Jody: Chillin in Chile

Travels

2007-05-29T17:03:00.000-04:00

Okey dokey,
So..history. My prof told me to go to the library and chat with friends waiting for me in Canada, because there really isn`t much time left to do a lot of productive work and I`m not sure how many classes I will still be here for.
Traveling...well, after the airplane delay.....I actually didn`t have to go when i thought I did, so could have kept on writing. I had some good conversations with some people in the airport tho, 2 Brasilians traveling, and another man on his first trip to Punta Arenas. The flight was uneventful, although I was at the far back of the plane, and the steward guy liked to sing in English when he was at the back..it was quite hilarious....I arrived, and went to an exchange friend of mines house, due to the delay my other friend couldn`t come pick me up. We stayed up late, talking laughing etc.. and the next morning enjoyed sleeping in, then pancakes. I went to Yasna`s apartment in the afternoon, where we cut my hair (i have bangs now) before a job interview for her. I was amused at the interview (for selling credit cards outside a store...she didn`t take the job...) when the man said that they had to dress warmly because it was very cold. I was warm with a long sleeved v-neck shirt....I started laughing, he looked at me, and I just said i was from Punta Arenas. We then went to a restaurant in downtown santiago for Pastel de choclo (a traditional food that requires fresh corn and therefore not possible to make in Punta Arenas...) I loved it. The next morning (nothing too exciting at night....) we headed off to viña. Upon arrival, Gonzalo met up with us (after a bit of shopping :) ) and we went to his place. I figured it would be cool to stay in the rented room at his house so that we could hang out more. That night, we ( a group of girls, Gonzalo had classes the next morning..) went out to Valpo. I met some fellow rugby players and we had a grand time salsaing it up and chatting. The next morning, we went to Valparaiso to see some of that city, we went up one of the ancient elevators...it was super cool (and quite slow....). We walked around the flat part of Valpo, the center isn`t really that big, all the people live on the hills. That night, a visit to a disco in Viña. In the morning, I got up and hung out with Gonzalo and then we went to a pizza place in Viña...with Canadian style pizza. (The stuff here really doesn`t compare..i was ridiculously happy....) Gonzalo and i were walking through the streets eating...we were lacking in time as well. Upon arrival in Santiago after the bus, I had about 2 minutes in Yasna`s apartment to get my stuff (forgot my host mom`s towel...) and then headed back to the bus station for Chillan, 5 hours south of Santiago to visit my cousin.
Chillan....got there at like 11 pm, and was picked up by my cousin. She had friends waiting at the house to get to know me (apparently I had a lot to live up to from the stories...) They were waiting with sushi, which I actually liked...and then I was shown the discos of Chillan. I was quite tired.....and dead when we got home at 8 am.....(Lisette and I were protesting at the others to go home...) we slept until 3 the next day. We had a good time hanging out in the house, and I got to know some of the other members of my adoptive family... The next day, I had a tour of chillan...a delicious buffet of vegetarian food, lots of fresh veggies, fresh pear juice...etc. First time I had seen nething like it in Chile. At night, I got back on a bus (my second home) and arrived in Viña the next day at 6 40 am. I didn`t sleep.... I was calling Gonzalo to come pick me up from the bus..but his cell was turned off..I had a coffee while waiting and put my bags in the custody thinger. We hung out in Viña and Valpo that day, taking combinations of fun and pretty pictures. Then..back to santiago (i was living on the run basically..) and to rancagua to visit a friend of mine. (exchange) We hung out, laughed...didn`t do a ton of touristy stuff cuz we were having a blast just walking around o(when we weren`t in her house, awesome family..they told me to go back and visit whenever I was in Chile...) Then santiago, where I had the bad luck of hitting the metro during the busy hour (and with 2 backpacks..not a good time..) Jesse and I (exchange friend...who i stayed at his house the first itme...) went to see the third pirates of the caribbean. The next day, we went to get my host mom`s towel...and almost missed my flight. I got to the airport at 10 30..flight at 10 50....they told me that the flight was closed..but because i pretended to start crying (but was actually very worried...) they let me on. A friend from Punta Arenas was on the same flight, and I went to sit with her on the plane, and the flight felt much shorter. The airline has gotten very cheap...and give a brownie, alfajor (chileno) and peanuts..and thats it. well..we got it twice for the two trips. And this was like my lunch. grr..
Newho, it was awesome to see my host dad when I got home...it had been more than 2 months! We laugh all the time, we have hot pepper sauce in my house again, and its a blast. Well..class is almost over, so thats all for now. I can`t believe how little time is left...blows my mind.
I hate goodbyes, but am looking forward to the welcomes :)

killin time in the airport

2007-05-16T15:34:00.001-04:00

Well....i arrived at the airport to board my plane, a few minutes late really to be the hour early (which is not necessary in this airport...9 and learned that my plane is an hour late, so time to kill....although since I haven`t blogged since after my torres del paine trip, good opportunity. Travels you may ask? Yes...i am heading off to visit some friends in Santiago, visit Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, and my cousin in Chillan. (Chilean cousin...she came to brasil with us and is lots of fun). I hope to see some exchange friends as well. What have i been up to the last while?? Well, I have been busy visiting friends, meeting lots of new people...etc etc. It`s awesome meeting new people, and there are a lot of them i wish I had met earlier in the year. I am down to very little time left, and therefore eager to spend every moment I can with other people. I have a feeling this next month I will be super tired most of the time for lack of sleep. When I get back from the north, my host dad will have arrived home. I haven`t seen him since the 15th of march. And that was only for a week (if you remember, he didn`t come to brasil with us.) It will be good to have him back, but super different! I am gone for 9 days. Some of my classmates thought that when I left school today, I was leaving for ever, and some almost started to cry. (others knew I was only going for 9 days, and were super sad about it anyway...what are they going to do when i leave for ever??) Ì got bronchitis last week, `(that never ending cold from torres del paine got worse...) and so spent last tuesday afternoon, wednesday, and thursday at home. The first day was a nice relaxation, but after that I got bored and was happy to return to school friday. It was el dia del alumno (the day of the student) and we had an assembly in the morning. Afterwards, my class went to the multipurpose room where we watched movies of pics of my class. The first was funny pics, the second pics of groups of two (joke couples, actual couples etc..) and the third all pics of groups, with a song about when you grow up and such. There was a group that was crying, and afterwards the prof started talking and we ended up almost all crying. Especially when they handed out notes written by the parents at their meeting. clau`s parents wrote me a letter, because my host parents don`t go to the meetings, and they couldn`t get in contact with my parents at home. (it was a surprise, so they couldn`t exactly ask for the email of my rents...) Well..i heard an announcement about the flight..so I better go figure out what exactly it said..i wouldn`t want to get left behind.
All my love,
Jody

killin time in the airport

2007-05-16T15:34:00.000-04:00

Torres del Paine..round 2

2007-04-24T17:24:00.000-04:00

Ok...so here I sit, with a bad cough, runny nose, and extremely chapped lips...and with feelings of extreme happiness, lots of great memories, and also sadness because today I said goodbye to some people that I will never see again.
So....the trip.
David (the Hungarian exchange student, not Rotary, but living in Punta Arenas) picked me up to go to the airport to meet up with the group. I was super anxious waiting for them to arrive, and when they entered the luggage pickup, we had some window hugs....there were lots of real hugs and tons of conversation when everyone got out. Everyone wanted to know how summer had been, and I wanted to know the same for everyone else. Emily, a great friend from the north trip didn`t have her name on the list which I had been bummed about, but she was there and so that was a pleasant surprise. We also had 4 new exchangees, 2 from brasil, 1 from australia, and 1 from New Zealand. We had a pretty small bus to take us to Puerto Natales. Ie....lap sitting was necessary...but it was nice for keeping us warm. Oh..and we had amazing luck because it wasn`t raining when they got in. When we arrived in Natales about 3 hours later, it was raining. We had a while to settle into our rooms and check out the town before cena at 9. (sorry, dinner..) After that, we were hanging out, and the folks hanging out in my room ended up leaving at about 1 20. One of the girls was quite sick and was coughing a lot of the night, so I didn`t have the best sleep as we headed out of the hotel at about 9 in the morning. (I think it was 9...losing track of the time). After our hearty breakfast, we got in the bus and headed out. We had several stops along the way to look at wildlife (guanacos), and also at the park entrance and store (slightly overpriced...due to the location.) We stopped at a lake with the Torres in the background. The view was very different from when I was there in october, because this time it was snowing like crazy in the mountains so it was actually quite difficult to see the torres. We were quite excited about the "ice" on the edge of the lake, but upon closer examination figured out it was salt!!! Yes...we did taste a bit of it and yes, it did have a grooss aftertaste. As we entered the park (same route as last time) I noticed the work that I had done in october, still there. Oh the memories...We stayed in the hostal that they were working on when I was there. nicely done. We had 8 girls in the 6 person room, one on the floor (well, she was the rotarian chaperone) and 2 girls shared the bed (warmth...) We quickly made a mess of the room. I wish i could put up pics to go with most of these descriptions, but it would be all pics basically. It was amazing. We made ourselves some lunch on our campstoves and then headed out on a trek. We didn`t make it to the base of los Torres due to the lack of time and also the varying degrees of physical condition. It was a bummer, (but i was lucky to have already seen it....so can`t complain). After arrival at the hotel, we had dinner with candles because the hostel doesn`t have electricity, very romantic like. Good convos followed, and then bed quite a while later. (lots of funny little tidbits in between.) In the morning, we packed up and then headed out to los cuernos. They were stopped at the map for quite awhile, so eventually i just started walking because they didn`t really hear that i knew the way. The hike had lots of picture breaks as well. At first, a few of us were quite annoyed with the mass amounts of stops that we were making, but as time went on, it was alright. A river that we had had to cross using ropes and lots of care in october was now easily crossed hopping on a few rocks. We stopped to eat there, and refill water bottles in the mountain stream. After lunch, we continued trekking until we reached the next nights home. Those of us with lots of energy still dropped our bags, grabbed some water and headed back to help those a ways behind. It turns out I didn`t have to carry a bag, but it was amazing how light our legs felt without the weight of the packs. That evening was the birthday of a girl on trips, so we had a campfire for her on the beach. A bit before, I went off to the river to make tea with Lars....(a german friend) and he slipped while getting water...wetting his shoes and one knee as well as his jacket. They searched us out a bit later, apparently they had been waiting for us. But the tea was definitely worth it!! One of the guys working at the camp sang some campfire traditional folklorish songs which were really cool. We then all had to talk abit about our countries history and coat of arms. I noticed that I had never studied canadian history before 1900...... I did know a good deal of the chilean history questions that he asked tho :) Jesse, Emily, and I stayed out afterwards to look at the gorgeous sky. I have never seen so many stars in my life, and there were lots of shooting stars as well. We had sleeping bags to keep us warm. We ended up having the three of us sleeping in one twin size bed (emily and i had been planning to sleep in one bed, and then jesse fell asleep there, so, it was an experience...good laughs now...) We also got up at 6 30 to go watch the sunrise (also with sleeping bags) It was beautiful. We were lucky to find a bit of a wind shelter set up, which ended up sheltering us from the mist that came off the lake. It was some extreme wind. After about an hour, we headed in for breakfast. Some people had assumed we were a bit behind because we had stayed in bed...but really we had gotten very little sleep....the hyperness begun.... That day, we were told to be prepared for rain which was coming in...so I put the poncho over my backpack (and the hood was sticking up, so I had a little buddy for the trip). It rained a bit, but not anything significant, but enough to keep us cool. That day was a significant amount of hiking. We had been told it was flat, but had a huuuuge hill before the lunch break. After our lunch of chicken flavored water ("soup") and pesto rice (with lots of water, so like pesto soup with rice...) we headed up to see some amazng rock formations....This was without backpack. We had the luck to see 2 avalanches...from a distance tho..no fears!!! Then a group of us decided to finish off the hike with very little break and walking at a brisk pace. I ended up leading, and we did the 2 and a half hour hike in 1 hour, 32 minutes (minus our five min break, 1 h 27). I was fondly given the nickname of slavedriver. We still enjoyed the scenery, have no fear. A garbage bag flew off one girls backpack (crazy wind!) and Sam had a bit of a sprint with his backpack to go get it....many laughs there as well. When we arrived at our final destination, we showered and then celebrated with a beer. After dinner, (which i couldnt finish..surprising for having hiked about 15 km that day...) we had massage sessions upstairs. I fell asleep on the couch, and when i woke up only sam, jesse, arno and I were left. Emily came up toget her sweater and told us of the dance party happening...I obviously headed over there and we danced up a storm until about 1 or so. Jesse had my sleeping bag hostage (it had been used as the massage table), so we had to fight for that before the top bunk was our home for the night. I had set my alarm to see the sunrise again, but we couldnt see nething but the top of the window from the bed, and it was cloudy anyways. The next time we woke up, it was 8 and perfect timing to go down for breakfast. After that, we packed up our stuff and then got ready to go to the lookout for the glaciar. It was significantly colder than other days. (other days i wished for t-shirts..possibly shorts). That morning, it was snowing, quite heavily actually. The group that headed out was kindof eliteish..all in good physical shape. We had to go quickly because we were kind of lacking in time. We were all commenting how christmas like it kind of felt because of the snow....however, due to the snow we didn`t actualy see the glaciar. Only 5 of the original 10 or so made it to the glaciar..the rest didn`t want to have the intense hiking and sometimes jogging..that we did. At the top, we strained our eyes for an outline and enjoyed the soup and trailmix that sam had so preparedly brought up, took some pics with the camera timers, and headed back down. The mud made the trip interesting.....good laughs and memories. I loved the ability to fill up the waterbottle from a mountain stream. Upon arrival at the hotel, we quickly ate a boxed lunch and then headed to catch the boat. It was kinda neat because there were some people we had been kind of following the whole trip and they were also on the boat. Sam had talked alot with one of the couples and mentioned how he was living the life...and i commented how I bet that man thought that we were living the life...because we are! Our bus broke down about 30 min outside puerto natales, so we waited for awhile as they tried to fix it and then waited for cars to come get us. We had dinner in Natales, then got back into mini buses for Punta Arenas. We went to the hotel, and from there i called my host fam to tell them I`d be home around 12. (we had free time until that hour). We quickly changed (altho there wasn`t much clean to put on...) and then we went to a cafe,restaurant 2 blocks from the hotel. We stayed there til 1....the chairman was with us so it was ok. I called a bit before 12 when we learned there were extra beds in the hotel and said i would just spend the night there. We didn`t go to sleep til probably around 3 or 4, but due to my sickness I realy didn`t sleep much. At 7, my alarm went off and I headed home to put other ppls pics on my computer and pass along mine, then headed back to the hotel. We had a bus tour of punta arenas, and I had a few people asking to sleep under my bed. They loved it, and it made me realize, again, how awesome my city is. Sure it`s cold, but I have the luck of being given a lot of freedom and the freedom from pollution as well. Its also very un north american. Some of my friends in santiago were telling me about the malls and how many there are and how disgusting they find it (especially my nature loving friends...) It was fun to get pics in front of the cool stuff of my home away from home, and i was very proud of it. I went with them to the airport, along with David (who had come with us) and then we took a transfer back. It was weird saying bye, because I am pretty sure I`ll see a bunch of them before I go home, but it is still crappy saying bye after an amazing 5 days together. Time is passing more quickly than I would like it to. A friend of mine who has done an exchange told me that after that year, he has never felt completly satisfied in any place, which i think could definitely be true....
well...i should write my monthly report (which was sposed to be done in the beginning of april...) and then i have to do some computer stuff for my host mom...
Ps..it is now wednesday, i finished this morning, because I did not go to school this morning. My host mom is quite sure I have bronchitis.....o joy and bliss! It was worth it tho.
All my love

the skirt is gone...thank goodness!!!

2007-04-12T20:04:00.000-04:00

Wednesday...I started a blog last thursday night, but never got around to finishing it, so we`ll have some cut and paste action going on. However, some of that info is now irrelevant. For example, the track meet that was sposed to be a large part of saturday was cancelled due to weather. (Which has been horrible by the way...rain and cold, rain and cold, rain and cold...) I woke up this morning with my throat feeling very weird and therefore did not go to school. I figured better to miss one more day than continue being sick on my trip to Torres del Paine this weekend. (I actually leave tomoro, hence the blog entry before the trip)
I slept in and then got stuff together, now waiting on the backpack to put it all in. And yes mom, I did buy new hiking shoes, north face..they are awesome! (I didn`t have any in canada either, so figured since I`m going to one of the best places in the world to backpack..i might as well get some good shoes, i don`t want a repeat of my knee accident!!)
In other exciting news..we were told monday morning that we were allowed to wear pants to school in the afternoon due to the bad weather. Originally, this doesnt happen until the first of may, so you can imagine the excitement!! Luckily, Karen`s pants fit me decently (a big big..but more comfy...) so I was able to go in pants right away. the girls who went in skirts in the afternoon were bugged abit...good naturedly of course.
Going backwards...the weekend! I guess I should first tell about last weekend and move forward...
We had an adventure last sunday afternoon...Mema and I went to my grandparents house and when we arrived, everyone was excited to tell us about an american guy in Punta Arenas who had some connection with Karen. Unfortunately, the phone number that had been copied didn`t work, but we did have the name of the hostal. We went around town later, looking for the place, and when we didn`t find it, came back here to see if he had called our house. Yuppers! We called the place (thank goodness for phones that record the numbers...) and then went to meet him. Turns out, his mom is a Rotarian in karen`s city. He has never met her tho. He has been traveling in south america since september, recently parted ways from his 2 other american friends. He has been staying at our house since monday. It`s been fun. The other day, I helped him sell his motorbike...because his spanish is so-so..and he can`t communicate everything or understand everything (altho I was impressed...) Mema recently started an english course that her cousin teaches, and so I have passed on some of the books i used to learn spanish on to her... The other day she asked me to photocopy pages of a mini dictionary thing I had....but I decided to buy her a dictionary of her own instead. I left it as a little present for when she got home (I had gone to the gym.) Johanna went up north for the long weekend so was not home to meet kevin much..only about 20 minutes. The long weekend only had one day off in chile..but she stayed for a week, and got home sunday morning at 3 am. It was lucky for kevin tho, because he had a place to sleep.
Other things....there are so many little stories, i just don`t know where to begin. I actually wrote some stuff down awhile ago when I was bored in class, and then lost the list (typical!)
Last thursday during break in the afternoon, the sound system was set up in the hall, and one of my friends started playing reggaeton and then ppl in my class started dancing..and we had a dance party for the 15 minute break. There was a mosh pit almost, kids fell, and water was thrown. I had memories of west hill dances...except that it was short and we were all in school uniforms (and it was in the day....) Fun times... Words can`t even describe it..things got vicious for a bit haha..some of my friends aren`t allowed to go to the discos...and i mentioned that school is more dangerous than the disco!!
Ok..now this past weekend....Friday, I didn`t have classes in the afternoon so Kevin and I went to town and walked around. I took him to Kiosco Roco (best choripan and leche con platano in town) and then we wandered around town. I also dragged him into some outdoorsy stores to look for my hiking boots. ( I say dragged because it was like torture for him, because he wanted so much stuff, but due to his limited space, couldn`t buy it) We also saw a huge carrot, and so decided to buy it (random i know....and we never actually ate it! he took it with him for the rest of his travels). Later, we came home and hung out, played guitar (my music teacher started to teach me a bit of guitar..) and then headed out for some live music. We had been thinking it would be spanish music..but it was covers of english bands, so we headed out to a disco. A friend of mine, Javiera, was with us too. (After all, the disco is a true Chilean experience...which he had not been to yet..)
Saturday, we went to go see my schools team play futsal. (We won). There was about 30 of us or so cheering the team on, complete with drums and everything. It was pretty sweet. I learned some of the school cheers (altho don`t ask me to repeat them now..i`ll have to relearn them...) Later in the afternoon (after lunch at home) we walked to the local beer brewery because we wanted a tour, but it wasn`t open for tours...bummer. We met Clau in town, and then ended up seeing other friends of mine too. We headed back to my house, where I ate and changed quickly because I had to be at a friends at 9. (we got home at quarter to 8). I had a bit of an adventure finding my friends house..the house numbers are the same on 2 streets, one behind the other..and i turned down the first not the second. I called her and said I was outside her house...but the wrong house! Oops..haha. Afterwards, we went to the disco and i ended up spending most of the night with a group of people from school, because the people i had gone with weren`t really dancing, instead complaining about how full it was so I wasn`t really up for that. (It was packed..difficult to cross the dance floor at times!) Sunday, I was going to get up to get chacarreros for lunch, but woke up late.....Kevin, Mema, and I went to town to get my shoes and then we went to my grandparents for the one month birthday of my baby cousin. From there, Kevin went to Puerto Natales in bus. Later that night (after chinese checkers...i lost brutally!!!), my sister Nelvia called me and we had an awesome chat.
Monday and Tuesday...classes as usual (minus the finally being allowed to wear pants...) I walked witha girl from my class to the gym after school monday, and we got soaked!!! We took some pics with her cellphone when we got there, it was ridiculous. The streets were rivers!! (Its a good thing i wore my heeled boots to school...to cross the puddles!) Well..i should head out, that was a little glimpse into my life...)
In other exciting news...I have reformed my host family in some ways. My host mom now really likes pan integral (brown bread) and has said she is only going to buy that :) And also, I put the french fries in the oven last weekend, and now she has said she will always do them that way too...yay
I have begun to really realize how little time left I have....so am trying to pack things in, people ask me if i want to go....and its one of the weirdest sensations I have ever had. Of course I want to see friends, family, home! (my bed, etc) but at the same time, I know that even if/when! I return, it will never be the same...It`s like i`m excited to arrive home, but not excited to leave here...
chau, besitos
ps...it says i published this the 12th of april..but its the 18th..i started the draft the 12th...

