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!

I'm 16

I am taking a quick couple of minutes to write on here before getting in my car to get on my bus to get on my plane to go to the SOUTH! I'm soooo excited hahaha. 

So this week I went to Talca to visit Franco on Friday. He graduated from high school and he wanted me to be there! The ceremony was lovely and outdoors and not too lengthy.  To get to Talca I skipped school on Friday to catch a bus. It was my first time taking some sort of public transportation alone and I felt so small! It's strange how I can drive by myself and feel fine but being on a bus is just so different! When I got to Franco's house Emilio, Franco's big brother, was waiting for me just like he said he would be and everything went along so smoothly! During he graduation ceremony I met a boy from Germany who is living in Chile and working as a volunteer to help people in some way (I really don't remember but it is very noble and cool.) We talked a lot and I really liked hanging out with him except I was a LITTLE jealous of him because he never had any Spanish classes and speaks wayyyy better than my already. His Spanish is perfect, and apparently so is his English, German, and French! After the graduation the whole family went to a barbecue and ate delicious Chilean meat and talked until like 3:00am. The next morning Alan, Franco, and Franco's cousin took me out to see the city of Talca. We had all these plans of places to go but we ended up just sitting in a plaza and talking and making plans for me to visit Talca some other time for a longer stay. Later we had a huge lunch at Franco's house for his graduation and I met all his grandparents. His grandparents kept thanking me for what I did at Franco's accident and I felt kind of awkward because I didn't really do that much, but I just smiled and told them he is a great friend and that I am so glad things worked out and that he is healthy and okay. After lunch Emilio dropped me off at the bus stop and I took the bus home to Rancagua where my parents were waiting for me. They told me they had missed me and that they will miss me even more while I'm in the South! They are so cute. We rushed home and I unpacked my bags from Talca and made sure I had everything ready for the South. I then took a quick shower, had tea with my parents, and talked to my dad and Molly for one last time at the age of 16! In about 10 minutes I will get on a bus and my trip will start! I am so excited to spend my birthday with other exchangers and penguins and just everything is so perfect! I know that this blog post kind of sucks and I am not even sure if it makes sense but I am in a hurry and I am just so darn happy that I don't care. I love you all and I hope you have a great Sally's Birthday like I am planning to. :D

The "Graduation"

In Chile, Prom doesn't exist. To Chileans, Prom is just some North American fairy tale that one might learn about in a movie or on a TV show. However, Chileans do have "la graduacion" which, yes is a graduation, but is also the closest thing they have to Prom. I like graduation better because it starts out as a formal banquet and then turns into a dance, which means you don't have to go out and buy a fancy dinner before hand hahaha. Anyways, I have been invited to go three different graduations this year. Well, I thought I had been invited to three but the one I went to this last week ended up not being quite what I had been expecting and Franco's is more like a graduation in the US. The one I went to this passed week I attended with Alex and Katie, the other gringas, because Katie's host brother invited her to come to his in Santiago and bring friends. The other graduations will be at my school with a boy named Bayron, and in Talca with Franco! 

Since Alex and Katie and I needed dresses for Katie's brother (Vicente's) graduation thing. On Monday after school, we took a bus to Santiago and then rode the metro to the mall! I was super freaked out because it was my first time using public transpiration, but I was with Alex and Katie so I knew I would be fine.

They are both like big sisters and are always looking out for me and helping me with things and giving me advice. I love them and they are so awesome! While we were at the mall, we all found a few cute things to buy but we were more excited about finding out that the 9th best ice cream shop in the WORLD was in the mall we were in. Of course we had to try some!

