My Chilean Adventure

Home!

2008-06-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

So really I've been home for two weeks, but I've been really busy. I thought (well, Roger thought) that it would be a good idea to write about being home.
Honestly, there's not a lot to write about. It's the strangest feeling because not a lot has changed here, whereas I feel like I spent my entire exchange year changing. It's almost like I never left, or like I just went for a week vacation. I think I am still kind of in shock that it's over. I don't yet realize that I'm not going to see all my friends at school the next day.
The worst part about leaving was, obviously, the goodbyes. I think the hardest part was the fact that my class, being as amazing as they are, decided to give my five going away parties. It all started with my closest classmates a week before I left, then a party at school during our last block on Friday with my whole class. On Saturday there was another party with the whole class at a friends house. I wasn't planning to go to school Monday, because I left Wednesday, but was told I had to because my teachers and classmates wanted to do a going away ceremony for me with the whole school. That was one of the most amazing experiences of my exchange. That would never happen at Scona, and it just showed me how much they thought I really was part of the school. Then, finally, on Monday night at a classmate's house, we had one final goodbye party, because I would be leaving Tuesday morning for La Serena to catch my plane early Monday morning. It was so sweet of them to do all that, but it also just got harder and harder to say goodbye each time. And then, on Wednesday at the airport, all my exchange student friends from La Serena and Ovalle came to say goodbye to me and Christina, who was also a student who was leaving that day. It was so hard to say goodbye to them, but even harder to say goodbye to my host mom.
But, as hard as the goodbyes were, it was an amazing feeling to arrive home in the airport in Edmonton. It was so strange to see everything look the same, almost exactly, as when I left. My first order of business after arriving home? Sleeping. I hadn't slept most of the almost 12 hour plane ride from Santiago to Toronto, and of course it was impossible to sleep once I was in the plane on my way to Edmonton. After a nice nap, my friend came over to my house and picked me up and we went back to my highschool to say hi to people. Being back in my highschool after so long was weird, and it felt like I had never left at all.
And although it is still hard when I think about not seeing all the amazing people I have met in Chile soon, I will always keep in touch with them. I hope to go back to Chile one day, and to the other home countries of my exchange friends. Now I just have to get a job and save some money...

The End :(

2008-05-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

So, I just got back from my final orientation in Iquique, in the north of Chile. It was only really a day and a half, way to short, and it went by so fast. It was also the district conference of District 4320, which meant we had to go to a meeting and say a few words in front of the presidents of each club of the district, which covers everything north of Santiago in Chile. We only went to the one meeting, and because there are 19 of us, we did not speak long, just where we were from and where we live in Chile, and the meeting we went to was only 2 hours or so. The rest of the time, we just basically got to spend time with the other exchange students, because it was the last time we would see each other.

We also got to go to the Zofri, or the Zona Franca, which is the mall of entirely tax-free shopping. We were there for about 3 hours, a long time, but it also gave us time to hang out all together. I think the weirdest part about the Zofri that I noticed was the fact that it really didn't have a roof. It basically just had a tarp overtop to make shade. Then I remembered where we were. Iquique is in the middle of the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world, and it NEVER rains. So, obviously they don't really need a roof. Besides the Zofri, we didn't really have time to do a lot of other sight seeing. We all arrived Saturday morning around 1 am and had to leave to the airport or bus station around 4:30 on Sunday. It was a short trip, but I'm glad we had time to spend together one last time.

A few people went home in plane, but we (all the people living in Ovalle, La Serena, Copiapó and Vallenar) had to go in bus. That was because Rotary could not find us flights home. We were travelling on the 18th of May, and the 21st is Battle of Iquique Day, one of the biggest, maybe THE biggest national holidays in Chile. It is the day when Chile won the Pacific war with Peru and took all the land north of Iquique from them. Everyone travels on or around that day, so there were no empty flights for us. That meant we went home on bus, a looooong 21 hour bus ride through the desert, which really, is nothing. Just a lot of sand and really flat land. We left at 6:30 pm on Sunday afternoon and Nikolaj and I arrived at Ovalle, the last stop, around 3:30 pm on Monday. Luckily a lot of it was durin the night, so I slept a lot of the way, but not confortably. I remember waking up once and looking outside, and it was just flat and sand everywhere. I could actually see a lot, because that night also happened to be a full moon. I felt kind of like I was in Aladdin :P

I posted a few pictures of the trip on Facebook and you can view them here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115790&l=8ef59&id=841485230

So, that was my trip. Definitely short, but well worth it. And since this may be my last entry here in Chile, I thought I'd just say a few things about my exchange year.

I was not sure at all what to expect when I got here. It was a especially hard for me, because at the Spring Orientation in Canada, there were no returning students from Chile, so I really didn't know a lot about what I was getting myself into. Even though Chile is probably the most well-off country in South America, it is a completely different life-style, and one that I got used to almost immediately. Everyone is so kind and open, and the daily pace of life is so calm. Although it still annoys me, I have gotten used to the fact that when someone tells you to meet them somewhere at 5, it really means between 5 and 6. And, even though I have missed spicy food, I looooove the food here. These are just a few of the MANY differences I have experienced this year. And, although there have been hard times, and even harder times, this year has definitely been the best year of my life. I was sad at first when I realized the choice was do this exchange or graduate with my friends back home, since I would be too old to do the exchange next year, and as hard as that decision was for me, it was well worth it and I would not change it for the world. I have met such amazing people this year, both my Chilean friends and family and other exchange students, and although it will be one of the hardest things I have to do to say goodbye to them all, I know I will keep in touch with everyone. This sounds really cliché, but this year really has changed my life and I will never ever forget the places I went and the people I met here. And for that, I want to thank both my host families here in Chile, all my friends, Chilean and exchange, but mostly I want to thank Rotary in Canada and my real family for giving me a chance to do something as amazing as this. Muchas Gracias!!

¡¡¡VIVA CHILE!!!

Peru!!!! (Cuzco)

2008-05-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

We got to Cuzco at around 10:00 the next morning and the first thing I noticed was less humidity than Lima (which often has 100% humidity but almost never rains) and that my heart was pounding like I had just been running. It took me a while to figure out it was from the altitude. We were at around 3300 m above sea level (Edmonton is under 700 m.) I also started to feel sick and had a headache. Luckily we had nothing planned for that first day in the morning, so I just slept. When I woke up, my body was used to the altitude, and I felt alot better, but heart kept beating really hard the entire 4 days we were there. Even just walking around made it pound like I had run a marathon. In the afternoon, we went on a city tour of Cuzco. Our first stop was the Plaza de Armas, the central plaza of Cuzco. It had two curches, which is strange for any plaza in South America, normally they only have one. We went into the bigger one. We were not allowed to take pictures, but I wish I could have. There were about 20 alters all over the giant cathedral and all of them were covered in gold or silver or both. And they were huge some of them over 2 stories high, covered completely in gold. It was really beautiful. After the church, we took the bus to another monastery. In the central courtyard of the monastery had been built various room and small temples to show tourists Incan construction like that at Machu Picchu. After the monastery, we went outside Cuzco to where there were Incan ruins. First, we saw the ruins of a giant temple where they hold the Festival of the Sun during the winter soltice in July. We also went to a cave where they found the first tattoed mummy from the Incas. Then, we took the bus to another temple where there were three fountains that are still working from Incan times. There, we were over 3500 m above sea level. My host brother, who was still not used to the altitude, decided it was a good idea to run up the hill to the temple, and almost fell over at the top. If you drink from the fountains, depending on which one, you get youth, knowledge or fertility.
The next day was what I had been looking forward to the entire trip. We got up aroun 4am to go to the train station to Machu Picchu!! I was ok getting up too early, I was too excited to be tired. The train ride was about 4 hours, to the town of Aquas Calientes, the last little town before Machu Picchu. You can only take the train there, because otherwise there would waaaay too many tourists there. From Aquas Calientes, we took a bus for about 30 mintues in a zig-zag up the mountain to Machu Picchu. It was so beautiful, right in the middle of the jungle. Because of all the trees, you couldn't really see much of the ruins until you were right in the front gates, then suddenly, you could see them all. They were huge, way bigger than I ever thought they were. I decided to go in an English tour separate from my mom and brother to give myself a break. Our tour guide was really good, and knew alot. But most important was how amazing the ruins were. They were so beautiful. I still don't understand how they built something that huge on the side of a mountain, out of such huge rocks. Our tour lasted about 3 hours. I really wanted to stay longer, to see more, but we had to get back to Aquas Calientes to eat lucnh before the train came. But, hopefully I will get to go back. :) We got back to Cuzco at night and I went to bed right away, I was so exhausted from all the walking and climbing.
The next day, around 9am, we were picked up for our last tour. We went to the Sacred Valley of the Incas. That was the route they took to get to Machu Picchu, so there were lots of ruins. First we went to the town of Pisac, to a market. There, they raised guinea pigs to eat!! I never ate one, but apparently they are delicious. We did a tour through the entire valley, through all the little towns where the "campesinas" (country people) live and grow over 50 types of corn and potatoes. We stopped at a buffet restaurant for lunch. Across the road was a store that sold things made from alpaca wool. It was all so soft, and really expensive. After lunch, we went to what I call Mini Picchu because I can't remember the name of it :P It looked a lot like Machu Picchu, but smaller. We climbed to the top, and you could see the entire Sacred Valley. It was beautiful. After the ruins, we went to a town to another traditional market and an old church. In the market, they sold popcorn covered in sugar. The popcorn was made of white corn from the valley, and the kernals are 4 or 5 five times bigger than normal corn, so the popcorn was giant, almost as big as a small plum, and sooooo good. I bought two bags of it and ate it all :) We took the bus back to Cuzco and by the time we arrived, it was dark.
Monday, our last full day in Cuzco, was a free day. I went with my mom to the plaza and the market one last time. We ate at a restaurant at the plaza that made pizza in a giant mud oven, that made the pzza crust really crispy. We left at 7 the next morning from the airport in Cuzco. When we got to Lima around 8, I realized my heart had suddenly stopped beating hard. It was so strange how it just immediatly slowed down when I got off the plane. We had the whole day to wait, because the only flight to Lima was at 9 at night. We went to a hotel in Old Lima and I slept and read almost the whole time. We ate lunch at the plaza, and I had one last glass of Chicha Morada. At 7, we were picked up for our flight. I thought we should have gone earlier, because the traffic was crazy in Lima at that time, but we were on time (barely) for the flight. We got back to Santiago around 2 Chilean time (one hour ahead of Peru).
I was exhausted from the trip, but it was soooo amazing, especially Machu Picchu. It went way too fast, and I really hope I get to go back some day.
Instead of uploading a few photos, you can look at this album I made of my photos of Peru:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111197&l=abdb0&id=841485230

