Days 222-268

Wow! It sure has been awhile but I've been busy lately! I've been going to my Spanish and Quechua classes at the Univeristy along with a few days of service work at the children's hospital each week and occasionally a tae bo class in the evenings. As the end of my exchange is drawing nearer, I've been spending as much time as possible with friends since who knows when I'll see them again after my exchange. ): I spend most of my time with Adrianna, the other US exchange student with Rotary, and Nahema, a girl from Belgium with a different exchange program. I definitely also enjoy hanging out with my Bolivian friends too but it's harder to find times to hang out with them. 

I had the chance to travel to Tarija (my favorite department of Bolivia!) with my Rotaract club for the national Rotaract conference towards the end of April. Rotaract is the 18-30 year old group that is part of Rotary as well. I spend a lot of time with my friends from Rotaract and I love being around them. Bolivians are so friendly and aren't as conservative as all of us from the United States! Anyways, the conference was a blast and I was able to meet over 100 other Rotaract members from all over Bolivia. It was a two and a half day conference and each club presented projects and activities that their club is doing, has done, or will do, participated in a service project, and enjoyed the dances in the evenings. When the conference was over, there was time to spend in Tarija before our 10 hour bus ride home so my Rotaract club with 2 others went to "la represa" (where I went in January too) and I got to try little crabs and fish heads. Definitely something new and interesting for me. 

Things have been pretty quiet since my trip but I'm still enjoying every part of my exchange. I've reached the point where I don't want to leave! My life is here now and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye not only to my friends and host family, but also to my city. I am taking every advantage to enjoy my last month and a half of exchange in Bolivia as much as possible! 

Nahema (the other blonde), me and two of our Bolivian friends, Lenina and Pamela

Me at "la represa" (the dam) in Tarija 

My Rotaract club and I during one of our presentations at the Rotaract conference

Dani (a Rotaract friend), Adrianna and I in Tarija's Plaza

My Rotaract club and part of Tarija's Rotaract club at the Rotaract conference

Adrianna and I at the dam in Tarija

Almost all of the Rotaract members from all over Bolivia that attended the conference!

Two of the little boys, Rolando and Miguel, from my service work

Days 184-221

I had been hoping to update my blog last week but the wifi at my house has been out for awhile. This past month and a half has been a lot of fun and I've been very busy. The whole month of February turned out to still be summer for me so I kept up going to my service work three afternoons of the week, church services on Sunday mornings, Rotary meetings on Friday nights, tai bo classes in the evenings and free time with my friends. 

The last few days of February and first few days of March, I traveled to Oruro (one of the 9 departments of Bolivia) for Carnaval. Carnaval isn't celebrated much in the United States except in a few parts, for example, Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Carnaval is celebrated in all of Bolivia but in each part it's a little different. The first 4 days of March were Carnaval this year but it changes each year depending on the lent season in the Church year. It's always the 3 or 4 days before lent starts. Precarnaval activities began almost with the New Year and they included parties, bands marching through the streets, foam and water balloon/squirt gun wars between kids (and even some younger adults) and some other random activites throughout the city.  When Carnaval actually begins, all the precarnaval activities continue, but even more intensly. Santa Cruz also has paint wars along with foam and water, some cities have parades, Sucre had bands marching down our street throughout entire days, and Oruro has a huge "Entrada" (similar to the one that happened in September but MUCH bigger). Oruro is known as the 3rd best Carnaval in all of South America and it certainly was a blast! For Oruro's Carnaval, there's a special dance called the "Diablada" (The Dance of the Devils) and it has a very long religious and cultural history. Some of the masks that the dancers wore were humongous and some had light up eyes. It was a neat dance to see. 

