TPS Reports, otherwise known as a Day in the Life

The Archivist´s version of TPS reports

TGIF, TGIF! Yeah it is Friday and I´ve got a 3 day weekend ahead of me. My family and I are traveling to Coroico, a town in the Yungas Region, which is down the mountain from where we are now. It will be tropical and jungle-like, and we are staying in a little bungalow at the top of a mountain. The road that leads to the Yungas used to be known as the Most Dangerous Road in the World, but we are being lame and taking the new safe(er) road.

Since it´s Friday and I am thinking of really Office Space/The Office type things, I´m going to give you a run down of how my weekdays usually go. My work/life schedule is quite different from the way it was at home.
8 AM - Awaken, put on coffee, dress
8:30 - M. and El Sueco usually wake up at this point. I help El Sueco get M. ready for pre-school.

8:45 - Take a Trufi (shared Paceño) taxi from outside our home to work. Cost in USD about 20 cents.

9 AM- Arrive at work usually huffing and puffing after running a steep hill up from main avenue to Plaza Murillo and then hurtling up 2 flights of Andean Baroque (read:steep) stairs. Why do I run? Well because it´s great exercise and because although I no longer live in New York, the NYC pace is vestigial.

9 - 12:30 Work, work and more work (and some internet too of course!)

12:30 Descend from Plaza Murillo to Prado to find a trufi home. It is lunch time! SIESTA. Boom shakalaka!

12:30 - 3 PM At home, I meet up with El Sueco and M. who is usually sleeping after pre-school. We heat up the lunch that our housekeeper has prepared the night before. After lunch we relax and do things that we cannot do when toddler M. is up and about.

3 PM - Back at work. Sometimes there is a musical event on the patio (Planta Baja) in the evenings, so I always hope that a good classical music act will be practicing and providing me with a pleasant afternoon soundtrack. And more work. And work. And no, this work is not in English so I need to pay extra attention to what I am doing!

5:30- 6 Tea/coffee break. A group of us from the office head down to the museum´s cafe where we drink tea, chat and eat a pastry.  I love these dulce de leche layered ones. Sometimes we have empanadas or cake. It is very pleasant to have this little break, and I am once again reminded that I am not in the USA (especially when my group of friends all talk fast at once and I feel like a mute because I am not fast enough in Spanish convo at this point. I talk very fast in English and even in Swedish so this is a big change!)

6-7 - Wrap up whatever I am doing at work. At 7, I head down to El Prado to find my last trufi of the day.

7:20 - Arrive at home to a clean home with a tasty warm meal on the table for us (our housekeeper is amazing). I then turn on the hot water for a shower (hot water is not a given in Bolivia, and one needs to turn on the boiler manually when it is needed. We must save a ton of energy doing this) and take a shower. Post shower until 9 PM, it is family time, and this usually involves herbal tea, chocolate and the estufa (Bolivian space heater cos 95% of Bolivian homes do not have central heating- again, not convenient but Ecofriendly). ¡Buenas Noches!