Thursday, November 29, 2012

It's beyond words, what I feel. How I miss them. All of them, with all of my heart. It hurts every day. Every moment of every day.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

teenage things

Jobs, friends, shopping, coffee.  Living a normal teenage life in Wisconsin is what I've been missing. I do normal things, I think normal thoughts like what shoes go with this shirt. It's really the simple things that are making my readjustment so smooth. I keep waiting for this big HOLY MOLY moment when it all hits me and I realize all these hidden feelings, but to be honest, I don't know if its coming. I am not going to overthink it. I'm happy and I'm going with it.

Once in a while there are little moments of frustration, but my entire life in Bolivia was frustrating things on top of frustrating thing and one thing my exchange has taught me is how to overcome those types of things.

Monday, July 9, 2012

I missed the ice cream

Been back almost a month now. I'm keeping busy so as not to miss my host country. More than Santa Cruz, I miss my girls. I miss my frenchies and my Canadian and the girls form the states. I was back in Waupaca for the fourth and it was great to see lots of people out and about and say hi t people I hadn't yet seen. It was so very hot which made me a bit cranky, but everyone was cranky anyway. I have a job now so I will start saving up for college, getting my liscence, ect.

Life back in Pac is good, the lakes are refreshing and the ice cream is cheap!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Al Final

Being in Miami is great! I am relearning things like using dollars and getting used to the safer drivers. It's unlike anythng else, being in the U.S after getting used to a whole different country. I amd actually very exited to be back here, but I guess I won't really know until I am back in Waupaca.

I'm just going to say a little thing to the special girls I left behind in Santa Cruz.

Claro que si llore, fue horrible, pero el segundo vez fue mas facil, gracias a Dios. Cuando camine a traves de la puerta, mi corazon se rompo un poquito. Nunca voy a olvidarte! Tengo un sueno cuando tenemos 60 años, y estoy muy rico y voy a enviar una carta a todas las chicas con un boleta para volver a Santa Cruz!! En serio yo se con todo mi alma que eso no fue "adios" solo "hasta pronto". Siempre en mi corazonsito, los Quiero!! <3

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Trapped in Bolivia

I went to the airport the morning if June 10th with all the exchange students minus the 3 who had left. I checked in, we went upstairs, the girls threw tons of glitter on me, my parents gave me gifts. We cried as we said our final goodbyes. I walked away from the 15 people who have made this year so incredibly wondeful and who have helped me grow and change in so many ways. I went threw security crying and shedding glitter everywhere. I waited in line for about an hour, then showed the people my passport, papers and boarding pass. They showed me to a counter off to the side of the line where a man asked me for my parental consent papers, I gave them the one my real parents had signed last year, they barely glanced at it and just said "No". They asked me who was giving me persmission, I told them all of my parents. They said if I didn't have proof of that, I couldn't leave because I am under 18. I told them I dont know what kind of papers they want, they told me to call my dad to have him come back to the airport. After calling Kirsten to tell my dad to come back, they told me the doors were already closed and I coulnd't get on. I waited in a scary secluded staircase until someone came to take me to the main area of the airport. My host father, Kirsten, Charlotte, Matilde, Diego and Lou all came back and met me and helpedme with my bags, My father talked with the people to figure out why I couldn't leave. We went home. I called my real parents then slept all day. So now, after meeting with Rotary, Lawyers, Government officials, and signing things, we are almost all set for me to fly out Thursday.

It turns out this law was only made last month!! And no one knew!!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Nadie Puede Entender

Tengo miedo para volver. Voy a extranar las chicas aca, mi familia aca. Nadie puede entener como siento!! A veces estoy muy frustrado. Este...No solo voy a extranar, voy a tener un dolor mas fuerte del mundo en mi corazon! Mi corazon va a romper 2 mil veces para mi vida aca.

Lloro a Cualquier Momento

It has been a rough few days, Emily having gone already and I am the next. Everything I do I think it may be the last time I do it here. Its tough. I have a few tears at any moment when I think of being in the states without my girls, my wondeful host dad, and this gorgous city busstling with people.

Friday, June 1, 2012

A Beautiful Tragedy

Today was dooms day, the day the first of us leaves. Emily, the most vibrant, anigmatic, and outrageous of our group. She kinda held us together at times, she inspired us all. We went to her house in the evening. We stayed up all night. We laughed and cried. All the girls decided to give Emily a gift, we put little notes from each of us into a giant bag of magenta glitter, because all year we have been having fun with glitter every time we go out. She has inspired us to love glitter. Little did we know that she would throw all of the glitter on everyone. It turned into a glitter fight. Some people slept, some stayed up crying or talking. It was raining at 6:30 a.m. when we piled 14 people into two cars. On our way, a song came on, a song that Emily sings quite often, it was a very sad moment, but we had no idea what was to come. We waited around for the crying, sad looking Emily to check her bags and get her ticket.

We walked upstairs to where she would go through security. It all hit us then, this was it, we cant follow her into the next room, this is where we leave her. Slowly and quite painfully, we hugged her one by one, each one crying more than the last. I was near the end, I had held of crying until we hugged, and I lost it. I cried so much, everyone did. Once she had cried more than any of us thought possible, she walked into the next room, we all waved, and she was gone.

