Ah, Christmas

At first I thought the best thing to do would be to leave town for the holidays and travel a bit. Most everyone I know here left Cochabamba so I thought I should too. Then I thought about the daunting task of deciding where to go and then having to deal with absolutely nothing being open on Christmas. I opted for staying in my cozy home and maybe going to a Christmas party or something.

Christmas Eve is the big day here. People stay up late, go to mass and eat dinner at midnight. Then they open presents and call people who are far away. I was planning on going to midnight mass, with the rest of the country, having a few drinks and watching people almost burn their faces off with fireworks (which also start up around midnight), but unfortunately I got amazingly sick. Like i´ve never been sick before: chills, fever, shaking, and near blacking out. It felt like the worst hang over ever and then some.

So I ended up spending noche bueno and la navidad mostly in bed. I watched 4 movies (including El Padrino I and II - thanks benyabril) and drank tea. I tried to read this terrible copper drama because I´ve read all the other fiction in the house, and in my weakened state couldn´t really bear the thought of digging into Ashley´s new Chomsky collection.

All in all, I was really glad to be at home even if I was alone. I managed to make a few phone calls and I feel a lot better now. I´ve even started to eating again, including a fab Argentinian meal at Che Guacho (which translates roughly as ¨Dudebro¨) in Cine Center with Rob and Ashley and Ashley´s dad. I´m sure I´ll elaborate on Cine Center at a later date, but its the most US-y thing in town - a huge multi-plex theater with a food court, arcade and cell phone store. It also has this upscale Argnetine restaurant, where they cut up your meat and vegetables for you. Really.