September 22, 2009

Hey everybody - once again it's been a while... Every time I begin to blog, something new and interesting comes up and then I always feel like I should wait in order to write about that too haha. Anyway, I guess that I should start with the 18th of September - CHILEAN INDEPENDENCE! The Wednesday (the 16th) before the 18th school ended early at around 12:50 and we didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. It was definitely nice to finally have somewhat of a break... On Friday my host aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, parents, and siblings met at the same place that was host to my host uncle's birthday party a few weeks ago. They served a ton of food - empanadas, crab, etc... Then my host brother and I went to a Davis Cup game that was held here in Rancagua at a stadium called Medialuna (spelling?). Chile played Austria and won which was exciting... The celebrations continued through Sunday and each day we had meals equivalent to those that Americans eat at thanksgiving. Needless to say, I won't be eating again for a while haha. I am still working on signing up for the trip to the south of Chile which begins on October 15th and I will be spending this weekend in Chillan, which is about 4 hours south of Machali. I'll leave for Chillan early on Friday morning and then return on Sunday night. It will be nice to finally meet some of the other AFSers: I didn't get a chance to meet those who weren't American because of my being sick in Miami. Also, I am finally finished with my Carolina essays which is great. Yesterday I met with my AFS volunteer, Ana Luisa, for the monthly "check-up." She was a really nice lady and sometime within the next few weeks she is going to invite me to her house for the day to meet one of the German AFS students here as well as Erika, another AFS volunteer, who is friends with Phillip Moore (my competitor at the Burke County Spelling Bee every year and Market President of Wachovia in Morganton) and his wife. It's a small world! I almost forgot - every Friday I am taking a traditional Chilean dance class at St. John, another school here, with the other American AFS student. I didn't realize that this was a dance class until I arrived at the first class, but oh well it will be a great experience and perhaps I will learn the Cueca haha. Next week is "Anniversario" and Colegio Coya and the entire school will spend three days playing games and celebrating it's anniversary. I'll try to post something on Sunday night or Monday afternoon about Chillan; however, we all know my posting habits by now haha.

September 1, 2009

I am so sorry again that I haven't updated this blog in almost three weeks. I have been pretty busy here in Chile between school and my host family. Looking back over the past 2 1/2 weeks I don't even know where to begin. School in general has been fairly uneventful: the school days are long and usually I don't understand anything. My spanish has really improved over the last few weeks; although, I still wouldn't call it great. I guess I should start with my birthday - August 25. On my birthday my class went on a field trip to Santiago. We took this awesome tour bus for the hour long ride - much better than the buses in the US. First my class went to a theater to watch a play. I didn't understand anything of course but the acting was great. Next, we went to a mall to eat in the food court. Until then, I didn't realize how much I had actually missed fast food. The portions are so much smaller here and there is only one drink size which is about the size of something that would come with a small child's meal in the US. We ate outside about 20 stories up which was nice because of the fact that I could see the Andes on all sides. When I got home my host family gave me a new wallet, a new shirt, and a carolina blue birthday cake (this definitely made my day). The following Saturday I received two packages. One was from my dad and Cindy and the other was from Big John and Nancy. The one from my dad and Cindy contained a couple of movies and candy that can't be found here. It was nice to watch a movie in English without Spanish subtitles haha. The package from Big John and Nancy contained Zucchini bread. I had Zucchini bread for breakfast that morning and will probably have it for days if not weeks to come. Thanks so much for that Nancy and Big John! It felt very strange to be eating something that was made in Morganton only a few days before. Anyway, I have been working diligently on my college applications and essays - the stress from these gave me a migraine which kept me out of school yesterday. After a little rest my headache was gone, but my family suggested that id would be best if I didn't go to school today either. I started to  tell them that it was only a migraine, but then I realized that school lasted until 5:30 pm on Tuesdays so I quickly stopped myself and agreed. Last Saturday was my host uncle's birthday and he had a huge party. I would guess that at least 75 people attended. The food at the party was great - a five course meal. My family didn't return home from the party until around 4:30 am the next morning. My plan for today is to begin finishing up my essays for Carolina - I should have plenty of time to finish at least one. I will try to update every Sunday from now until January. 