school life

2007-04-04T16:07:00.000-04:00

Ok...well, i have continued going to school over these past few weeks. I realized that i haven`t actually gone to school as much as I do here in a looong time. I mean, i go traveling for kind of bulk periods of time, but since we started school march 4, i have only missed the first day and one other for being sick. A lot of you will probably know that due to student council and sports, i was missing a lot of school over the past few years. Here, we are under lock and key at school (seriously, you can`t get out except at certain breaks unless u have a note or your parent comes to get you, and you can`t come in whenever either....a doorbell and a note or parent accompaniment...)
I had the surprise a few weeks ago to be called along for a picture (no notice....they just came to class, told us to straighten our ties, and then a picture....). I noticed that the top students in my class were also called. It turns out that i had the second highest average in my class last year (thank you library work instead of tests, and skipping the tests that were really hard...) I now joke with classmates that we have to do the work perfectly so that my average won`t drop. The guy i work with in biology and chemistry is also on the honor roll (he usually holds the second spot) so i tease him the most.
What else has happened...the other day in gym class we laughed alot when the teacher told us one of our exercises was to stand up and sit down for the 30 seconds of the circuit station. I joined the gym a week and a half ago, and especially love the body combat. (Funny thing is..they advertise the class as body combat, most of the classes have english names). The only problem is that I have to go at night because of my long school days (in general) and it is dark when i leave. My friends have "yelled" or rather spoken firmly with me about the fact that I was walking home alone for the 15 minutes. I don`t like the idea of paying for the collectivo and walking on the treadmill for my cooldown..i prefer to walk in the fresh air...
Yesterday, I went out for lunch with a friend from my class, and then after school went to Yasna`s house. She is living in santiago now, and came back for a few days to visit her family. I left my house at 7 20 am, and didn`t get home til 9 20ish. When i got home, Johanna asked me for help with her english homework. We were working on that til about 10 30, then i showered quickly, and did my own homework til about 11 30ish. I got a text message at 3 am, and woke up at 5 thinking I had overslept..and therefore was dead tired for my bio test in the morning.
(sorry for the scatteredness by the way...)
Monday, a group of us were asked to do an english song at a program for the ministry of education here. claudia and i sang dust in the wind, accompanied by the same violinists and guitarist from the graduation ceremony in december. It was a bit of an adventure the morning before..the prof didn`t bring his guitar, so we didn`t have a great guitar. One of the violinists came to school in her phys ed pants and jacket so went home to change. She lives a good 20 minutes from town, and we had to be at the place at 10. We practiced as a group once before we headed downtown. We were told to get there however we could....
When we went out to present, I was delighted to find out that the ceremony wsa for a new group of english volunteers. There are a bunch of americans, a canadian, and an australian. I talked to one of the american girls and the canadian. They are both staying in punta arenas, as well as 2 others. Afterwards, we didn`t want to return to school right away, so walked slowly back, stopping at the grocery store for some food on the way.
Well...I did tell Yasna that I would drop by her house again today (most of her friends were also friends of mine..the ones who left...) We are going to go to my body combat class at 7 30. It`s bring a friend week.
Hoping life is good with everyone!
chau

Back to School

2007-03-15T11:42:00.000-04:00

Back in school....
For the first time in my life..these words did not bring thoughts of new clothes, notebooks, nothing....It`s been tough getting up early in the morning (i have my cell alarm programmed for one snooze...) Braulio has called my cell several times in the morning to get me out of bed if he hears that i´m not up and about getting ready. He left last night, at 3 am until the 20th of May. Hence...i rushed out the door this morning with breakfast in hand because he wasn`t there to call me....It`ll be weird without him in the house, because I sometimes get home and Mema and Johanna have gone, so we chill for the evening.
This will be random.. a thought process and in no particular order of time...
I now walk to a friends house in the morning, where he is generally waiting for me (one or 2 minutes) and we walk to school together, much slower than when i go alone, but it makes for good company. After school i walk with friends til our paths part (i end up walking like 20 minutes with my ipod for company). I hope to continue until june..even in the cold (altho not sure about the rain...)
Yesterday afternoon I went to my Rotary counselors office for my monthly allowance, although it wasn`t ready so we just talked about my trip and such. He has been to Quebec city and we started talking about some typical canadian food (poutine, pancakes with maple syrup etc...) I then had a craving for pancakes so when i got to the house told Braulio i was going to make them...canadian style. Here they eat crepes. I looked up a recipe on the net, but we looked for baking powder and did not find it. Hence..we had little crepes. Later, when Mema returned, she found the baking powder...
I have also finally been given the approval to go to Tierra del Fuego for a weekend with 2 friends. Also was given permission to hit up Viña del Mar, Valparaiso, and Santiago in May for a week or two. YAY!!!
My host cousin is going to have her baby either today or tomoro by ceasection. (no idea how to spell that!!). This is the first cousin to have a baby, so the whole family is going crazy. The kid has tons and tons of clothes, blankets, soothers, like 20 hats..its insanity!! Mema and Johanna go along to doctors appointments and so on...
I have changed my airline ticket....for mid june. I`m looking into work for summer at home (i know..a bit of a shocker...) Kids in my classes forget that i wont be here for the graduation in june, the other torres del paine trip etc etc. I am told frequently that I´m not allowed to leave on this end, and from friends at home that i should hurry up and head home. haha.
It`s definitely been a learning experience. It was nice but also weird to arrive back in Punta Arenas because most of the people that I did stuff with outside of school are now gone, Julia, Gonzalo, Manuel...etc etc.
With the arrival of a new gym teacher, the class has changed alot. I also heard however, that the year always starts out with warmups, stretching etc, and then fades in the end months. We run 10 minutes in the gym (small and boring....) , stretch, and then do the work.
What else can i say??? I often think of things i should write, and then forget. I bet i am forgetting something important right now, but can`t think of more...so the blog, for now, ends here. Happy Spring!

Back in Chile

2007-03-02T19:45:00.000-05:00

Well....here i sit in santiago, back in chile with too many adventures to share than time (both for me to write them and for you all to read them....) I shall start with the recent happenings and we will go backin time. So, we arrived in Chile nights ago, an hour and a half delay with the flight It didn`t bother me much, i was in high spirits to return to my friends and such (altho being in santiago....have only seen one...but that comes latr) We got to the house at 4 30 am (customs, and our transfer driverwent the wrong way....good thing we paid a flat fee....) We had sandwiches with avocado forourfirst food in chile. ( So delicios, avocado.....we eat it with salt here on sandwiches and stuff quite frequently and i missed it like crazy) We headed to bed around 5 15 or so....staying up to talk with my host aunt about the trip. Next day, w enjoyedreggaeton, music that they don`t listen to in brasi....that lisette and isang quite frequently but to sing is not the same as to listen. I met more of my Chilean extended family ( a funeral brought thm to stgo). Today, I met up with my best friend from Punta Arenas. We walked the distance of 4 subway stations (i hadleft the subway when she wasabout to enter, and I didnt want to buy anotherticket. We were (forgetthe word....) appreciating the good walking weatherbeforewereturn to punta arenas. We visited Santa Lucia, the place wher Stgo was founed,and i waswithout camera. They were using itin the house to download fotos from brasil...I met her sister and niece of 5 months (of whom I had seengrowing up in fotos, but it was so awesome to hold her in my arm...incredibly smily and adorable!) I set an alarm so that Iwouldn`t be late leaving to return, and now here i am. Alexi, my host brother is also here, and we were chillin yesterday. Cool guy, lots of laughs. I found out theother day that when we get back to p.a.,my host dad will be leaving after about a week until the beginning of may. It`ll be different....but as crazy as it sounds, i`m excited to go back to school to hang out with my friends (today the question of who i`ll sit with...
So..we went to rio the 15th of feb I loved it. The uncomfy part was the SUV meant for 5 with 7 people. We were 4 in the backand one in the trunk. The other passengers weren`t exactly tiny either.....we went squishy...but its a memory. The sugar loaf....gorgeous, lots of foto ops. Afterwards, we went to see the statue of the Christ, but it was all clouded over, so we have pics of the shadow. We also wentto the copacobana for some pics and i got my feet wet (unfortunatly te beaching it part of te day was mosty over....) We went to buzios....tourist beachtown for the night and beached it thre the next day. GOOORGEUS!!!! Many storiesto tell....Altho i did go to sao paulo one day for some shoppin. The boredom led to the yearning to return to Chile. I missed my punta arenanansian friends and such....
Well.....i think thats all for now...oh, one thing more. I spent teafternoon in the city of an exchange friend from canada, Becca, but i didnt have her phone number, and not enough time to adviseher via email that I wasgoing...bummer. We trave back to punta arens onsunday.....back to the cold. I will die of cold i think after th heat of brasil...good thing i have some adjustmen time in santiago. Classes start monday....
And thats allll
besos

To Rio and Beyond....

2007-02-21T20:18:00.000-05:00

Hello All.....
I realize that my blog entry as promised from Ubatuba was very long in the coming, because I was either ridiculously busy or the rest of the people in the house also had nothing to do and were using the computer......What have I done since my last entry????
Well, when we arrived from Ubatuba (earlier than expected....we came home on the 10th, we had originally been told the 15th and then changed to the 11th....) I was a bit bummed about the early arrival because there were lots of pics I wanted to take but never took, and things that I regret not buying (probly a good thing tho...as I already will end up wearing a lot of clothes on the plane back to Chile....). That was the biggest runon sentence ever, as I still technically have not finished the idea....I need help with English sometimes :) So, we arrived and my parents called me the next night and we had a great chat about what had been going on...Also, we talked about me applying for another university. Which I did....in about 2 days, we had a lot of gmail chat marathons with my mom as we got the application together. In there, we also went to Sao Paulo for a day....hit up the safari and the zoo. We were with a family from Concepcion in Chile as well. I was in the car with the fam from there (the van from chile...they drove here...only 6 days!!!!) and we had a little adventure. The van started smelling funny when we were going up an enormous hill, so we pulled over in a pull over part, and they tried to fix it. It started to rain... luckily, the other car up ahead noticed that we were no longer behind and (knowing the vehicle was skechy) told a tow truck to come look for us. Thank goodness we had a brasilian with us, 11 and shy, but i coaxed her to talk a bit with the driver.
We arrived at the safari, and again i was a bit disappointed because the animals were not free really, just the monkeys, some deer, and the emus. Other than that, everything was caged in (being in a jam ´packed van didn´t help...) After that, we headed to the zoo. The coolest part was that to me, the plants around me were foreign, and the fact that there were some monkeys up in the trees..not caged in. Also, the sight of the familiar black bear. That and the wolf were the only Canadian like animals. A lot of the animals were brasilian.
Other trips....we were meant to leave for Rio one day, but due to problems with renting a vehicle; were going to leave late. Instead, we went to the Europe of Brasil for a day. Absolutely gorgeous (and maple trees everywhere, hence I felt a bit at home....considered buying some of the maple leaf souvenirs to give as gifts from "Canada" but didn´t have sufficient funds.) It was acutally cold there, so I had bought a sweater to wear for the day, and to keep me warm in Punta Arenas. We were at an insanely high altitude, and took some cool pics. I was up next to cell phone towers and such.
Well...I am being bumped from the comp...so to put it shortly, I also went to Rio (did Pao de azucar and the Christ...altho the latter was all clouded..) And buzios....hopefully i´ll have more comp time later.

The Beach.....

2007-02-03T09:14:00.001-05:00

Well....we have now been at the beach, ubatuba (called the surf capital, altho the waves aren~´t that huge for surfing, but lots of fun for body surfing....). What have we done??? First of all, the night before we left, johanna, lisette and I went to a bbq and didn´t sleep. Then, i travelled for my first time by bus. It wasn´t airconditioned and retardedly hot. Also, the bus driver would randomly stop for ppl on the side of the road.....it took us about 3 hours to go 150 km...Well, the first day we arrived, it was boiling hot and we didn´t have a ton of running water in the house we rented.....only one of the bathrooms had water, and we had to be careful with it. We were all wanting showers, and then it started to pour. I was like, wow, I could shower in this rain cuz it´s so strong....and then decided to actually do it!!! About 7 or 8 of us showered in the rain...pictures to prove it....you don´t have to tell me I´´m a genius..haha. (Jokes of course). The next day, we visited the beach near our house, it´s not huge, and not overly busy, especially during the week (altho this was a sunday so more ppl). We made friends with the guys who were working at the kiosk we were buying from, and they invited us to go out later in the night...which we did quite happily. When we arrived (in the rain.....) they were there with bikes..the popular mode of transport here (which i absolutely love!!! altho now that it´s saturday, there are more cars for the weekend...) We rode on the cross bar of the bikes..the other 2 girls with umbrellas, and me getting wet. We hung out with them til about 3 and then headed back. We were starving, and so bought the brasilian hot dog....interesting to say the least. It was massive, and had like potato chips on it along with.......tons of stuff....I have tried it, and don´t think i´ll buy another. Since then, we´ve been going to the beach almost every day. I have bought some more clothes, as I hardly brought anything to brasil, and even less to the beach (we packed in about 10 minutes...and i had to share a bag with Johanna cuz i couldn´t bring my massive suitcase...) I have been waking up earlier here, the first in the house now, thanx to the sun and the heat. It´s nice to have that bit of time alone as well. Yesterday we went to the bigger beach, the one with the better waves, which was nothing like sauble. There are ppl walking around selling food, water, beer, fried stuff...(of course), you can buy clothes, bathing suits etc etc. It was pretty neat. There is a promotion for a water company, and they had a climbing wall with zip line. I figued you´d have to pay...so didn´t go at first, and then when learned you didn´t, i gave it a try. The wall was super hard, and since I have lost most of my upper body strength (definitely hittin the gym when i get back to punta arenas.....) I didn´t get very far. Everyone else had to stop when they fell the first time, but the guys let me try lots of times and only let me down when i insisted......oh the joys of being the foreigner (twice the foreigner......the chilean from canada...) The people here in general like chileans, we are offered discounts in some parts, and free use of the bathrooms and showers. Its cool too, because I get asked if i´m chilean for my accent :) The house we are staying in isn´t 5 star or nething, but its got a decent amount of space, and close to the smaller beach, a good walk to the center of town, and there are grocery stores close. A good setup i´d say. The first few nights, I was sleeping on a top bunk, but with 4 ppl in the room, I couldn´t sleep for the heat. Also, my host mom gets attacked by mosquitos (or rather i think she has some type of allergy to them, so reacts more....) and therefore won´t sleep with the door open. When some of the other guests left....I stole their room and now sleep by myself. Altho today arrive a ton more visitors...so back to the heat I think.....ugh. I am understanding more and more portuguese.....but still don´t have the confidence to really speak it. I end up translating a bit for lisette sometimes when we´re out tho...she understands hardly nething. Johanna understands a fair bit as well...this is her 3rd visit here. They are talking about leaving here the 11th, but i´d prefer to stay here at the beach because we can go out when we want and don´t need a vehicle. Also.....the beach is better than the city I think....What else....oh, I think i suffered my first migraine. It was an insane pain that throbbed!!! It has mostly passed now, altho i still have pain. Oh...and for the doctor friend of my sister....thanx for the concern, but I´ve already had mono. That illness passed with some medicine. I have to go tho..my internet time has expired. Chau!!!

The Beach.....

2007-02-03T09:14:00.000-05:00

More Brasil

2007-01-26T12:43:00.000-05:00

Well.....
I am bakin of heat right now, its quite ridiculous actually.
Since the last entry, I have gone to a brasilian wedding. It was of the son of the ppl we are staying with. They didn´t have a normal bridal party, instead it was different already married couples who are "padrinos" of the marriage. Portuguese is quite different in pronunciation, so I don´t understand much when ppl are talking, but am catching more and more. Can´t talk it tho. Maybe that´ll come.
Other highlights of the journey so far.....
The house is packed still with family from the wedding, so every day is a bit of an adventure. There are 4 family groups in the house, so we get all the dynamics of that.
We went to a tropical dinner a few nights ago, the food was amazing, we danced a bit, and there was tons of fruit. Absolutely delicious!!! There was a salad that at first we all thought was ensalada chilena (onions, tomatoes, and cilantro) but it turned out that it was watermelon, onion, cilantro, and lettuce. It was a bit shocking the first bite, but also super yummy. I wasn´t a fan of the fruit mixed with fish tho (the brasilian fish just isn´t as good as the chilean stuff!!) At the party, my host sister and cous thought 2 guys were really cute, but were too scared to talk to them, so i started talking to them...in my very bad portuganish, and turns out that they had broken english, so we were able to talk a bit more, and then i passed them off onto the girls. I was doing a bit of translating, making up for when they had to translate for me before.
The other day, I went to the movies with some of the girls that are staying at the house....they chose a movie called silk, thinking that it would be in english with portuguese subtitles. uhuh, it was in japonese or something with subtitles. I could understand the portuguese tho when I read it, so got the movie. The first few sentences were english...and after that we laughed about it. I didn´t love the movie.....a type of suspense, and those of you who have been with me while I´m watching those types of movies know that I prefer to watch them with someone who knows the ending, and also in a place where I can easily leave. The girl next to me had the same kind of reaction. I was lucky, because with my chilean ID card, i only had to pay half price!!!! (altho i donated the other half to the popcorn that they had bought)
I am blogging right now because tomoro morning we are going to the beach and wont have computer and internet in the house, and not sure if i´ll get to an internet cafe. We´re going to be there for a while, possibly til the 15th of february..or at least we can have the house til then, and after that starts the festivities of Carnaval!!! Should be fun....
I was a bit bummed because I found out about a trip to the south of Chile with the exchange students that I can´t go to because I can´t change my airline ticket. I had really been looking forward to the other trip with them...but no go. A bunch will be coming down to my neck of the woods tho (the faaarrr south) in april for a trip to torres del paine, so I might see about that one.
I have been happy to have received emails from my mom and sister about their time in Nigeria. They are doing well.....sounds like they are not having the crazy hot weather that we are.
We got home from the tropical dinner (2 nights ago) and I had a killer headache, not sleeping very well at all. The next day, I woke up with an incredibly sore throat. I was given various medicines (ppl here dont really go to doctors, they just go to the pharmacy and know what to buy.......) However, nothing I was given helped much. It turns out that I have swollen glands, its quite ugly actually. Yesterday I had a fever, so was wearing jeans and a sweater while everyone else was baking. My body was actually really hot, but I felt incredibly cold, a very weird feeling. Thankfully the fever is gone now, but the throat not so much. I think we are heading to town soon to buy our bus tickets to go to the beach tomoro and also to buy me some medicine.

Brasil

2007-01-18T22:08:00.000-05:00

Alto tiempo...
I´m sorry for the time delay. Life here is good. I arrived in Brasil the 15th (yess...i will fill u in on other stuff before then..but first things first). The weather wasn´t the greatest, a bit clouded over and such. We made jokes about having to go to the tanning beds to get our tans for when we go back. (Don´t worry tho..it was all just jokes..) The next day tho, we were greeted by the amazing sunshine and heat. We are staying at some relatives. The neighbourhood is out of town, therefore it isn´t easy to go out. It is absolutely gorgeous tho!!! I have gone to run around the lake every day so far (minus the first). The fruit is also delicious (I didn´t like mango in canada, and love it here!) There are also bananas that have a bit of apple flavor. This morning, i ate a banana that was grown in the backyard for "breakfast" when I woke up at about 2. We hadn´t arrived at the house til 7 15...so I slept like a baby. Rice is a staple at mealtimes here, i have a feeling i wont want to eat rice when i get back to chile for awhile..but for now, i´m happy with it.

