When it rains

Santa Cruz was totally not made for the rain. Officially it is Autumn here but it feel nothing like the fall that I am used to back in Canada. Strange things are happening and it is starting to feel like Spring oddly enough. Unlike back home, the leaves on the trees are not changing colour, they seem to fall at all times of the year and not just during one season. At the moment the leaves on the mango tree outside my window are not changing but there are little buds forming where it appears that flowers will sprout; I always thought this only happened in the Spring...apparently not. As for the rain, well we have pretty much had rain every day for the last 15 days. It is not the all day kind of showers but rather an hour or so of total downpour but then the entire city is pretty much flooded for the next hour and then it goes back to normal. Everything here is so backwards it feels like spring in the fall and fall in the spring. So far the weirdest thing that is throwing me off is that when it is like 26 degrees here, everybody is in pants and long sleeves and jackets and scarves...I'm not used to the cold.

Frazzled!

I live in two different worlds, one of which is about to crumble away right before my eyes in a matter of weeks. Today I came to the conclusion that I am not ready for that yet...actually I don't think I will ever be ready for that. As much as I miss my family and friends, I have ZERO desire to come home...ever. I want to live in Bolivia, I feel like I belong here and that things actually click here. Back home I do what im expected to do and to a certain degree what I too want to do, but the only difference is that what I do here is what I have chosen to do all on my own. I made a life for myself without my parents without my friends and without knowing the language or a single person in this country. Despite all the obstacles and challenges that have come my way, I have gotten through it and found a place where I actually feel at home and where I belong.

Don't get me wrong, I love my family, the Okanagan and Canada but the life that I live there is now the life that I reluctantly have to go back to, it is never going to be the same as it was before I  had this experience. The worst part I think is that I am not going to want to be back home and that is going to make it all the more difficult for me to suck it up and stay there until I finish University. Bolivia is the place that I call home now, I love everything about it even the bad parts. I have an exchange family and my host family and best friends that I will have to leave and that is going to break my heart.

I know that as soon as some of my best friends leave, the Bolivia that I know will be different and maybe my opinions will change, but for the mean time there is this little hole in my heart forming at the mere thought of having to go home.

Typical Pacena, cholita selling fruit on the street like it is no big deal.

 Just in case nobody believed me when I say that I love my sisters :)

 I think that they like me too...atleast I hope so ;P

 La Paz streets

 Where houses climb the mountains

 And dogs climb Garbage Cans.

 My Cat likes to surprise us buy doing weird things...maybe this is why he is like best friends with the dogs??

 On the way to Vallegrande...my dad was obsessed with taking pictures of him with "mis dos choquas" aka me and Sarah (becasue we have light hair and skin colour)

 Llegamos en Vallegrande

 Typical Bolivian Plaza

 The toumb/original grave of Che Guevera

 Cailes de Vallegrande

 Here lied? Che...his bones are actually in Cuba now so all that is left is dirt and stuff.

 QUE VIVE LA REVOLUCION?

My Best Friend

The fact that I have not made a post about Goldy kinda shocks me! Goldy (AKA Paula Andrea Genesis Llanos Flores) is my older host sister here in Bolivia, she is 20 years old and is 3rd year university studying to be an architect; she is my best friend not only in Bolivia but I think in general too.
 It was strange because when I first arrived here I hardly saw Goldy because our school schedules were opposite but it was with her that I had alot of my Bolivian firsts. First time going to the market, First time on a micro, First day at school she went with me to the class, first time going to the plaza first time going to the movies first time hanging out with someone alone! Because I was a lot closer with Dulce when I got here, I thought that after Dulce left things would be totally weird with me and Goldy but that turned out to totally not be the case. After Dulce left I was sad and kinda in a down part of my exchange and it was Goldy who turned that around for me, we got really close over the Christmas/Summer holiday and we are now pretty much inseparable!
Goldy is the person that I tell everything to she is the one person in all of Bolivia (including my exchange friends) that I can actually confide in. She asks me about my exchanges and we can talk for hors, we laugh and talk and have so much fun together; we are total opposites but for some reason it works really well. I am kinda crazy and all over the map where Goldy is cool calm and collected, she gets nervous really easily and doesn't like to make a fool of herself, she is super smart and studious and when you first meet her she comes off super quiet and shy; I have learned that that is not the case AT ALL! I think the fact that we are so different is a good thing, I have learned a lot from Goldy and according to my host parents Goldy has changed a lot too since the 2 of us became junto.

Inside jokes, contests, gossip, sleepovers and adventures, we do it all and we always have a super good time doing it! I can actually never think of a time that I was with Goldy where I have not been totally and completely happy, I am going to miss her most of all when I have to go back to Canada; without her my exchange would not have been the same.

Te Kiero Mucho Mi Hermana, Nunca Voy A Poder Olvidarse, Y Nunca Quiero.