Christmas Shenanigans

This is the blog post where I get to describe my Chilean Christmas to you guys! Now, almost everyone in Rotary says that Christmas season is the hardest for exchange students because it's when they miss home the most. For me, the hot sun, pool days, and sundress-wearing kept me from feeling any of that homesickness during the days leading up to Christmas. However the day of Christmas Eve, I received a bunch if snapchats from my mom and sister that actually made things a little hard for me. I saw the Christmas tree filled with lights in our darkened living room with all the presents and my family was all snuggled up in matching pajamas telling me they wished I could be there. Seeing these photos made me stop and realize that even though it doesn't feel like Chirstmas here, in my home in he US, all the same traditions are being held except I don't get to be a part of them. As I sat in my room thinking about this, I felt a little empty and sad. It was the first time it had really missed my family and I wanted to call my mom and talk about it. Knowing that was a bad idea, I pulled out my notebook and wrote a poem to sum up the thoughts I couldn't quite organize in my head: 

I posted this poem on Facebook and all my exchange student friends loved it. They asked me if they could show it to their families because it summed up exactly how they felt as well. I felt happy then, knowing I had people who felt the same way and decided I would move on and have as best of a Christmas that I could. 

On Christmas Eve we went to my grandmas house to eat dinner with a couple aunts and my parents and I. In Chile, people eat a big dinner together and then when the clock strikes midnight, the families all give eachother special Christmas hugs and then open the presents. I was in my grandmas room watching "the Grinch" in Spanish when they called me out for dinner. Since it was a late dinner, it was dark outside and a little chilly because I was wearing light clothing. When I walked out of the room, it smelled like Christmas. It smelled like all the food we would eat in the US on Christmas and I got so happy smelling that! I sat down and looked around the table and got this feeling of just pure joy. I realized that even though I was with a different family, I was with family. I looked around and just  thought about how much I loved all the people at the table. When they asked me about how I felt being so far from home on Christmas, I explained to them that while earlier I had felt a bit sad, it had finally occurred to me that being so far from one of my homes only meant I got to be super close to the other, and that I love that. After dinner we went in to the living room and waited for the clock to strike twelve. When it did, I hugged my family and told them I loved them and we unwrapped gifts and had a great night!

The next day I got up and got on a bus to Talca to meet Franco's host family from the US. I had such a good couple of days there! I had to help translate a lot for the American family and Franco's parents thanked me a lot for that. We spent the days swimming and playing little soccer matches and eating delicious food!

The day I came back from Talca, I was invited over to Katie's house for a little exchange student pool party. Before the party, I had some time to kill and decided to write a poem in Spanish hahahaha

At Katie's house we all swam and played soccer and ate cafe helados and completos. It was really fun and I ended up staying the night! The next day we swam all day again and then Katie and Christine came over to my house to spend the night. I was with these girls a lot this week!

On Sunday night, we got on a train to Buin to go to our friend Nikita's goodbye party. Because Nikita is from Australia, her exchange begins and ends in January. We are all super sad that she is leaving because she has always been such a great oldie to is. A lot of us call her "mum" because she is always watching out for us. At her house, all the exchange students and some of her Chilean friends swam, ate food, and stayed up all night long hanging out. I spent all my time with Evan of course because he is my favorite and always makes me laugh! This morning we got on a train to come back to a Rancagua and then I slept all day because this week left me exhausted. It's sort of nice to be home again and relaxing. I had such a crazy week! 

The Actual Graduation

I just had one of those weekends that makes the week before it hard to remember. I am going to try to sum everything that happened up, but I have been having such a good time this summer that it is hard to choose what I should write about because writing about everything would take way too long! I spent a lot of this week worrying about what I was going to do about not having anything to wear to the graduation. My Chilean friends told me that it is a very elegant occasion and that all the girls spent a ton of money on their dresses; like prom. I, however, being Sally, decided that I didn't want to spend my money on a dress that I was going to wear for just one night, and found a $20 dollar pretty black dress in a store that everyone here thinks is super lame hahaha. I was happy to have this dress, but I really needed shoes. I wanted to find pretty gold heels and I big gold necklace because the dress was so plain. I frantically looked all over Rancagua for these shoes but I couldn't find them anywhere! The next morning I woke up and realized that graduation was in two days and I began to panic. At 9am I called Katie Ward, another exchanger in Rancagua, and woke her up to ask her to get on a bus with me in an hour to go to Santiago and look for shoes. She said yes. She wanted to help me! I had barely known Katie before the South Trip and even on the trip we didn't talk much, but she was willing to cancel her plans, rush out of bed, and spend money on public transportation just to help me out. It amazes me how many unforgettable people I have met in these past four months and Katie Ward is definitely one of them. I'm so lucky to have her as a friend! We went up to Santiago where some other exchangers met us in the mall. We looked around for shoes but everything was so expensive so we ended up just eating frozen yogurt and drinking Starbucks and talking hahaha.

