BEA exchange student Andrea Landivar with her host family the Blaggs. Landivar is sitting between host parents Tracy and Tim Blagg by the fireplace, with Sydney and Eli in front.

It has been a bit of a culture shock for Andrea Lori Landivar.

But, a nice one.

The 17-year-old is an exchange student from Bolivia at Blue Earth Area High School.

The shock hasn’t been the language (she knows English very well) or the school (she already has lots of friends) or being homesick (she isn’t at all).

“I’m a big city girl,” she says. “I live in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the largest city in Bolivia, with two million people.”

Landivar enjoys cheerleading and is a member of the BEA cheerleading team. She also plans to join the basketball team and the 4-H team.

Coming to a city the size of Blue Earth is a whole new experience for Landivar.

“But I love it, it is so cute and everyone is so nice,” she says. “I am really glad I am here.”

Her next shock is living on a farm. Landivar is staying with the Tim and Tracy Blagg family of rural Blue Earth.

“Andrea came here on Aug. 24 and right from the airport we took her to the State Fair for three days,” host mom Tracy Blagg, explains. “Our daughter Sydney was showing her pig at the State Fair, so Andrea got to help in the hog barn.”

The student from Bolivia says she enjoyed the fair, especially the food and the rides.

Landivar, left, with her mother, Karina, father, Johnny and sister, Jimena, back in her home country of Bolivia.

Landivar says one big difference from living in the city to living on the farm is the night sky.

“We don’t really see stars because of all the city lights,” she says. “But here, it is so beautiful. We go outside at night and look up at the sky, and we saw the moon eclipse.”

Her next shock is still to come and is actually something she is looking forward to, although with a slight hesitation.

Winter.

“We don’t have snow and we don’t really have cold,” she says. “Actually, I have never seen snow, so I am really looking forward to it. But maybe not so much of it.”

Landivar’s family back home in Bolivia includes her father, Johnny, mother, Karina, and older sister, Jimea, 21. Her father owns several gas stations and manages them as well, while her mother is a stay-at-home mom.

But here in the U.S., Landivar now has a younger sister and brother. Sydney is 13 and an eighth-grader at BEA and Eli is nine and in the third grade.

They all say, are all getting along very well.

“We are having so much fun, I just love them both,” Landivar says. “My host family is wonderful.”

This is the first time the Blaggs have hosted an exchange student.

“I got a call late in August asking us if we would host Andrea,” Tracy Blagg says. “After a quick family discussion we thought why not. A week later we were getting her room ready as she was flying here.”

Landivar has had no problem fitting in with the Blagg family, or with the students at BEA.

“I love to meet people,” she says. “I love to travel and have new experiences, so while I am here I want to do as many different things as I can.”

That includes joining the cheerleading squad, along with two other BEA exchange students.

“And I am going to go out for basketball now,” she says. “And I also joined the 4-H Club.”

Landivar describes herself as a dreamer.

“Art is my passion,” she says. “And I love nature and animals. I want to go into photography and interior design.”

This year she is taking American history, digital media, choir and world of design. She especially enjoys digital media.

“School is much harder back home,” she says. “We don’t have any options in what we take for classes. And we have different classes every day, not the same ones each day like here.”

At her school in Bolivia she takes math, chemistry, physics, English, art, computer, Spanish, social studies, music, psychology, philosophy and biology.

“Our school year starts in February and runs through November,” she explains. “And I had to do all my work even though I was going to be gone for a year.”

That means Landivar did four months of school work (August, September, October and November) in one month. Then when she goes home in June she will have to do four months of school work (February, March, April and May) in one month’s time again.

“It was pretty hard,” she says. “But it was worth it to be able to come here.”

Landivar has indulged her passion for travel before this trip, including to other South American countries such as Argentina and Brazil.

“I have also been to Miami and to Disney World,” she says. “And I went on a Royal Caribbean cruise to a bunch of islands when I was 15.”

That was for her quinceanera celebration, a Spanish tradition for young girls on their 15th birthday.

“A lot of times it is a really big party,” Landivar says. “But, we had the option of a party or a trip. And I would much prefer to go on a trip than have a party.”

The Blaggs plan on taking their exchange daughter on several trips while she is here, too. She really wants to go to Chicago.

And, later this month, Landivar will be joining other exchange students on a nine-day trip to Washington DC, New York and Niagara Falls.

“I want to see as much (of the U.S.) as I can while I am here,” she says. “It is all so much different from where I come from.”

The Blagg family set up a memory jar for Landivar. She writes every new experience on a slip of paper and puts it in the jar.

It is already almost full, and the way Landivar is going, they will soon need a larger jar.