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.......

fair

wow i think this is the longest time ever between posts. Lo siento.... what have i been up to? Well thursday was just school, boring. Yesterday after school, Fani and i went to practice high jump because it´s kind of a requirement for gym class. I was the only girl who could do it on the first try! ha! After that, we all walked back to our various homes, there were about 15 of us practicing. Then later, Fani´s friend came over and they talked. I was really tired so i rearranged my room! AGAIN! and it is completely different. I have so many pictures up now, so bonita. I will upload them later (not that you all care so much about the status of my bedroom but i dont have much else to write about).

Oh yes, this morning, I went with my host mom, sisters and family friends to a fair type thing and we sold clothes. It was fun because there were SO many people sellings things and everying is SO cheap here, i mean SO cheap, especially food! i tried an empanada for the first time, i liked it.

Then tonight Fani and I went to her confirmation class, which was fun because I understood everything for the first time! yay! And after, we just wandered around the supermarket for about and hour and then came home for onces.

Yep those are my activities but now i gotta go to bed because i have soccer practice in the morning. Alrighty then, Chao!

Oh and I found out that my host mom knows how to salsa! and she´s going to teach me! She´s also looking for classes in curicó because my friend Caroline (other exchanger) and I want to take classes on latin dance. Im excited! bye!

mas fotos

okay so i know this is two posts in one day BUT i have some pictures. Today i decided to luratize my room and so i moved everything around. You can look down the blog for the first picture when i arrived but now it looks like this:

Chilean flag and everything. yep but i also have a tiny minnesota flag under the picture collage laurel gave me.

oh yes and i have a picture of a bus, because they are just so adorable!

and for some pictures form school.....

SNOW!!!!!!!!!! not again, this is from last wednesday

alrighty chao!

chilean food

Hey Guys,

So i dont have school today, no idea why, and so im bored and decided to answer a few questions people have asked. Primarily, how does food work in Chile? What does Lura eat?

Okay so we wake up in the morning, get dressed and go downstairs to eat desayuno (breakfast). This is usually a cup of warm milk and cereal (crazy i know) and or toasted AMAZING bread with jelly or honey. The pan here is basically to die for, im in love with it. My host family always teases me because it is obvious that i am going to come home 20 pounds heavier.

Then I go to school..... at one I come home for almuerzo (lunch). My host parents are home all day because they run a store outof the house so my host mom makes lunch from scratch every day. It´s always amazing. Like soup but thicker with different vegetables in it and meat (:() But, she knows i dont like meat much so i dont eat it everyday. She is such an amazing cocinadora.

Then I go back to school at about 2 30 and stay there until five, or seven, depending on if i have soccer. At about 7 30 we eat onces. Which, is basically my favorite meal of the day. We have bread and avacado- palta (which is delicious here) or different things on top as well as tea or coffee. I dont know why i love it so much, probably because i think it is just so cute.

On special occasions there is dinner too at about 10 PM. We´ve only had it once since ive been here and that was when we celebrated my and my host mom´s birthday the first day. It is so hard to eat though because you are full from onces. So yep, occasionally we have torte which is like cake but better, but not too often.

Last night, my host sister and i made chilean doughnut things. I wish i could have taken a picture but my camera was out of batteries which remind me, i have pictures from school to put up. Ill do that later.

I can´t remember the other questions so later.....

okay so soo many things to say..... first and most important.....

Lura Long joined the Curicó, Chile, Colegio Rauquen Soccer team! Laurel and Molly, be proud. It´s asolutely ridiculous considering lura has never played an organized sport since she wore polka dot leggings. She´s horrible! but hey, it keeps her busy and it is quite fun. Lura runs around looking like an idiot for two hours on mondays and saturdays and stays in shape, sort of. She doesnt know exactly how it happened, or why she is writing in third person...... im stopping now.

Today i was in class, i dont remember which one but it doesnt matter because i dont understand any of them....... and my compañera- table partner asked me if i wanted to join the fútbol tteam. I laughed and told her i had never played soccer and that it would be halarious. But, she kept insisting and i remembered what i had told myself, try everything once (except the obvious things.....) and take all invitations you get because you have no friends in chile yet. And so.... during lunch i got all my stuff for soccer and before i knew it, i was lined up on a gym floor and running around attempting to kick a soccer ball. I feel so accomplished and horrible and in pain, everywhere, but, im so proud of myself for actually doing it.

Yesterday my familywent to a another family´s house for onces. It was very fun and their house is so amazing. I attempted to learn how to make sopapillas but.... wellll.......im not quite there yet. here are some pictures of the everning:

Oh yes and saturday, it was warm! YAY! and i spent most of the day on our balcón with coni, we took about 50 pictures but im not going to put those up now...... but then, in the afternoon, Simón brought an extra mattress from in his room and we practiced gymnasio. It was very fun. my host mom did it too but she told me i cant put her video up, too bad.

here is a video of fani trying to help me do a handstand. Sorry if it doesnt work, oh and yes, it´s sideways.

here is fani doing a somersault (no clue how to spell that):

yep so it´s late and im helping simón make a cow model, part of a bet so im going to go. But today was a great day, even with me looking dumb in soccer and for the first time, i honestly never want to lave chile. yay!

hi guys.... so i have some pictures for you.

