La Vida....

Every day i´m loving Chile more and more. It is so gorgeous where i live now! From the morning hours on our balcón where i watch the sun rise about the kiwi grove, cherry trees and grape vines to the late evening when the sun dissapears behinnd the Andes mountain in a cloud of orange, purple and red I realize how lucky i am to be here. (view from my bedroom below)

It´ll be a different Christmas the year, in 100 degree heat and so far away from home. I just want to take this time to thank everyone who got me here. I realize i havent exactly kept up to my promises i gave before leaving of emailing everyone all the time and spenting lots of time writing letters. Ididnt know how impossible that would end up being. I have been so lucky to have the life ive had and although I have bad days here, i think that coming to chile was the best decision i´ve ever made. So thank you everyone and although it may seem like ive forgotten you all, i think about everone one of you constantly, especially in the holiday season.

I have completed four and a half months here in chile. In some ways i feel like ive been here for years but in others i feel like i walked into airport security in Minneapolis yesterday. It´s been a tough ride. I´ve been pushed emotionally more than i thought was possible, wanted to give up so many times but i´ve always gotten through it. So here i am, almost halfway through and so happy it´s not my time to go yet.

The semester exchangers leave in about three weeks and i will be the only remaining AFS student in Curicó. I´m so sad to see them go. We have been through everything together and i really do think of them as a third family. I dont think i could have done this without them. But they are going and the only thing i can think is how happy i am to be staying until june. My spanish isnt ready and im just not ready to leave this country, who knows if i every will be.

Ive finished school for now and it´s summer break!!! (picture of part of my class below. Almost all guys although we are missing about 6 girls. The guys are thrying the be women and we are trying t be men?) I havent quite figured out what im going to do with all the time! today i went running with my friend karina and it was so hot! Everyone here keeps telling me just how hot it will be in summer, im very nervous..... :( It doesnt help that i cant leave the house without 50 sunblock. I burn so fast, I dont remember burning so fast in the US. I guess this prove the global warming throry considering the hole in the ozone layer is very close to me.

Our dog in the house has 5 puppies! they were born a few weeks before i arrived in the house. Of course i fell in love with them right away! But we have to sell them now and two of them are already gone. :((((((

So ill update you all after Christmas. Any questions?
FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!
PASCUA FELIZ! Para todos! Pascua feliz para todos..........
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Lura

The South Tour

The Chilean South tour was absolutely amazing. There were 40 of us exchangers from all over the world. We left the 8th and came home the 15h of november. Throughout the tour we visited Chiloé, Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas, Pucon, Valdivia and many more cities. We we able to do a zip line through a chilean forest and above a gorgeous river with rapids. Every day we traveled to different cities, museams, fairs and nature scenes. It really is true that Chile is like a whole world in one country. In the north it is pure desert and sand dunes but in the south it is cold with crystal lakes and volcanoes. Hopefully one day I will go to the north and put up some pictures for you guys.

Back to the tour.... For three nights in a row we stayed in Puerto Varas where we made day trips to see different beautiful locations. In Puerto Varas we stayed in little 5 person cabins overlooking a gorgeous lake. We had kitchens and everything so us U.S. girls got together and made all the foods that we missed from the U.S.: french toast, chocolate chips pancakes, ramen noodles, and quesadillas (well... mexico...).

During one of our day trips we went to Chiloé which is an island off of chile. It was so pretty and unique. There were old houses built on poles above the oceans. I have never heard of that before in any other location. We were able to go to the art fairs and buy hand-made crafts (I was going to try to send out presents from these fairs for christmas but there just wasnt time for all of that).

Meanwhile, in the bus, we all tried our best to speak only in Spanish and got to know each other. We talked about all our different cultures from around the world.

On one of our last days we went ice skating. I, being a Minnesotan, didnt have very many issues getting out there and skating, but that wasnt the case for everyone. Many of the exchange students had never seen a skating rink outside of the hollywood movies. We all helped out though and by the end everyone was skating together.


It´s such a weird feeling being an exchange student because I get to be so close to so many people. But, at same time, while we´re laughing together, I know that the chances of us ever meeting in our lifetime are close to nothing. The tour brought us all really close and well... all of them, but 4, are leaving in January and I will never see them again. Funny how that works huh?

