Man, I'm totally sick of Bolivia right now. Or traveling. Or both.

There are times I think you must be a masochist to want this grant. I guess it's too late for me to say that for those of you who are going next year though, huh?

Yesterday my train was supposed to leave at 1:22am, but there was a mudslide or something, so it left 8 hours late. Not that anyone bothered telling me that. I just sat at the train station for a long time, the train station with banks of lights that don't work and no employees on duty. The train station where these two drunk Bolivians kept trying to get me to let them "watch" my bags for a Boliviano. Eventually I started asking people, who all told me different things about the train (naturally): it would be here soon, it would be here at 5, it would be here at 8. The bathroom attendant (the only person I could find that actually worked there) told me 5am at the earliest, so I thought I'd check back then. Fortunately, my hotel was across the street and the owner let me have my room back even though I'd checked out. I came back at 5, and at 6, 7, and 8. When I came back at 8 I checked out of my room for good, and went and got some breakfast. The train actually did leave at 9am, after which I had to put up with a 30 minute fight between a group of rude, jackass Argentinean backpackers and a rude, jackass woman who couldn't read her ticket. The woman wouldn't move until an attendant told her to; the Argentineans (one of whom wanted her seat) wouldn't stop yelling at her until she did.

The rest of the train ride was no fun: the Argentineans had stayed up all night drinking beer and playing pool in the train station, and so wanted to sleep and were pushy about all the windows being down; the Bolivians wanted to watch the movies that were on really loudly. Of course these desires weren't compatible, and it was a tense train car. For myself, the movies were dubbed in Spanish, and there wasn't really enough light to read - plus the movies were really loud, which didn't help.

When I got to Oruro, I stayed at the first hotel that wasn't a dark, windowless cave (as the rooms around train stations tend to be). I was shown a room, which I accepted, and then we went back downstairs to fill out paperwork. I asked if I got a key for the room, to which I was told yes. After I'd checked in, I was told there was no key now, but would be one that evening - 7 or 8pm. Well, I didn't want to leave my stuff unlocked in my room, but I hadn't eaten since 7am, so I went out to quickly grab some street food, and then came back and hung out in my room until 8, picking pubic hairs out of my sheets (the cheaper places don't tend to change sheets here. If you make a fuss, they'll pretend they don't know what you're talking about, unless there's blood or something in the bed). Of course, when I went downstairs, there was no key - oh, but tomorrow there'll be a key! (No, the next morning there was no key). They didn't have any other rooms, and I didn't want to move by that point, so I kept my valuables close at hand that night.

Today, the only good restaurant I'd found in Oruro is closed. And it's closed tomorrow. And I'm in a bad mood for it. And I'm back in a town where I'm almost run over several times a day, and am constantly being honked at, like it's my bad I tried to walk when I had a walk signal. The government still hasn't set the prices for La Diablada, so people continue to highball me on prices. And that's annoying me too - both completely unnecessary government price structuring and people trying to take advantage of me. One place I asked today had these three guys in their early 20's at the desk, and when I asked the one who approached me what prices were for Carnival, he looked back at his friends, who told him somthing that made him do a double-take, and on friend nodded an emphatic yes, as if to say "do it, do it, he'll buy it." He asked for $25 a night for a room with no bath that normally costs $4 a night.

One other little thing that is becoming a big thing is that there's a million little stores, none of which carry anything really, so if you want something specific it takes all day to find. And when you find it, it's behind glass and unpriced. For example, I wanted to buy some soap today, and had to go to several places to find it, and when I found a place that had it there was several brands and kinds, all behind glass. So then I have to ask if the prices are the same. No, they're not. Well, how much are they? OK, now there's 10 kinds of soap to choose from, can I look at them? Alright, you gave me one to look at. This isn't getting us very far. Fine, I'll just take whatever one you handed me. The whole thing becomes exhasperating after a while. I don't know if they're worried about shoplifting or what, but can't stuff be where I can look at it? And can't there be prices, and some centralization of stores? I mean there will be four shops in a row selling kind of the same stuff, but all a little different, so you invariably end up going to all four.

So yeah, I'm tired of filthy sheets, crappy food, obnoxious travelers, and people lying to my face either out of laziness or to avoid a confrontation, or greed, or some combination thereof. None of these things on their own are really a big deal, but taken together over several months, they're starting to drive me crazy. And this is before you add in the constant loneliness and compromising effects of having the communication skills of a five year old (yes, I consider myself up from 4 to 5. I guess that's an improvement).

Anyways, I'm heading back to Cusco to take Spanish lessons, since I liked the school there and can take group lessons (I haven't been able to find any group lessons in Bolivia). I was even starting to like Cusco at the end. My friend Jason is going to meet up with me in Peru, too, so it makes sense to start heading back that way. I want to visit the film school in Cochabamba, but unfortunately the city is very tense right now, with regular bus traffic cut off from roadblocks. There have been several confrontations between pro-autonomy groups and those that support the central government MAS; there are reports of 3 dead and hundreds wounded, and the military has been called in to help restore order. This confrontation has been brewing for a while now, and stems from the move by MAS to rule that articles written by the new constitutional assembly will be approved by a simple majority, as opposed to the original 2/3 majority mandated by the assembly (basically, MAS failed to get 2/3 of the assembly seats and so changed the rules so that they could get whatever they want in the new constitution). The main requests of pro-autonomy groups is to be able to directly elect departmental governors, who are currently appointed by the president, and to be able to enact departmental-specific legislation. The year-old constitutional assembly has still done nothing beyond argue the 2/3rd rules.

More information on the recent conflict here.