10

Well folks... 10. I can now count how many days I have left here in Chile on TWO hands! eek! It's pretty paralyzing that I'm actually going home. My stomach feels empty and I couldn't get it off my mind in the morning! I'll be hugging my family in 11 days. What?!

Anyways. Today Sofía took a picture of me with every single one of my classmates. She's sweet and know she has something planned. ;)

A while ago I bought a little blue book for people to write in. I've been pretending I'm not leaving and haven't touched it. But today I brought it to class and started passing it around. I'm totally in the denial stage! I need to start packing too... How much time do I need for that anyway??

The good news is that with the semester ending and the fact that I won't be here for the second means that I don't do anything in classes anymore. Not like we're accomplishing much anyways.

In gym today we played matanzas. It's a game like dodge ball but with only one ball. I have such terrible aim. hahaha. 

 Pausing for a picture with Seba :)

During our lunch break, I went with Paula, Natalia, Romina, and Rodrigo to buy decorations for my party. We bought balloons and streamers (white and purple).

As of right now, 37 people (including me) are going to it. So that's exciting. A pretty good percentage out of 43 people. I'm excited for Thursday to come!

It was a really good day in school. Nothing special happened but I just was with my friends and enjoyed everything. I'm thankful for what I have.

T-11 Days and Party Planning!

I know I have a lot to catch up on, but I just wanted to write how I'm feeling until I leave. Then when I get home I'll get the rest of the posts and pictures up. Les parece?? (Sounds good??)

Ok. As you can see by the title, 11 days left of my Chile adventures. That's nothing!

I'm feeling pretty sad! I'm definitely not ready to return to my 'other life'. I miss my family tons and friends of course, but I'm not ready to leave everything behind here for what could be forever.

The semester ends for school on the 9th of July. And so I have two and a half days left of school at San Ramon Nonato. I am actually really going to miss it. The uniforms, the recesses, going to buy snacks at the kiosk in the patio, going to Top Dog a gillion times a week, my wonderful classmates, walking into the classroom, setting my backpack down, and going to greet my friends with a hug and a kiss, the awkward daily prayers that I still stand silently through, having teachers tell me to put up my hair only to take it down two seconds later, the closeness of my classmates, my rambunctious classmates, the few teachers that still think I don't understand what they're saying, the impossible tests I randomly fill in and sleep through, and so much more. It's a lot of little things...

I am (and have been) planning a good bye party (a despedida!) It's actually helped a lot with the anxiety of leaving. That way, my friends and I don't sit around talking about that I'm leaving, but we just plan the party! I've been planning it mainly with Carolina (Kako), but my whole class has been part of it. I want to have a party with all my classmates. Because honestly, they've been my friends this year. I have some friends from church, but I don't really hang out with them. And so my friends are my life here! So I've invited just my 42 classmates. At the end of senior year (cuarto) here, there is a dance that is like prom. It's called 'La Gala'. We were talking one day about that I wouldn't be there for it and someone said oohhh we should do a Gala for Christy! I knew it wouldn't happen but... So when we started planning this party, I pitched in that we should do it semi-formal. Not anything suuuper fancy. But everyone dressed up a bit. I'm super excited and I bought a black dress that I'm pumped to wear! We started looking for a place to rent to have the dance and things. And we finally settled on a place next to my house in Romeral (15 minutes from Curicó). Also, since my family are residents of the town, they get a cheaper deal. So we'll rent out a place for 20 bucks. Yay! What's amazing about parties here is that people are actually willing to pitch in money! They aren't always like that, but it's pretty normal that everyone who goes brings something or pitches in a few dollars. I'm asking everyone to pay about five and a half dollars (3,000 Chilean pesos). It sounds like a lot... but everyone is fine with it, because we're renting out a place, buying food, decorations, etc.. so if 35 out of my 43 classmates come, then we'll have about 190 dollars to spend on everything. We also are going to find a photography. Which is really going to be a kid from our school who has a fancy camera. We'll pay him 10 or 15 bucks for the night. If it doesn't work in our budget, I'm totally fine paying that out of pocket, because I want to remember this night! And it'll be nice not having us taking our own pictures.

