How far is far?

If I called you on the phone, our voices would mingle like seaweed in the tide. If I tried to reach out and give you a hug, I would be grasping only thin air. This distance from home I am speaking so metaphorically about is walloping me over the head at the moment as I reel in surprise at how far I have actually come. And Gone. A recent loss, due to theft of my portable electronics gear (worry not! I will not go into detail now, but I am hopeful and believe that some closure and perhaps return of said goods is near) has forced me to relocate my self existentially within this space I am occupying here in a foreign land. I am overcomplicating this language as a ploy, to show you how confused I am, and how confusing it can be, to be somewhere alien. You see I was here in La Paz for months, but not entirely. Wherever we go, we bring with us screens, shields, and protections from home. We protect ourselves from the unknown with devices employed unknowingly for that purpose. Yes we open ourselves, for that´s the point of travel, to experience something new, but we hardly ever open ourselves beyond a certain point. Some level of personal protection is vital to the stability of self and of self-image, and some people do willingly go beyond that point, but this is not about those rarities. I am of course speaking from one very limited perspective, my own, but I believe I have encountered something true from this latest experience. I had brought my computer with me, and in so doing brought with me all of the music I cared to bring, photos, videos, and the capacity to view movies. I brought my own entertainment, and not until this device was forcibly taken from me (from my house, for I was not there) did I realize that I had been concealing from myself a portion of Bolivia. I provided my own, and lost opportunity to allow Bolivia to provide for me. Perhaps this is obvious to you, but I think it may only be obvious to me now. I did not consider my computer to be a tool for blocking or preventing, but one for enabling. I was wrong. Now when I wake up and the silence of my room echoes with the birdcall of the court, I cannot turn on my favorite song. Nor when I come home at night can I fill the evening with the laughter of a favorite movie. I have been forced to confront and experience to only options available. And that is culture.