Peru!!!!!!!!! (Lima)

2008-05-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought my exchange was winding down, I got a nice surprise. I was supposed to go on a trip to Brazil with my class in January, but was unable to go. Since the travel agency still had my money, my host mom and I decided to use that money to go to Peru!! I have always wanted to go to Peru, especially this year, being so close.
We left last Tuesday for Santiago. On Wednesday morning, at 6am, the plane was supposed to leave, but seeing as we were in Chile, it did not leave until 6:45. The plane ride was under three hours and went really quickly. We got breakfast (I ate waffles mmmmm) and a snack. We arrived at around 10:30 at Lima. The first thing I noticed was that while Chile is technically a third world country but it is hard to tell, you can tell that Peru is one. It was a lot more crowded in the city and kind of dirty. I still love it, although I think I almost died about 10 times just driving from the airport to our hotel in the newer area of Lima, Miraflores. In Peru they say the drive by "La ley de la selva" or the law of the jungle, and it sure seemed like it. For such a big city, it had very few traffic lights, and the ones that existed were basically ignored 80% of the time. I got used to it by the 3rd day, but it really scared me at first, and my host mom hated it.
The first day we had lunch at the mall right on the coast, Larcomar, at a Tony Roma's overlooking the beach. After lunch, we had a city tour. There were 15 other people on the tour with us, most of them from English speaking countries. It was so strange after so much time surrounded by Spanish to suddenly be in a group of all Enlish speakers. The tour took us through the area of Miraflores and then down the main highway to Old Lima. It reminded me a lot of old European cities. It was beautiful. We went to the central plaza, the oldest in Lima, and saw the old government building and the oldest church in Lima. After that, we walked to the oldest pub in Lima, El Cordeno, which has been open sincs 1905. There, we tried a popular Peruvian drink, Chicha Morada, a juice made of purple corn, sugar and lemon juice among other things. I really didn't like it the first time, but when I had it after that, it started the grow on me. After the pub, we went to the first monastery of Lima. We got to see all the wall murals that have been around for a hundred years or more. Then, we went underground to the catacombs of the monastery. Here, the priests and wealthy families of Lima were burried, over43000 of them. Because of earthquakes, none of the bodies were still intact, but arqueologists found the bones and they are all still underground in the tunnels. That night, we went to the restaurant Junios, where they had a live show of all the traditional Peruvian dances. It was also an all you can eat buffet of Peruvian food, so all around a good night. I love Peruvian food, because it is spicy and in Chile there is really no spicy food, and I have missed it a lot. There were a lot of dances, the show lasted over 2 hours, but I really liked it.
The next day, we had another tour, this time to the pyramids of the Incas outside Lima, called Pachacamac. They actually also belonged to three other native groups years before the Incas, but were expanded and rebuilt by the Incas most recently. They were about 15 minutes outside Lima, on the edges of the Atacama desert, the same desert in the north of Chile where Iquique and Arica are located. We saw a palace, and two temples, the temple of the sun and the temple of the moon. The moon temple is where all the Incan women live until they are chosen by the Incan king to be one of his brides, or to be a sacrifice. The women thought being chosen as a sacrifice was the highest honor, which I thought was strange. The sacrifices took place on the top of the sun temple. We got back from the tour in the afternoon. I had a nap and at night went with my mom to a restaurant, another buffet that had a dance show. We didn't stay long, though, because we had to get on a plane the next morning to go to Cuzco at 9 the next morning.

My Birthday Weekend

2008-04-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

So, not only was this my 18th birthday, but even better, I got to celebrate it in Chile!! I guess I will start off on Thursday night, which wasn't really part of my birthday, but definately a fun part of the weekend. At midnight (or so they said, but it was actually more like 1am) I went to my school to meet the people in my class who are studying biology. We took the bus together with the biologists from the class below us to Santiago, about a 6 hour bus drive. We got to the city around 8 am, after stopping for breakfast at a gas station (mmmmm.) Then, we drove through the morning traffic to the Museo de Historia Natural. We got there around 9, and surprise! we were early!! We had to wait in the park outside the museum until it opened at 10. Inside the museum was the regular stuff you'd expect to find at a Museum of Natural History, lots of animal bones and stuff. I really like museums, so I enjoyed it. We also got a tour of a new section at the museum about copper, the mining of which is a very important part of the economy. There, there was a map of where else in the world you could find copper and my class got a could laugh out of the fact that the only part completely empty was north america. Until I told them that we have diamonds in Canada.
After the museum, we went to the mall Parque Arauco, the well known "rich" mall in Santiago. It was like being back home, with the Starbucks, McDonalds, Zara and yes! Yogen Fruz!! We ate lunch there and after, at 2, we went across the road to where the Bodies exhibit was. The Bodies exhibit is an exhibit of human bodies, and parts of bodies on display, and all of it is real. I have been really excited to see this, and it was so amazing! I was never expecially interested in Biology before I saw this, but now I am excited for Bio next year! Afterwords, we had an hour in the mall again (I, of course had my Starbucks) and then we met at the bus to go home. The trip home seemed fast, because I slept all the way. It was a short trip, but sooo much fun.
On Saturday morning, I slept in. At 1 I woke up and showered, and went down for a little family BBQ. My mom decided to celebrate my birthday on Saturday because she knew my friend Christina was coming from La Serena to celebrate with me, but would have to leave in the morning on Sunday. At 2, not only did Christina arrive, but she brought four other of my friends from La Serena, Nynne, Kate, Heidi and Kelsey. It was a really nice surprise. We ate a huge BBQ. After, I took them on a little walking tour of Ovalle, which took an entire 30 minutes. I took them to a little ice cream shop that is famous in Chile because it is one of the only ones that makes cinnamon ice cream. I am really going to miss that. My sister Xime took me to have it on my first day here and I've been hooked ever since.
At night, we had tea and my cake. My friends and my mom and I decorated the living room, Even though we weren't really having a party in the house. My host mom gave me a necklace for my birthday, that had my picture engraved in it and said Felicidades Chile and my birthday on the back. It was so sweet of her to get me something so nice for my birthday, even though I am not her real daughter. After singing happy birthday, me and my friends got ready to go out. We went to my friend Loreto's house, where my class threw me a party! It was a lot of fun. I especially loved having all my friends, exchange and Chilean, together for my birthday. My friends left on Sunday. It was a short visit, but so much fun. And definately an unforgettable 18th birthday!!

Valle del Encanto

2008-03-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

So my mom told me a while ago that she would love to see how I write in Spanish. She suggested that I write an entry in Spanish and English (and I am glad to show off :) So here goes:

La fin de semana pasada, una de mi mejores amigos de La Serena (en realidad de los Estados Unidos) vino a Ovalle a visitarme. Pensé que fuimos a difrutarnos en Ovalle, tal vez ver películas y comer mucho, como un "sleepover." Pero el Sábado, mi mamá nos sorpendió con un viajecito por el día. Nos dijo que fuimos a ir al Valle del Encanto, pero no dijo nada más. No tenía idea que erá el Valle del Encanto, pero sonó interesante. Fuimos en auto 15 minutos afuera de Ovalle con mi mamá, mi hermana la Daniela, y mi sobrino el David. Llegamos a un portón simple, y no tenía idea donde estuvimos.

Entramos y en primer, no ví nada especial. Erá un valle, muy lindo, es cierto, dentro del desierto, pero nada muy distinto que he visto en Chile hasta ahora. Pero cuando bajamos del auto y fuimos caminando a unas rocas grandes, ví algo en las rocas. Mi mamá me dijo que erán petroglifos de los Incas!! En primer, ví una o dos rocas con petroglifos, pero de repente, ví que casi todas las rocas los tenían. Erán muy lindos y no tenía idea que había algo así tan cerca de Ovalle.

