¡Bienvenida a Chile!

Hello, my lovelies! 

These past few days have been filled with so many things. Things ranging from touring Cochabamba to meeting my new family!

Let’s travel back in time to a day that seems like forever ago: Friday. It was my last day working in the hospital and my last full day in Cochabamba. I chose to work with Zulma once again. One of the patients brought in her niece who was nine years old. Her name was Ana and one day, she hopes to be a famous singer, or the next Selena Gomez. To keep from boredom, Ana asked me to teach her English. I spent about two hours teaching her things such as animals, colors, body parts, numbers, etc. There was a smile plastered on her face the entire time. Anddddddd, probably on mine too... Not only was I teaching her things but she was also teaching me tons, especially essential vocabulary. For instance, unicorn is unicornio.

Saying good-bye to Zulma was harder than I had expected it to be. She gave me a huge hug and wished me safe travels and that she’ll see me one day in the future—in the U.S., Bolivia, South America, or even Heaven. Seriously, the sweetest woman.

Friday afternoon we took a tour of a house of a miner/architect from Bolivia. But leave it to me to forget the name of both the house and architect... We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside of the house but I took lots of the outside! The entire interior of the house was European inspired and absolutely breathtaking. The wallpaper was made of silk fabric; and there were tons of secret passageways. The interesting thing about the house is that no one ever lived in it because the unknown miner/architect had died before it was completed. But here is a photo of the outside:

Saturday was kind of a weird day. Actually, really weird. Several people were sick and it felt as if everyone was anticipating our departure. We had spaghetti for lunch and homemade garlic bread (good job cooking team if you’re reading this!). My stomach was content. The day was spent doing random miscellaneous things: walking to the store for snacks for the plane, photos, packing, sleeping, etc. Before we knew it, it was 6:00 PM and time to say good-bye to everyone: Necco, Rose, Alba, Kayla, Leah, Gina, Ali, Phoebe, David, Heidi, Elizabeth, Stephanie, Nicole, Kirk, Janiece, Bethany, Hannah, Rachel, and Emily. Each and every one of them holds a special place in my heart, as do the volunteers who having been coming and going the past few weeks (Rachel, Lorenzo, Josh, Steven, Clayton, and APU):

So, that’s my final day in Bolivia—kind of. Here are some things to remember if you decide to go to Bolivia one day:

•             toilet paper can’t be flushed—I might have had to stick my hand in the toilet six times...
•            ‘caliente’ doesn’t necessarily mean hot—I’ll let you guys look that one up.
•             things run much slower—8 PM really means much later than 8 PM
•             greet people with a kiss on one cheek (the right, not both cheeks)—both makes you look       really awkward...
•           being called a gringo is not a bad thing
•           people will come up to you and ask to take pictures with you, like this family and their son:

•        you’ll constantly be whistled at
•         they don’t really check to see if you have your yellow fever—safe yourself the $100+
•         Bolivian Spanish is very easy to understand
•         Everyone is friendly
•         you won’t regret going (:

Anna, Lydia, and I had a flight from Cochabamba to La Paz at 8:15 PM. Our flight landed in La Paz a little after 9. We then had a layover until 6:30 AM. It was the longest night ever. Sleeping was nearly impossible because there was no way to get comfortable. It was cold. It was a hallway type setting. The altitude was extremely high (4,061 m). We almost missed our flight because it was scheduled to leave early but there was no announcement and the boards were not updated. We got up and rushed over to check our luggage and fill out paperwork to leave the country. Lydia fainted in the process. Anna thought Lydia’s passport was stolen (but don’t worry, it wasn’t). Then we were rushed through security. I felt super sick and nauseous—wanting to vom the entire time. Then we got on our flight to Lima, Perú and landed safely. I still felt really sick. Our layover was really short. Then we flew to Santiago, which seemed to take forever. The guy next to me probably thought I was crazy because I’d fall asleep, but then my body would spasm and my arms would flail. Literally. So I decided it’d probably be best to not sleep. Then we landed. Finally. Is this paragraph a little dramatic? Probably. But it’s all true. 

Once we got through customs and grabbed our bags, we were greeted by our driver, Jorgé. The car ride from Santiago to Viña del Mar was about an hour and a half.  It was beautiful--rolling hills, tons of vineyards, the mountains, and the sea. The roads are much like those back in the States.Along the way, Jorgé was asking us about our lives and what our favorite foods were and what we were craving the most. We all said something fresh. And before we knew it, we were stopped at a little food vendor where Jorgé bought all of us coffee and a plate of fresh vegetables and cheese. The purpose of it was not only to give us a great welcome, but to make us feel more confident about being in a foreign country. Such a great guy:

Lydia was dropped off first. Then me, and then Anna was last because she lives the farthest away. I think that I was so excited, nervous, and anxious that I was making myself sick (I really need to get my emotions in check) because when we pulled up to my new house, I really thought I was going to vom. My host family greeted us outside with open arms and grabbed my bags. The moment they did that, I think they regretted it... They joked around saying that I had a Boliviano in my bag. At that moment, I knew life would be great because I was living with a family of jokesters.

Here’s an extremely short family tree: Teo is my dad, he’s about 72; then there’s Elsa, my mom (assuming she’s somewhere around Teo’s age); and then I have two older sisters—Lorena (40) and Claudia (43). Claudia lives with us and I have yet to meet Lorena and her family.

I walked in the door and said ‘¡me encanta!’, which means I love it! Little did I know, that that would be the line of the night. Who knew I could be such a jokester? After my tour of the apartment, I unpacked my ginormous duffel bag and had some once—which is a giant snack that kind of substitutes for dinner. There was bread, avocado, homemade jelly, tea, cookies, ham, vegetables, juice, and coffee. After talking with them for a little bit, I decided it was time for me to sleep (it also helped my nausea go away). Sadly, it was only 7:15.

When I woke up on Monday morning I was greeted by warm bread, fruit, tea, coffee, jelly, avocado, yogurt, etc. Claudia took me to school for orientation. The university is in Valparaíso, which is a larger city that borders Viña. In order to get there, I have to take the metro. It goes right along the sea and ports of Chile. So basically, it’s breathtaking. Claudia took me there and showed me how to navigate through the metro and she picked me up. Then we had lunch—which was full of even more food. Chicken. Potatoes. Vegetables. Salad. Juice. Dessert. Claudia then took me to the mall early in the evening because I didn’t pack enough underwear (that always seems to be the one thing I forget when I travel...). Claudia also showed me where she worked, took me to exchange currency, got me minutes for my phone, etc. I also found out that she loves Michael Bublé—instant best friends.

Today, I wasn’t allowed to leave without a bufanda (scarf) and gorrito (little hat). It’s definitely chilly in the morning, but nothing compared to those Wisconsin winters. Class was at 8:30 this morning and will be for the rest of my time here. I came back and had some tea/coffee/homemade applesauce with mom and we chatted. She loves cleaning. Today she cleaned the bathrooms and organized her closet/drawers and showed me and made me smell how clean everything was. Maybe that sense of organization and cleanliness will wear off on me... She’s now preparing hamburgers for lunch. But not just that, we also have an appetizer. And the main course. Can’t have lunch without dessert. And of course, we’ll drink more coffee/tea. My stomach has not seen hunger thus far.

 Viña and Valpo are cities much like those in the States. Besides everyone speaking Spanish, having an ocean ten minutes away, and there being tons of colorful houses, it really doesn’t feel that much different than home. I’m so happy to be here and know that I am in great care! My family is so wonderful and I wish you all could meet them!