The first few days

The altitude hit me. I didn't take prophylaxis pills before coming, so while my roommate Annie was ready to explore La Paz, I buried my head into a pillow and slept. It felt (I imagine) like a really bad hangover. Eventually, i crawled to the kitchen to get some water, and from that moment on, things got better. Annie came home soon after and we went back out together to exchange money and get to know each other. We just walked up the main street (6 de agosto - Bolivia's independence day) and eventually found a cafe - apparently one that is popular in the Bolivian dating scene. It's easy and difficult to get lost in La Paz. There are no street signs so I finally understand why people give directions by landmarks (turn right at the 2nd roundabout, then look for the bridge, pass that bridge, take a right on the first street after the bridge, and look for a red and yellow house) - Those were our instructions to the language school. If we were given street names instead of landmarks, we would never have found the school. It's difficult to get lost though because north is always uphill and south is always downhill.
Sunday we met up with the other participants. All together, there are 14 of us. Most of the people are from the US and in university or doing a post-bac. Then there are the two Canadian girls from Montreal who just finished their 2nd year of medical school, 2 girls from New Mexico that just finished 1st year of medical school, and a girl named Sophie from London who studied Russian and Spanish at university and now wants to apply to medical school. We are pretty loud together and overwhelming, but when I'm with just a few of them, we get along well.
We decided to walk through the centre of La Paz, and stumbled upon a sunday market on the main street. Instead of just selling trinkets and cheap things, the market also included activity booths for children, such as face painting, health education, how to care for the environment, and other things like that. It made me smile that there was something for the kids. I also noticed that there were no other foreigners. The few that we saw (3) were dread-head hippies. Maybe its because its winter, but I almost never encounter other tourists in La Paz. Maybe when we start traveling to the touristy spots, we'll see more. After the Sunday market, we walked up to the mercado de hechiceria (Witches' market). Yup, I saw the llama fetuses - they are used for good luck when you buy a new house apparently. Anyways, if anyone wants anything specific from Bolivia, please let me know. Alpaca sweaters, fuzzy gloves/mittens, scarves, pachamama figurines...
Then, we went to the mercado negro, where there were people selling everything. Each street sold a different product: Rice street, potato street, Spices street, toilet paper street...I'll have to go back to get some souvenirs.

This is very behind, I know, but I will catch up eventually, I promise.
This week I am rotating at Hospital de los Ninos (Children's hospital) in the infectious disease ward with Dr. Velasco - so far, it's amazing. More on that later.