Semana Santa!

This post is about Easter week!

Semana Santa is the week celebrating Easter. It's called something like Holy week in english. In my religion class, we had been preparing to do a play showing the Easter story. From the condemnation of Jesus by Caesar until when he was in the tomb. I was a "llorona" (a crying woman in a group as Jesus made his walking with the cross to be crucified). The Senior classes put it on every year.

On Monday of the week, we started it out by having a school assembly. All of the younger kids brought a small bouquet of palm leaves. (I think the high school kids were supposed to do it too, but barely anyone did). We all gathered in the courtyard and we said prayers and sang. Then Jesus and his disciples came through the crowd. Javier from my class played Jesus and other seniors played the disciples. Obviously representing Jesus entering Jerusalem. When they got to the front, Jesus went through the crowd with the priest from my school and blessed everyone with water.

On Tuesday, we performed our play at the monthly parents meeting. It was called the "Vía Crucis" which basically means the path of the cross. My part was to walk in the procession and cry so we all put cream that stung and made us tear up. It went well and I was super impressed how organized it went. The costumes and props were good and all the actors did a really good job of playing the part. Especially Javier who played the part of Jesus. The nuns at my school were so impressed that they wanted us to perform it again in front of my school the next day. But it was good, because that's where these pictures are from! On the second night I got upgraded to being Mary Magdalene. haha.

All of the cast ready to go:

 Romina, Leo, and I:

 I'm the brown one:

Like I said, the play ended as Christ was in the tomb. Then, on Friday we had a school assembly with all the students. We said prayers, sang songs, and Jesus was resurrected! We all cheered and threw confetti.

Then, we went back to the class room and ate the Last Supper (Última Cena). As a class, we brought fruit, bread, trail mix, and grape juice. Everyone brought a cushion and we sat on the floor in a giant circle. To start, we read some scriptures about the Last Supper and then two classmates went around with a bowl of water and a rag and washed everyone's hands (to symbolize when Jesus washed the disciples's feet). Then we went around and asked for forgiveness if somebody had done something wrong to a classmate. I love how my class is so close. After the discussion we ate. I liked the celebration of Easter here in Chile. It was nice to reflect on these things a bit in school, not just in church.

Next comes actual Easter. On Easter Sunday, I woke up and went to church with my mom and dad. I would've gone to mine in Curicó, but I feel like Easter is a holiday to be with family. So I went and the mass wasn't all that different than how it usually is, but I'm glad I went. Maybe going with my parents wasn't that special to my parents, but I've always known that Easter is a special day and a day for family.

The rest of Easter was pretty chill. WE had a nice lunch together. I put together an Easter basket for my family and I felt like a good exchange student. hahaha.

 And they got me some chocolate eggs. :)

Usually they look for the little chocolate eggs, but since there are no little kids in the house, we didn't. We talked about Easter traditions in the U.S.. They did NOT understand dying Easter eggs! If you are a future exchange student reading this, bring egg dyeing tablets! I wish I would've. Jessica said "the little kids eat hard boiled eggs??! Those poor kids! Here, they get chocolate ones!" hahahaha. Then I explained that we have Easter baskets with candy too.

A Wedding!

Hey! So I'm starting to realize what happens when I take a month to update my blog. I still keep doing new activities!

But I just made an outline, so we should be good. ;)

I got back from the North trip late on Thursday (the 13th) night. Somehow I thought it's would be a good idea to go to school the next day. As it turns out, that was false. Going to school the day after a weeklong, sleepless Rotary trip is NEVER a good idea. haha. But alas, I went. And it was the lucky day to have an hour long mass. and after that, some practice testing for the PSU (ACT like test). I almost fell asleep. But it was nice to see my friends again. I had missed them.

The next order of business is the wedding! During my first week in the house, they made sure I didn't have anything for the 15th of March. Because that was the day of my aunt's (my dad's sister) wedding. On Friday I went into town iwth Jessica to go dress shopping! After a little bit of looking, we found this black and white dress for me. Jessica ended up using one of the ones she had at home.

On Saturday, we all had our hair done at the salon. Then at 6 or so, we headed off to the event center.

