Tuesday, September 26, 2006

It´s a girl!

Hey everyone! Hope all is well!

Great things seem to be happening to ones that I love!! First, one my bests friend from college, Amy, gets engaged, then Abby, a best friend since the third grade, had a baby! That´s right, I am an serogate aunt to a beautiful baby girl named Emmersen. You can check out all the wonderful pictures and information about the little one by clicking here. Congrats Mike and Abby! I am sooo happy for you!

As for me, same ol´same ol...taking classes and such here at the language institute. I did, however, start a week long class on Monday titled "Espiritualidad Misionera" at the local university here, La Universidad Catolica. It´s pretty much a class on spirituality, missionary work, and serving the poor, posing some really interesting points and perspectives...I think ;-) It´s obviously an upper level theology class and it is obviously all in spanish, so I understand about 60% of what is being said. A lot of the difficulty comes from not knowing the technical terms or formal labels for various areas that are discussed. Lucky for me, I am attending the class with my friend Kerri, who is also a student at the language institute and received her Masters of Divinity at Harvard, and Brother Tomas, who is from the US but has lived in Bolivia for about 18 years and works at the institute. Through Brother Tomas´help with the spanish through a discussion after class, Kerri and I are really enjoying ourselves. It feels so good to be in an academic environment studying theology again!

Again, hope everyone is well! Hope to finish putting up pictures for you soon...the computers here for that kinda thing are seriously slow and seriously a pain in the rear end.

Love - M

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Subscribe option, photos, and reality check on calling me

Hello everyone, hope all is well! I just finished classes and found the computer available on my way out the door...so I thought I would take a moment to say hi and that I hope everyone is having a terrific day.

Also, as you can see, the subscribe option for my blog is set up - simply enter your email address if you would like an email sent to you, notifying you that I have updated my blog.

The pictures link is up on the right hand side, but don´t check it out just yet because I do not have any pictures loaded into my account. This computer is kinda slow and I think I will have to go somewhere else tonight to put the pictures on the internet; I will let you know when I do.

****REALITY CHECK/CHANGE OF CALLING PROCEEDURE**** Okay, so I get home and I tell my family here that I have put up my number on my blog so my friends and family can call me. I also tell them that I put up some spanish that you should say when you do call. What do they do? They laugh. That´s right, they laugh. Why? Well, there is only one person in the house named "Michelle." There is no point in having someone attempt to speak spanish when all they really have to do is say my name. Additionally, I said myself that if I am home, I am usually the one who answers the phone. So why should you have to attempt speak spanish if you are going to be talking to me in the first place?? So, though mocking myself with my Bolivian family, I got a reality check and realized that you do not have to speak spanish in order to call me at my house here in Bolivia. When you call, simply say my name (Destiny´s Child song reference simply a coincidence)and they will hand the phone to me...that is, if I am the one who does not answer the phone. SO CALL ME - all it takes is buying a $5 international calling card from the gas station - most cards are $5 for 600 minutes. Good deal and you get to talk to me, who can beat that??

Alright, I am off to eat some fabulous traditional Bolivian food for lunch (usually consists of a giant bowl of soup followed by the "segunda," or second plate, that is full of rice or pasta, meat, potatoes, and a little salad with tomatoes and onions.)

Have a great day everyone - check for the photos very soon!

- M

OH - PS - ABSOLUTE congratulations to one of my best friends Amy Kelley. Her beau Josh proposed marriage yesterday and she said yes (of course)! Sooooo excited for ya Aims, looking forward to talking to you again soon!

Friday, September 15, 2006

¡Finalmente! An update

Hi everyone! Well, I have finally got around to updating the blog, so this is going to be a long one. Thank you everyone for your patience, I just needed a few weeks to get settled in here and really process everything that I am experiencing here in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

First: A few people have been asking for my mailing address and phone number while in Bolivia...good thing too - thanks to Patrick, I found out that you can buy a Latin America calling card at your local grocery store or gas station and it is cheaper if you call me rather me call you. :-) So, if you wanna chat, my phone number is 5914.424.2620

If I am home, I will most likely be the one to answer because my family is very keen on having me practice my spanish at all times...that includes answering the telephone, haha. If I don`t understand what the person on the phone is saying, I usually respond with "un momento, por favor" (or "one moment, please) and hand the phone to someone in the house. Anyway, when you call, just say "Con Michelle, Por Favor." If I am not there, they will not hand me the phone (obviously) and say a sentence in spanish that has a "no" in it. Just say "Bueno, Me llamo (your name goes here). Voy a llamar mas tardpronouncedced "voy a yay mar mas tar-day").