I traveled with the Teresa (the president of our Roteract club), her cousin and Adrianna (the other Rotary exchange student in Sucre). Oruro is super cold in the morning and evening, but during the day it gets pretty hot and you just want to be in shorts and a tank top! We took an 8 hour bus ride overnight to get there and when we arrived early morning, we hiked all the way up some 900+ stairs to the huge virgin statue in Oruro. After that we headed to one of the markets for some shopping, went to a fair that was set up for Carnaval where we bought cactus fruit (it's DELICIOUS and right now is when it's in season so it's even better!), rested for the afternoon and then met up with two more guys from Roteract for a concert/dance in the Plaza. On Saturday, we went to another fair set up for Carnaval, entered the huge church (also the ending point of the "Entrada" where the dancers would enter the church and dance for a little bit as a way of praying) with 2 museums (one of them in an old mine inside the church), met up with the others from Roteract again and watched the "Entrada" for several hours and then headed to find dinner. While we were at dinner, the big accident that you may have already heard of happened. One of the bridges set up for Carnaval stretching over the "Entrada" had too many people who had stopped to watch the dancing from the bridge and it fell over a band and a stand full of people killing 5 in all, I believe, and over 70 injuries. Before this accident, Oruro had never had any recorded deaths during Carnaval even though other cities in Bolivia had. The dancing was suspended for about 3 hours and the whole atmosphere was just sad. We had been planning to go to a party or to go back and watch more dancing later but instead we just walked around the streets a bit. After the "Entrada" started up again, we went to the site of the accident and were very saddened to see the bridge laying through the street, the smashed stands, the completely empty stands stretching for yards in either direction which would normally be packed with people and the dancers stopping to walk past where the bridge fell instead of dancing in normal festivity. To buy a seat in one of the stands and watch the dancing was a little expensive so we had originally been planning to find free seats on Sunday when half of the people from Saturday weren't there watching but due to the accident, Sunday was like the "big day" that's normally Saturday. So we walked around to different places to watch the dancing, went to one of the fairs again and finally got on our 8 hour bus ride home late Sunday night. The last day of Carnaval (March 4), I was in Sucre with my family and we had a barbecue on our "terraza". Apparently it's a very common custom with many families in Bolivia. There were also bands marching down our street the entire day. Fireworks went off each night I think and then Carnaval and all it's activities finally came to an end and things went back to normal. 

The next week, classes began at the college and I finally was able to start my classes!! I'm in one Spanish class and two Quechua classes (with different teachers). Quechua is the most used native language in Bolivia (out of 36 native languages excluding Spanish) and is also spoken in parts of Peru and Ecuador. Nahema, an exchange student from Belgium with a different organization, is in all of my classes and we've become very close in the past few weeks because of that. She also was at Pestalozzi (my high school) with me last year but we didn't ever talk much there. I'm really enjoying my classes, classmates and teachers at the college and I like the balance and schedule of my classes. It's just enough to keep my busy but to also give me time to relax. Because I'm going to my service work (the children's hospital where I help feed and play with the disabled kids) three afternoons of the week, I only have my college classes during the mornings. Then in the evenings, I keep busy with tai bo, Rotary or friends. 

Our dog, Chachi, ran away in February when the door to the street was left open and my little host brother was heartbroken about it so Abuelita, my family and I bought a new dog the second week of March! He's a mixture of a Pomeranian and a Sharpay, he's only three months old right now and won't grow very much, and my brother named him Hatchi after the movie "Hatchi". (If you haven't seen that movie, I suggest you watch it. It's a great movie!) We all enjoyed having the new puppy around but sadly it got really sick and just today I found out it died. ): Mamá and I cried together for a bit but we haven't told Nico yet. We are trying to find the best way to tell him.

Just recently, I went to Yotala (a little town about a 45 minute drive away from Sucre) with my family and we enjoyed the day at a mini water park. The weather here around Sucre has still been pretty warm. Warm in a way that I can wear shorts and a tank top or I can wear jeans and either way I'll be perfectly fine! However, as the weather is starting to get warmer for spring in the US, the weather will slowly start to get cooler for fall here in Bolivia!

Nico, me, a tennis friend of Nico's and my host mom enjoying a café

The big Virgin statue in Oruro

Two Roteract guys, Teresa (president of Roteract), Adrianna and I in Oruro for Carnaval (all the white stuff is foam)

Adrianna, Claudia (from Roteract), me and Teresa after having a foam attack!

