Classes!

Today is our first real day of classes (although we've had one Culture and Development Seminar and one Field Study Seminar already during orientation). We had CDS #2 this morning at 9, and my host dad brought me there but tomorrow I'll take a micro (little bus). The lecture was really interesting and covered the political history of Bolivia up until independence in 1825, so it really focused on colonialism. The professor said something that really stuck with me when he was talking about how now people are talking about the "refundacion" (re-foundation) of Bolivia, because they say it was mal fundado (founded badly) in 1825. He said that instead of referring to independence as el nacimiento (the birth) of Bolivia, it was el aborto (the abortion) of the nation. I liked how he worded that because it seems to be true that many of the policies of colonialism continued after "independence." He's our lecturer tomorrow too, so I'm excited to hear more of what he has to say.

I found out today that I passed the Spanish exam with a high enough grade so that I can take Quechua! The language classes are all at the same time so I can't take both languages, but I don't know when I will get the chance again to take classes in an indigenous language of Bolivia so I'm taking advantage of it now. I'm so excited! Two other students in the program, Luis and Nicole, have chosen to take Quechua as well so I won't be alone in the class. The first class is in less than an hour! My host parents are excited for me too, thank goodness. My host mother was concerned at first because she said it's better to master one field (Spanish, in this case) than to have a cursory understanding of several. But I told her that I'm a linguistic anthropology major and it makes sense for what I'm interested in, and I think now she totally supports me. They are so great.

Anyway, I'm off to my first Quechua class! Since I don't even know how to say goodbye in Quechua, I'll settle for "chau!"