Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve my parents held a dinner party at our house. I got ready and went downstairs to hepl my dad in the kitchen. He told me what I could do to help was get ready. Sadly, I thought I was dressed up enough, but Bolivian dressing up is nothing like American dressing up. So I went to my bathroom to put more makeup on and my nicest dress. Even with all that the people who came to our party looked really amazing. My cousins arrived and I got to sit at the big kid table! Unlike my family at home most of my cousins are around my age. I felt really at home and perfectly content. We sat outside and drank fancy drinks and listened to the neighbors light off fireworks for hours. Hours I tell you! Well, at midnight everyone got up, my host cousin from Belgium, Charlotte and I looked at each other with a look like "whats going on?" Our cousins told us that we all have to tell everyone Merry Christmas. So we hugged and kissed everyone at the party and then we ate a lot of turkey and rice and veggies. Also someone made Onion Rings which everyone loved and I told them the about me and my dad and my brother going to the Harbor Bar in the summer in Waupaca and getting Onion Rings and how I love them so much. So after stuffing ourselves with a lot of meat, and saying bye to everyone, my cousin Carolina and I went out to go to a Discoteca. We danced so much and drank a lot of Red Bull so we had a lot of energy. I had a really great time with her and her boyfriend. I met some really cool people, because the club we went to wasn't like other clubs, it was more underground and indie. I thought it was so cool to go out to a club on Christmas Eve! So different.  So, I got home pretty late, but there were still people awake. Christmas Day was pretty lazy. We went to our families pool house in the country to meet Charlottes family who is visiting from Belgium. Again we ate a lot of meat including a dish of sea food with Octopus and shrimp cooled over a fire. At night I Skyped with my family in Wisconsin while they were all together having our annual Christmas Party at my aunts house in the country. Even the two oldest cousins Jack and Carrie were there even though they both live far away. I was the only one missing. It was very nice to see everyone and talk to them and tell them about my amazing time in Bolivia. I especially enjoyed seeing how happy my Grandmother was to see me. I don't think she quite understood what Skype is, but she was happy she got to say Merry Christmas to me and I was very glad to see her on this special day.
It was a wonderful holiday away from home, but in a new home with a wonderful family.










Monday, December 26, 2011

Spanish is Beautiful

Tonight I went to a fancy dinner at my aunts house. My moms sister who I hadn't met before had a really gorgeous house with incredible chandeliers and tall ceilings, it was truly amazing. The houses in Santa Cruz always surprise me because they don;t look like much from the outside, usually just a blank wall with a door and garage door, but inside they are beautiful. The dinner was quite fancy, we sat and chatted, then served ourselves from a large table packed with all sorts of dishes. The maid came round every once and a while with fresh glasses and snacks for the table. I soon found out that the reason for the dinner was to celebrate the engagement of my aunts daughter to a man from New Zealand. he gave a wonderful toast in Spanish that was just so beautiful. I was supposed to translate it for his parents who were visiting who didn't speak a word of Spanish but even though I could understand completely what he was saying it was hard to translate because the Spanish language makes everything sound so romantic and beautiful and English just doesn't have the same meaning. But I could translate the jist of it and they were very thankful for me translating most of the night, and I had a lot of fun talking to them in English and helping them understand what people were talking about. They were very nice people and their son Jean who was getting married to my very beautiful cousin was charming and pleasant. I had a really great time and learned a lot about myself through talking with the couple from New Zealand about my life and going to college and what I want to do with my life and whatnot. I've had this strange thing happening to me lately where when I meet certain people, its like I have already known them. People I have never seen before look so familiar, like they are someone I have known my whole life. I don't know if this is another one of those crazy exchange things or just my brain making me crazy, but it provides a certain amount of comfort, so I'll just let it play out. So, New Years is coming and I might have plans to go to a small city a few hours out of Santa Cruz with my older brother Diego. We'll see. 





This is a picture of the inside of a really old church from when I went on the Rotary trip to Concepcion. 

