culture shock?

holllllller.
i finally have a bit of time (i think) to write a good blog entry.
I don´t really know where to begin, but, i´ll just start typing.
um. hokay. so.
i moved in with my host family on sunday.
they are wonderful.
my dad is big and boisterous - hes a pastor at a church here. hes really loud and funny though, although, i super cant understand him. the men here are so hard to understand. but i´ll get into that later. he also calls me katrina, because he cant pronounce my name. none of them can, but some of them try? ´kat-leen.´ i´m considering other names. lol. they tossed out kathy, which would be katty.
but, if you know me, you hopefully know that i hate. the name kathy.
anyways, we´ll see lol. i´m thinking, katie, or katrina for the old people. although, katrina just reminds me of a figure skater. katerina witt? anyways. thats not really important lol. this blog is going nowhere.
MY MOM. is soo short lol and super cute. i´m taking some pictures of life now, and so it´s my goal to get them up for next week. i just didnt want to be walking around my first few days snapping pictures. i´m white enough as it is here. and santa cruz isnt exactly a ¨tourest city¨
anyways. yah. my mom is a feisty little woman, but super caring, and has a swell laugh.
my sister, carla, we share a room - shes 22. I super like her, shes just wonderful. she´s studying english 5 nights a week, and i´m studying spanish freaking all the time it seems, so´together we´re piecing together sentences and helping eachother out. She´s really funny though. Oh, and we´re watching some spanish tv together. the other day we watched The Hills in spanish together, which i found hilarious.
hokay. thats the low down on the family. they also have a cat and a dog. and their uncle and grandma live in houses attached to theirs. and they have a massive extended family that gets together quite often. i´ve already seen them twice, but, then again it was my sister (older sister who lives with her husband) ´s birthday, and my moms birthday.
is this all confusing? i hope not. my family only has two daughters though. carla, and daniella - the older, moved out, married one.
HOKAY. enough about my family.
oh, one more funny thing though. the last salter that stayed with them, christina, introduced them to dutch blitz. and all of the cousins are addicted to it. and i just found it really funny, in the middle of bolivia, to be playing a gigantic game of dutch blitz. lol.

moooving on lol. the first two days that i left the MCC center, and moved in with my family - i wont lie, were some of the hardest of my life.
it just, all of a sudden, was INTENSELY overwhelming - moving out of the comfort of at least bein garound english people, or a computer or phone, and into an extremely busy city that i dont understand, with a family that i´m not similar to.
i just felt really lost, and really alone. and scared.that hasnt happened to me for a long time.
BUT. these past 3 days have been a lot better. as i´m adjusting to my house and my micro (those are the busses) routes and etc - i´m becoming more comfortable, and settling in more.
it still right now though, is overwhelming to think about a year. but that thought too, isnt as bad as it was monday and tuesday lol.
it was funny, i was at my spanish teachers house on monday and tuesday and she would be like
¨describe your mom¨
and i´d be like in my head ´are you kidding me´ lol. because i spent those two days semi on the verge of tears.
and i´d be like ¨mi madre es.. *lip quiver* simmppattiiccaa..¨ lol. but i held it together.
and honestly, these past three days, have been a lot better.
i wake up everymorning a little scared. but. í´ve been having fun days.
heres whats shaking down for my first 5 weeks now.
in the mornings monday-thursday, i micro to my spanish teachers house for a 2 hour class.
(ps she is i think the cutest old woman ever. she reminds me of my old piano teacher, mrs halpenny.. but spanish. she has huge black rimmed rectangle glasses, and is so small. and shakes her finger at me. and its just, fantastic lol)
ANYWAYS. after her class, i micro home and have lunch with carla. normally we go out for lunch. the food here is just, so cheap. yesterday for a huge meal for both of us with drinks etc was 27 b´s.. which divide by 7.. like 3.60 cents?
you get the idea. just so cheap.
and then. after that i come to the MCC center and spend two hours in the afternoon with my tutor, my, ¨paid friend¨ - who takes me around santa cruz and shows me things and makes me speak spanish some more.
and then after that. i maybe chill out with some salters, hang at the MCC center, lala. and go home by about 7 or 8.
my fam doesnt get home til about 830, 9.
so thats monday - thursday. friday - sunday: next two weekends we´re travelling. this weekend we´re just all chilling today. its friday. making food together, hanging out.
its nice to have a break and get a chance to chill with the other salters. because, normally, after i´m done with my tutor - my head hurts so bad from all the spanish i´ve already had to speak, that all i want in life. is english.
thankgoodness my house has some english tv lol - they have cable, so i´ve gotten to watch both friends and grey´s anatomy - well parts, i dont have that much time to watch tv. but. its actually good practise with the spanish subtitles.
yesterday though, i went out for a bit of something to eat at night with my mom (they, dont eat supper really. maybe a bit of bread, yesterday a small empanada. here, lunch is big. but, in general, they dont really that much in general, i would say). anyways. where i was going with this. i actually carried a convo with my mom, for oh i´d say 25 minutes. i mean, it wasnt a complex conversation, and i´m sure i messed things up, but hey. i´ve heard somewhere that you cant win em all. and i think i won that one.

