A much needed update!

Hello everyone!
Happy New Year! Updating my blog has been on my list of things to do. I apologize from my lack of effort! Well I do have a lot of things to express, many stories to tell! Christmas here was great! It was such a mix of emotions with not being home with my entire extended family in Calgary. I definitely missed that, but realized that I am only going to experience one Bolivian Christmas here. So Christmas came and went... we had a nice celebration at our church- I played Noche de Paz (Silent night) as our church sang. I played horribly! I had to read the notes by candle light... didn't turn out well! Hopefully they won't ask me to play piano again!!! We then came back home around 11 pm and me and Cesia then set off some fireworks in our street. Honestly people were setting off fireworks till about 4 in the morning. We had a nice little family gift exchange. I am so lucky to be apart of such a great host family here. Christmas day I made my family pancakes. They had never had them before... they loved them!

On the 28th in the morning me and Cesia went and bought our tickets to La Paz. We got in line around 5:30 am and waited till the bus station was open. I was amazed at how many people were in the bus station at that time. So that night, me, Cesia, Corrie, Kim and Dia (Cesia's friend) got onto our flota (bus) and began our trip to La Paz. It was about 16 hours of travelling. Stopping once in the middle of the night for our bus driver to have a break and then we kept going. We got there and I couldn't believe how COLD La Paz was compared to Santa Cruz. Now when I say cold I am talking about 5 to 10 degrees celcious.... which really isn't that cold back in Canada but it was cold to all of us! We were lucky to have 2 bolivians travel with us to help us make our way around, find a hostel and then figure out what to do for our first day there. La Paz is beautiful! You are surrounded by mountains and moutains. It was huge city, lots of people and noise but beautiful! We managed to find a street full of Andian Markets... we got some really neat things to take back home.

We were able to tour around a Cocoa Museum. It was very interesting. There is such a long history of where the Cocoa leaves come from that everyone chews here and it's relation to the drug cocain and history about that. I will write more about that once I get more info. We also got to see a part of the city that is full of different objects and dried animals (sounds gross) that are used for sacrificing. Pretty interesting to see. I found it a bit challenging at points to travel with Bolivians because Cesia and Dia had both travelled to La Paz before, and their idea of shopping was going to a mall and our idea of shopping was going to the different markets. It was a bit challenging but in the end it all worked out. We were planning on going to go see the famous Ruins that were about 4 hours out of La Paz, but it turned out to be really expensive for us to go. We were able to go to a very cool look out that overlooks all of La Paz. Very cool!

We then made our way to Copacabana located on Lake Titicaca! It is beautiful! I have pictures posted on facebook, for some reason posting pictures on here takes a very long time. So we were at Lake Titicaca over New Years. We were able to take a boat to the Island of the Sun. This Island has a lot of history related to people believing that this Island is where the sun was formed. Pretty interesting. We wanted to get the best seats on the boat so we got to the very front, top level and thought we would have a great ride. Turns out the boat ride was 2 hours long and it was a freezing day so it was windy and cold. So after about 1 hour we decided to go back downstairs to warm up. I feel like I have so many stories to tell but don't know where to start.

Copacabana was full of tourists from all over the world. Apparently Bolivia is the place to go for New Years Eve! It was very interesting to celebrate it with random strangers but a very unique and interesting experience. Overall a very great trip in La Paz and Lake Titicaca! I hope to go back some day!

This past Monday I started work again! It was a wierd feeling to be back, but a good thing. I was working in the Stansberry homes with the kids. This place is located on the same campus as the Guaderia and After school program. So I had to look after 2 girls (ages 6 and 8). So in the morning's I helped them take showers, did their hair, fed and played with them. A pretty relaxing job. Both of them have head lice, so after this week my head is starting to get a little itchy.. hopefully it's all in my head!

Yesterday was SO muddy! I was walking to my bus to go to MCC and slipped and fell in the mud. My legs and clothes were full of mud. I then decided that I didn't want to wait for one hour to get to MCC so I decided to take a taxi. So I was walking to the taxi and some woman walked past me and looked at my like I was completly bonkers for being so muddy. It was hilarious! The taxi driver was also not so impressed but I had a good laugh out of it!

Last night I was about to go to sleep but my feet were still so dirty so I went to wash my feet in the sink. Turns out I accidently bumped the sink with my foot and then entire sink fell apart!!!!! Our dog then started barking cause it made a huge bang and so both my parents got out of bed and ran outside. So here I was holding the sink together and then my host mom started laughing so hard. In the end the sink was fixed and we all had a good laugh out of it. Another moment that I will cherish with my host family!

So that's my update for now. I hope everyone is doing well! I am doing well here and finding joy in each day!
Much love to you all!