Tamién, fuimos caminando por el otro lado del valle, donde habían rocas gigantes y un baño de Incas. Entramos en cuevos grandes también, todos de los Incas. Fuimos en total como dos horas, pero nunca había visto algo así en mi vida, y me gustó mucho. Creo que erá una de las cosas mas bakan de mi intercambio hasta ahora!!

And now in English...

This past weekend, one of my good friends from La Serena, well, actually from the USA, came to visit me in Ovalle. I assumed we were going to just have a good time in Ovalle, maybe watch some movies, have a sleep over-type weekend. But on Saturday my mom surprised us with a little day trip. She told us we were going to the Valle del Encanto (or Echanted Valley.) I had no idea what the Enchanted Valley was, but it sounded interesting. We went by car about 15 minutes outside of Ovalle with my mom, sister Daniela, and nephew David. We arrived at a simple, old gate and I had no idea where we were.

We entered the Valley, and at first, I didn´t see anything. It was a really pretty green calley, surrounded by desert, but nothing much different from what I have seen so far in Chile. But when we got out of the car and walked to these big rocks that were there, I saw there was something in the rocks. My mom told me they were hyrogyfics, left there by the Incas!! At first I was amazing at the one or two that I sawy, but suddenly I realised there were more. Almost every rock in view had some kind of drawing on it. There were really pretty and I had no idea there was something so cool so close to Ovalle.

We also went walking to the other side of the Valley where there HUGE rocks and an Incan bath!! In Spanish, baño means both bathtub and bathroom so at first I though we were going to see an Incan toilet, so I was really excited :) but it turns out it was an Incan bath, which was still really cool, because it was a huge, almost perfectly round hole in a rock. We also saw I giant Incan caves. We were only there a couple of hours, but I had never seen anything like that in my life and I liked it a lot. I think it was one of the coolest things I have seen in Chile so far.

The photos are from the top:

Kate and I next to one of the hyroglyfics

Kate and I in a giant crack between rocks

David being "eaten" by a rock shaped like a fish

Kate, David and I in the Incan "bathtub"

Kate and I on top of a giant rock. Yes those two spots up there are us.

Family Vacation to the South

2008-03-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

I have been really lucky with the family I am staying with here in Chile. They have taken me on some really great vacations to La Serena, Viña del Mar, Olmué and more. My favorite vacation so far is the one that I just got back from. I went with my mom, sister Alejandra and brother Pedro to go visit my oldest sister, Paty, where she lives in a town called Futaleufu.

We first went to Santiago to pick up my sister Alejandra who lives and works there. We were there for two nights. Friday night my mom took me and my two sisters to El Giratorio, which is the big restaurant in downtown Santiago that spins slowly, like the one in Edmonton. I got an amazing view of Santiago at night. And the food was delicious. After that, my mom took us to a Cuban dance club where we listed to Cuban music and watched people dance. Saturday morning, we went to the Virgen on Santiago, which is a giant statue of the virgen on a hill above Santiago. It is bigger than the Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro Brasil. It took us 30 minutes to drive up the hill. In the afternoon we went to Fantasylandia, the only really amusment park in Chile. It was small, but a lot of fun.

We left early on Sunday morning, at 5:30 am for the airport. We got through security and were wating to board at 6:30. The flight was supposed to leave at 7:00. But and 7:15, they told us there were climate problems at our destination, Puerto Montt, and they would update us in an hour. At 8:15, they told us the same thing. They told us this 3 more times until finally, at 11:30 we were told there was a big forrest fire outside Puerto Montt but that the smoke had cleared and we could finally board the plane. After waiting for 5 hours in the airport, the flight was only 1 hour and 20 minutes. We got to Puerto Montt and had to rush to a small private airport where we took a little mini plane with 6 other people. The flight was half and hour, over a big lake and mountains. It was a really beautiful view.

We arrived in the town of Chaitén and were greeted by my sister Paty and a friend of hers. From there, we had to drive 3 hours to the town Futaleufu through very windy roads. The drive actually took us 4 hours because we kept stopping to take pictures of the scenery. It was beautiful, and made me feel like I was back in the mountains in Canada. When we arrived, even the town reminded me of Jasper, only a lot smaller. It wad definately the prettiest town I´ve seen so far in Chile. All the other cities or towns I´ve been through are kind of dirty, but I´ve gotten used to it.

On Monday, we went to a river to go swimming. It was the clearest most clean water I´ve ever seen, except maybe the rivers in the mountains in Canada. But those are too cold to swim in. This river was cold at first but once you got used to it, it was amazing. On Tuesday, we went on a walk to a waterfall. Paty´s husband Roberto told us it was a 5 minute walk on a nice path, but it turned out it was 45 minute trek through a river. By the end, my feet were so numb because the river was so cold, and I was just walking through the water. We got to the little mini waterfall and took pictures. Then Roberto and Pedro went swimming under it, in the ice cold water. Roberto told me that I had to go swimming too, because I was from Canada and therefore was used to the cold. I finally went under, and it was freezing.

On Wednesday, we went across the border to a town in Argentine called Esquel. We went to the centre to go shopping, then to the grocery store to buy food, because it is so much cheaper there. While we were driving back, there was a huge forest fire near the road. When we drove through the smoke, the entire sky was orange and you couldn´t see the sun. We got back in the afternoon and at 5, we went rafting on the River Espolón. There are two rafting rivers in this area. The other one, River Futaleufu, is way more advance rapids. I really wanted to go on that one, but we went with the whole family, including my two host nieces, who are young. It was still a lot of fun, though.

Thursday we went to another river to go swimming. It was actually kind of cold that day, so I didn´t go. And it also rained for the first time since my first day of school here in Chile!! I was so excited to see rain, but my family didn´t really understand why. Friday we relaxed the whole day, until the afternoon. I went for a walk with my mom and two sisters to a cemtery. On they way, we found hundreds of blackberries, which we picked and made a pie with. Saturday we climbed a big hill called Cerro de la Bandera. It was a really tough climb, and the path was not very good, so we basically had to walk through the bushes to get to the top. The view at the top was amazing though. We took lots of photos and on the way back, Roberto and Pedro swam in a freezing cold river.

Sunday we had a bbq with some Australians my mom had met the day before. One of them spoke spanish and so she invited them over for lunch. That is the thing I love most about Chile. People are so friendly. In Canada, you would never invite random tourists to your house for lunch, but here, it is no problem. I talked to them alot and helped translate for them. It made me realize how much spanish I actually know, because I could translate everything instantly.

We left Monday morning for Chaitén to take the mini plane back to Puerto Montt. In Puerto Montt, we went for lunch at a fish market (the best seafood I´ve had in Chile) and walked around the local crafts market, where they sold lots of clothing made of sheep, llama, and alpaca wool. Tuesday we went for lunch at a really nice restaurant that was built over the water. I ate the most delicious shrimp-filled crepes ever. We left Tueday afternoon for the airport and made our way back to Santiago, without mishaps, by plane. We stayed for the night in Santiago and drove back to Ovalle this morning.

I had so much fun on my trip. It was really relaxing, and my entire summer vacation was a lot of fun, but I am really excited to go to school tomorrow.

Photos:

1-Pedro, Paty, Alejandra, my mom and I at the River Futaleufu on the drive from Chaitén

2-Me at the mini waterfall we walked to

3-My host neice Camila and I rafting

4-At the top of the Cerro de la Bandera with Pedro, Camila and Roberto

5-My mom and I in Puerto Montt beside the giant statue overlooking the harbour

Summer Vacation

2008-02-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

I wrote this entry about three weeks ago, but for some reason it never uploaded. So here it is:

So, I have about three weeks left of summer vacation, so I thought I should update everyone. After my last entry for New Years, I went home to Ovalle. I was supposed to go on a school trip to Brazil but couldn´t because I was told that I didn´t need a separate visa to get into Chile, but I did. It was sad that I couldn´t go, but I did some really fun things instead.

First, I went to an all inclusive resort in a town called Olmué, near Viña del Mar. It was beautiful there, with 5 pools, indoor and outdoor, hot tubs, saunas, buffets and a lot more. Plus all the free ice cream I could want. Surprisingly though, I actually lost weight that week. I think it might have been because I was allowed to choose my own food and portion sizes at meals, whereas at home, the maid serves the meals and gives me huge portions. I went with just my mom. Most of the days we spent lying by the pool or walking around the resort. On the third day, we went to Viña. It was beautiful. I got to see the famous Reloj de Flores, which is a giant clock on the side of a hill made of flowers, and it actually works. We also went to the mall, and while we were there, we ran into two friends of mine that live in a neardy town, Quilpué. They came the next day to the resort for the day. That was definately the most fun day. We participated in a lot of activites, the aquabox, dance lessons, and I sang karaoke. I also played a poker game and won second against all men.

On our way back to the resort we went to Santiago. We picked up my grandma, aunt and cousin and went to Ovalle. We only stayed in Ovalle for a day, then went to the apartment in La Serena. It was so nice to be in a city by the beach, because Ovalle is so hot right now, and there is never any wind. We stayed in La Serena for two and a half weeks. I went on a boat tour from Coquimbo to a little rock island full of sea lions. They were cute, in an ugly way, but smelt terrible. We ate a lot of sea food, fresh from the fish market in Coquimbo, caught every morning from the ocean. It was so good. I also went out with friends sometimes, to the mall or the beach. I went two times to Guanaqueros to meet friends and hang out on the beach there.