I dont know what else i could write about the tour. My posting on the blog has been close to zero because, as most of you know, i changed families here and internet access is less available in my new house.

I only have one more week of school before my chilean summer! I am very excited, it should be great! School has been going really well. I do basically everything now and understand it. I took my first novel quiz this week. I read El Túnel in spanish and took a test on it! AND and i got an A! It was so amazing because I was able to understand everything. My class was a little mad though becuase my teacher was so proud of me that he made a point to tell the whole junior class about my high grade on the test. It didnt help that the majority of the class got Bs, Cs or lower. :)

I think that is everything for now but HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I love you all!

Halloween And Los Andes

We had Halloween this week! It wasnt nearly the same as home but we did celebrate. Caroline and Fani helped plan a halloween party for the elementary school. I dressed up as an angel, fani was something like a wizard?, and Caroline was a woman from Greece. Coni was snow white! It was so adorable!

Yesterday I went to Los Andes with Fani and her confirmation group. The church was

so beautiful! We left in the bus at 3 45 in the morning. I only got 2 hours of sleep. then we drove for 3 hours to Los Andes. After the church service we went to Santiago and explored a chilean museum where i had to convince everyone that buffalo are not extinct and that I have been near one before. They didnt believe when i said it was a ranch and not a zoo. Finally, we returned home at about eight. It was such a tiring but fun day.

Colegio Rauquen´s Anniversary

Today was the presentation for homecoming court. I am the homecoming (in spanish "anniversary") queen of my team There are four teams of students and this week there are dozen of activities. Throughout the week (mainly today and tomorrow) we compete in EVERY activity. I have to represent my team. I was so suprised to be picked at queen because usually the exchangers arent even considered but well..... i was! The picture on the left is me and the king of our team (alianza) before our presentation.

We came into the gym in a car. I was wearing this purple dress that was completely, utterly, see everything tight. I really have put on weight here :) Then i changed my clothes and did a tap dance. Most of the people here have no idea what it is. They kinda just stared and didnt know what else to do. Then he sang a song and we danced and then came our salsa routine. I learned salsa! Im trying to load a video, we´ll see how it ends up working. There were a lot of technical difficulties and because of that, and disorganization in general, we went over our time and lost a lot of points. The choreography in the tap piece is that of my tap teacher in Minneapolis, Kaleena Miller (I wanted to make sure i noted that). Im still happy with our presentation though because it was a TON different than the rest of them.

Then tonight i had to make an original dress (made out of something different than fabric) we didnt know we had to make it until about 5, and it was for 8 oclock! So we rushed and made one of out black trash bags, chip bags, and coke tops. It ended up being really cool looking! and our team got the most points for that section! Right now my team (naranja our mascote being a fanta bottle) is in second place! Ill try to get the pictures from my friend to put up.

The photo on the left is a picture of all the girls in my class (11 and there are 38 people in our class, puro hombres) doing our cheerleader routine. We ended up making it up all together and it ended up being really cute. We are going to perform it tomorrow as part of anniversary.

below is a picture of me and karina after our presentation.

La Virgen del Carmen

So sorry! This blog seems to be going down hill because I have been so bad at updating! Im trying not to use the computer very much because I need to improve my Spanish and well.... typing in English doesnt help that. Between the time it takes to type a message for my blog and load all my pictures up, it takes like 45 minutes to write an entry.

But, now to an actual update. Last weekend there was a parade in Curicó. the whole weekend was festivities and so I didnt have school yesterday! I feel like every week here there is something going on! I believe the base of the festivities was the parade of the Virgin Carmen. A bunch of men walk her statue through all the streets of Curicó. It was so beautiful!

A common amazing Chilean thing that I see here is the muscians in the picture to the left. They have a strap connected to their foot so that when they stomp, it bangs some tamborines (is that the word?) together above their head. They also use sticks to bang on their drums and sometimes have a harmonica in their mouth. Then, they start to dance really fast in a circle, keeping all the instrument sounds in a rythm. It is super hard and really cool to watch. On Sunday there was a whole group of them playing in the Plaza with a bunch of little boys too, it was so cute!