Before we came to Brasil, we spent a week in Santiago. I had to get a visa to enter. It was nice to meet some of my host dad´s family, and we shared lots of laughs at my aunt´s house. I wasn´t allowed to go out alone much, although our last day I went to visit Manuel. I took the metro, and then had to take a bus. I went out the wrong exit of the metro tho, i wasn´t far at all from where i needed to be...but there was a lot of cellphone talking to figure out where i was and where I had to go. I arrived, safe and sound. I went to go for a run one morning, and was told to run to the metro station and back, not to veer from the path. It was interesting.....Lots of good fruit there as well. We went to the market one day and bought 50 cobs of corn for under 4 bucks. (Mind you, there isn´t quality control...so there were some skechy parts as we were cleaning them later..but i didn´t get sick or nething..so all is good!) I had never tried humeitas before, a traditional dish. It is made of corn (hence the 50 cobs..), and since fresh corn doesnt really arrive in punta arenas, my host mom doesn´t know how to make it. I helped make them..(have pics to prove it).

The pre-leaving Punta Arenas was full of trying to meet up with different friends, saying bye for the summer. Its weird to be here, so far from both of my groups of friends, and missing both of them lots. I can understand a bit of Portuguese, hope to learn more.

There is a trip to the south of chile at the end of february.....and i really wish i was able to go ,but i´m pretty sure my brasil flight is unchangeable...It would be fun to chill with the other exchangers on another crazy bus trip!
I just realized that the date has changed.....and that it is therefore the 19th of january, which makes it 5 months that I have been in chile!!! (and brasil.....)
Time flies.....
especially since I´ve been looking at my dates for coming home....craziness
chau

Feliz Año Nuevo....

2007-01-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone...a few days late, I know. It took me over 20 minutes to actually get this page to open....sometimes I think this computer hates me!!
So...since the last entry.....we have changed the year, altho to me New Years so to speak was August 18, when I left canada for 10 months of adventure (and the welcome home events and readjustment will probably make it a year worth....). My final day of the year....I woke up and went to my first Church service here in Chile...and I understood everything! It was a special service..so lasted until 2. I was invited by my friend to her house for lunch, so called home for that. What I didn´t know..was that we still were making lunch...so we ate around 4, and i got home at 5. We had watermelon for dessert, which was delicious. They put toasted flour on the watermelon..which I at first thought was pretty strange..but I tried it, and it was quite delicious! Upon my return home, my host parents were sleeping..and since I knew that we were going to be having a big dinner, I went for a jog. I was grateful for my ipod so that I could pretend I didn´t hear the shouts at me as I ran by a soccer game. I helped getting some stuff ready for the dinner, and then tidied up my room (altho my room here is much more organized than in Canada...everyone walks by it, so the littlest bit of unorganization and i get teased...hence a resolution to be neater this year...but don´t get your hopes up mom.....i imagine that´ll change when I have all my clothes back!)
I am getting bored of my clothes, because I have not bought much at all here, because there isn´t much variety and everyone has the clothes here...you see like 10 people in the same sweater walking down the street. I have also heard the clothes are cheaper in brasil...so plan to buy there. Plus...when I return from Brasil, I´ll be starting school the next day, and don´t have the need for a ton of other clothes with the uniform. Newho..onto other things.
I had lamb for dinner (which I had also had for lunch...but it was delicious both times...so it didn´t bother me!). I have also grown quite fond of tomatoes in my time here...so was happy to see those on the table as well (actually one of the most common types of "salad") We rang in the new year with some crazy masks, hats, and noisemakers..with some family friends as well. At around 2 30ish..my host sister dropped me off at a party at a club. It was absolutely packed, tons of people and ridiculously hot!!! (I am having so much internet trouble right now..its not even funny.....oh how I miss my high speed...) At around 4ish...we left there to go to a friend of a friends house (where they had hired a DJ...gorgeous house!) I got home at 5 30, chatted a bit with my host parents, but couldn´t fall asleep write away..the energy from dancing. I woke up at 3 30, and got ready quickly for a bbq. We waited awhile to eat. It was at the same place as the christmas day bbq...but I had a better time, not missing home quite as much, and being more comfortable with the people. We visited my grandparents (hadn´t been there in forever...it was nice to go again) and then came home around 8. Johanna and I watched the 4th harry potter (i left at the parts I didn´t like....still chicken..haha) and then the 2nd bridget jones, which was quite hilarious. The next morning Mema asked why we had been laughing so much....we´d been watching at like 1 in the morning..hehe. Yesterday, I woke up "early", around 11 to go to school and get Karen´s documents from there. I signed as the guardian for my host sister who I´ve never met.....we joked about that a bit. I talked to the school inspectors for about 15 minutes before I headed home. In the afternoon, I walked to my Rotary officer´s office for my montly allowance, but it wasn´t ready, so I´m heading there today in the afternoon again. I had a few invites to go out with friends, but it was my Tata (the nickname for my grandpa)´s birthday. I ran into some friends downtown as well..had some lovely chats. Hadn´t seen them since the licenciatura (grad) of my school in some cases. We gave my grandpa a bunny for his birthday....since his old one had died (i never knew the old one.....but it was black...) this new one is absolutely adorable..white with butterscotch ears. We all chose a name for it, and then put them in a hat and Tata picked one. I put in Gringita (my nickname here is gringa....a name for a white person..in some countries, it is offensive, but not in chile...) my piece of paper got chosen..so gringita is the name..and a memory of me for when I leave. It was funny to hear the reactions of different ppl when we said there was a gringita...a lot of ppl at first thought they were talking about me. haha
I can´t sleep before 1 or 2 am now, hence why I always sleep so late in the day. So even though I wasn´t allowed to go to the disco last night..i still stayed up until 2 am. I have now eaten lunch (liver unfortunately....i used lots of sauce, and ate it with my rice so that I wouldn´t have to taste it...) and after this will grab a shower, help put away more christmas decorations, go to meet Darcy (a lady from home who has brought over some stuff from my mom, she is going to Antarctica with her job...) and then go to my Rotary office, hopefully meeting up with some friends after all that. I am also going to pick up some stuff for my host mom.
My 2 dogs left home 5 or 6 days ago, and have not returned. Usually they come back after a day or so...so its pretty strange. (I don´t really notice tho, they aren´t my favorite dogs on the planet...i like Valentine and Neil a lot better!) The cat has also taken to disappearing more frequently.
Oh..other things I forgot to mention...it poured new years eve...the streets were overflowing with water in some spots (i have a picture...) and the wind forecast for today is 170 km/h. CRAZINESS!!

Have a grand day everyone!

navidad!

2006-12-30T16:26:00.000-05:00

Ok....hugely long time..no write. You know how it goes...it just gets bigger and bigger and I just don´t like the idea of having to write so much. So...sorry folks, this one isn´t gonna be that long, cuz I´m feeling a bit lazy right now, and the day is extremely ugly and not motivating.
So...the big thing...christmas!! It was very different, and I missed home alot (although that was made a bit better by talking to my fam..and also an email from my sister :) ) We celebrated the night of the 24th with dinner (no turkey!!!!), and probly ate the smallest christmas dinner of my life. Then at midnight, we had a fermented apple cider drink with pineapple ice cream ( i know..it sounds disgusting..but is really yummy!!) My fam called me after that, and we all went to bed at 4 am. There was 14 people at my house.....a little nuts. I didn´t know some of them that well either. The next day, I awoke at about 12, and stayed in bed til 1....noone else was awake. Then we went to a bbq type deal at the house of my sisters boyfriend...it was good food, but I went home before everyone else....combination of homesick and not knowing the people. What else have I been up to....
well, I didn´t let the holidays stop me from going to the disco.....Julia left on wednesday, so we went to the disco tuesday night, and hung out at her house for a bit before we brought her to the airport. It didn´t feel real that she was leaving....gonna miss her like crazy that´s for sure!!! We had a good last night hanging out tho.
Now that school has been out..i sleep in til noon every day...so wait a bit before lunch. I hang out with friends in the afternoon..and sometimes go out at night. Yesterday, I met up with a friend (i messaged him when I woke up to go running..but he didn´t have his running pants..so we couldn´t go...) instead we went to the center of town and hung out there (saw a cool little 3 man play onthe street corner....a guy with a massive beard and long hair was the woman...it was quite hilarious, specially when his plastic chest keep popping out...) Then we met up with another friend...but walked past the street where we were sposed to meet her, because we didn´t know where it was. I didn´t feel bad..only lived here for 4 months..but we made fun of the other guy alot. We were hungry...and so went to the grocery store to buy something for once (like a snack for dinner...) Hugo wanted pastry..but since I was the one with money, we bought yogurt, cereal, and bananas. Hugo mixed the three yogurt flavors, apricot, strawberry, and vanilla...crazy foo! haha.. We have a ton of jokes from yesterday, but they wouldn´t make sense...lets just say it was an amazing day!! I left the house at like 3 30...and din´t get home til 11. As soon as I walked in the door, a guy I had met at the disco a few nights before called me to go out..so I was home for a grand total of about 10 minutes before I left again....I got home at 4 30, and slept in til noon....i love vacation!!! Now I am chillin at home...joking around with my host dad...because I won´t see him for almost 2 months when I leave. I´m gonna miss his jokes and karaoke singing...
I went to a Rotary dinner the other night, with all the wives, a christmas and new years celebration. The ambassador of Chile in Syria was at the dinner, and he gave all of the women (i´m a women..so i got one!) a syrian gift...it signifies good luck.. there is like a hand made ribbon with a cool pattern of flowers, then an eye type rock. Like i said..hard to explain. Its really nice. Umm...this was probably one of the worst blog entries ever....because I really didn´t fill you in that much on my goings on....but I´m having a blast....
Tomoro, new years...I´m not sure what I´m doing...I know i´ll be having dinner at my house. And not sure yet after, I have some invites to go out to the disco and such..who knows! Well....signing off for now....
I´ll try and make better entries next time!
Oh..ps..i have been in Chile for almost 4 and a half months!!! TIME FLIES!!! Well, the internet just cut out..so I´ll write a bit more while I´m waiting for it to start back up....Umm....I have started to run a bit more often, tho still not as often as I would like. I will definitely be joining the gym to mix things up when I come home from Brasil. The dogs that always followed me around have taken to disappearing for long periods of time, which means I can safely leave the house...makes for some laughs that´s for sure.
I got a christmas package from home, much appreciated!!! I ate the stroop waffles in the course of about 2 days....one the first day..and the others the next (my comfort food for christmas!)
And now...back up and running....so I will use the net for about 2 seconds before i disconnect.

School?

2006-12-17T17:30:00.000-05:00

Well....Another week in review (I promise, this entry won´t be as long as the last one!) Saturday, after a run, I was called by a man from Rotary and invited to meet his 25 year old daughter who is going to live in Toronto for six months in January. They picked me up,and I talked to the girl for a while. She was in a fashion show that night, so I was invited to go as well. I won a prize at the end...a gift card for the supermarket (like, clothes, electronics..everything market), but can´t find a value of the card..so have to go check that out. I got home around 1:30. Sunday afternoon, I went to Yasna´s house to visit Julia and we looked at pics of our respective trips....I´m excited for Brasil even more after her pics...and she really wishes she had been able to see the north.
Monday..I went to school. It was weird to be back in uniform and back at classes after 3 weeks of classes....I got tons of comments on my tan and tons of hugs. The debate group had their trophies and such as well, which was also very exciting.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same in terms of actual school....because we didn´t do anything in classes....played cards, slept, and practiced for the grad (more about that later)etc etc. My camera was the hit item in the class to look at the pics from Easter Island.
Wednesday, I didn´t have class in the afternoon because it was a bike thing, and since I don´t have a bike here...couldn´t do it. I was ok with it tho..cuz it wasn´t exactly a gorgeous day! I went over to julia´s in the afternoon and we went into town to do some random errands. We went to a delicious little cafe...that serves two main items (plus sells candy and pop...), chortipan and leche con platano. Chortipan is a type of meat on bread..but its delicious, and the other is milk with banana blended in. Then we walked around, bought another little treat and hung out in a park til we both started to get freezing cold. (It may be summer...but that doesn´t mean its really warm..)
Thursday, i slept in the afternoon (i am readjusting to my bed...so didn´t sleep well for a few nights) and then did situps at my house before going to a Rotary meeting. The district governor was at the meeting, so it was longer than usual. Julia and I got our picture taken with him and will appear in his montly newsletter (I didnt have my blazer tho..having forgotten it in Santiago, its sposed to be coming in the mail).
Friday, i really didn´t want to go to school, but went (leaving the house about 7 minutes after i woke up.....and i ate breakfast...) because I thought we were practicing for the grad, which never happened. In the afternoon, I left early to walk to my Rotary counselors office to pick up my monthly allowance. I ran into some friends in town(including one who had not gone to school....), and so hung out with them for an hour and a half or so before heading home. I helped Braulio and Johanna with the christmas lights before heading out to meet a different friend from the debate group (the one named the best male participant in the country!) to celebrate their success. We all brought something yummy to eat, me; christmas cookies(bought...sorry to admit..). There was also lemon meringue pie, other cookies with coconut (i developed an addiction), ice cream, pringle type chips, pizza, and crackers and cheese. We played twisters (some grand pics), uno (with penalties if you lost, i had to sing in spanish, and i didn´t know the words), and watched videos of the debate. (Ps...contardi had way better arguments, they should have won!). I got home at 4 , waking up at 10 the next morning to walk to school for more practicing of Kansas ¨Dust in the Wind¨. We changed some of the lyrics to spanish, so that the audience would understand. We had sound check....(2 other singers, 2 violinists, and a guitar) and i got home at 1 40 ish to eat lunch, get stuff together for that night, and get look impeccable in my uniform. I left the house at 3 40. We had our class end of year camp thing last night, and I left straight from the graduation (where I sang), so looked like quite a sight in my uniform, with a bulging backpack and a sleeping bag in hand. To make things even better, the collectivo I got into was full.....parents with 2 little boys in the back, plus me and all my stuff. One of the little boys gave me a flower..so cute.
A lot of the graduates were really surprised to see me, others knew I was showing up, but noone knew the real reason I was there. There were quick chats with a lot of ppl....some I´m not sure I´ll see again because our schedules dont overlap well..and they could be going to university in other parts of chile. We practiced one more time, and watched the ceremony from the entrance. You have to keep in mind, that I have sang with a microphone only twice before in my life, and not had a solo part since grade 7. It was a bit nerve wracking, especialy because my host mom had come to see me, and 3 of my friends had managed to get ´passes´for the event. It went well tho....and we got lots of comments afterwards. A lot of people were impressed that i sang in spanish..which i don´t completely understand...cuz I had the opportunity to practice it, and Idont practice in daily life when I talk.....Oh well...
Afterwards, we headed to the campout thing. Most of the class had left, only 5 of us who had been at the grad. One of the mom´s had gone to theg rad as well, and we showed up at their house about 20 minutes after it ended to ask for a ride (it was about 50 min away). We arrived, and to a cabin and house type setup with a gorgeous view, and chilled with the class. We had a campfire on the rock beach (a decent walk, down a huge hill!!). I didn´t know the words for about 99/100ths of the songs, but a friend of mine would whisper them in my ear so that i could sing along (alhto i didn´tknow the tune for some of them either...haha). I was exhausted from my several nights of little sleep, so fell asleep soon after we returned in a chair (around 1 am). I was woken around 4 by the parents, and put on an air mattress (apparently the angle of my neck looked uncomfortable). I couldn´t sleep after that.....partly because it was already fairly light out, so talked to the parents who were still awake until about 6 when I went to bed til 8 30. I taught the card game ¨"cheat" which we had some fun with. We hung out for the day, and arrived home around 7. It was relaxing, even tho we didn´t sleep much. The trip home was a little squishy...since there wasn´t a lot of vehicle space. There were 7 of us in apickup, and i couldn´t really feel the bottom half of my legs whenwe got out. I was happy to shower when we got home, because altho I had brought other clothes, never ended up changing. And now, i should finish this entry, tidy up my room, and consider heading to bed. I´m pretty sure that more than half of my class isn´t going to school tomoro.....and not sure if I will be yet...
Oh...another funny thing i forgot....one of my friends also taught me a bunch of little kid type songs..and some are the same in spanish and english. Itsy Bitsy Spider ,Farmer in the Dell, and the Elephants on the Spider web one.....

Meeting Chile......the north and Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

