A change of scenery

Sorry for the confusion, but my new blog is going to be located here instead:
http://marieinbolivia.tumblr.com

Hair Loss

So in one of my many preparations for the trip, yesterday I cut ten inches of my hair off!  I've had pretty long hair for a while, and I figure what better time to get a dramatic haircut than right before you are about to flee the country? I decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love, which takes hair donations and makes wigs for children who have allopecia or are going through chemotherapy.  I figure that my hair will be doing better things there than making my neck sweat while I'm in South America.  The next step in the process is mailing in my creepy ponytail to be donated, but until then I've been having a lot of fun waving it in people's faces.  Generally they don't like it, but so far I've thought it was funny every time. 

                 Before                                         After

It's just hair...right?!

So, Bolivia is like next to Mexico, right?

Wrong actually, but don't worry we've all been there.  As I prepare for my trip (T minus 8 days), I figured it would be good to learn a little more about Bolivia.  I thought I would give you, my followers (hi Mom, Dad and Grandma!) a little background information on what I learned.  First of all, here is where it is:

Its border countries are Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile, so it's definitely in the cool crowd of South America.  The clinic where I will be spending most of my time is in Palacios, which is located right underneath that little blue hot air balloon (convenient timing of the photo):

Some other fun things about Bolivia: 

• it is officially known as the "Plurinational State of Bolivia," according to Wikipedia
• they speak Spanish, so I bought the Hunger Games (los Juegos del Hambre) en español
• the region of the Andes mountains in Bolivia used to be a part of the Incan empire, which I associate with llamas, so check out this picture of loving llamas in Bolivia!

Loving Llamas