SO. i´m about ready to wrap this up. but i say that, and i have a few more things to type about, so mayyybee i´m lying lol.
the micro rides. lol. oohh the micro rides. let me tell you about my history on the micros lol.
so. the first time going back from my teachers house i got soo lost on a micro. got off. had NO idea where i was in this CRAZY busy city. there are just, so many people eevverywhere. so many. espeically in the markets.
anyways. so i got a taxi, but, he wasnt from santa cruz and took me to the wrong street and was like ¨there you are, ciao.¨ and i was like ¨hey! espera! no es correcto!.. idiothead.¨but he was already gone.
and id idnt know how to describe where my house was. but i had a map.
so finally with the aid of a man, i took another taxi. and got home. carla laughed at me though when i came in the door, i think i looked pretty haggered lol.
my micro rides yesterday. the first one, i sat up right behind the driver (they are normally so packed that you dont have a seat, but, i saw this one so i nabbed it)
but i think people didnt take it on purpose. because out of the wall right beside me, was crawling out oohh i´d say about 30 or so beetles and bugs and things of all different sizes. and i´m normally ok with bugs. but. they were crawling up the back of the drivers chair, and up onto the roof, and about 5 fell on me around corners.
i think what topped it off too though, is that my stomach has been DYING for 3 days.
i´m fairly certain that i have a parasite. but it may just, pass on through right away. everytime i eat though, its quiite sore. like knife´y type pain. lol my family keeps making me drink camimille tea - which does help, but, yah not a ton. its funny though, the whole family knows and i keep having random people being like ¨how is your stomach?¨ lol.
i´m sure soon though, it´ll just. work itself out. if not, i´ll just, take these pills that apparently take out the lining of your stomach, all the bad, and the good. so thats wonderful lol. aparently though, you just have lots of yogurt, and it builds your lining right back on up.
whatever. i´m just waiting for my stomach to improve on its own. i thought i had an iron stomach. i guessssss i was wrong.
oh. and then my last micro ride last night. i just, would have never thought it was possible to fit THAT many people, onto one little bus. thankgoodness i´m 5´4. they are so short, some of them, my head brushes the top. poor remi, a salter whos with us. he´s 6´4, and on long rides he just dies lol. um. yah though. we were so squished that other peoples body parts basically just molded into my own lol. we were like, one van mold of people. and the door wouldnt even close. but then the driver was yelling at us to close it, and they were all yelling back at him. and i was in this big mans armpit and dying for air and wondering how the EFF i would see my stop to get off lol. so finally we all just like sucked in even more and i got shoved into his armpit, and they closed the door and then we had a bit more room. by a bit more room, i just wasnt, SHOVED into his armpit. thankgoodness i somehow spidersensed out where my stop was.
anyways. thats the fill in on my micros to date lol.
i think thats it for now. the spanish here is really hard to understand. the men all talk in the front of their mouths and dont really open it, like their mumbling,
and. they cut off all their s´s, and a lot of the ends of words.
¨gracia¨ ¨despue del me¨ - which should be, despues del mes¨ and when they´re all talking killer fast. i´m just like ´oookkkkk. juuustt smile.¨ so i laugh when they laugh. and then i realize that they were actually asking me a question. and them like, crap. repeta por favor? lol.
oh. also. they arent from santa cruz. their from santa cru
so. i´m thinking about starting my own santa crew. maybe it will be a dance crew. we´ll see.
um. oh. i´m trying to think of any last things.
yes. its so hot. and its WINTER. its 34 normally, but, with the humidity. ugh. my sister changes here clothes normally oh i´d say at least once or twice a day lol.
so it hink i need to go buy a few more light weight tops. because, i wont lie, i just would rather be naked. thats how i feel. its just so hot, that i dont want clothes on.
acutally though. it rained alot yesterday, and its ¨cold¨here today. probably like, 19.
which actually is fairly cold for here. but everyone was in jackets and sweaters this morning.
and i´m actually really mad at the fact that i didnt put one on too lol.
because, i miss being able to wear sweaters soo much. even though thats normally the last thing i want to be wearing.
i just, love sweaters though. and i´ve probably missed out on the one opportunity i´ll have to wear one in a few weeks. ugh. whatever lol.
LAST thing i´ll talk about. now that i´m on my own alot, and just walking around the city etc.
i´m getting.. i dont know a good word for it.. ¨harrassed¨ seems to extreme. but, the men are super, yah. everywhere i go, cars like slow downnn - men who are about 50, my dads age, whistling and ¨hola momma sita.. lala.¨
yesterday a ¨little person¨ man, who was probably 4 feet tall, maybe less, started following me and hollering and whistling and doing everything. and i just wanted to be like ¨seirously? i could punt you.¨ lol. anyways. its just something new to get used to. you just have to, brush it off. and i do. but sometimes, even though i know they arent really harmful, its still, a little scary. just when they are following or near me. and its not all the men. it doesnt help also that my teachers house is right by a construction site lol.
so anyways. yah. thats the one time i pull a big gringa card (white person) - and put my ipod in (my bra, so it cant get stolen) and just, listen to music and normally just laugh lol, because its fairly ridiculous.
ok. i´m off. its time. this was super long though.
um. yah. we´re all just hanging out this weekend - some of us salters are going to one of our tutor´s church´s tomorow night for a college and career (youth) type event, hopefully that´ll be fun. its nice to start making some bolivian friends our age, even if right now its basically our tutors, and they aree paid lol.
anwyays. next week back at teachers and tutors and then the weekend off traveling to i think moro moro.
hopefully i´ll blog in about two weeks, after my trips to moro moro, and santiago.
it´s also my goal though, like i was saying, to get pics up early next week. so feel free to scope them on out.
hokay. i hope moving in to new homes, and university etc is going well for everyone (who is in unviersity).
i cant really think about home right now though, because, its just too hard. i miss everyone so much, but, i´m trying not to focus on it right now. because, thats just silly. i´ll never make it through this transition culture shock then.
but sometimes. i look at my pics of home. i really should have never printed those off lol.
hopefully soon i´ll settle into a routine though. and life here will become normal.
ok. i´m thinking about everyone so much though. i´m still excited for this year, but, i already cant wait to be home. yah.
ok. til next time.
stay fit and have fun everyone
kathleen(L)
ps. i dont have time to read this over. so if things dont make sense, soorry.