 Katie and I stayed the night at another exchangers house and then hung out with her at her pool the next day in the early afternoon. Later, we took a bus back to Rancagua where my parents were waiting for us at the terminal. We dropped Katie off near her house and then my parents asked about the shoes. I had forgotten to worry because I had been having so much fun! It was 8pm at night and the next day was the graduation! My parents told me that they knew of a shop and drove me there because apparently they enjoy saving my life. We walked in to this tiny little store and I actually found some adorable little golden heels! I was stoked! It got even better when my parents told me they were buying them as one of my Christmas gifts! I am such a lucky girl. 

The day of the graduation I woke up without any jewelry to go with my shoes and dress. I worked out, took a shower, and took a cab over to the mall to try and find something. Right when I walked into the mall, I ran into my friend Cami and her cousin. I told them what I was looking for and they got super girly and excited and wanted to help me. I was grateful because I know nothing about putting together outfits and I am completely lost without Molly's fashion skills down here in South America. We found a black dress that looked like mine and Cami and her cousin waited and watched as I tried on atleast 23 different golden necklaces until enventually we found one that we all liked. I turned it over to look at the price and realized it was a $30 necklace! I was just going to buy it out of desperation, but Cami looked me in the eye and told me she would find me the perfect necklace, so I decided to trust my friend and we continued looking.  We walked outside where we found an old woman selling handmade jewelry. She had a gorgeous golden necklace on display and Cami convinced me to try it in. It was perfect and lovely but I was afraid it would be expensive. We asked the lady how much it costed and she told us $15 dollars! I was super shocked. I think the lady saw the sock on my face because she quickly began to try and calm me down. She told me "Don't worry! It's not that expensive because it comes with earrings too!" It was so awesome! I bought a necklace and earrings for half the price of the other necklace. I alps spotted some bracelets in her little stand and decided to get some of those too to enhance the outfit or whatever. 

After that little adventure I returned to my house for a quick lunch before my dad drove me to get my hair cut. That was pretty scary, guys! We arrived at the "salon" which was actually some woman's house in what I am pretty sure was the ghetto of my city. This lady cut my hair in her living room and the entire time I was worried I had asked for something other than what I wanted in Spanish! The lady cut my hair and then straightened it for me. She did an amazing job straightening, I must say. My hair felt so healthy and happy! I then returned to my house and put on all my fancy prom stuff. Bayron and his parents came by the house and picked me up! We drove out to the countryside and arrived at this beautiful mansion where all his classmates and their families and dates were strolling around outside and drinking juice and champagne. There was a professional photographer who was taking pictures as we entered. I would use those photos but I have no idea where they are hahaha. They had a beautiful ceremony and then we all ate dinner in a beautiful dining room. After dinner and dessert, the parents left and we all partied all night in the mansion hahah. Everyone was dancing and talking and celebrating that they were finally done with high school. It was like MORP and PROM at the same time, except better because it was free and prettier. I ended up spending most of the night talking to my friend Pipe who was there because his brother was graduating. We talked in English because when it gets late my Spanish doesn't make any sense. It was cool talking to him because I had no idea his English was practically perfect! He said he was too shy to speak in English before so he had never tried but I was impressed hahah. 

(I didn't take very many pictures before the party but I have these ones!)

Baryon's parents took me home where I collapsed in my bed and was woken up at 3pm for lunch. After lunch I went back to sleep until about 9pm. I got up, changed into daytime clothes, ate dinner with my family, and then went out to another party. This party was at my friend Javiera's house and was a sleepover for the entire Junior class that was organized by the parents. It was so much fun! We ate snacks and talked and swam until the next morning. We got a few hours of sleep and woke up to Javi's mom making breakfast for everyone! It was so sweet of her to take such great care of us! I got a ride home with Cami and then slept all afternoon. At dinner that night, I realized that by some miracle, I hadn't gotten sick after barely sleeping at all durning the weekend and wondered why I don't hang out with friends more. But a few minutes later, it occurred to me that I had sort of missed talking with my parents during the few meals I had missed while being out with friends. I decided that it's all about balance and that it is important for me not to forget that. I think that was a good thing to realize right before Christmas and New Years. I really do have an amazing life here in Chile and a gigantic part of that is because my host parents trust me, love me, and want me to have an great year here while still being safe. 