2006-12-09T08:52:00.000-05:00

Ok........so basically there is so much to say that I have no idea where to begin. I also have no idea how much detail to give...I´ll give the trip highlights in greater detail i think.
So...the first good story is the morning that I left. I was already for the airport transfer to pick me up between 6 15 and 6 30 (sposed to be at the airport at 6 40 for the hour ahead rule). Well, at 10 to 7 when the transfer still had not arrived, we called several times (to no avail) and then Mema woke Braulio to drive me. The van was supposed to be in the shop, so I was extremely lucky. We got to the airport at about 20 after 7 (flight leaving at 7 40) but its fantastic that punta arenas is a small airport, because i was in my seat about 7 minutes later.
I arrived in Santiago and took a transfer to a Rotarians house, who a few hours later took me to the house where I was staying overnight and for the days inbetween my 2 trips. They were fantastic!!! The exchange student in the house is from Hungary, and understands some english, but doesnt speak it. I was happy, because it meant i didn´t speak english. The host mom lived in Canada for five years..so speaks english (mostly in edmonton, calgary area, but also spent a bit of time near cambridge i think). Three daughters..and a son and daughter off on exchange.
That first day, we went off to explore an area of the city that Cintia (Hungary) had never been to. We explored for a bit, and then she called some friends of hers and we hung out with them. (I kind of wanted to explore more, seeing as my santiago time is quite limited..) That night, we went up to see Santiago at night..which is gorgeous in a oodles of light pollution type of way. (City of 6 million, 1/3 of chiles population). The next day, we went to the centre of santiago, with Cintia´s friend to be on the safe side. I saw La Moneda (the parliament, but not much of it) and the plaza (cathedral, etc). We didn´t have much time tho... a bummer.
We went to meet the bus at 9 pm. It was a bit overwhelming to be in a huge group of other exchange students, something like 35 of us.. but cool at the same time. I met a girl who I had talked a lot with at the grand rapids conference and we talked a lot more at a rest break. We also had a good Canada chat with fellow canucks. We drove through the night.....
Our first stop after breakfast (gorgeous cathedral..i took pics) was at the old house of a famous Chilean poet...Gabriela Mistral I do believe the name was. (Someone has to send me the pic of the sign) We also visited two pisco factories, having a tour of the process of one. If youdon´t know..pisco is pretty much the national drink of Chile, a wine fermented farther pretty much. I know its made of grapes. The vineyards for the grapes were gorgeous, the contrast of the green against the barren mountains. We were allowed to buy from the factory store (a funny concept, since half the exchangees arent 18, and there are strict rules against drinking.....) Both factories had little towns (more cathedrals to photograph).
That evening, we arrived in La Serena. We were given our cabin assignments, and settled in quickly as we then headed down to the beach. The water was very chilly..so I was not planning on going in..but you know how that works..the waves got me and soon I was swimming about in my clothes (bathing suit underneath) I made an exclamation as to the saltiness of the water, and got teased a bit about that..cuz I had completely forgotten that we were in the ocean. Silly me..... The next day, one of the guys got sent home to canada because he had gone out the night before when they had told us not to,and he had broken some rules before as well.. The rest of us got in some mini buses and drove for a long time (altho getting out to take some pics in the mountains, with cactuses). I had bought pineapple at the grocery store..and the container leaked in my bag and thenall over my skirt..but it was definitely worth it seeing as i hadn´t had it in soo long). Those pics have big wet blobs on my skirt....
We arrived at a gorgeous little seaside town, put on some oldschool lifejackets, and then hopped in some fishing type boats (very authentic looking..but with motors)and then started our tour of a national reserve. We saw pelicans (which have a big wing span), tons of sea lions, and penguins. The sea lions had a terrible odour..but were very cute. We got out on Isla de Damas, which had beautiful clear water, but it was too cold to go swimming. The water was a gorgeous color..described by one girl as acid green..but it depended where you were. We ate at a little restaurant on our return.. of which the parking lot wasnt gravel, but shells. That night, we were chilling out by the pool at our hotel, and 2 girls jumped in fully clothed. I still had my bathing suit on..so took of the clothes and joined them. They had lied when they said it was warm!!! I ran quickly back to my hotel room and discovered that our hot water didn´t work..so ran downstairs and used their shower to warm up. (Ps...sorry this will be super long..i know that there are some ppl who will want to hear everything..ie mom and dad..and i have the genes to tell detail...)
The next morning, I went for a run with a girl from the states after breakfast (which was brought to our rooms) which felt fantastic. As we were returning from the run, we got some yells from 2 guys on the beach playing soccer...we had plans to play soccer with guys from our group so told them we´d be back in a sec. When i was cooling off in the pool..i noticed that our friends were playing near our hotel...so the yells had been from 2 randoms....weird! We went to a market in the townfor a few hours in the afternoon. It was such a cool experience.....stuff hanging from the roofs, and oodles and oodles of stuff! I bought some candied papaya, which is famous from La Serena. We spent until the last secondoutside...because we were starting a 16 hour bus ride....rough!
We arrived in Iquique the next morning. At first sight, the outskirts and more industrial part..i thought the city was ugly, but my opinion changed completely when we reached our hotel. It is gorgeous. After some shower time...we went to the center for lunch. I wasn´t overly happy with where my group went, but afterwards noone I talked to was pleased with their lunch really.....We spent the afternoon at the beach. Me and another girl amazed some people with the fact that we changed into our bathing suits on the beach...thank you to skirts and general skill). In the evening, we went to a presentation at the theatre. the presentation wasn´t all that interesting...so I´m pretty sure they took us just to see the theatre which was gorgeous. After dinner...I went to bed. The next day, we went to a market which was full of odds and ends, and in general quite cheap, altho we were only given 45 minutes so didnt get to explore much. It was the type of place where we didn´t bring cameras, notmuch money, and definitely stayed in groups. Then we got taken to the Zofri (duty free zone..the other zona franca) i wasn´t overly excited... and we were given too much time, so had some good chats outside. In case your wondering...the whole no english didn´t work overly well...That night, we went to the disco for a few hours to celebrate one girls birthday. It was the first time for some people..but we left early, before many ppl were there (being 2 am...)
The next morning...we got on the bus again to start going back south. We stopped at a Chilean ghost town which was pretty interesting, its in the middle of the desert. There was a little market there (going for the tourists) and I bought a little bowl thing made of cactus. Not entirely sure what to do with it...but i thought it was cool that it is made of cactus. That night, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, a small town in the desert and mountains. It was super cool, and a lot of us loved it. The way the streets were and the setup of the town was what a lot of us thought of when we imagined Chile. Due to the beauty, the town was very touristy. That night, we went to a bit of a festival thing for the town anniversary, staying til about 12....and then having to be ready for 4 the next morning to go see geysers. That was really cool..and worth the lack of sleep. We ate eggs boiled in the geysers and our milk was warmed as well. It was frigid tho.....On the way back we saw tons of llamas. We had the afternoon to explore the towns shopping. In the afternoon, we went to visit the Valle de la Luna. Which is hard to explain, but phenomenal. The name means valley of the moon which should give you a bit of an idea... Lots of pictures taken there...
Next day was a free morning again..and after lunch we went to see the Parque de los Flamencos..a national park for flamingos. Again...pictures. It was crazy to see flamingos there, in the desert....there was water, but it has a very high salt content. We went to a little village farther into the desert, where we gave books to a school and wandered around there. A bell tower had a door made of cactus..
We drove to another city in the afternoon. We had a bit of a bbq for dinner....but we didn´t start eating til probly 11 30. it was scrumptious and we ate too much... the next morning...3 of us girls went for a run, and then picked up seashells from the beach. this wasn´t hard..seeing as how about half of the beach was purely shells!! We didn´t get much time there...a bummer cuz it was gorgeous, and packed up and went to the center for an hour to get food. I spent most of the time in a little feria near the gorgeous plaza. We had dinner at a skeckyish restaurant that we had been to before (lets just say the sign that said servicios higenicos for bathrooms was lying when it said the higenic part...)
Our final stay for the trip was Bahia Inglesia....which was as gorgeous as I had been told. We headed down in the morning.....a bit bummed by the grayish looking sky but it turned into beautiful sun. We had a soccer game which was a blast (definitely miss playing). There were some crazy burns from the afternoon in the sun, playing volleyball, lying on the beach. An international school in Santiago was there for their end of year trip. we talked to them for a bit, and they played some american football, altho we left before much of that got underway. And then....we got on the bus for the overnight trip to santiago. It was weird to arrive and say bye to people..with the possibility i may never see them again. At Cintia´s house, we unpacked our dirty clothes and showered. I talked with my mom a bit on MSN. While Cintia slept, I hung out with her host sisters in their pool. The next day..we packed up our stuff and then went to the mall to replace the sunglasses I had lost and for cintia to buy a new bathing suit. Bed was fairly early, as we had to get up at quarter to 6 to get the transfer for Easter Island. Upon arrival at the Island (about a 5 hour flight), the 19 of us (15 students) were greeted by Rotarians and given flower necklaces..and then another necklace by the hostel where we were to stay. After lunch at the hostel, we went to the beach, which has a bunch of Moai in the background. (Obviously..lots of pictures) The water was warmer than the ocean on the Chilean coast. That night, we went to an event to raise money for disabled children....which was cool. It was like a bbq....except that the meat was cooked under a tarp with hot rocks and covered in banana leaves. It was delicious!! There was 2 dance shows..one of younger kids/ teens and then a professional group called Kari Kari that was fantastic. They did all sorts of traditional dances. Afterwards, a group of us were dancing away and some of the girls started to teach us how to do the hip movements..which is hard by the way! the next day, we learned a lot of island history. It wasn´t the best weather ever..but the rain wasn´t cold. We saw the outlines of native houses, moai (obviously...), the 7 explorers (the only moai that face the see), some caves where people also lived..especially in times of war, and an old water hole with petroglyphs surrounding it. In the afternoon, we went to a volcano which is where the moai were made. We saw tons and tons of them, some fallen, some with disfiguration, and some never finished and still in the mountain. A lot of them didn´t look that big....until we realized that we were only seeing the head, so the actual moai is like 12 metres high, the rest being underground. The next morning, Julie and I went for a run, and when we arrived..noone was there. We were a bit upset wwhen they returned from an adventure, because they had told us it was free time. We had had an adventre of our own tho...running in the pouring rain, and getting kind of lost so we ended up running for a long time. We didn´t know the name of our hotel or street or nething....to be hoest, i never saw a street sign. That afternoon, we had lunch and a bit of a presentation to the rotary club of Rapa nui. Without them, we woudn´t have been able to have the trip. We met the first girl from the island to be going on Rotary exchange. We told the club about the program and then a few of us showed them the dancing we had learned the night before in our hostel. There was a husband and wife who drove us around alot of the week..and the wife (Gabriela) taught the girls to dance. Next morning, Julie and i went for another run and then went to a market with Jesse (guy from the states who we hung out with a lot on both trips) and when we returned were again alone..altho the others had just gone to a different market, so not a huge deal. That afternoon, we went to the beach again and it started to rain on us, but it didn´t make a difference while we were in the ocean. While we were waiting for our vans to come get us, we drank some coffee from a little cafe (over priced due to the location) and talked to some locals. Oh..earlier (during the sunlight) Jesse found a coconut on the ground so we had a bit of an adventure opening that and enjoying athe freshness. There was a skin on the outside that was very thick and i had never seen before. Upon the return to the village, a few of us rented bikes for an hour and went to explore. They had wanted motor bikes, but I was glad that we couldnt do it due to a lot of ppl not having licenses. Julie and I went off and she had a bit of an accident...but not terrible. I got the wheel moving again after the accident... We went to try see the museum, but it was closed. We were on our way to a part of the island called colonia when we had to turn around to get back intime for dinner. Later we found out that in Colonia is the high school which is apparently gorgeous.....bummer. That night, a few of us danced a bit more....a mixture of traditional with crazy fun dancing.
After a quick run the next morning....we went to a scuba diving place!!! we got suited up and had a practice session breathing, learned the signals, and also a very important piece of information regarding pressure and pain in the ears. We were also super excited to go out!! I was the last person in my boat to enter the water.....and unfortunately..had the whole pain in the ear and huge amounts of pressure..so was unable to go to the bottom. No matter what I did..my ears would not pop. I was super bummed....but still got to see lots of cool stuff, and did a bit of snorkeling without the snorkel (also meaning i breathed..being used to having the tank....oops, that was not a nice feeling to breathe insalt water..) While we were waiting for the other half....Lars (Germany) and I were chillin by the water, and saw a huge sea turtle!!! It was so cool. A few minutes later, we saw a baby one, and then later one a different big one. The first big one hung around for quite awhile..but we couldnt get good pics. After the scuba adventure, we were walking back and ran into some locals that invited us to go surf (some of the girls had talked to them before) but we had to go to lunch. After lunch,we decided to go try surf to see if we could meet up with someone who had told us the day before that they would teach us. Two of the girls went to find him when we arrived at the beach, and Julie and I went straight in the water. We were playing around inthe awesome waves..when one guy came up and asked if we wanted to learn to surf. Julie wasn´t keen at first..so I hopped on and got just went in a wave. After I went..Julie wanted to try but buddy said she had lost her chance..hehe. About 10 minutes later, whole bunch more local guys came out with a few more of our girls and we had some surf lessons. I managed to stand up 3 times..but not for very much time. We went back to the hotel to get ready to go to a different volcano..but couldn´t go because the rain made it dangerous......Instead we went to the rotary club there (interesting building, an old military fort), took pictures, were all given banners, and then headed back for dinner. After that, 4 students and 2 of our chaperone women went to see the Kari Kari group again. Most of our surf instructors were in the group...so itw as cool to be watching our friends dancing and playing guitar. I got called up by my prof during a time when they picked ppl from the audience to dance. It was fun... Later, they had another of those times and another one of the guys (who hand´t been in the room the first time) came to the back of the room and grabbed my hand. I told himi´d done it already and tried to get one of the other girls to go..but ended up going back up. I got sandwiched between two of the dancers....super fun and I laughed a lot. After the show, the guys came to our hostal (friends of the girl who lives there) and we hung out for a few hours. I went to bed at 3 when it started to pour!! The next morning, we woke at 9 and were told we had a half hour to eat breakfast and pack our suitcases. Rush!!! We then went to see the volcano we had missed before, saw the town from the mountains, stopped at an artisan place (which i think was actually a jail where the people make wood carvings...) and a few other places before heading to the airport. Our new friends were waiting for us to say goodbye. We were given shell necklaces because we coudln´t bring our flower ones back, and then boarded the plane. All of us were trying to give our tickets away,not wanting to leave!!!! Back at Cintia´s house, I talked a bit with my bro, sis, best friend, and a friend inSantiago..finally heading to bed around 1 30. i also posted pics to my facebook..taking advantage of the good internet. The next morning, I had breakfast and repacked my stuff while Cintia was still sleeping. Her host dad took me to see the universities where he works and when we returned.....I left within 5 minutes to go to the airport to catch my flight to Punta Arenas. I left my rotary jacket in Cintias room by accident....Oops. i took a transfer to my house here, and talked with Mema and then went to meet Julias parents from Australia. The Rotary counselor came to pick up Julias parents for the meeting. Julia had a dinner for her school and therefore unable to stay for the whole meeting, so I went with her parents to the meeting to act as a translator. I felt weird being in jeans and a t-shirt because the meetings are very formal. The food was good tho :) I returned and headed to bed almost right away (altho not before my host dad had bought our airline tickets to brazil!!!!) Yesterday, i slept til 12 30..exhausted from the travels. Mema and I went for an almost 2 hour walk inthe afternoon and then in the evening i went to see James Bond at the theatre (first time I had ever beenthere). And now....pretty much since I woke up this morning I have been writing this entry...which makes it insanely long and congrats if you made it this far!!!
Oh....and the debate group i was helping not only made it to the finals in Santiago..they were second!!!! One of the guys in the group was the best male speaker!!!! Yay Contardi!

getting ready to go.....

2006-11-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

Ok...so just a few things to say before I head up north for my journey of heat and taking in the sun!!
Firstly....things i forgot in my last entry. I bought cd´s to copy the pics from my computer..and then learned that the computer in my house doesn´t copy cds.....so now i have to copy pics to my ipod and transfer to a friends computer and yadda yadda.....que fastidioso (how annoying..)
Other thing...i was bored with my hair sunday night..hadn´t done anything to it for nearly three months...so went to the bathroom and cut my bangs.. Then my host sister cut the rest of it for me....it still has good length, but the ends are gone and...well, i think it looks better (altho not that many ppl noticed..but i´m used to that).
What else can i say....i packed my suitcase yesterday, borrowing one that´s not quite as big as mine (altho this could be bad...i don´t have a ton of room for souvenirs....)
Today is my last day of class with the cuarto medios..cuz they´ll be done when I return. Kinda weird!! I´m super excited tho. I have a rotary meeting tonight...they start at 9...and i´ll get home around midnight...which is gonna be stellar!! (the air transfer is coming to get me at around 6 15 tomoro morning..rough). Also have a ton of other things to do in the meantime.....crazy busy life..but i love it!!
Also..got an email from the ppl in charge of the trip, only allowed to speak spanish. Its super cool (i was worried about losing spanish..), but gonna be tough i think.
Also things to note...yesterday it snowed..like full on. The snow didn´t stay...but that´s like it snowing in mid april at home. CRAZINESS!!!
Well...that´s my random..really badly written blog entry for before i head out.
Not sure if i´ll blog in the next three weeks or not...so when i return..it´ll be huge!!

The weekend

2006-11-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

I figure that while I am home and have the time..i should try and write what I can...as I´m heading away in 3 days (wow...craziness). Friday, after history (in which after I quickly wrote my blog I actually got a lot done, and have all the info that I need for my test, plus more i think....), we had math. Once again, did absolutely nothing and chatted with classmates and such. I had been worried in the morning, cuz there was a mandatory meeting for apoderados (ie parents/guardians) the night before..and mine hadnt´gone. Usually, the apoderado has to come in and explain their absence and yada yada....but nothing was said to me, and life continued as normal. I was extremely tired friday afternoon/night because of the lack of sleep from the nights before, going out til late and having to get up for school. Therefore, I didn´t go out friday night and just hung out with my family. I still went to bed around midnight tho...and woke up saturday around 10. I then decided to work on some scholarship applications for school next year...and so looked up scholarships, downloaded applications etc for about an hour. It´s overwhelming to look at...because everything is more complicated with due dates, reference letters, transcripts etc...along with other things. I am so glad that I don´t have to apply for school while I´m abroad!!! After lunch, I walked to the zona franca to look for sunblock and other stuff for my upcoming adventure....didn´t find it....but it was a good walk anyways, minus the fact that for some reason the back of my ankle got irritated, and started to bleed (stuff like that always seems to happen to me here....) it´s weird cuz the walk is like 10 -20 minutes..and i walk to school in those shoes and nothing happens. At around 4, a friend (Gabi) came over and then we went out for a walk, where we met up with some other girls in the class and hung out with them. Funny story (altho maybe it´ll be a you had to be there moment....) a guy in a military uniform was walking towards us, and some of the girls were joking that it was my pololo coming (boyfriend...) then Gabi and i went to go get some ice cream, and when we came back..the guy was sitting like 3 feet away from the group of girls. Gabi and i started laughing like crazy (muerto con risa..ie dying with laughter), it was a bit awkward. When we left..i asked who the guy was, and the girls had no idea...he had asked them a question and then sat down. so awkward and funny..lots of laughs. At about 7, I went to go help out with the english debate group (we were sposed to be there at 7 sharp...i´m becomng a bit chilean and sometimes late for things....bad!!! altho I am still early by Chilean standards.) There was nobody home when I arrived, so I listened to some tunes as I waited for Harold to come by to head out for the night. He came around 11..and around 12 a friend of his came to get us here. We first went to una parcela (like a cabin outside the city) but it wasn´t overly interesting..so left awhile later. It did have a gorgeous view tho..the city at night (unfortunately i had forgotten my camera...) We then went to the disco....but were missing some money, and i and another girl didn´t have our id cards. I taught her how to speak bad spanish like me.....haha, and a few phrases in english..cuz she is blonde with blue eyes so could pass for a foreigner. She didn´t need them..and we eventually got enough money to get in. Stayed there until about 4 30ish.....(the girl i was sposed to go home with left...so harold and i went in cab to my place, arriving around 5ish....we had to get money for the cab first.) I felt bad about arriving home late (it was starting to get light when i got hom....craziness!) but my host family was still not home. I washed my hair in the sink..cuz i had fresh sheets and didn´t want them to smell smoky:) I didn´t sleep overly well, which was surprising. In the morning..i heard a knocking type sound..but didn´t think much of it until it had continued for a good 10 minutes or so (at least it felt like it..) my host sister was locked out. I couldn´t sleep after that. At about 1ish...Gabi came by again and we went to car races. It was a fair ways out of town, and nothing like sauble speedway. there were however 3 accidents (right after the other....and near the end, hence after the 3rd, the races stopped early.) I got home and talked to my host family.. whom i hadn´t really talked to in like 2 days. Then watched walk in the clouds with mema and johanna and went to bed around 12. (ps..good movie) Today, was the 2nd round of the english debate. We won!!! I was super proud of the group from my school..they did an amazing job, and I fully agree that the internet should not be censored!! There is one more round..and if they win the round, go to santiago. I´ll only be around to help for 4 days, but after that have told them to email me arguments for me to proofread and call my cell for other questions. We´ve had some good times. After, a few of us went to a cafe with one of the profs to celebrate. It was yummy...and now here i am....
Should head out...things to do...
que te vaya bien

National Parks and I....

2006-11-10T06:52:00.000-05:00

So.....last Saturday, in the morning, I walked al centro to meet up with a friend of mine to buy my plane ticket (more on that in a sec). She came with me to make sure that I got a good deal and wasn´t cheated (everyone knows I´m a foreigner..) After that we walked around talking and such...and that was the morning (keep in mind that it takes about 45 minutes to walk from my house downtown, and that´s going at a good pace..with a friend it takes at least an hour). In the afternoon, I hung out with another friend, Harold, for about an hour before meeting up with Claudia again to find one of the English teachers houses and work on the debate. When I arrived home, noone was there. I found a note saying my fam would be back soon; I had figured noone would be there, because I had heard talk of a birthday for a friend of my host parents. Awhile later, another phone call asking if I was ok, and saying that they would be home much later (ie the next morning...hehe) Gonzalo called in the afternoon and asked what I was doing sunday..and so far didn´t have any plans. I was invited to go with him on a mystery excursion (the mystery part being that I had no clue where we were going..only that it was a tour thing, I had to bring a lunch, and extra clothes, and that it was a day in the outdoors...) So...I woke up at 8 to call Gonzalo and wake him up....and then got my lunch together, ate some breakfast and was ready when he picked me up at 8:45. We waited at his house, chillin and talking (a bit about the standard chilean lateness..as we were supposed to be picked up at 9, and they arrived at 9 45) And then we got in the vans and headed out. I met another english teacher volunteer (this one actually from england...) so it was cool to talk to her a bit. We stopped at some old boats that are beached. They were pretty cool, took some pics and such. It´s hard to describe them.....A lady sitting next to me in the van brought back a piece of rhubarb, not knowing if I would know what it was. I did....And then we got back in the vans and continued driving......I had no idea how long the drive was. Turns out in total about 2 1/2 hours. We arrived at Parque Nacional Pali Aike. I had read about this park...and was excited that we had gone here (but I mean really..i would have been stoked about anywhere...) I had kinda figured tho that since the park was a fair distance, I may not get to see it. It is the site of an old volcano....so there was lots of volcanic rock and an immense amount of wide open space, it was gorgeous. Also some very cool mosses and stuff on the rocks (i tested out my artsy picture taking skills....) We saw evidence of pumas...but no live evidence (kinda glad about that...) Lunch was an interesting experience with all the wind.....the vans were parked strategically to try and block it. We went into the volcano....as in climbed down, very carefully....normally you put your hands on the grass to keep from sliding....but this wasn´t grass (forget the name) but it pricked and stuck into your hand...so no dice with that one. We were originally sposed to be back in Punta Arenas at 5...but at that hour we were still in the park (without cell phone reception...). At about 6 20ish..my parents were contacted and told I´d be arriving home later. Gonzalo mentioned how red my eyes were..but I didn´t think much of it on the way home. We were lucky..because I learned that it had rained most of the day in Punta Arenas, but we had had gorgeous sun. I ate a bit of food..then headed to bed, exhausted from a day of hiking and being outside. The next morning...my eyes were super sore, and I couldn´t actually open one of them. I didn´t go to school, and spent most of the day in my bed. I was able to open my eye only for short periods of time, and what I saw was very blurry. The worrying thing was that I had my contacts in, and my eyes were so swollen and painful that I couldn´t take them out. I wore my sunglasses at lunch....because the light hurt and also to spare my host family from looking at it....Tuesday morning, I again didn´t go to school...and was finally able to remove one of my contacts at around 10 30. (in the eye that was mostly normal)..it was incredibly dry. skechy. I was able to see much much better, and figured I would go get my Chilean id card and deposit the money for my trips...(again....i´m keeping you in suspense...hehe) since these things can only be done in the mornings, and I figured i probably shouldn´t miss another morning of school..due to the upcoming lack of class....I got to the bank after getting my card (went about 8 blocks too far in the collectivo, so had a nice walk...) and learned that apparently i needed my passport to deposit money...so I returned to my house, removed my other contact, ate lunch, and then headed back to the bank. After that...I quickly went home and changed to go to school in the afternoon. There have now been many comments about how the wilderness and I don´t get along (first leg, now eye....). I still love it tho. Wednesday, classes in the morning, and in the afternoon I helped out with the english debate again. We were told Tuesday that we are the opposition team to censoring the internet...while we had been told the previous week we were the proposition; therefore we have had to redo all our arguments. Very frustrating..especially since the other group knew the whole time that they were the proposition....we lost more than a week of work! After working on that...I went home and hung out there for a bit until Harold came by to go watch soccer. There are binational games between Chile and Argentina right now, so the stands were packed. The game with Punta Arenas started at 10 at night....(we watched the first as well..starting at about 8ish). I was...as usual, a bit sick and so we walked back to my house around 11 or so, at the middle of the game. The next morning, many of my classmates and I were very tired (they had stayed til the end....around midnight....punta arenas lost 3-2, the other team scored in the last minute...). Yesterday,morning classes. At lunch, I talked with Maxiel for a while (she had gone to argentina for a week) and then walked back to school to help out with the debate. We spend a lot of time on it...but talk about other stuff too, and its fun, so it doesn´t seem like work to me, which is good. I left around 6ish to meet up with Harold and we talked as we watched some track stuff (hurdles and the 4 by 4....and I had fond memories of the west hill track team...) Then we walked to a gym downtown (which i didn´t know existed) to watch some basketball, meeting up with another friend, Pierre along the way. After that, we walked back to my house and I pretty much headed straight to bed, talking a bit with my host parents and grabbing a bite to eat. And now..here I am..friday morning...exhausted from 2 nights without a ton of sleep and....now goingto tell you about the reason for the plane ticket.
Next Friday morning (at 20 to 8..what was I thinking when I bought the ticket?) I am flying out of Punta Arenas to Santiago. Then..the 18th, I am joining a group of other exchange students (from the santiago district) and heading to the north in bus for 9 days. Should be fun......Then, I´m staying in Santiago for a few days...and going on another Rotary trip to Easter Island!!!! We return to Santiago the 6th, and I return to Punta Arenas the 7th. When I get back, there are no classes the 8th...and the oldest year...the cuartos, finish classes on the 7th....it´ll be weird my last week of school with like 100 of the students gone.
So....i have no idea when I´ll blog next, and no idea if I´ll be blogging on my trip, but I´m sure it´ll be amazing (and I´ll be trying very hard not to get some kind of injury....)

