Overdue

Sorry I haven´t been good about writing. Its partly because I no longer have free internet and partly because once I fall behind, its a little overwhelming to catch up. Since I last wrote, I´ve mountain biked down "The World´s Most Dangerous Road," gone to the jungle where I saw anacondas, caimans, capybaras (the worlds largest rodent, and so cute), and a president, landed on a grass airstrip, felt like I was on the set of Lost, played a German card game, visited a wild animal reserve and seen nocturnal birds. And that´s all been in one week. And the fun hasn´t really started yet, because I am going to start traveling "for real" (as in all my posessions on my back, no stopping until I´m back in New York) on Friday. I´ve set out an incredible tight - and therefore totally unrealistic considering the variability of Bolivian public transport and roads - for the next month, which allows me to do pretty much everything in Bolivia and Ecuador that I really want to do. I also might just avoid traveling through Peru during the national holiday, which would be nice. And if the traveling gets too exhausting and I just want to stay put for a few days (since my style of travel doesn´t really allow for any stopping to smell the roses or staying in one place for more than I think 2 nights), I can always sign up for another week of classes somewhere in Ecuador.

Sometimes though, I am very content here and think about scraping the travel plans to stay with the family longer. I have friends, its safe, and its an experience I won´t have a chance to repeat any time in the near future. Like last night, when we all sat around watching Grey´s Anatomy and Lost and the other american girls make cookies. But then I realize that I could sit around in NY and watch Grey´s and Lost, maybe not with Spanish subtitles, but that another week won´t add to my experience immeasurably. And I´m sick of Spanish. The teacher I found is really good but tough and sometimes I just want to say "forget it! I dont REALLY need to know this language anyway." I´m sure thats natural when learning a language, and if I ever have kids they will definitely have a nanny who speaks another language, go to a bilingual school and only be allowed to watch TV in Spanish. So I think that in the end, after 5 weeks in Cochabamba, I will be ready to go. And one day maybe I´ll come back to Bolivia for my host ssiter´s wedding - she was saying its at the point where all her maids of honor will be foreigners!

If I get more time I´ll fill in the details of my adventures. Its amazing how with only 2 hours of classes a day i still dont have time to do everything I want to do, like study, read books on Bolivia, watch TV in Spanish, hang out with the family and get a decent amount of sleep.