2 semanas!

I have a little more than 2 weeks left in Chile. Time is FLYING by and im SO not ready. Ive started writting goodbye cards, sometimes i just start crying. I don´t know how to say goodb ye to everyone here, I just dont know how. Saying goodbye to the people in the U.S. was easier because i knew i would see them again in a year but i dont know WHEN ill see these people again. My class graduates in december and they all are going to college. Some of them i WONT see again, EVER, and i dont know how to face that. I feel like ive thought about coming home a lot but now that im here, i feel like time has just FLOWN by. Ive just had to accept that my spanish WONT be perfect, that i wont get to do everthing i would like to. I have been in Chile for almost a YEAR and i STILL havent gone to a soccer game, WHAAATTTTTTT?!??!?

Im going to Viña this weekend, next weekend is my host dad´s birthday ad my class goodbye party. And the next weekend is well... my goodbye. I leave 2 weeks from monday. , get to the US tuesday.

I dont know if ill get around to posting again before i´m home. So thanks for reading my posts, much love from Chile, see you all soon!

casi 10 meses

So I´ve been here almost 10 months, 6 weeks left in Chile. Many people have asked me how i feel about going home soon. I´m not really sure. I think about it every day though. Im excited to see everyone, so excited but I just really can´t imagine myself in the U.S. again. I´ve been here so long, i´ve had to completely adjust to life here, i have a family here, a school here, a LIFE here and the idea of leaving it all and going home, is difficult.

Last week I went to Talca, about an hour away, to visit my friend from wisconsin. We were in the house practically all day because it was so rainy! We watched american movies and even ate american candies that her mother had brought her the week before from the U.S. It was so weird! I even ate PEANUT BUTTER! only an exchanger knows how weird it is to be in another country and forget about things so normal that we used to do/eat. Nutter butters! I just about flipped out hehehe. But then after that weekend i was so excited to see my host family again, i missed them a lot! and it made me sad because ill have to say goodbye to them and i wont know when i´ll see them again. I dont have pictures from those days because my camera was in my backpack at a friends house... so srry.

We´ve had a week of RAIN and WIND so strong! Bridges are falling down all over the country, my city is literally isolated because both sides of the highway have fallen bridges. If someone wants to come here they have to get off a bus, WALK across the weak bridge and someone has to get them on the other side. I didnt have school all week because of it!

My spanish, everyone asks me, its good. Am i fluent? NO . i understand everything, can say everything. I´m not too happy with it becase i have a thick accent. I know HOW to say everything, but when i try to say it, it comes out so gringa! and i dont know if that´ll change at this point. double RRRR´s and LLL´s are the WORST. But hey, Its a ton better than when i got here.

My dog had puppies agaiN! she had three this time, all girls. They are abut 2 weeks old. and so big because they have all the milk to themselves!

Its getting colder here, some mornings i am so cold! but this week hasnt been too cold. We go to school with blouses and ties and pants, less fun.

Here is a picture of me messing around wiht my friends in the lunch hour.
from left to right :Sophia, Fernanda, me and Romina. Those uniforms are for days when we have gym class. Now those uniforms have our class name and nicknames on the back, i dont have a nick name, lura no mas hahhahah i never have nick names!
This last picture is of my host mom ad I in the summer.

Im so sorry i havent been i n contact as much as I should. I didnt realize it would be so hard. Ill be home soon though and ill see you all then. I get home to first week of July.

¡8 meses!

School has actually been going really well! I was surprised! i have about a B/ B+ average...
im so proud of myself considering all my books and tests are in spanish! I got the 3d highest grad eon my French Revolution test and an A on a book test... wooohooo

Im just very buisy every night so I have had no time to update. Plus i was waiting for a picture., Above is a picture of my and my friend Fernanda in our school uniforms! that´s how they look! but in a few weeks we have to come to school with blouses and ties...not fun! It´s fall here... summer ended and we feel it... Soon itll be winter... im going to be so cold! I took my friends ice skating, (pic below) ... most of them have never gone... there was a little rink in the mall a few weeks ago.

Tomorrow is my 8th month chilean anniversary! That´s a long time huh??????

Because of the hour changes.... the US time is only an hour earlier than mine in Chile!

It´s been weird being an exchnage student and watching the American economy... the dollar... falling and falling,,, its been interesting... while Ive been worrying about how much money to take out of the bank because of the exchange rate, chileans are rushing to the beach because of the cheaper American dollar. The rates here are written by American dollars... so to go to argentina, a chilean has to change their peso to american dollars and the in argentina change it to argentinean pesos and vice versa... our economy really affects the world. At least they are able to enjoy our bad economic situation. When i got here the dollar was worth about 512 chilean pesos and now its abou 450... big change... i get about 15 cents less out of every dollar.