After the parade, I wanted to take a picture next to a huaso on a horse. When I tried to take the picture, he jumped off his horse and insisted that I take it ON the horse. So, remembering my horse camp training and manuvering with a skirt, I swumg myself up there and took a picture. So there it is!

Yesterday was "dia de los tios", the equivalent of "teacher appreciation day". It was a complete surprise for our teachers. We gave our homeroom teachers presents and then had an auditorium. But what I thought was really funny is what happened with out home room teacher. He is our professor de gym class. Every time there is a birthday here (on ly for the boys), all their classmates basically ambush them, grab their legs and arms and in a circle fling them into the air. The they bring them back down until they almost touch the ground and all kid the birthday kid in the butt and fling them back up again. They count up to the number of years the birthday kid is turning. Ive heard that it really is painful..... im sure it is.,... well yesterday they did it to my profe! I dont know why he ended up agreeing but he did... Chile is so different than the US.

Last thursday Fani competed in a debate, in English! and they received third place! I was so proud of her! I got to go and us American girls rode in the back of our teacher´s pick-up truck to debates. That was random but I had to fit it in.

During the auditorium yesterday, Fani performed a traditional Chilean dance with her classmates, in front of the school! Here is that picture.

Alright and the last piece of information is that this morning I was on my way to school on my bike. I had made it only to my corner, saw an escolar (kinda like a school bus but a yellow van) and stopped at the corner. I should have stopped more on the sidewalk but my the front wheel was partly in the street. The driver didnt watch at all, went to turn into the street and pulled my bike under the van. I jumped completely off my bike and watched it fall under the van. the lady jumpe out and startd yelling at me and then a witness started yelling at her and it was just a mess. Luckily im not hurt and the police are talking to the women to make her pay for the bike. hopefully she will.. it´s completely wrecked. I guess I just have bad luck with bikes huh?

Thanks for reading this and hopefully the long entry partly made up for like lack of writing.

Love and miss you all!

Bike crash

Hey everyone!

I have a story... so yesterday I was at soccer pratice and it went really well anyways...I was on my way home from practice on my bike and it was getting dark to so i was trying to hurry a little. There was someone walking in front of me on the sidewalk and so I tried to kinda manuver around. My front wheel kinda fell into a crack, im not exactly sure what happened, and I fell completely over and hit my head on a metal fence. I was all alone and frustrated and in pain. Some teenager helped me up and then walked off into a store. So, i limped home half walking, half biking the whole way.

Now I have a bruise on my face and a killer scratch on my leg the size of a CD. It hurts so bad to walk! But I insisted on going to school today and it ended up being a great day.

During physical education the girls in my class decide to present a cheerleader dance instead of doing the physical tests (everyone here is OBSESSED with the idea of cheerleaders. And it makes sense because almost every chick flick is somehow centered around them. When i got here that was one of the three questions asked "Que typo de musica te gusta? Tienes un pololo en EEUU? Eres un cheerleader?" heheehe.) And then they realized that they dont know any cheerleader steps and of course the assumed I did. Which, i mean, i do know some but not very many. I showed them a few and now Im going to make up the whole dance! It should actually be really fun and painful considering my current condition with my leg but yep, im going to do that now.

(Sorry to write this for everyone to see but Linda, I did get your card. Thanks so much and I have been trying to reach you since I was in Miami. Now that I have your card I will send you a letter through the mail (I wrote it like 2 months ago) and hopefully we can get e-mail working too. Grandpa, I got your card too. thanks! Ive been writing you a card to send also. Laurel, you know ive gotten all your cards, thanks so much!)

But yep, thats all for now. I kind consider this week my first week as a real student here. Something just clicked and now I really think I can do most everything. It takes a very long time to do assignments though..... but i learn a ton of spanish and at the same time, lose a ton of english!!!!!!!!! noo!!!!!!!!!

I love getting snail mail from people! Im not going to put my address up here because technically everyone in the world can read this but e-mail me Luraenchile@gmail.com and I would love to send it to you!

Thanks for all the love and support!