Halloween and Holidays

2006-11-03T06:25:00.000-05:00

What great alliteration....
So, Tuesday was halloween. I had invitations to go to the disco and a birthday of a friend; however I was sick thanks to the very quickly changing climate here in Punta Arenas. (Combined, I think, with a lack of sleep from Saturday night...). So I spent my halloween in my house. I also ran out of money on my cellphone, so couldn´t call anyone to get actual directions to the location of the birthday (don´t have house phone numbers, and can´t call cell phones from a house phone). We didn´t have any candy, so I felt pretty bad hiding from the little kids who came to the door. There are no supermen or princesses in this part of the world...all the costumes are witches, goblins, etc. I slept for a ridiculously long time, and had breakfast wednesday morning around 11. Mema commented how late it was when she got up a few minutes later...I had forgotten to change the clock next to my bed and had actually woken up earlier, but thought it was an hour earlier, so fell back asleep.
(Ps...I wasn´t playing hooky, this was a holiday. ) After lunch (porotos..which is not only traditional, but also one of my favorite foods here....possibly because the main ingredient is a type of white bean, also contains carrots etc and a spicy type of sausage...yummy stuff), Mema and I went to the cemetery to walk. The holiday is All Saints day or something.....day of the dead, so everyone goes to the cemetery to lay flowers on their loved one´s graves. My Chilean family doesn´t have anyone in the cemetery, but it is very pretty with all the flowers. There are also markets of flowers outside (you could buy flowers to plant for 500 pesos...which is a bit over a dollar canadian). We ran into my tio, tia, and abuela who gave us a ride home. (Uncle, aunt, and grandma). I was, by the way, back to using my winter jacket with a toque and mittens due to chilly wind. The other day, it snowed a bit when I was walking to school. So, my days are longer, but its not all that much warmer here right now.
Later in the afternoon, I watched Ciudad de Dios (City of God), a Brazilian movie with spanish subtitles. I had never seen it before, and was a bit disturbed at the fact that young boys were killing in the wars of the drug lords. I was, however, quite proud of the fact that i understood the whole movie. (Spanish and portuguese do not sound very similar......brazil will be an experience, that´s for sure!!)
Thursday morning, classes as regular. I walked to school for the first time since busting up my knee. It was good, and I could notice a difference in my energy level (higher). I talked to my brother for a bit on MSN which was nice. For some reason, we do not have recuperacion now from the strike in june (and to be honest...the reason isn´t important..i´m just glad to have more free afternoons!) So, yesterday afternoon I went to go get my rotary allowance and then walked to school to help with making completos..hot dogs, in order to fund the sweaters that we are going to have made for the class. I get one too (a sweater that is...) and also helped out with the next round of english debate. Then we had a practice for the song that I will be singing (with 2 ppl from my class) at the grad of the cuartos. My commencement in Canada is this weekend.....
I walked home after that, and hung out with my host parents until I went to bed.
And now..I should return to doing other things....
keep smilling!

A Week....

2006-10-30T16:32:00.000-05:00

Since this is a week in review...it could end up being a bit lengthy...but I´ll try keep it somewhat brief...
Not a ton to write about Tuesday and Wednesday....altho I did recover from the lack of sleep on the torres del paine trip....waking up at 7 to take my meds..and then heading back to bed til about 10 30 or 11. Joanna came home from santiago on tuesday...bringing home honey (which is super expensive here). My parents called me Tuesday night (I wanted them to hear about my trip and also hear that I was indeed doing well. I went to another Rotary meeting for the women on Wednesday night, and saw a bunch of of people from school, asking how I was and such. Julia and I made quite a pair walking downtown, her with an australian rasberry tart/pie, me walking weird, and talking spanglish.
Thursday morning, we only had 15 minutes of the hour and a half of math....which was sweet cuz I got to talk with all the ppl in my class and such. In the third class of the day, I was called out to go talk with the principal, vice principal, and other people about my trip and how I´ve been in school. There was no recuperacion classes in the afternoon, so Gabi (one of Karen´s best friends) came over and we hung out for a few hours. Maxiel, Johanna´s best friend, also came over for lunch. She is heading to Argentina and the beach for a week, so I lent her my mini (they don´t have a ton of use for them here..and thus she doesn´t have one). We joked about me going along in her suitcase....... Friday I had my first history test....and got a 6.6 out of 7.
Also friday...I went to a concert for a famous Chilean pianist. The other ppl who went from my school all play piano..but, being the exchange student I got to go:) Friday night, there was a Folklore Festival, which I went to with Julia, Gonzalo, and an american who is down here teaching english. A very popular Chilean group was playing (a lot of friends were jealous that I was going to see them), and they were pretty good. After, there was a dance kind of thing and then a chilean comedian.....by that time Gonzalo and Justin had left. Julia and I didn´t understand all of the jokes; but from the interesting types of instruments he played (a watering can clarinet, doorbells, a frying pan banjo...etc etc) he was the type of guy that could make an appearance at Summerfolk. Saturday, i slept til 11 (having arrived home around 12 30, 1ish) and in the afternoon went over to Julia´s to chat a bit and to hang out before she left for brasil. At home, I got ready for the gala, and then waited for my date to come get me....i had had other invitations to get ready with girls..but didn´t end up going. At around 10, he showed up and we headed to another friends house to meet up with some other folks before heading over to the gala. It was in a very nice hotel. (I wore my nancy lee dress....the peacock type one, wanting to get more wear out of it) I borrowed shoes from another girl,not being able to use my heels for 2 reasons.....my knee and not wanting to be taller than most of the guys. We left there around 1 30 or 2, and headed to the disco til about 4 30. My knee was hurting, and I lost most of my energy around 4ish. Sunday morning, I woke up at 10 and then met Julia for one last time. We parted around 1, and when I arrived home empanadas were being made in my house!!! Company came for lunch, which was super good. At 5 i went to go help with a group from my school who had an english debate today..and then this morning I went to the debate with the group from my school. there were 8 debates in total....and there was a lot that i wanted to say. The quality of the english was pretty good. My school won their debate...so moving on to the next round...i´m going to be helping with the topic of wanting to censor the internet, in favor. That´s right dad..i guess i´m following in your debate footsteps....And now....at home, and should let my host sister use the computer....
Hope all is well at home!

Torres del Paine...and other Adventures

2006-10-23T11:54:00.000-04:00

Ok.....so, Torres del Paine was fantabular!!! But i´ll start from the beginning (this will likely be a fairly long entry......so much to tell!) Wednesday night, when I arrived home from my first woman´s Rotary meeting (very nice...i plan on going often) Braulio told me that my trip had been postponed... I asked if he was joking, and he said no and Mema went along with it as well. I was a bit bummed...but we still made lots of jokes about things. Then about 20 minutes later, just before I went to bed, Mema told me it was indeed a joke and that I was going the next day. Yay.... 6:00 am was early the next morning (having gone to bed around 12 30ish...) and I ate a bit of food before hopping in the van with Braulio and a girl who lives down the street (Tatiana). The bus ride was long.....I tried to sleep but was unable to. We stopped 3 times for stretch breaks. I talked with the people around me, many of whom I hadn´t really seen at school before or hadn´t talked to. We walked around Puerto Natales for about 10 minutes (about the size of Owen Sound...) and noticed a lot of signs in English and tons and tons of signs for the glaciers and Torres del Paine (PN is the closest city, and thrives on tourism from about november to march). The day was gloriously warm as we drove into the Park and I caught my first glimpse of the Torres. We saw some flamingos in a lake...but my camera was too far away in time to snap a picture. We saw lots of the animal here that is kind of like a deer (but not a deer.....) and therefore I have tons of pics of them. When we arrived at the main entrance to the park, we switched from our coach bus to smaller van/bus (15 person) with trailers for our backpacks. (Mine about half the size of my body....or more). We went over a river on a bridge that looked kind of like the Golden Gate bridge, but very skinny (pulling in the side mirrors...). We didn´t actually have to walk very far with our big packpacks to our campsite (we could have driven straight to it..but walked for about 15 minutes..crossing another little river and staring in awe at the gorgeous Torres and all the nature.
Our campsite was about a 10 minute walk from a gorgeous hotel, the hosteria del torres (not like best western style...all wood, low, very classy....) My group set up our tent near the brook in the campsite with one other tent near ours (the others were about 3 metres higher). There was bathrooms and showers as well. After lunch and tent set up, we got ready to work. Torres del Paine is expensive for most Chileans, so the way to make it affordable for us was that we worked the first afternoon and the second day. My group consisted of the people in my tent and 2 other tents as well, we walked for about 15 minutes or so, getting shovels along the way. When we arrived at our destination, the other girls were sent to pick up garbage, while the boys and I started to work on clearing the rocks out of a trench that went from the top of the hill to the bottom (my guess is about 30 metres or so...maybe more). Hard work, but lots of fun. Thursday night we went to the hotel for a presentation that showed the possible excursions from the hotel (done in both english and spanish for the benefit of the english tourists...I understood the spanish). I was talking with someone from the hotel and my class headed off for a bit of a hike. After I was done talking, the man told me where he thought my class was, so I headed off and when I saw them started running (which felt amazing!!) Later, when we arrived at camp we cooked a bit more food and then had a campfire before going to our tent around midnight. In my tent, they started to get me to say hard works in spanish. They succeeded in finding many that I cant say (basically any word with a rolling r). I then told them the longest word in the english language (antidisestablishmentarianism). We were up past the silent hour of 12.....laughing and such. Friday morning, we worked again...this time shoveling dirt from the huge pile to fill the trench...again lots of hard work, but tons of fun as well. We were working near some permanent canvas tents which we toured later in the day. The idea is that people can come stay for however long they want in the nicely furnished dome tents, a comfy living room/tent, a kitchen and so forth. It is low impact on the environment..they use composting toilets, solar heat for the water and so forth. (www.ecocamp.cl) Gorgeous view too!! Lunch was bowtie pasta and cheese (noodles and cheese with either salchichas (hotdogs) or a type of sausage was pretty much the favorite meal of the weekend. I changed into shorts for the afternoon when we worked again, and was actually decently warm...almost fell asleep when we were finished more shoveling of dirt. Friday afternoon, we relaxed at camp.....the case of our pots flew into the brook and was going downstream...I saw it and went to the rescue. The first time I went in the river I was a little to late..so I ran along the bank again and went in with enough time..but the water got a bit deeper than I expected and I slipped.....now being wet up to chest level instead of knees. I missed the bag.....but did catch it a bit farther when it got stuck in a whole bunch of sticks. Two people in my class followed my adventure and we all had a good laugh when we got back to camp. In the night, we went to the hotel again, this time for a special presentation just for us done by a guy who has lived in torres del paine since he was little, an amazing rockclimber (he actually went to punta arenas for high school..studied at contardi, and went on exchange as well..) Afterwards there were some prizes given out, and I won a white baseball cap with a torres logo, very nice. One girl won a jacuzzi in the spa, and 4 people got to share a plate of pachanga (not sure I spelled that right) which is meat, fried eggs, french fries, and tomatoes (actually really good..ive tried it) Another campfire and star gazing at the amazing clear, southern sky and then bed. I was on the outside of the tent (another girl arrived inmy group in the afternoon....so we were now 5...warmer but more cramped..) I woke up kind of wet in the morning, and due to the rain our 6 30 wake up time was pushed back until 11. I didn´t sleep much more tho due to the wetness factor. Our hike saturday was gorgeous, despite the bad weather at the beginning. The lake we could see for most of the hike was turquoise...reminding me a bit of Lake Louise (altho i´ve never seen it for real...) Lots of gorgeous pictures taken. About halway through the hike...my endorphins kicked in and I was full of energy!! Our lunch break was taken at Los Cuernos, ie.. a gorgeous view of mountains where there is a cabin, camping space and so on. I went in to the cabin to go to the washroom, greeted in English by someone working there. Lots of hikers in the cabin, eating their lunches and cooking.
We cooked our lunch outside..having brought our campstoves and such. My group had 2 kinds of soup...one with some rice, corn, meat etc (maggi variety, powdered, but tasted good). The next kind was supposed to be cream of chicken..but we added a bit too much water...so instead called it "water with a bit of chicken flavor" (which by the way sounds better and is more fun to say in spanish...) The hike back was again lots of fun.....one girl and I sang disney songs, her in Spanish, me in English. Then we did some english classics like britney spears, back street boys etc oh the laughter. We didn´t arrive back at camp til after 8 (long hike....) and started cooking soon after. My group unfortunately ran out of gas as we were cooking, so borrowed from other groups. One of the guys in my group had won the pachange...so only 4 of us were eating that night. We headed to bed earlier..the weather not ideal for another campfire. And by headed to bed..that means we talked for a long time in the tent....me wearing a tanktop, sierra designs shirt, another cotton long sleeve, and a sweater that a guy in my tent lent me. (I had lent my fleece jacket...actually my host sisters... to another girl who had only 2 dry shirts....both not very warm...) Sunday morning we were up at 6 30, ready to go by 8 in order to get to the base of Torres del Paine. Breakfast was a bit more substantantial (Saturday morning everyone in my tent was a bit lazy, hence my breakfast was a cup of hot chocolate, which I drank about 2 minutes before we started the hike.....).
The hike was more climbing on Sunday...I loved it!! Again lots of gorgeous pics and good conversation. We stopped briefly at a lodge about halfway in distance for some snacks. The final leg of journey was the toughest....picking our way through huge rocks and going at a fairly decent steepness (wow my grammar is bad). We stopped fairly regularly for some of the ppl in my group, and refilled water bottles in mountain streams (beautifully cold and tastes wonderful) The higher we got, the more snow. When we reached the top..it was snowing enough that we wereen´t actually able to see the Torres, but the lake at the base was still beautiful, as was the snow. A few of us went down right by the water, and took some pics there as well. Going back down was a very slow affair..taking lots of precautions because the snow made it more dangerous. Everyone made it down safely. We had to walk back with more rhythm...not having tons of time because the morning was more leisurely. I was walking at the back, and every once in awhile we would run to catch up.
When we were about 25 min from camp, I was walking with 3 other ppl and then said i wanted to jog abit...so I did. Then as I was walking later..quickly, and admiring the view I tripped and fell. My hands stung, and my knee a bit, but I got up and continued going along...just slower. A few minutes later i felt warmth on my leg and realized I was bleeding. A guy ahead of me stopped to wait, and we walked together.... When we arrived at camp, I lifted my pant leg and saw that I had indeed bled a lot....I changed into my pyjama pants and the prof looked at my leg and said there wasn´t much he could do but clean it and cover with bandaids (altho they weren´t really sufficient to do much, the cut being of a decent size...). A few minutes later, I was down by my tent, starting to pack things up when I didn´t feel so hot so went to sit down..One moment I was sitting on the bench..next thing there was ppl shaking me and carrying me onto a mat....giving me water, juice, and sweet things to raise my blood sugar. My amazing new friends packed up all my stuff for me, and carried it to the vans waiting to take us to our coach bus. I sat near the front with a friend of mine and we talked most of the way home......trying to sleep but not being able to. We arrived back in Punta Arenas around 10 30, and I was greeted by my host father. I limped off the bus.....he got my backpack and my prof talked to him about my cut. Back at the house...Mema took a look, put some new bandage on it, and we headed to the hospital. Turned out that I was extremely lucky...because you could see my tendon..but I had not torn it! Nevertheless...I had to go into the operating room for anasthesia and stitching up. Mema stayed with me until 1....when she left so I could sleep a bit. I was woken up at about 3 15 and taken to the operating room. It´s a weird feeling to have the lower half of your body asleep....with a bit of feeling (I didn´t feel any pain..but I could feel that they were working on my leg...). I was then taken to a recovery room where I was until about 11 this morning. The dressing was changed on my leg and such.
I am not allowed to shower until tomoro......when we got home, we washed my hair in the sink because I hand´t showered since Friday (I was camping......) The water was disgusting from all the dust in my hair. Washing my face with warm water also felt amazing. I had some food, and unpacked my stuff....all very dirty, some wet, and some bloody. Mmmm .....
Despite the whole knee thing, i had an amazing amazing amazing time...getting to know new ppl in my school, making awesome new friends, and enjoying the beauty of Torres del Paine. I was extremely happy, and so many ppl yesterday were so surprised that I was still so happy after I had fallen. Life is good!
Oh...other things that I forgot earlier...I tried Mate (a type of tea.....full name Jerba mate) which is quite traditional here.......even more so in Argentina. Also....we had a joke in my tent because I can´t say "Porky porky nuestro reye" everytime nething happened, they would make me say it and by the end I couldn´t finish porky porky without laughing. Before bed, before eating, I was told to say it and when i couldn´t was told that there was no food for me, or that i was going to have to sleep outside. of course..this never happened. I was also given marks for the words that i said....and had a lot of negatives.
It´s a friend of mine´s birthday here (Claudia). Since I have to stay in my house, she is going to save me some cake :) I have orders from about 50 or more people to be very careful with myself.....and have been told by many that its best to not go to school tomoro. I wonder how many ppl from the trip went to school today, because many were thinking of not going, being extremely tired (with good reason).
And now I think I will end this blog entry and let you get back to your daily lives. If you ever have the chance to come to the south of Chile......you haven´t really been until you have been to Torres del Paine. I joked that my journey was complete and could return to canada...but sorry mom..you cant have me back for 8 months or so...
I could write so much more....about the horses that were free to wander the park and near our campsite...about the misunderstanding between my prof and the girls picking up garbage (they couldn´t find any garbage, and in the misunderstanding...understood that the horse caca (poop) was garbage...so picked up 3 bags of horse crap. Lots of laughter about that incident as well....Seriously...I´m done now!
Chau
hasta la vista....

2 months ago....