Love ya all!!!!!!!! three months left!

Colegio

I havent updated in a while because i dont have any pictures-- I really want to get a apiffy one up of me in my uniform :)

Ive been in school for a few weeeks now. It is actually fun. I am learning and always have homework, trying to remember my study tactics. Its been about 10 months since i´ve had to take school really seriously. But it´s going pretty well. I dont have to lowest grades in my class, nor the higheest (as expected) but i´m pretty proud of my academic status.

So life i busy here. I get off school at 5 everyday, excet wednesday (at one) so that doesnt leave much time for after school activities. My class is raising money for a school field trip to Chillán for a week in october. Everyday I hear howmuch they want me to go. They even have me on the fund raising list. "We´ll raise the money for your plane too!!!!" but sadly, i dont think itll happen. Im coming around to my last weeks here. I have about 3 months left but time FLIES when you´re having fun right?

this week has been harder than most. My grandfather died yesterday(US mother´s father): its really hard being so far away and feeling so disconnected. I really wish I could be in Washington with everyone right now. When i got to school in the morning we got news that a chilean friend of mine is partially paralyzed. It´s not clear what happened. I went to see her in the afternoon. The doctors say she ha a good recovery outlook. But my chilean family has been really supportive and I´ll get through it.

Thanks for the support.

Much love

anniversary

So it´s march!!! and almost my chilean anniversary! Ive been in this amazing country seven months tomorrow!

School starts up again on wednesday. Im sort of excited because i can´t wait to see some people but I also did enjoy my summer here (who doesnt like summer, right?). Ive been getting ready for schoool, buying school pencils, notebooks, uniforms, and trying to focus extra hard on my spanish. this semester will matter for me academically. I think i need to come home with a sheet filled with my grade reports and for credit, i need to pass my classes. but, i understand everything now, except weird vocabulary, and i think this semester will be a lot easier.

Tomorrow my older host siblings go to college in Santiago. Ill miss them a lot! The summer has been great with my family..

That´s really all that has been going on. It about 80 degrees here, unlike in MN (hahahah), but some days the temperature can climb up to 90 or higher.

I have to go eat lunch but i wanted to update.

Playa, Iloca

A few weeeks ago i went to the beach with my host family. it was b-e-autiful!

here are some pictures:

You know you´re chilean when....

I just thought i´d put this up... stolen from another blog. I laughed so hard.... for all my chilean exchange friends out there....

of course these are generalizations (?) about chile so yeah....


You know you´re chilean when........

-Your speech is filled with words like: cachai, weon, carrete, filo, po, fome, güata, and bakan.
-You know what flaite is and how to spot and imitate them.
-You're ALWAYS late. I was 10 minutes late once, and actually proud of myself because yes, here, 10 minutes late is actually fairly early.
-Argentinos are pesados. That's just how it is.
-You also don't fall well to Bolivians or peruanos.
-You understand what "falling well" is.
-You'd probably die without bread. For serious.
-You've seen the large group of people fighting for the fresh bread as it comes out of the ovens in the supermarket.
-You've been part of that group of people.
-You find yourself walking out into the street, even if there's a car coming, because you know they will always stop for you.
-Catcalls are a normal, daily thing.
-You can recognize gringos a mile away....but no longer include yourself as one of them.
-You demand things, don't ask. Such as food. You will take food from someone while "asking" them to borrow you it.
-Every desert you eat includes manjar.
-You drink pap or kapo
-You drink tea. Every day. For onces, of course.
-People going out a lot is normal. People who don't go out a lot is kind of....strange.
-You are overly honest/blunt with people.
-Most things you eat come with mayonaise. ick. Or palta.
-It's strange for anyone over the age of 11 to not have a cell phone.
-You know that colo-colo is a fútbol team.
-You root for either colo-colo, cobrelua(just butchered that, I know), o la U.
-You know the chants for all the futbol teams.
-Flushing toilet paper just seems.....weird.
-Seeing a house without a fence around it is utterly shocking. Even more so if it has two stories.
-Everything you eat either has salt or lemon on it. Everything.
-You eat ice cream very often, even when it's cold, and know that you can find somewhere that sells ice cream every corner or so.
-You have a favorite brand of pisco.
-You can dance the cueca. Or be cool like Simon, and just clap when cueca music is played(even if it's in a store jaja)
-Not seeing mountains is a cause for concern.
-You can tell that someone's NOT from Chile because they speak slower and clearly(aka, they're easier to understand)
-To be vegetarian is just....odd.


jijijijiji, basically this post was utterly pointless.... but it entertained me so i thought i´d share it.