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.

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.

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.

Heads Up

I added some pictures of Carnaval on the post from February. It is pretty awesome you should check them out.

The Grigota Girls

There are 14 other Rotary exchange students in Santa Cruz. There are 3 clubs, Grigota (mine), Santa Cruz, and Amboro. This post will be just for the girls of Grigota. There are 8 girls in Grigota. I am very close to them, we all like to stick togetehr, we also mingle with the other clubs, but we are very close.

Charlotte from Belgium

Charlotte is pretty great. Our host fathers are brothers so we are cousins. We do many things together with our families and with other exhcange girls.We have so much in common and I love hanging out with her.














Lou (Louise) from France

Lou is really funny. Her accent is very cute and we always have a wonderful time together. Lous always makes me laugh and we have a lot in common.









Sarah from New York

Sarah is really awesome. She likes sports, especially soccer. She is always up for adventure. We always have fun together being silly or just talking. I love spending time with her.











Matilde from France

Matilde is sweet. She doesnt care what people think of her. She does her own thing. She is always level headed and sometimes the smartest of us all. She is so adorable and her accent is so cute.











Flora from France

Flora is quiet. She normally doesnt spent a lot of time with teh otehr exhcnage students. We always invite her out, but she has many cousins with her family here and spends most of her time with them. She is sweet and polite, always making us laugh in her quiet way.



















Marie-Oceane from France

Marie (or some call her Oceane) is reserved. She is usually quiet, but when engaged in conversation has a lot to say. We love her shyness.












Kirsten from Canada

Kirsten is kooky. We are always crazy and silly together. We take random buses and end up on adventures around the city. We bake things without recipes. We go to the market. We share stories. We whine about our lives to each other. We watch Greys Anatomy togetehr just so we arent alone. She is my best friend in Bolivia. Kirsten is MAGNIFICENT!!

 The Grigota Girls at our spanish lessons in october.

Shyah (NY) Kirsten, Charlotte, and Aimee (Alaska) at Lake Titicaca during the Bolivia trip. 

The Grigota girls dressed up for a costume party for Rotary. Sarah is a dog not a cow. And my outift matches my parents. 

Kirsten, me, Sarah, Marie, and Charlotte at Maries house for a small party. 

Emily (Indiana), Kirsten, Marie, and Sarah on the boat going to La Isla Del Sol on Lake Titicaca. 

Emily (NY), Emily (Indiana), Marie, Kirsten, and me at Charlottes birthday party in March.