Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Adventures.
This weekend was our first road trip. We flew out of La Paz Friday morning on a short flight to Sucre, the other capital of Bolivia. We only stayed in Sucre for about an hour, had a short lunch and then took two taxis up the windy mountain road to Potosí. We stayed in Potosí for about a day. The town has a ton of interesting history, being that it was once the richest city in the world and the center of the Spanish empire, due to the giant mountain full of silver. We went to a couple of museums and churches that were all very impressive. However, I was bothered the whole time we were there, especially when we took a trip up to the miners market. Men and young boys, some as young as ten, work in exceedingly dangerous conditions in the mines every day for 12 to 24 hour shifts. There is no communication or organization between the mining cooperatives, so at any time two groups of miners could be tunneling towards the same point, blowing up dynamite without the other group's knowledge. Besides the incredible danger, the miners can almost certainly count on early death from Black Lung. The horrible thing is that this is the only way these people can make even enough money to barely survive. They don't have a choice. We decided not to do a mine tour, not just because of the danger, but because it seemed to all of us very intrusive to these people who are just trying to make a living. I felt that way even walking through the miners market. For anyone who is interested, there's a very good documentary on the mines in Potosí called The Devil's Miner. It follows two young boys and their lives as miners. Although there's a lot of tourism, its just so jarring to see the tremendous poverty of the city and realize how much has been taken from it and its citizens. One of the places we toured was one of the oldest convents in Latin America. Spanish elites used to send their daughters their with enormous dowries to be cloistered for the rest of their lives. It was a way of establishing ties between the New World and the Old World. Also very sad, but the convent itself is beautiful. The church has an enormous altar made of gold, or at least gold leaf. We could've spent all day in there; it was huge and there were so many things to look at. We all agreed that Potosí was definitely haunted though. Especially the old mint that we toured. It was also enormous, but so many people were forced into working there too. At one place, you can see footprints of people who were chained to a column for so long that their feet rubbed imprints into the wood. Totally some bad spirits.
We had an adventure on the way back from Potosí. About 20 kilometers from Sucre, we ran into a roadblock. The highway had been blocked off due to a road race haha. So everyone who was traveling on either side just had to park their cars and wait until it was over. There wasn't any notice or anything. Just some racers who dragged a limb and some rocks onto the highway and stopped traffic for awhile. There's another huge race today in Sucre, so the entire town has been gathered around the plaza. Most places are closed, and lots of the roads are blocked off here too. We were literally standing on the side walk with race cars speeding past right in front of us. Ridiculous. We went up to a church at the top of the town today. You could see the entire city from there. It was beautiful. They also had a nice little cafe where you could sit and have lunch and look over the city.
We headed back to La Paz this morning and all frantically tried to finish up our research designs that were due at six tonight. I think we're all really nervous about this project. We're getting ready to start on another busy week of class!
PS: I really wanted to add pictures to this post, because I took a lot, but the internet is being super slow, so I'll just have to try again tomorrow
We had an adventure on the way back from Potosí. About 20 kilometers from Sucre, we ran into a roadblock. The highway had been blocked off due to a road race haha. So everyone who was traveling on either side just had to park their cars and wait until it was over. There wasn't any notice or anything. Just some racers who dragged a limb and some rocks onto the highway and stopped traffic for awhile. There's another huge race today in Sucre, so the entire town has been gathered around the plaza. Most places are closed, and lots of the roads are blocked off here too. We were literally standing on the side walk with race cars speeding past right in front of us. Ridiculous. We went up to a church at the top of the town today. You could see the entire city from there. It was beautiful. They also had a nice little cafe where you could sit and have lunch and look over the city.
We headed back to La Paz this morning and all frantically tried to finish up our research designs that were due at six tonight. I think we're all really nervous about this project. We're getting ready to start on another busy week of class!
PS: I really wanted to add pictures to this post, because I took a lot, but the internet is being super slow, so I'll just have to try again tomorrow
Monday, May 23, 2011
Coincidence.
So, here I am, just trying to do my homework like a good little student. However, I was just assaulted by a massive coincidence while reading one of our chapters for tomorrow, so I think that's sign that I should write this post.
If you've been following my blog since the beginning, you know the origins of my title, "Initial Impressions." For those of you who haven't been and are too lazy to scroll down, I'll give a little recap. There's a quote from this novel called The Locket that has always stuck with me: "...the initial impressions we accept of others are usually as flawed as the one we seek to project."