Friday, December 23, 2011

Feliz Navidad

I went to a Christmas dinner for my fathers office. I was told to dress fancy. We got there and there were 4 large round tables with blue silk table clothes set up outside. The plastic chairs had white covers with matching blue ribbons on them. As we walked in, two men carried a platter with a whole roast pig complete with an apple in it's mouth. A lot of my fathers family was there because many of them work together, so it was more or less a family gathering with some of the office hands and their families. I told my cousin that I had been a vegetarian for more than a year before coming here and even though I do eat meat, it would be hard to eat a pig when it looks like that. But in the end I did eat the pig, regardless of the fact that it practically had eyes that could see me eating  its insides. We ate pig, drank sangria and listened to people singing Karyoke love songs until midnight. We danced until we were sore, then we went home, had some hot chocolate and slept like babies.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Set

This post is for all my friends and classmates and other people my age who live in Wisconsin. This is for you to be jealous, no offense. Unless you have been to South America you have not been to a real club.
I went to a club called Set. It's super fancy. I'm told that Set is very popular in Santa Cruz. Ever since I. got here everyone has been telling me I need to go to Set. I was invited by a girl who goes to my school, or used to, she graduated this year. I in turn invited two girls who are exchange students in Santa Cruz, both named Emily. The Emily from New York came with me. We tried to dress Bolivian fancy, we really did, but we ended up dressing American fancy, which is not as fancy. We are pardoned because we are exchange students. We got there and got in free after telling the scary looking guard guy the password to our table. After that we sat around couches outside while a girl collected money to pay for a table inside. We hung out met people, saw other exchange students from Belgium  and France, I introduced Emily to all the girls from my school. When we were ready to go in, we stood in line, paid, got our Smirnoff wristbands and entered the ominous, pulsing cave that was Set. The music hit us before we got through the door, the lights hit us just after we stepped inside. All the lights, the sounds, the smells were too much to handle, we stood there in shock for 2.5 seconds before being grabbed and whisked into the throbbing crowd of dancers. We walked past the private tables where women with too short skirts danced on tables and guys with striped button downs watched them with eyes like hawks on prey. We were escorted to a private table and we sat down, waiting for someone to tell us what to do next. Eventually the other exchange students came in so we went to dance with them. We danced, we laughed, we met new people, we drank fancy virgin cocktails, we generally had an incredible time. On our way back from the bathroom we were encountered by a group of people who yelled "HEY EMILY AND HAILEY!!" We felt bad because we didn't recognize these people, but apparently they knew us so we went with them back to their table and dance on the couches and tables. Then, all the lights stopped flashing and the music was reduced to a slow bass pounding and everyone stopped dancing and looked towards the stage, I asked the boy next to me what was going on and all he said was "This is Set" then the music started getting faster, the lights slowly began flickering again, the music got louder and louder until it stopped the lights stopped and everyone in the club yelled "THIS IS SET! YAAA!!" And the smoke machines burst and the lights went crazy and the techno music was louder than ever and everyone was dancing like crazy. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
The whole club is Purple, Pink and Blue themed. All the lights are purple and pink and the walls, floors, ceiling and furniture is all black and white.
After a while we had to go it was getting late. We said goodbye to our new old friends, our exchange friends, and all the girls from my school. We went outside, onto the patio ares, past the scary huge security guard with the velvet rope, onto the sidewalk and into a taxi which took us to our homes where we slept like babies.















So that's my Bolivian discoteca club story.

Bolivia vs. Santa Cruz

From the second I arrived I've been hearing people say how Santa Cruz is not like the rest of Bolivia. They say we have a different way of speaking, similar to say a southern accent or the way a New Yorker will pronouce things different. The people here are not Bolivian but they are people of Santa Cruz. It has been said they wish to break away from the rest of Bolivia and be their own country, although no one acts on this and its merely a thought in everyone's head. Santa Cruz de La sierra was the largest city in Bolivia, befor a 2001 census which placed La Paz as the biggest, by just a couple hundred thousand. It is located on the River Pirai in Eastern Bolivia. It is located in the department of Santa Cruz which includes most of eastern Bolivia, 70% of the departments occupants live in the city of Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with over 2 million residents today.
The climate of Santa Cruz is tropical Savannah climate, with an average temperature of 23 degrees Celcius (or 73 F). Whereas in other parts of Bolivia there is snow in the winter months and more rain. The weather is generally warm all year round, although cold wind fronts called "surazos" can blow in from Argentina, usually in the winter months. The months of greatest rainfall are January-February. In other parts of Bolivia there is snow in the winter months and more rain, and the temperature fluctuates.
The first settlers of Santa Cruz were mainly Spainards, as well as the Guarani tribe from Paraguay, and some Flemings, Portuguese, Germans and Italians. 10% of the Polutaion is White European decent (this would be the upper class in most cases) 60% is Mestizo with both Native and European decent, and 30% Natives. This is also true for most of Bolivia but many other of the large cities have a larger percentage of Natives including Quechua and Aymara, especially in the Administrative Capitol city La Paz.
Santa Cruz de La Sierra is unlike any city in the world. It has the most incredible mix of people. Everything about Santa Cruz feels like home to me, from the dirt roads where the people with horse drawn buggies haul their produce to the rich people living in condominiums driving their suvs to dinner Friday nights and all the people who are so nice and friendly, the best people I could ask for.
If you have learned anything about Bolivia from my blog, please know that Santa Cruz is not like the rest of Bolivia.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Blissful Moment.

