Bicentenario/CALC/Rotary/Life

Yesterday was yet another productive day at school. I showed up not getting the memo that I didn't have to wear my uniform, whatever I'm an exchange student! I also didn't know how big of a deal the day was for the Bicentenario. Every class had a little booth set up that represented certain years of Chile or different aspects to the culture and people. So we spent the morning setting up the booth, listening to music, and taking pictures. Then we had to travel to all the stations and get stamps on this piece of card - this was for our mark in school. I didn't really learn anything, everyone was just really concerned about getting all the stamps and taking pictures on my camera, it was a good day! We were supposed to get out at 1:45 but everything was done with at 1 so we got to go home a little early.

I went home, took a siesta, woke-up, got ready and headed back to school for 5. I then went to a friends house to get changed and ready for our schools Bicentenario Celebration. Luckily I was able to borrow an outfit fairly last minute, including a ruffled blouse... so attractive! It was so cool to see everyone in tradition Chilean clothing, and at least everyone wore the same things, although it was way more funny to see the gringa wearing it! My class's dance went pretty well, I like performing (the cheerleader in me), but I swear there was an excessive amount of people taking pictures where I happened to be... maybe I was the first gringa to dance at this school?

My class - 3° Medio

Every Chilean knows the cueca


A famous actress showed up!

After some more pictures with friends I had to head home, get changed, and then go to my first Rotary meeting. My clubs meeting is at night, I think we arrived at maybe 9:45 or so. Also we were served dinner! I haven't had real dinner in a month! It was also their meeting celebrating the 18th of September so we had empanadas for starters and then after the meeting some Rotarians danced a little cueca! Also here Rotary is more of a couples thing, so both husband and wife go to the meetings, and we didn't have a speaker or presentation. I was also asked if I was from Australia... it's nice to be thought of as something else than American all the time. We left around midnight and I headed straight to bed because I had one more day of school before the holiday!

I got to school today and only two other people showed up in my class. Luckily they were two of my good friends but still... this is the worst turnout I've ever seen in my life! I mean compared to the lack of students at Southwood before Christmas vacation or the last day of school this is nothing! Even my teacher asked me why I was at school - I'm an exchange student, enough said. So everyone ended up in the computer lab, on Facebook, watching a pirated version of The Karate Kid dubbed over in Spanish with Chinese subtitles and the teachers gave us snacks! We were supposed to leave at 1 but we left early and me and my three amigas headed to the Alto Las Condes Mall. It was cool because you could see a lot of Las Condes from up high. Then two of my friends went home and I went with Cony to the Parque Arauco Mall (which is the giant Americanized one) and we walked around a bit, I ate KFC for the first time in many years, bumped into Stephen randomly (the guy from Ayr), and then we went to the actual park. We just sat and talked, listened to music, and basked in the sun in the middle of the park. I love how they have parks everywhere in Las Condes. It was a good ending to my last day before the holiday!

Things I notice:

• There is graffiti everywhere, but a lot of it is more like art than vandalism
• A lot of people smoke - On my first day in Chile my host mom smelled my clothes and said they smelled like Canada, because in Chile everything smells like smoke
• Most kids bring lunches to school that you warm up in a microwave - I'm getting really good at fighting for a spot for my containers!
• Some places have these mini workout gyms outside, I thought they were a joke until one day I saw tons of people using them
• Sometimes if you miss your bus stop because the bus is like a sardine can and you can't see outside, the next one could be a long ways away, so you elbow your way through to make sure you get off the next time
  

By the way, today is the one month anniversary of Chile and I!

Saturday I ended up back at my school, on the weekend. Not really knowing what my host-parents were telling me I jumped in the car and was dropped off at my school/church... I guess. My host-family and school is Adventist, I don't really know much about the religion but I guess they go to church on Saturday. I ended up sitting in my school cafeteria listening to a lady talking about soy beans and how to make milk, fake meat and other things out of it... in Spanish. It was different to say the least. Then we changed rooms and I listened to some more talking about soy beans, then once that ended I helped to set-up a baby shower. To say my day was random is an understatement. I went back home then returned with my host-mom for the baby shower. They had a few games and one of them you had to give advice, so I gave mine in English. "Interview all of her boyfriends - for fun!" - I'm thinking of you Uncle Paul and dad!

