- Taken a bus by myself
- Tried out for a semi-pro soccer team
- Thought that coming home at 2am was normal
- Been so excited to see rain
- Had friends from so many different countries
- Talked so little and listened so much
- Had sisters
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Before Coming to Chile I Had Never...
Weeks 14-15
Hola a todos!
Sorry it´s been so long. I´ve been sort of busy/not using the computer. I sort of forget what´s happened since I last wrote so I have to think. I´ll begin by saying that 7 weeks from today I´ll be arriving in Miami at 4:45am. WAYYY too early. I really can´t believe that time is flying so fast. I have a ton of mixed feelings about going home. I´m so excited to see my family and friends and tell about my exchange because weekly emails don´t do it justice. I´m also incredibly excited about having an American breakfast. I´ve sort of been obsessing about it. I haven´t had a real omlet in more than three months and omlets are a staple in my diet. So are refried beans and I haven´t had those either. By the way, for all of you who speak Spanish, the word for beans here is poroto, not frijol. Anways....let´s see. Last week was our salida de aprendizaje, or field trip. 3º and 4º medio (the juniors and seniors) took two big buses to Stgo for the day. They were much nicer buses than I usually take to Stgo and we watched Next, with Nicolas Cage. I do not recommend it in the slightest. We all went to see a play called Valdivia, based on the life of Pedro Valdivia, one of Chile´s founders. If you´ve read the book by Isabel Allende Ines of my Soul, it´s very similiar. It was written in Old Spanish and I caught about half of it, although we did a question and answer session with the actors later and I understood much more of that. Afterwards we split into two groups and my group went to La Moneda, the presidential palace. They have these funny guards outside who wear big black boots and walk funny. We first went to the museum under La Moneda and saw an exhibit on Chilean mestizo religious art, which was actually really interesting. They showed how the european influences and chilean influences mixed. Then we went on a tour of La Moneda, which was really interesting. Here are the two most interesting things I learned:
1) The presidental paintings in the palace change depending on the president. So the presidents that Bachelet choses to display are different from the ones that Frei or Piñera will chose.
2) they might change the Chilean motto. For those of you who don´t know, it´s por la razon o la fuerza (by might or right). It originated during the war of independence when there was a lot intense patriotism going on but now it´s a bit too combative. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing Allende´s old office and the room where he died. People got really edgy when we entered the room. Some people weren´t affected but some people got really uncomfortable. One of my friends and a guy from 4º told me I shouldn´t believe the stuff about Allende and that he was really bad. There are still really strong feelings about the coup here and it´s a sensitive subject. My school is much more to the right so there are more Pinochet supporters. I am so not in the Pioneer Valley it´s not even funny. So that was interesting hearing what my friends had to say about the coup. Umm...let´s see. We went to visit my grandparents and aunt and uncle in Rengo last weekend. That was fun. It was 3hrs one way but we had a yummy lunch and I really liked my aunt and uncle. I also talked to my cousin through skype. He´s in the US right now but he´s coming home next month. We were sitting out on the back porch eating empanadas, drinking mango sour (pisco with mango) and with the Andes behind us and I felt super chilean.
Let´s see....what else. Right now I´m trying to make lots of plans and make the most posible of my time remaining here. I´m hoping to go visit a friend in the South and take a cooking class but neither of those are set yet. My Spanish is....I don´t know. I think it´s good. Sometimes I think it´s good, sometimes not. I´m attaching my thesis I wrote for lit class in case anyone´s interested. It´s not very good but oh well. School finishes in a month. I´m so excited! I´m SICK of school. We have our finals in two weeks. One thing I need to clarify for anyone who might think South America is all nice and warm: IT´S NOT! It gets cold here. This morning it was 1º celsius. Brrrrr. Plus we have to keep the windows open because everyone´s been getting sick so they don´t want the germs floating around.
Chile is in 2nd place in the S. American World Cup qualifiers. People are really happy. We beat Bolivia last night 4-0. Wheee!! Argentina has lost to both Bolivia and Ecuador, which is sorta funny. Whatever Maradona´s doing is not working.
The teachers strike is over now, by the way but now students in Stgo are on strike. I´m not quite sure why.
That´s all for now. I think the Lakers game is being broadcast and I´m super excited to see it. GO LAKERS!!!
I miss you guys!
