I have a home and family in Chile!

I am so excited to finally find out that I am going to be living in Las Condes, Santiago, Chile!!

Tonight I received a friend request from a guy in Chile on Facebook. In the hopes that it was my host brother I accepted, and he turned out to be my host brother!! I was ecstatic when I found out I was going to be living just outside of Santiago, and that I now have a family!! I believe Las Condes is a part of Santiago, sort of like a suburb/neighborhood but I still need to do some research. I was actually running up and down my house and screaming to my parents every bit of information that I received from my host brother! He is going on exchange to the USA around the time that I leave, and my older host brother is 21, but he doesn't live at home so therefore I will be an only child! I will stay with this host family until around Christmas time and then I will move.

This seems so surreal that I now have a place to call home in Chile! It's also quite nerve-wracking to realize the language barrier that I will be facing with my host family! I'm still in shock and amazement that this is now reality, I will be doing a lot of research on my city and area now!

Oh and the school that I will attend is Colegio Adventista Las Condes, feel free to try and translate the website! This also means that I will get to wear a uniform to school for the first time! I know that this shouldn't be exciting news but hey, it's CHILE!

Update: With all of my excitement I forgot to check my e-mail but I have received an e-mail from my host dad. Thanks to the help of Google Translator I was able to read it! So I am really living in Santiago and my older host brother is studying in Argentina.

Still waiting

I'm still waiting to hear about my acceptance to a Rotary Club in Chile. I've been able to connect with 15+ other Outbounds going to Chile via Facebook (oh the magic), most of them from Denmark and the USA it seems! There are quite a few that have already found out where they'll be living, and their host families have e-mailed them! To say I'm jealous is an understatement... I just want to know where I'm going to be living! Atacama, Central, by the Pacific, the South? I keep on checking my e-mail way to much, especially for someone who doesn't have a "crackberry". So far one of the 7080 Outbounds has found out her city, so the rest of us are still in the same boat, just waiting.

Funny little fact: I'm not the only cheerleader going to Chile! I was talking to a girl from Pennsylvania and she also cheerleads, so we plan on doing some stunting if we get together on Rotary trips! Ha ha, you were right dad!

Since I haven't gotten any more news I've started to buy some stuff to bring like a red backpack (oh Canada), and a nice Canada flag to sew on it!

This is Chile :)

Chilean Legend

I've been doing a lot of research and reading up on Chile, I really enjoy random things like this:

Creation of Chile Poem

“In the beginning of time, God created the wonders of the world. When he was finished, however, he saw that he had many left-over pieces. He had parts of rivers and valleys, of oceans and lakes, of glaciers and deserts, of mountains and forests, and of meadows and hills. Rather than to let such beauty go to waste, God put them all together and cast them to the most remote corner of the earth. This is how Chile was born.”

A Chilean legend

Unofficial Countdowns

4 months until I leave for Chile (approximately)

4 months to save as much money as I can

4 months to learn some basic Spanish

3 months until final exams

3 months until I am done high school forever! (in Canada)

2 months until prom

2 months until I have to decide which university I want to go to

1 more cheerleading competition ever