It's Chile in Here

ASK ME QUESTIONS. <3

I’ve become addicted to running

Hola! Im writing on my 3 months here in Chile! 3 months! That sounds like such a short time in comparison to the time it feels like. Recently, I have made some real discoveries about the person I want to be and things in my way of being I need to change to become this person. It’s a process, but I’m really making more of an effort.

I have this new obsession: RUNNING! I have always loved running and all. But here in Chile I have gotten into corridas (races). My other exchange friends, Allie and Marin, plus myself have started our own little Gringa Running Club  (: We get together and spend the night before the race at one of our houses and then, obvio, go to the corrida together! It’s super fun and great to have us all there for support!

And then at the corrida it’s just super inspirational and full of spirit. There is usually a stage with someone playing awesome music and leading a group in warm ups and there are a whole bunch of stations with free stuff from supporters plus unlimited gatorade/powerade/water. Then after the race there are massages, noodles, fruit, and whatever else to make you feel great. I LOVE IT. And every time after the race I just feel AMAZING! It’s great. 

I love collecting the shirts from the races and the numbers! I’m putting the numbers on the back of my Rotary jacket for a nice little souvenir :P

I have run a 9K (5.5 miles) and a 7K (4.35 mi) and I have so many more already planned. These help so much with just making my life here healthier all around. During my first 2 months I gained 6 lbs pretty easily. I mean, the diet here was so hard to get used to. 2 out of my 3 meals consisted of bread being the main thing being eaten. And then throw in manjar, and those 6lbs came SUPER easily. But, I weighed myself the other day and I’m now back to the weight I came here with. (THANK GOD!) And now with all this running I do constantly I’m positive more will come off for the summerrrr (: (Oh yeah, that’s right, summer is December-March. Someone please be jealous!)

But besides running I have had Semana de Colegio, Encuentro con Cristo, and Oktoberfest with the exchange students. 

Semana de Colegio was awesome! It’s like Spirit Games in the US but like HARD CORE. Our school could never pull it off to the extent that I experienced here. We had 3 days of games and tests. And I mean 3 days full! 8-4 every day. This consisted of a DJ and an awesome MC. Some of my favorite tests/games that we had were: where we had this car and had to see how many people we could fit in (my class had 19), this game that is like musical chairs but with people; the boys are the “chairs” (but they stand) and the girls walk around and when the music stops the girls jump onto the boys. The exciting part comes when there aren’t enough “chairs” for the girls and two girls have to jump on the same guy and hang there. The loser/person that is eliminated is the girl that falls first. It’s sooooo hardcore. There was actually a person that passed out from this! 

My curso’s theme was Super Mario Brothers. And we decorated the room to look like the game. It was so freaking amazing (we won the contests for the room decorations) and our “king and queen” dressed up as characters from the game. In the end, my class ended up winning Semana de Colegio!! Beating 4 medio (AKA SENIORS) helllll yesss!

I understand 95% of my classes now (The 5% that I don’t understand being Physics) And I have to act out Boda de Sangre infront of the class like next week. Meaning I have to have a 10 minute parte memorized… ohhh gosh. This should be amusing for all, I hope. 

In 20 more days I will be leaving on my trip to Patagonia! I can’t wait! I have seen pictures and it just looks SO UNREAL! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

<3 paz y amor <3 besitos! chau!

Chau Octubre!

AHH! November 1st! And might I add a 90 degree November 1st. It’s amazing! As I look at my planner and my facebook photo album from October I can’t even believe all that I have done in October.

I have gone on a Rotary trip to tour some of the most beautiful cities, I have learned to take public transportation (sometimes not knowing exactly where I’m going), found the start of my independence in Chile,I’m starting to understand classes more, I have been to Santiago alone with another exchange student as we tried our best to navigate our way around the city for the day, I’ve been to parties, shipped stuff to my family that costs more than my monthly allowance, realized my deep burning passion for FERIAS, have found joy in cleaning and organizing, been to a battle of the bands, celebrated halloween (with costume), and realized that I still have a lot more to accomplish/learn about myself during this year. 

One of the biggest things I realized I have to start doing is stop being afraid of embarrassing myself. There have been a few times in this past month that I haven’t done something because I thought well, what if somebody laughs? And really, I have come to realize, that people probably laugh at me every day. Probably every time I open my mouth somebody laughs. Really, I’m starting to get more comfortable with the idea of embarrassment. 