We got there and talked to the other guests and then the ceremony started. It was outside and super pretty. Not too many people, just family and friends. The ceremony was really short and I thought, "huh that's it?" But it turns out that that was just the official government stuff. Signing the documents and things. then we got on to the church part of it. It was a nice ceremony.

We congratulated the bride and groom and took a picture.

Then we socialized and ate appetizers. They kept offering me this juice that only had "a little bit!" of alcohol. I politely decline. ;)

After that, we went into the reception hall and sat down at our assigned tables.

Mine consisted of my host parents, Jessica, Juanjo, an older couple, and a 14 year old kid.

Juanjo, Jessica, my mom Carmen, and I:

We watched a slideshow of the bride and groom and then we were served our dinner. It was really good food and by the end I was stuffed.

The salad:

Without much of a break, it was time to dance! My parents danced together, Jessica and Jauanjo, and the other couple. that conveniently left me and the other kid (the only other teenager there) to dance together. But, he refused to. so we sat there in awkward silence until, after 10 long minutes, he finally gave in. So that was awkward. But I wasn't going to sit there until 2 in the morning without dancing. It wasn't slow dancing, but it was something to be done with pairs.

So we danced for a bit, then sat down. Through the night, I danced iwth my host dad, and friens of the family (meaning older guys that were free and asked me.). There were also two little girls there (ages 3 and 5). I danced a lot with them too. Being silly with them made me miss my nieces and newphews a lot. I'm excited to have them close again. At different times, we took breaks and did different things. The garter, cutting the cake,

the bouquet toss. They rounded up all the unmarried people and claimed me as the queen of the singles (reina de las solteras). haha. Whatever that means. ;) I didn't cathch the bouquet, but that's probably a good thing. I'm just little!

Towards the end, they handed out party decorations (hats, ties, glasses, and necklaces). That was fun.

Jessica and Juanjo:

 My lovely sister:

Jessica, my parents and I:

 The three year old girl I danced with :)

 At about 2:30 we headed home.

So that's it for the wedding! The following week, my family and I were invited to a friends house for a birthday party. And when we got there, the little girls from the wedding were there. Well actually i twas their house since it was their dad's birthday .The younger one was sleeping. But, Emilia (the 5 year old) was awake. And she was so, so excited! She gave me a drawing and it was so adorable. She had been asking all day when Christy would come. I sat down and was talking with the other adults and she asked me to go and play at the park. And so we did. All of the adults said to me "Christy! You really don't have to." But I genuinely wanted to. Playing games with little kids is one of the things I've missed the most this year. After the park we went upstairs and played with dolls. Then we ate dinner, had cake, and went home. It was a nice night. :)

North Trip! (Day 7 and 8!)

Just a warning, this is going to be a long post ;)

On the seventh day of the trip, we were up at 8 and had breakfast at 8:30. Then we went to a ship and had a tour! Well a life-size replica of a ship.

So... I had my camera all charged up and ready to go. But... I forgot to take the battery out of the charger. And without a battery, the camera doesn't work. So I was without a camera until we returned to the hotel. But it was alright...

The Esmeralda was involved in a big battle against Peru. They lost... but during the several hour long battle, Commander Arturo Prat, heroically jumped on board of the other ship and got shot. And so he and the Esmeralda are symbols of heroism and gave other ships the will to fight.

So, only a few pictures from other's people's cameras, but they'll do.

This is the blue group!

And this is all of us!

 After the ship tour, we walked to the center of the city and went to a museum. As we were walking, there were some really cool stands selling random things. But we didn't have time to stop... It was sad.

Center of Iquique:

Then we went to a theater. It was pretty cool because we got to go backstage and see all the wooden props they used in the old days.

Thennnnn we went to a mall! How exciting. But it wasn't just any mall, it was a Zofri mall! It's a giant duty free mall. As everyone knows, I love malls. *not really...

But first, we went to eat lunch in the food court! There was a sushi place and so a group of us went to go check it out. Rotary told us that they would pay, so we just had to tell them when we were ready to pay. There were 8 of us and as we looked at the menu, it was cheaper to get a bigger platter of sushi than to order individually. So we ordered a 78 piece one! It was sooo good! And it made me really happy and full.

