January 7, 2017 – Catching up with Friends
On Saturday morning, July 2, 2016, my first full day back in Bolivia, I woke up about 4:00, then 5:00, and finally around 6:00. I sat outside under a tree writing what happened on Friday, while making plans for the day and Monday.
At 12:30 Sandra and Andrea picked me up for lunch. They gave me several choices of places to eat. The first was Mexican food. I have never had Mexican food in Bolivia, so I had to say yes to that. It tasted more Mexican than Tex-Mex, but delicious. What is even better about the place, is that it is just 3 blocks from an apartment I am considering renting. The choice for that apartment just went much higher among my choices. I felt like I was in Bolivia! How do I describe it? Well, it is on a side street, so I never would have found it otherwise. It wasn’t fancy, so I might have ignored it. It was cheap – around $7 for a plate of food. Everything about the setting made me think of Bolivia. The utensils wrapped in paper napkins. Paper napkins on the table. Sodas served without ice. It felt like I was home. I had enchiladas Mexicanas with a side of one taco Gringo. So the enchiladas were with a stewed chicken, more what you’d expect in Bolivia than in Texas. It was topped with cheese, but not soaked in cheese like we do in Texas. The beans were not refried and the rice was not what you’d expect in a Mexican restaurant, but they had the feel of a good homemade meal in Bolivia. The pico de gallo was as good, if not better than any you’d get in Texas. It was a good meal – you can see from the picture.
It was also great to catch up with good friends. Sandra was my student back in the 80s. She is now an adult with two sons. I will be teaching her older son, Carlos, in the fall semester. Andrea, her younger sister, was in kinder or first grade when I last taught here, so she was never my student. Andrea just told me she accepted a job teaching for the next two years in Dubai. Both of them are excellent English teachers. They have developed their own system that works. I don’t know what they do, because it is secret. Parents who want their kids to go to the English-speaking schools get them to teach their kids.
After lunch I was planning on going apartment hunting again, but that was postponed until Monday. I took a short nap until Mom texted me. So I then I went for a walk around the neighborhood looking for a good picture of a pink tree. It is a beautiful neighborhood with beautiful homes, beautiful apartment buildings, and lots of nice restaurants. I honestly wouldn’t mind getting stuck here. And I found my tree. It is called tajibos, which I mentioned before. When standing under one, I thought I smelled cotton candy. I picked up a blossom and yes, it smells like cotton candy. There were parakeets in the tree eating the blossoms. The scientific name is tabebuia morea for my science friends.
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