Once the games and prayers were done we were able to talk and eat. I swear everyone ran to the food, you could barely get in to get anything, too funny! At the shower I had been introduced to a man who's an English teacher here, so obviously he was able to translate for me. Then my host-mom made a plan for me to go over to his friends house the next day for lunch.

Before I headed to the lunch I finally went on my first solo walk not to/from school or to the supermarket. I had no idea of where I was going other than I saw the mountains, and headed for them! I walked a good hour out and found this cool looking park but I couldn't find a way to get there without attempting to scale a large barrier or walk near the old men whistling at me. After walking a little bit more I had the feeling to turn around, 2 hours is enough to worry my host-family and I was quite far from my home by then. I have a fairly good sense of direction, I don't need to know street names, just landmarks.

Hey there Andes in the background


Stop signs are always better in foreign languages

After a little time back at home I headed out to meet up with the English teacher, his wife and daughter. We walked to his friends apartment and I was welcomed by some more English speakers. Again it was such a nice break for my head to hear English, but it didn't improve my Spanish. After an amazing meal (vegetarian may I add... mmmm!) we talked for a bit and then watched an English movie with Spanish subtitles. I still read the subtitles to see how similar they were to what was actually going on in the movie. Also everyone who was at the apartment was Adventist, the religion of my host-family and the school I attend. I was able to ask questions about the religion to try and get a grasp of what it was about. Religion is and will always be a touchy subject, but I found their beliefs to be similar of what I know of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I am now in my second week of classes here and I am really liking it! Everyone is so nice, the only bad parts is when it's freezing and there's no sun, like the past two days. Today we had another church service (we have them on Tuesday's) and it was pretty good with upbeat music put on my some of the kids. Although the sermon was lost in translation my attempts at trying to sing the Spanish songs was pretty good. I also had an English test today, and the sad part is that I didn't get perfect because there was a section where you had to get the English verb from the Spanish one... that's just now fair! I've also started to get the hang of taking the micro and am going to and from school by myself now. Tomorrow I have the whole day off due to testing, hopefully the sun will come out again!

Mi colegio

I love attempting tests in Spanish!

Also, another really big part of exchange is homesickness and emotional stress. I really do not want my blog to have a negative tone so I have decided to keep those feelings and experiences out. But it is the ugly truth because exchange truly is like your childhood seesaw, you can be up one minute and then right back down to the bottom again. So things are not always fun, foreign, funny or amusing on exchange, some times life can hit you really hard and the realizations of what you used to have and don't anymore can really get under your skin. It's all in the exchange experience!

11 days until the first Rotary 4340 Inbound meeting!

The Gringa has arrived!

I have finally been in Chile for over 24 hours. I don't know why but it has felt like at least a few days.
My flight was quite good, I flew out late Tuesday night and arrived mid-morning in Chile. Since the flight was overnight I had approx 3-4 hours of sleep on-and-off, and when the flight attendants served dinner at 3 am lets just say it didn't help with my inability to sleep. I sat beside a lovely Argentinian lady who spoke little English, a glimpse into my immediate future life in Chile, but we were able to have some conversation with the little bit of each language that we knew.

Clad in my Rotary jacket I only ran into one Rebound while waiting at immigrations. I got through security and customs easy enough (I guess you have to declare maple syrup? Well I didn't!) and there was mi mama Chileana, Alexia, and two other ladies waiting for me. With a hug and a kiss on the cheek (usual greeting) we were off. The one lady is a mother of a boy in my class, she speaks fluent English which was a help for those first culture shocked moments.

First sight of the Andes from the ground - WOW!! I think I have a thing for mountains, they are just so big, and everywhere! We drove through downtown Santiago, Provindencia and then Las Condes ( the comuna de Santiago that I will be staying in). I can't quite compare Santiago, it somewhat reminds me of Los Angeles and a bit of Toronto.. but not really at all, it's just Santiago!

