Jesuit Missions

Two weeks down and four to go! It´s really flying by so far. Tonight a group of us are going to visit several Jesuit Missions towns from the Spanish evangelization of South America in the 17th Century. These places have been restored over the past 50 years and are supposed to be really beautiful. We will be spending the weekend there and come back on Monday night. There´s sure to be more stories and pictures then.....

Things That Wouldn´t Meet Building Code in the USA: Part 1

Since merely talking about going to school is getting a little bit old, I thought I would spice things up a little bit and highlight some of the glaring differences that exist between the Bolivian way of doing things and the American way of doing things. With this post I would like to talk about Bolivian security systems. (see picture) First of all, most houses in the city where I am living right now are surrounded by tall brick walls with large steel doors for people and cars to go through. Many of those same walls have some sort of sharp spikes, barbed wire, or electrical fencing on top of them. However, the real way to protect your house is with large shards of glass stuck into wet mortar on top of your wall (as you can see in the above picture). Just a thought for the day. Look for more glaring differences and hilarious pictures soon.

Food and Circuses

Warm greetings from the southern hemisphere! Although you might be suffering in the Chicago summer, I am feeling just right in the Bolivan winter where its about 70 degrees every day. My classes are going well and speaking Spanish seems more natural every day. It´s amazing how you really can ¨pick up¨a language in an immersion trip such as this one.

Last night, a group of my classmates and myself went to downtown Cochabamba to check out a local band called ¨Negro y Blanco¨(thats ¨Black and White¨for you non hispanohablantes...). They were so good that I actually bought their CD´s. Anyone who knows me will really think that´s amazing because they all know what a cheapskate I am...... (see picture)

Also, a word on Bolivian cuisine. Today my host mother made me something called ¨silpancha¨, which is a plate covered in white rice, onions, carrots, and potatoes. Then, that little mountain is covered with two giant hamburger patties and then the whole thing is crowned with a fried egg! Oh man! Talk about trouble.... Let me tell you what....that mountain of food tasted even better than it looked too. (Gibbs, do you wanna come down to Boliva now?)

Well, that´s all for now. Time for studies and fun. We´ll be seeing the Fantastic Four tonight. Who knows if it´ll be in English or Español.... Vamos a ver!

First day of school

We started our first day at the Language Institute bright and early today. Each day I will have four hours of one-on-one classes, each hour with a different instructor. All the classes are taught completely in Spanish, of course..... I got my books today and I already have a few hours of homework tonight. When you are only here for six weeks you have to get going fast. Speaking of getting going, I have to do that myself. We´re off to explore some more of the beautiful city of Cochabamba.

Look for pictures soon!

I love Bolivia

Well, this is the beginning of my third day here in Bolivia. My host family and my house are both very nice, but getting here was a different story. First we flew from Chicago to Miami . Then came the five hour layover; lucky for us there was Chili´s in the airport for that very last burger. Then we flew overnight to La Paz and were taken to the Maryknoll Missionary house there for some food and sleeping. After that we headed back to the airport for yet another flight over the mountains to Cochabamba, the city where we are living. My host mother picked me up at the airport and drove me home for a promt feeding. Needless to say, I slept for about 16 hours the next day after that craziness.

If you didn´t already guess, Bolivia is a lot different from the US. First of all everything costs about 25% of what it does in the states. For example, last night we ate at a very nice restaurant and I ordered a filet mignon. We had 3 bottles of wine between the group of us, and the whole bill came out to about $9 each (including the tip). Unheard of!

My personal favorite thing here, though, are the wild dogs. In a given day you can easily see about 50 random, ownerless hounds running around this city, sometimes in packs. Watch your step!

That´s all for now, but school starts tomorrow morning so expect some more stories then.

Dios se bendigan.

Two summers, Two continents!

Well, off I go to my latest adventure. For those of you who don't know already, I'll be spending the next six weeks in Cochabamba, Bolivia in an intense Spanish language program. Although I have studied Spanish before, this will still be like getting dropped in the deep end of the pool. I hope I don't unintentionally say anything stupid to my Bolivian host mother when she picks me up at the airport. That's another thing: I'll be living with a random Bolivian family....should be interesting if nothing else....



Feel free to post to the blog or email me: thomasjamesbyrne@gmail.com. I am told that I will have fairly regular internet access, so I plan to check the blog and email frequently.

Look for pictures soon!