Culinary Confessions

So I’ve been here for about 3 months so far, I think I can say that I have a good idea about the food here. The food here is somewhat similar to the food in the states…for example, some days my mom just ends up cooking macaroni and cheese or spaghetti for lunch. But there are also many days where I have typical Bolivian food, which I have really learned to like and appreciate.

Typically for breakfast I eat an empanada (empanadas are one of my favorite foods here) or I just have cereal. Empanadas usually come in 2 types, chicken and cheese. I prefer the chicken empanadas, they are so delicious and I can never stop wanting another empanada. Anyways, breakfast is usually small, especially compared to lunch. Lunch in Bolivia is the biggest meal of the day. My school ends at 12:30, so I get to eat lunch around 1:00. My host mom normally makes a salad, rice, a type of meat, and we always have fresh fruit after our lunch. Bolivians always have to have meat for lunch because food without meat isn’t food to Bolivians. I’m not used to having meat every single day, but I’m slowly getting used to it. A little while after the siesta (a siesta is the time after lunch, a lot people take naps during this time) Bolivians usually eat a very small dinner consisting of tea and bread.

Achachairu

Papaya Juice

Papaya

The fruits here in Bolivia are pretty different then the fruits that I eat in the U.S. There are many tropical fruits here that I didn’t know even existed. I have tried several new fruits here, they include (and I don’t know all of these names in English): papaya, peaches (I have had a peach before but only from a can), passion fruit, lima (this is not a lime, I just don’t know what it is in English), kiwi, avocado, pepino, cherimoya, and achachairu. Although I’ve tried a bunch of new fruits here, the fruits that I’ve tasted before have a different (better) taste. They all have a very sweet and rich taste, I think this is because all the fruits here are organic and fresh. Also, Bolivians always tend to juice all of their fruits. I have fallen in love with peach, pineapple, strawberry, and passion fruit juice. Bolivians eat fruits on a daily basis, and I am really enjoying all these tropical fruits!

Cherimoya

A really big pineapple

•             I tried a pineapple here once, and it was sooooo sweet and I couldn’t believe that I was eating a pineapple. It tasted so good. Also, the pineapple here are really big, but the really sweet tasting pineapples are tiny…they’re really cute and quite expensive!

  

  Pepino

Sonso (a traditional Bolivian dish made with yucca)

The typical food here in Bolivia is quite interesting. Bolivians tend to eat a lot of meat, beans, and different types of potatoes like the yucca. The yucca is a type of potato that originates in Bolivia. Yucca tends to be in a lot of Bolivian cuisine and it tastes pretty good. One food that I find very interesting is fried bananas. It’s basically just bananas sautéed with a little seasoning. I’ve tried it once I didn’t like but they do have banana chips here, and those are delicious.

•           So, today I didn’t have school because it was raining too much (in Bolivia you don’t have snow days you just have rain days, lol) so my host dad wanted to make hot chocolate. I just thought he was going to make hot milk and put in a chocolate mix in it, but instead he bought an all natural bar of chocolate and made the hot chocolate himself. It tasted so good and it was organic!

  

  Heating up the hot coco...

  

  Making natural hot coco!

Bolivians also love their meat. They eat a lot of meat and all types of meat. Sometimes they eat really weird types of meat like cow tongue and pig feet. It’s not very common but they do eat from time to time.

•             One night, my host family and I were at a fancy dinner and she made me try cow tongue. I can’t believe I actually ate it. It tasted really weird and chewy. I didn’t really like it so I probably won’t eat it again!
•             I also tried octopus for the first time in Bolivia. I was at a restaurant with my friends, and they all made me try it. I did not like it! It sort of tasted like fish but it was slimier.

Trying octupus!

My octupus dish!

The desserts in Bolivia are pretty good. I would say that the most popular dessert in Bolivia is flan. I like flan but it’s not amazing to me as it is to the Bolivians.  Sometimes my family just eats sweet bread for dessert. I am in love with the bread in Bolivia. There are so many types of bread here! I can’t get enough of it. The candy here is alright...the chocolate is definitely not as good as is in the states. They don't have my favorites types of chocolate here, but I will learn to survive without it. 

Flan

Brazo de Reina (a typical cake-type dessert in Bolivia)

My favorite foods in Bolivia

§  Papaya – Papaya is a tropical fruit that is very common in Bolivia, there’s even a papaya tree in my backyard and you can eat the papaya from the tree!