After the sushi, it was time for shopping! There were a few stores that had American (and from other countries) candy for cheap. So a friend and I bought an Almond Joy to split. Apart from the cheap candy, the other stores had some great offers. Like a 1,200 dollar dress for only 700. hahhaa. So I didn't buy much else. Just a candy bar and a USB stick.

We were in that darn place for three and a half hours! i would have much rather been at an artisan feria. And everyone else thought the same except the counselors. They took advantage of the cheap alcohol.

After that, we went to the beach. That was nice. I walked around with Jodie a lot. Neither of us felt like actually swimming. I got some sand in a bag and looked for sea shells for Natalia who had requested it.

Since it was the last night of the trip, the counselors rented out a club for us. Because you have to be 18 to legally get in. So we got on the bus for the club at 11:30 but then got a phone call that there were electrical problems at the place. So we sat in the bus waiting and at 12:30 we finally went. We danced until 4 and then back to the hotel and showered and slept. It was a fun time!

The city in the night:

With less than 4 hours of sleep we were up and at 'em again. We packed up our bags and put them all together in one room. With breakfast at 8:30 and then off on the bus after. This next place, was one of my favorite places we went.

The Humberstone Saltpeter mine. It is a mining town that was opened in 1862 and abandoned in 1960. It was abandoned because someone discovered to produce fertilizer through a synthetic process.

I took a TON of pictures but you'll just have to bear with me. I absolutely loved it and could have wandered around all day long.

It was a pretty complete town, with a church, grocery store, school, hospital, swimming pool, etc..

Jodie and I:

There was everything to old machinery to kitchen appliances to toys.

The peeling walls:

Salt mine in operation:

We got artisticy. ;) James would love that place.

In the desert:

Sooo. Jodie and I were really enthralled by all of it. And there was so much to explore. But... the group of 40 exchange students with our guide moved faster than we did. So we walked out of one building and found this:

Absolutely NO ONE.

They had said something about a theater so we set out to find the theater of the town.

After ten minutes of wandering around without seeing another living thing, we found some workers (working on I don't know what...) and they laughed at us. Then pointed us in the general direction. And we found it ;)

Got lost in a ghost town... hahhaa.

We listened to our tour guide and then were set loose to explore and take more pictures. We stuck with the group this time.

Like from an old Western movie:

At the hotel:

At the hospital:

Some rooms were pretty erie:

In the school:

In the grocery store:

There was a section that was completely pitch dark. And so we took pictures with flash to see what was there:

I took a lot more pictures than these... but I figured that'd be enough for now.

After Humberstone, we went to the center of Iquique.

 And then went on another boat tour!

 Jodie and I:

Jodie and Catherine:

 There's a gorilla in the mountain. Do you see it?

 

Birds!

 Sea lions:

After our boat ride, we headed off to a nice restaurant for lunch. The Rotary counselors had it decorated nicely with balloons and streamers.

I had some fish, fries, and rice and it was super good. 

 We got up by color group and said what we liked most about the trip. And Rotary gifted us some coasters and a side bag.

Then, we were off to the hotel to get our things on the bus.

Good bye hotel:

Good bye Iquique beach:

And we were off to the airport, with some ice cream to eat while waiting:

I sat by Annabel:

We had a 40 minute flight to Antofagasta, a 30 minute wait in the plane, and then an hour and a half hours to Santiago.

We had some airplane food: 

 And watched the sun go down:

We landed in Santiago at 9:30-ish. And got our luggage and said good bye to everyone. It was hard... I can't even imagine what it's going to be like after the Easter Island trip. It's amazing how close I've gotten to these people. I've only seen them two or three times, but I feel like they know me so well. It helps that we are going through the same thing.

At 11, I went with 8 or so others and got on a bus to Curicó. It was fancy! The chairs were ginormous and reclined into beds. It was fantastic. So I passed out on the ride to Curicó.

And there we have it! Finally, the end to an amazing trip to the North. I loved every minute of it. It was incredible to spend so much time with the other exchange students getting to know the beautiful desert of the north of Chile.