Today I was awakened with a knock on my door and my father informing me we will be going to the Quinta today with the family. The Quinta is a pool and BBQ place that our family owns in the country. It's kind of a custom here for people to have places to go to in the country for family on the weekends. It's like when people in central or southern Wisconsin have cabins in the north, except the quinta is only about 45 minutes from our house or 15 minutes out of the city. So, when my dad woke me up, I got my swimsuit on and sunscreen all packed right away and went down stairs. about and hour and a half later everyone lazily came downstairs and began to get ready. Silly me for not taking into account the fact that when people say "now" they actually mean "in maybe and hour or two". This is what we call Bolivian Time. When someone says 7 o'clock American time, they mean 7, however 7 o'clock actually means sometime around 9 or 10. So, we got out coolers, filled them with ice, waited for my aunt and uncle to arrive, then we were off to get the beer! we stopped at a large market about 10 minutes from our house, gave them empty beer bottles for re-use, then got a crate of beer. Then we went to a little supermarket (oxymoron I know) for some meat and coke zero. By this time we had too many people to fit in the five spaces available in the truck, so my brothers and I sat in the back. We made our way out of the city and into the dirt roads of El Campo (the country). Past the richy rich condominiums, past the soon to be richy rich condominiums. Past men on horses, stray dogs finding a tiny bit of shade in the middle of the road and the many four wheelers trudging through the dirt and mud. We made it to the Quinta, me already showing signs of severe sunburn on my shoulders and thighs. We brought our food to the BBQ and rested in the shade of the thatched roof. We drank our cokes and beers. When people came I saw Charlotte from Belgium who had just gotten back from her 4 day trip to Buenas Aires. We shared stories and pictures, then we swam. We swam, we swam and then......we swam some more. We were so grateful for the pool on this scolding hot day. I had begun to notice my red skin burning and went to ask my mom for sunblock. Three women lathered me down in sunscreen, I was ready for more swimming. Unfortunatly I had already burned severely from sitting crosslegged in the back of the truck and i already had a shorts tan forming. I didn't care we were having fun. We mingled with family members, some I had not met before. Charlotte and I had never seen so many people here before, usually just two or three families, but this was more like 7 or 8. My brother told me it was because on of our cousins had returned from Spain after 5 years and wanted to see the whole family again. When the beer ran out, hard to believe because everyone brought so much, Charlotte and I went with my brother German to get some more. We rode in the back with our sunburned cheeks and RayBand sunglasses, reveling at the beauty and sorrow of the country. We gawked at the poverty and giggled at the stray puppies. We went back and swam some more and ate some more meat, THERE WAS SOO MUCH MEAT!! When a few families had left and it was time for us to leave, we said goodbye to the one remaining family and took off, seven of us in the back of the truck, we gained a few in the process. This was my blissful moment, on our way back to the city, crossing the large bridge over the almost non-existent river, in the fading light, the blue sky turning purple, 7 of us in the back of a truck drinking beers, in my case a coke zero. I felt like I could do anything, I can travel the world, I can make a million new friends just my being my regular old self, everything just felt perfect and in place. Especially me, I was in the right place, I was where I'm supposed to be. And even though my sun burn hurts so bad I can barely sleep and I'm tired beyond belief, it doesn't matter because I learned a lesson today.