We just got back from La Serena this week. I haven´t done alot, because my family works, and like most brother, my host brother spends most of his time on the computer. Being home for so much time with my family, I am really learning a lot about families in Chile. The dad is definately the head of the house, and doesn´t do much work at all. Well, in the case of my family he really doesn´t do anything. I usually help my mom cook on Sundays went the maid isn´t here. It really bugged me in the beginning that this was how things are, because I am not at all used to it, but I have accepted it now. I still don´t like it and will be glad to be home in a family that shares all the chores evenly. The kids here are in general very spoiled by their moms. Also, I have noticed that maturity wise, they are a few years behind most people their age in Canada. Most of my friends here are 16 or 17, but they seem a lot younger than me. I think it is because their mothers do almost everything for them here. I don´t really look on it negatively, but it´s definately a big cultural difference.

I will be spending the next few weeks here in Ovalle, or in La Serena, and I intend to take advantage of my last weeks of summer. Not that school is exactly stressfull for me here...

New Years in Chile

2008-01-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Chile being a mainly Catholic country, I assumed that Christmas would be the biggest celebration of the year. I was wrong, though, New Years is definately the biggest, at least for my family. My family owns an apartment in La Serena, where we were planning on celebrating New Years. I went home to Ovalle to get more clothes on the 30th, and came back late on the 31st. On the drive to La Serena, we kept driving by these stuffed dummies on the side of the road. My mom explained that they are dressed in clothes from the old year, and at midnight, they get burned. By the time we got through all the traffic (La Serena is apparently a very popular place to celebrate New Years) it was almost 10:00. In Canada, we would be well into New Years celebrating by then, but in Chile, as always, everything starts later.

We had a big family dinner, with all my host siblings, a friend of my sister, and my exchange friend from Ovalle, Nicole. It was an all-seafood meal, which I loved. We had muscles and this shrimp cocktail type thing, then this big peice of white fish called reineta, which is really popular here, with tomato and seafood sauce. It took us until almost midnight to eat it all. We did the countdown, then at midnight, exactly (the only time things are on time here) the fireworks started. Also, we had to eat a spoonful of lentils for luck in love, and 12 grapes for luck in each month of the new year. We all quickly did this, then ran outside the apartment to watch the fireworks. There were three sets, all along the beach and one in Coquimbo, the city right next to La Serena.

After the fireworks, we went back to the apartment to dance some cumbia. Not the national dance of Chile, but a very popular dance in Chile, especially at New Years. Around 1:00, my exchange student friends all came. There was Nynne from Denmark, and Christina, Kate and Hanna from the USA. It was Kate´s birthday, and my mom knew that, so she brought her a cake from Ovalle. We ate her cake before we headed to the beach, where the party was just starting. There, we partied with my friends and family until 7:30am! We wanted to stay up to watch the sun rise, but the morning was too cloudy, so we couldn´t even see it.

It was a really fun celebration, and I´m so excited to see what the New Year brings for me in Chile.

Chilean Christmas

2007-12-31T11:07:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was my first Christmas away from my family and away from Canada. It was strange, because the one thing that I connect with Christmas is snow. Christmas and winter are synonomous to me. Being on the opposite side of the equator this year, Christmas is in summer. Not only was there no snow, but it was actually 25º on Christmas day.

Christmas here is celebrated mainly the day before, on the 24th. Here they celebrate up until midnight on the 24th. We had a big family dinner that night, and went to the plaza to watch a play on the birth of Jesus. I thought it was pretty funny that I went to watch this show outside at 10:00 at night in my capris and sandals on Christmas Eve. Maybe the only time I´ll ever do that, and definately the first time for me. Technically, we were supposed to open presents at midnight, but my host nephew was tired, so we ended up opening them around 11. None of the presents were labeled as from anybody, they were all from "Viejito Pascuero", Santa. Which means that you never find out exactly who your presents were from. Like Secret Santa. On Christmas day, we basically just slept a lot, ate a big lunch (not because it was Christmas day, but because we´re in Chile.) It was strange that we didn´t do anything special for Christmas day. I got a pair of sandals and a bag and some candy. But the most excited gift was the puppy that my sisters bought for my mom. A 2-month old cocker spaniel named Laicy.

The actual day isn´t as important here as the days leading up to Christmas. There are no Christmas charities in Ovalle, so my mom buys gifts and candy herself and takes them to small schools in the country. I went with her this year, and they were literally one-room schools. The one we went to was grades 1-8 but was only 8 people. For lunch, they all go together to one of the student´s house for a homemade meal, since there is no where for hours around to buy food. It felt good to do something charitable for Christmas, since I wasn´t home to do Santa´s Anonymous this year.

The End of the End-Punta Arenas

2007-12-20T20:06:00.001-08:00

So, the day we were going to Punta Arenas, we got up later than most days (finally.) On our way back to Punta Arenas, we stopped at a little Chilean-style petting zoo. There, we saw penguins, ostriches, emus, llamas. Basically all the things in we saw in the wild, but we could touch some of them. We stayed there for lunch, too. We ate lamb (delicious) and really really good potato salad :) After that, we went to watch them shear a sheep. It doesn´t look fun. They have to hold it down really hard because the sheep are trembling so much. There was another sheep waiting in the pen while one was getting sheared, and it freaked out and jumped the fence, it was so scared. They don´t hurt the sheep, the sheep just hate it (Jazz getting her nails clipped...)

After that was the part I had been waiting for the whole trip. We got to go see wild penguins. The ones we saw are called Magellan Penguins, and they are only found here, in the south of Chile. They don´t live in snow, either, but in grassy field type things near the ocean. They were sooooo cute, and when the got excited they would try to run and it was so cute. We stayed and watched them for a good hour, and no one wanted to leave.

On our last full day in Punta Arenas, we went to the third most famous cemetery in the world (behind the one in Paris, which I have also been to, and another one somewhere.) We got 20 minutes to walk around and look at the graves. They weren´t like normal graves, though. They were like small homes, with front gardens and everything, and fences. Most of them had entire families in them. After the cemetery, we went to a park to take pictures and relax. After a quick stop at the hotel for a huge lunch, we went to the duty free area of Punta Arenas, called la Zona Franco. We had two hours to shop there, and wander around. That night, we had a little farewell to Punta Arenas party with the whole group and the chaperones.

On our last last day, we went to a view point that overlooked Punta Arenas and the Ocean. There, there were three tall pilars with little wooden signs that people had made pointing to different cities or countries around the world. They also said the distance to each place. It was a little disappointing, because there was not a single one from Canada. So I guess that mean I HAVE to go back so I can bring a sign to point toward Edmonton. :) After that, we went to a little market nearby. We also went to the plaza in La Serena where we had to kiss the foot of a statue for good luck. We ate one last lunch in the restaurant, and then headed off the airport. Back in Santiago, most people stayed together to go to the bus station. Some were picked up at Santiago, because they lived nearby, and two were taking the plane to farther cities. We went as a big group to the bus station. Of course, me and Nikolaj, being the first to leave Ovalle at the very beginning of the trip, had the very last bus out of Santiago that night, at half past midnight, after waiting 3 hours in the bus terminal. It was boring, but I´d say we got the best deal for our money, because we got the longest trip! ;)

My Trip to the End of the World-Puerto Natales

2007-12-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

So, after all that waiting around and the delayed flight and the insanely early bus ride, we were finally in Punta Arenas. The thing with the Punta Arenas airport is that the run way is facing out to the ocean, away from where we came. So when we arrived, we had to go past Punta Arenas, essentially heading toward Antarctica, and do a complete 180º to land at the airport. Over the ocean, with really really strong wind. I have been flying quite a few times, so it didn´t bother me, but not all the passengers were too happy with the turbulence or the hairpin turn.

When we landed, we went straight to our bus, which was basically our home on wheels for the whole trip. We met "Tio" John, our guide. The direct translation of tio is uncle, but in Chile they use it as a respectful term. Like Mr. So we met our guide, who was our guide for the whole trip. Our first stop was lunch in Punta Arenas, at the restaurant at the hotel where we would be staying. The plates were huge even for Chile. Then, we were off to our first city, Puerto Natales, a small touristy town a few hours north of Punta Arenas, where we stayed for the first 3 nights. On our way to Puerto Natales, we stopped at La Cueva del Milodón. That´s a huge cave where the found fossils of a thing called a Milodón, like a prehistoric bear. It took us about 20 minutes to walk through the cave, that was how big it was.

After the cave, we arrived in Puerto Natales. We got a chance to walk around the town. It was really touristy, and I think I heard more English and German than Spanish. Our second day was the day long bus tour through Torres del Paine. It sounds kind of boring, but it was actually so much fun. Torres del Paine is the second largest national park in Chile, centered around this mountain that looks like two giant towers (torres.) We saw a lot of wild animals, like wild ostriches, emus, llamas, alpacas, foxes and guanacos (similar to alpacas.) We also saw a lot of lakes. There were two distinct colors to the lakes. Some were really really blue, and others were sea green. The greener ones had a lot more salt in them, as we found when we were told to taste them. There was one lake that we went to that had both colors in it, and you could see the line where the two colors were separated. We also went to a waterfall that fed glacier water into one of the lakes. The last thing we did that day was see ice burgs. I have never seen them before, and had no idea that they are blue. Like really really blue. Because of how compact the ice is. There were about 10 huge iceburgs just floating on the lake. Then, at the far end of the lake, there was a giant glacier.

