Gringita, soy yo!

Hotel Regina, Cochabamba
Last night we had a great mexican meal including burritos with guacamole, pico de gallo, chicken, beans and cheese. Each burrito cost 10 bolivianos (Bs), which is about 1.25 american dollars. I tried to change our 100 bill into smaller change because our host villages may not be able to. We found a little grocery store and I bought come gum and some cookies. When I got up to the cashier, I greeted her and she told me it would cost cinco bolivianos. I put down the 100 Bs and she asked me a question that I didn´t recognize and then I realized she was ready to type something into her computer. I realized she said something about numbero, so I figured I was supposed to give her a phone number. Of course, I don´t have one, but I wasn´t sure whether I´d be able to buy the stuff if I didn´t give her a number so I just started saying numbers in spanish. I wasn´t sure how many digits there are in a Bolivian phone number, so I just kept saying numbers until she didn´t ask for more. Then she asked me for my name and I said Erica. She typed it in as Ericka, so I tried to ask her to take out the k, but I sais ¨cu¨ which is how you say Q. She thought I was saying that my last name was Cook, so she typed that in. I gave up on correcting her at that point. She gave me the change as a 50, two 20s and a 5 boliviano coin. I wasn´t sure how to ask for a smaller bill (I´ll be asking my language teacher about that today) than the 50, but I got her to change a 10 into moneda, which is coins. They have coins in 10, 20, and 50 centavos and 1, 2, and 5 Bs, which are the most useful. After I returned to the group I told this story to one of the current volunteers and she told me that the number I´d been asked to give was my Income Tax number. The cashier must have thought I was insane. Overall, it was a good learning experience, and I´ve got the receipt to remind my of my undercover name, Ericka Cook.