hola!

i´m still in bolivia (duh)!

hngr has us take a day off every week to do reading slash breathe, which is a really lovely idea on their part... mine are fridays, so today i took the public transportation into the city and walked to this big beautiful plaza near my work. i sat on a bench and read ¨Poverty, Power, and the Kingdom of God¨ by Jayakumar Christian, which i highly recommend, and ate empanadas and a strawberry-peach juice for lunch. yum.

funniest conversation i´ve had here so far:
some of the kids at work know a few english phrases and LOVE trying them out on the gringas. the funny part is that sometimes they can parrot them but don´t know what they mean, so they´ll say, ¨Como se dice¨(how do you say) "(english phrase) en espanol?" ie, "good morning, how are you", etc.
So this one girl is doing this with me and she says, "Como se dice ´how do you say´, en espanol?". So I replied, "Como se dice". She said, "Si, COMO SE DICE, how do you say?". Right... "COMO SE DICE." She got increasingly frustrated, "Si, si, como se dice, pero QUE ES LA SIGNIFICA DE how do you say??!!" (´What is the meaning of how do you say´). "Como se dice ES la significa de How do you say!! Son igual!! Como se dice ES how do you say!"
She just looked at me and then we both started cracking up. It was very Who´s on First.

My host brother also knows some English phrases...
Last night, "Emiliana!" "Si?" (Pause as he tries to say it correctly) "Yes... weee... cannn!" Lol.

i´m feeling more and more comfortable here as i get a little bit more familiar with the city...
my intense spanish classes start next week! 4 hours a day/3 days a week. wahoo! i am excited (seriously). i really like my teacher (its at the missionary language school!) and i am excited to be able to communicate more with people here...

thank you so much to everyone who´s emailed, prayed, generally been wonderful... i feel so supported and it is soo encouraging to hear from people and know that even tho im not with yall we are praying for each other and cheering each other on...

loveeee,
em