Finally in Tarija

As some of you may know, I switched sceneries, and I am now in southern Bolivia (been here for a little over one week) in a small town called Tarija. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been asked multiple times if I prefer Tarija or urban La Paz. My answer remains constant: I like both places for completely different reasons. Here in Tarija, I get that small town feeling and atmosphere, and the people in Tarija are nicer and friendlier.
When I’m out and about, I usually wonder into the downtown area where there is a ton of boutiques. Since I mention boutiques, I must also comment on prices here. I thought prices in La Paz were astonishing low but here the prices are even more astonishing low. I’ve hardly spent a dime here, which is great because I’m a broke college student. The only thing that I don’t like is that most of the things here are imported from Argentina (which resemble a lot of modern American merchandise) so I’m having a difficult time finding truly authentic Bolivian things.
Since Tarija is small, I’ve practically seem most of the city. I’m not too concerned about becoming bored because I’m sure there is something to do that I haven’t done already. In addition, my evenings are filled with a Spanish language class.
My host family here is awesome. Of course, I have a host mom (named Sandra) and dad (named Daniel). I also have three host siblings. First is Mayra, who is 18 yrs old and gorgeous, and is studying civil engineering at the local university. She and I have become like best friends. Then there is Daniel, who is 17 yrs old, and is finishing up high school. There is Fernando, who is 7 yrs old, and has the cute, big cheeks. Also living in the house is the grandma, who loves to continuously feed me food. Overall, I connect really well with my host family. I also like the fact that I’m the only exchange student living in the house because I’m forced to only speak Spanish, which is great because I’m practicing way more Spanish than I was in La Paz.
I’ve already gone on some pretty cool adventures here, which I’ll blog about in the next couple of days….so stay tuned.