In other news, my haircut now sort of makes me look like a poodle who somehow got a hold of a hair dryer..

Whatever. Hahahah. 

I love you all! Please have a very merry Christmas. :)

ROHAM

I started this week off a little scared that it would be boring after having such an exciting week in the South, but it actually ended up being a really nice and relaxing week. It took a few days to recover from the South because I was so exhausted from traveling so much and I had gotten so used to speaking English all the time so Spanish was a bit harder than usual. The hardest thing to recover from, though, was not being around exchange students all the time. Being around exchange students, for other exchange students, brings this inexplicable feeling of belonging that I myself don't even really understand. We are from all over the world and a lot of us probably wouldn't even like eachother if we weren't on exchange, but going through such a dramatic and extreme experience together forces us to be so close. When I hug the exchange students from my district, I feel so warm and so happy and just so right, and I was thinking about this for a long time trying to figure out why it affects me so much. It eventually occurred to me that when we exchange students hug eachother, we aren't just hugging normal friends or other people. When exchange students hug eachother, they are hugging eachother for the families back home that they no longer get to hug every day. We hug eachother with all the pain, happiness, support, nostalgia, and understanding we have without even realizing it. We are all so blindly blessed to have each other. 

Anyways, on Monday my mom taught me how to use the public transportation in our city. We rode in collectivos to the Center where she bought me two bikinis for my birthday! They are very pretty and I love them a lot! This public transportation lesson that she gave me ended up saving my week and probably my entire exchange, because I can now leave the house and meet up with friends whenever I want to! I am so happy because I always want to go out and be with other people but I hate asking for rides all the time. 

On Tuesday I went swimming at my friend Miri's house with some other friends who couldn't go to Brazil. My entire Junior class went to Brazil all week long for a class trip, except a few who had reasons they couldn't go, and me, who couldn't afford it after the South Trip. We swam and talked and I played ukulele out in the grass and we just had a splendid time. 

On Wednesday some of the Germans from Santiago and other cities came to Rancagua to visit Nigel, Katie, and I. We hung out in the park and in the Jumbo and then I spent the night at Katie's house. The next morning we went to the movies with the Germans and are pizza with them for lunch. It was cool because they are great people, but they always wanted to speak German so Katie and I felt left out and bored hahah.

I feel like I did something fun on Thursday but I honestly cannot remember...

On Friday, Katie, Katie, and Alex spent the night at my house! It was super fun because I love spending time with them all soooo much! They all really are like big sisters to me. We hung out and ate chocolate and cherries and I played ukulele while they sang really easy songs because I'm still learning. They wanted to meet my little sister so we face timed her for a little bit. They asked her to tell embarrassing stories about me and she didn't hold back at all! I was angry for about two seconds until I remembered that being embarrassed about things is a waste of time and laughed with them as my sister described my awkward years in detail. 

On Saturday morning, we all woke up super early to drive to the Rotary meeting in Santiago. We got to see all the exchange students again and it was so nice! I sat at a table with Evan, Aidan, and Alexis for lunch. They make me laugh a lot so I like hanging out with them. Since the room was very loud and the microphone wasn't very clear, we didn't really try to listen to what people were announcing before lunch, so we were really surprised when a magician ran up in front of the tables and started doing magic tricks! It was entertaining for a few minutes but then our table just went back to talking. We were all laughing about something when I all of a sudden heard my name on the microphone. I looked up to see a bunch of people gesturing for me to go up to where the magician was. I walked up feeling very confused and the magician smiled at me and gave me a letter and a present! I thanked him and sat back down as a Rotarian took the microphone from the magician and started calling up groups of other exchange students up to get their letters and presents. I understood rotary was giving us gifts, but I didn't understand why they made mine a big deal! I opened the letter and it was a sweet little email from my mom. It was nice to read! I then opened the present from rotary to discover they had made shirts for us! 

There was only one little problem with my shirt...

Hahahahahahahaha! I found this hilarious and so did all of my friends! 

After opening the presents, rotary showed us a gigantic wall covered in photos that families had sent for the other exchange students. It was a really emotional time for everyone because it was such a great surprise! Rotary lost my pictures, which was sad, but I went around and hugged people and comforted them because I could tell it was hard. A lot of the other exchangers are very depressed right now because it's Christmas time and they are all thinking of their families. I love my family more than anything, but I am not having a hard time because it feels like summer! I can't be sad knowing I have three months off of school, amazing Chilean family and friends, and only 7 months left in this beautiful country! 