Biking to the Mountains

So guess what i did today?

biked 40 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (60 kilos)

Yesterday i was in gym class and my teacher asked me if i wanted to bike to los queñes. I knew it was VERY far but I said I would go. Kozue agreed to go with me. So this morning we set out at about 8:30. Most of the kids going were from the Rauquen middle school. I´m kinda confused as to why we got to go. But, we left and biked for a few hours to the mountains. i was so tired!

Once we reached the mountains there was a dirt road, completely uphill. I started going up it but then i felt really feverish. I dont know if it was the altitude or what. But, we rode in the car the rest of the way up. then after lunch i was going to go and bike the part i missed but i almost fell over when i tried to start on the bike so, i got back in the car.

Once we got to the paved section I got back on my bike and rode all the way home.

Now i´m just so sun burnt! because people dont really use sun screen here so i always forget im so much more fair than people here. My whole face is like a tomato!!!!!!!!! and speaking of tomatos, did you all know that cutting a tomato in half and then rubbing it on a sunburn makes it heal faster? yep, learned that here.

The graffiti here is so different. The picture above is of me at a bus stop. It seems that most of the graffiti here is not tags, its messages of love. "Soledad te amo" means "i love you soledad."Its just so interesting. The other griffiti here tends to be messages of protest written by different racial groups.

Chile is just so gorgeous! I love it so much here. I cant even explain!

fani´s birthday and debate

Hey guys!

Saturday was Fani´s birthday party. It was really fun. Some of her friends came over and we just danced all night. They were trying to teach me how to dance like a chilean.... its difficult. The dances here are hard because in between like meringue and cumbía there are like these choreographed danced that EVERYONE knows. And i just stand there looking ridiculous!

Today was debate day at school. I had to debate in favor of the death penalty. My team was all the exchange girls. We had to debate first in english and then summarize in spanish. It was hard because the english ( i had a surprising amount of trouble with it) went fast but the spanish was a lot harder. We had not been told exactly what to do or how the debate was going to work. Somehow we ended up doing mostly history of the death penalty and i had to give the arguments. but, it ended up working out just fine.

Yesterday was my first soccer game! we lost both games but it doesnt matter because I played! I´m not very good but I tried and felt really tough when i got smacked in the head by a soccer ball and kept playing.

Well that´s all for now!

Day trip with Caroline.

Last sunday, i went with Caroline´s family to the campo! It was very fun and so gorgeous! i dont know how Chile does it, :). We can drive like twenty minutes and just end up in these amazing places where no one is and would be impossible to find in the US! We spent a while there enjoying the scenery and then that night we went out to the disco.

I havent been posting recently because everything here is just feeling like life to me now. And I dont have very many super exciting happenings. Right now im applying to go on the Chile south tour for a week in november. I really hope get in. If so, i will be able to go to Chiloe and hot springs, it should be absolutely amazing!

Random story that my mom thought i should put up. In Chile, they are super strict about uniforms and HAIR. Boys in my school have to keep their hair at a certain length! Its funny because a guy from administration will come into the room, scan up and down the aisles and pull out guys whose hair is even a tiny bit too long. My classmates all begin to try to comb their hair in a special way so it appears shorter. We even had one guy hide behind my desk while the room was being checked.....

Last night I went to an exchange student sleepover. it was at my friend Nath´s house. We stayed up late and talked and ate torta. It was quite fun.

Today is the birthday party for my host sister. She is going to be 17 tomorrow! and it´s Jake´s birthday back home, 18 already. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!!!!!!! although im pretty sure he´ll never read that because he told me he doesnt read my blog. I wonder how may people are even still reading this site......

School is still... welll school. Caroline and i have decided that we have efficially been more bored here in chile than ever in our lives. Of course we are not bored all the time but during class, well.... lets just say that i have learned to be able to sit for 45 minutes, doing absolutely nothing and not remember what i was thinking about the whole time. I can understand the material if i think really, super hard but i just cant keep up with class work. Most of the information here is given by the teacher and the kids write it down, by hand. I cant write that fast! but things are coming along and hopefully, even though ive been saying this forever, ill be a normal student soon.

I have to go help clean the house but I hope everyone reading this, wherever you are in the world, is doing fantabulous!

Chao!

Fiestas Patrias Festivities

Fiestas Patrias is over now. It was so much fun!