Well, this week we're learning about the basics of researching and actually putting ourselves into the field to study and start developing researching questions based on our observations. We've all started field notebooks. This article I'm reading now gives very detailed instruction on how to take notes and what your notes should reflect and right there on page 26 it says, "First, ethonographers should take note of their initial impressions." I didn't add the italics. Kinda blew my mind for a minute. I'm really overwhelmed with the prospect of this project. I have a ton of ideas, but I'm not sure if any of them are good and doable or logical even. But it makes me feel a little better that I'm at least doing the first step haha.
We had our first day of class today! It went really well. Total, it was somewhere between five to six hours. We go to the university for three hours in the morning, and have class with the Bolivian students, who were all incredibly nice. They all speak English really well, but they're really willing to speak Spanish with us all the time and help us out. I noticed today that my thoughts are coming out a lot easier. We just spoke with our housekeeper, Fortunada, for about ten minutes. She brought in an adorable dog and we played with him for awhile. She's great to talk to, really interesting, very amicable, and relatively easy to understand. Even if I don't get every word, I can always get the gist of what she's saying. During the break in the morning, we all had our first taste of salteñas. They are very tasty but very difficult to eat haha. They're crimped like empanadas, but on the top instead of the side. And they have a lot of juice, so you have to bite the top off and then attempt to suck out all the juice without it dripping all over you. Needless to say, I was unsuccessful at this task haha.
We ate at this pizza place for lunch. That's one thing I've noticed that I don't understand. There are several Italian food places, well pizza and pasta places, but there aren't any Italians. Lots of immigrants from other parts of Europe, but Bolivia has never had a history of significant immigration from Italy. So I dunno whaddupwitdat (@Colby Woods). After the pizza, we went to this place across the street that has ice cream, because Sarita wanted some. The girl working the counter starting telling us she was taking English classes and speaking to us in English. She said she wanted to go to America, and then she asked us what our culture was like. Emily, Sarah, and I just kinda looked at each other. We were stumped, and then we tried to explain that cultures differ greatly in different regions of the states. That was quite clearly a foreign concept. We could see that the other night at one of the museums too. There was a band playing in the courtyard. They were a popular band, but they started by playing songs that everyone knew and everyone knew the dances to. It was incredible to see all these people, all different ages, some in indigenous dress, some dressed modernly, all singing and dancing to the same songs. I can't think of anything like that in America, except maybe the national anthem. And that doesn't have a dance. That I know of.
I should probably go do my other reading now. And write in my field notebook. And my journal. Its getting kind of difficult to separate all of my writing haha. Also, I'm supposed to somehow link this to the group's Tumblr account, but I'm Tumblr illiterate. I spent like half an hour trying to figure it out earlier, and all I did was successfully create a individual (blank) page. The last thing I need is another place to write my thoughts haha.
If you've been following my blog since the beginning, you know the origins of my title, "Initial Impressions." For those of you who haven't been and are too lazy to scroll down, I'll give a little recap. There's a quote from this novel called The Locket that has always stuck with me: "...the initial impressions we accept of others are usually as flawed as the one we seek to project."
Well, this week we're learning about the basics of researching and actually putting ourselves into the field to study and start developing researching questions based on our observations. We've all started field notebooks. This article I'm reading now gives very detailed instruction on how to take notes and what your notes should reflect and right there on page 26 it says, "First, ethonographers should take note of their initial impressions." I didn't add the italics. Kinda blew my mind for a minute. I'm really overwhelmed with the prospect of this project. I have a ton of ideas, but I'm not sure if any of them are good and doable or logical even. But it makes me feel a little better that I'm at least doing the first step haha.
We had our first day of class today! It went really well. Total, it was somewhere between five to six hours. We go to the university for three hours in the morning, and have class with the Bolivian students, who were all incredibly nice. They all speak English really well, but they're really willing to speak Spanish with us all the time and help us out. I noticed today that my thoughts are coming out a lot easier. We just spoke with our housekeeper, Fortunada, for about ten minutes. She brought in an adorable dog and we played with him for awhile. She's great to talk to, really interesting, very amicable, and relatively easy to understand. Even if I don't get every word, I can always get the gist of what she's saying. During the break in the morning, we all had our first taste of salteñas. They are very tasty but very difficult to eat haha. They're crimped like empanadas, but on the top instead of the side. And they have a lot of juice, so you have to bite the top off and then attempt to suck out all the juice without it dripping all over you. Needless to say, I was unsuccessful at this task haha.