The next day, we went on a boat ride to a glacier. Or, we were supposed to. The boat ride was 3 hours each way, and it was extremely windy when we got into the middle of the ocean. These tours are always done with two boats, in case something should happen to one boat. Our group had one boat, and the other boat was a group of elderly German tourists. It all seemed fine, until we were about 2 hours in and the other boat had to turn around. The people on the other boat were all sea sick. Because they turned around, we had to too. It was disappointing, but the boat ride was still fun. At one point, me and a girl named Chelsea bundled up and braved the outer deck. I never did figure out if it was raining, or just so windy that the wind was blowing up sea water, but it was really really windy. We had to hold onto the rail or we would have gone overboard. It was a lot of fun, and we were the only two brave enough (or stupid enough) to do it. When we came back in, looking like drowned rats, we got a nice round of applause. Part of the boat trip was a stop at this remote restaurant literally in the middle of nowhere for lunch. Because we didn´t get there by boat, we drove there. It took about 2 hours, but the drive was also a lot of fun. And the food was so delicious, it was well worth it.

That was our last day in Puerto Natales. That night, we had a little party with the whole group, also to celebrate a student´s birthday. We left the next morning to Punta Arenas....

Second Orientation

2007-12-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Since the first orientation, the one thing I have been looking forward to more than anything else is our Rotary planned trip to the south of Chile. The chance to see all the exchange student again and go "the end of the world" was so exciting. We started off just me and Nikolaj, the other student in my city from Denmark. We left at the ungodly hour of 9am on a Friday to take the bus from Ovalle to La Serena. It took about an hour and a half, and then when we got there we had to wait another two hours for our next bus, which was, of course, late (by an hour) so we actually waited for 3 hours. But while we were waiting, we met up with all the exchange students living in La Serena. There are 8 of them, all from the United States except for one girl from Denmark. We also met up with the students who lived to the north of us, in Copiapó.

From there, we went to Villa Alemana, just outside of Santiago, to a little resort called Valle Verde. The same resort we went to for the first orientation in August. There, we had our half-way orientation. It was pretty boring, except for when we did the talent show. I, as a last minute thing, decided to play hot cross buns on glasses of water. Of course, one of the glasses broke right before, so it sounded more like (really flat note) cross buns. I didn´t win, but I did get chocolate. We all did because the chaperones told us we were the most enthusiastic group about the talent show. I guess the year before half the people didn´t do anything, and one guy stood up and burped the alfabet. I would have been impressed, but Rotary wasn´t. A boy from Antofogasta won for a song he wrote and played on the piano. It was about things he missed from home and things he liked in Chile, and it was hilarious because it was in Spanglish. Whenever he didn´t know a word, or he needed it to rhyme, he would just put in an english word or two.

That day, we also wrote a Spanish test. The first part was just an evaluation of our exchange so far, so Rotary could evaluate us as well as our clubs here in Chile. The second part was listening comprehension. It was actually really hard, because we only got to hear the passage once, and then had to answer questions. I got really worried about that part, but I didn´t really have to, because I got 100%!

So that was about all that happened at the Orientation. On the last night, we had to stay up until 1 am for the talent show, and at that time they proceded to tell us that for whoever was going on the trip to the south the bus was leaving at 5:30am. We all woke up around 5:15, rolled out of bed and fell straight back asleep on the bus to the Santiago airport. We all woke up in the airport, though, thanks to Starbucks. For me, my first Starbucks in more than 4 months. Our flight, of course, was delayed, but we finally left, all of us excited to start the trip.

Graduation

2007-12-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Because my school is so small here in comparison with my high school in Canada, the graduation ceremony is way different as well. There are only about 35 people in a graduation class, so each person is allowed to invite as many friends and family members as they want. Each student makes there own hand made invitations. I met a student in the graduating class, Nicol, when I went to the beach with friends in September. I also met her boyfriend, Daniel, and they both invited me to the ceremony. I had to buy gifts for both of them, a wallet for him and a makeup case for her.
The ceremony started off with the national anthem and the school hymn. Then, sixudent from my grade holding the flag of Chile and the school banner walked down the aisle slowly. Then came the graduating class. In pairs, they took one step every few seconds, walking to the graduating song (I don´t know what it´s called, but it´s the one they always use in movies.) It was very slow, it took almost 10 minutes just for everyone to walk down the aisle and take their seats on the stage.
Then they did each student individually. They came up to the front and their parents handed them their rings and diploma. It was much more personal than it would be at my high school. The school is so small that it doesn´t take too long for all the students to be called individually and then get pictures with their parents at the front. If they did that at Scona, we´d be there all night. This was still long, about 2 hours, but there was the school band and the choir to sing. And the kids in grades one and two sang a really adorable song. My friend Nicol was one of the speakers, and she said a little speech.
After, everyone crowded around the students to give them their presents. It took me almost an hour just to find my two friends in the crowd and give them their gifts. And I lost my mom in the process and took another half hour finding her. She was, of course, talking to another mom, completely oblivious to the fact that I had disappeared. It´s strange how much she reminds me of my own mom...

Santiago Part 2

2007-11-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I went to Santiago for a second time. This time, I went with my current family. My host mom and "nephew" and a friend of my mom. My older sister and brother, who live in Santiago, met us there, and my other older sister was there for work. My mom wanted to take me to the soccer game there, Chile vs. Paraguay. We left Wednesday morning. We picked up some friends of my oldest host sister, Alejandra, who live near Ovalle. There were eight of us in the car, which was meant to hold eight, but it was still a tight fit, especially for the almost 6 hour drive through the foothills to Santiago.

We arrived around 5, after having stopped, of course, for a giant lunch around 3. The game started at 10:30, and I assumed, being in Chile, that would mean we would leave at 9 at the earliest, and most likely the game would be late. But, no matter how late Chileans are for everything else, soccer (or should I say, futbol?) is always on time. So, in order to get good seats, we went at 7:30. I was all decked out in my fan wear. A red team Chile jersey, a big red white and blue hat, the flag painted on my cheek and a big Chilean flag. I though we would be bored for three hours, but I wasn´t. We took a bunch of newspaper to rip up to make confetti, and that occupied a lot of time. Also, as the stadium began to fill up, people started little competitions to see which group of fans could cheer the loudest. I thought Edmonton Oilers fans were loud, well they are nothing compared to Chilean soccer fans. At least 3/4 of the people were wearing red and everyone had confetti to throw. Also, someone brought a doll of a Paraguayan player that people started playing "catch" with, and eventually ripped apart. There was a Paraguay fan section, fenced off so that the Chilean fans couldn´t get to them, and surrounded by armed police officers. But armed police officers don´t stop people from yelling insults at the Paraguayans. Let´s just say I learned some very "colorful" language at that soccer game. Especially when the opposition scored. The pre-game started with a marching band performing the national anthem (sung way louder than at any Oiler´s playoff game.) Then, a man came running onto the field with two giant Chilean flags. He went to every corner and led them in a cheer to see who could get the loudest, then danced around the field with the flags. Then the game started. I really liked it, even thought we lost (3-0, the fans were not happy.) It went really fast, and before I knew it, it was over. The 50 or so Paraguay fans had to be kept in the stadium until all the Chilean fans had left, so that they wouldn´t be mobbed. My mom told me this quite calmly, like it was perfectly normal. We went for dinner after, although it was nearly impossible to find an open restaurant. Because Chile had lost, everyone went home early and the restaurants all closed.

The next night, we all went to a restaurant called Lo Buen Muchacho. It was huge, with a live band and a big dance floor. There were also a lot of tourists, with little flags from there countries on the tables. There was a flag from Canada, but they left before I had a chance to go talk to them. All the Chileans danced salsa (I even gave it a shot and was told I was a natural!) and then this guy got on stage and led the "gringos" (Chilean word for anyone non-spanish) in a sort of a salsa line dance type thing. Dinner was three big pots of meat and 6 different types of salads. I tried blood sausage, which has a really weird flavor, but is delicious, and something that looked a lot like intestines, and basically tasted like really salty fatty beef. I didn´t ask what it was, I just prefered to enjoy it without knowing.

On Friday night, I went with my mom, sister, and her friends to a Tango club. I have never seen the Tango live, or that close up. I think it is one of the most beautiful dances I´ve ever seen, but really hard. They had men who would walk around to the tables and ask the women to dance. Then, they had two professional couples come out and dance two different types of Tango, one slow (the more traditional one) and a newer, faster type of tango. They were both amazing, and made me really want to go to Argentina. I think my mom must have read my mind, because she told me the next day she was planning on taking me and my oldest sister to Argentina in March! I really hope we can go, I have always wanted to go to Argentina.

So that was my second experience in Santiago. Very different from the relaxed, meeting the families trip I had the first time. But I had SO much fun. Especially at the soccer game, getting all dressed up and learning the chants. I can´t wait for my next trip.

