Breathless

I don't mean the beuaty of Bolivia... nor the culture shock...nor the feeble attempt at trying to communicate in what little Spanish I have knowledge of... I literally mean my body lacks oxygen. Breathlessnessdyspnoea. It is 3568m in La Paz, Bolivia and boy is the high altitude hitting me. I'm not sure if it is the 250pounds worth of food I ate in London over the last 3 days before leaving for La Paz that's causing this unfitness, or the altitude, but when i climb up one flight of stairs, I feel like I just hiked Mount Everest or smt. Gees. I choose the believe the latter. Evidence? My bleeding nose (Solo un poco).


Anyway, besides feeling like such a weakling, I've fully unpacked my overweight luggage and settled in. My homestay lady is so lovely. Her name is Elizabeth. She has 5 kids and only her youngest boy is staying at home(He's 18). The rest of her kids are married and one of her hijas dances! So she currently lives with her son, Mauricio, her mother and her maid, Maya. In the house, there's another guy that lives on the 3rd floor who's like 64 years old and is a mining engineer here in La Paz for the last 4 years. He seems really nice and has offered to take us around the area to show us where to get the cheapest but good quality fruits and where to change money and yadayada. By us... I mean my roommate of course.. Smitha! She's lovely. Her parents live in India but she lives with her husband in Chicago. Yeah she's Indian. (Just can't escape them can we? hahaha sita....) Most imptly, we get along very well and I feel so comfortable around her... (scatching my armpit openly and what not. LOL.. standard..) Here's a pic of us when we met at the airport with our old school Nokia phone provided by the organisation.





The house.. omg the house is gorgeous. It is waaayyyyyyyyy past my expectations.. Its 3 storeys and very nicely furnished. Que bonita! Elizabeth is probably very much more fortunate than most Bolivians. Here are some pics of her house and us faffing abt.


The Living Room.



The Dinning Room.



The Attic.


Well, I start work tmr. Clinical rotations in the morning and language courses in the afternoon. Hope Smitha and I get similar shifts so we can go to the hospitals tgt! Anyway ppl, my Bolivian number is +591-60107803. Stop being stingy and call me! I can't seem to call out with my number cause international calls cannot be made out but I can receive! Kyna..... thanks for trying.. but fail la you.. haha. So I think that's it for now.. pretty excited for clincals tmr. Ciao peublo! :)