§  Dulce de leche – Dulce de leche is a spread made for pan. It looks just like caramel and is very creamy and sweet. It’s sort of like what peanut butter is to Americans, dulce de leche is to Bolivians (South Americans in general). I just love it soooo much, that I eat it by itself. Dulce de leche is definitely my new nutella. There are also churros and croissants here that have dulce de leche in the middle!!!!!

•             I made pancakes for my host sister (she loved them) and we ate them with dulce de leche. I can honestly say that I prefer to have my pancakes with dulce de leche rather than with maple syrup. I’ve become obsessed with dulce de leche. There’s also dulce de leche flavored ice cream!

  

  Pancakes with dulce de leche.....delicioso!

§  Empanadas – I love chicken empanadas. I have them probably 3 or more times each week.

Empanadas

§  Majorito – Majorito is a typical Bolivian dish. It is a rice dish and is usually served with an egg or fried bananas. It can either be served with beef or chicken, I prefer the chicken majorito with an egg on the side.

Majorito with a fried egg

§  Cunape – Cunape is a small bread and is usually eaten after the siesta. I normally eat cunape at my break time at school.

Cunape

   Milk – I don’t really drink that much milk in the states, but the milk here has a different taste. It tastes a bit sweeter and now I love drinking milk!

Camping

Me feeding a bunny.

So for the last five days I went……..CAMPING!!!!! Yup, that’s right, I Shobita Suresh went camping. I’m not really a camping-type person, so I am really proud of myself for surviving 5 days and 4 nights in the wild Bolivian jungles. I wasn’t exactly excited when my host sister told me that we were going camping, especially since it was church camp and I was also kind of freaked out that I had to sleep in a tent for 4 nights! Well guess who ended up loving camping....that would be me!

My host sister and I at the campsite.
(We had to wear dresses, because we
had church that morning)

So, to get to the camp we took a bus, and the ride to the camp took about 2 hours. The camp was still in Santa Cruz (I was kind of confused when they told me that the camp was in the Santa Cruz, so I guessing the camp was just in a different part of the city). The ride was really fun because I got to see the countryside of Bolivia and it was really beautiful. It was sooo green and had so many different types of flowers and trees that I’ve never seen before. I also saw the poorer side of Bolivia and it was quite interesting to see how they lived.

The first night, I was very frazzled because I didn’t really know what to expect, but that all changed on the next day. I got to meet a lot of new people (but I did know some people at camp, because they went to my school). The people there were really nice and I got to meet the pastor from my church and he was a really cool and an amazing person. I never thought I could call a pastor “cool.” The pastor and I had a long conversation (he spoke English) about religion and science, and the world in general and I learned a lot from him. The pastor has been to 43 countries!!!! He travels the world to learn about cultures and religions. I want to be like him!

Jersey Day!

I also got to meet a bunch of Brazilians. Apparently the medical schools in Bolivia are really cheap, so a lot of Brazilians go to Bolivia to become doctors. Brazilians are fun group of people and they really do love their country! At camp, we had a soccer day (you had to wear the jersey of your favorite soccer team) and my host mom got me a Brazilian soccer jersey. So while I was wearing my Brazilian jersey, this Brazilian lady came up to me and said, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this, a gringa (an American) is wearing a Brazilian jersey, I couldn’t be happier!!” Lol, she was really funny and she gave this big hug because she was so proud that an American was wearing a Brazilian shirt. 

My friends (from school) at camp!

The view from the mountain.

Me swinging from a tree!

At camp we had a lot of fun activities. We played a lot of games that I’ve never played before. One game that we played was called receitas (it means “lines” in Spanish). To play the game you have pretend your name is the name of the person sitting right next to you. You have to introduce yourself with that name and say how many lines you have on your forehead and then call on someone else. If you say your wrong name or the wrong number of lines on your forehead you get a black line drawn on your forehead! I ended up with 4 lines on my head and I had to walk around with a bunch of black lines on my forehead for the whole day! Thank god I had a cap to help cover that up. We also played a bunch of dancing games, they’re a bit too complicated to explain…..but they were still sooo much fun! We also did this activity where if you liked someone or wanted to tell someone something, you could write it on a piece of paper and then a person would read all the pieces of paper out loud!  It was really cute and I got one for me!!! It was from this guy (he’s really cute) and it said, To Sophie (that’s what most everyone calls me here in Bolivia):   “I speak very little English, but I would like to get to know you better and to one day be good friends, From: Andre. Isn’t that adorable????!!!! I was so happy when I got one for me! 