Santiago and La Serena

2007-11-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

Even though I am now living with another family, I have still kept in touch with my old family. When I left them, they told me they wanted to take me to Santiago to visit their family. I assumed it would be sometime in the summer, but two weeks ago, while I was visiting their house for lunch, they invited me to go with them. I was excited, not only to go to a big city for the first time in three months, but to see my older sister, Xime, who I had not seen in a month. I left school early on Friday, at 1:00. My former host dad took me to my house so I could pack and eat lunch, and around 4 we were off. It was a long drive, about 6.5 hours. And if you think driving through BC mountain roads is bad, try driving through Chilean mountains for 6 hours in a very small car. Not only are the road twisty, but they´re high up, and the cliffs are literally a few feet to the side of the car. And people like to take the hairpin turns on these roads at 70 km/h. It took a while for me to get used to that, but after a few drives to La Serena and back, it has become normal to me. The drive was still long, with one stop for drinks and an empanada (shrimp and cheese, delicious.)

When we arrived in Santiago, it was almost 11. Despite not having done anything for almost 7 hours, I was exhausted. But it was still exciting to finally be in Santiago. It was like being back in Downtown Edmonton, with the high buildings and freeways. The apartment, where my older host brother and sister are living while they go to university in Santiago was nice. It was strange though, because after being in such a small city for three months, I found that the noise in Santiago made it hard for me to sleep at night.

On Saturday morning, we went to my host mom´s sister´s house. Her sister and mom have the same birthday, so the whole family was there to celebrate. She has 3 brothers and a sister, so it was a big family. My host dad´s family, who we visted on Sunday, was much smaller, because he only had 1 brother and 1 sister. It is weird how similar that is to my real families in Canada. Anyway, we had lunch around 2 (late lunch, too, is becoming normal, too) We also had a BBQ around 9 for dinner, and the most delicious cake I have ever tasted. It was this pastry with chocolate and manjar between the layers. We left around 11, and Xime was planning on taking me to see a disco in Santiago, but we were so exhausted when we got back that we just slept.

Sunday, as I said, we went to my host dad´s parent´s house. It was nice, with a gorgeous garden that my mom would have loved. His mom also loved cats, and Xime told me she has 8. We had a BBQ there as well, and left around 2 for Ovalle.

The next weekend, my current family told me we were going to La Serena. They own an apartment there, and two in La Serena, one for the family and one for my brother, Pedro, who is going to University in Santiago (same year as my other host brother, Luis.) This drive was more reasonable, only 45 mintues. This is the fourth time I´ve been to La Serena since I got here. I like it, because it has a mall, but is not as big and loud as Santiago. The apartment was really nice, bigger than I expected, and with an amazing view. The Pacific Ocean, and the sunset.

Saturday morning, we woke up late and ate breakfast. Then, we went to Coquimbo. Coquimbo is a smaller city to the south of La Serena, but they have grown into one big city. In Coquimbo, there is a giant cross called the Cruz del Tercer Milenio, or Cross of the Third Milenium. It is 90 meters high, and you can go up by elevator 73 meters to the arms of the cross. From there, you get a complete 360º view of Coquimbo and La Serena, and the Ocean. It was amazing. After the cross, we went to a seafood restaurant for lunch. Before we went there, though, my family took me to a Chilean fish market. It was insane. I´m not the kind of person who is usually bothered by fish smell, but the smell there made me feel sick, it was so strong. Ther were people who would literally come up to us as yell in out faces to buy there fish. We just walked through it, and after, my family couldn´t stop laughing at the look on my face. After the fish market, we went for lunch. I found it odd that we were in a city beside the Ocean, but all the salmon that they serve at all the restaurants is from the river. It was still good though.

Sunday, we woke up late as well. I went for a bike ride with my host sister and we ate lunch. Around 5 we left for Ovalle. It was a fun weekend, and I am looking forward to more trips with both my families. The next one is a trip with my current family to Santiago to watch Chile play Argentina or Brasil to go to the World Cup for soccer in 2010 (I think.) I´m really excited, because I´ve never seen a real prefesional soccer game live, soccer is such a big part of South American culture. Keep checking the blog for that story!

Changing Families

2007-10-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

A week and a half ago, I got a shock. My sister´s exchange fell through because the US consulate wouldn´t give her a visa (don´t I know about problems with consulates...) and she had officially pulled out of Rotary. Because school here is not free like in Canada, and my sister wasn´t going on her exchange, my host parents now had an extra student to pay for. They told me that my host dad would be going to a meeting that night to talk to the president of my Rotary club in Ovalle, to decide what would happen. My mind of course went to the worst possibe option, that I would be sent home. When my dad got home from the meeting, he told me that no, I would not get sent home, I wouldn´t even have to change schools, but I would have to change familes. I was relieved that I didn´t have to change schools, because, even though I have only been under two and a half months here, I still have made a lot of really good friends. My school here is really small, so everyone is really close, and changing schools would have really sucked. I was still sad though, because I really liked my current family, and felt like I was really starting to feel like a part of it. I was supposed to stay with them for a whole year, and was looking forward to getting to know them even better.

But on Friday night a week ago, my new host dad and older sister came to pick me up. It was really sad. Both me and my host mom were crying, and it made me think about how sad it will be to actually have to leave after a whole year. We were both acting like I really was leaving, even though the city I live in is small enough that when you go out, there is a good chance that you will see people you know. Not to mention the fact that I still see my younger sister, Ferny every day at school. But it was still sad, like an ending of some sort.

But, when I got to my new family and met everyone, I realized it wasn´t an ending. It was just a change, a new part of my exchange. I have a 15 year old brother, Jesús, a 20-something year old sister, Daniela, her son, David who is 5, a brother, Pedro, who is 18 and in university in Santiago, and an older sister who also doesn´t live at home. My new host parents are Alejandro Rodríguez and Rosa Laro. My new host mom is the complete opposite of my other host mom. She´s a little crazy, very loud and likes to throw big dinner parties with her many friends. My dad is somewhat of a celebrity in Ovalle, because he owns his own Pharmacy, and also owns Cruz Verde Pharmacy, which is a big chain Pharmacy in Chile. My older brother also used to go to my school, and was a classmate of my other brother, Luis. All my friends know my new family, and know where I live.

I miss my old family a little bit, but I also talk to my mom and older sister (who has now gone back to her apartment in Santiago) on the phone, and to my younger sister at school. I think it was a very good change for me, and added a little excitment to my exchange. Also, because I now know a lot of Spanish, getting into the groove in this family was a lot quicker, and I already feel perfectly comfortable with my new family, after only a week. And the best part is that my first family still wants me to go with them to Santiago to meet the rest of the family sometime this year. I am really exciing to get to know my new family and have new experiences with them.

The photos are of a birthday party I went to for my friend Camila, and of my last weekend with my first family, when we went to Ferny´s baptism. Also in the picture are Ferny´s godparents, Monica and Renato.

Fiestas Patrias

2007-09-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

This past week was one of the biggest celebrations in Chile (besides New Years, which I´m told is amazing.) It was Días de Patrias, or National Days. Unlike Or humble one-day celebration of Canada Day, in Chile, they celebrate for an entire week. The official "birthday" of Chile is on September 18, but we got the entire week off school to join in the celebrations.
The celebrations started off on Friday 14. Our last day of "school" before vacations, although we really only had one class. The rest of the day was spent eating empanadas, watching a talent show that the younger grades put on, and participating in traditional Chilean games. The talent show was definitely my favorite part, because all the younger kids dressed up in traditional Chilean clothes and danced the Cueca, the official dance of Chile. The games included tug-o-war, potato sack races, 3-legged races and, of course, a soccer game, because what South American celebration would be complete without soccer? At night, we went to the school in a small town called Limarí where my mom teaches English part-time. There was a talent show, with much Cueca-ing, and empanadas.
Saturday was not only the first day of vacation, but my younger sister, Fernanda´s 10th birthday. Not a lot to tell here. It was just like a tenth birthday party in Canada. 25 kids running around yelling, eating too much and the High School Musical soundtrack blaring for 5 hours non-stop. That movie is, believe it or not, more popular here than it is in Canada. Also on Saturday, I met my older host brother, Luis, who came for a week from Santiago. Saturday night, I went to the disco once again with some of my friends, and some of Xime´s friends who came from Santiago to visit their families as well.
On Sunday, we went to Luis´girlfriends house for lunch. But in Chile, going to someone´s house for lunch means going at 11:00, eating from around 2:00 until 5:00 and going home around 6:00. I met a lot of really nice people, not to mention a lot of dogs. They lived in a big house just outside the city, and it seemed to be a kind of homeless shelter for dogs. For any kind of celebration, Chileans have an "asado" which is a huge BBQ. First you eat chedipan, which is basically a big smoky on bread with mayo, lots of mayo. After, there are salads. The most popular Chilean salad is lettuce, tomato and onions. Tomatoes here are never eaten with the skin on, though, always peeled, and onions are always soaked in water so they have no spice, which is ok with me because I never used to like onions. The only dressing used on any salad here is lemon juice (from fresh lemons grown in the backyard-delicious) and SALT. A lot of salt. Also, there is just plane lettuce with lemon juice and plane (peeled) tomatoes with lemon juice. And salt. The main course is every kind of meat you can imagine. I though that I was accustomed to eating lots of meat, being from Alberta, but here, they really eat MEAT. They have pork, lamb, chicken and beef. And usually a bit of fish. The only seasoning used here is, of course, salt. And everyone eats some of everything. Even when I had lunch just with my family the next day, we had an asado with enough meat to feed an army.
On Tuesday, the official birthday of Chile, I went with my family to two small towns on the beach near Ovalle. First, we went to Guanaqueros, where we had lunch (fish, not meat!) and walked around. After, we went to Tongoy. There, we walked around the market by the ocean and went to the beach for a bit. The sand on the beaches here are so soft. Even on the smallest, least popular beach, it´s like being at a five -star resort. I also tried a new type of empanada, "queso y camarón," cheese and shrimp, which was way better than it sounds. My favorite type of empanada so far, though, is the truely Chilean empanada chileno. It has ground beef, onions, raisins (I wasn´t sure about those, but they turned out to be really good), an olive (never some olives, the real empanadas chilenos have only one olive) and half a boiled egg (again, real ones have only have, no more.)
I finished off my week with a trip with some friends back to Guanaqueros. We stayed at a friend´s house there, went to the beach, and of course, we had an asado. On Sunday, I went to my first church service with my family. The church here is huge, and really beautiful. Everyone here says the church is nothing compared to the ones in Santiago, but compared to churches I´ve seen, it was amazing. There were statues and carvings and a huge shrine at the front with paintings and murals. The church service included a lot of standing up and sitting down repeatedly and a lot of singing. They have a live band play at every service. Afterwords, we went to La Serena, where we walked around the mall, and had lunch. Even in the food courts, the lunches are impressive, with side courses and bread, like a meal at home.
It was a really busy week, but I´m so glad that I was here for this celebration. I learned so much about Chilean culture, and I´m looking forward to New Years now!