I have worked a lot this month on my comprehension of written Spanish. And I can now read my pages of El guardián entre el centeno (Catcher in the Rye) and use my dictionary very little. This month I need to work a lot more on understanding spoken Spanish. Don’t get me wrong, I understand A LOT of what people say to me. But I still have a bit to go. Out of speaking, writing, reading, and understanding Spanish, I would have to say that my understanding is the weakest. I guess I’m just going to have to plant myself in front of the TV for hours every day listening to Spanish telenoveles. 

I’m excited for this month. A few of the big events that are already planned are.. Semana de Colegio (like spirit games), OKTOBERFEST with my club, Shopping trip with my BFFS, Encuentro con Cristo, Humanista Competition in Santiago, Santiago with Exchange Students, and, OF COURSE, Thanksgiving Dinner with my club. 

But enough about that, lets talk about the reason why I have been shoving candy down my throat last night and today. HALLOWEEN. I had previous plans to attend a party last night, but, due to some complications with permisos I ended up going over to Héloïse’s house. Héloïse is one of the exchange students in my club from France and can’t speak any English. So I enjoy getting together with here because we have to speak Spanish the whole time. Now since I had last minute change of plans I ended up dressing up as a Gringa (American Girl). I had my Kiss Me I’m An American shirt on, some homemade red white and blue earings :P, my trick or treat bag decked out in the American flag, and a jacket that had a ton of US flag pins on it.  

Well anyways, I got to her house around 7 PM last night. And her house is HUGE. I’m talking 3 stories, awesome backyard, sweet pool, and everything! Her host family is really nice too! We got ready as soon as we got there. Héloïse dressed up as a crazy Japanese girl that was “peinando la muñeca” That is a saying here that literally means “brushing the hair of a baby doll” but means that someone is crazy. So to make this saying ironic she carried around a baby doll and a hair brush. And her sister was a Gothic.

We went trick or treating with her 5 host cousins that range from 0-9. And none of them were in costumes. In fact, nobody dresses up for Halloween.. well except for the 3 of us :P But that’s okay, we enjoyed ourselves. We went around her condominium screaming “DULCE O TRUCO! (trick or treat)” which soon turned into “DULCE O PLATA! (candy or money)” It was soo much fun. I’m so glad I ended up spending time with her. I also go to know her a lot better. 

I’m dying of heat in here. So I’m going to go sit in a nice air conditioned room and watch EAT.PRAY.LOVE! POR FIN (:

chau chau! 

I’ve found ways to keep busy :)

  HOLA! I’m up for school an hour earlier than I should be so it’s resulting in a tumblr post. 

  I think one of the best/most useful things that I brought with me on exchange was my planner. It’s an awesome planner, it has this zebra planner and it goes from August 2010-July 2011.. the ironic part of this is that it is the exact months of my exchange! But anyways, this planner is ALWAYS with me. And I schedule everything in it! I think by the end of the year it is going to become more of a memory/sum of my whole exchange year. My friends also love my planner. Many times they’ll ask to see it and they will read through all of it, add silly notes, add plans for certain days, or what have you. I have come to a point in my exchange that I’m not satisfied with a week in my planner that is empty. So I will whip it out in class one day and just be like.. “Guys, can you help me fill up my week?” It’s awesome. I started out this week with nothing scheduled at all, and by Monday, I had plans for every day. I’ll give you a run down on my week.

Sunday: I cleaned my whole room perfectly, reorganized everything, finally found a place to put my ENORMOUS American Flag, and added some other things to my room. My boredom at my house has lead to my room being really clean and organized every day. It was my host dad’s birthday! So we went out to this restaurant. I always laugh at the fact that no matter were you are bread, bread, and bread is always a given fact to come with your food. After that we went to a town that is fulled with ferias (crafty stuff that people make and sell). It was awesome. I LOVE FERIAS <33

Monday: This was my sleep day. I  usually have one day a week where I go to sleep extremely early. I’m usually pretty tired, it comes with being an exchange student :P I think I went to sleep at 7. (School was out at 5 this day). 

Tuesday: During school I had gym class. And that day we played soccer. And I was really dreading playing soccer with these Chileans because they are all sooooo good. First we split up in to teams with a mixture of boys and girls and that just resulted in the boys basically playing against themselves. And then we split up on teams so it was girls against girls, boys against boys. And that was sooo much better! I SCORED A GOAL!! WOOHOO. That was one of my major accomplishments for the day.