I forgot to say that last sunday was dia del niño. It is basically like father´s day or mother´s day with children. It was crazy because it was the first time i had left the house and fani took me to the centro. It was PACKED with kids and facepaint and slides. It was very overwhelming for me. but that night we went to the supermarket and i needed slippers for the house and so for dia del niño, my house mom and dad bought fani and I slipperss. Here´s a picture. We´re wearing our winter school uniforms. (for you molly)

They are our monster slipers and they are amazingly warm. Yesterday, fani and i were really tired but we made ourselves go to the mall. We didnt even leave until around 10 pm and i was suprised that a mall would even be open but it was SOOO full of people. With babies and everything. There was an acrobat show going on in th main hallway with their ropes strung up from the rafters. It was so crazy! Then at about 12 30 another show started in which some teenagers (apparently famous chileans) came and danced around on a stage and stuff. It was halarious. But, there were seriously more than a thousand people crowded around the stage. I couldnt believe how many kids were there wide awake. We climbed through a big potted plant and ended up having great standing positions. I wish I had a picture but my camera was lost in the house for a few days, i just found it this morning. We didnt even leave the mall until 2 AM. No more to say here. Chao!

first chilean snow day, EVER!

So it was my first hour yesterday, musica, and everyone was taking a test. I was drawing a picture (it was very pretty), when someone runs up to the doors, opens it and yells something. Then before i knew it , everyone was running to the door! I was sure there was a fire or something so i followed. Then my desk mate said ¨SNOW! NIEVE!¨For the first time basically EVER it snowed in Curicó! Most of my compañeros had never seen snow except on the mountains. They were SO exciting and ran out to see the snow. Of course, being from minnesota, i wasnt too excited but it was fun to watch.

The next break between classes (we have 15 minutes), we all ran outside and threw snowballs and froze to death basically. It was so much fun. Nobody went back to class for an hour and then they just told us we could go home. The teachers were so excited too! I have no clue why it snowed but that shows you just how cold it is here. It was 35 degrees in my class today! yay?

The snow outside of our balcón:

Then, after they let us out of school, my host dad and i went to get my identification in the freezing cold. They told us I needed special pictures so i couldnt get it. So then, we walked to the photo place and took pictures, they´re HORRIBLE. But hey, first chilean snow day EVER! this way i´ll remember it.

After lunch, Fani, her friends edo, and I went to see the Simpson´s movie, in spanish. I actually understood the majority of the words! It was very funny, i liked it a lot.After the movie we went and explored old theaters and buildings in the centro which was wicked fun but i dont have any pictures. Stupid lura forgot her camera.

Fani and I then went home for Onces. Which brings me to another point. Chile has a really cool transportation system. There are migros (buses) but they are smaller and SUPER comfortable, almost like sofas. And they only cost about 250 pesos which is about 50 cents. Only 100 pesos if you have a student card, which i dont yet. They also have escolares which are yellow vans that transport kids to school because we dont have school buses. But, what i love the most are collectivos. They are small, black, toyotas which are just like buses in the way that they have a spcific path- i live on rauquen so there is a collectivo for rauquen- but you can wave them from anywhere on the street! And then you just tell them where you want to get off and they pull ovr and letyou out. All for 70 cents!

Back to my day..... after onces, my host mom, fani and I went to a women´s club thing and they tried to teach me the cueca (chilean national dance). I have to know it because in a month, all the girls in the school go in front of everyone and do the cueca in these big fancy dresses. Anyways, it is so hard because it requires a certain style of movement which i cant seem to master. And you have to do the whole thing while twirling these scarf things in your hand which is excedingly difficult. So, at home I practive twirling but it´s not going all that well.

Tomorrow´s friday! gotta go! love ya all!

oh and this picture is an old one from Santiago but it has the Andes mountains in the background. I can see them in curicó but not from my house. I can see them biking to school though:

second day of school

Hi guys

So today was my second day at school. My class had calmed down a lot about me being new which was really nice because i actually got to talk to people and not just crowds.

Yesterday I bought my uniform for ed fisica (gymnasio) and when they say gymnasio, it really is gymnastics. We did sumersalts and cartwheels (which was quite funny for those of you that know that I have NEVER successfully landed one). The girls had so much trouble which was great because we all worked together. In my class of 39 kids, only 11 are girls. Which, actually works out nicely because everyone gets along. During gym, all the girls were together and the boys split up. I thought it ws interesting that the boys pride themselves on their skills in gymnastics and the girls have lot of trouble. Its the opposite in the U.S. So yep, that´s all we did was sumersalts and cartwheels, handstands to rolls. I loved it because i got to joke with my other classmates.

