A Year In Bolivia: Days 57-63

On Tuesday, school was boring as usual but at least we got to watch a movie, The Red Violin, during music. For lunch we had pique and I can't wait to make it for my family back in the United States! It's one of my favorite meals. I went back to my afternoon classes and we didn't do anything but walk for about 20 minutes and then stand around talking. We actually had a test in history but I haven't been there for so long that I didn't have to take it. After classes, I was going to hang out with some friends but I got a call from mamá saying I needed to come home right away. When I went into her office, she told me I had a trip over the weekend with the other exchange students! I had no idea about it and neither did Adrianna so we almost missed it but I'm soo glad we didn't! Mamá and I got everything organized for that. The trip was to a place called Concepción, about 5 hours from Santa Cruz, for El Festival de las Orquídeas.

Wednesdays are the worst, most boring days at school for me because I only have one 45 minute class in which I have to SOMETIMES do something. The rest of my classes are ones that I'm not expected to take. At least not for the rest of this school year. Finally school was out and I went home to eat lasagna with my family plus Abuelita, Tía A, and Miguel. After lunch, I went with Tía A to El Mercado Campesino so she could buy some things she needed. I didn't have anything else to do the rest of the night, so I watched TV until I fell asleep.

Nico and papá had left early for Nico's tennis camp in Tarija on Thursday, so I didn't actually have to be at school at an unnaturally early time! In biology, I listened to my classmates give presentations and then was added to one of the groups to make food for a project for the next Thursday biology class. I'm pretty excited for that. After the second break, I got to leave school to meet Nelly, the girl that works with papá, at the ID card place. I finally got my ID card and I'm done with all my visa/citizenship stuff for the year!! Thaaaaank you! After lunch, I packed and got everything ready for my trip and mamá took me to the airport at 4. My plane ride to Santa Cruz was only 30 minutes (compared to the 14 hour bus ride!) and it was the worst and most fun plane ride I've ever been on because there was SO much turbulence! Marlene (the Youth Exchange Chairman for Bolivia), one of her sons, Gabriel, and the only exchange student in Oruro, Brock, met me in the airport and we had AMAZING cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon before driving to Marlene's house. We had some burritos for supper and just sat talking for 2 hours. I also met Marlene's other son and one of her family friends. After supper, Marlene, her friend, Brock, and I went to La Plaza and they showed us around a bit. We also listened to some big concert going on and took a picture with a humongous Saint Bernard named JimBo. (: At 10, we went to a café and I had some really good icy berry tea drink.

Early Friday morning, Marlene took Brock and I to the place where we met the other exchange students and loaded the bus. Altogether, there are 24 of us Rotary exchange students here in Bolivia. The 3 from Cochabamba couldn't come, there's one in Oruro, two in Sucre, and 18 in Santa Cruz. Of the 21 of us that were on the trip, there was 1 from Belgium, 1 from Denmark, 5 from France, 3 from Canada, and 11 from the United States (2 from New York, 2 from California, and 1 from Alaska, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Oregon, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia). We drove 4 hours to San Javier where we had lunch, were given a tour of the beautiful church, and learned how to make cuñapes! Then we drove one more hour to Concepción (a small town) where we settled into our hotel before heading to the church for mass and then a violin/choir concert afterwards. It was very humid and hot but it still doesn't beat the heat in Trinidad! After church, we had a buffet supper where we got barbecue meat and then we all went swimming in a pool across from the hotel before bed. I love all the other exchange students. It feels like we're all just one big family and I have NEVER been in a group of people that have so much in common. Even with the groups of exchange students before I was leaving for Bolivia.

Early Saturday morning, we had a nice breakfast from the hotel (with lots of mango juice!) and then headed to the church where we went to mass the night before so our tour guide could tell us about it. It had the same structure as the church in San Javier but there was a lot more gold and red in the design and it was just absolutely beautiful. We also went to a museum of the Jesuit missions that were here a long time ago and that was really neat. When we were done, we had some free time to walk around. We saw a little dance thing in the center of La Plaza and a lot of us went to some tables of vendors that were set up and bought some souvenirs. At noon, we drove to a different hotel for lunch and then after lunch, we drove 2 hours to an area with mountains to go hiking. We hiked for about an hour and a half and it was so much fun! It wasn't the best trail and it was really steep going up (we even had to use a rope to drag ourselves up) but from the top the view was outstanding! We took all of our group and solo flag pictures at the top too. I thought going up was crazy but going down was awful! Especially for a clumsy person like me. I was just hoping I wouldn't slip and go rolling down the hill taking out everyone in my path! There was lots of gnats on the hike but surprisingly, there weren't mosquitos. Back on the bus, we got juice boxes and it was probably the best juice I've ever drank in my life. It was so hot and we were all tired! We drove 2 hours back to the hotel to rest until our buffet supper, and after supper, some people went to the pool while others just stayed up late talking.

I got sick really early Sunday morning so I must have eaten something weird and I couldn't eat any breakfast, but after taking some medicine and laying down for a bit, I was ready to go to the lake with the group at 9:15. We didn't swim because there was piranhas and we didn't want to take risks, but it was all really beautiful. When we were done at the lake, we drove to a little village to see how the indigenous women work. We got to help grind some special kind of rice, learned and helped weave part of a scarf, and saw the ladies turn cotton into string. It was so cool! We could also buy beautiful woven scarves or purses and some had purple or yellow orchids painted on since orchids are indigenous to this region of Bolivia. (We had seen lots of orchid plants while we were here but we didn't actually see many of the flowers themselves.) Then we went back to our hotel and packed up all of our stuff to leave. We drove to the other hotel to have lunch where we all traded our pins and business cards. Our lunch was cut short by pouring rain though and we got back on the bus to drive 5 hours back to Santa Cruz. Mille (from Denmark) and I ended up being able to sleep really well because we were leaning on each other but not everyone else had that much luck! We woke up when the bus stopped for a snack break, and of course being exchange students, we bought a huge load of junk food to share around the bus. That's what we've been doing all weekend. We finally got to Santa Cruz at 8 and I was so sad to tell all of the other exchangers from Santa Cruz goodbye! Marlene picked Brock and I up and we went out for some super delicious, best I've ever had, stuffed crust pizza for dinner with her and her sons.

Because I was sleeping in a dark room and I was so tired, I slept in until 10 today (Monday). What a miracle! I only woke up when Marlene came to get me and tell me that she was taking Brock to the airport. I was sad to tell him goodbye too! Then they left and I was alone at the house for about two and a half hours so I got ready for the day and caught up on some stuff. When Marlene got back, we went to a café to have a nice healthy brunch. I had a nice, cold, strawberry smoothie and a teriyaki salad. Then we went to her office so she could get some work done but instead of work, we ended up talking about previous exchange students and the pets she used to have until we needed to leave for the airport for my flight. Marlene waited (and bought rolls from Cinnabon of course!) my flight was called to go through security. Then I waited to board my plane and was surprised when Adrianna showed up. She had been staying with her aunt and uncle and I thought she was staying in Santa Cruz until later in the week. She sat next to me for the flight and we had a nice 30 minute flight (with complimentary peach juice, wow, they're fast) to Sucre. I took a movíl home and gave mamá and Abuelita a HUGE greeting. I hadn't realized how much I had missed them! I went upstairs to unpack until mamá came up to have empanadas filled with meat for supper that Tía A had made earlier today. I told mamá all about my trip and possible upcoming trips and she was so excited to hear all about it!