Wednesday night was the night of the graduation, so after school on Wednesday Katie, Alex, and I got on the bus again and met Katie's brother at the station in Santiago. He was super nice and took very good care of us throughout the entire trip. We stopped at his apartment to drop off out things before going to get dinner and we were all shocked to see how tidy his apparent was! It was perfect and really well decorated and we teased him a lot because you are supposed to live in an ugly apartment in college, right? While we were eating dinner, we asked him about the graduation and were surprised by the information we received. It turned out that the graduation wasn't actually a graduation, it was just a dance for his college called "the graduation."  OOPS hahaha. We didn't really care! We knew we were in good hands. His college is actually like an Ivy League in Chile, and as we met all his friends later that night we could tell we were with pretty smart people. They weren't super nerdy or anything, just the way they spoke and the words they used made us feel like we were around intelligent people. I love intelligent people, so that was awesome! We got to the dance in a bus that his friends rented and the dance was gigantic! There were so many lights and so many people! Everyone knew Vicente and his friends so we ended up greeting a ton of people. I hung out with one of Vicente's best friends, Felipe, for a really large portion of the night because he was really dorky and awesome. We all danced all night long and didn't get back to Vicente's apartment until 6:00am the next morning! Alex, Katie, and I slept until 1:00pm the next day and then begged Vicente to take us to Starbucks. He did! It tasted just like home even though our names were spelled a little differently...

That's all the super exciting stuff that happened to me this week. On Friday I played soccer with the boys again and then went to the movies with my friends! I got my first Chilean sunburn playing soccer. I missed a part of my neck with my sunscreen and it is now very red hahah. I will be more careful!

On Saturday I went to my school to play bingo with my parents and my friends. I didn't buy a bingo card because I wanted to save my money for the South Trip next week! My parents didn't win anything, but during one of the games one of Nigel's friends had to go home so he left me with his bingo card. Guess what I did with it?! I played one game, and I won the game, and it just happened to be the "grand bingo" game so I won this boys family a professional coffee machine! When I went up to get the prize everyone was clapping and congratulating me and making jokes about how it wasn't fair that they had been trying to win prizes at this agent for so many years and I just won on my first try. I felt so happy because his family is going to be so happy! I also like the idea that whenever someone asks them when they bought a professional coffee making machine, they are going to explain that some random gringa won it for them in a bingo game! 

I am getting super excited about the South Trip and everything! I will try to update my blog next Saturday night before the trip but I'm not making any promises because I don't know if that's going to work out. Either way, I can assure you will be hearing from me soon! :)

Fútbol!

This week started off normal and then ended up being absolutely incredible! I spent Monday and Tuesday at school, running, and playing ukulele in my free time. On Wednesday, my friend Vicho agreed to go to track practice with me after school. It was about 90 degrees when we began to run and we ran on turf so it was reallyyyyy hot! We ran 15 laps and complained about the heat the entire time. Afterwards we collapsed in the shade to wait for our buses feeling very accomplished. He is so sweet hahah. He really didn't want to run but he knew I didn't want to run alone so he came with me. Afterwards he was super worried because my face was really red and kept asking me if I needed anything and how he could help. It's so weird for me having my friends here always worrying about me. I am so used to doing things on my own and having people worry about themselves instead of me. I'm starting to wonder if maybe I have changed a little here into a person who allows other people to help them a little.. I don't know hahah. Thursday was another normal day, but then came Friday! Friday was a color day at school so we didn't have to wear our uniforms. It is warming up here so everyone was dressed in summery clothes! 

After school, a friend named Laura agreed to go to soccer practice with me! We practiced with the boys! It was soooo much fun! I was so nervous to practice with them but it ended up being the highlight of my week. Whenever I made a pass, the boys made "ohhh" noises because they were surprised I could kick so far with both feet. I even almost scored a goal! During a corner kick, I was waiting back on defense and the kicker passed the ball to me. From about 35 feet out, I took a shot with all my might (one of those Sally shots that I always make on my team back at home) and it sailed over the other players heads and up towards the top left corner of the goal where the very tall goalie jumped up and barely tipped it out with his finger tips! The boys were super nice to me and a boy in my class who was playing, Roro, sort of looked out for me. He was on my team during the game and was always telling people when I was open. He also helped translate for me a little because he is used to the way I speak Spanish and knows how to use words I will understand. That was the hard part of playing; the Spanish! I was very confused the entire time because I really couldn't comprehend the Spanish and try to play at the same time. It was hard but amazing and wonderful and so fun! 

