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.