Everything Has Changed!

Hey everyone!

On Saturday the 28th of February, I changed families!

On Friday night, I had a talk with my mom until 2 in the morning and then slept in my bed for the last time. I woke up early on Saturday and had a nice relaxed breakfast by myself. And then got ready by 11. That's when my new family was supposed to come by. I was a nervous wreck that morning. Because I had met the family once very briefly once upon a time in August. So I was pretty nervous when they finally came at 1!

All my bags packed up! So... when I came, I had the same things. Except that the grey duffel bag was empty and inside a suitcase. So I gained a duffel bag worth of stuff... hmm. Maybe I won't be coming home??

My new mom, dad, and sister came. Carmen, José (no way José!), and Jessica. My dad had to leave early for work so it was just my mom and brothers at the house. We sat in the living room talking for an hour. It was so satisfying to sit there and have my old mom talk to me new host family about how I am such a caring, loving, and helpful young woman. And I'm so happy to say that that was just me being me. And I feel so happy that I can have that positive effect on another person's life.

When it was time to say good bye, my new family went to the car while I said good bye to my old mom. She is such a wonderful person and I am so grateful for all of the time we got to share. We had a lot of late nights talking and hours and hours of shopping together. I'll never forget the advice she has given me. She is truly a second mom for me. I love to see how she cares about her family and always puts them first and wants the best for them. This is how Mom was and how moms should be. I'm so grateful for her part in my life. The good bye was sad, but we'll get together sometime and it'll be like I never left.

My new family wanted to go to the grocery store, but we didn't have room for the groceries with all my luggage. hahaha. whoops! So we went to my new house and unloaded my bags and went back to Curicó to the store to buy things for lunch.

My new city is called Romeral. Its population is around 13,000. Double the size of Ironwood. But it's a small town still. I live two blocks from the main plaza. My house is right next to the fútbol field. My dad is a ground keeper there. On the other side is a center of events. Which is a building for parties and weddings and things. And two buildings down is the fire department. Here in Chile, they sound a siren every day right at noon. And whenever there's a fire. And lately there have been a lot of fires since it's dry.

So. My new family! My mom, Carmen is so nice and does everything to make me comfortable. She loves maté so that's super exciting because I love it too! My dad, José is nice too and makes a lot of jokes. My older sister Jessica(25 ish) is so great. I think I'll be super close with all of them!

On that same Saturday there was a really big fire near my house. The hills were alive. I mean... they were on fire.

And the fútbol field I live by was the water refuel spot for the helicopters! So we got some pictures.

The first few days were a little hard for me. Not for the family. My family is great and are always making me comfortable. Just something in my head and too much time to think. It was weird switching my whole house. But it was so much easier knowing Spanish. I wasn't going to let myself get down, so I spent a day organizing my room.

And a long, LONG time decorating my wall! Remember my 100 day celebration with my wonderful classmates? And that they gave me 100 pictures printed out? Well. I decided to put those to good use. And so I taped everyone to the wall! Plus drawings that have been mailed to me.

They just make me so happy!

I also dedicated a shelf to the pile of presents from Caroline and AnnaMarie. I've had the package for a month or so now.

This next part really deserves a whole nother blog... but the pictures are already uploaded on this one.

The Saturday after I moved in to my new house, some friends invited me to go for biking. Now. I'll have you know that my prior experience of "biking" has been riding to downtown Ironwood (3 minutes) or sometimes up Mt. Zion. They said we'd be biking for the day, but I was up for the challenge. Carolina (Bravo) lives in Romeral too and so she came to my house to pick me up. Then we walked to her aunt's house to pick up the bike I would be using. Then, from there, we met up at 11:30 in the Romeral plaza with Nico, Fernanda, Felipe, and Julio (Felipe's cousin).

Then we set out for Los Queñes! We planned on just riding until we got tired and then turning back.

15 minutes down the road, Felipe blew a tire. So we were stopped at this park trying to fix it for an hour.

Nico and I: 

Carolina and Fernanda:

We asked a guy about where the nearest bike shop was and headed out from there.

In the morning I set out with a frozen juice, two yogurts, and a sandwich. When we stopped, I ate a yogurt and then I dropped my bag. As I picked it up, I saw that the other yogurt had exploded all over everything. bagghhh.

My sad my-bag-is-covered-in-yogurt face.

I love the mountainsss!

Nico and I:

At another stop:

Where are Los Queñes you may ask? They are about 30 km from Romeral. 30 km being 19 or 20 miles. We got there at 4-ish.

Most of the trail was on this terrible gravel. I honestly was close to tears at several points during the trip.

After 5 hours of riding up hills during the hottest part of the day, I didn't know how I was going to get home. Let me tell you, your butt will NOT feel good after that.

We got into the plaza and everyone collapsed in the shade. Then Julio and Felipe said "come on guys! Let's go see the rocks!" Just as I sat down with a sandwich. But I got up and the three of us rode another 2 miles. Do you recognize these? I went there with my first host family one weekend.

But I feel so accomplished!

After we had boughten Gatorade and food, we set out for home! We took it slow and walked up the really big hills. I could barely sit on the seat and my legs had really bad cramps.

After 3 hours or so, Fernanda called her dad and he came and picked us up in his truck.

So in all, we biked more than 50 km (~30 miles)!

The next days it hurt to sit. My head got burnt because I had my hair parted and my face too a little.

But overall, it was fun! I'm glad I went and did something different!