Me after being attacked by little kids with foam

Hatchi, the puppy we had for only a short week and a half before it died ):

The small water park my host family and I went to in Yotala

Days 152-183

These past few weeks have been VERY busy for me. Before leaving for my two week tour of Bolivia, I had the excitement of finding out my sister in the USA got engaged!! I enjoyed going to cafés, the movie theater, and game rooms to play ping pong or air hockey with friends. I went to my little cousin's 2nd birthday party where I tried the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten! I kept up my tai bo classes, and I went to a surprise birthday party for one of the boys in my class. It was a colder, rainy day but everyone ended up in the pool one way or another. Some other girls and I happened to be thrown in by the boys, clothes, shoes and all. Mamá's birthday was the 19th of January so we celebrated that. Nico's was the 20th, and papá's was the 25th. However, I left the morning of the 20th to start my trip.

My tour of Bolivia began in Sucre so us two from Sucre, Adrianna and I, met the 6 exchange students from Santa Cruz that would be going on the trip with us and our trip guide at the hotel we stayed in. Altogether in our group, there was 4 from France, 1 from Denmark, 1 from Canada, and 2 from the US. As much as I wished we could be with ALL the exchange students in Bolivia, our little group was the perfect size and it was nice to be able to bond with people from other countries rather than just those from the US. We got to fly wherever it was possible, take a ferry ride on Lake Titicaca, and we went in a bus where there was no airports. The following is a list of the cities we went to in order that we went on our trip.

   -Sucre: We got to visit "La Casa de la Libertad" (the Liberty House), the dinosaur park, the cemetery, the chocolate shop, and the recoleta (a lookout point of the city). The girl from Denmark also had to go to the hospital for something with her foot (it's very normal to go to the hospital for almost anything here) so I went with and kind of regretted it afterwards. First of all, it was late at night so it was dark and cold and I was in my pajamas and then there had been a bus accident so there was several people crying over their lost loved ones only adding to the depressing atmosphere. To make it even worse, the hospital had one of those creepy, scary movie kind of feels to it. I didn't like it at all. Luckily, we were only there for a little over an hour.

   -Potosí: It's also in the mountains but much higher than Sucre so I got a little sick from the altitude. It's one of the poorest cities in Bolivia so the city seemed to be unfinished or underconstruction and a little dirtier than most other cities. I just liked how it was so different from the other cities. We went to "La Casa de la Moneda", a museum, and we also got to go in a silver mine. We bought coca leaves for the miners because when they work in the mines all day, the leaves help prevent thirst, hunger, and tiredness. We went pretty far down into the mine where we saw "El Tío" which is supposed to represent the devil. Miners go there to take a break and to put coca leaves, alcohol, and cigarettes around the statue. 

   -Uyuni: We didn't do too much in the city of Uyuni itself except go to souvenir shops but the following day, we went to "El Salar de Uyuni" (the Salt Flats) which is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world! All 8 of us exchangers shared a huge room in our salt hotel. Everything was made of salt! From the walls, to the tables and chairs, to the beds, and even the floor. It was crazy! The salt flats were unbelievable. Miles beyond miles of salt. It looked like a huge blizzard had hit but hadn't brought the cold weather with it! (Although when it got late at night it was pretty cold and early the next morning during the sunrise was FREEZING!) We enjoyed some llama meat for our lunch out on the salt flats, we got to see the sunset, we bought souvenirs from shops near our hotel, and then we got up bright and early the next day to see the sunrise. There was also a reflection pool on the salt flats where there was a small layer of water covering the ground. Taking pictures made it look like we were standing on water. I would love to go back there some day! Finally, before leaving Uyuni, we got to go to a llama/sheep/alpaca field to take pictures with the animals. Or at least try to before they ran away!

