Chilean Christmas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!