We ate at this pizza place for lunch. That's one thing I've noticed that I don't understand. There are several Italian food places, well pizza and pasta places, but there aren't any Italians. Lots of immigrants from other parts of Europe, but Bolivia has never had a history of significant immigration from Italy. So I dunno whaddupwitdat (@Colby Woods). After the pizza, we went to this place across the street that has ice cream, because Sarita wanted some. The girl working the counter starting telling us she was taking English classes and speaking to us in English. She said she wanted to go to America, and then she asked us what our culture was like. Emily, Sarah, and I just kinda looked at each other. We were stumped, and then we tried to explain that cultures differ greatly in different regions of the states. That was quite clearly a foreign concept. We could see that the other night at one of the museums too. There was a band playing in the courtyard. They were a popular band, but they started by playing songs that everyone knew and everyone knew the dances to. It was incredible to see all these people, all different ages, some in indigenous dress, some dressed modernly, all singing and dancing to the same songs. I can't think of anything like that in America, except maybe the national anthem. And that doesn't have a dance. That I know of.
I should probably go do my other reading now. And write in my field notebook. And my journal. Its getting kind of difficult to separate all of my writing haha. Also, I'm supposed to somehow link this to the group's Tumblr account, but I'm Tumblr illiterate. I spent like half an hour trying to figure it out earlier, and all I did was successfully create a individual (blank) page. The last thing I need is another place to write my thoughts haha.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thoughts.
So much to write...I don't know where to start ha. There are constantly so many thoughts swirling around in my head. Even more than usual. Which I guess is good, since I'm supposed to be developing a research question from things I observe. I need to get a notebook soon. I have a couple, but they're more like journals. I don't really want my field notes mixed in there ha.
I feel a little more acclimated after today. We went to another neighborhood that's the touristy and bohemian area of town. We ate lunch there, then walked around the markets, and walked back to the house from there. The walk was helpful, because I got a kind of mental map of the area. The little market was quite interesting though ha they were selling "witchcraft" stuff. such as llama fetuses and potions haha. A few of the girls and I walked around our neighborhood after we got back and kinda saw where everything was.
I'm looking forward to starting class, because I always do better when I have a schedule and tasks, but I'm also really nervous. I've never done any researching like this before. But the Centellai are good professors, and they've already taught us a lot just walking around with us. So I trust them. But I'm still nervous. Or maybe anxious would be a better term. I not sure what's going to come out of this adventure. And, as I've said before, the unknown seriously stresses me out. Guess I'm gonna have to get over that.
I've already realized one thing about myself, and it has nothing to do with academics or anything really that I've been striving for my entire life. So I'm not really sure where that puts me ha but a realization is a realization. I guess this is something I've realized in Oxford as well, but it really hit me here. I wrote earlier about how I was scared about being lonely. Well, its not really loneliness as much as feeling lost, because I don't have people immediately around me to love. I'm a lover. Haha that sounds weird but its true! At home, even though the people I'm closest to are in different places, its fairly easy to reach them whenever I want. Here its not quite so easy, and that makes me feel lost. I guess its kind of like a reciprocal support system? wow, that seems really obvious now that I've written it out haha.
Anyway, tomorrow we're going to see the university in the morning. Then tomorrow night there's a free cultural festival. Several museums are going to be open and there will be traditional music. Should be really interesting. More to come!
I feel a little more acclimated after today. We went to another neighborhood that's the touristy and bohemian area of town. We ate lunch there, then walked around the markets, and walked back to the house from there. The walk was helpful, because I got a kind of mental map of the area. The little market was quite interesting though ha they were selling "witchcraft" stuff. such as llama fetuses and potions haha. A few of the girls and I walked around our neighborhood after we got back and kinda saw where everything was.
I'm looking forward to starting class, because I always do better when I have a schedule and tasks, but I'm also really nervous. I've never done any researching like this before. But the Centellai are good professors, and they've already taught us a lot just walking around with us. So I trust them. But I'm still nervous. Or maybe anxious would be a better term. I not sure what's going to come out of this adventure. And, as I've said before, the unknown seriously stresses me out. Guess I'm gonna have to get over that.
I've already realized one thing about myself, and it has nothing to do with academics or anything really that I've been striving for my entire life. So I'm not really sure where that puts me ha but a realization is a realization. I guess this is something I've realized in Oxford as well, but it really hit me here. I wrote earlier about how I was scared about being lonely. Well, its not really loneliness as much as feeling lost, because I don't have people immediately around me to love. I'm a lover. Haha that sounds weird but its true! At home, even though the people I'm closest to are in different places, its fairly easy to reach them whenever I want. Here its not quite so easy, and that makes me feel lost. I guess its kind of like a reciprocal support system? wow, that seems really obvious now that I've written it out haha.
