Tuesday signaled one full month away from home. Wow!! That's hard to believe. My first class was music but the teacher only came for about 10 minutes so I helped some of my classmates cut out a TON of paper flyer things for a fundraiser. In art, I got my two previous projects back and then I left to walk home since the police were coming for visa stuff. However, I found out we had to go pick the lady up from the police station so while we were waiting mamá bought some beans (similar to lima beans) and something else that you chew until all the sweet liquid stuff is gone and spit out the rest. I didn't really like either of them very much but it was cool to try something new! After the lady from the police station was done filling out forms, I gave Nicolasa her present (she loved it and was SO happy!) and set the table for lunch. We had pollo picante because that's Nicolasa's favorite dish and she got to sit at the table and eat with us. Gym was interesting because all the girls except for me and three more had to run a lot because they weren't doing anything and then we played soccer after the boys finished their game. I learned that NONE of the girls, including me, are good at soccer. Then we had history (Karla had tuned my bookbag inside out! (: she likes to joke around) and I had my first history test. I actually did really good on it too! After class, I walked to the Abis Café to eat ice cream and work on my homework. Afterwards, I walked home and got ready for bed. As I was saying goodnight to everyone, Abuelita came to get me to tell me there was a call for me. I was really confused at first but it was the other exchange student in Rotary Sucre! Her name is Adrianna and she's from Oregon. I made plans to take her to the Abis Café on Thursday.
Wednesday I woke up in a really good mood and I actually WANTED to go to school. We had the superintendent as a teacher in philosophy and all we did was full out a worksheet. In chemistry, Karla showed me how to start one of our problems but I'm still confused about a lot of it! I didn't do much in German and in literature some of my classmates gave a presentation on graphic novels that was super boring so I watched Shadia draw me a picture. (: For lunch we had piqué and afterwards, mamá and I spent the afternoon working on my visa stuff. Later that night, we went to pick up my Tía Angelica (Abuelita's oldest sister) from the airport and once we were back at the house, my Tía Maria (Abuelita's other sister) and Tío were there with my really young 2nd cousin, Angelica, Miguel, and Abuelita. We had tea and ate a bunch of different pastries (including cream puffs!). Later that night I went out to eat with a few of my friends for Itzel's birthday. We went to the pizzeria and I had a lot of fun. Then I walked home to Skype Kara but ended up falling asleep because I was so tired! On my way home, however, I gave some money to a homeless lady with a young child. I felt so good about doing it too.
Biology was terrible on Thursday. I'm not going to go into detail but I don't like that class much. Next we had math and the teacher's nephew was there as a substitute. We took a test that was only 5 questions but took up the entire class period. I didn't do anything in German and in physics, the teacher came with 20 minutes left of class but I figured out why he almost never comes. He teaches another class at the university. I was so tired and almost fell asleep on the way home from school. Then I took a shower and got ready to walk back school but when I went to say goodbye, mamá reminded me we needed to finish my visa stuff. I was so exhausted that not having to go back to school made me so happy! We spent the next 3 or 4 hours doing some EXTREMELY frustrating visa stuff but it's finally done!!! All we have left to do is pick up my passport and papers next Thursday. At 7, I walked down the the Abis Café to meet Adrianna. I loved talking to her and she's super sweet! She doesn't know much Spanish right now but she likes to cook and play volleyball (like me!), is from a small town, and will be in the same Rotary club as me! (: Once I returned home, Nico and I talked to Tía Angelica until it got late and we needed to go to bed.
On Friday, we headed to school because yesterday they had told us that morning classes were normal, but once we got there we found out there wasn't school! Oh, I was so so so happy! We didn't have school because of all the dancing to celebrate La Virgen de Guadalupe. Then I worked on my presentation about myself for Rotary for next Friday until Nico and I walked down to El Patio to eat salteñas with Tía Angelica and mamá. After we had finished eating, we walked into a part of the mercado that I hadn't seen before. It was absolutely crazy! There was raw meat sitting out to buy EVERYWHERE (it was cool to see but the smell of all the raw meat kind of made me want to puke) and we bought some pork and there was an area where you could sit down and buy some fresh fruit juice that I hope I get to go to sometime. While mamá and Nico were buying the meat, Tía and I went to buy some super tiny bananas that tasted amazing and some choclo (cooked corn stuff). Then we stopped at a cosmetics store so mamá could buy some stuff and Grethel (my classmate) was there with a puppy the size of my shoe! So while I was waiting for mamá, I got to play with the puppy. :D After taking a taxi home, I Skyped Kara until it was time for lunch. We had pollo picante again this week and we always have chuño (the grayish potato-like food) with it, which isn't my favorite because it doesn't have much taste. In the afternoon, I walked down to La Plaza with Tía Angelica and while we were waiting for Tía Maria to get there, Tía Angelica bought some rice cereal type stuff for us to eat. Then we sat down to watch all the different dances. They were so cool and there was even groups for children 4 or younger and for mentally disabled people! It was great! Later, Oscar (classmate) saw me and invited me to go to La Plaza with him where we met some other classmates. We hung out for awhile but Oscar and I left around 7:30 to walk back to the salon and get permission for me to hang out later instead of going to a Rotary meeting (but there wasn't a meeting anyways because of the dances). We walked back down to the hotel his parents own and where a few of my classmates' moms were making sandwiches for us to sell tomorrow. On the way, it started POURING rain (those poor dancers!) so at the hotel, we had tea and sandwiches along with Indira (classmate) and her sister. When the rain had stopped, we went out onto the terraza of the hotel to look down and watch all the dancers. It was so pretty! Around 10, when the dances were pretty much over for the night, Oscar and his dad walked me home since there's a lot of drunk people during these festivals. They're such gentleman too!!
