As I wrote in this article here….
I used to hang out with a Bolivian chick named Mariana or I think that was the name I gave her to cover her identity on this website.
Anyway, she was a former stripper in Cochabamba, Bolivia and a woman I met at some random bar in that same city.
She happened to, at the time I met her, be a chick who worked at some random bar and no longer a stripper when we went along hanging out.
Well, I sometimes frequented the bar that she worked at in this city.
Mostly to have a few drinks, hang out with some of the other regulars and wait for her shift to end.
There was some other due named Mau or whatever his name was that was a regular.
Some Bolivian dude who was at least 10 years older than me and who was cool in driving me around the city to different bars or clubs as he had a car.
And I obviously didn’t since I was the young foreigner in the country.
Anyway, I am at this bar again where Mariana is working at…..
She used to make me this gin based drink that was fucking bomb as hell but I forgot what it was exactly.
I wish I knew what it was since it was legit.
But who knows – she don’t remember either.
But regardless – I’m sitting down in this bar with this dude named Mau as I’m waiting for her shift to end.
Before ultimately I have to take a piss after so much drinking.
While Mau and I were playing some card game and just chilling….
I got up to excuse myself for a second to the bathroom.
And crossed past some room that have some local band doing a live performance.
On the way to the bathroom.
Once I got inside is where the lesson of the story takes place.
Not a big lesson but perhaps a phenomenon that happens among quite a few gringos who decide to move to Latin America – regardless of the country.
And, in all honesty, it probably happens among folks who move to any country outside of Latin America also.
It’s a simple phenomenon but one that happens among quite a few people but is something I only remembered recently as I got talking to a friend of mine named Blayde.
What am I talking about?
“Where the Fuck am I?!?”
As I crossed the room where the small live band was playing….
Which was some samba band if I remember right….
Funny to bring that up since Bolivia isn’t necessarily known for samba like Brazil is obviously…
But I guess, looking back on it, it was just some random band that had maybe a Brazilian or two in it that wanted to bring their culture to Bolivia.
Well, the countries border each other so it makes sense.
Here’s an example of samba below here for those who don’t know.
Well, I assume it is samba since it is in the name....
Anyway, I got to the bathroom to take my piss.
Well, as I finished my business….
I remember taking the time to wash my hands.
And it hit me.
“I’m in Bolivia?!?” I remember thinking to myself.
I know it’s a small observation and an obvious one as well.
Like yeah faggot….
You obviously in Bolivia.
Who cares?
But for someone who grew up in a small state like Iowa and who never spent much time outside the US prior to my time to arriving to Bolivia….
As you can read here or here….
I had very minimal time in LATAM prior to Bolivia.
A brief week in Mexico and a few months in Guatemala basically.
So for me to “make the move” to living abroad…
Well, back then, it was weird to say the least….
With such minimal time living abroad to move from Iowa to Bolivia…
Two places that are very much different from each other.
And, to be honest, I still have those thoughts…..
Drunk in CDMX
Although these thoughts are less common these days…
They still happen.
Once in a blue moon, I will find myself drunk all alone in my apartment somewhere in Mexico City (CDMX)….
Staring at the ceiling with some random music playing in the background…
And it hits me again.
That thought…..
“I’m in Mexico!!!!”
Again, I don’t know how to better describe that thought than what I am writing here….
It really is like that.
Where you randomly think to yourself “wait a minute…I’m in a random ass country I’m not from!!”
And it’s weird.
Just weird to be living in an environment that is so different from home….
Even if you get used to it, I’m not sure if you ever drop that random thought that happens once in a blue moon.
Before this thought happened a lot more when I was first traveling South America from Bolivia and beyond.
Nowadays, this thought is less common…
So I guess it happens less and less….
But I only brought it up because a friend of mine named Blayde reminded me of it…
Where he asked me a few days ago if I “ever have these thoughts where I think…..”
“I’m in Mexico?!?!”
At first, I told him no.
But then I remembered my earliest years living in Latin America back to Bolivia….
And yeah.
It happened!
Again, not sure how else to describe it….
Basically you live in your own country for so many years with minimal to no experience traveling or living abroad…
And you eventually find yourself living abroad and come to terms with it randomly as your consciousness “fades back into” reality that you are not in your home country.
Some random moment reminds you that you are in this strange ass place that isn’t nothing like home.
Which ain’t good or bad but just is.
And it’s a weird feeling to have to be thinking….
“Wait….where the fuck am I?!?”
Well, you know where you are.
That is obvious.
But it’s weird nonetheless as you compare your simpler life back home to this new life of living abroad in a foreign country.
Anyway, I hope I explained it well enough here what I mean.
If not or if I did….
Drop a comment below in the comment section.
I’m down to discuss and appreciate comments.
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Thanks.
Best regards,
Matt