Sometimes there are frogs in your shower

I am not really sure what I was expecting when I decided to come to Bolivia. I assumed it would be hot and buggy, but I guess I never really thought about the details of what that looked like in practice.

Well, as it turns out, what that looks like in practice is I am never really clean because the second I get out of the shower I pretty much immediately start sweating. It means waking up in the middle of the night because I am so itchy. It also means that there are frogs in my shower... And geckos in my bedroom...and mosquitoes, well pretty much everywhere.

Life here is so different from the United States. And I obviously knew it would be, but I guess it never really sunk in to what extent. I am pretty much constantly in a state of mild discomfort. I am not used to the climate. I am not used to the food. I am not used to the language. I am pretty much unfamiliar with everything that is happening here.

I feel pretty much like I just started my freshman year of college. That state of excitement, but also confusion, and nervousness. Except in this college, there is only one other new student...And everyone else speaks a different language that I only kind of know...and also the internet is unreliable.

So yeah, it isn’t exactly a tropical paradise here...but here is the thing...I honestly think it is more beautiful this way.

I have always believed that there is growth in discomfort, and I am uncomfortable AF.

I read one of those cheesy Instagram quotes the other day that said “it is impossible for your brain to feel anxious and grateful at the same time” and it stuck with me. There are so many reasons to be grateful here. My time, while it is just beginning, has been filled with tiny beautiful moments.

For every moment that is frustrating, for every time that the kids ask me “do you understand anything?” for every bug bite and tarantula sighting, there are 100 tiny voices trying to say “good morning” in English.

It is my intention to lean in to the discomfort that I am feeling right now, and try to see a glimmer of good in most of my frustration.

So yeah, sometimes there are frogs in my shower. But I decided those are good luck.