Much love,
Sela
Sorry it´s been so long. I´ve been sort of busy/not using the computer. I sort of forget what´s happened since I last wrote so I have to think. I´ll begin by saying that 7 weeks from today I´ll be arriving in Miami at 4:45am. WAYYY too early. I really can´t believe that time is flying so fast. I have a ton of mixed feelings about going home. I´m so excited to see my family and friends and tell about my exchange because weekly emails don´t do it justice. I´m also incredibly excited about having an American breakfast. I´ve sort of been obsessing about it. I haven´t had a real omlet in more than three months and omlets are a staple in my diet. So are refried beans and I haven´t had those either. By the way, for all of you who speak Spanish, the word for beans here is poroto, not frijol. Anways....let´s see. Last week was our salida de aprendizaje, or field trip. 3º and 4º medio (the juniors and seniors) took two big buses to Stgo for the day. They were much nicer buses than I usually take to Stgo and we watched Next, with Nicolas Cage. I do not recommend it in the slightest. We all went to see a play called Valdivia, based on the life of Pedro Valdivia, one of Chile´s founders. If you´ve read the book by Isabel Allende Ines of my Soul, it´s very similiar. It was written in Old Spanish and I caught about half of it, although we did a question and answer session with the actors later and I understood much more of that. Afterwards we split into two groups and my group went to La Moneda, the presidential palace. They have these funny guards outside who wear big black boots and walk funny. We first went to the museum under La Moneda and saw an exhibit on Chilean mestizo religious art, which was actually really interesting. They showed how the european influences and chilean influences mixed. Then we went on a tour of La Moneda, which was really interesting. Here are the two most interesting things I learned:
1) The presidental paintings in the palace change depending on the president. So the presidents that Bachelet choses to display are different from the ones that Frei or Piñera will chose.
2) they might change the Chilean motto. For those of you who don´t know, it´s por la razon o la fuerza (by might or right). It originated during the war of independence when there was a lot intense patriotism going on but now it´s a bit too combative. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing Allende´s old office and the room where he died. People got really edgy when we entered the room. Some people weren´t affected but some people got really uncomfortable. One of my friends and a guy from 4º told me I shouldn´t believe the stuff about Allende and that he was really bad. There are still really strong feelings about the coup here and it´s a sensitive subject. My school is much more to the right so there are more Pinochet supporters. I am so not in the Pioneer Valley it´s not even funny. So that was interesting hearing what my friends had to say about the coup. Umm...let´s see. We went to visit my grandparents and aunt and uncle in Rengo last weekend. That was fun. It was 3hrs one way but we had a yummy lunch and I really liked my aunt and uncle. I also talked to my cousin through skype. He´s in the US right now but he´s coming home next month. We were sitting out on the back porch eating empanadas, drinking mango sour (pisco with mango) and with the Andes behind us and I felt super chilean.
Let´s see....what else. Right now I´m trying to make lots of plans and make the most posible of my time remaining here. I´m hoping to go visit a friend in the South and take a cooking class but neither of those are set yet. My Spanish is....I don´t know. I think it´s good. Sometimes I think it´s good, sometimes not. I´m attaching my thesis I wrote for lit class in case anyone´s interested. It´s not very good but oh well. School finishes in a month. I´m so excited! I´m SICK of school. We have our finals in two weeks. One thing I need to clarify for anyone who might think South America is all nice and warm: IT´S NOT! It gets cold here. This morning it was 1º celsius. Brrrrr. Plus we have to keep the windows open because everyone´s been getting sick so they don´t want the germs floating around.
Chile is in 2nd place in the S. American World Cup qualifiers. People are really happy. We beat Bolivia last night 4-0. Wheee!! Argentina has lost to both Bolivia and Ecuador, which is sorta funny. Whatever Maradona´s doing is not working.
The teachers strike is over now, by the way but now students in Stgo are on strike. I´m not quite sure why.
That´s all for now. I think the Lakers game is being broadcast and I´m super excited to see it. GO LAKERS!!!
I miss you guys!
Much love,
Sela
Week 13
Hola a todos!
I´ve been in Chile for three months. I´m coming home in two more. Hmph. I feel like time is flying and there isn´t enough left. A semester is, contrary to what Asher says, SUPER short. This week my big accomplishment was taking a micro by myself to Viña. A micro is a small bus that doesn´t go very long distances and I took one all by myself to the CITY and saw a movie with some exchange friends. I was very proud of myself, taking public transportation without getting lost or anything. Micros are not very comfortable. They´re like big buses only little, and if there aren´t enough seats you just stand in the aisle. It´s very tight and pretty much a breeding ground for the piggy flu. Oh well. My slightly smaller accomplishment took place when we went to see the movie. We saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was pretty good, and although most of it was in English with subtitles there was some that was in Spanish with no subtitles and I could pretty much understand all the Spanish. It was very exciting. Speaking of accomplishments in Spanish, I had to read and take a test on Old Spanish poetry and I think I did okay, considering that it´s ANTIQUE SPANISH or however you say it. Ooooh, I had my first dream in Spanish!! Well, it was partially in Spanish. Okay, this is what I remember: I was walking through this city in the US and these guys started harrassing me so I started cursing them out in Chilean Spanish and someone (I don´t know who) goes "oh...Chilean". It was pretty cool.
