25 Hours Until Departure

Just checked AA.com to see when I could check-in online for the flight, and American Airlines rescheduled the flight without notifying us! The flight now leaves Reagan National Airport at 7pm instead of 6:05pm. How sneaky! We will now arrive at 5:15am on Friday morning (same Time Zone).

Regardless, my visa application has been printed, all bags are in the process of being packed, and I have all technology accommodated!

Bolivia has a different voltage... they're at 220 volts. American voltage is a lot less than that... but thank God my Apple products work up to 240 volts! No need to worry about adaptors.

Packing for a ~30 day winter trip (it's winter down there) is actually pretty difficult! We are only allotted one bag per person; even if you pay extra you're not allowed to bring more bags-- it's called a Baggage Embargo (http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/boxBagEmbargo.jsp).

My bag being packed

 So, we are struggling to pack everything into our bags. Each person can bring 50 pounds. It's like a game-- how much can you pack to get as close to 50 lbs without reaching it?

Since it is winter in Bolivia, we need vitamins so that we will be able to stay healthy! We bought some Airborne chewables and some hand sanitizer. Woohoo!

Cannot wait to get on the plane and fly the 3863.0 miles to the city!

I will be uploading pictures regularly. Check back here to see pictures from Bolivia!

9 Days!

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update my blog recently. School ended and summer has begun. I have been working on getting things together for my vacation.

As of now 9 DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE FOR BOLIVIA!!

I am ecstatic. I cannot wait for the food, the culture, the people. 

However, I want to make the most of my experience in Bolivia. I rarely get the opportunity to visit a developing nation, and I feel as though I should be doing some volunteer work while I'm down there. My grandparents moved to a new house in Calacoto, an apartment. Fortunately for me, their new home is 3 blocks from the UNICEF Headquarters in La Paz! I sent an email over to someone down there with my resume, but I haven't received a response. I think I'm going to call the DC office and try to get things squared away. I can't believe I haven't thought of this before, and I couldn't imagine wasting such an amazing opportunity. Since my mom and I will be living off of my grandparent's hospitality while we are down there, I really should not do any field work. It would be much more interesting to do field work down there, but then again I don't have any experience in water treatment or doing any of the work they will likely do. It still would be amazing to volunteer in the office and be privy to Bolivian issues and the role of international organizations in the country. Any ideas on where I should volunteer???