nbd

made a peach pie for my host dad last week for father´s day. it was my first solo attempt, and i think it went well. only weird thing is that i didn´t have cinammon powder so i just broke some cinammon sticks up and put it in the pie. but it turned out to be nice and ¨stick-y¨ sweet. (lame pun)

on sunday afternoon i went to a suprise bday party for an hermana from church. it was a hot, windy day, so we sat out under a tree and talked about how big her family was (13 daughters) while tripe (intestines, yeah that´s right and no i did not eat it) were cookin´ on the makeshift grill. then in hit me, wow this feels totally normal. i was participating in the conversation and did not feel out of place. just a usual chill sunday afternoon with people from my church.

i´ve been spending a lot of time with my host mom lately and she really helps me work on my spanish, explaining words or when to use ¨me¨ or ¨yo¨ grammar, blech. kind of a cool story. back when che guervera was trying to start a revolution in bolivia, my host parents lived in a little village in the mountains called ¨valle grande.¨ when che was captured, he was taken there and killed. they put his body out, on display i guess?, and my host mom went to see him. she said papi was gone for the day so she went by herself. she thought he was ¨ very handsome but he had a beard and was very dirty.¨ it´s pretty cool (to a history nerd) to hear a first hand story of a historical event. and i´m glad she told me now instead of back in september so i actually understood.

i also get up in the mornings at 6am to go for a walk with my host mom. she always looks nice in a dress or a skirt suit, but for our walks she wears her embroidered jeans :) it´s nice and cool in the morning and the only other people out in my neighborhood are fellow walkers. yesterday she had us run a block, walk a block, etc. and she´s 68! i hope i have her health and energy when i´m that age.

i have 7 months under my belt and 4 left to go. when i look back, it´s kinda hard to believe that a year ago i was still in school, living with friends, had a car to drive, could speak the language, etc. seems unreal. but i am looking forward to going home and being with friends and family and my own culture again. and i know time is going to fly by. the work day usually goes by pretty fast and i find plenty of things to keep me busy. i think i have to remember to not get into a comfy slump and to keep putting myself out there. keep having those awkward conversations where i forget both the spanish and english word so that i can deepen relationships here.

well i totally lost my train of thought (happens a lot here. if i am not following a conversation i just slip into corrieland) so that´s it!