This week has been a bit of a drag. Lots of school work! The highlight was Saturday night, when my little sisters and I had una noche de chicas. We dressed up and did each other´s hair and did a fotoshoot. It was really fun. I love my sisters. I bought a new camera because my old one is sketchy and doesn´t always work. My new one is pretty cool. I had to pay for it in cash and felt sort of like a criminal.
Let´s see...what else? I think I might have accidently tried out for a semi-pro women´s soccer team. Some of the girls I play soccer with on Saturdays and I were invited to Stgo to practice with a semi-pro women´s team associated with La U, one of the top pro teams. I didn´t really realize it was a semi-pro team or that it was a tryout (I´m still not quite sure if it was or not). Anyways, Carla, Dani and I went on Wednesday afternoon after school got out. We took the bus there. The girls were wicked good. I wasn´t sure what to expect because the Chilean girls I´d seen before were pretty bad but these girls were really good. They were between 17-20s, I think. Anyways, the new girls trained together and the veterans trained together. The coach was tough. She was this tiny, fierce looking woman who was a bit sharp but I liked her. My skills and fitness right now are horrible. I mean, horrible. It´s a bit embarrassing. I want to join a gym here but I´ve been procrastinating. It was cool getting to see another side of the women´s soccer in Chile though. It was fun taking the bus to Stgo too. I´m not crazy about Stgo. but I like seeing different parts of the country. They have Starbucks in Stgo. It´s funny. I want to go to a McDonalds here and see what the food´s like but I never eat at McDonalds at home so I have nothing to compare it to.
So that´s about it I think. I´m feeling a bit spacy so I don´t have a ton to say this week.
Hope everyone´s doing well!
Much love,
Sela
I´ve been in Chile for three months. I´m coming home in two more. Hmph. I feel like time is flying and there isn´t enough left. A semester is, contrary to what Asher says, SUPER short. This week my big accomplishment was taking a micro by myself to Viña. A micro is a small bus that doesn´t go very long distances and I took one all by myself to the CITY and saw a movie with some exchange friends. I was very proud of myself, taking public transportation without getting lost or anything. Micros are not very comfortable. They´re like big buses only little, and if there aren´t enough seats you just stand in the aisle. It´s very tight and pretty much a breeding ground for the piggy flu. Oh well. My slightly smaller accomplishment took place when we went to see the movie. We saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was pretty good, and although most of it was in English with subtitles there was some that was in Spanish with no subtitles and I could pretty much understand all the Spanish. It was very exciting. Speaking of accomplishments in Spanish, I had to read and take a test on Old Spanish poetry and I think I did okay, considering that it´s ANTIQUE SPANISH or however you say it. Ooooh, I had my first dream in Spanish!! Well, it was partially in Spanish. Okay, this is what I remember: I was walking through this city in the US and these guys started harrassing me so I started cursing them out in Chilean Spanish and someone (I don´t know who) goes "oh...Chilean". It was pretty cool.
This week has been a bit of a drag. Lots of school work! The highlight was Saturday night, when my little sisters and I had una noche de chicas. We dressed up and did each other´s hair and did a fotoshoot. It was really fun. I love my sisters. I bought a new camera because my old one is sketchy and doesn´t always work. My new one is pretty cool. I had to pay for it in cash and felt sort of like a criminal.
Let´s see...what else? I think I might have accidently tried out for a semi-pro women´s soccer team. Some of the girls I play soccer with on Saturdays and I were invited to Stgo to practice with a semi-pro women´s team associated with La U, one of the top pro teams. I didn´t really realize it was a semi-pro team or that it was a tryout (I´m still not quite sure if it was or not). Anyways, Carla, Dani and I went on Wednesday afternoon after school got out. We took the bus there. The girls were wicked good. I wasn´t sure what to expect because the Chilean girls I´d seen before were pretty bad but these girls were really good. They were between 17-20s, I think. Anyways, the new girls trained together and the veterans trained together. The coach was tough. She was this tiny, fierce looking woman who was a bit sharp but I liked her. My skills and fitness right now are horrible. I mean, horrible. It´s a bit embarrassing. I want to join a gym here but I´ve been procrastinating. It was cool getting to see another side of the women´s soccer in Chile though. It was fun taking the bus to Stgo too. I´m not crazy about Stgo. but I like seeing different parts of the country. They have Starbucks in Stgo. It´s funny. I want to go to a McDonalds here and see what the food´s like but I never eat at McDonalds at home so I have nothing to compare it to.