After soccer practice, I changed clothes and went to eat sushi with Francesca and Diego again. 

After sushi, we walked to Diego's house and played with his new puppy!

 At about 7pm, Diego's mom drove Francesca and I back to the school because there was a special ceremony for the seniors that Francesca had to sing for. Earlier that day, my teacher had asked me if I would help out with the ceremony because they needed more people and I said yes even though I had no idea what she wanted me to do. My parents met me at the school with my uniform, and I quickly changed my clothes and then went searching for my teacher so she could explain what I needed to do. I finally found her backstage and she explained to me that my job was to smile and hold a tray that carried the awards for the seniors. I was to do this with two other girls in my class. The thing was that the two other girls had practiced and done this ceremony before. I didn't have time to practice and I didn't completely understand the directions in Spanish. Because I am Sally and because these things always seem to happen to me, you could imagine how the evening went. The first time I walked out on the stage to deliver some of the awards, the people who had told me it was time for me to walk out where incorrect, so basically I strided out on to the stage with a smile and a tray full of gifts, and was then told to turn around and leave the stage! I turned back around to walk off embarrassed, and then couldn't find the opening in the curtain! I was so embarrassed hahaha. Thankfully, I got the hang out my job after a while and the night went well and was very fun! 

On Saturday I went and had another nice day in Doñihue with my family again and in the night I went to Laura's house to help through a surprise birthday party for Pancho. We all ate burgers and talked and had a really nice time! It was a little hard for me to understand what people were saying because there were so many people talking and they were talking very fast and I was tired. I just smiled and laughed when everyone else laughed and had a happy time. :)

Happy Birthday Pampi

As I write this blog post I am fighting extremely hard to not fall asleep. Last night, my classroom had a party at my friend Miri's house and I honestly am pretty sure I slept for no more than a little more than a half hour. This kid from the class below me came and ended up being one of the most interesting people I have ever met so I accidentally ended up talked to him about life and exchange and the world all night long hahah. For this reason, I am sorry if this blog sounds more like the rambling memories of a sleep-deprived exchangestudent's week; but in reality that is exactly what it is going to be! I find it hilarious that for most teenagers, staying up all night is just a normal thing to get over, but I am so a costumed to living like a grandma that it's harder for me!

This week I wanted to make my senior friends cookies and bring them to school as a surprise. On Tuesday I stayed up late making a whole bunch of cookies and I was super excited because I know how much my Chilean friends like my cookies. But after making them, I tasted one of the cookies and realized that I had completely messed up! I had used light sugar instead of regular sugar because I had no idea there was a difference! The good thing was that people in Chile looooove sweets and my cookies were gobbled down in a matter of minutes at school. 

At another point this week, I had to go with my parents after school to participate in a senior ceremony in Fran's place. All the seniors thought it was funny I was there because I always end up showing up everywhere and getting invited to the most random things. When we arrived at the ceremony, there was a photographer taking pictures of all the different families. I tried to explain that I wasn't a senior, but my parents thought it was funny that the photograph we wanted to take my picture so they encouraged him to take a lot of them while I stood there feeling like a very awkward junior! After the ceremony, all the families walked outside to eat cake and the photographers were selling the pictures. My pictures were being sold with the other seniors pictures! All my senior friends saw them and started laughing so hard hahaha. People in Chile are starting to catch on to how my "awkward Sally luck" is a very real thing. 

On Thursday I went to Francesca's house after school to celebrate her birthday with her family. I thought going was just a normal thing, but it turns out she chose me to come to her birthday party over a ton of people she has known for a lot longer and that made me feel special. I have noticed more and more now how people in Chile just seem to confide in me with everything. They all trust me so much! I love it because I take their trust very seriously and will protect it very well. 