   -La Paz: We went to "Tiwanaku", a famous site of the Incas that came before Macchu Picchu, and saw "La Puerta del Sol" (The Gate of the Sun) that had been constructed there along with several other artifacts and statues built in ancient times. We also got a chance to go to "La Calle de las Brujas" (The Witches' Market) every night to do some shopping for souvenirs and momentos. It's called the Witches' Market because skeletons of baby llamas, incenses, and other items used in "rituals" are sold throughout the entire street. Then we went on a little "mini trip" to Copacabana and "La Isla del Sol" (Island of the Sun) for a day. We had to take a bus from La Paz to Copacabana and did some shopping there before getting on a little boat/ferry to "La Isla del Sol". We hiked an hour up the island until arriving at our hotel and then decided we wanted to go swim in the lake so we hiked 30 minutes down the other side of the island to the water but the water was way too cold to swim in so we just hung out there for a bit. Soon after, we went back up the island, taking an easier, but longer path than we had coming down, arriving at the hotel 45 minutes later for a late supper of fresh trout from Lake Titicaca. We were supposed to get up to see the sunrise the next day but it was raining like crazy so we ended up sleeping in. After breakfast, we went back down the island to take the ferry back to Copacabana where we ate lunch on a floating island before going back to La Paz. On our final day in La Paz, we went to the mall (which is exactly like the malls you would see in the US) where we ate Subway (so weird ordering it in Spanish!) and went "ice" skating (it looked like ice but it was actually plastic we were skating on). Finally, we went to "La Valle de la Luna" (the Valley of the Moon) which was some cool rock formations and a nice little trail to walk and drove past the house where the President of Bolivia lives. La Paz was absolutely beautiful and because it's located in the mountains (the highest administrative capital in the world), the city lights at night were astounding. 

   -Cochabamba: Our first stop was "El Cristo de la Concordia" (the Concordia Christ). It's a huge statue of Jesus located high up on a hill (similar to the one in Brazil). We preferred to take the cable car up to the top instead of climbing up the 2,000 steps but the boys with us did go back down the steps to the bottom. The only other place we got to see in Cochabamba was "El Palacio Portales" (Portales Palace), which was home to a Bolivian millionaire in the 1930s. It was huge and both the house and the gardens surrounding the house were beautiful. We also spent some of the day with one of the Rotary exchange students from France, living in Cochabamba, who wasn't on the trip with us.

   -Tarija: It was so much more slow paced and laid back then the other cities. It's a little bit smaller than Sucre and there is TONS of vegetation! It might've been my favorite city out of all of them. We went to "La Represa de San Jacinto" (a river dam), were given a tour of some vineyards (and some tastes of their best wines), and spent a day at a river in some cliffs. The water was super cold but we had a blast swimming and jumping from the rocks!

Lots of people ask me what my favorite part of the trip was but that's impossible to decide! I loved the differences, beauty, and uniqueness of each and every place we visited! We flew back to Santa Cruz late the night of the 31st and that's where our tour of Bolivia ended. ): It was hard saying goodbye to everyone and knowing I wouldn't be seeing them too often since I don't live in Santa Cruz. Adrianna and I did stay with the exchange student from Canada and her host family for 5 more days in Santa Cruz though. We spent the days sleeping in, going to movie theaters, visiting the mall (also like the ones in the US, Sucre however doesn't have a mall like that), hanging out in the Plaza or at cafés with other exchange students from Santa Cruz, being lazy at the tennis club (like a country club but with tennis courts instead of golf courses), and enjoying each other's company while we could. I didn't want to say goodbye when the time came but somehow I managed to. 

When I arrived back in Sucre (on the 5th of February), my school had begun classes on the 3rd so I got ready and began school the next day. However, my host family and I decided it would be more beneficial for me to look at some other options so I haven't been to school since that day. I will probably be observing and attending some classes at the college and doing volunteer work instead. Just this Friday, I went with a friend to a children's hospital for mentally disabled kids and we spent the afternoon feeding them and keeping an eye on them while they got to watch a movie. I had a great time and the ladies working there said I am welcome to come back whenever I want. I'm hoping to begin tai bo classes again tomorrow and get my schedule for the next 4 months figured out!

