Dear Annie

I wrote this letter to myself in preparation for our trip to Bolivia. I brought a lot of my fears to light, and I think it will be interesting to look back on this letter when I am there to see how things match up, to see if I have been able to conquer these fears.

Dear In The Future Annie,

How is it going? I hope at this point you are no longer apprehensive about staying with strangers and that you are enjoying yourself. As I am writing this letter I am imagining myself not knowing what to say or how to act, but one of my goals is to be able to use any means necessary to get my point across. That could be drawing pictures or waving my arms about like a lunatic. Have you been doing that? I am nervous that I won’t feel comfortable being myself around my host family, but I hope that is not the case and that you have felt comfortable enough to be weird. I think having Jaci with you will help that.

I am really excited to be around the little kids, and when we go to the schools I am excited to do hard work that will benefit them. I am a little worried that you will feel embarrassed if your Spanish is worse than a second grader’s, but I know that it is okay. You need to believe in yourself!  I am really excited, though, to have the opportunity to improve my Spanish! I think that living with a Spanish speaking family, and basically only speaking Spanish for a month is going to be awesome! I bet you are so much better already. I am also really excited to go to the markets and see all of the handmade things, and buy stuff to bring home to my family and friends!  Remember to do these things if you haven’t been doing them already.

We have never been out of the country before and so I am nervous/excited about this being my first time. Are you homesick? If you are, it will be okay I promise. Just try and remember how amazing it is that you are in Bolivia and maybe all of the other stuff will fall away. How was the flight? I hope it wasn’t too crazy or uncomfortable. Did you get altitude sickness? As I am writing this I am wondering what that will mean for me. I am taking some immune support pills right now, do you think they have been helping at all?
What is the environment like? Does it seem the same as what you learned about? Is it better? Worse? You should be writing things down in a journal and maybe cutting things out of newspapers, or other magazines to bring back to the US as momentos. Thats a good idea. Do it right now! Eat lots of yummy food, try new things, don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. I trust you to not let fear rule your time in Bolivia. Maybe don’t try guinea pigs. That doesn’t sound too appetizing to me right now, so maybe try some other food that you might not normally. LIVE A LITTLE. Because all too soon you will be back on that plane returning to Iowa, and you will graduate. And we will both regret it so much if you don’t try new things while in another country.

Adios,

Present/In The Past Me.