It´s gonna be a cold one

Dear Friends,

Spent much of the day inside scribbling -- just came out to do the evening email/mail check (nothing/nothing) and I can feel the chill in the air; it´s gonna be a cold one tonight. The mountains in the distance have that cold look I can now recognize, but can´t yet put my finger on. So, I stopped by my news man and got my reading material for the night: El Deber from Santa Cruz, El Diario from La Paz, El Correo del Sur from Sucre, Le Monde, and I broke down and got the latest issue of Vanidades (the Latin version of Vanity Fair or some such) because I´m starved for the inane. There´s a classical guitar concert at one of the museums this evening, but I´m not sure I can tear myself away from my little room this evening. Instead I may dare to cook at a high altitude, since for the most part I´ve been living on sandwiches and whatever the ICBA has to offer in the evenings. Have to say they made a pretty good pasta the other night, even if they are German.

The day´s big event was my ¨pre-departure¨language test for the fellowship. Conducted post-departure in Spanish, by phone, and a little suspicious when the questioning turned toward my opinions on US foreign policy in El Salvador and, later, Haiti and Cuba. I answered in my usual non-pindownable B way, but in the end I have to say I enjoyed the human interaction more than I was suspicious. The ¨test¨lasted about 40 minutes and in the end I´d say for my purposes the Spanish is much better than I thought it was, not as good as it needs or ought to be. On a normal scale, though, I think I scored relatively high. No real news other than I spent another day avoiding my temperamental tailor (who frightens me ever so slightly) and am kind of happy it´s going to be a cold night. Who knows what domani will bring.

I´m off to try to find some pecorino and a good bottle of wine -- what are the odds? Hope everyone is well.