I'm Back!

I have a lot of writing to catch-up on so I'll share my experiences from my trip a bit later. All I have to say for now is "Wow!" it was beautiful and such a great opportunity to spend time with my classmates!

Well I'm off to write my Beavertale for my Rotary District back home... you can check-out old ones at http://rotary7080.org and look under Youth Exchange then Beavertales

Saludes

Alianzas

On Wednesday and Thursday were the Anniversary celebrations for my school. They split the school-body into 4 different colour Alianzas (Alliances) -my class was in the Amarillo (Yellow) Alianza along with 6 Basico, Kinder, and Pre-Kinder classes. Every Alianza also had a theme - this year they were all based on movies and we were La Sirenita (The Little Mermaid).

Both days consisted of games and competitions ranging from what Alianza had the most pairs of Nike shoes, an intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, best costume made of re-used materials, 3-legged futbal, comedy act, and other random competitions.

In the night on Thursday after school we had a Gala to finish the Alianza festivities. Everyone dressed up in formal attire and we had musical performances from each Alianza and awards and then it was announced that the Verde Alianza won (they had 4 Medio... they always win!), but we did come second!

I leave for the South and Argentina tomorrow morning so expect stories about my time there next post!

Friday - It rained like crazy the night before, I mean full out pouring rain. In the moring the mountains that have been stripped of snow were completely covered again. The air was super-clean, the wind was freezing and it had actually snowed in areas higher up like where one of my exchange friends lives! After school I went straight for warm clothes, some hot chocolate and even had to put my bed warmer on again!

Saturday - Traveled to San Bernardo with 4 other exchange students to another exchangers house. We helped set-up for her host-brothers birthday party, us girls made A LOT of sandwiches! We also dyed one girls blond, blond hair (no, not me... don't worry!) and that ended up taking up time doing it in the dark outside. Finally people started arriving around 12-12:30ish and the party got started. Parties here don't seem to really start until 1-1:30ish and they end pretty late 3-4 am... or whenever you can stay up until, like 6:30 am...!

Sunday - Traveled back home, slept then tried to make plans for Halloween. I had originally planned to stay in Las Condes but with unofficial plans I ended up going to Maipu to Emily's (Canadian BEF [Best Exchange Friend]) and we went out to a Halloween party there. With not much practice with the "Chilean-style dancing" I think we did pretty well, and plus our costumes of "Gringas" were so legitimate!

Monday - Was another holiday so I stayed at Emily's and then we went to her Grandma's house to go swimming because it was sooooooo hot! I ended up getting back home fairly late but it was a successful and busy weekend!

Tuesday - Had to rent a "Little Mermaid" costume... you'll find out why in a later post!

Wednesday - Day 1 of Alianzias... again, you have to wait for the next post!

October was different not having any of the fall colours, the smells of autumn, pumpkins and Halloween decorations. In fact there was very little Halloween spirit here one thing that I would have never thought I would miss but I did.

But it's springtime here, the flowers are so pretty, the spring smells are everywhere, the temperature can sometimes pass for Canadian summer, and I can now wear my school uniform without tights!

Only 4 more days until I leave for Argentina! I still can't believe it, its come so fast, also a sign that my first couple of months have gone so fast and that I've been here for 11 weeks now! The longest I have been away from home and my family before was 2 months when I worked as an Ontario Ranger, and now I'm on my way to living in a foreign country for 11 months!

Tid-bits of the last week

Nothing to exciting has happened here lately, maybe its because I've started to adjust to my life here. Things are starting to feel more normal, the school uniform, the rush to school... but not to rushed because I'm on Chilean time now, the attempts at speaking Spanish at school (still not very successful, only some of my friends can understand me), the teachers telling me to be quiet (that should be good right?!), public transit, my room, once with the host-fam, exchange student hangouts... just stuff.