Again I am sorry I don't have pictures, I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the Quinta. Next time.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Children Without Parents

We call them orphans. They don't have parents, but they do have a home. At least the ones I visited had a home. However dirty, crowded and unsanitary, they do what they can. All the kids have chores to help around with the cleaning, which they have a little chart to switch off duties. Everyone knew where to be and what to do at what time, it was well organized. My New Yorker friend Sarah and I each brought 3 or 4 kilos of meat, pork and beef, toys, U.S.A t-shirts, and candy for the kids for the Saint Nicolas celebration. the kids absolutely loved us, and from the second we arrived they were yelling "HERMANA! HERMANA!" from the second story balcony and hugging us and telling us stuff and asking if we were from Germany. When we told them we were from America they were overjoyed and filled with questions about our lives. "Is your life like American Pie?" "Do you go to a lot of parties?" "Do you know famous people?". I thoroughly enjoy these types of questions. Believe it or not some of my classmates who are 16 or 17 years old were asking me these same questions 2 months ago. So we told them the truth about our states and that our lives are not like American Pie. We had tons of fun giving the kids toys and candy and they were so very grateful. Watching them do flips and summersaults and walking on their hands was very interesting. I was told that some of these kids were taken off the street and put into this home, and before being in this home they were doing tricks in the street for small change. It was sad to see these children without parents, but they're spirit was so bright and they were so happy and grateful.
       It was such a wonderful experience and I am very glad I went, I may want to go again soon and just hang out with the kids, I know that makes them very happy.
       Sorry I don't have any pictures I didn't bring my camera :(

Monday, December 5, 2011

Waffle Haus

       So today we had a meeting with our Rotary Youth Exchange Counselor. We were all going to his office for a discussion on the rules of the exchange. We were a little confused seeing as we are already 3 (or 4 in some cases) months into our exchange, it was strange they were only now telling us the rules. We didn't question it. Before the meeting six out of eight of us went to a place called Crepes and Waffles for somebreakfast after all meeting up at my house. We walked form my house a few blocks, caught a bus, got off at the back where we split into two groups, people who needed to get money from the bank and the people didn't need money. Then we all met up at Crepes and Waffles. We were the only customers for this small breakfast joint. Three of us ordered Waffles, and three of ordered, you guessed it...CREPES!! We sat around while the one person working made all our orders. Then we all ate delicious Waffles and Crepes topped with nutella, strawberries, applesauce, whipped cream, chocolate chips and more. We stuffed our little tummies with the most delicious crepes and filled our appetites with scrumcious waffles. Downing it with strawberry milk shakes or just milk. We were thoroughly satisfied when we left to get to our meeting.\
       At the meeting we talked about everything from rules about boyfriends (we're all girls) to caution when taking taxi's at night. After that I went home, walked two blacks home, and ate a delicious lunch with my family of chicken, potatoes and rice. Then I took a little cieasta time to relax and download some music. Then Kirsten from Canada came over and we went to the market, me looking to buy hairspray and her looking for a swimsuit as she's leaving for Brazil with her family tomorrow. We took the bus, paid only 1 Boliviano (around 20 cents). Arriving at the market we observed it was awfully quiet and many shops were closed. We found this to be suspicious as it was only 2:30. We assumed it was because many people owning these small shops were indigenous people and we had seen a protest for indigenous people earlier on our way back form breakfast. Although most of the shops on the outside were closed, most of the more popular shops that sell fancy dresses, toys, watches, cell phones, personal hygene products, were open. Hairspray was rather expensive everywhere we looked, I figure I'll just go to the supermarket. Kirsten purchased a nice bathing suit from a young lady with an adorable baby, and i got some delicious juice mix. The Market is one of the dirtiest places I have seen in Santa Cruz. Cockroaches skuttle before your feet, people beg for spare change with faces sad and covered in dirt, children play near unsanitized floor where hundreds of people walk everyday, little streams of who knows what trickle through alleys in the very heart of the enormous market, filling the air with the stench of a thousand discusting things. After walking through the markets winding maze-like alleys and around hunks of meat hanging, waiting to be chopped, I feel the need to bathe in a tub of hand sanitizer. Yes, this market is the low of the low, but they do have many incredible things at incredible prices, and you can't beat that.
       Tomorrow I will visit orphans at a home and deliver gifts, candy, toys, clothes and most importantly companionship to children without parents. More on that later.