Celebrating my little cousin's 2nd birthday before leaving for my trip

Richard (France), me, Kate (Canada) and Adrianna (Oregon) at the cemetery in Sucre

Richard, Quentin (France), Bastien (France), Kate, me, Alizée (France), Adrianna and Mille (Denmark) at the silver mines in Potosí

Quentin, Alizée, Adrianna, Richard, Bastien, Mille, me and Kate in the reflection pool in the salt flats after the sunrise

The salt flats during the day

The reflection pool in the salt flats right after sunrise

The salt flats during the sunrise

Lake Titicaca

La Isla del Sol and Lake Titicaca

The city of La Paz at night (not the best picture but the best my camera would take)

Richard, Kate, me and Quentin feeding the crazy pigeons in the Plaza of La Paz

The Concordia Christ in Cochabamba

El Palacio Portales in Cochabamba

Me, Kate, Quentin, Richard and Adrianna hanging out in the coooold river in Tarija

Me and Kate at the river in Tarija (she is the student I stayed with in Santa Cruz for 5 days after the trip)

Days 137-151

Happy New Year!!! Wow! That's so hard to believe. And this Saturday marks the halfway point of my exchange! I know it's supposed to be a year long exchange, but in reality, it's more like a 10-11 month exchange so you'll be seeing me sooner than you thought! 

These past two weeks have been pretty quiet and that's the main reason I haven't been updating my blog. I really enjoyed New Year's Eve and chose to spend it with my younger host brother. My host parents left for a party at 1am but before they left, right before midnight, Abuelita, my uncle Miguel, my family and I all went down to the salon where we set out some snacks and drinks. A few minutes before midnight, we went down to the bottom flight of stairs in my house with each of us holding 12 green grapes in our hands. When we heard the fireworks go off exactly at midnight, we began our ascent to the terraza. With each grape you ate, you made a wish for each month of 2014. Once on the terraza, we watched the fireworks go off in the Plaza for awhile before going back down to the salon. In the salon, papá poured us each a glass of pink strawberry champagne and we went around giving hugs, kisses, and New Year's wishes. With the wine, some of us made little toasts to the New Year and we all dumped some of our champagne in different places on the floor to "give back to the earth and bring happiness for the new year" as Abuelita told me. New Year's Day was a holiday so no one had to work. It was a lazy day of movies and sleeping for all of us with the exception of a family lunch with homemade soup that my Abuelita made.

Another day that is commonly celebrated here is the Day of the Coming of the Wisemen. On Sunday, January 5, we didn't go out for our normal Sunday lunch. Instead, my host parents made lunch for us. That was new for me but it was a yummy lunch! (: The following day, we were going to dance and have some more celebrations as a family but Nico was tired from returning to his tennis practices and both of my host parents had worked a long day so we ended up sleeping instead. However, the next morning Nico and I both had our Christmas stockings full of taffy candy that mamá and papá had put there. (They don't fill the stockings on Christmas Eve or Christmas, instead for the day that the Wisemen brought gifts to the baby Jesus.)

I've enjoyed some movie days with my friends and Adrianna, the other exchange student, as well as several nights of trying to get some sleep only to be "annoyed" by my little brother. He sure has fun teasing me! In addition, I had the chance to spend an afternoon with the two French exchange girls from Santa Cruz who were on vacation in Sucre with their host families and I attended a going away/15th birthday party for one of my cousins. She's heading to Brazil for about a year to do some kind of work and to attend a Christian youth gathering. I also got information on my Bolivia tour! 7 other exchange students and I will be going on our tour of Bolivia the 20th of January, so I'm getting ready and looking forward to that. 

Other than that, it's been pretty normal. I've been going to my tai bo classes, helping Nicolasa, spending time with my host family, and walking around the city in my down time. I'm really loving the weather here. I'm used to the annoying summer heat and unbearable winter cold of Nebraska, but here it's etiher warm or chilly. On sunny days it can get a little hot but not too bad. On rainy days it get's a little cold, but that's my favorite kind of weather! I like being able to wear a warm jacket and a scarf every once in a while. (:

Adrianna, Alizée (French exchange student), me, and Nonoo (another French exchange student)

Our New Year's Eve snack table and champagne that my host dad is pouring

My host cousin and her dad dancing for her 15th birthday