I mentioned to my friend Lou from France how beautiful we were, 12 crying girls, covered in glitter, saying goodbye to their best friend. I remember Emily once told me how she thinks sad things are so beautiful. And I was overwhelmed by how amazing I felt, despite the sadness. It truly a beautiful tragedy.

I would like to also write this in Spanish because it means a lot to me:

12 chicas alli estaban. Llorando, reindo, lleno de brillos, y todas con tanto tristeza. Estaban tan triste para la despedida de su amiga, uno de sus mejores amigas, su hermana. Una vez, Emily me dijo que ella le gusta cosas triste por que son hermosa. Cuando estabamos caminando, pense como hermosa es este tragadia. Esta cosa es muy cerca a mi corazon. El dolor es duro, pero la amistad es increible. Nunca voy a olvidar a ella o las otro chicas aca, o la experiencia que tenia aca.






Saturday, May 26, 2012

Te Quiero Todas

The past few weeks have been great, but with an undertone of sadness as we are all thinking about going home.When the girls get together, we say a lot of things like "mi amor, mi vida, te quiero" (my love, my life, I love you). I have become very close with all the girls in Rotary in this city, we know each other so well, and we know we will miss each other, but we also know that this is NOT the last time we will be seeing each other.

I know sometimes I may tell people "you wont understand the exchange student connection until you are an exchange student", and that is because the connection we have is so strong because of the situation we are in, we lean on each other to help us through. We may joke around and make fun of each other and do silly things, but our relationships are really very deep. The other day my friend Emily from Cobleskill, New York made an interesting statement, she said

"We are more than friends, more than sisters, there is no word to describe how close we are......we are exchange students, and that bond you can never break".

It was such a true statement that after she said it we all sat in awe for a few minutes just thinking of how true it is.

Emily is leaving next Friday, June 1st, she is the first of our close group to leave, and I think it will be then it will all finally sink in that this year is almost over. Even though some girls aren't leaving until late july or august, I don't think it will be the same without ALL of us.

I guess we will just have to see how it goes.
Sometimes you just have to cry. No reason, just cry.

Frustrated, overwhelmed, never angry or sad.

There is just a lot of things going on and its hard to stay cool about it.

On a normal day there could be up to 100 different emotions, seriously.

Everyday there are many good things to be happy about, but also some that are difficult to handle.

But we handle them, that's what we do, exchange student handle situations with ease.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Monkeys and Cunape


  1. On Wednesday 11 giddy and energy filled girls got on a Semaipata bound bus. Semaipata is a tow a few hours southwest of Santa Cruz. We are exchange students, we were very exited to all be together and on a fun trip. We stopped at an Hipermaxi yelling "Hipermaxi!! Hipermaxi!!". It is a large grocery store where you can find everything, even the rare american things we often miss. We loaded up with Cunape, a cheesy bread that is famous among the us girls and a Santa Cruz specialty, and soda and junk food. We laughed and sang and danced for hours, when we finally arrived we jumped off the bus and ran around the small town that consisted of a few touristy type shops, a beautiful plaza, and lots of stray dogs and dirt houses. We "bopped" around, one of our favorite words to say, for a little while just seeing the town and then dropped off our things at the hostal and went to dinner. We were all pretty tired so after dinner we all went back to the hostal and hung out and chatted for hours. The rooms were 3 beds to a room, mine had 5, it was a very fun night!! The next day we woke up early and went to an ADORABLE little Belgian cafe, complete with an herb garden, a horse, and gourmet food that was so great I had tomato soup for breakfast. We spent some time just sitting in awe at how absolutely beautiful the place was and the amazing hills around us.                                                                 After breakfast we went to a Zoo where monkeys climbed on us!! They were all so cute and so friendly, we had a blast laughing at each other being scared of the big black monkey with long arms and a tiny head named Simon that was really friendly. One of them climbed on my Canadian friend Kirsten and it was very cute until it started making a really scary noise and then began poking her face, her face was priceless and even though she looked scared we were on the ground laughing. It was all so fun and put us in a good mood.                                                                                                  The next place we went was some Incan ruins, we took a tour of the incredible ruins on top of a mountain. We learned why they made their home in that certain spot and some of their habits and history. It was fun thinking that people were right where we were standing over 3,000 years ago. We laughed and made up stories about how the Incans may have been aliens or taken by aliens because they just disappeared and no one knows what happened.                                                                            We stopped briefly in Semaipata again for water and snacks and it was off again to our wonderful city of Santa Cruz, and we all went home and slept because were all pretty tired and sore from hiking up to the ruins.                                                                                                                                                               It was an amazing trip I am so happy I went and I had a wonderful time with the girls, it was a girls trip and we all had tons of fun together. 