August 16, 2009

Sorry everybody - it's been an entire week since the last time I posted anything. This week has been great - school is kind of boring though. I still am not understanding much; therefore, most of the time I am just sitting and staring blankly at the board or reading a book. The teachers know that I understand nothing (except for my language teacher) so they usually don't mind if I read or just sit there. For whatever reason, my language teacher seems to think that I understand everything and asks me questions about what she is teaching in spanish constantly - obviously I do not understand a word she says haha. I finished the Catcher and The Rye this week and it is definitely my favorite book now. Not too much happened during the week, but on Saturday my host family took me to Santiago. The one hour drive to Santiago is beautiful: the Andes are on either side of the road (snowcapped as always) and there are a few hills in front of the mountains covered in green grass and cacti. The contrast between the green grass, the cacti, and the snow is really interesting haha. When we arrived in Santiago we went to the coolest restaurant. It was on one of the street corners downtown and my host father explained to me in spanish that it was over 100 years old, but had been restored. And it had been restored very nicely too. I ordered a cuatro queso pizza and it was great - I think that the cheese on it was unpasteurized because it had so much more flavor than a normal cheese pizza would. After we finished eating we went to the centro commercial of Santiago, which once again was basically a mall. It was probably the nicest mall that I have ever been to in my life. The mall had literally every store imaginable in it, some that I didn't even know existed. After I thought my host  family had finished their shopping, we went to another mall. This one was much cooler in my opinion. One level of the mall was outside on top of a building and, of course, the Andes could be seen from almost every store. This was the last mall that we went to, although my host family informed me that there were about four more. Next, we went to my host uncle's house in Santiago. He had a really nice house near downtown Santiago and we ate dinner there for the next two hours. We didn't get back to my host family's house until about one in the morning. Around 2:00 pm today my host dad took me driving to see the Andes. I thought I could see the from the house, but he wanted me to have an unobstructed view of them. I really have never seen anything like the Andes - they are definitely the biggest mountains that I have ever seen. I also had to get my hair cut today for school. I am still mourning over the loss of the majority of my hair - I barely have any left haha. I have already posted the pictures that I took of the Andes on facebook. I am not going to post all of them on my blog because it takes a really long time.

August 9, 2009

So much has happened in the last few days that I don't even know where to begin. On Thursday night I started my application to Carolina. I felt so relieved after looking over the application because it was not half as bad as I had originally expected it to be. The deadline for early applicants is November 2, so I probably won't work much on the application until October. Friday was my first day at Colegio Coya - my school in Chile. I didn't have to wear a uniform because it was colors day - everybody was allowed to wear whatever they liked. The school is very nice, but there is no heat (just like in every other building in pretty much all of Chile) so I nearly froze to death. School is so much different here than in the United States: nobody pays any attention to the teachers and some kids pick up their cellphones in class or walk out of the classroom randomly. The teachers have literally no control over the students whatsoever haha. I am in the fourth grade here which basically means that I am a senior at Coya. I was glad to discover that school for seniors at Coya ends sometime around the first week of November because of the university entry tests that seniors are required to take. The principal, who speaks english, met with me in her office to discuss my time at school here. She was very nice and ensured me that if I needed anything I could go directly to her office. On Friday, Ricardo, the oldest host brother, came home from college for the weekend (he is in med school in Santiago) and it was very nice to meet him. On Saturday morning my host father took me into the "centro commercial de Rancagua" which was exactly like a mall to buy my uniform for school. I was shocked at how nice the mall was and how cheap the clothes here are. I had my first Chilean empanada for lunch on Saturday - the empanadas here are delicious - people choose what they want in their empanada and then pick the empanada up or have it delivered, almost like pizza in the US. On Saturday night I went to my first Chilean party, which began at 11:00 pm. The parties here all start very late and end very early the next morning. I had a great time at the party but because it was held outdoors, I was freezing cold and was exhausted by the time we got back to my host family's house (4:30 am). When I woke up (around noon) I started reading The Catcher and The Rye, which is and awesome book and will probably end up being one of my favorites. Today my Chilean host aunt came to visit and ended up inviting Elisa, my host sister, and I to her house. She is a dentist and lives in el campo, the countryside, in a beautiful house. They have a pool, which will be nice to have access to in the summer, and they had quite a few pets (birds, dogs, and a Chin Chilla). I will try to post something new within the next week, but it will probably be next weekend before I actually sit down and write something. 