I dont remember when it was but we went to Romeral as a family to eat at Tia Gema and Tio Jose´s house. It was a great time. In the afternoon we went to put flowers on my host grandpa´s grave so i took a picture of the cemetary. The cemetaries here are less formal you could say, but they are so much prettier in my opinion.

During the day on the 18th, we kept the store open and gave away more than a hundred empanadas that we made. Now i know how to make them. Everyone was so excited! We had decorations in the shop up and everything. When there werent people in the store, my host mom and I danced the Cueca with Coni.

Later, after onces we went to the Ramada which is a big festival for Fiestas Patrias. There were a million stands selling empanadas and churros and everything chilean. At that point I had eaten so many empanadas that the idea of them made me sick. There were also places to play ring-the-bottle and other fair games. It was quite fun. I didnt take many pictures there except I did take a picture of a few drunks who were celebrating. They started dancing Cumbía in the middle of the Ramada and everyone was watching them.They just seemed so happy.

Yesterday in the morning my host dad, Fani and I went to a military parade. They had all the huaso outfits and everything. I took a million pictures. I need a website that quickly uploads pictures! The fire fighters here are all volunteers and so there was a little ceremony thing for recognition of their service.

Last night we went to el campo which means we left the city and went out the the country side. My family friend´s cousin lives in the house, i believe. I dont really know how we knew these people... but anyways... we ate onces, flew kites and danced cueca. It was so beautiful because there were horses back behind the house on a hill and we could get really close to them without them running away.

Now i´m ate home because my alarm clock didn´t go off and i´m waiting until after

lunch to go back. In short, Fiestas Patrias was very fun and i´m sad that it´s over!

Beginning of Fiestas Patrias

So this week was the beginning of the celebration of Fiestas Patrias (technically September 18th). Fiestas Patrias is like 4th of July for chileans but SO much more important and festive. my class has been decorating the room for weeks and yesterday we spent the whole day dancing Cueca and eating empanadas.

It really is amazing to see how much more patriotic people here are. I´m personally not very patriotic at all about the U.S. and with current events I´m many times embarrassed to admit where i´m from. Here, the rooms are all decorated with signs saying "¡Viva Chile Mierda!" and everyone is so proud to dance the national dance. I wish my computer didnt take so long to load so I could show you all my pictures. My classmates worked so hard at every step of getting ready, staying after school and making all these spin wheel things (in the picture below on the wall) from posterboard.

It all started on Wednesday. My class performed a choreographed dance piece of all the Chilean dances. I had to wear a vestido de guasa for the Cueca. It went alright and it was fun to see everyone all dressed up. On the left is a picture of me and some of my classmates in traditional outfits for the Cueca. Everyone was so surprised that I had figured out how to do it being non-chilena and all.

As I was saying, yesterday we had a school festival. In the morning we just kinda sat around eating empanadas and talking while we listened to Chilean music. Then in the afternoon there were animals which had been brought for the festival. In one game, everyone sits in a circle and in the middle are about 4 kids who try to catch a rabbit running around. As you probably guessed I thought it was very sad. Right when I thought we were going to leave I was asked by one of my classmates if I wanted to dance the Cueca. I said sure but that I wasnt all that good yet. He said it really didnt matter. So, we went into the gymnasio and there were hundreds of people waiting. I asked why and my classmate said that only 4 people from each grade get to dance. I was so confused as to why I was dancing. After a few dances the principal said "now we are going to eliminate two pairs". It was then that I learned that I had been entered into a Cueca competition!!!!!!!!! Me! the gringa! I messed up so much! But, i luckily wasn´t eliminated in the first round, I was eliminated in the round before they gave away medals. The picture on the left is a side on the bleechers and this is about a third of the people who were watching me. You can see how an exchanger would stand out here in Chile. Anyways, I still was very proud of myself for doing the competition, even though I didnt intend to, and I felt incredibly watched. The rest of the dancers had Cueca outfits on and so I was even more happy that I was eliminated right away in my school uniform.

We got to go home at one and then later in the night I went out to the centro with my friend Karina. We went shopping and ate ice cream, it was quite fun. Tonight i´m going to my first Chilean fiesta! yay! and i dont have school until thursdays because of Fiestas Patrias!

Feliz Cumpleaños Chile!