On Friday I went out to get sushi after school with Diego, Diego, and Francesca. While we were sitting down to eat, one of Diego's friends from school came up with another exchange student from the US who is from AFS. Her name is Ella and she will only be here for 6 months.  She is so awesome! We ate sushi and talked and I really want to hang out with her again. She is a very real person who I can relate to and I haven't felt that way with very many of the other exchangers I have met this year from the US. 

That is all I am going to write for now because I really really should sleep. Chao!

Farewells and Fantasilandia

This week went by super fast because we only had three school days. You see, Chileans really like to celebrate anything they can find excuses to celebrate, so "holidays" like Halloween and Valentines Day are free! 

On Monday I had a completely normal day. I went to school, hung out with friends, came home, ran, showered, ate, practiced Ukulele, and went to sleep. I really thought the next two days would be similar and mellow, but boy was I wrong!

On Tuesday I arrived at school to find the rest of my classmates preparing for the war.  In Chile, the seniors get to leave school about a month before everyone else, and the day before their last day, they attack the juniors with a gigantic water war. My classmates told the water wars are always super intense, but I had no idea how seriously they meant that! When the bell sounded and we walked outside for lunch, we were bombed with hundreds of water balloons being thrown down on us from the roves of the school buildings! When we tried to run away, more seniors ran out from different directions with buckets full of water and mud! We spent a half out completely drenching eachother in our uniforms until the hallways of the school were flooded with about a centimeter of water! Because of the giant mess we made, school was let out after lunchtime and we all found rides back to our houses. I thought my parents might be mad that I was coming home dripping wet and four hours early, but when my host dad saw me he just started laughing really hard and told me to take a shower. It was definitely the best water fight I have ever been a part of! 

On Wednesday we had to say goodbye to the seniors. For the seniors it was a very emotional day because they had to say goodbye to all their friends and teachers. There is a tradition in my school where on the seniors last day of school, the entire school lines the grand hallway and waves goodbye to the seniors as they walk down the hallway one last time. They were all crying and hugging goodbye and it made me a little sad because I am going to miss seeing all of Fran's friends around every day. What really made me sad, though, was when I realized that next year I won't be here to participate in these traditions for my class and my friends. I have gotten so close with my class and my friends and I know we will only get closer and I just want to stay here for their entire senior year. I don't want to leave half way through! For this, I will make sure I thoroughly enjoy every second I get with them while I still have the chance. 

On Thursday, Javi Valenzuela and Diego came over to my house during the afternoon to make blackberry cobbler. I had never made it before, but it sounded yummy and I wanted to try! It ended up being delicious and my parents ended up eating all of it because they liked it so much hahahah. 

After making the cobbler, we went up to my room and I got an email from  my mom. I opened it with my friends and this picture popped up:

My friends and I laughed histarically for about 5 minutes straight. I explained to them that I have a very silly relationship with my mom and sister, and they told me that they wanted to meet my family really bad! We called Molly on FaceTime and she answered and made my friends laugh so much! My mom came home from work in the middle of the FaceTime so they got to meet my mom during the call too! 

They absolutely loved my family and can't wait to meet them in person. Seeing two different groups of people I love get along so well made me so happy! Later that night, all three of us went to a party at our other friend'a house and then Javi and I spent the night at Cami's house. 

The next morning, my parents picked me up and we went to Doñihue to visit the family. We ate lunch and hung out all afternoon and into the night.

The next morning my friend, Katy, and her family picked me up to go to Fantasilandia for the day! Fantasilandia is an amusement park in Santiago, and the day was very amusing! Since we went during the week of Halloween, there were people walking around with face paint that made them look very dead and disgusting. I thought it was cool, but it also freaked me out a bit. The people really scared Katie, and the problem was that since we are blonde and very Norht American looking, the people would go out of their way to scare us! We made some great memories and I am so glad she invited me to go and meet here family and have a great time!

This is a picture her dad took of us after one of the rides. We were laughing so hard!

This morning I got up and ran and then spent the morning relaxing. I am so tired from all my adventures of yesterday! We went out to lunch today and ate wayyyy too much food, and when we got back to the house I took a 3 hour long nap! I am going to try to go to bed early tonight, so bye!