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!