the adventure begins!

What a day! After over 24 hours of travel, I've finally made it to my new home for the next few months-- Cochabamba, Bolivia. As I'm sitting here in the living room trying to formulate coherent sentences, it's just occurring to me that I had breakfast in North America, lunch (okay, more like a series of small snacks spanning from 4 am to 10 am) in Central America, and dinner in South America. How many people get to say that?

The journey began with a farewell to my mom, sister, and family friends at LAX. At the airport, I met up with Chelsea, a friend from Occidental who's participating in the same program. Thank goodness for my travel buddy! Our first flight to Panama CIty (6 hours) was relatively painless. We had a two-hour layover, then another flight (4 hours) to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. With the time difference, we came in around 4 am and waited for the stores and restaurants to open. Somehow, we passed the time of our six-hour layover by wandering like zombies between three different cafes, figuring out the ATM, re-packing our carry-on bags, and trying to sleep at our gate.

Finally, the time came for our last flight (a quick 45-minute hop to Cochabamba). It was thrilling to watch the terrain change: flat land divided into neat plots, followed by lush, verdant tree-covered mountains, and last, the crinkled brown earth of the altiplano. The earth below us looked like a giant patchwork quilt that had been ironed flat in some places to create the lowlands of the East, but pinched together in others to create the Western Highlands. As we descended, the beautiful sunny weather cast a warm glow around the glittering metal rooftops of the city, welcoming us to our new home.

We were relieved to see a woman standing at the arrivals with a sign that had our names on it. Alejandra, a staff member of the program, accompanied us to our orientation hotel. We spent the afternoon walking around the neighborhood and napping, then dragged ourselves out of bed at 5 pm to find something to eat for dinner. Surprisingly--given the fact that we've only slept for about 3 hours total of the past 24--we managed to locate a working ATM, buy some provisions at a grocery store, and make it back to the hotel without being hit by any cars (we haven't quite figured out the street-crossing strategy yet, besides just going when the locals go). I would call it a successful outing.

We'll be joined by the rest of our group at the hotel for a week of orientation. Until then, we're going to catch up on some ZZZs and prepare for the exciting things ahead!

Thanks for reading! I'll try to keep my blog updated as best I can.

With love and gratitude,

Theresa

#travel #studyabroad #bolivia #student #cochabamba