Orientation in Concepción

Last weekend was the AFS orientation for all the exchangers in my region!

I left home on friday morning (i got to miss school!) at about 10 to catch my train. All of us kids from Curicó met up at the train station (us in concepción). Those guys are awesome! Anyways, we took a two hour train ride and then a two hour bus ride to Concepción. The city is really beautiful and apparently it is on the ocean but we didnt have a bus to take us around during the week and so i never did see it, bummer. The ride was really fun and we al got to know each each other a little bit. In curicó we have exchangers from The US (obvio), Australia, Italy, Germany and Japan.

After arriving we walked to the hostal, we stopped to take the picture above, and from there we went and explored concepción while waiting for the other people to show up. On the way we saw the university there, it is so gorgeous! I honestly want to come back from a semester and study there! he´s a picture of the entrance.

In our full orientation there were about 25 kids. Some have been here for 7 months and the rest of us just arrived a month, or a few months ago. During the weekend we went out a little bit but mainly we had talks about our experiences and any questions we had. It was very fun to get to know the other exchangers in Chile, they really are amazing people. I felt so boring there though because it seemed that everyone there was fluent in english and knew other languages too. Most people were at least tri-lingual. Why arent we in the US? good question.

There were three kids from Thailand at the orientation! It was exciting because Panod (an exchange student from Thailand) is living with the family while im gone and I got to learn a little about it. I ended up being roomates with a girl from there.

On saturday we did skits about our experiences which was great because we got to point our the things that are so much different in Chile than in any of our countries.

It was so sad to leave because it felt like I could be best friends with everyone there If we had more time. We had a goodbye party on saturday night and then we all parted ways. Hopefully I´ll see them all before they leave in january. Its weird because as many of you know there isnt an official AFS program in Chile from summer to summer and so there arent that many of us here in that time period, none in my region. Because of this, they all are leaving in January and a new group is coming. It´ll be so weird! Im friends with all of the people in my city, especially the ones in my school (there are five, no idea why we have so many)! I dont want them to leave! But I do have four more months with them which doesnt feel like lots.

This week my class is decorating our room with things for Fiestas Patrias next week. We get three days off school! Im oober excited. The whole weekend and next week is fairs and bar-b-ques and lots of Cueca! Tomorrow i have to wear a Cueca dress and presned the Cueca with the girls in my class. It should be fun. Ill try to get pictures. Love you all! Again, sorry for the mistakes I just cant take more time on the computer.

Ramblings

hey everyone,



So this week has been actually pretty great. I´ve been going to school which well.... is school although now my name is actually on the student list! i get to say "¡presente!" in the beginning of class when they call my name! I also have started to actually do things. Today I took my first quiz in Lenguaje, it was awful. Tomorrow i have a big test in filosofía about sexuality which should be interesting in spanish. I got my Ensaye (thesis essay) back today and I got 6.2!!! Grades here are out of seven so i got the equivalent of a A! And i wrote the essay in spanish! I´m very proud of myself.



My whole school is getting ready for Fiestas Patrias which is their equivalent of fourth of July. It´s HUGE here. Its next weekend and we get a few extra days off to celebrate. I am learning the Cueca and i´ve almost mastered it! The girls spent the entire gymnasio making a Cueca dance to perform for the rest of my class. I have another lesson tonight. The best part is that we get to wear these huge dresses to dance in. All my classmates are bringing their extra dresses for me to try on tomorrow since i have to borrow one. Everyone here has them for Fiestas Patrias. The boys wear guaso outfits which are like the cowboy outfits in the movies. The little boys are so cute!



On saturday night we went out as a family to the Peña until about three in the morning. Its a big party kind of? I dont remember the word in english but everyone goes in the middle with a live band and dances Cueca! along with other dances. I wasnt feeling too well so i didnt dance. but, I will during Fiestas Patrias, that´s unavoidable.



Im feeling almost normal today! now im just a lot more tired than I usually would be. We figured out that a lot of my stomach pain was coming from my Acid Reflux because I hadn´t taken my medicine for in quite some time since i hadnt had any problems for a while. So, that´s mostly taken care of.