Also, my address is:

Michelle Fitzgerald
Instituto de Idiomas Maryknoll
Casilla 550
Cochabamba, Bolivia

Please keep in mind I can only receive items under 2 kilos (about four pounds) or else the Bolivian government charges me a tax in order to pick up the item.

Second: I unfortunately do not have a lot of pictures from Bolivia so I will not have a lot to share with you while I am here. Cochabamba (city I am living in), while I do feel safe in the area I live, has its danger spots and we are told to never take out our digital cameras for fear that they get stolen or that they send off a signal that we are a tourist who has enough money to buy a digital camera...who has enough money that it is worth robbing them. Anyway, I am in the process of setting up a photo account that I can link to this blog so you can see all of my pictures from my next 2 years. When I finish, I will let you know and place a few of my favorites up on the blog directly.

Third and final: Check out the blog in the next few days - I am going to add a "subscribe" option to the blog so you are able to subscribe to my blog. What does this mean? Simply adding your email address to the subscribe portion of my blog will send you an email everytime I update my blog so that way you do not have to check the blog every day and read the same thing over and over.

Alright - the real update. As far as my life here in Bolivia, I absolutely love it - although it does have its own downfalls. I absolutely love my host family. I am living with a mom (Juana), dad (Nestor) and brother (Jorge). Jorge is 24 years old, so it is different but super fun to have an older brother. I will hopefully put up a picture soon. We get along great and have a good time - he is so patient helping me with my spanish. The family does not speak english at all, so it comes down to speaking english about 2 hours total in a day...thank goodness for topportunitynty to talk to Natalie, Patrick, Katie, and the other students here at the institute in between classes! But, I have really grown to love the spanish language and I can´t believe how much I know so far...the day to day speaking and conversations are great with my family (we are hilarious together). In fact, we just took a test the other day in our spanish fluency and I tested at medium Intermediate - who knew! It is amazing how the brain works...pulling out all the old spanish files from college. Sometimes I use vocabulary words without even knowing if they are correct (i.e. bolsa is "bag" or "purse") and they are right! Yeah for me...but still have tons to learn.

I am spending my days as a student at the Maryknoll Institute of Idiomas (Languages). I have four classes that are one-on-one...that´s right, me and the professor. So if I don´t feel like having class (which has already happened a few times), I don´t really have a choice. Crazy, but it is all worth it in the end.

When I am not in class, I am playing tons of volleyball. Boy, do I love that sport - and I am actually good at it...I think I am better now than when I played in high school, haha. Anyway, volleyball is incredibly popular in Bolivia and I will tell you more stories later about that. When I am not playing volleyball, I am hanging out with my host family, knitting a baby blanket for my sister (I will have a neice in November!), going out to drink cervezas (beer) with friends, or dancing at a discoteque (club). All in all, it has been a new experience but one already worth the trip.

Again, I will definitely be updating the blog often - I cannot wait to tell you about how CHEAP everything here is in Bolivia, about the culture here and about living in the poorest country in South America and the 3rd poorest country in the world behind Hati and Bangladesh. If you still want more info about me and my compañeros, check out Natalie and Patrick´s blog - they are linked on the right hand side and they update them pretty often with some pretty funny stuff. Oh - btw - check out Ryan´s blog today (09-15-06). It is pretty real account about how our jobs are sometimes harder than we ever expect.

Hope everyone is well - please call me and say hello, it would be great to hear from you. Otherwise, keep the emails and letters coming! Talk again soon, miss ya all!

PS - Send me updates on Notre Dame football games, particularly if you attend them! Checking on the team through internet is just not the same... :-P