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!