At 10am on Saturday, I walked down to the hostel to sell chicken sandwiches and coca-cola with my class and we walked around selling them until 4:30. I saw 3 of my classmates dance in the Saya Afroboliviana Variado group (because the dances had started at 8:30 that morning). When we had finished selling stuff to raise money for their senior class trip, I went and sat by my Tías, cousin Angelica, and cousin Angelica's parents. We watched the dances until a little past midnight (mamá and Nico joined us later) and there was still 14 dances left that we could've stayed for! I got to see 4 more of my classmates dance the Caporales. Each dance takes between 10-25ish minutes to pass where you're seated and each group starts on the main street and ends at the plaza. It takes about 6-7 hours for the group to get from the main street to the Plaza. There's 6 different kinds of dances and there's people who are in charge of the small groups within the big groups who have whistles that they use to signal stuff.
1) Variado: A variety of different dances depending on the group so the costumes are something different for each group. For example, there was a group called Mineritos Ocurí and they were dressed to represent when the Bolivian people had relied on mining. Also, the group that Pruedencia and some of my classmates are in is Variado.
2) Morenada: I think that each different Morenada group represents an animal or creature because they all had a different animal or creature on their costumes. The boys and men all wear these huge, crazy costumes. The younger women wear really flashy dress type costumes that have short skirts, their hair in two braids with ribbon tied in, a hat, and high heeled boots that go up to right above their knees. The older women wear short lace up boots, a longer and kind of poofy skirt, a shawl, and a hat. - This is the dance I really want to learn!
3) Tobas: This group represents the tribes that were originally in Bolivia. The guys wear animal skins and usually don't have a shirt, or masks and crazy costumes, with a bunch of Indian type accessories. The girls wear a feather headband, flat shoes, hardly anything as a skirt, their stomachs showing, and also a ton of Indian type accessories.
4) Chaqueño: For this dance, the girls and guys are partnered up. The boys wear boots, slightly poofy pants, a long sleeved shirt, and a hat. They look similar to the typical image of a cowboy. The girls wear long dresses that they can hold and use all the extra fabric in the skirt to dance with.
5) Tinku: I feel like this dance is also more of the cultural history of Bolivia. The guys wear pants and shirts of the same bright color with lots of colorful designs, a pouch thing around their waist, sandals, and a helmet type hat. The girls have a long, bright cloth dress with a head covering similar to what a nun might wear, and sandals. Both the men and women wear tons of brightly colored scarves all over their body. There's also purple dressed up as bears or as elders with some crazy masks.
6) Caporales: The guys part in this dance is my absolute favorite because it seems the most upbeat and all around crazy. The guys even get people watching to dance with them in the two beat pattern. The girls wear costumes similar to the girls in the Morenada, except without the animal design, hats, their hair in two braids with ribbons tied in, and high heels that match the color of their costume. The guys wear really fancy, shiny costumes with long sleeved shirts, a cumberbun, long pants that poof out at the hips, a hat, and tall boots with tons of bells attached.
Sunday, I woke up to go to church with my Abuelos (papá's parents) but because there was still dances until the afternoon, we didn't go. Nicolasa was at our house on a Sunday and I didn't understand why until I found out we were having lunch with a lot of relatives to celebrate my host parents' anniversary that's Monday (16th). I went to get ice cream with Nico, mamá, and papá and then to the supermarket and to pick up a toffee cake with mamá and when we got home I helped get ready for lunch. We had pork (the meat we had bought from the mercado the other day), noodles and vegetables similar to lo mein, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and bread. Then for dessert we had the toffee cake but I didn't like it as much as the last time I had it. Then I went to work on my presentation until Nico came to get me to go to the movie Aviones (Planes) with him. It was good but I still think the original Cars movie is the best. Afterwards we got ice cream and filled up the car with gas before going home to sleep.
Today (Monday), was something new for me. I had all my classes as normal this morning (all boring and long) and ate lunch with my family. Nothing too extremely exciting happened. But then I walked to my first Spanish class at 2:30! Adrianna is taking classes at the same place as me but she's with a group. I'm taking individual lessons so it's just me and my teacher, Mary. It was a 4 hour class (with a 15 minute break in which I talked to Adrianna and had hot chocolate) but I really enjoyed it! My teacher teaches me in Spanish which helps me improve a lot and even though I think she knows a little bit of English, she isn't fluent. For part of it we watched the first half of the movie, Innocent Voices, which was about a war in El Salvador. It was really sad but really good too! And it helped me with comprehending Spanish. We're going to watch more of it during my next class on Wednesday. I also got to read a really strange story about a groom at his wedding being taken away to a cemetery with a skull by some mysterious force. Huh. I think I'm gonna enjoy these three weeks of Spanish classes!
Cinthia with Pruedencia giving her bunny ears.
My Copa Frutilla from the Abis Café.
Me with one of the Caporales dancers
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