Anyway, tomorrow we're going to see the university in the morning. Then tomorrow night there's a free cultural festival. Several museums are going to be open and there will be traditional music. Should be really interesting. More to come!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Altitude.
Thankfully, I haven't had much trouble with altitude sickness. The only problem I've had is a headache, and, come on, that's nothing new. One of the girls with me is having a lot of trouble though. We're hoping she gets better tomorrow. We all slept a ridiculous amount today. I slept almost the entire plane ride. Then I slept for a good five hours when we got to the house. After that, we all went out for a little tour of the neighborhood and some lunch. Came back, slept another five hours. Haha and I think I'm going to go right back to sleep tonight!
I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably explain a little bit about my surroundings. Well, my first thought when I walked out of the airport was that it was not nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be. Apparently, the really frigid temperatures are in the middle of the night. It was going on six thirty by the time we left the airport, so it was warming up some. Its almost seven thirty at night now, and its chilly, but not freezing. The taxi driver said it gets colder as you get into June and July, though. I hope so, or I brought some really heavy clothes for nothing haha. So, the airport is at the top of the mountain, so we drove down it as the sun was coming up. I can't do the view justice, but I'll try to explain. La Paz is situated in a canyon, and the town stretches up the sides of the mountains. People's homes are literally cut into the side of a mountain. As we got further down, you could really see the mixture of old and new. Our house is fairly close to the only flat part in town. We can walk down a few blocks and get to the plaza. Behind it is an archway that leads to a different neighborhood on the other side of the canyon. We walked up the hill today to get lunch. There's several small cafes and bakeries that have wifi and yummy food. One place I want to explore further is this giant park. It looks like a good place to go read or something in the day, and I think it attracts a lot of students. On that note, there will be six Bolivian students in our class! Yay! New friends.
I feel really safe so far. I'm itching to go explore the neighborhood some more, but I really have no clue where I am. And I also have no bolivianos or a cell phone at the moment. Those are our tasks for tomorrow, along with a little grocery shopping. Also, I've been known to accredit more safety than is due at sometimes haha. I think Emily wants to explore too, though, so maybe we'll go tomorrow afternoon. The house is very quaint. We have three rooms, two are in the main area with the kitchen and the little sitting room and the other has its own entrance. My room has a connected bathroom, but it doesn't have a closet. They told us we could ask for another set of drawers though. I just don't know where to put my shoes. The only other weird thing is that all the water faucets are backwards. Hot is cold and cold is hot. Its been very comfortable so far. We have a maid. She comes in and brings us food every morning. Apparently we can even make requests. She also does dishes and laundry. Pretty sweet. The Centellases, or as I like to call them, the Centellai, told us today that they already purchased our plane tickets for Sucre! We're going to leave on a Friday and come back the next Monday. Its a forty minute flight (can't wait to see that plane) and then from Sucre its about a two and a half hour bus ride to Lake Titicaca.
Oh funny story. Universal adapters suck. Anastasia and I both brought one with us, and they are easy enough to change to fit the plugs here, but impossible to plug anything into. And the directions give no instruction on how to do this. So on the way to lunch today, Dr. Mr. Centellas bought three adapters from a little kiosk on the street for like five bolivianos apiece. That's less than a dollar. FAIL. Also, my alarm clock broke in transit. I was trying to be all prepared...oh well. There will be an alarm on my phone when I get one.
Everything is set so far. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some touristy pictures I can share. I think I'm about to go drink another cup of coca tea. Talk to you all soon.
I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably explain a little bit about my surroundings. Well, my first thought when I walked out of the airport was that it was not nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be. Apparently, the really frigid temperatures are in the middle of the night. It was going on six thirty by the time we left the airport, so it was warming up some. Its almost seven thirty at night now, and its chilly, but not freezing. The taxi driver said it gets colder as you get into June and July, though. I hope so, or I brought some really heavy clothes for nothing haha. So, the airport is at the top of the mountain, so we drove down it as the sun was coming up. I can't do the view justice, but I'll try to explain. La Paz is situated in a canyon, and the town stretches up the sides of the mountains. People's homes are literally cut into the side of a mountain. As we got further down, you could really see the mixture of old and new. Our house is fairly close to the only flat part in town. We can walk down a few blocks and get to the plaza. Behind it is an archway that leads to a different neighborhood on the other side of the canyon. We walked up the hill today to get lunch. There's several small cafes and bakeries that have wifi and yummy food. One place I want to explore further is this giant park. It looks like a good place to go read or something in the day, and I think it attracts a lot of students. On that note, there will be six Bolivian students in our class! Yay! New friends.
