My update

Hey you all so I now I haven’t really posted in a while and I apologize. Well I guess I’ll just start from where I last left off. I had left to go work in Bolivia at the beginning of September. I was going to work for an alumn who owns a bookstore there. The job wasn’t the greatest. I essentially managed the bookstore (priced books, sold books, sold camping/hiking gear, inventory, and few marketing and product development projects). I didn’t like the job mainly because I felt like I wasn’t being paid enough to live and they also backed out on paying for my initial visa. The store had a really nice selection of books in English though, and my roommate while there who has traveled throughout South America, says the store might have the best selection of books in the continent. Needless to say I did my fare share of reading while I was there and considered making a book club on the blog. Books I read included: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, some classic Stephen King, The Exorcist, The Bourne Identity, and a few others I can’t remember and aren’t really noteworthy. This part of my job was actually pretty cool especially reading books that I really never got a chance to read before and probably would never bother reading.

Aside from the job Bolivia definitely grew on me. The first few weeks I really disliked Bolivia especially La Paz which was the city I was living in. However, after being there for a while and meeting some cool people I started to like it more and more. It’s really a hole in the wall type country, but it definitely has its high points (hah get it, because of elevation). Due to my low income I didn’t get a chance to travel much, but I did visit the town of Coroico and Copacabana. Coroico is in the western part of the country and I got to see some cool animals and I went on some really cool hikes. Copacabana is right on the edge of Lake Titicaca. In this town I also went hiking and even made it to what is known as the Sun Island and camped on one of the beaches. Since it was low season I got an entire beach to myself. It was probably one of the coolest things I’ve experienced when I woke up for the sunrise. I would’ve liked to visit the southern part of Bolivia where the largest salt flat in the world is located and there are also some other towns and cities that are supposed to be pretty cool. Also southern Bolivian girl are supposed to be really pretty. If you guys ever end up in La Paz though you should check out this pub called Oliver’s Travels. I started going to this place on weekends to watch football games. After a while I was there almost every day. The bartenders there are really cool and really interesting. Not the most ideal place if you want a Bolivian experience. On weekends we would stay in the bar after it closed and just watch youtube videos. These were hilarious since the bartenders were English they would play videos that had been hits in England and I would show them videos from the US. I definitely introduced them to drinking out of cups. Here are videos you guys should check out: Sir Peter, Urban Sports, old gregg, and Rowan Atkinson.

Because La Paz is the highest major city in the world the airport and planes that land there are pretty special. This also means that flights to La Paz are pretty pricy. I ended up finding a deal on a flight from Lima, Peru back home. I figured I would backpack starting in La Paz and end in Lima. My trip went from La Paz, Puno, Cusco, Machu Pichu, Arequipa, and finally Lima. I did this over a span of about 2 weeks. Each place was really cool and really interesting. Arequipa was my favorite city though. It wasn’t too big or too small and there was just so much to do. You can go hiking, dirt biking, rafting, sand boarding (not in Arequipa but close by), and a bunch of other stuff. My favorite thing though is that it’s not that big of a tourist attraction so there aren’t as many gringos walking around compared to the other towns making the experience a bit more authentic.

While I was in South America I decided I wanted to apply for Pharmacy school. This had always been something I had thought about, but just never really committed myself to pursuing. Because of my indecisiveness there are a few requirement I need to apply that I never fulfilled while I was at Carleton. These requirements were the main reason why I decided to come back earlier than anticipated. I’ll fulfill most of those requirement this semester and depending on what I want to do will take one last class I need this summer or in the fall. I also got an internship at the American Red Cross. I work in the preparedness and marketing department. Its actually pretty cool I started a project making postcards and ads for tattoo parlors to take bloodborne pathogens classes.

For the time being I’m just enjoying life in Chicago especially since I feel like I was a bit disconnected with the city once I left for Carleton. I’ll try to post more often or find something that makes me blog like song of the month or idiot of the week. Well I’m sure I’ll see some of you since MIAC’s are coming up, if not hopefully I’ll see you guys soon. Also I drew out a shirt design for the brocation on a piece of paper but I don’t have Photoshop so I dunno when I can get the design to all of you, but I will keep you all posted.

Fredy