First wave of culture shock:
Mississauga. Who would have guessed that going from Halifax to Mississauga I would experience culture shock? Arriving at the airport in Toronto was great, meeting the other people from the three Canada World Youth groups going to Bolivia got everyone excited and it seemed like this experience would be a breeze.
Then I was dragged away from the english group and brutally thrown into the french group (well it may not have been that inhumane..). Immediately I became lost, going right when the others went left. The only consolation was that there was one other girl in the group who couldn't speak french as well, and then.. she quit, opting to switch into an english program.
When our group arrived at the hotel (the two english groups went to another hotel) we were split in half, with 4 girls in each room. I ended up in a room with a girl from Quebec who speaks only a little english, but who understands it well enough. At first this terrified me, but as the day wore on I realised what a great opportunity this was. I had already learned (or at least remembered) more french in one day from her then I thought possible and we found many other ways to communicate.
The first 3 days in Mississauga were exhausting. The first day many of us english speakers got headaches from trying to translate the French. We had meetings from 9 in the morning to 9 at night, with a few breaks and longer breaks for lunch and dinner. By the end of the night I was so exhausted I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The three days flew by and before I knew it we were at the airport at 7 in the morning waiting for our flight. We had 3 different flights and didn't arrive in Bolivia until 1:30 in the morning. We then all piled into these two “buses” and made the trek to our next orientation camp.

Second wave of Culture Shock:
When got there we were greeted by the group of Bolivian participants. At first we were all too tired to want to meet anyone new, but as soon as we saw the room full of balloons and the welcome signs we were helpless. The welcome was so incredibly nice and meeting all the girls in our exchange was very emotional. We ate some rice pudding and a type of fried bread with cheese in it then chose our beds (6/8 of us to a room) and then fell asleep immediately.
I woke up freezing. Sure it was only around 14 degrees, warm by a Canadians standards, but it wasn't what I expected at this time of year. I decided a nice hot shower would be a quick remedy. Little did I know Bolivian's have little to none “hot” water. Why would they need it? It doesn't get too cold, and when it does it's not for very long. I realised later that if you turn the shower pressure down you can have a hot shower, just with little water. I have never started my day with a cold shower instead of a hot one but It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though, and it definitely woke me up!
We had breakfast (fruit and bread) then we all hung out outside (though it was so windy, and quite cold) and got to know each other.
The next three days went surprisingly fast. On the second day we chose our “counterparts”, the Bolivian girls who we would be living with and who we would spend a lot of our time with. The Canadians and the Bolivians each wrote down three names of who they would want for their counterpart. Then the supervisors chose who would get who based on that. Of course, not everyone would get their first, second or in some cases even third choice. I received one of my top choices and was so excited. She is a very sweet girl, only 17, she speaks only a little (un poco) english but seems very eager to learn English and French, and excited to teach me Spanish.
Third (and biggest so far) Culture Shock:
We all drove out to Santa Cruz together from the camp that we were staying at. We arrived at one of the universities in Santa Cruz and and soon as we arrived people began to leave with their families. My “family” was one of the last to arrive and I soon found out it was because they live thirty minutes away from the city. I was so shocked and felt my heart drop when I realised that. Not only am I away from home, my family and friends. But now I'm not even close to the friends I made on this trip. No one who I can call up and meet if I'm having a bad day and just want to speak English or even French. On the way to the house I felt myself getting more and more upset, even though the family that I will be with for the next three months is incrediably accomadating and kind. We arrived at the house, the taxi driver having to drive over the lawn of a playground because the road has been torn up to be paved later on this summer. I was shocked to see the house, it is like no house I've seen before. The kitchen is not attached and is on the other side of the lawn, and there is 2 bedrooms and one bath. It seems as though the larger bedroom is also used as the living room. The weird thing about the house is that none of the rooms have doors leading from one to the other. All the doors lead outside onto the porch area. I think I will really like it in the summer. The family (which consists of 3 girls, the mother and father) was kind enough to offer me a room all to myself. I feel bad about taking the room though, and hopefully, when I get over my culture shock and don't feel as though I need time to myself, I will offer to share the room with my counterpart.
The family has two dogs (quite big ones) and a cat that just had kittens. They are gorgeous! Couldn't be more than a few days old.
I'm panicking a bit because I see a computer but don't think they have internet and if they do, it's dial-up. I know that seems spoiled but I need access to the internet for my schoolwork as I am taking 2 online courses come September. Also I would love to be able to skype my friends and family because I miss them terribly right now. It hasn't even been a week and I can't imagine being away for another one let alone 6 months.
My first night here and I'm already crying my eyes out. I just keep telling myself it will be a good experience, I will learn to communicate, I can already understand some conversations that happen around me in Spanish. I'm glad tonight all the people in the program are meeting for dinner. After that I won't see anyone until Monday. The other girls are going out dancing either tomorrow or saturday since tomorrow (Friday the 6th) is Bolivia's birthday. But my counterpart and I are not, since we live so far away and she is only 17. I think we will go to the movies though, which will be interesting!