2006-10-18T16:01:00.000-04:00

Wow...its hard to believe that 2 months ago at this time, I was on the airplane, or somewhere in transit!!! Time flies eh?
Sunday night, the girl didn´t come to my house to go to la inglesia...so I watched some TV and ate pancakes (which are actually crepes) with my host parents. Very yummy!!
Monday was the day of the professor at school. I was told there was breakfast in school..so slept a bit more. Breakfast was cookies, cake (banana, and super good), and salty snacks like potato chips. There was also coke....but I stayed away from that at 9 am...Later, there was an assembly in which classes had different acts for the teachers. Dancing and singing were again the favorite choices. Claudia and Nano (of my class) sang and there was a slide show of pictures of the teachers at the same time. The only thing with assemblies...is that they are very squishy...not much space in the bleachers. So you´re sitting crammed with everyone else, with someone´s knees in your back, and someones back at your knees. There was also one show that had music through the ages, and ppl dressed up in typical costumes of that time period (the past century..) It was neat, and another that was the music and characters of Shrek.
After this was over, I walked home from school and changed quickly in order to meet Julia to go for lunch. While in the center, we ran into her host mom who told us of a place that was good and cheap (of course we were happy about this...cheaper is always better for exchangees...) and as she drove us there, I learned that she is organizing the trip to Easter Island. This is nice, because I can travel with her to Santiago so I won´t be alone. I also learned that the date is different than the internet says.....trip starting the 8th of December, which means I won´t be staying in Santiago, and my trip with Julia will be 2 days shorter.
Newho..the restaurant had a set lunch, a type of salady thing, ravioli, dessert, and a drink for 2500 pesos (about 5 bucks...) Pretty good i´d say! Then we walked around for a bit, and I bought a wool bag with a penguin on one side and a house scene on the other. It´s nice cuz its a souvenir with good functionability..and I was needing a bag about that size. Then we met some other ppl for once (afternoon snack). It was a gorgeous day, and in the restaurant we were quite warm, so ordered a delicious chocolate milk with ice cream, cream, caramel, and a maraschino cherry. Super good! We walked around a bit more, stopping at a clothes store (i resisted...helped by the fact I didn´t have enough money...) Later, we walked to Gonzalo´s house (stopping at the cemetery on the way, cuz it was seriously a gorgeous day, and we had time, and the cemetery is gorgeous.....) I was walking in just a long sleeved shirt!! (and pants of course...but no jacket or sweater which is impressive). We chatted at Gonzalo´s for a bit, and then they drove me home; after making plans to hang out the next evening.
Tuesday at school was...well, i didn´t want to get out of bed in the morning that´s for sure. Can´t think of much exciting that happened right now (altho i did walk all 4 ways....) After school in the afternoon..I was walking with 2 friends and it took almost an hour instead of the regular 30 minutes..but I had company so it was good. I arrived home, showered, and was having tea and some crackers when my host dad came home from work (my host mom was out for the evening.) He and I had a good chat, and shared some laughs as he made some delicious beefsteak sandwiches. I went to the store around the corner to buy paltas (avocado) to make some guacamole type stuff, which is eaten on a very regular basis. Gonzalo came to pick me up around 10..and when we picked Julia up learned that there is no salsa on Tuesday nights, so we went to pick up Yezna and then went to a pub where we chatted, laughed, and hung out til 20 to 12, and then did the rounds of bringing everyone home.
This morning, I slept til 9 because I went with Mema to el centro for more paperwork for my residence card. Good news...I can pick it up in 15 days!! We had to go to 3 offices, and another place to get my picture taken (not one of my best..but oh well...). I went straight to school from el centro to pick up the food that I have to take to Torres del Paine tomoro. (This is important...becaus eI wasn´t wearing my school uniform.....) Nothing was said when I arrived at the school tho, which was nice. I was a bit late for the meeting, but got my food items (and the tent poles...) before heading home for lunch (meat..what a surprise). Mema asked this morning what to make for lunch, and I suggested meat.....we joke about that and how we always eat meat on a semi regular basis.
I spent most of the afternoon packing my backpack for torres del paine..it is about half the size of me. Seriously..it comes up to my hips!! But a lot of the space is my sleep mat and sleeping bag...so I think it´s doable for the 3 hour hike tomoro!! (Ps....least amount of clothes I have ever taken for 4 days...) We leave tomoro morning at 7, being at the bus stop at 6 30. A girl who lives close to me is coming to my house at 6 20 to catch a ride (my host dad doesn´t know yet that he´z driving us..hehehe) So..I should probably go get changed, a womens rotary meeting is tonight; so I´m going for the first time; but I´m walking to Julia´s to meet up with her first. Hasta luego....xo

Salsa Dancing

2006-10-15T12:09:00.000-04:00

So....Sunday afternoon, and time for an update as I sit at my friend Claudia´s house, waiting for her to finish making lunch (i asked..and nothing I can do to help...)
One thing I forgot to mention in my last update was the pasta buffet. It was super good, not quite how I had imagined, we continued to order throughout the evening, so everything was freshly made. The exchanger from a different program of Germany mentioned that the table behind me was speaking english. I told Julia and said i thought they sounded australian. She listened and was like, no Jody, thats English. I felt pretty stupid....Later, Julia said something in an exagerrated aussie accent, and one of the men turned around. I was sitting closest, so started talking to him; and it turned out that there were both Englishman and people from New Zealand, so I wasn´t too far off. They work with wool manufacturing, and it was neat to talk for a bit. He was impressed with our ability to converse with a group of Chileans.
Friday afternoon after classes, I went to a corner store with a guy in my class (on the condition he´d buy me something, and he did...a banana) The lady at the cash register said that I had the face of a gringa, and then I told her that I was indeed a gringa. (ie someone not of Chilean descent more or less....more European/North American). We had a practice of our dance in the gym, which had been transformed into a stage. Oh, and Friday at lunch I looked at our kitchen table and saw a Lan thing (airline) and my host sister said that she was leaving for Santiago the next day for a week. So....I´m the only child in my house for a few days.
Saturday morning, I went for a run and ran into (not literally....) 2 people that I know. Again, a shorts and tshirt run!! After lunch, I waited a bit for a girl in my class to come and then around 3 I headed to the house of a girl in my class where we started to get ready for the salsa. My hair was in perfect ringlets (and therefore quite a bit shorter). There was so much hairspray!!! I was ready first, so had time to paint my nails and such. When we got to the school, I ended up doing all the girls makeup after I had done mine. (You´d be proud Ju.....haha) It was a good mix of the dramaticness needed to be seen while we were dancing, but also looked good for just walking around.
The festival started at about quarter after 7 ish (sposed to start at 6 30..but that´s how things roll around here. ) There was some sweet drumming (people wearing some cool Magallenes jackets..i want one...) and a 10ish year old boy dancing. He goes to the place where we learned our dance, and is super cool! There was lots of dancing at the festival. Some good old Beatles - doin the twist, some reggaeton (of course....the unofficial national music of Chile) and another group did some salsa.
Newho...we looked pretty darn good I´´d say. All the girls in red outfits (skirts shorter on one side, long on the other and tube tops) with curled hair and black shoes. All the guys had black pants and red shirts. The part that I always screwed up in practice I did perfectly! It was so much fun to be dancing away. Julia and Gonzalo came, as did another friend, Gezna.
As a group we went to thank our teacher, who is so nice. I´m really gonna miss dancing every day after school, it was super fun. Julia, Gonzalo, and Gezna stayed a bit longer, but when they headed out i rejoined my class and continued to watch until about 11 or so.
I went home in collectivo, very hungry cuz I hadn´t eaten anything since lunch. I figured my host parents would be asleep, but they weren´t, and there was a sandwich and pancakes waiting for me!! I told them about the festival de la familia, and learned that sure enough, the time was changing. (I had noticed on the computer in the morning. ) So when I went to bed, it was actually 1 am. When I woke up in the morning, I had some more pancakes (with cut up apple and syrup, hmmm) and then showered to remove the mass amounts of hairspray!! I had another parade in the morning for the anniversary of my school. Also went into the Catholic church which is absolutely beautiful!!! We were supposed to get there at 10 30.....i think I joined my class at about 11 15, and was definitely not one of the last. I learned that every sunday, there is a parade to raise the Chilean flag with the military and such. I want to go another time when I can watch instead of participating and seeing only the backs of my classmates.
Well....not much more to write. This afternoon I´m going to watch my school play soccer again, and then going to church with a girl in my class. I´m not sure how much I´ll understand.....

Lawnmower Horses

2006-10-13T08:50:00.000-04:00

So....yesterday as I was walking home from school in the morning (classes let out 15 minutes early, so i had time to walk) I saw something that was definitely worth taking a picture of. At first I only saw one..and then like 2 seconds later another. In the middle of town (well, in a very residencial section), there were 2 horses just chillin....having lunch on the lawn (ie mowing the lawn) Thankfully I had my camera with me....They did not appear to be tied up in any way. A little later as I was still walking, i could have sworn I heard a cow moo...twice. I dunno, but Ican´t deny what I heard.
Yesterday afternoon, I received some exciting emails... if I am able to get that Chilean ID card...i´m going to Easter Island with Rotary Santiago in December!!!
Yesterday...I also walked to dance in the afternoon and home..so about 2 hours in total of walking yesterday, (desperately trying to keep of this weight gain...). I have decided to wait about 2 weeks to join the gym, because I probably won´t be here for most of december....and will want the gym in november as Julia is not going to be around; so I´ll go make friends at the gym. Also, I haven´t had much time lately, what with the insane amount of practice for the salsa show tomoro. (Not actually insane....but not much time for the gym...) Plus, this saves me money, i´m trying to live cheaply so that I can travel and such. The other night Mema handed me a book on the area in both spanish and english with tons of gorgeous pictures and touristy sights I had never heard about before. I can´t wait to visit some of those as well!
Yesterday, math didn´t actually start until 9 (the bell rang at 8, but we just talked until 9) and the lesson was about 5 minutes long; it was a decent class. I´ve started bringing my journal with me to class so that I can write. I have to go to the Zona Franca soon, because there are no envelopes in myhouse, and envelopes are kind of essential to the letter sending process!!
Today, I should be getting the list of the things i need for my 4 day trip to Torres del Paine, much of which I will be borrowing I imagine. Well...that´s all I got for now.....

A week in Review

2006-10-11T16:33:00.000-04:00

Wow..the last week has flown by. Earlier I had to review my journal to remember what I had been doing. Thursday, lunch with Julia was international, joining us was a friend from Germany and a Chilean. I had chicken and a plate of green beans and corn...hmm vegetables. We then walked around a bit, until going to the house of a friend of hers for once. (Like a snack at dinner time). She went to New Zealand for a year, so wanted to practice her english (lived with Chileans..so didn´t get perfect..) but Julia and I controlled the conversation in Spanish.
I found out Friday that i am going to Torres del Paine for sure!! Yay! We´ve still be practicing lots for the dance thinger. Saturday, I went to a friends house in the afternoon after going for a glorious run. A bunch of us went to the center of town...walked arounda bit looking at stuff, and then went back to her house and made popcorn (i put salt onsome, and at first they looked at me like i was crazy..and then enjoyed it). We watched Dick and Jane before I headed home for a tradiotional dinner of Chiloe (an island in Chile with lots of seafood). Yep..more clams, but I actually enjoyed. Hard to explain..but really yummy. Then I headed over to Gonzalo´s house where I met Julia and some other of his friends to hang out. Oh...I found Canada street!!! Pretty excited about that, and took a picture. I went to a soccer game (at the stadium, my school versus another) and my school won! The weather was crummy afterwards tho...and some friends went with me to the grocery store so that I could buy food for my canadian cooking the next day. I went to the store where there aren´t veggies tho (silly jody). Back at home, I waited for my family to call....and then talked to them for almost 2 hours. (One at a time..the first time i talked to my sibs, it was fantastic!) We used a whole phone card, finished the other, and then went on the internet to talk with my sis. I was home alone by then...family had gone out, so headed to bed. Monday morning, I woke up and walked to the grocery store to buy veggies, a chicken (my mom had taught me over the phone the night before how to properly roast a chicken...instead of turkey). I started cooking soon after I got home....I made wild rice pilaf (mom´s recipe.... with lots of veggies) and a roasted chicken. The apple pie (which Julia cut the apples for) was a bit interesting....because we couldn´t find a pie plate!! I ended up using a cast iron fry pan... Mema had to show me how to light the oven (have to take a fire and light the gas, not used to that). Lunch was fantabular, and my family loved it!! Julia and i both ate more than our hunger, because there was lots of veggies and it was so yummy and different! (yes..i am aware that i am flattering my cooking...but I had never cooked a whole meal other than something very basic before...) Then Julia and I hung out...watched miss congeniality and talked. Tuesday was back to school.....my teacher in bio said that I was to write the bio test today because I understood the stuff...too bad for me..haha. then at lucnh...learned that I wasn´t going to school this morning.going to try and figure stuff out for my chilean ID card. So that wasn´t too bad...I danced last night after school again. This morning, i slept in, grabbed a shower, and then Mema and I went downtown to go to various offices for my ID card. We have to wait til next week for a definite answer, apparently I was supposed to do this in my first 30 days..but noone ever told me or my host family that. We got home at 11, and I emailed a Rotary lady in Santiago because I wanted more information about the trips that those Rotary students go on (a friend of mine asked, and I can go on them!!!) And then after lunch (delish...porotos, and with the addition of some of the celery I had was even better than usual) walked to school in the rain. I was soaked when I arrived, but didn´t care. We did some more aerobics...which was aight, and now (after walking home again...) here I am..writing to you. Tonight, I´m meeting Julia, Gonzalo, and some other friends to go for a pasta buffet....should be yummy. That´s all for now, hope thingsa re grand for everyone!

Singing and Dancing

2006-10-05T10:14:00.000-04:00

Monday morning, I had music class. A friend of mine told me that I was singing in front of the whole school with her and a guy from my class. I started laughing, and she looked at me and said ´En serio´and I was like...oohh. So, we are doing a trio of Dust in the Wind (thank goodness its in English, so I won´t make a complete fool of myself). I sing the melody the whole way through, with the other two doing melody. It is four the graduation of the cuartos, in december. Monday, I also left school early, at 4 30 in the afternoon to go get my Rotary allowance. I met Julia at 5, and we did a few other errands at stores that close at 6 30 (i am in school usually) . We went to a cool nut/ dried fruit shop, where I bought some dried pears. Very scrumptious. Then we went to a restaurant that only sells chortipan and leche con platano (milk with banana). Chortipan is a traditional chilean food, and quite yummy. Next, we headed to a travel agency for Julia to finalize some plans for her parents to come visit from Australia next month and to ask about our possible trip up to the north of Chile. Then we went to get our Rotary allowance and walked around the center a bit more before heading home. After lunch Tuesday while walking to school, I came across a friend of a friend that goes to my school, so caught up to him and we talked and laughed. The vice principal saw us and offered us a ride, but since it was so gorgeous, we continued walking. He is in the class going to Torres del Paine (in the last grade), and mentioned that I was going. I didn´t know for sure yet that I was....so asked the teacher, and he said that the trip is 90% sure, and I am 100 % sure to go if it happens!!! I´m super excited, it´ll be awesome!!!!! A lot of ppl here have actually never been. Later in gym, we had a running test, and I was able to complete it without much pain in my knees. We had to run 30 laps of the (small) gym in 10 minutes, and i did 31. Yay...haha. Salsa after school again, but my partner wasn´t there. That was aight tho, cuz I danced with a different guy in the class who is really good, and helped me to get some salsa "attitude" so to speak. Yesterday it was raining a lot in the morning, so my host dad drove me to school on his way to work. It slowed down in the afternoon for me to walk to school where we basically did aerobics. At the end of the class,we showed the prof in smaller groups (and most of you know i have a lack of coordination....) and i stepped a bit to far towards the outside of my box and it flipped over...after we were done, we all laughed (well, everyone laughed when it happened too....). Quite comical. Then I walked home to grab some food and change my clothes. I then left again, to do some mailing and then walk to dance. I am cheap, dutch, and don´t want to gain weight so walk as much as possible so that i dont spend money on collectivos. I met a guy in my class when almost there, and then went to a girls house to get her, and so ended up arriving with like 5 other ppl. I danced til 8 (finally remembering most of the routine.....and the teacher said my partner and I had a very good pose at the end...my toe is pointed perfectly...) and then went home. And now, it was a beautiful morning (altho I did not want to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed and pyjamas...plus I didn´t know it was a beautiful day when I woke up, cuz my room doesn´thave a window) so Mema and I walked. I wrote some postcards at the same time as my math homework....No classes this afternoon (we were sposed to have class to recover from the 2 week strike in may), so Julia and I are going to meet for lunch.
Other things to note.......My days are getting longer. There are daffodils, the start of tulips, and trees are budding. One day while in el centro, Julia and I (both wearing a decent amount of clothing) were laughing/commenting about the fact that most of the people we saw were eating ice cream (it was sunny, but not overly warm...) and we saw a little girl wearing shorts!!!!!! Both of us are excited to have heat and sun (shegoes to brazil at the end of the month, and I in january). Well...i think thats all the news I have for now!

6th Weekend

2006-10-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

Well...this is what I´ve been up to since Friday morning....
Classes friday were more or less regular.....In biology I got a back an assignment I had done in a class instead of test...I got a 7 (which is the highest mark possible). Bio is my favorite class here (Macmurd would be proud..haha) After class, we went salsaing. I know most of the dance now..but sometimes get the order a bit screwed up...lots of practicing in the next 2 weeks!! Then I went home with a headache, so didn´t go out to the birthday I was invited to. However, while I was sleeping, my cell phone rang at 2 30. I was not so happy, my lovely sleep being interrupted... Turned out to be a good thing, because Johanna got home at 7 am, and I had to get up at 8 30 to go to the school to do more salsa practice. I found out that some people here have classes as university prep on saturday morning. Wow, I´m glad we don´t have stuff like that; even more hours. In the 4th year, a lot of ppl also have classes on the thursday afternoons(which everyone else has off...except on recuperation weeks...) I danced til about 11 30 ish with a few ppl in my class, which was good. (also sent a few emails) Then in the afternoon we went to pick my host dad up from the airport...he had been gone since the 16th or 17th of September. Good lunch to welcome him home (lots of salad...ie a vegetable with vinegar and salt, but hey, if its a vegetable, i´m happy). Later, I went to buy nylons to wear to school, cuz it´s getting too warm for the thick ones that the school lent me. I also went to try and join the gym (fighting off the weight gain!) but the receptionist wasn´t there, so couldn´t do that. Another day, soon! Then i took a needed shower, and around 6 30 or so went to the birthday of a girl in my class. People showed up at varying times..i think the last to arrive was around 10 40.....craziness. The girl i went with left at 12, without really telling me.....(i was sposed to leave with her....) but I was glad, because we had tons of fun after that. (plus cake wasn´t til 1 30, and it was super good). Seven girls from my class walked with me to go get a collectivo, because its skechy if your alone here at night. It was cute...i didn´t have much of a jacket, just a sweater, so one of the girls wrapped her scarf around my neck....after i was like `gracias mama`and everyone laughed. She also took my camera for the weekend, cuz i didn´t have a big enough pocket to hide it. The collectivo took me pretty much right to my house (which isn´t on its route, but i asked and he said he would) and then i went straight to bed. My family had gone to a birthday for an 80 year old woman (relative...) and turns out I was the last one home. There was no van tho..so I had thought i was early. sunday morning, I went for a run when the church bells were ringing. I went to the stadium, ran a few laps, and then ran the stairs of the bleachers 10 times...also did some pushups and situps (more situps..need to work on my arm strenght). There were a ton of ppl there, some kind of track club i´m guessing, but not sure cuz it didn´t seem to be super organized. It was a beautiful day..so I was in shorts and tshirt, which felt amazing!!! At home later, i was talking with Mema and Claudia, and suddenly we smelled something funny, and realized we had all forgotten about the meat on the stove!!! The kitchen was kinda smoky, but the meat salvagable. We opened the door for a bit, and never knew the difference. Julia called me around 4, when I was the only one in my house, and asked if i wanted to do something. Of course I said yes, so i headed out, calling my host dad´s cell and then leaving a note as well. She had hurt her foot, so we walked slow, talking about different stuff. She also is a healthier eater, so we talked about some of the difficulties with that here. We parted ways around 6 30, and are meeting up tonight to go get our rotary money!! Yay! I watched city of angels with Johanna last night (here it is called un angel enamorado ie an angel in love) I´d never seen it before.... Also, i talked with Karen a bit on msn and then signed out to let her fam talk to her. I can´t believe it is already October, and that Thanksgiving at home is next week!! i´m excited to get to talk to my whole family when they are at home. Monday is a holiday here too, so I am going to cook for my family. Wild rice, apple pie, and i don´t know what kind of meat yet (if there isn´t meat, its not really considered a meal here...haha) Well..that´s all for now..chau

Life goes on....