I feel really safe so far. I'm itching to go explore the neighborhood some more, but I really have no clue where I am. And I also have no bolivianos or a cell phone at the moment. Those are our tasks for tomorrow, along with a little grocery shopping. Also, I've been known to accredit more safety than is due at sometimes haha. I think Emily wants to explore too, though, so maybe we'll go tomorrow afternoon. The house is very quaint. We have three rooms, two are in the main area with the kitchen and the little sitting room and the other has its own entrance. My room has a connected bathroom, but it doesn't have a closet. They told us we could ask for another set of drawers though. I just don't know where to put my shoes. The only other weird thing is that all the water faucets are backwards. Hot is cold and cold is hot. Its been very comfortable so far. We have a maid. She comes in and brings us food every morning. Apparently we can even make requests. She also does dishes and laundry. Pretty sweet. The Centellases, or as I like to call them, the Centellai, told us today that they already purchased our plane tickets for Sucre! We're going to leave on a Friday and come back the next Monday. Its a forty minute flight (can't wait to see that plane) and then from Sucre its about a two and a half hour bus ride to Lake Titicaca.
Oh funny story. Universal adapters suck. Anastasia and I both brought one with us, and they are easy enough to change to fit the plugs here, but impossible to plug anything into. And the directions give no instruction on how to do this. So on the way to lunch today, Dr. Mr. Centellas bought three adapters from a little kiosk on the street for like five bolivianos apiece. That's less than a dollar. FAIL. Also, my alarm clock broke in transit. I was trying to be all prepared...oh well. There will be an alarm on my phone when I get one.
Everything is set so far. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some touristy pictures I can share. I think I'm about to go drink another cup of coca tea. Talk to you all soon.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Countdown.
Haha but seriously, I am very excited. Its an odd sensation; I think my mind is refusing to accept that this is reality until it is forced to. I've been talking about this trip and explaining what I'll be doing to people for the past three days straight, but its like I'm not really talking about myself. I don't think it will really hit me until I walk out of the airport in La Paz and realize where I am. I'm not nervous right now, but I do have some fears. I feel like this trip is coming at an appropriate time in my life. A lot of things seem to be changing in my life right now, and I'm not sure exactly what to expect. Its like the typical college freshman sentiment, just two years late. I'm excited about it though. I've been wanting a challenge to be put in front of me for a long time. The concept of putting myself in a completely unknown situation and seeing what happens is both terrifying and exciting. I'm interested to see who I am at the end of this trip. Mostly I'm scared of being lonely. I know three other girls on the trip pretty well, we've been in class together since the first semester of college. Still, most of my closest friends have always been in different places. Its always been easy to contact them whenever I wanted or needed to, I'd just pick up the phone and send a text or make a call. It won't be quite so easy this summer. Bolivia scares me more than Ecuador, because such a limited number of us are going. And its all girls. I've always been so much better at being friends with guys. Also, I don't think any Bolivians will be in class with us, so I'm worried about not meeting any new people. I'm not sure how we'll get an opportunity to do that if we're always with each other. It'll definitely be a challenge! I'll keep y'all posted on how that plays out.
Being at home, I'm focusing on the things I'm going to be missing this summer: my family, friends, working at the gym and at MGS. Its disappointing to be missing out on so much, but I'm trying to remember I have a lot of exciting, new things ahead of me. I have to WORST sensation that I'm forgetting something haha. I really hope I'm not. I'm about to rearrange one of my suitcases a little bit and try to fit in a few more comfy clothes. I don't dress myself. I'm having a really hard time leaving all my t-shirts and sweatpants behind. Its stressing me out. I NEED THEM. hahaha I'm such a bad grown up. Oh, by the way, just got my grades for the semester: all As!!! whoop! totally shocked me.
Alright, I'm going to go obsess over my lists and suitcases some more. I think I'm going to post again from one of the airports tomorrow. Night!
Alright, I'm going to go obsess over my lists and suitcases some more. I think I'm going to post again from one of the airports tomorrow. Night!
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