The church in the photo above isn´t the one I went to. It is actually a much smaller one in Limarí, but is still much bigger than any I´ve ever seen! The first photo is me in a Cueca outfit. It is actually the outfit that the lead dancer wears when a bunch of people are dancing, the rest wear dresses with aprons

Aniversario

2007-09-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

In Chile, the school´s anniversary is a REALLY big deal. My school´s official anniversary was this past Thursday, but the celebration was for the entire week. I only went to school until 1:00 everyday, and then I went home for lunch. At 3:00, I went back to school for activities and competitions. For the whole week, we were put into three teams, or Alianzas. These were made of different grades. Mine, Alianza B had 3º Basico (Grade 3), 6º Basico (Grade 6) and 3º Medio (Grade 11-my grade.) For the entire week, all the challenges and competitions that we won got us points and at the end of the week there would be a winner. The first competition was that the Alianzas all had to perform team chants. We´ve been practicing them for the past two weeks. My Alianza won that one, and my younger sister, Ferni´s came in second. Next, there was soccer (futball.) The girls went first (my team won that as well) and the guys went next. The guys, though, had to play wearing robes and slippers and carrying stuffed animals. It was very strange, but really entertaining.

On Tuesday was another dance. This one was more like a line dance that each team had to make up. We´ve also been practicing that for a few weeks. My team also won that one. On Tuesday, I also competed with 5 other people from my Alianza in a little race thing. We had to put lotion all over our hands and pass a bar of soap between us. We lost, because I dropped the soap, but it was still fun. Also, there was a soccer juggling contest. The boy from our Alianza juggled 117 times! He obviously won.

On Wednesday was couple dance competitions. In Chile, and in all of South America I think, they LOVE to dance. When I told them Canada doesn´t have a national dance, they were shocked. Anyway, the dances started off with the Chilean national dance, the Cueca. It´s realy hard to explain what it´s like, because it´s not really similar to any other dance I´ve ever seen. For our Alianza, we had to kids in 3º Basico compete. It was so adorable. The next competition was the Jive, then the Salsa and Regaeton. We got second overall in the couple dances. There were also other little competitions. Like one where two kids from the youngest grade in each Alianza had to go in a circle and take of their sweats, jackets, socks and shoes. Then they were blindfolded and spun around. Then they had to crawl around and find as many clothes as they could and put them on in 3 minutes. It was hilarious, because the boys would put on the girl´s shoes, and one tall girl ended up with pants that were at least 4 inches too short.

On Thursday, I didn´t go to school until 9:00 because there wasn´t classes. Instead, there was an awards presentation and the band played. It last for 3 hours and it was really boring, but at least we didn´t have to go to class.

Thursday afternoon there were no events. Instead, we went back to the school at 8:00 to watch a Velada Cultural. It was basically a talent show, but it was also a competition between the Alianzas. The best part was the beginning, when the youngest grade performed. They did little mini musicals. The ones from Alianza A did a part from Beauty and the Beast. My Alianza did Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast, and my sister did We´re All In This Together from High School Musical. It was so cute. They even had kids dressed in the exact same costumes as from the movie. The next category was Arobico Maculino which was like tae bo. Our guys won that one. There was also three different categories of dances. The Playback was when a group of dancers had to immitate a music video, there was a Mixed dance, and an International category. For the international one, my Alianza did an Indian dance. It was really good.

On Friday we had to go to class in the morning and in the afternoon, there was a BBQ. On Saturday night there was a formal dance at the school. Also, they announced the winners of the weeks competitions. My Alianza won!!

It was a really fun week, and it makes me wish that the school´s anniversary was this big in Canada.

Valle de Elqui

2007-08-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I got home from school looking forward to doing nothing all weekend. I was exhausted, and I really needed to sleep. But of course, that was not in the cards. As soon as I walked in the door, my host mom told me that we were leaving in an hour and I had to pack. Apparently they had told me this earlier in the week, but I hadn´t understood. I still didn´t really understand where we were going, or why, as I got into the car. We drove for three hours, through La Serena and then north. It was a long ride, especially since I was squished in the middle of the backseat in a very small car. The ride, however, was not a boring one. The scenery was beautiful. After driving through La Serena, we drove through what looked like a desert to me. After the desert, we started driving though the mountains. We were going 80 km around hairpin turns on the side of the mountains. The rest of my family didn´t seem to concerned with this, so I suppose this is yet another thing that will take getting used to.

When we finally got to our destination, it was 10:30. I found out it was a small tourist town called Valle de Elqui. It was so beautiful. It was in a valley between the mountains. There were palm trees and cacti everywhere. We stayed at a place called Elqui Domas, just outside the town. They were little dome shaped tents where people go to look at the stars. There was a telescope in our tent, which we never actually figured out how to use, but was cool anyway. There was a loft in the tent, where my host sister Fernanda and my host parents slept, and two beds below where me and my other host sister Xime slept. It looked small from the outside, but actually fit five people more comfortably than a hotel room. And the bathroom was bigger than my bathroom here in Ovalle.

On my first morning in Elqui, we went to a little place about 15 minutes from the Domas. It was a bunch of little shops in houses with tatched roofs. There, you could buy jewellry and house decorations. There was also a guy who read your runes to tell the future. He told my sister Xime she would be going on long trip very soon, and that she would learn a lot on her trip. That was so wierd, because she leaves in a few weeks to go on a Rotary Exchange to New York!

On the second day, Sunday, we got up late. We packed and ate breakfast around noon. Check out time here is noon, but like anything in Chile to do with time, it is very flexible. We went to the actual town of Valle de Elqui and walked around. There were really cute little shops everywhere with hand made jewellry and lotions and stuff. We went for lunch at a resort near the city. It was delicious. After lunch, my family told me we were going on a trail ride. I was so excited because I´ve never been on a real trail ride.

On this ride, we had to actually stear the horses, because they didn´t just follow the butt of the horse in front. I had a horse name Payaso, which means clown in Spanish. He was light brown and white. Our guide, a true Chilean Gaucho, took us through the mountains in the little valley. At one point we went by a rock that is supposed to give you good luck. You have to rub it in this one spot. That spot was worn in from hundreds of years of being touched. The ride was about an hour and a half. It was so much fun. The only bad part about it was that I discovered that I am very allergic to horses. On the ride home, I was sneezing and coughing the whole time, and both my eyes almost swelled shut! But it was still a lot of fun.

¡Earthquake!

2007-08-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, well it wasn´t actually an earthquake, but it was definitely a tremor. And to me, who´s never felt one before, it seemed like an earthquake. I was just sitting in the living room watching TV and there was a shake. And not at all what I would have expected. I though a tremor was little, and I guess this one was fairly small, but it actually rattled the picture frame sitting on the table beside me. I forgot that when I got here, my family had told me that they get almost weekly tremors, and there hasn´t been one yet. My family says I´ll get used to them, but it definitely rattled me (no pun intended.)

I don´t really have anything else to say. Today was a good, restfull day, probably the first one I´ve had yet (and maybe the last!) We had the day off school because there was a Catholic holiday. My host dad went to work for a bit and my sister Fernanda went to a friends. Xime, my other sister, went to Santiago yesterday afternoon for some kind of concert, and will be getting back tomorrow night. I went out for groceries once, and then caught up on some reading, which I havn´t had a lot of time to do yet. So the earthquake was about the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the last few days. And it was quite exciting.

