A Year In Bolivia: Days 125-136

This past week has definitely been an interesting and exciting week. I got to celebrate both my birthday and the Christmas holidays with Bolivian customs and traditions. I've also been continuing helping my mom during the day, going to tae bo classes, and hanging out with my cousins. (Luciana's family is here now too so I've been spending time with her younger brother, sister, and Nico as well.) My friend, Shadia, and I made cupcakes the day before my birthday for all my friends to try but sadly they didn't turn out as good as last time. I also had a chance to make the "chocolate chip cookies" again for Christmas!

For my birthday, I had lunch with my family, Abuelita, Luciana, and her family. After we ate my picked meal (mashed potatoes were included of course!), mamá brought in a cake that she had bought. They all stand up and sing to you and then you make three wishes and blow out the candle. Then they sing their "We want you to take a bite of the cake" version of "Happy Birthday" where you have to put your face in the cake and take a bite. That was different and fun too. (: They all give you gifts but you don't sit there and open them like we do in the USA. You just say thank you and you can choose to open them later whenever you want. Later in the afternoon, all my friends from school came over to watch movies and eat supper. After we ate, they all sang, I blew out the candle and made my three wishes, and then I had to bite the cake but this time one of my friends pushed my head down a little so I got a nice big face full of cake and frosting! Once again, the presents were just given, you say thank you, and you open them later when you choose to open them. I had a blast spending the day with all my family and friends and it was fun to celebrate Bolivian style! (:

Christmas Eve and Christmas were equally as fun. Picking out some of the presents I was going to give was a little difficult but I always love wrapping and giving gifts. I didn't have the chance to go to church here for either day like I normally do with my family in the USA but I had LOTS of family time. On Christmas Eve, family started arriving around 8:30pm and we turned on music to dance to and passed around snacks and drinks. Once everyone had arrived, my host Grandpa dressed up as Santa (with sunglasses so the little kids wouldn't know it was him) and took the huge bag filled with all the gifts to wait in the street. We opened the balcony in Nico's bedroom and "Santa" started to ring the little hand bell he was holding so when all the little kids heard it, they ran to the balcony and got all excited. "Santa" then came upstairs and sat on a chair near the tree. All the relatives had a chance to take a picture with him and then we began handing out gifts. "Santa" with the help of papá, would pull out some gifts from the big bag and whoever the gift was for would have to dance the Chuntunkis in order to receive their present. Chuntunkis is a very simple dance which is kind of like skipping to the beat and when you're done, you can choose to do a somersault if you want. I was happy that I never had to dance alone in front of all 30ish of us, I always had a cousin or relative dancing with me! After the presents from the bag were all handed out, my host dad's side of the family all left and the rest of us went up to Abuelita's house. We opened some more gifts from underneath her tree and then danced more Chuntunkis while playing little clapper instruments. At exactly midnight (one of the few things that's actually punctually on time here), I heard fireworks go off in the Plaza and we all went to stand around a little Jesus manger set up to say a short prayer. Then we went around giving hugs, kisses on the cheek, and holiday wishes. It felt a little more like New Year's to me since it was right at midnight. Then we all sat down to have supper. We had picana with corn on the cob which is a traditional Christmas dish, here in Sucre at least. I'm not sure about the rest of Bolivia. Picana is a soup type dish with veggies, chicken that's still on the bone, pork, spicy sauce stuff, and other ingredients. The corn on the cob is also very different. The kernels are a lot bigger and aren't as sweet as the Nebraska sweet corn I love and miss so much! After supper, around 1:30am, we were finally able to head to bed. I was exhausted!

On Christmas Day, mamá woke me up for breakfast and we had hojarascas (two fried cookies filled with a caramel/dulce de leche filling), the cookies I had made, buñelos (a sweet pastry in the shape of a ring that you usually put syrup or powdered sugar on), and some little cakes with either coffee or tea. After breakfast, I headed down and helped get ready for lunch. Lunch was set for noon but since this is Bolivia, all the family showed up after noon and we ate around 1:30. We ate oven roasted chicken and pork, white rice, bread, homemade applesauce and pineapple sauce, boiled potatoes, corn on the cob, and some other sides as well. After lunch, I had the chance to skype with my family in the USA and the rest of the day I spent watching movies with Luciana and her family.

It had been raining EVERY DAY for about the past two weeks but ironically, we were blessed with sunny warm weather on my birthday, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. I enjoyed the holidays SO much even though it was a little sad to be away from 1) my aunt's AMAZING Christmas cookies and 2) my awesome family from the US! However, I've learned new customs and had new experiences that I know I won't ever forget!