So that´s about it I think. I´m feeling a bit spacy so I don´t have a ton to say this week.
Hope everyone´s doing well!
Much love,
Sela
Week 12
Hola a todos!
Today is Friday, and I have no school so I´m taking this time to write instead of my usual Thursday. Yesterday was the 21st of May, which in Chile is Navy Day. A looong time ago, Chile, Bolivia and Peru had a war and in the Battle of Iquique Arturo Pratt and his men showed much courage and gave their lives for Chile and with their courage inspired Chileans to a victory over the other two countries. At least that´s what I´ve heard. Ever since then Peru hasn´t been so keen on Chile and vice versa. Anyways, the way Chileans celebrate this day is by marching. On Wednesday the entire school had a parade around the soccer field while a marching band from another school played. It was incredibly official and we all had to wear our full uniform, which for me is a white blouse (buttoned all the way to the neck, which is suffocating but looks formal), tie, jumper, green sweater, long grey socks and black shoes. We marched in quadrants and there was lots of standing and waiting. In the afternoon, about half my class went on a field trip to this marine labratory in Quintay, which is a costal town about an hour and a half away. It was fun and we got to go on a big bus and hold spiky sea things. One of the guys there looked exactly like that Francisco Garcia Flores from our Spanish video. I wanted to take a picture of him to show you guys. I swear, Francisco has left his Florida barrio and moved to Quintay! Weird. Yesterday we had no school and instead went into the center around 10:30am (in full uniform) and marched again, only this time down the main street. All the schools in Quillota, save the public schools, marched. The public school teachers are currently on strike right now, so there´s no school. Our nana´s son goes to one and she was telling me about it. It was more fun marching in the center because there were lots of people and it all felt quite official. We actually didn´t march very far. I have fotos but they´re on my host dad´s computer so I´ll send them later. Everyone was asking me if we marched in the US, and I had trouble imagining my class in the US lining up in uniforms and marching. I would love to see the 7th grade versions of Nicolas, Wes, Joey and James march. :)
This week has been a really good Spanish week. I feel like every now and then my Spanish improves and I can feel the improvement and am really excited and proud of my self. Then I get used to my new level and feel like I´m not improving again. But right now, my Spanish feels good, which is an excellent feeling. This week was actually a good week in general. On Friday night we had a school dance to celebrate the end of the Alianzas. Unfortunately Brazil lost...by 5 points!!! Our Alianza was clearly the best. On Friday, the last day of the Alianzas there was a bit of drama. In the boys basketball game, some of the “Italians” kept fouling our best player (a Lakers fan who keeps my updated on the playoffs) and he got mad and pushed a kid who fell and hit his head on a table. He was fine, but mad and there was almost a fight but then they canceled the game and cancelled the boys soccer game too until they promised to play nice and signed an agreement. I have to say, it was a little painful watching the basketball game. The Chilean boys here are great at soccer but they just don´t really do basketball. It´s called a bounce pass, and it works quite well. I really wanted to run over and tell them all to stick to marking their man and quit watching the ball but I don´t think that that would have gone over very well. So the school dance. VERY different from the FRCS ones. For one thing, people danced. The music was deafeningly loud and of the reggeton/kumbia sort. Not music I was used to dancing too. There were a lot of kids from outside the school who came, including a lot of "flaite". I can´t remember if I´ve defined the term "flaite" or not but it´s basically sort of trashy, I guess. It´s hard to explain and it´s not the nicest term but I´ve started to classify people like the Chileans do. I guess that means I´m adapting to the culture but it´s not the greatest adaption. I had a really good time at the dance though, because three of my exchange friends showed up and so we all hung out together all night. On Saturday I went to one of my best Chilean friend´s bday party and that was super fun. A lot of her boyfriend´s friends from college were there and my Finnish friend (who came with her boyfriend) Olga and I spent a lot of the night talking with new people, which was fun. I love, love, love my exchange friends. My Chilean friends are cool too but it´s different with exchange friends. We made shishkabobs and ate choripan (chorizo pan = sauceage in bread). YUM!! My Spanish felt really good and I talked all night with people. So that was really good. Then on Sunday I went back to the soup kitchen with Panchi and we helped out there and that was nice.
