day, but I'd guess 55 degrees. The mornings are a lot less worse now than they were for my first month here. All of the gringos I've talked to about this have felt either puzzled, amused, or outraged. The only plausible explanation I've heard (one person said a Bolivian said the streets weren't drivable at that temperature...), is that the buildings are too cold for the students since the buildings don't have heat. I agree that the buildings don't warm up with the sunrise like it does outside, but it is far from unmanageable. At work or in my house I keep a sweater on and that's more than enough.

All of the volunteers here that I've met say that wherever they work, all of the employees come in whenever they want. Sometimes they are an hour and a half late and there seem to be no penalties. I can say that every single person at my health clinic arrives late (no more than 20 minutes) every day. Some volunteers arrive an hour after they're supposed to just so they can arrive with all the other employees. I'm starting to wonder if it's things like canceling an entire week of school due to chilly mornings, and no late penalties, that Bolivia is still so far behind the rest of South America and much of the world.

These are just some quirks that stick out that I wanted to mention before I forgot again.

Word-

Hillary