I'm having my good bye party on the 10th of July. It's a Thursday because the place wasn't available on Saturday. It'll start at 7:30 and everyone will get there at 9 since Chileans are ever so punctual. I'm in the process of making a slideshow of pictures to show. Then I'll talk for a minute and thank them for the year (some tissues will be needed...). We'll have empanadas and choripanes along with chips, cookies, peanuts and pop. Then we'll get on to the dancing! We'll dance and play some games in between. Parties here have alcohol. All of them! So... seeing as I don't drink (pero Christy! es super suave. no te va a pasar nada!--but Christy! It's super weak. Nothings going to happen to you!), I'll try to keep the alcohol out of the party... Well at least try to keep them from getting completely wasted. We will be doing a toast (brindis!) with champagne. Some good alcohol free stuff for me ;) And then we'll get dancing!

The complications at the moment: There are two major complications as of right now. One is the time. The place we are in says we have to turn off the music at 3:30 or 4. That is totally find because we'll have 8 or 9 hours anyways. BUT, a classmate Felipe is borrowing the music machines from a school nearby. And he's responsible for them. And he doesn't want to leave them in the place or at my house and get them the next day... Plus, it's complicated for the parents picking up their kids early in the morning when they have work the next day. So... that'll get resolved quickly I hope. It kinda has to because the party is in 4 days. The other one is the dress. I didn't think people would have a problem using a dress that they already have or pants and a blouse. But as it turns out some people have a problem. In reality, like 2 kids have a problem. A parent of a classmate said that their daughter couldn't go in a dress or something more formal because it didn't make sense for me to ask for a semi-formal event because I should remember my friends as normal people. Wait, what? But... we're still doing it semi-formal and that's the way it is.

Tomorrow after school, Carolina, Romina, and I are going to buy the decorations.

I lot of random ramblings... I need to go and work on my slideshow and get to bed! My last Monday in school tomorrow! :(

Rain, Pancakes, and Busyness

*I wrote this blog a while ago, and so the keep that in mind. ;) These events happened in... April, in fact. Eeek.

In the summer in Chile it doesn't rain much. Up until this day, it had rained twice and when I got out of school one day I was overjoyed to see the rain! I love storms.

The view of my school in the rain: This is one of the patios.

On to the pancakes! Wednesday is my longest school day when I get out at 5:45 and I get to my house at 6:30-ish. I was pretty exhausted, but decided to attempt to make pancakes. We didn't have syrup in the house (I have seen it here though!--American brands but still) I found a simple recipe but didn't measure anything out (no cups or tablespoons here) and winged it. They looked good but ended up being a little heavy. I ate them with peanut butter that Katie and Diane sent me forever ago. They weren't that fantastic... haha. My mom didn't really want to accept that they weren't crepes. Because they sometimes make crepes here, but never pancakes. But I tried anyways. :)

There was an arts and crafts and carnival thing in Molina and so I went to that with Rodrigo and Lobos. We met up at the terminal and got off to Molina and walked to Toledo's house. They dropped off bags and we walked to town. This time, there were less carnival rides and more food and crafts. I wish I would've been with girls because the guys weren't interested in looking at the crafts much. haha. I bought a nice fuzzy winter hat for 4 dollars. I love cheap stuff!

I got a shish kabob and juice too.

I went home at about 8:30 because I had a Rotary trip the next day (next blog post!).

A little bit about how I'm doing! I'm great. My spanish is good. I don't get head aches every day from translating, I don't need to think of every word in english and then translate it to spanish, I don't really have to focus to understand people, and I dream a lot in Spanish! Lots of ups and downs on an exchange with the language. But I'm on an up.

I love my family. A quick recap. I live in Romeral, a small town 20 minutes from Curicó. I love with my parents José and Carmen, my sister Jessica, and I have a sister in Oklahoma who will come home soon. I've heard a lot of great things about her from her family and I'm excited to meet her. I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous too. I'm nervous that we won't get along. Also, my room is her room... but I'll be staying in it until I leave.

The Chilean life is usually pretty rushed and busy. And that has definietly been the case for my family lately. My mom Carmen nevere had the change to finish high school since she had to work to help out her family when she was little. So now, she is taking night classes. After a long day of working, she comes home at 7 or 7:30 and goes to classes at 8. Then she gets back at 10 or 10:30. My dad is usually around the house but often has to rush to do something with the fútbol stadium next door. Jessica has a long day of teaching 1st grade in my school and then she teaches night classes for adults (like my mom). Also, on Friday and Saturday she drives to Talca (an hour away) to take college classes to get her masters in teaching biology. She wants to be a college professor. Sometimes we eat dinner at 7:30 or so before they leave for classes and sometimes we eat at 10:30 when they get home.