Evan, my pretty rad friend from Chicago, saw that I didn't have any pictures from my family and, instead of saying he felt bad for me, gave me a hug and gave me one of his family picture posters! It made me laugh so much, and it's now hanging up on my wall in my room because seeing it makes me smile. 

There is probably a lot more to blog about from this week but I am tired and I'm just going to go to sleep instead. Los quiero!

Patagonia!

Very late last night I returned home from one of the most fantastic weeks of my young life. Going anywhere with exchange students is usually entertaining and lovely, but going to Patagonia, to Torres del Paine the official "Eighth Wonder of the World" with a group of exchange students was greater than I could have ever imagined. So much stuff happened over the week and there is no way I can capture all of it in a single blog post, but I will try to give you guys a general day-by-day summary of my experience in the South of Chile. 

On Saturday night I took a bus to the Santiago airport with the other 7 exchange students who live in or near Rancagua. We got to the airport at like 11pm and met up with a bunch of other exchange students from other cities. When the clock stuck 00:00am, the longest birthday of my life began with the sounds of "happy birthdays" in many different languages. Everyone gave me hugs and when we finally boarded the plane I had a lot of cards to open from all my friends in Chile! I tried to sleep in the flight but I was too excited! When the plane landed, we got on a bus which took us to a boat which took us to an island full of adorable penguins! We spent my birthday exploring the island and taking wayyyy too many penguin pictures! When we got to our hotel in Punta Arenas, we were given free time to shop and walk around the city. It was a really nice day but we were all super exchanged and ended up taking naps for a lot of the afternoon. We ate dinner at the hotel and after dinner we went on a night walk by the beach. It was beautiful! I got back to my hotel room at 11pm with Katie (my roommate) and I thought it was finally time to sleep. I was wrong! Katie and Alex had boughten me a cake and them and a group of girls came to my room singing with balloons and birthday cards! I felt so loved and it was the perfect way to end my birthday! 

On Monday we got up early and drove from Punta Arenas to Porta Notales. On the way we stopped in many places to take pictures and while we were on the bus we sang songs and played games and danced. It was a long drive but we had fun! When we got to Porta Notales we were given the afternoon to explore the city and go shopping. It was soooo windy! We all wandered around and had a good day getting to know eachother. 

On Tuesday we got on the bus and spent all day driving to Torres del Paine. On the way we stopped in many beautiful places to take pictures! Driving though Torres del Paine was so incredible and it was so windy it felt like the bus might blow over!

On Wednesday we got up early to go on a boat ride out to sail along the ice burgs in Torres del Paine. The water was so blue and the ice burgs were so cool! It was freezing but absolutely worth it. After the boat ride we drove all the way back to Porta Notales. 

When we got back to the hotel that night, we decided that since it might be our only times in Patagonia in our lives, we had to try and swim in the ocean. So like idiots, we all ran from the hotel in makeshift swimsuits and straight into the freezing ice cold Patagonian glacier water. We all had to dunk our heads before we left the water. Luckily the hotel was right across the street because the wind was blowing hard as we ran back to the hotel with numb bodies and pumping adrenaline. We got the weirdest looks and it was definitely an unforgettable experience.  

On Thursday we went on a boat ride all day long around Porta Notales.  The mountains looked stunning and it was a very relaxing day. We were all pretty tired for some reason and ended up sleeping in a big boaty sleep pile. When we got back to the hotel, all the exchange students went out dancing until 3am as our own little goodbye party!

On Friday we went to an old folks home before leaving and brought all the grandparents presents and danced with them. We actually had a really good time doing this even though the place was pretty depressing. In Chile family is very very important, so the old people at old folks home in Chile feel more left out than they do in the US, I imagine. Unfortunately I left my camera on the bus while we were visiting and I don't have any pictures, but it was a really sweet experience!

After http at we took the bus back to Punta Arenas to catch our plane. It was a long day of travel after a very long trip and I am still tired after sleeping in the day after. I sat next to my friend Florian on the way home and we talked a lot about how fast all this stuff goes by and how hard it is to wrap our heads around what we are experiencing every day we live in Chile. 

I know that was a pretty terrible summary of my South Trip, but I am just glad I could share a little bit. I am still so tired from my journey and my voice is gone from talking and screaming and singing. The South Trip was beyond amazing and now I really really need to start saving up for Easter Island! Our group of exchangers is getting so close and I really want to go on another trip like this with them. A million "thank you"s to my parents for making this trip possible. I will never forget this week!