Andrew Bleeda

If loving glee is wrong, I don’t want to be right

Being David Bowie

While riding on the back of a motorcycle with another man, it’s hard not to feel a little bit gay. On the other hand, it’s hard not to feel so cool!

Holy RegEx Batman!

function valid_email($address) {
if (ereg(‘^[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$’, $address)) {
return true;
}
else {
return false;
}    
}

Bolivian Fun Fact Numero Tres

All the toilet paper here is thin, dry, one ply, and pink. You might say to yourself “Well that makes sense, Bolivian plumbing probably exactly first class, and that must be easier to flush.” And you’d be right, except that you can’t flush toilet paper here. That’s right. There’s a little garbage can that you have to throw your toilet paper away in, otherwise the world explodes.

Life Update

(excerpted from an email to Mom)

I feel like I’ve settled in to a good rhythm down here. Pretty much all the stressful things about the first part of the trip (having to plan each day anew, not knowing where we’d live or what we’d do with our time, being sick) are settled and done with. I spend a typical day either: going out and working at the dam in Choquechampi with ManoAMano… hard manual labor (about two days/week), helping around the ManoAMano office, maybe putting crackers and crayons in bags for little kids, or doing some soldering of heating ducts (about one day/week), staying at home and programming / studying programming (about two days/week), or taking spanish classes (about one day/week). I could give more time to any of those things and be happy about it, but it’s a pretty good balance so far. Nights vary, often we’ll hang out and have dinner at the house, but instead we might go camping, play soccer with 12 year olds who’re better than me, play basketball with 16 year olds and feel totally dominant (it’s such a new and awesome feeling being tall), run shirtless through the city (I’ve never been catcalled so many times in my life, which means more then never), or go out and spend 2 dollars a drink for 12-years aged Chivas. The roommates are dreamers who’re making it happen, our house is used as a ‘cafe’ hosting events from live music to thesis defense after-parties to educational sessions for pregnant mothers. We also have a new guy, Christian, who’s a German Architect working in town. He’s friends with the girl who introduced us to the house, brought a ridiculous amount of German candy and beer with him, and is a good guy. It feels good to be settled, I’m soaking up a lot of unique experiences. I miss the states, but overall I have the feeling that I’m making good use of my time.

Bolivian Fun Fact Numero Dos

In Trinidad, a tropical city in Northern Bolivia, they use motorcycles all over. It´s not rare to see 5 grown men riding on a single bike, with a kid on the handlebars. Many taxis are motorcycles for hire. When you board, they ask you ¨¿Con Pelo o Sin Pelo?¨, which means with stick or without stick. Con Pelo costs 5-7 Bolivianos. Why would people pay for a stick? There are lots of stray dogs in the city (and everywhere else down here), who maintain a passionate hate for motorcycles. The stick is used for hitting the dogs when they chase the bike and try to bite you. Oh Bolivia..

Bolivian Fun Fact Numero Uno

So I went out with this group today who´s building this huge dam. The Engineer in charge is a 30-something, dresses well, holds himself highly, etc etc. Then I look at his bag.. he´s got a Danzig patch sown on. Also, the hat he later lent to me had a ¨Death¨ patch down on in crazy lettering. Nice.