I definitely have a hard working family and I'm proud of that.

Depending on my school schedule, I get out anywhere from 1:15 to 5:45. Since there's never too much going on in the afternoon at my house, I take my time getting home. I walk to the bus terminal with friends, go to the mall, or study in the school with friends.

I seemed to have forgotten to write about basketball. In Bariloche, I met a girl named Camila who goes to San Martin. It is a school just a few blocks from mine. A while ago, she said she played basketball and she invited me to play on their team. So when I have time on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I go to basketball practice with them. The other girls are nice and the practices are tough. They have one of the best girl teams in Curicó.

So that's my life! Busy, busy, busy, but great!

Sushi and Carnivals!

One day after class I went with Sofia and Rodrigo to eat sushi! Rodrigo had never tried it so it was fun seeing his reactions. The sushi is super good at that place. Sofia paid for mine for my birthday present. ;)

Mine and Sofia's sushi:

 Gyozas:

 A few days after the sushi, Kako invited me to go with her to the carnival. So we met up at the terminal. She was a few minutes late and so I sat on a bench and waited. The guy I was sitting next to me started talking to me and we had a nice conversation. He was in his 50's and lived in the country. It was a hot day and he offered to buy me a pop. I said no but thanked him. But he insisted ;) So he bought me a Crush. saweeet. haha. We talked some more, and then Kako came. We found a bus going to Lontué and we were off. We got there and there were carnival rides, food, and arts and crafts. We walked through the tons and tons of people and played "taka-taka" or foosball. I won. ;)

And then we played this game. You had 8 ping pong balls and you threw them into the slots. And then whatever number they added up to, you go the prize that had that number on it.

And I won this bear from a hospital from Mexico. hahaha. I paid a dollar for that game!

 Then we went on a ride called The Roulette. It was fun:

Nico, Fernanda, Pablo, his girlfriend, and Fransisco showed up and Kako had to go home. So I stayed with the rest of them and we went on the Roulette ride again.

 Then we went on the Crazy Loop.

I almost died, I swear. It was a ride where we got strapped in by metal bars and the big cage spun around. When I was little, I got sick on roller coasters and that has not changed! It was fun for the first minute. And then it was hard to hold my head up and I felt like I was in a car accident. I was a little dizzy after that.

While we waited for Fernanda's parents to come, we got empanadas at a little shop. They were super good.

The next night, I went with my family back to the feria. We walked around for a while, until we started being followed by a homeless, shoeless, old guy who was quite vulgar. He followed us and begged my dad for money and asked him if he was a tough guy and wanted to fight. The way he walked freaked me out a bit. He siddled along with jerky movements and made me think he was going to touch me. He tried grabbing Jessica's arm, but she pushed him back. By that time, we were done with the feria anyways and walked to the exit. As we passed a vendor, the guy following us said "take a picture! I need a picture with the gringa! (add in all of your favorite Chilean swear words)" So that was fun! The police took him away...

Hey! I'm back! sort of...

I'll just start this one out with a big PERDÓNAME and LO SIENTO! (Forgive me and I'm sorry!)

I've been wanting to blog, but just plain have not had time! Amazing trips, school, hanging out with friends, family time, and homework (plus seminary since I'd neglected it for a lot of the year).

The good thing is that I have a notebook at school with a lot of posts written out. They just need to magically find their ways onto here, with pictures. I'll get there...

Some news that YOU need to know! I have my return date (and have had it for a while now...). I will be leaving my second home on July 17th at 9:10 p.m. from Santiago. I will then have a grueling ten hour-something flight to Dallas, Texas where I will wait for 4 hours before I fly the last piece of my trip (2 hours and 15 minutes) to the Minneapolis International Airport! There on July 18th, I will be reunited with my family who will be waiting for me! (right??... that would stink to wait wouldn't it Vick? ) And a few days after that, I will find my way home to my motherland! Ironwood!

So that leaves me... (pause as I check my countdown that I have that I neglect most of the time...) 38 days. That is too low of a number.

I am full of so many emotions. I'm excited, ready, not-ready, happy, sad, torn, and so many more. Some days I feel like I've learned everything I should have learned here, I'm satisfied with my español, and I'm ready to see my family. But other days, I feel like I have so much to do still, I have memories to make, bonds to deepen, spanish to learn, and dreams to complete. Most days, July 17th seems like my death date. We tend not to talk about that day... Although I'm excited to see my family as I walk through those airport doors. Seeing them with signs or balloons or how ever it will be. Hugging my Dad and brothers and sisters and my too-big-nephews and nieces. I cry when I think about those last good byes that I'll have to make with my friends and family HERE. I have another life that I'll be walking away from. I know that we'll keep in touch. But it won't be the same.

