The remedy

April 3, T minus 8: My first day of true freedom from Big Red and The Iguana! I never knew that being unpaid, uninsured and unemployed could bring such happiness to my heart. Monday was like a Saturday! With an open schedule before me, I arose, cooked breakfast, did the laundry, went grocery shopping, and made a few phone calls to sort out scholarships, insurance and, of course, the plane ticket to Bolivia.

Luckily, the air mile angels were smiling down upon me. My new American Airlines agent solved the problem and by that evening, I possessed the confirmation number of a first/business class ticket to La Paz! However, the joy and elation of finally obtaining the ticket was soon superceded by the machinations of my worried parents, who aren't thrilled with the idea of their eldest daughter traipsing around a developing country by herself and hanging out with street children high on paint thinner. You can understand, I'm sure. Here's an excerpt (almost verbatim) of our conversation last night:

"You need to bring Clariten to Bolivia!"

"Huh? I haven't had a single allergy for the 26 years of my life!"

"Well, you might develop one while you're out there."

"What am I going to develop an allergy of? Elevation?"

"You never know. And speaking of elevation, you need to ask your people in Bolivia if they can get you a bottle of oxygen."

"uhhh..."

"I talked to someone who traveled to Bolivia and he had a bottle of oxygen delivered to his room. He said taking a few hits of it really helped with altitude sickness."

"Did you really just say 'take a few hits'?"

"Make sure you ask where you can get oxygen!"

"Well...um. Sure. I guess I can ask my host family where to get oxygen..."

I wisely declined to tell them about the local remedy to altitude sickness -- coca leaf tea.