I´m starting to feel like i belong in the class and it´s only my second day! i had biology today also which was a nightmare because my profe talks SOO fast and SOOO quiet. The class spent the entirity of the time taking notes, word for word, as she said them. I WAS SOOOO BORED! an hour of sitting there and listening to a language you dont understand, awful.

but, the day lightened up because my host sister, Fani, has a friend over to work on math and she decided that they must throw me a party! yay! And then they proceeded to tell me words that i wouldnt learn in school. The highlight was when my host mom was trying to explain Rica which means ... kinda like, for those teens out there, thick lady. And she drew a curvy sillohette. It was great. Anyways, i need to get off but i thought i would tell you all those things. I understamd spanish twice as well as yesterday! It´s a miracle!

first day of school

Today was my first day of school!

I was so nervous because i had been told all of this awful stories of exchanger´s first days. It was actually really fun. I mean when i first got there, all I could think about was how EVERYONE stares at me, EVERYONE. It´s a very weird feeling. But, once i got to my room, everything was better. My class was so excited and all day i was crowded around and asked all these questions. by the end of the day I was just so tired and all i want to do now is go to sleep but i wont.

School starts at 8 30 and we left on our bikes at about 8:15. My classes were theology, english (which was quite halarious, people can ask me about it by e-mail), math (which was very easy because everything is the same), history and another class i dont really remember. Basically, i just sat there and smiled. It was quite the fun time.

I dont have the full uniform to show you guys (sorry molly) because I havent bought it yet. And most girls aren´t wearing the usual skirt and high socks because it is just so cold. For now, i´m just wearing matching colors. I will attach a picture when i have a uniform and i know the kids better at school. I dont want to the american girl who comes to take a ton of pictures.

Alright, there isnt really much to say here. I have to go eat onces- (tea). Adios!

Oh and also, my english is getting to be so bad! And it´s only my third day in curicó! Mom, we are going to have to rethink the whole SATs as soon as a get back. Love you all!

picture! fotos!

okay, I finally have some pictures for you all:

here is a picture of me and some exchangers at our orientation:

Here´s a shot of the church I satyed at in miami with the other chile AFS kids. It was so beautiful! The other AFS chile kids and me with our volunteer:

Mi cuarto!

My house! The front of it is the business (corner store) that they own-

Coni, my adorable two-year old host sister with my present for her. She carries that shirt around 24/7-

My and my host mom´s birthday cake-

The inside of the store-

gotta run, my host brother need the computer and has been waiting very patiently

Estoy en Chile!!!!!!

Hey everyone!

So i am finally in Chile. Sorry it took a while to write to you. I had an orientation wednesday and thursday in Miami (i´ll add pictures later). I have been in Chile since yesterday morning (my birthday).

It was quite funny because my flight to chile was overnight and I flew alone from Miami to Santiago. When i arrived i realized that I had not been told what to do once i got the the airport. So, here was this American girl wandering around the Santiago airport. Finally I just sat down on a bench and didn´t know what else to do........ I waited for about 20 minutes and I was SOOO annoyed that i had not been told what to do but then i realized just how funny the situation was and i started laughing, with a lot of looks from random people. It was quite a bonding experience with myself. Finally a man came from AFS and took me to the other AFS person where we waited for the other kids coming to chile. There were 4 coming to chile yesterday. Three from Austria and one from Switzerland. They all knew some english which was nice but they all spoke German at home. So, i heard a ton of German. Sometimes i felt left out but it was another chance to laugh at myself.

It is really cold here. About 40 degrees farenheit inside and out. Im geting used to it now though. The people at the orientation gave me a birthday cake and I was very happy. It was a very interesting but fun birthday.

This afternoon, i got on a train from Santiago to Curicó. It took about two hours and was SO beautiful. The Andes are gorgeous. When i arrived in Curicó, my family was there to greet me. They called me their daughter and when we went to the supermarket, my host dad said to a cashier (who was looking at me strangely compared to my host family) ¨ es mi hija ¿Mira como yo?¨(This is my daughter. Does she look like me?) We all started laughing. So far I love it here even though i already am beginning to miss you al l in the U.S. Gotta run, I´ll put up pictures soon. Love you all!

Miami

Hey Everyone,

I said goodbye to everyone at my goodbye party two nights ago. It was a great turn out but i will miss everyone SOOO much.

I left this morning for Miami at eight AM. Today, me and 49 other exchange students, going to paraguay and brazil, had an orientation. Besides that, we have been just hanging out at the hotel. I leave tomorrow night for chile. Gotta run......

We will all leave together and fly to chile. Then the paraguay and brazil kids will fly to their countries while I stay in santiago. I will have one more orientation and then I will take a train to Curico where my host fam will await me on saturday. Friday is my birthday and I have been promised a birthday party on the plane! YAY. Yep gotta go, love you all!