On my own

Two weeks ago I sat in my bedroom surrounded by boxes and piles containing all of my earthly possessions. And it felt good. Really good. Rather than packing my bags, as I should have been, I spent several hours looking through the things I´ve accumulated in the past few years. I found mementos from past trips, pairs of underwear I´d thought were lost, and stacks of pictures from high school and earlier. As fun as it was to look through the old correspondence and take stock of my material situation, there was something even more satisfying about putting it all in a box and leaving it behind. Although I´m not planning on becoming a forest-dwelling ascetic any time soon, my recent move to Bolivia with two backpacks gave a similar thrill of feeling like I´m really flying solo. Until a few days ago I maintained the relaxed "OK, I´m on my own" mentality but recently I´ve felt a slight tilt toward, "Oh shit, I´m on my own."

I landed in La Paz at 7:00 am on Tuesday morning and by 12:00 I was working at The Spitting Llama Bookstore and Outfitter learning the Spanish words for various camping implements, negotiating prices with suppliers, and navigating our surprisingly unintuitive bookkeeping system. For the next year I will be working in/managing(?) the bookstore, organizing a community outreach project, and helping produce a weekly podcast on Bolivian news, politics, and culture. Although I´m going to be working a lot, I´m hoping that this experience will give me a unique perspective on Bolivian life and a better understanding of global tourism and cultural exchange.

Because I´ll be living here for the next year I´m envisioning this blog as less of a travelogue and more of a record of observations and thoughts about the experience. I also hope that the trajectory of my perspective will slowly progress from the, "Oh shit" mentality to something maybe more akin to, "Oh my goodness." Or maybe even, "What was the big deal? Thinking I´m on my own is just a naïve vanity trip anyway."