First Weekend Out

My weekend was pretty good.  Friday night was my first experience of night life in Bolivia.  One of the other teachers had a Jazz concert that she was in, so Hannah, Leah, and a few other teachers went to go show our support.  I'm not a big fan of Jazz, but this was actually pretty good.  There was a variety of music and singing.  The evening began with Ms. Lili, Hannah's co-operating teacher, picking us up in front of the school.  It was a bit windy as as we sat, I watched the trash and dirt in the streets swirl around making mini tornadoes at times.

We arrived at the place of the concert, which was called Palacio Portales.  It was an actual palace designed by a French architect in the early 1900s.  It was created for Bolivian millionaire, Simon Iturri Patino, who from what I understand, never actually lived in it.  It was nestled on acres of beautiful land, with gardens designed after the gardens of the Versailles Palace in France.  The architecture was magnificent and a sight to behold.  We entered and I was again awed at the grandeur of this place.  Such detail and precision.  The ceilings looked like paintings from the Sistine Chapel.  We found our seats, and since there was time before the concert began, Hannah, Leah, and I ventured upstairs to look around.  I began snapping pictures, creating documentation.  After about 5 minutes, one of the security guards came upstairs and began yelling at us.  His Spanish was so rapid, so I only caught the words, "prohibito" and "no photographs."  Whoops...I hid my camera as we were herded downstairs.
           




The concert began, and Hannah and I sat with two other elementary school teachers.  Leah sat across the aisle with the High School principal and two other high school teachers.  During the concert, I happened to glance over at Leah and her group, and quickly nudged Hannah.  Danny's head was tilted back and he eyes were nearly shut, Leah had the most bored look on her face as she stared ahead, and Andres was leaning forward with his head in his hands.  Those three embodied the essence of bored to tears!  It was hilarious to see, and Hannah and I were greatly amused.

After the concert, a group of us decided to go out for dinner and some drinks.  We walked down the street to a local restaurant, where we had pizza and some drinks.  I had so much fun getting to know these teachers outside of school, and even the elementary teachers, who I really had no interaction with.  We left the restaurant to go to Andres's apartment for some more fun.  We literally squeezed about 5 or 6 of us girls into the backseat of one of the vehicles.  At the apartment, we continued having fun until a knock at the door about half an hour later stopped us.  It was the neighbor upstairs who was pretty upset at how loud we were...oops!!  We hurriedly left, again cramming into the car to go to FranCois Lounge, where we continued dancing and getting to know each other better.  A few hours later, we all headed home.  It was a wonderful first night out and so full of memories.

Saturday was spent mostly being lazy...just a typical Saturday for me.  I lounged around, blogging, getting on FB, and avoiding doing any work.  In the evening, I went to dinner with Alexis and her husband David.  We went to a small pizza place and spent our time catching up.  It was so great seeing them both and it was almost unreal that I was here, in Bolivia with them.  They showed me some of downtown, and it was interesting to see the drastic change between the north and south side of Cochabamba.  The south side was more full of indigenous people, while the north side held more sophisticated people.  Not to say that the south side was sleazy or less sophisticated, but it was very different.  People dressed differently and even walked differently.  It's difficult to describe coming from such a small town back home, but here in Bolivia, there are different social classes, and people tend to congregate in certain areas if they are from a certain social class.  As I remain here for the next year, I'm anxious to explore all aspects of Cochabamba and experience more of the city.