I did notice today that I have a ton of little red bumps on my hands and some one my legs. I know it must be an alergic reaction to something I ate, we are trying to figure that out. Ive heard of other exchangers getting them so im not worried. Now my host mom is convinced it is from alfahores which are these amazing cake things I ate yesterday. I hope not! I love them so much! Sometimes people here get this kind of allergic reaction from chocolate so yep... i hope thats not me though ( i LOVE chocolate). It seems that I just cant be completely healthy, ever.

Im not going to school on friday because i have my first AFS weekend orientation! I am so pumped! All of us exchangers are going to Conception on friday until sunday. It should be a ton of fun. I get to see the ocean for the first time in Chile and hopefully see a bit of the city! I´ll try to take some pictures but my camera broke! (only two months old!) And so it´s difficult sometimes to take pictures which is a bummer for fiestas patrias. Ill write more later, Simón needs the computer. Sorry for all the grammar mistakes and spelling! My writing skills are going downhill VERY rapidly and i dont have time to read over this. Love you all!

Sickness

Sorry I havent written lately, im probably losing all my viewers but...... ive just been sick, so sick for more than a week. It started last weekend as you can seee in my last post but things kinda went downhill from there. I went to school on tuesday and i was feeling fine until I started getting these severe stomach pains, no idea why.... and I had trouble concentrating in colegio. but it was nice because all my compañeros were sad I hadnt been in school monday and friday and kept asking me if i was okay, it was really sweet.

After colegio I went home and was feeling fine until the night time when I just felt feverish and dizzy. I dont have any idea why again.... So i went to bed at about nine and the next morning my family didnt get me up for school. Fani and Simon didnt go either. Its quite different here with school. If you are sick at all, you stay home and it´s normal. im used to in the U.S. just sucking it up if I´m feeling bad because it´s just so hard to misss school and stay caught up. But, here I can just tell my host parents im not going, and its fine...... But, I actually was sick so i stayed out of school wednesday and was actually feeling a little better but I had a fever most of the day. Thursday I stayed home from school also and in the night time we decided to go to the doctor. he told me I have bronchitis and gave me three prescriptions for that along with 3 other prescriptions for my stomach. Since then, I havent gone to school so I only went to school one day last week. Its such a weird kind of sickness because i will be feeling fine and wanting to leave the house, WOW ive been bored, but then suddenly my stomach will hurt really bad. but, it´s happening less and less. Dont worry everyone.....

My house family has been amazing about it. Coni LOVES it because im home everyday and when im feeling well (most of the time) I can play with her. She doest quite understand why im sick or that im sick for that matter so when I´m lying on some pillows on the floor she will climb onto my back and sing "poquito caballito, soy un caballero" (little horsey (sp?), im a cowboy). Its really cute but painful at the same time. We have quite the bond Coni and I. Because in the morning we are usually up before the parents (because i go to bed at about 10 and everyone else at about 1. it´s crazy how late everyone is up here. Sometimes I will be called downstair for like a meal at about 11:30, its actually quite fun. )When we get up, I make her breakfast and awww she´s just so cute! Now she cries whenever I leave which is sad but of course it makes me feel good :). Ive always wanted a little sister and so Coni is kinda spoiled with my attention but I think that fine right?

My host mom always makes me these AMAZING herbal medicine teas that actualy really help my stomach, it´s amzing. I dont know how they do it but Chilena women know so much about herbs and natural remedies, it´s great. but, they also are worried about me since apparently, none of their kids have ever been that sick. Coni was sick with a bad cold when i arrived but it went away after a week and my host parents said she had never been sick ever before... wow. Whenever I cough my host parents look at each other and shake their heads, dont know quite why. Also, the whole neighborhood knows that im sick. With the store as a part of the house, my host mom always asks the elderly women who come in advice for how to help me with my erm... stomach problems and It´s so awkward. The idea of personal information is just very different here. So, whenever Im in the store, people ask about my illness and I can understand most things I hear now but they are convinced i cant understand anything so they just gab on and on about my physical state. Speaking of the store, I can sell things now! It´s so fun but sometimes people ask for things and I have no idea what they said so i stare blankly and say¨"momentito por favor" and run and get my host mom. Its quite halarious but im learning.

