fish out of water

me, courtesy of sara, with the little flower thing someone pinned on me while i was at church, kind of invading my privacy while pinning it. it is a recuerdo for the ward conference we had today. so festive!

sara and the cookies we made.

old houses

three emilys. everywhere i go, there are emilys making the world a better place.

the update:

i may or may not have made a fool of myself on the dance floor, i did win a dance contest though. i can´t really predict how it happens, but sometimes the stars align, my embarrassement flies out the window, and i am a dancing machine. i even learned some andean dance steps. my best moves were with the 1950`s rock and roll remixes in spanish, i had moves some of these people had never seen before. at one point i had everyone in the church gym (it was a ward family dance) looking at me and cheering. it is so weird to be here, i am completely out of my element, i feel like i am living a movie sometimes.

before i left provo to go to boise, i went to a latin dance party with chelsea, i was reminded that latin culture is all about gender roles, and that i needed to bring all my busty feminine shirts with me, because the women dress ultra feminine. i didn`t want to be that ugly white foreign girl among all these sizzling latin beauties, but if i continue these outfits in the US when i get back, i will be dressed like i´m from the late nineties.

speaking of being the white girl: walking down the street this morning a man sitting under teh shade of a tree said to me, `eres muy bonita madrecita,`another guy on a motorcycle yells `belleza.` cars are always honking at me. because i´m always dressed in some dowdy shirt and my hair is really frizzy from the climate, it must be for the white skin. anyway, i´d be lying if i said the attention really bothered me. this was a weird one though: in sunday school, the stake president was teaching the lesson, talking about saul and samuel, i was sitting quietly on the pew, he asked me to stand up in front of everyone, then he asked me if my other brothers and sisters had skin whiter than mine, and if they were blonder. i thought about lauren, sarah, and my mom, who are the strawberry blondes in the family, i responded yes, there are some people whiter than i am. then he asked me to sit down. i am not sure what that had to do with samuel, but that would never happen in the US. you would not pick on the only person who is different, the only person in a wheel chair, the only black person present, the only person who is divorced, have them stand up in front of everyone and ask them a question about their differences...just a thought. :)

in a nutshell, it has been a good week. the family i am staying with is fabulous. hna. sonia watches over me like a mother bird. before leaving for church today she offered me five different shades of lipstick and a bottle of perfume. she makes sure i get enought to eat and that my glass is full of coca cola, she explains the conversations that happen around me. i´ve gone from one `mommy creek`to another it seems. lauren and i call my parents subdivision, which is actually called hobble creek, mommy creek, because when we go there we do `mommy` activities. we hang out with mothers and spend our time with small children. i have been doing the same thing here: winning dance competitions with the moms, playing with kids, giving out gum and fruitsnacks, making cookies, attending seminary with the young women, and talking to old women about their businesses. it isn´t bad, just different from what i was doing before. i feel like i`ve been handling my life rather poorly lately. i´ve been in a life crisis- graduating and moving away from provo was difficult, i don´t like change, i don´t like doing things i´m not good at, i don´t like being alone, i don´t know if i will get a good job, and i don´t like being in debt. bolivia has been a good challenge for me.

on the plane ride from miami to la paz, my flight went through the night and into the early morning when it is still dark outside. the word for this time, between midnight and dawn in spanish is `madrugada.` it reminds me of the english word madrigal, but i don´t know what a madrigal is. anyways, i think i`m in a madrugada of my life right now, the darkest part of night that comes right before a beautiful dawn. i think i´m going to make it after all. :)