At camp we also did camp-like things. We did some hiking and the view was soooo pretty! I even got to go on one of those rope-things that hang from a tree and then you swing from it (I don’t know what it’s called) but it was soooo cool and I’ve never done that before. 

My friend, Ben and I eating oranges off an orange tree!

 

 

There were a lot fruit trees at camp and I got to eat an orange right off an orange tree!!! The orange tasted so good, it was probably the best orange I’ve ever tasted and I am not exaggerating. It also rained a lot at camp, so we had to sleep inside of the church for 2 nights!!!! That part wasn’t too fun but it was part of the experience. Overall, I had a blast at camp and I met a lot of interesting people. I enjoyed it a lot but I don’t think I will be asking to go camping anytime soon.401

A picture taken while we were hiking.

A pretty flower at camp.

A fruit (I forgot what it´s called) that is famous in Bolivia becase it has the colors of the Bolivian flag on it.

A parrot!

The Bolivian flag at camp.

My  host sister and I, while hiking.

Surviving My First Week of School!

School in Bolivia is definitely poles apart from school in the U.S. My school is called Colegio Adventista de Santa Cruz. Here are a couple of differences from my school in Bolivia and my school in the U.S.

My host sister and I during my first
 day of school.

§  My school starts at 7:30 and ends at 12:30 (this is including the morning assembly)……that’s only 5 hours and we have a 20 min break in between my second and third hour!!!

§  There are no sports at school; you have to play sports in clubs.

§  Every morning, my school has a short assembly.

Ø  In the morning you have to line up with your class in order of your height, and I’m the tallest girl in my class and I’m only 5’7! Everyone is a bit shorter here.

§  There are no school buses but you can take normal buses, a taxi, get a ride, or walk to school.

§  The student-teacher relationship is very relaxed in Bolivia; you can be really casual with the teacher.

§  There are no substitute teachers.

Ø  Today at school, my history teacher didn't come to school so the whole class just got to stay in the class and hang out for the whole hour.

§  The schedules are bit weird because every day you have a new schedule (but the schedules are the same for every week)!

§  In Bolivia you don’t move from class to class, the teachers move……that makes my life a lot easier!

§  My school is pretty small. It consists of grades 1-12 (I think). Right now I am a junior (year 11) and there are about 40 students for each grade. That is really small coming from a school that had around 300 students for each grade.

§  The classes are really loud….you can barely hear anything because everyone is so noisy! Everyone is always fooling around and screaming…I don’t think Bolivians know how to be quiet!

Ø  During class the students are always throwing paper balls at each other or throwing a soccer ball in the air......while the teacher is giving us a lecture or notes! The teachers in Bolivia aren't strict at all. For example, if the teacher is giving us a lecture and there are a bunch of kids that are talking, the teacher will just talk over them. It’s really hard to concentrate during class!!!

§  You can move your seats wherever you want during class, so by the end of the day the class is a huge mess! There is always a bunch of wrappers on the ground (because people are too lazy to walk t
o the trashcan) and someone always ends up spilling a drink on the floor…..EVERY SINGLE DAY!

§  After school, you eat lunch at home and then you can have a siesta!

This is what my classroom looks like during
class, you can even see some guys playing
volleyball in the back of the class!

Some of my classmates and I during
 our break time!

School is really fun and everyone at school is really nice to me. They are super helpful with me trying to understand and speak Spanish. No one at school can say my name right….they all call me “Shopita” or “Shopira.” I should probably be used to people not saying my name right by now, but it’s super annoying to be called “Shopita.” Sometimes I just give up on my name and I tell people that my name is "Sophie." Learning in Spanish is difficult, but school is really entertaining! There is only one person in my class who speaks English....guess who I sit by everyday???? He’s really nice and I would be really lost without him, thank god someone in my class speaks English. Well, that’s all for now and I will post soon about Carnival and a camping trip!!!!

A picture of my school.

Another picture of my school.