The pictures above are of the grape fields that are everywhere in Chile. We drove by them on the way home from the grocery store. They are enormous, but youu can´t tell from the photo. They go on forever and they are all in perfect little rows. They´re kind of ugly right now, because they are all brown, but when they bloom in the summer, they are apparently beautiful!

A Busy Weekend

2007-08-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

When this weekend finally came, I was really looking forward to just resting. It´s been such a busy week, and I´m exhausted from having to think so hard constantly. Of course, the weekend was anything but relaxing, but that´s not to say that it wasn´t fun. I´m actually really glad that I kept busy, because it leaves me no time to think about home and my family and friends.

On Friday night, I went to a restaurant with most of the girls in my grade. It was called Tremenda, and it has amazing fruit juices! When I got home around 10:00, I was really tired, and ready for bed. But Xime, my host sister, wanted to rent a movie. I went with her and her boyfriend, Pedro, to the supermarket to buy snacks and we rented a movie called If Only. It was in English with Spanish subtitles, which was good, because I was way to tired to try and understand a movie in Spanish. I probably should have been reaading the subtitles and trying to understand, but I was way to tired.

On Saturday, I slept in until 11:00. After I had had breakfast and gotten ready, my host mom and sister, Xime, took me to Embalse Paloma. It was a giant water dam on a man made lake. It was really windy and cold, but really beautiful, because it was really close to the mountains. It was about 20 minutes outside of Ovalle. That´s one thing that I love about Chile. You can´t go anywhere in the country without seeing mountains. The dam also had a long lookout thing sticking out into the water. It was really high up, and with the wind, I thought I was going to get blown off into the water.

After Paloma, we went back to the house to pick up my host dad. We drive the to the other side of Ovalle, toward a town called Limari. On the way, we stopped at an Equine Center to eat at the restaurant there, but it was closed. We continued on to Limari, which is about 15 minutes outside Ovalle. There, my host mom showed me the school where she teaches English to young kids. We also went to a church where, I think, Xime and Fernanda were babtised. I couldn´t really understand them. Beside the church, there was a little house that was made out of mud! It was so weird. On the way back to Ovalle, my host mom pointed out the little shrines set up by the side of the road. I´ve been seeing them everywhere in Chile, and was dying to know what they were. My mom explained that they were little memorial shrines dedicated to people who had died in car accidents. She told me they are only in Chile.

Today (Sunday), we went to La Serena. La Serena is a bigger city 45 minutes away from Ovalle. It is really beautiful, right on the ocean, but you can still see the mountains in the background. There, I met up with Javier, who was an exchange student from Chile who lived in Edmonton. He just got home three weeks ago. It was good to see him, and my family said that they go to La Serena once or twice a month, so I will have more chances to see him and the other exchange students who are in La Serena. I also got to talk to Nynne, a student from Denmark, who was in the mall when we were. We are planning to get together with all the exchange students in La Serena and Ovalle in the next few weeks. Me and Javier walked around the mall and talked (in English, even though I shouldn´t have) and he taught me a few slang words that Chileans use that are different from traditional Spanish words. Like instead of "¿entiendes?" for "do you understand?" they say "¿cachai?." Also, instead of "¿como estas?" for "how are you?" they shorten in to sound like "¿comoestai?"

So that was my weekend. Tomorrow is Monday and (sigh) school again. I´m sure it will be another very busy week.

First Day Of School

2007-08-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

I did it! The one thing I was really nervous about was going to the first day of school. But I didn´t really need to be worried. The people were really nice. One of the counsellors at the school who spoke english took me around the school and introduced me to my classmates. Unlike most schools in Chile, Colegio Amalia Errazuriz is like schools in Canada. Instead of staying in the classroom and having the teachers change classrooms, we went to different classrooms for each subject. The first girl I met was Yiliana. She introduced me to all the other people. It is a small school so there is only one class in each grade. There were so many names at once that I only remember a few. Cote was the girl who led me around the school all day, and her friend Mariana also. In the classes, it was really laid back. Not like at Scona where, when the teacher walks in, the class starts. Here, the teacher walks in, talks to the students and 15 or 20 mintues after the bell, the class starts. Also, everyone talks during the entire class, and the teacher doesn´t seem to mind. It was a bit hard to concentrate, but I´ll get used to it.
The classes I had today were philosophy (i think, the translation was weird), Physics, Spanish and History. I understood a lot of the physics stuff because the words are very similar to English. Also, I figured out that in History they were studying the Renaissance, which I just did in Social Studies, so I caught on. The teachers talked really fast so the lectures didn´t go well, but when they wrote on the board, I usually understood.
All the people in the class were really nice, and they talked to me a lot. They were very interested in Canada and my life there and my hobbies etc. Then we came to soccer (of course) and they were all really loud and excited about something. I figures out that they were talking about the riot in Toronto after the world cup, and people from Chile getting arrested. They also knew about West Edmonton Mall.
Because lunch is the most important meal of the day, and usually it is a large meal, I did not bring one. Instead, my host mom brought me lunch at 1:00 when the lunch hour started. I thought this would be embarrassing, but when I went there, there was at least half the school waiting for lunches to be dropped off at the front. My lunch was, of course, huge and I didn´t finish it. All the girls at the table thought it was funny that I barely ate anything, but I was so full! At lunch, I also had a chance to talk to Nikolai. He told me he doesn´t understand anything in his classes, either. There is supposed to be another exchange student from Sweden in my class, but she was sick today. Her name is Nicole. I hope tomorrow is as eventful as today!

Orientation

2007-08-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

So, after we drove almost two hours to the Orientation (I thought it was going to be in Santiago) we were shown our cabanas. They were little individual houses with 4 or 5 to a house. I was in Cabana Dies. The first thing I notice about Valle Verde was that there were palm trees everywhere. It was barely above freezing and there were palm trees! I was very excited (I took a ton of pictures.) At dinner on the first night, we had an empinada, which is basically a huge pizza pop, but with only mozzarella cheese inside, and it is deepfried. I have now found out that almost everything in Chile is fried, or is loaded with carbs. I understand why Rotary made our jackets so big: I´m barely going to fit mine when I come home. I really miss fresh fruit and vegetables though. I havn´t had any since I´ve been here.

At the Orientation, we talked about exactly the same stuff that we did at the Spring Orientation in Edmonton. The rules, what to expect, the rules, the culture, and the rules. There are alot of rules, but I´m sure we´ll all find some way to have fun :) I also had a chance to meet all the other students, including Nikolai, from Denmark, who is the other student staying in Ovalle, and going to my school. Our two host families are very good friends so we will probably see a lot of each other. This morning, at 9:00 am, the bus picked us up and took us to the airport in Santiago where we all took our connecting flights to our cities. There are a ton of students going to La Serena, so we were all together.

At the airport, we were met by our families, who cheered and clapped when we came. My family is soo nice. The mother is Ximena and the daughter who is 18 is Ximena too. The father is Luis, and the 20 year old son, who is not at home, is too. Fernanda is the only child living at home right now, she is 9. They were so welcoming, and although they spoke to me in English today, they promised that tomorrow it would stop, so I can learn Spanish. Anyway, there is so much more to tell, but I need to go now. Keep reading by posts, I´m sure there will be even more to say later!

The Beginning

2007-08-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

So finally, after all the preparation I did, and all the mixed messages I´ve been given, I was off! I left on Thursday August 2 at 4:30 pm, but it was more like 5:00. Saying goodbye was sad and when I first went through Security in Edmonton and turned around for one last look at my family, I was a little overwhelmed. My flight to Toronto was uneventful and passed quickly. When I landed in the Toronto Airport, I had about 45 minutes until my plane boarded and it took me at least 25 minutes just to walk from my arrival gate to the other side of the airport and my departure gate. When I finally got there I was a little stressed out but I saw something that lifted my spirits; a red Rotary Canada blazer. I went over and introduce myself. His name is Jake and he is from a small town (literally with a population of about 100) that is about 3 hours north of Toronto. We talked about all our mishaps with preparations for our trips, and I learned that I was not the only one going through it. When we got on the plane, we were two seats apart, which was handy, but of course, the instant the plane took off, we were both fast asleep. The plane ride was long, and the sleep wasn´t that great, but I have to say that my mom was right about the neck pillow she insisted I buy; it saved me. As we were circling Santiago waiting to land, the pilot told us to look outside and get our first glimpse of Santiago, and I looked outside and saw gray. I learned that Santiago is one of the most poluted cities in the world. I got my real first at Chile when landed. Customs went surprisingly smoothly, except when they tried to make me pay a tax that I didn´t have to pay ($132 american!) and Jake and I were soon done. There was a group there to greet us, Rotarians as well as students, because we were the last to arrive. 20 out of the 30 students in districts 4320 and 4360 (northern and central Chile) are American. There is only the two of us from Canada, 3 from Denmark, 4 from Germany and 1 from Finland. Everyone is really friendly, although the Amercans do ask some pretty funny questions ("Is hockey mandatory in Canada") and no one knew what a touque (I think thats how you spell it) was. From there we went to the Orientation Center, a little resort type place called Valle Verde. That was where it really began.

Plane Ticket!!

2007-07-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

I just got my plane ticket. I'm leaving on August 2, 2007 and arriving in Santiago on August 3.

Welcome to my blog

2007-06-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

I will be heading to Chile on August 3rd. After that you can check out stories from my adventure here on my blog.