Sunday's in Casa Golac (Golac Home) = cooking with Papi! This week we made Pique (a dish made up of onions, tomatoes, hard boiled egg, sausage, hot dog, chunks of beef, and french fries) and Sopa de Mani (Peanut Soup)... Two famous Bolivian dishes. Emi  made a very tasty Tiramisu for desert as well. I can not wait to come home to Canada and share these recipes with everyone, of course I will have to translate them from Spanish to English first :)

Dogs truly are mans best friend <3 SO thankful for my Dana and for Vale 's little sweetheart <3

They never cease to make me laugh and always seem to keep me smiling :) 

Three weeks ago on a chilly Wednesday in February, one of my close school friends Anto, asked me if I would like to attend a bible study at her house. I had been hoping to find a church since the beginning of my exchange, but most of the population here is catholic so not many people knew when or where I would go. Upon my first bible study I fell in love with Jovenes FARO (Youth Lighthouse), I am now on the worship team and make the lyric slides for Saturday night and Sunday morning worship. My church family has been more than wonderful to me and I look forward to Tuesday bible study, or Thursday youth Walli (a game like volley ball). The photos above do not include our entire church family, they are pictures of bible studies or our early morning prayers. I am so excited to see how far we will grow over the next 6 months and am so thankful for my church family. <3

Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Jeremias 29:11: Porque yo sé los pensamientos que tengo acerca de vosotros, dice Jehová, pensamientos de paz, y no de mal, para daros el fin que esperáis

February 6th was my first day back at school after summer vacation. Waking up at 6am, pulling on my uniform, doing my hair with Vale and Emi, eating breakfast and heading to school all added to my excitement. Once in school my entire prom took a huge Grad photo after the morning assembly, we released probably around 350 balloons into the air and then headed to our new classrooms. SOMOS PROMO 2017 - We are Grad 2017

When in Bolivia, Yerba Mate is a necessity :) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa <3

Family lunches tend to provide a great time slot for photoshoots <3 Shoutout to our cousin Mateo's house for the beautiful scenery <3

The three musketeers bought matching bracelets <3 and we also tend to take lots of photos with three things <3

Day 5 was filled with baking time with Vale and Emi ..... PIE DE LIMON - Lemon Pie :) Which we messed up slightly when we figured out the side to the pan wasn't attached to the bottom :) hahaha HOWEVER: It still tasted amazing :P

My second day with my beautiful family Golac we visited a landmark I had been hoping to go to my entire 6 months in Tarija but never had been able to before. Mirador de los Suenos, a giant wine glass tower near my new home in Barrio Senac. It has a stunning view of the city despite it being quite the trek up 263 some odd stairs :)

My first day with family Golac was filled with many exciting adventures... The first part of our day we spent exploring Lago (Lake) San Jancinto, except this time we decided to go for a boat ride out onto the lake. At first it was slightly terrifying because life jackets here are pieces of fabric filled with four pieces of foam... not to mention that the lake unfortunately is extremely polluted and filled with many different kinds of carnivorous fish. But once we got out to about the middle of the lake we began to really enjoy ourselves. Upon returning to shore, we stopped at one of the many tiny restaurants for a mixed plate of crabs and tiny fish. The photo of my hand holding something is a crab I ate shortly after the photo. Personally I prefer the tiny fish which we eat whole, head and tail included. Despite eating two plates of seafood, as always here in Bolivia, lunch is still the biggest meal of the day and so we headed to another restaurant closer to town to eat our main meal. Sopa de Mani (peanut soup, my favorite) and Pique (A dish of meat, french fries, hotdogs, peppers, onions, tomatoes and hard boiled egg, orignially and best made in another city in Bolivia, Cochabamba) was shared between Emi and I. It was a fantastic first day and a wonderful beginning to the weeks to come. :)

 (Mami Claudia, Ariana, Papi Jose Luis and I, Coky is absent because he was taking the photo)

On January 20th, after 5 incredible months with my beautiful family Aguirre, I changed homes to my new and just as wonderful host family Golac. It was a very emotional week leading up to the change of families especially the day of, because after 5 months of living and growing together, changing families feels like moving across the world all over again. However upon arriving in my new host family, I immediately knew that my 2 and a half months with them would be just as amazing as my first 5. Papa Esteban, Mama Maria Elisa, Valentina and Emiliana have been more than wonderful to me in these past three weeks and we have already had so many memorable adventures. I still visit my dear Papi Jose Luis, Mami Claudia, Coky and Ariana once a week and we are still close as ever. I don't believe its even remotely possible to receive a bad host family in Bolivia, everyone is always friendly and loving. For this and so many other things I am thankful <3

(Papa Esteban, Mama Maria Elisa, Vale, Me, Emi, and our cousins from Cochabamba: Ignacio, Fabio, and Franco, Tia Yubi was taking the photo).