A Year In Bolivia: 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!