Last Friday I was approached by some younger girls in my school because they heard I was a cheerleader (porrista) in Canada and they wanted me to help them with their group at school - why not! So I skipped the last hour of my class on Friday to start helping some of the girls with basic stunts, and then spotted some back-walkovers... all those hours of coaching birthday parties at Cheersport really helped! Then on Monday I helped again but this time armed with a picture of my team back home and some drawings of what I wanted to girls to learn eventually. It's really difficult, frustrating, and a little scary when I can't fully communicate what to do and how to do it safely - but at least I can just grab the little ones and say to "No, put her down that's not safe." But we've made progress on technique and of course they wanted me back again the next day, and the next day... but maybe tomorrow!

Cheersport Shark influence... had to be done!

Sometimes I get a little panic-attack when I see a World map, like the other day in the mall... and you realize how far away your are from your home country... but then again it's so amazing that your able to live this far away for 11 months!

Life gets more normal when you bake a batch of your real-Mom's AMAZING chocolate chip cookies, and they don't turn out the same, but your host-Mom wants the recipe in Spanish!

One the cookie-note it's time to start getting my butt-in-gear again... the affects of bread, potatoes, manjar and lack of strenuous physical activity are starting to have an affect. I've been trying for about a month now to find a field hockey team here. The first one I approached was very recreational, and an hour into the practice they had done nothing. I've also e-mail two other clubs (more competitive) and one responded, eventually, so I went to see the practice tonight but no one was there. It's frustrating when I don't get replies or no one shows up for the time of the practice shown because I can't have the opportunity to talk with a coach, talking on the phone is still not an option with my limited language. So I may just find a regular gym here hopefully!

Only 12 more days until I travel to Argentina with my class!

Why there's a Quebec flag for sale in the market in Santa Lucia I will never know!

The Unexpected

Sometimes during exchange there's things that happen in which you would have never bargained for when you left your normal and comfortable life in your home country. Things that you never even thought would happen, never crossed your mind about a "what if" when your not in your own country. I know I wrote earlier that I didn't want to write about the sad things but it's truly just another part of exchange. The last 2 weeks have been extremely difficult for me especially being out of Canada. I have had to deal with the death of a very close and beloved Uncle in which no one had expected to happen. Also going along with the passing was Thanksgiving, a big family holiday back home. These last couple of weeks have truly made myself stronger as I have had to deal with the grief and flood of different emotions along with the regular exchange frustrations/emotions. But life also goes on here in Chile, and having to deal with other frustrations and difficulties/situations here as well has sure kept my mind occupied for a couple of weeks and restless nights. But like one of my exchange student friends told me, "life still happens, no matter where you are, life things still happen." It's so true and you truly can't do much about things back home other than staying in contact with those who you love and can help you. I've also been lucky enough to have great exchange friends here, Chilean friends, and other supporters who have helped me to deal with an unexpected occurrence or have been sympathetic to my situation. The other problem is that I feel like my Spanish hasn't progressed within the last few weeks which is not a good sign, and adds more stress and pressure to my situation... but that's just a short fall-back.

That being said you have to continue on with your new life, new people, new surroundings, and new culture because you truly can't stay preoccupied for to long or else you'll be wasting all your energy and thoughts on things that you can't fix. The other day I got a library card for this cute library/cultural center here in Las Condes (don't know how useful it'll be once I switch houses.) There's a lot of green-space which is nice in the city, so I've taken advantage of the children's books and I have the opportunity to sit under a tree, read or listen to music when I need some alone time not in my room. It's a hopeful thought that I'll be able to understand the books soon without my dictionary... it'll come in time!

On a good note this past Saturday I went to Fantasilandia with a group of exchange students. Fantasilandia is like Canada's Wonderland - but much smaller with a lot of flaites and english names used for all of the rides... weird. It was a good day and I even managed to get soaked on the second last ride!

The Gang: Me, Emily, Rachel, Billy, Katie, Ayrton, Jo-Ellen (missing Stephen and Sam)

I've also been here in Chile now for 2 months! I can honestly say that I really like Chile, I'm still finding my life here but I truly do enjoy living here and would not go back to Canada right now even if you shoved a one-way ticket in my face.