Some musings

If I could change anything, I would make the water pressure in my shower triple what it is now. And hot.

There are vendors on the street for everything. Shoelaces. Watches. A Bolivian version of popcorn, but it is sweeter and each piece is 4 times the size of normal popcorn. It’s a bit softer as well. Toilet paper. Fresh squeezed papaya juice. I’m not kidding, everything.

Sometimes Arminda recites Spanish poetry after lunch. I can’t keep up, she’s so damn good. She does Neruda, Machado, Lorca, P. Diddy, the whole bunch. Okay, not P. Diddy.

I love the people in this city, they are so friendly and nice, it’s surprising. People hold open doors for you, greet you at every hour of the day, and are courteous in general. But if you ask them for directions and they don’t know, rather than admit it, they just lie. So you have to be careful.

I like hearing the music of the city. The car horns, the dogs barking…But this sound is my favorite: when you walk on a street, cars go by, and you hear their radios fade up and out. So it’s like a patch work quilt of sound, you get some talk shows, some rap, some instrumental, radio DJ’s. Maybe it just sounds cooler because it’s in Spanish. I’m in a café now, and I like listening to the music video mixed with the waiters chatting quietly behind the counter.

Today Gerrardo suggested the four of us give Dr. Velasco a gift certificate to his favorite restaurant, as a thank you for his wonderful mentoring. We all agreed, Gerrardo's absolutely right, too much kindness goes un-thanked in the world.

I'm sick of the same car alarm going off everywhere.

The other week, a bunch of us went to see Batman. Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart were amazing. Go see that movie.