Coni is also so jealous of the attention I get from the parents. Whenever I have to take my medicine Coni says " NO YO! estoy enferma!" and coughs fakely, it´s so funny. Its like me when Jacob took my chicken pox (that one was for mom).

On thursday during the day I was very bored so I took a walk. It was the first time I had done that because i always thought it was dangerous (kinda close minded) but apparently it´s really safe in my neighborhood. A girl can walk around alone during the day with no problems. Of course there are bad areas of Curicó but i know where those are. It was so nice to be able to walk around and I took some pictures but my camera is being really crabby (brand new) and so im going to have to get that fixed first. i going to take more walks now that I know i can.

Today, I woke up with Coni at about 10 and everyone else was still asleep so we ate desayuno and got her dressed. Its 12:30 and Fani and Simon are still sleeping.... yep.... what can I say, teenagers will be teenager wherever they are living. but now I feel that Im wasting my saturday and I was hoping to go back to the fería so im going to go. Oh and now Coni wants to show me something. Chau!

If you´re reading this, feel free to comment because it makes me happy :)

Love you all!

Day Trip to The Andes

Yesterday the family, some family friends and I took a day trip into the mountains. It was SO gorgeous. I really enjoyed the day even though I have been sick, so sick, for about 5 days. Saturday was the worst. I had a fever and even went into town with my host mom to the doctor but he said it was nothing but a bad cold. Friday and today I have been home sick from school. But now, i really do feel a ton better. I´m sure I´ll be back in school tomorrow. It´s too bad though because today I´m missing the my first soccer game. But, I know if i was with my teammates I would want to play and I just shouldn´t right now. So yep, Im sick in Chile but the mountains yesterday were so beautiful that I dont even care. The picture above is from the place that the fam stopped for the day. We just sat on the beach and worked on homework. At least it made the challenge of writing a thesis paper in spanish a little less horrible. It was especially gorgeous because the mountains still have snow on them! But, within a few weeks, that´ll be gone and it´ll be SPRING!

This next picture is taken from the back of our truck as we drove up to the top of the mountains.
I know Mom and Dad, dangerous, but really we weren´t back there too long and i got some amazing pictures. (sorry about the picnic basket handles in the shot)

This is one of the rivers that runs through this area of the mountains. There are two main ones. I wanted it to be summer so bad because i thought it would be so fun to cross these rapids. But, i dont think I would want to anyways because apparently, the temperature here doesnt change much and the water is ALWAYS freezing. I´m going to keep that in mind during the 100 degree summer days here.

This was the first place we stopped. It´s a really beautiful place overlooking a river and valley. I couldnt take too many pictures because i forgot to charge my camera the night before when i was sick. Oh well......

This is a natural waterfall, it´s so clean you can drink the water!

This picture from where i was sitting on the sand writing my essay.

This last shot is from the first stop looking out onto the valley below.

I´ll try to update more often. I just have been sick lately so i havent felt like doing it. Love you all!

El Cerro Condell

Yesterday was sunday,

I woke up in the morning and got ready for soccer. Karina and I arrived at school at 10:30, right on time, to find that no one was there. Apparently, fútbol had been canceled but no one had informed about 6 of us. So, we stood there in front of the locked gate of our school for a good forty inutes before deciding no one was coming. So then, karina and Nath (exchanger from italy) and I walked around town for about an hour because we needed to wait for our rides.

Caroline, from Colorado, met us at the school at about 12 and she came over to my house. From there we went to Cerro Condell which is a large hill in the center of town that looks over everything. It was so beautiful and we just sat there with the family and ate snacks. It was very fun. I could finally get some picture of the mountains to show you guys. I can never get clear pictures of the mountains but they are a ton more visible here in Curicó than they appear.

This is Fani, Caroline and I where we decided to eat. It was funny because this time, we had two foreigners, one a blond, and everyone was just so confused as to who we were.

Today I had school, of course, but after, I had soccer practice. And guess what? I SCORED A GOAL! It was only in practice but i was so excited! And I finally feel like i kinda know the people on my team. Half of them call me Rose and to the others I´m Lura. I´m getting used to having two names. My soccer skills are improving although it is extremely painful.

So I have to get ready for school tomorrow! For those of you at home, two more weeks of summer! Muahahaha.......