2006-09-29T08:54:00.000-04:00

Since my last entry.....
Tuesday night when I was hanging out with Julia, I ate empanadas of corn and chicken, which means I only have 2 kinds left to try. My host mom has actually never had the corn kind.... Apple and seafood are left. Even tho i eat fish occasionally...i´m not sure I´ll have the seafood one more than once.....Wednesday in the afternoon, I had to go to the gym with my phys ed class, even tho i can´t run. I slept.......then we walked to school to learn that the class (recuperation class from the strike) had been cancelled. So i walked home, a little upset that the afternoon had kind of been wasted, but it was ok because I walked alot and it was beautiful weather. I stopped at the grocery store to buy yogurt, and ended up buying 2 and eating both on the way home (well drinking really...didn´t have a spoon.) I thought I would have the house to myself, but Maxiel was there (unofficial host sister). She was extremely bored because had been alone in the house since she had woken up from her siesta. I hung out with her for a bit, then we went to the Zona Franca to mail some letters, singing along ot music from my ipod on the way. She wants to learn english for her job, so i helped her with some basic frases and such as well. When we got home, Johanna wasn´t there, so I walked Maxiel to university and then went back home...house to myself! So i listened to my music as loud as i wanted.....then went to meet maxiel again, but couldn´t find her so came back home. She arrived a bit later, while I was watching the end of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on TV. Later that night, Mema and I watched Law and Order:SVU. (I have been getting back into that show Carrie, Jim and Val...but unfortunately it is usually on pretty late.....so don´t always get to watch it...) After school on Thursday (nothing too exciting happened at school.....my first math test) I went with ppl in my school to dance.....i am actually learning a salsa dance routine thing for the festival de la familia. All the classes put together a show. I don´t know much of the beginning part, gotta practice during class breaks, but the part that everyone is learning new I could do. It´s super fun!! A girl´s mom is making our outfits. Í just hope that i don´t screw up.......At home later (around 8 30 or so....I tried on my prom dress, which is a bit tighter than it used to be. A few of my friends want to go to the gym as well...so I think saturday we are gonna go join!! Finally.....I have dancing again tonight, and then a birthday party for Maxiel´s friend who I have met a few times. Well..that´s all for now. xoxo

Birthday Weekend

2006-09-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

So....it was truly a weekend of birthdays, my own and others. Thank you very much to all of you who sent me birthday greetings, much appreciated!!! Friday night, I went with a friend of mine to the birthday of a guy I had met. The other exchangee was there, and I actually knew quite a lot of people there. We got there around 9, ate dinner around 10 and were there until 3.....we had cake and danced a lot...I did some salsa (a tradition basically now) and it was pretty fun. Next day, I slept til around 11 or so, and woke being the only person in my house, so I cleaned some stuff up abit, and made myself a light breakfast. I have learned not to eat much when I wake up on weekends, cuz lunch is always within 2 hours or so. Then i cleaned up my room, and went to a friends house around 3. She was in a dance competition. It was pretty crazy, a lot of the schools here have dance teams. It was like 4 hours long (altho the announced probly talked for at least an hour and a half....) and the dancing was pretty amazing. After that, I went back to my house to get ready for a family get together for the birthday of my aunt. We headed there, and I rang in my birthday there!! (While eating delicious cake actually!!) After receiving birthday hugs and kisses from everyone, (including people who I didn´t know at all....i love South America for that) Johanna and i stopped at the house to change, then head to the disco, first time legally.....Some girls in my class were there, which was nice, cuz Julia was sick so couldn´t come. I also met Gonzalo there. Johanna didn´t particularly like that disco, and the friend she was with´s girlfriend came....so I told her she could head out to her fave disco if she wanted....so she left and I was to meet her at 4 30. So I had about 4 hours of dancing!! It was super fun!!!! I got home around 5, and then opened the card from my parents (I had opened the present and card from my sis, and the present from my parents around 12 15....) and then missed my parents alot....so cried myself to sleep. Don´t feel bad for me tho....it´s all good. The next day,my host dad called my cellphone around noon (he is in a different city right now) and woke me up. It was good tho, cuz I didn´t want to sleep away the day. Being the first one up again, I made myself some tea and read my cards again! Then had lunch, and after Johanna called me because Dirty Dancing was on TV (she knows its one of my fave movies) It was good that she did...cuz i was missing home again.....i have a feeling that´ll happen alot on holidays. We watched the movie, and then went to el centro to get the journal i had bought engraved. At my house later, some friends came over, and we ate cake. In the morning, a cake had arrived from my Exchange counselor...so in addition to the huge one Mema had bought..we had tons of cake!!!! Mema had to go visit her mom, because she was sick. So....it was just me and my friends in the house. At 7, my parents called. I had been waiting for this all day, and ran for the phone when it rang!! I talked to them for about an hour, and was super duper happy afterwards. A tradition here is to have your face put into the cake.....so we did the tradition (after we had eaten what we wanted of the cake..hehe) and then took some fun pics with icing on our faces. After the girls had left, my tio and tia and prima (aunt, uncle, and cousin) came over and enjoyed some cake. I of course had some too (i didn´t eat dinner that day..just cake....i figured it was my birthday....) Maxiel returned (she had come when my face was covered in cake...) with the movie when a stranger calls. I started to watch it...but being easily spooked, I stopped watching about 30 minutes in, and wrote about the days before in my journal, going to bed at 12 30 ish. The next morning, I walked to school where my classmates gave me a present for my bday..and sang feliz cumpleaños (same tune as happy birthday). Then I opened birthday emails, thanx again! The rest of the day was fairly standard...Maxiel and I were going to go to the gym, but she was pretty sick, so no dice. Today, I walked to school in the morning in the rain (que valiente in the words of Mema...) and had to jump over the rivers in the street...seriously, ti was craziness) and then walked back after my 2 morning classes(gorgeous weather by then) . In biology, we started photosynthesis. I was able to take down all the questions, only missing one word in the 13, and then do the same amount of work as my classmates. My teacher was very impressed when she looked at my notebook and had my read some of my answers out loud. After break, I talked for quite awhile with a guy in my class, and understood most everything....lots of exclamations from my classmates...it feels good to not always have to say ´no entiendo´so much anymore. Mema and I walked to school after lunch.... altho we had to wait for Johanna to come pick up the dog...cuz he was following us, and, hard to explain, but he couldn´t be. This one is actually a dog of the street...... Right now, I am in an internet cafe with Julia. We have quite a few weekend ideas of touristy things in the area. Should be good....Well, I think that´s all for now!! xoxo

Since last entry....

2006-09-22T10:55:00.000-04:00

What have I been doing.....well, the night of the 18th, I was invited to a friend of a friends birthday, but didn´t go, which was probly a good thing as about half an hour later, I got my first bit of food sickness. I couldn´t sleep, and was miserable for a while, but then Mema gave me some remedy and within 30 minutes I was sleeping like a baby. Tuesday was the one month anniversary of me being in Chile....time flies. Tuesday morning, we were planning to go to the military parade at 12, and found out at about 11:10 that the parade started at 11....so no dice. Instead we went to my abuelos (grandparents). There was lots of snow there, and so Mema, Johanna, and I had a snowball fight before going into the house. It was super fun...some people in the streets had made snowmen, so I took a few pics. We snacked a bit before eating lunch awhile later. Lunch was..of course, empanadas. There were also hot peppers on the table, and I learned a lesson.....that as you get closer to the top of the pepper..it gets hotter. I was taking little bites, and later on, the same size bites left me with fire in my mouth. I grabbed for the empanadas to try and make the fire go away. I was almost crying at some points cuz of the hotness. It was good tho. I also love pebre, which is a spicy salsa. I watched some telly with Johanna, and we shared laughs at the shows, and then we headed home (Johanna had a test the next day). I went for a run, but my knees started to kill about 30 min in, so I had to stop and walk which i was not happy about!! Also..my ipod fell out of my coat onto the street...skech! Then we went to celebrate the 1st birthday of one of my little relatives. When we got back home a bit later, I read over some notes for a test the next day, and then went to bed. Wednesday, my first test, but I was allowed to use the sheet of notes I had written out, so it wasn´t overly hard. Only one class in the afternoon on Wednesday, and it was the class where I run....so I helped the teacher count the number of laps each person had done. The problem was....after the first group, I didn´t know all the names of the people running (and noone was around for awhile...) I was writing things like ´black shirt´ or ´really tall´to identify some ppl....Some girls helped me out later....I felt kinda bad, but its hard to remember like 50 names in a different language, and i´m not the best with names in the first place. I stopped to buy myself some more herbal tea (lemon ginger and a variety pack) because I had finished my other stuff off. I drink at least 2 cups of tea a day, so it goes fast. At home, Mema made pancakes for dinner!!! They were really thin tho..kind of like crepes. I had some with maple syrup, some with manjar, and some with condensed milk (which is actually really yummy!). I got Mema and Johanna, and Maxiel to try maple syrup....and there consensus was that its like honey, but more smooth. A+ Thursday afternoon, I didn´t have classes, so went to al centro and walked around there for a bit. I have already bought some Christmas presents at a market that is only open until sunday! i have never bought nething for christmas this early!!! As I was walking home, Gonzalo called to see if I wanted to hang out (Gonzalo went on exchange to the states a few years ago, and I talked to him via MSN before coming here...) so I went to his place for a bit, chillin, and met another one of his friends. My ipod is not working right now..which is a bit distressing because I use it a lot!!! Last period was history, and they are studying world history...which I have done before. So....I went to the library to study some Chilean histroy. After class, I went with the prof to talk to the sub-director that I will study Chilean history, with some direction from my prof and be tested on the points that I am given to study. This is a way better arrangement for me...Bell rang..I´m out! chau!!

Independence Weekend and more

2006-09-18T21:21:00.001-04:00

Well..I´ll start with Thursday night, the beginning of Independence festivities for me. I had a Rotary meeting (not at the same building as before, this one was more casual, with the wives present) We ate empanadas, anticucho, and a whole bunch of Chilean desserts. My fave desserts were also the most traditional. I got home at 10 after 1 and hit the sack...super tired. Next morning, I went to school, and we finished decorating the classroom and then ate empanadas. They are so amazing!!! We didn´t have napkins tho...so used notebook paper. Afterwards was an assembly with a lot of dances and such.....took a lot of pics of the national costume. It ended a bit early, so I walked home cuz it was a gorgeous day!! A guy from my class walked with me, he speaks a bit of English, so understood when I didn´t know what to say in Spanish. After lunch (more traditional Chilean food), I met some girls in my class and we hung out...walked around downtown looking around at stuff. They laughed because I thought most of the stuff was so cheap with the conversion rate. We went to her house, where I showed them Wiarton and Owen Sound on google earth. We looked for my house here, but its covered by a cloud... Saturday morning, I slept in then went for a walk in the afternoon with my host mom. We walked ot my grandparents house...an hour and 5minutes. Then spent most of the afternoon there. I got back to my house, and got ready for a fiesta at my classmates house. Got picked up at 11 (the thing about ppl being a bit socially late is true) and then met a ton of ppl at this guys house. We danced for til 2, when I headed home. Sunday morning, I got up and went for a walk in the snow..my pants, socks, and shoes were soaked when I got home an hour later. We (host mom and I) walked along the Strait of Magellan and saw a car that had been in an accident at 5 am that morning (2 deaths...) I talked to Julia, and we arranged to meet at 3. We went to la Chocolata, where we had amazing hot chocolate and Patagonian chocolate (seriously Lou...i think it rivals belgian....) then went to some market type places with Chilean art type stuff. We took some pics of the plaza with the snow (there was about 2 inches...) and of each other with the gorgeous mountains in the background. Then we went to the house of a girl who just came back from exchange, Camila. Ate an empanada and mote con huesillo.....Later, Johanna picked me up from there and I went to my grandparents house for anticucho (a whole bunch of different meats on a kebab basically) and then to my house at 12. This morning, i got up at 8:30 cuz I was in a parade today with my school. It was on TV!!! (ohyeah...saturday my host dad left for another city to visit his mom)...I talked to him later today and he had seen me on TV...bakan (cool)We waited outside for an hour and 45 minutes...in just our unifroms. No warm jackets...and we had to wear our skirts, and since i didn´t have time to get nylons, I just had the socks on...mucho frio!!! We danced around a bit trying to stay warm, and huddled. I forgot my white gloves in the van in the morning.....so another girl lent me one and we both just wore one..hehe. I hid my hands from the inspectors all morning. The actual parade was only like 3 blocks..but there were tons of ppl, and it was cool. We were at the end tho, so I didn´t get to see the rest of it.....which was a bummer. Johanna had my camera tho, and she took pics for me. Afterwards, I went to my friends house for lunch (empanadas and anticucho without the stick, plus potatoes...) then we went downtown with her cousin. While there...met up with a bunch of other classmates and hung out with them for awhile. There were tons of ppl in the downtown..well, in schools where there were lots of games to be played. Back to her house later, and ate some delicious cake stuff and i had coffee (weak...with no sugar....I don´t use sugar in tea or coffee and everyone thinks I´m crazy). I´m home now....and done this update! ciao!!

Independence Weekend and more

2006-09-18T21:21:00.000-04:00

2006-09-14T16:18:00.000-04:00

Ok...so it´s Thursday afternoon, and i technically don´t have school right now, but the internet is faster, and some of my friends are here decorating the class (more on that later), so I am updating my blog and sending out some pics. I have started walking to school in the morning, which means i lose about 15 minutes of sleep, but its my way of trying to stay away from the rotary 30.....cuz i eat a lot here!! I walk as much as I can, and run when Ihave the time. The other day whileI was walking, I was told later that the winds were actually measure at 115 km/hour. Needless to say my hair was all over the place when I got to school!! On Monday, it is the Independence Day soto speak of Chile. It is a huge deal down here!! The class es are decorated, the school is decorated, and in malls there are people doing the traditional dances. It´s pretty cool! Very patriotic. My class is putting a canadian flag in the decorations as well :) In fact, 2 of my classes this m orning, all we did was make stuff/put stuff up on the walls. Pretty fun times. The whole of tercero (gr 11) is in the independence parade of schools, so that means me as well. It was nice, cuz we practiced yesterday during biology, when I was supposed to have a test!! And with the schedule here, we don´t have that class til next week. It´s crazy, i´m not used to having a class once or twice a week. Yesterday, I had one class in the afternoon, but it was just running laps of a track for 12 minutes, counting the number done. I did 13 of a 200 metre track, not terrible considereing i didn´t have a warmup, had just eaten lunch, and not tried to run fast for a while....Then I went home to hang out with my host brother before he left for santiago today. I probably won´t see him again. At night, I ate a kind of fish casserole thing that was pretty good. Then, I watched Law and Order:SVU before heading to bed around midnight. I did not hear my alarm clock this morning, and was very lucky that my host sister woke me up at quarter after 7. Yesterday, i left my house at quarter after 7!! Aka....i had slept in....I was out of the house at 7 23 and walked quickly. About 10 minutes from school, a guy from my class was waiting with his little sister to catch a collectivo, but they walked with me (after i called him perozoso...lazy) turns out i wasn´t actually late at all because I had walked so fast!!
So, here I am at school. Since there aren´t official classes, I didn´t have to wear my uniform, but noone told me that.....there are a few others wearing it tho (the more comfy, blue windstyle pants and grey t-shirt, not attractive, but super comfy). The dance team was practising earlier. They won the national championships, so should be representing Chile in the States at an international competition, but it costs too much money, so hopefully next year. Crazy tho eh!! I watched for a bit, and they´re really good!! Well....i think that´s all for now. I don´t have real classes tomoro, fiesta in the morning til 11, then eat empanadas and an assembly, and then home!! And monday and tuesday are cancelled!! Sweet kickin i say!! ciao xoxo

So...the weekend

2006-09-11T11:26:00.001-04:00

Friday night, I hung out at my house, and fell asleep rather early as there had been much activity in my life the days previous. Saturday morning, I awoke first in the household, so got myself breakfast (fruit and cereal..nothin special), then decided to walk to town to buy a Chilean flag for my jacket. The walk is about an hour, and it was a beautiful day. The dogs followed me the whole way, and didn´t leave until I went into a store. I thought they would leave to go home, but oh no.....about 2 minutes into my walk home, they were waiting on the street corner. So, I walked home and got back at about noon. I tried clam and sea urchin, but as some of you know, I am a huge texture person, and the texture of clam, well it´s just weird raw. I did eat some cooked clam in a salad. It´s not my favorite though.....but hey, I tried it. That´s the whole thing ,try everything. In the afternoon, i sewed my flag on, and then a friend from school (and a friend of my ´sis`who is in michigan, came over for a visit. Later on in the evening, I went to Julia´s school with Julia, Gabi, Inge (a girl from germany who is leaving to go home tomoro), and a girl who just got back from exchange in minnesota. We went for a Chilean cultural festival, where I tried more traditional recipes, all super good!!! We also watched a lot of the traditional dance. I headed home for more QT. It was pretty stellar. Headed to bed probly around 12 or 1... Sunday morning, I awoke, made myself breakfast and attempted to send an email with pictures. It didn´t work, so i´ll try again later. Then i went for another phenomenal run along the beach...like 5 feet away from the ocean!! Super cool. Showered at home, then lunch. More chillin at home, and dancing salsa in the kitchen and a bit in the back while the meat was on the barby. After dinner, I watched some tv, visited with the mass amounts of company, and went to bed, refreshed for today.
I woke up at 5 this morning because of mass amounts of rain, but fell back asleep quite quickly. (Yup...my brain lets me sleep now....yay). A bit of confusion about how i was getting to school today, but I got there! Oh...and it snowed this morning!!! for a bit, it was big fat flakes comin down fast, but it didn´t last long, and most melted as soon as it hit the ground. My walk to school in the afternoon was a bit chilly, wearing mitts, a hat, scarf, and vest over my uniform jacket. Definitely a change from sunday, when I ran in shorts!! And tonight I had my meeting with rotary to go over the rules and such....and then ate some delicious homemade fries with meet, and now am going to go to bed. Buenas Noches!! xoxo

Continuation of previous entry

2006-09-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

I was called back to class, so here goes. Friday was school, nothing special, I can´t really remember exactly what I did, how bad is that. I know that I was really tired because of the two late nights in a row. Oh..another thing, my host brother came home for a week. He is 26 and pretty cool. He calls me chicken because I won´t sing karaoke with a microphone. Mema pulled a chicken from the freezer, and he was like ´My sister, what happened to you.´ It was pretty funny, maybe one of those you had to be there moments. There has been a lot of visitors at my house over the past few days. One friend of my ´bro´who has been over often is a guy who was at the salsa place on wednesday night, so he and I have been salsaing around the kitchen. I do that with my host bro as well. It´s pretty fun, and I actually can do some moves and such now!!!! It´ll be hard to give lessons when i come home tho girls....cuz i know the girl part (obviously) and the guys lead me most of the time. The break is over....i gotta go to class, and will write more later....

In class...yet again

2006-09-11T08:37:00.000-04:00

So, every monday morning is´course orientacion´ which means we do absolutely nothing, so i decided to take the opportunity to fill you in on my goings on over the last few days. So...Thursday night, I had my first Rotary meeting. I got picked up at my house around oh, 9 pm (i told you everything here starts late) and brought to the Club Union, which is the second house built in the city...its huge and gorgeous!! I had been told to wear my school uniform, not Rotary jacket which i was a bit surprised about. But neway, my Rotary counselor just dropped me off because he had to do something else that night. Thankfully, Julia was there!! It was a very special dinner, and everything was very formal. We had appetizers (mini empanadas, which I love by the way!!!) and were offered some alcoholic beverage, but asked for water instead....not breaking the rules! I talked with Julia abit, and then we had a conversation with some of the men (this is a men´s only club, their wives have another organization). I managed pretty well, Julia helping me out a bit. She told me she was jealous of my language ability so soon into the exchange, because she knew nothing when she arrived. Some of the rotarians also complemented me on my spanish/pronunciation. For the meal, we had some awesome fish w/ salsa stuff on top and rice seasoned with...i dunno, but it was really good. Kinda reminded me of home food, cept I wouldn´t have eaten fish at home!! For dessert, we had something else that was kinda creamyish and super hard to describe, but on the top there was cookies shaped like butterflies!!! The meeting ended at about 11 40, which Julia said was actually early..... The president took me home at about 12, and we talked abit in the car. he is really nice! At home, I said hi to everyone and then wrote in my journal before going to sleep at 1 am. Intense!! I have to go back to class....more later!

