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Published: December 30th 2007
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bonfire..
dance rave party! Ive only got a few more days left here in Sucre! Its hard to imagine that a month has already passed!
I´m heading off to Salar de Uyuni with Sinead, Joeri, and Adam on January 1st. We will take a three or four day tour and then joeri, sinead, and i will head over to Argentina. I plan on living in Argentina for 2 months. I´m quite excited. I was never planning on moving to argentina for so many months. in fact, the original plan was to live in sucre for 5 months! This is what i love about traveling.. .the unknown. you can never predict what is going to happen once you leave your door and hop on to a plane.
My friends and I were talking yesterday about all the differences here in South America from our own country. We all agreed that one of the hardest things we will have to remember once we return home is to throw our toilet paper back into the toilet. I dont think ive ever mentioned this on here before but everytime you go to the bathroom, you throw your dirty toilet paper into a waste bucket. i wont even get
friends!
we all stopped to take a picture! into some of the nasty sights ive seen while throwing my own toilet paper into the waste bucket. christ. this reminds me.. i must buy antibacteria gel asap.
Things here are quite calm in Sucre and in the rest of Bolivia. The people were right about there being no protests or fights during the holidays. However, I have been talking to quite a few Bolivians about the future of Bolivia and they all agreed that fighting will be occuring soon after the holidays. So, its a good thing that I´m getting the hell out of here.
Last weekend I went to Sucre´s outdoor summer disco/rave. It was one of my best nights out yet in Sucre. Most nights when I go out for drinking, we all just hang out in the local pubs and drink at a table. there is only one discoteca so there really isnt much dancing or live music here. So, going to this outdoor event was great! Loud music.. tons of people dancing.. a guy walking around on stilts.. a huge bon fire.. people banging on drums and dancing everywhere. Twas a very good night! =D
The family I live with have been
more than loving to me. They welcomed me into their home on Christmas Eve to celebrate their holidays with them. They celebrate their holidays here much differently than the we celebrate ours back home. My Bolivian family is catholic.. so i attended a 2 hour long Mass. christ all mighty. i dont think ive sat in a 2 hour Mass since high school! It was quite difficult because i was STARVING. These bolivians have got their eating system way out of order. We went to the 10 oclock mass and you wanna know what time they ate their dinner??? 1230 in the morning! I went over at 7 thinking we were going to eat but nope. i was oh so wrong. but besides my stomach eating itself and making obsenly loud noises during mass for two hours... the rest of the night was fine. When I first came over, we decorated their alter. They had a christmas tree but the tree is not the most important tradition. Every person in the family when they were born received a baby jesus. So, all the baby jesus´s were laying on the alter. Let me remind you, there are 13 people in the
New Years Eve!! 2008!
Sussana, me, & Sinead! (the 2 girls I lived with in Sucre) family so thats 13 little jesus´s on the alter. Also on the alter are gifts to their baby jesus´s. These gifts are little tiny toys, animals, fake food, and other things that they think baby jesus would want. When we went to church, we took their jesus´s and got them blessed by the preist. They let me take one of the baby´s to get blessed so when I got up there.. the preist took his holy water stick and hosed me down with the holy water. I was literally soaked. My mascara ran. My bangs were ruined. I couldnt believe it. I wanted to laugh so hard but I containted myself. My family said that I was lucky because that doesnt always happen but when it does happen... it means you will have good luck and be safe for the entire year. sooooo.... i guess in the end.. i should feel honored! yeah! =D but anyways, after we ate dinner... the family exchanged their gifts to one another. man o man.. do we spoil each other with gifts on christmas back home in the states. we really need to end this because it is too commercialized. my family only gave
Joy Ride at its finest
Hawain themed.. the entire floor in the pub was covered in sand.. each other a few gifts to each other. there werent piles of presents under the christmas tree. My family is not poor.. in fact.. they are pretty well off here in bolivia so they easily could have given each other tons of presents but thats not what they were looking forward to. So, after the exchanging of gifts, they do a traditional Bolivian dance.. and let me remind you its about 130ish.. 2 in the morning. After they dance for about an hour in their house, they go next door to their fathers house where we do even MORE dancing!!! They wernt even drunk. its amazing. They look forward to dancing with their family on Christmas! I think next christmas in the states, we should put some real music on and dance! I mean, why not? christmas could actually be.. lots of fun.
I´ve been also getting to know lots of Bolivians! Its great! Every day when I walk down the street, i see some Bolivian I know. Its so important to become friends with the locals because that is the best way to practice spanish and to get undestand their culture.
i also made cookies. My goal was to bring a big plate full of cookies to my family´s house and to give some to my friends for Christmas. I spent ... id say about 2 longggg frustrating days in the kitchen trying to perfect them. Did I perfect them? NOT AT ALL. =P before i came to south america, i babysat every day. At least every other day, I would bake cookies with the kids so I got pretty damn good at baking cookies. They were sweet... soft in the middle but a lil crispy on the outside. ya know, a perfect cookie. BUT when I cooked my cookies in Sucre, they were flat as a saltine cracker. Not a pretty looking cookie. However, my friends and family said they tasted really good. I just dont know why they kept coming out flat! I swear, its because of the altitude.
Speaking of altitude, its kind of funny because you really can blame anything on the altitude. Say youre walking up a big hill with some friends and youre the only one terribly out of breath. All you have to say is ohh, its the altitude. Because that way you dont look like youre out of shape. But in reality, you are actually a fatty out of shape. But if you just say ohh the altitude really affects me... most people believe it! we have all started blaming our negative qualities on the altitude. its definately gotten out of hand but its great. my friends and I will blame being tired, having terrible pms, being hungry, having bad gas, our looks, etc on the altitude. hahah. Not sure what I will do when I get home. =D
If anyone wants a postcard or something, send me your address!
adios amigos!
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Aunt Christina
non-member comment
Blame it on the altitude
Every recipe has to be adjusted when you are baking at such a high altitude. It usually is more than one ingredient as well so it is alot of trial and error. And also, remember Xmas next year so we too can have a fun Christmas. It really does not matter what religion you are....we are all celebrating the same thing! Love you, Auntie Christina