Once we got to the house something that I most definably noticed were the gates. A gate to enter into the one area in which 3-4 houses are, and then a gate at my house, and then bars on my windows - I feel safe... I guess. Mi casa is very modest, quite small which is understandable in a city, very different from my house in Canada. As I have told some people before there is no central heating. So it might feel nice outside but inside is freezing, but I have found a spot on my bed where the sun shines in and is quite warm!

Can you guess a Canadian lives there?

I spent the day trying to have conversations with Alexia. We tried our best with my limited Spanish and lets just say my English-Spanish dictionary has been put to good use! I showed her my photobooks from my life in Canada along with a map of Ontario and Canada and explained to her where my family lives and where I have travelled. I arrived in time for lunch, and then around 5-6 pm we had "once", which is like crackers, cookies, tea, and coffee. Alexia knew that I was looking quite tired but I managed to stay up until 8 pm then headed to bed. I guess in that time my host-dad came home and I missed seeing him!

After about 9 hours of sleep I was ready for my first full day in Chile. I had breakfast with Alexia - tea/instant coffee(i opted out of the instant stuff), cereal but with yogurt, and some hard bread with turkey... different. After a freezing shower I gave Alexia her Canadian gifts - I don't think she knows what to do with the maple syrup!

Then she helped me learn numbers and how to count. I counted up to 131 all by myself before i got to tired of counting. Then we headed to the supermarket to pick up a few things
Differences:
-eggs are in cartons on regular shelves, not refrigerated
-pan (bread) and fruit is picked, put into bags, and then weighed by clerks and given a sticker according to weight
-cereal boxes are obnoxiously covered with graphics, I'm talking Shrek staring you down, futbal players kicking a massive soccer ball at you, way to much for the eyes
-booze is in a massive aisle as if you were buying rice or other food
-milk was no where in sight... maybe I didn't notice it or we didn't go down the aisle

Once back to the house we had lunch and I was so tired from translating and using my brain a lot so I went for a siesta. After maybe 10 minutes my cell phone started to ring. I answered it not knowing what to say and it was my friend Cristobal the past Chilean Inbound who was in Waterloo last year! Getting him to talk to my host-mom we were able to meet-up just down the main street at the one mall. It was so crazy to see him, knowing that to me he is like Canada, but now... I am in his country! We took the metro (subway) and it was so nice. Toronto subway looks so run down and disgusting, they should take a hint from the Chileans! We went to his grandparents apartment in Las Condes in a really nice part. His grandma spoke quite good English so she would ask things in English and I would reply the best I could in Spanish and fill in the blanks with English. After some conversation we had "té" which like once was milk, tea, cookies, and bread with avocado - mmmmm! We had to leave around 5:30 pm because it was getting dark, and you don't travel in the dark in Santiago. Went back through the metro and were early before my host mom came to pick me up so we went into the mall. Many different stores, but Cristobal helped me to try and convert the prices so I should know how much I am paying.

Cristobal y yo

After coming back to the house we talked some more and had a phone call from Mia Tere (Maria the lady who speaks English), she helped to translate as I have to figure out information for my school trip in November. My host-dad arrived home around 9 pm and I finally got to meet him. Teo is the president of my host Rotary club. I was finally able to give him his gifts, he loves the tie... maybe. We then had what seemed like another té, I haven't figured out meals yet! We then spent the night trying to communicate, fighting over what a moose is called in Spanish (he thinks its a donkey or a bull... no it's just... a Canadian moose!), and I showed him my maps and then helped him with an English insurance form for my host brother on exchange in Kentucky.

So pretty much my life in a nutshell is a lot of Spanglish, smiling, nodding, and laughing because I can't understand and it's pretty funny right now because I'm horrible at Spanish. I'm sorry if my grammar is getting a lot worse already, or I'm missing words. I am so tempted to write the Spanish words that I know because that is how I am talking, and I am so tired/my head hurts from thinking and having to translate so much.

Much love from South of the equator
Lynn-say (as the Chileans call me)

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.