So when people from home tell me that I have a little time left, I don't know how to feel. Or people say "no te vallas, Christy! (don't go!). My heart hurts! Inside of me, I have this snow globe of emotions. Usually all the glitter is at the bottom and things are calm. But now, life has taken the snow globe and shaken it with all it's might. aghhhh.

But anyywwaysss. That's the big news. I'm great. I love life. I love hugging my friends at school and laughing with them. I love knowing the language and being able to be me. I love my family. I love school. I love Chile.

I'll hopefully be getting more blog posts up more continuously. I have SO much to say and I've missed writing! It's nice to get all my thoughts and stories out. Sorry it's been such a long time!

I've got a couple of posts of random things. And then I'll ramble on and on and share a ton of pictures from Easter Islannnddd! wiiii! (yay!) And then eventually, let's be honest... probably when I get home I'll get completely caught up.

These next weeks, I'll be focusing on loving every minute I have left, hugging everyone a little bit tighter, and appreciating a bit more all the good things I have right now.

Viña del Mar and Valparaíso!

On April 11th, there was a Rotary conference and we went to the 5th region of Chile. I got on the bus that picked up exchange students at 8 and we were off. I slept unto more people got on. The bus went from Talca all the way up to Santiago. Once there, we got off and met up with the kids living in Santiago. And there, I was reunited with Jodie! 

We were assigned buses and headed on our way. We stopped at a church 

and then we were off to Viña del Mar. It's a super well-known city and a beautiful city on the sea.

It is also known for the big clock of flowers. So we got some pictures by that.

All of the Inbound students!

Then we wen to the Stadium where a big musical festival is held. Festival de Viña. It's a big music festival in Viña del Mar which is supposedly

international. Although I've never heard of it.

I watched it this year in February. The stadium looks a lot bigger on the TV.

The area surrounding the stadium there happened to be a fair of anime things. There were so many costumes. I liked this one the best. hahahaha. Get it?? They are Sims!

For lunch, we went to a Chinese buffet! I was excited because I hadn't eaten Chinese food all year, but was slightly disappointed. The food didn't turn out to be that great. And the sushi was NOT sushi. It, in fact, contained hot dog. Gross!

After lunch, we took a bus a little bit further til Valparaiso or Valpo. This building is the Armada of Chile.

It was a pretty hot day and we spent it walking. I didn't mind too much because the streets of Valparaiso are absolutely gorgeous. The city is one of lots of hills and bright graffiti.

We got some yummy alfajores. A Chilean dessert made up of cookie, chocolate, and manjar.

As we were walking there was a guy that wanted to do a show for us with his spring puppets. So we sat on the ground like preschoolers and watched a puppet show. :3

I loved the colorful stairs:

And the colorful everything.

Anabel (Germany) and I:

I would have liked to buy a little painting, but they were pretty pricey.

There were lot of street acts. Like this dancer. A guy with a black morph suit with a second head.

 

While the guide was talking, we saw a fire in the hills. No one thought much of it at first because they are normal because of the dryness. 

We continued on our tour and then it started getting serious. It got bigger and bigger and ashes began to fall like snow. Whole burnt leaves started to fall.

I really like this picture:

We kept on the tour of the city and we went to the harbor. All the while, the cloud of smoke grew. We got some cotton candy and went to see some ships.

Some of these turned out like war pictures.

Bridget and I:

We went to the cabins and I roomed with Jessica, Morgan and 2 other girls. That night, we were gong to have a dance, but people were tired and so we just sat up and talked. I liked it a lot better. It was awesome talking with these girls. 

A morning game of foosball.

After lunch we got on the road home. I sat with Bridget and we reminisced about our exchanges and thought about how hard it would be to leave. We talked about what we'd learned and what problems we'd had. That was the point that going home started to feel real.

The fire which had started as a common hill fire, grew and grew and made worldwide news. Over 2,500 houses were burnt which left 12,000 people homeless and several deaths. The amazing thing about the Chilean people is the way they come together after a natural disaster like that. In a country with so many earthquakes, fires, and tsunamis, they have learned to work together and pick each other up.