August 5, 2009 - Finally Here

Lucas, my host family's dog.

The living room.

My room.

The hotel room where I stayed for four days.

I arrived in Chile yesterday morning and I have had a very interesting 24 hours since my arrival. When I got off the plane, I felt completely lost: nobody spoke English, I had to find baggage claim, go through customs, etc... Once I found the exit a lady who works for the AFS Chile office found me and we took a taxi to her office. She spoke perfect English which was nice because it gave me a chance to calm down. After she spoke to me about what to expect in the next 5 1/2 months, we took another taxi to the bus station where we boarded the bus that was headed to Rancagua, Chile. People drive crazily here - it is truly scary. The taxi driver drove at about 120 km/hr the entire was to the bus station. I am not sure exactly how fast that is in mph but trust me, it's too fast. My host brother and host father picked me up at the bus station and it was great to finally meet them both. My host father is extremely nice and very funny and as soon as he met me he gave me a hug and told me that I was a part of the family (in Spanish of course) to him haha. When I arrived at my host family's house I met everybody else before taking a nap. When I awoke from my nap I attempted to speak to my host family; however, I wasn't very successful in doing so. Everybody is constantly offering me food which is really nice. Also, people here kiss on the cheek as a greeting which in my opinion is awkward. I am not going to go to school until Friday so I will probably spend most of my time unpacking and becoming more comfortable in my room. I have noticed since I arrived that there is a huge problem with stray dogs - it is extremely sad because they are everywhere and most of them have mattes in their fur and are starving. I also could not help but to notice the Andes mountains... I have never seen anything like them. They are enormous, snowcapped, and not at all like the mountains that I am used to seeing. 

August 1, 2009 - Still In Miami...

Unfortunately, the night that I was supposed to fly to Chile, I got sick and could not fly. To make a long story short I had to go to the ER in the Hialeah part of Miami which was quite an experience. Nobody in the hospital (maybe a total 3 employees were fluent... maybe) spoke english and I had to have 2 IVs and several and had to be tested for several other things. My flight was rescheduled for Monday night so now I am scheduled to arrive on Tuesday morning. Until then I will be sitting in a hotel room watching movies haha. After sitting here for three days I left for this first time today. Belkys, an AFS employee, took me to a grocery store to get Campbell's Tomato Soup to go, plain Cheerios, and saltine crackers. At least Belkys has done an awesome job taking care of me and AFS has been great about rescheduling my arrival dates and times. While sitting in my hotel room today I figured out how to use Skype and I actually purchased a calling plan: I will be able to call anywhere from Chile (landlines and mobile phones) for only $12.00 per month. I will try to update my blog sometime within the next week.

Two Weeks Left

I haven't posted anything in a while - I've been pretty busy at Governor's School. I am starting to get really excited about Chile, especially considering that I will be there two weeks from tomorrow. I got my visa yesterday morning in Washington D.C. which was great because I was worried that something was going to go wrong. Filling out all of the papers and preparing to apply for the visa was an absolute nightmare. It is unbelievable how strict the Chilean consulate is about handing out visas. It was nice to hear from AFS yesterday when I received a packet of information about my host family and the orientation in Miami. I learned that I will have three host siblings: a host sister, and two host brothers. Also, someone named Maria will be living in our house - I am not really sure of what exactly her role is in the family but I'm sure I will find out eventually. There are people at Governor's School who speak Spanish fluently and when they hear that I will be traveling to Chile for a semester, they attempt to speak to me in Spanish, assuming that I speak fluently also. I am usually completely clueless as to what they are saying which probably isn't a good thing considering that I start classes at a school where classes are taught in Spanish in about three weeks. I have been trying to practice Spanish whenever I get the chance, but unfortunately I left Rosetta Stone at home. I am going to try to be more dedicated to keeping up with my blog so hopefully I will be able to post something in about a week.