Days at the End of the World

2006-09-07T12:15:00.000-04:00

I forget when I last wrote, and what I wrote actually....but here goes. Tuesday was just school, not overly exciting. I forgot that I did not have 3 classes in the morning, only 2, so went home with different people than normal from my class. It´s nice, cuz everyone wants to make sure I get home OK.....always asking how I´m getting there and such. I can go bymyself, i know a bunch of collectivo numbers that go to my house. Yesterday was pretty sweet though....In the morning i brought my lunch to school with me (for those of you who don´t know...i usually go home for lunch every day, so does everyone) and after the morning classes, a group of us ate quickly and then got on a coach bus and headed off to the Magallenes Forest Reserve (look up on the net for more info if you want, Jack, i forget how to do that cool think where the website is with the words, and well, its too complex to try and figure out in a different language...). It was absolutely gorgeous!! A bit muddy, because it is like spring here. There was a fair amount of snow...well, fair for the fact that the city has none, and my feet got soaked. My camera battery died as I tried to take my first picture, but I plan on going again, so will get pictures then. It was a decent hike. At the top, the views were fantabular all the way around!!! Oh..and there is this green mossy type stuff that grows on the trees. There aren´t leaves on the trees right now, but i can´t even describe the cool ways this moss grows on the trees and how beautiful it is. I said ´Que lindo´and ´que bonita´like amillion times!! We got back to the school after everyone else had left, (therefore the ppl i usually go home with were gone) but it was ok cuz 3 guys live near me, so we took a collectivo together. The two who live in my neighborhood actually walked me to my gate! so cute!! Then i ate a bit of food (meat and bread...) and waited for Johanna to get home from classes. When she did, she, Maxiel and I took a collectivo into town (this is at like 10 pm...) to a club where they play salsa music and some ´pros´are there. Lucky for me, they knew the guy pros, so I danced with them a bit and they taught me some moves!! That´s right...i am learning how to salsa!!!! Then they decided to go to a different club...so off we went. At 2, i asked when we were going home, and we arrived back at my house at 2 45...i changed into pajamas and went straight to bed, extremely exhausted!! This morning..at 7 15 i got up and got ready for school. lucky for me, classes this morning weren´t exactly taxing, and I got to rest my eyes for abit, but the classes are super loud, so I can´t actually sleep. Right now, the class is taking a test, so I took the opportunity to do this. A lot of the stuff in the classes I have already studied, but don´t understand at all in spanish! Well..class ends soonish, so I should probly head out. I just learned from my host sister (via msn..she is at home) that my host brother is coming home today..i was unaware! Ciao...missing home lots!! xox

Second Weekend

2006-09-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

My last entry found me in class, and now again...I am in class, kind of. I´m supposed to have music, but the prof isn´t here. So the rest of my music class is joined up with art and they are practicing for their english puppet shows later in the day, which I get to just watch. So...my life since friday. Well, friday night I went with Johanna and Maxiel for about a half hour walk, and then Gonzalo picked me up to go to a volleyball tournament. Two of his friends were there also. He told me that I came to Chile at a great time, because the day after I arrived, a law was passed that prohibits smoking in public places (apparently discos aren´t public?). Otherwise, people would have been smoking in the gym while a volleyball game was taking place. Craziness!! I was back home at 11, and decided not to go to the disco with Johanna and Claudia (another friend...) because I was tired and getting up semi early in the morning. I watched some TV with Mema and then headed to bed. At 9 the next morning, I got up and quickly got dressed and then went to work with Braulio (my host dad). He works at the military base, so I got to see that. I see army people in the streets all the time, like on their way to and from work. At home, we ate lunch. While the rest of the family had a siesta, I decided to go for a walk. I was home an hour and a half later. It was very nice!! That night, we went to the celebration of my 'uncles' birthday. Johanna, my cousin (Oscar) and I took a bit of a detour on the way back from dropping of Oscar´s grandma at home. We stopped at a different disco for a bit, El Templo. I saw several people I knew there, more my age than Kamikaze. Then we headed back to the festivities, to get home at 5 30 in the morning. I´ve always disliked sleeping away the day, but I didn´t wake up on sunday til 4:30 in the afternoon. I was displeased with myself. After..a meal, i don´t know what to call it, I tried to use the internet, but it disconnected frequently, and then went for an awesome run! The family dogs followed me...which I wasn´t overly pleased about, but no biggy. Then I wrote a letter home (to be sent soon mom and dad) and then tidied my room, read a bit, and headed to bed. School this morning, and I´´m thinking about my friends who are either heading back to high school, starting university classes/frosh week. Have fun guys!! My castellano teacher had my analyze a short poem this morning, and I got the meaning, but had a lot of grammar mistakes in my answer! Still lots to learn. Well...I´m gonna do some other emailing, then head back to class i guess...ciao!!Much love...jode

A week of School

2006-09-01T17:33:00.000-04:00

I have a feeling that these blog entries may get fewer and farther between as I have started to settle into a new routine. I spent Monday afternoon in bed and watched a bit of english tv with spanish subtitles. (I have discovered prison break...good show)Tuesday , I went to school In phys Ed, we are working on the traditional chilean dance. It was super cool...tho i was too tired and sick to enjoy it fully. Wednesday, I took a note dictated by a teacher and got almost all the words right!! (Weird thing to be excited about....but seriously, its hard..) Then we had english class, the teacher has asked me to talk with my classmates in english during this hour and a half....and for me it is fun. Plus, it gives them an idea of how I feel...because they don´t know how to say what they want, or what I am saying to them. In the afternoon..there was some confusion. I was supposed to go to the stadium after lunch...but understood that a bus took us from the school to the stadium....nopers. The sub-director(ie vice principal) drove me over, and I ran with some guys in my class on the super nice rubberized track for 10 laps. It was a gorgeous day, and felt good to run fastish (for being sick..it was fast). We then walked back to the school. In Punta Arenas, you don´t need hills for natural intervals on a run..the wind is just as good!! After school, the sub-director called me into her office to try some king crab, and I don´t normally like seafood, but it wasn´t that bad. As for all the talk of it being really cold....its not compared to our Canadian winters....i don´t think it has been below zero since I´ve been here...but a lot of wind. Wednesday night, I met my host father. He had been in Santiago. He is very nice, and funny. This means, however, that Johanna no longer drives me to school. There is a friend of Karen´s who lives near me and I got a ride with her both yesterday and today in the morning. Other times, I have gone in collectivos (a bus like car that is complicated to explain, but makes a lot of sense...) or else ridden with the friend´s neigbor (who also goes to the school). My parents called last night, (I told them too) because it was my dad´s birthday. It was sooo good to hear their voices and they made me feel better about little things. Today...my friends asked me if I had talked with them (noone could believe I went that long without talking with my parents) and were very excited when I had. Right now, I am researching areas of the brain, because my class is dissecting brains/heads, and I told ppl the story of passing out, and seeing as how I already am not feeling 100 % the teacher let me come in here to learn about it. She is really nice. A few of my classes here lately have been kind of free periods for me...as the class is writing tests. This morning, my math teacher was sick, and we didn´t have a sub, we just hung out in the class for an hour and half. Yeah...classes are an hour and a half and then a 15 minute break. Its not soo bad tho, cuz there is usually a lot of time given to do homework. They spend a lot of time in school, but it doesn´t seem like they have all that much to do outside of school. So..yeah, I´m working in the computer room, and there are a bunch of ppl from a different grade (i think primero...grade nine), and they asked to take a picture with me, and talk to me a fair bit....its kinda funny. Ón Sunday afternoons, a lot of people go for walks, and I think I am going to go along with that custom. The views are so gorgeous!! Newho..i should probably get back to my research of the brain...or rather translating what I have researched!

2006-08-28T12:26:00.000-04:00

First Weekend

2006-08-28T12:05:00.000-04:00

I have already been here for a week!! Its hard to believe. Friday night, I went with Gonzalo (a past exchangee who speaks English and who I talked to before I came), Julia (an exchange student from Australia), and some of their friends to the theatre. I understood some of what was going on, between the words that I knew and the actions of the actors. Then I hung out with them until 1:30 and went home. After the play, an exchange student from another program (Philip from Germany), his sister, and a friend joined us. The next day, I slept in. When I woke up, I went for a one hour walk to explore my neighbourhood/the shopping district about 10 minutes away. It was fun, and good to get exercise. In the afternoon, a friend from school (Gisela) picked me up and I went to her house for a few hours. Two other girls and 2 guys from school were also there. Later, the girls and I went downtown with Gisela´s bro and a friend. We walked around, through stores them teaching me vocab. We also went to the arcade and played ´taca taca´ ie foosball. After this...I went with Johanna to the disco...ie club. We did some crazy dancing, and I salsaed with some of the guys we went with!!!!! (I am bad tho...definitely need some more intensive learning if i´m going to do it when I get home...) I got home at 5 am....insanity. Johanna usually is out til about 6 30 or 7...... I can´t imagine!!
I slept til 1 the next day, and woke up with the cold that I have felt coming on for several days. After brunch...I went with Johanna and Maxiel (my unofficial other host ´sister´) to Maxiel´s house. While there, I saw a huge Catholic parade that happens once a year. There were tons of man powered floats of Christ, Mary, crosses, and many many huge flags. I was blown away by the number of people.
We drove to a place that overlooks the city, and took some pics there (I hope to load them onto the comp sometime soon so that you can see). then Johanna dropped Maxiel and I off at the plaza (city centre) where we took some more pictures. I saw the first house of the city (now a museum, and yes Dad...i plan on going) The first bank, the 2nd house (now hotel), the municipal buildings (much more elegant than wiarton) as we walked home. The walk was very scenic....about 2 1/2 hours. Many people go for walks on sunday afternoons, it was nice. We walked through the cemetery, which seems weird, but it is beautiful. Maxiel told me that it is the second most beautiful in all of South America. The first woman of Punta Arenas is buried there, in a huge, ornate building with gardens all around it. There are fences to keep people out of it. It is hard to describe...but beautiful. Then we walked along the Strait of Magellan, and again more photos. Back at home, we warmed up (there is crazy amounts of wind here) and then watched cool runnings. I tried to blog last night, but just as I finished, the internet crashed. This morning, Mema (my host mom) did not hear her alarm, so I slept through school, waking up at about 10. It was good though, I needed the sleep and school this morning would not have been nice with my sore throat and runny nose.
Well...that basically sums up my first weekend of adventure....
xoxo

Friends..

2006-08-25T08:34:00.000-04:00

Well...I have made friends here in this other culture. Some of them speak english, but don´t because they know I want to learn. They are very fun, and simpatico (nice) which to me also means sympathetic because they speak slowly for me, repeat often, and laugh much. I am typing from my school. The administration is letting me use the internet free (usually it costs the students money...tho very little, because the high speed is expensive). Also..this is during class time, but I was told that I dont have to worry much about school for 2 weeks to a month. Yesterday, we only had classes in the morning, and I was with 3B. They were a very fun class, lots of cool people. In the afternoon, I tried to sleep for a bit, but couldn´t. I can feel the effects of my lack of sleep, and hope that this weekend I will be able to catch up. Then i went for a run, and was gone for about an hour (didn´t run the whole time...i am out of shape, but will hopefully be fit as a fiddle when I return). I wrote a letter home, and then some girls from my class came to get me because 3A had a bienvendida fiesta (welcome party) for me last night. The girls house was not far from mine, so we walked there. We started dancing after awhile, and did so for about 2 hours or so. Between the mass amounts of dance and my run....my legs were kinda sore. One of the guys in my class has a car, so he and some others drove me home. Very nice of them!! One of Johanna´s friends was there, so I showed them pics of the fiesta and from home. Then tried to sleep. And now, this morning, I am at school. I just chose my courses until december. My elective is biology and chemistry, because I don´t want to forget that for when I have ¨"killer chem" at guelph. Ugh..haha. My art class is music, where yesterday we sang a lot of english songs. A few of the students know the words, and very few know the meanings of the songs they are singing. They do a good job tho...excellent singers!! Wednesday afternoons, my phys ed class is the one I had on wednesday, when I went to the mountains. We go on excursions. I am quite excited for that class!! I have phys ed this morning...but I did not know that, so I don´t have my clothes. I´ll try to learn more spanish during that time I guess. Well..I´d best be off...chao!
xox
jode
Ps...thanx for the comments everybody..

School and Such

2006-08-23T18:09:00.000-04:00

Hola!!
After I last blogged, my sister and I went to buy school shoes (40 bucks for black leatherish shoes....super cheap!) and then went to a store where her friend works. Most of the stores here are very small in the malls. Like..no room for more than like 3 ppl to shop, and one changeroom. Its super cool, and a lot of the clothes are very unique!! Me gusta! Newho, so we were at the store, and her friend asked me to model for his store and another on saturday. He was very excited to learn that I had modeled before, but I am not going to do it, because it is at the casino, and my host family figures (with good reason) that its not the best idea for me to be up there in front of a group of mostly older men.
My first day of school (yesterday) was good. I´d put up a pic of my uniform, but I am again at the university...
As I said earlier, I am in grade 11...I´ll start with yesterday.
I met some girls from my class in the morning (principals picks, and I´d say he made a good choice, cuz they are awesome ppl!!) and then went to castellano (like our english). I feel bad for the teachers of my classes, because most of the students don´t concentrate on their work, they concentrate on me....kind of cool actually!! haha. Any time I say nething, everyone is quiet so that they can hear what I say in very broken spanish. After castellano, we had historia, again, only one of the people i sat with got any history done, even though I did not say all that much. After that was ....I don´t remember, that tells you how much work I get done in class!!! Then was lunch. I got picked up by my host sister, and then went home for about 2 hours. Back to school, wearing a different uniform, because we had phys. ed. We had to run for 10 minutes around the gym, and I ran.....it was good. Then we did 100 abs (i didn´t stop.....which I was impressed with because I haven´t worked out in awhile..) Next was some soccer exercises, and then soccer with teams of 5. I was one of the starting four to pick teams, so I basically chose randomly cuz I didn´t know the skill level or well, really the girl I know the best in the class was also a team captain person. It was fun....After that was philosophia, where we worked on phobias (fobia en español, and pronounced like fovia). I sat with a girl who speaks english, but she knows I want to learn spanish, so uses it only as a last resort. There was a lot of sign language as we tried to communicate. haha, good times!!
After school, I went downtown with a friend, Gabi, of my sister in Michigan (Karen). We looked in different stores, and then went back to her house where I met another one of their friends. Back home, I went pretty much straight to bed, because I could not sleep the night before. Spanish words and their meanings keep on running through my head. I don´t get why they do that when I sleep, but during the day when I want the meaning...it is not there!
Again, last night I could not sleep. It felt like I had not slept at all when my host mom knocked on my door to get up for school. This morning, I had biology and chemistry. I knew what was going on in bio kind of....we did some stuff with chromosomes, but i had no clue in chemistry. Since it was a different class, there was all new people to talk to :) They asked a lot of the same questions, so I didn´t feel as stupid because I already knew some of the answers. Then, i switched from class 3A to 3C for another class. There is 3A, 3B, and 3C and I have to choose which one I want to be in until december. All the classes tell me that theirs is the best, and I wish i could keep on switching so that I would get to meet everyone!!! Home for lunch, and then back to school, but this afternoon I got to go to the mountains!!! There was hardly any snow, mostly ice, but it was very fun...and mucho frio (very cold). I got picked up from school, and now here I am, updating you on my life. I realize that I write alot..never again can I tease my mom for her long emails, because I inherited the same genes. This is a type of journal for me (don´t worry tho nel...yours is in use!!) I do not have classes tomoro afternoon, so hopefully I can go downtown..and shop!!
missing you lots and lots
xoxo
jode

2006-08-21T15:07:00.001-04:00

Day 3 So Far

2006-08-21T15:07:00.000-04:00

Well..
today I visited my school. It is 400 students, 3 classes of each grade, but 42 students in a class. I met with the principal and an administrator who acted as a translator. They asked me some questions about my marks, what sports I play, and other things like that. I answered in spanish whenever I could, and tried not to make the administrator translate everything. I amazed myself with what I understood, but I can´t wait until I can understand everything being said. There are certain words that I pick up, so I can get the gist of sentences. Back to the school....I have to be put in grade 11 because if I was in grade 12 then I would only be able to go to school until december. But, no big deal, because I likely will have learned most of what is going on. I´am pretty sure that grade 11´´s don´t do much calculus, and even if they do..i will know the concepts!! They were impressed to learn that I was the president of West Hill...and I saw a picture of the council at the school. There is a computer room that can be used during breaks )which are 15 min every 2 hours...there is a ping pong table, foosball, and a stereo (the music is loud during the breaks..pretty sweet!!) There is a little cafe, (i have met and given the ladies who run it a kiss on the cheek..i have actually given almost every teacher in the school a kiss on the cheek!! haha) very different from home..can u imagine?? I have the school uniform.....grey socks, blue skirt, grey sweater, blue blazer, white button up shirt, there is a wind jacket, wind pants, grey t-shirt, and blue gym shorts. My host mother said that my sister Karen (in the States) didn´t like the uniform. As we were driving around town today, I saw lots of kids walking in their uniforms....i have seen like 4 different ones.
School starts at 8 am....i have not been ready at that hour for a long time, but i´ll get used to it! Then we go home for lunch, and back to school at 2:50 til 6:30. Attendance at school is very important, because the government gives money based on the attendance of the student.
I carry my dictionary (diccionario) with me everywhere, and tell people that it is my mejor amigo (best friend..) that usually gets some laughs. That´s all I got for now..
miss ya!
jode

Day 2

2006-08-20T22:28:00.000-04:00

So...my second day in this beautiful country is almost at a close. My host family is amazing, very nice, welcoming, and understanding. I laugh alot when I have no idea what is being said. It is an adventure. I have met quite a few people, and there are some questions and answers that I am getting very good at (my age, the number of people in my family etc etc). I am also asked if I play sports, and when I say rugby, people don´t really believe it. They only have it for boys here, and today i met someone who plays wing.
I spent a few hours today with a friend of my host sister who is in Michigan (did that make sense?) We laughed at the fact that my dictionary is my best friend...it is already showing it´s use.
I slept until noon today, apparently I was more tired than I thought. I went with Gabby (the friend) and met her prima (cousin) and some of her extended family. One of her aunts speaks English, so she communicated some of the more difficult sentences, and I was asked if i wanted to go see the horses at the military base. I said yes, and saw the place where my host father works. After I came home, we went to another house, where I met another family with 3 older boys, they were super fun...and spent some time looking up words in my dictionary, mostly to insult each other.
Its funny, I decided before I came that I would try to get a tan. Then i realized that was silly, because people here would be darker. That is true in some cases, but not all. Nicole (cousin of Gabby) saw my skin and was so jealous because I was dark :) Haha...oh the irony.
I go to my school tomoro, for a tour and to get a uniform. Tomoro is the first impression...estoy nervosia. ( I am nervous..)
Newho...I think that is all I got for now
ciao
jody

Departure, Travels, and first day

2006-08-19T20:18:00.000-04:00

I guess the first thing to say is that I am safely here! My pink suitcase now has a lot of brownness on the front...but mostly everything was intact.
Thursday was a late night, I went to bed around 1 after going swimming for 1 last time (i dragged lisa along). My alarm went off at 3, and 6 minutes later, i was out of bed.
We left the house around 4 after i gave my dad a final hug. One of my bags was too heavy when we got to the airport, so we rearranged contents to make them more equal. I had to go through customs to enter the states, and got to stamp my own passport. I walked around abit before boarding the plane.
I had a window seat, with a view if I looked backward (my seat was on the back of the wing). For most of the trip, it was cloudy, but I did get to see the grand canyon and the beautiful sights around it.
The inflight entertainment had some glitches, so for about 3 1\2 hours i could only listen to country. I endured it, not wanting to waste my ipod battery.
When I checked in with LAN in Los Angeles, the agent told me I had beautiful eyes, and asked if I was married (its hard to explain the circumstances)...he and his friend didn´t believe I was 17. haha..made my day. The man I sat by on the plane was interesting, a Spanish literature prof at UCLA, he has written 6 books. He spoke english with a heavy accent. We went through customs in Santiago (which we didn´t know we had to do there....I was shocked when I saw my bags on the carousel...) and then I barely made it to my next flight. I had a row of seats to myself, and read\slept.
I arrived, and was greeted by my counselor, an exchange student from Australia who has been here 7 months, my host mother, sister, and a friend of the family. All gave me a kiss on the cheek and i returned it. We went to the grocery store...yogurt is sold in bags and they have a lot of the same brands as here. And tons of vegetables :) Lunch was good, but at that point it hit me that i was going to be gone for a year...and I got homesick. After I just lay on my bed for a bit with my ipod....(and cried a bit..) I was fine and we went to meet the extended family. Again..the kisses. And now...my bags are unpacked, and I should get off the internet.
Missing everyone lots!!!
xox

sample post

2006-08-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

This is a sample post. Let's look at the weather.