After school I went into Talagante to ship some things home. I sent out 2 postcards and then went to Chile Express to ship home a package to my family. I was there for like 2 hours and to send the package ended up costing me a lot! Well, given, it was a medium sized box and I filled it with some pretty weighty things.. But hey, I guess this will be their Christmas present :P

Wednesday: I really wish one of my teachers would have told me on Tuesday that it would be completely pointless for me to come to school on Wednesday. But, nope, not one person. Wednesday we had the SIMCE English. Which is this huge English test that everyone in Tercer Medio (11th grade) has to take. And depending how they score on this test they can get a “certification” to speak English :P I have been taking the practice tests with everyone and all so I went in on Wednesday ASSUMING I was taking the test since no one told me any different. But, when it came time to enter the classroom the principal told me that my name wasn’t on the list and that I could stay outside the classroom and go to the computer room if I wanted to. I ended up staying out and getting ahead on my reading “El guardián entre el centeno” (Catcher in the Rye).

After everyone finished the test we could leave. The girls in my class planed a get together after school. So we all went out to a local food place and ate completos (hotdogs filled with guacamole sauce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and what have you). Later we went to Pia’s house and watched American Pie 5. It was definitely interesting watching this movie with a room half filled with extremely catholic girls…

Thursday: Yesterday was my get together day with Connor. We get together at least once a week after school and talk about life and what have you. We went to Doggi’s yesterday to eat. And the funniest part was when the guy asked for Connor’s name. Given, Connor is not in the least bit a normal Chilean name. So the poor guy was trying his best to spell Connor’s name on his check so they could call him when his food was ready. And the guy started off spelling it CONA.. haha. Then he asked us like 5 more times how to spell it. And even better was when the girl looked at Connor’s check and went to call his name and just had this really confused look on her face. Connor knew right away it was his food and just went up to get it and take the girl out of her misery. 

We then went to the plaza and met up with Ricardo, Pepe, Macarena, and Tamara. And we had a good time talking with them. Connor and I are more like entertainment, especially when we are together. The wind was really ridiculously crazy last night. And it rained A LOT. 

And today, Friday, I will go with my friends after school to a Volleyball game in Isla de Maipo and then go to Maca’s house to get ready, and then go to the Tocata (Battle of the Bands) that is at my school tonight (:

Saturday I’m supposed to go to Tamara’s house with my class so we can get ready for Semana de Colegio and get our dance put together for it.

Sunday I’m not completely sure. I’m torn between the party for this one girl, or going to the club with Connor, Katie, and Connor’s host brother.. One way or another, I’m going out Sunday night.

and Monday we have feriado= NO SCHOOL !

I also got my information yesterday for the Patagonia Trip with Rotary! It will be 5-10 of December! Which is awesome. Because I get out of school on the 14th. So by the time I get back from this trip I will only have like 4 more days of school!

WELLLLL… my alarm is going off on my phone for me to wake up. So I’m going to go get a shower and hope that the water isn’t freezing cold today! 

Ten un lindo día! (:

CHAU MEOW BROWN COW !

I finally found friends here that are like my friends in the US. These group of girls are hysterical! They are in the other curso (3A, I’m in 3B), but I spend all my breaks with them. In our group of friends there are Cotte, Maca, Fran, and Vale. One day we just sat out in the hallway singing Christmas Carols. I would sing them in English and they would sing the same ones in Spanish. Oh yeah, we also threw in some Taylor Swift songs. They are the first people I have met here that know of Taylor Swift. It was soooo funny. These girls do the most ridiculous things. I love it. 

But they aren’t just super entertaining, they are really nice and caring. Yesterday I took the bus after school to meet my friend, Connor, and Fran went with me and waited with me. They plan things with me and have invited me to the beach with them for a week for my birthday during summer break! I love them. 

They also love the United States. All the girls have a badge of the US on their bookbags, haha. It definitely makes me feel more comfortable than the guy that I sit in front of in Humanista that HATES the US and has an UPSIDE DOWN badge of the US flag on his bag.. uh… thanks?

Cotte yesterday called me and started to speak all in broken English.. it was hysterical. But was even funnier was the fact that she called me just to tell me that the month “July” is just like the word “you lie”. JAJAJA. 

But, what I’m trying to say, is that I finally found friends that are like friends. And that I’m so happy and that now my days in school are 283947298 times better. 

CHAU CHAU!