         

Thursday, May 10, 2012

coming home...oh man

A little more than 30 days until I am back on U.S. soil. I have many doubts. Doubts about leaving, doubts about returning. I guess my overall feeling is comfort in knowing that the people back home are going to be happy to see me. But it's very hard to think that the times we have here will never happen again. I will never be in Bolivia with the 14 other exchange students, living with this family, doing these things that are so normal for me right now. If I do come back,which I plan on, it wont be the same at all. 
I do think about home a lot. Waupaca, my house, my friends, especially my school. I think of how great it is, sometimes of how much I don't like it, but what I'm struggling with currently is all these thoughts I am having about Waupaca, most of them are just made up because I have been away for so long I almost forgot about what it REALLY is like. So everything I think Wisconsin is going to be like, it will probably not be that way. I am setting myself up for disappointment, I know, but there is nothing i can do about it. My eyes tear up when I think about leaving my dear Canadian friend Kirsten and all the other girls I love, I am going to really try hard to keep in touch, because who knows, having friends around the world is never a bad idea. 

In my "Happy Place" we are all together backpacking Europe, speaking Spanish, having the time of our lives (again). I will leave this post on a happy note, because I am happy. :)







Saturday, May 5, 2012

Wedding

I went to a wedding on Friday night. My Canadian friends older host brother was getting married. I didn't go to the actual wedding at the church, we got to the place when they were signing papers and taking pictures. The banquet hall was amazing, lit by red lights. The bride and groom looked beautiful together. The cake was an incredible 5 tier mountain. The waiters were nice and wore bowties. 

The Bolivian women were all dressed up in gowns and tons of makeup. No doubt most of them bought new dresses for this occasion and went to salons to get their hair and makeup done. My host mother bought me a whole new outfit complete with fancy heels. Everyone looked incredible. 

It was a beautiful wedding and I was very happy to go.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Dangerous Streets

It came as no surprise to me that yesterday while walking home from the corner store, my friend and I were robbed at gunpoint. My reaction was to freeze and not do anything, Kirstens reaction was to try to tell him we didn´t have cell phones or money. He spoke to us in very good English, which threw me offguard. I didn´t think it smart to let him walk away with nothing so I gave him 40 bolivianos, the equivalent of 6 or 7 dollars, and told him I had nothing else. He grabbed us and checkd our pockets, luckily not the one that had my cell phone. He kissed us on the forhead and said thank you and walked away. We stood there stunned, hearts beating, until we realized we should get home. No one, not the neighboorhood guard outside Kirstens house, not her brother  or her dad seemed to care. They said things like ¨No pasa nada¨which means it´s not a big deal. Her father told us it´s even more dangerous in my neighboorhood across the road, I decided then and there I was NOT walking home.

I have to say I am very proud of the way we handled the situation. We didn´t cry, we didn´t have a panic attack, and we definitely didn´t pee our pants. All in all it was an unfortunate, scary event, but now we know what teh streets of Bolivia can be like. It could have been a lot worse, we kept telling ourselves.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Bad Weather = Good Mood

The weather the past week has been rainy, windy and cold. I love it. I have been wearing pants and scarves, which makes me happy. I dont know exactly why I have been so happy, maybe its because I havent been thinking so much about the fact that I only have about a month and a half left of my short exchange. Actually, I only get 9 months here, some girls get 11 or almost a year, but I get 9. It makes me feel cheated. But that doesnt matter it still has been so wonderful. I have recently  done lots of things with my exchange friends from France and New York and Canada. We always have such a wonderful time together no matter what we are doing, weather we are just sitting around talking or adventuring out into the cold, rainy, wet city to giant supermarkets. I hope to have as many adventures as possible before I leave.

Coca Cola

Today I went with my father to a Coca Cola factory. He did som business with some people, I think he is selling them glue or some product. He used to work at the plant and showed me teh parts that he created. It was not a full tour, but I got to see some of the lines and watch teh bottles get filled up and capped. It was pretty neat. Sometime soon I will return with the ither girls for a full tour.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Misc. Pictures of Bolivia

Here are some miscellaneous pictures of Bolivia taken by Sarah Rhodes from Bloomfield, New York.
I love these photos, they really capture the beauty of Bolivia. Thank You, Sarah!!



























Speechless

When we went to the Salar de Uyuni, or the Salt Flats, there was literally no words we could use to describe what we saw. We tried using Magnificent, Incredible, Mind Boggling.....but in teh end we eneded up just staring into teh distance, not speaking, just being awed by the view. They call it the place where Heaven meets Earth because in sp,e parts you cannot see where the Earth begins and the sky ends, it just seems to go on forever in blue. It was the most inspiring place I have ever been to. Our feet hurt when we walked on teh salt in bare feet, but we did not care. It was cold in some parts and wondy, but hot in others. Most of us got a pretty good tan even though we were only out there for maybe 2 hours since the sun was reflecting off the white ground. We took two Range Rovers out there packed with our lunches. We had a typical bolivian lunch of meat, cheese, bananas, and yucca.


Here are some photos.


















Charlotte Turns 19

Our dearest friend Charlotte from Belgium truned 19 in March. We celebrated two ways. One day, we had a Limo pic us up at her house and we went around the town in it, drinking champaign and dancing out of the sunroof. Then on saturday she had a party at her parents second home, which was really big and across town. Here are some pictures.