Next week, I think, is a normal week and we have a ton of tests. Math, History, Lenguaje and Quimica (I´ve sort of given up on Quimica though) plus a presentation in Bio and a collage in Art. Eeek! This afternoon I´m hoping to go into Viña to meet up with an exchange friend and buy a camera. What else to report...I´m learning the national anthem.
Also, this is mainly for Tess, but anyone else who likes reggeton, here´s some of the most popular songs here:
Que Tengo Hacer - Daddy Yankee
Somos de la Calle - Daddy Yankee
Y Volar - La Noche (they´re Chilean!)
Amame - Antonio Rios
Que Te Pica - Notch
Nada Va Pasar - Arcangel ft. Yaga y Mackie
Es el Amor - La Noche
Na de Na - Angel y Khriz
Dejame el Drama - Big Yamo
I accept zero responsability for any of the lyrics although a lot of them are sung super fast and are hard to understand.
So....that´s all for week 12. I´VE BEEN HERE FOR 12 WEEKS! I can´t decide if that´s a lot or a little. Oh by the way, the piggy flu came to Chile. I don´t understand why it´s called the human flu now. Aren´t all flus that we worry about human flus? In the newspaper there was a photo of a goverment official demonstrating how to sneeze properly. I´ve been doing it the right way.
Hope all is well!
Love,
Sela
Today is Friday, and I have no school so I´m taking this time to write instead of my usual Thursday. Yesterday was the 21st of May, which in Chile is Navy Day. A looong time ago, Chile, Bolivia and Peru had a war and in the Battle of Iquique Arturo Pratt and his men showed much courage and gave their lives for Chile and with their courage inspired Chileans to a victory over the other two countries. At least that´s what I´ve heard. Ever since then Peru hasn´t been so keen on Chile and vice versa. Anyways, the way Chileans celebrate this day is by marching. On Wednesday the entire school had a parade around the soccer field while a marching band from another school played. It was incredibly official and we all had to wear our full uniform, which for me is a white blouse (buttoned all the way to the neck, which is suffocating but looks formal), tie, jumper, green sweater, long grey socks and black shoes. We marched in quadrants and there was lots of standing and waiting. In the afternoon, about half my class went on a field trip to this marine labratory in Quintay, which is a costal town about an hour and a half away. It was fun and we got to go on a big bus and hold spiky sea things. One of the guys there looked exactly like that Francisco Garcia Flores from our Spanish video. I wanted to take a picture of him to show you guys. I swear, Francisco has left his Florida barrio and moved to Quintay! Weird. Yesterday we had no school and instead went into the center around 10:30am (in full uniform) and marched again, only this time down the main street. All the schools in Quillota, save the public schools, marched. The public school teachers are currently on strike right now, so there´s no school. Our nana´s son goes to one and she was telling me about it. It was more fun marching in the center because there were lots of people and it all felt quite official. We actually didn´t march very far. I have fotos but they´re on my host dad´s computer so I´ll send them later. Everyone was asking me if we marched in the US, and I had trouble imagining my class in the US lining up in uniforms and marching. I would love to see the 7th grade versions of Nicolas, Wes, Joey and James march. :)
This week has been a really good Spanish week. I feel like every now and then my Spanish improves and I can feel the improvement and am really excited and proud of my self. Then I get used to my new level and feel like I´m not improving again. But right now, my Spanish feels good, which is an excellent feeling. This week was actually a good week in general. On Friday night we had a school dance to celebrate the end of the Alianzas. Unfortunately Brazil lost...by 5 points!!! Our Alianza was clearly the best. On Friday, the last day of the Alianzas there was a bit of drama. In the boys basketball game, some of the “Italians” kept fouling our best player (a Lakers fan who keeps my updated on the playoffs) and he got mad and pushed a kid who fell and hit his head on a table. He was fine, but mad and there was almost a fight but then they canceled the game and cancelled the boys soccer game too until they promised to play nice and signed an agreement. I have to say, it was a little painful watching the basketball game. The Chilean boys here are great at soccer but they just don´t really do basketball. It´s called a bounce pass, and it works quite well. I really wanted to run over and tell them all to stick to marking their man and quit watching the ball but I don´t think that that would have gone over very well. So the school dance. VERY different from the FRCS ones. For one thing, people danced. The music was deafeningly loud and of the reggeton/kumbia sort. Not music I was used to dancing too. There were a lot of kids from outside the school who came, including a lot of "flaite". I can´t remember if I´ve defined the term "flaite" or not but it´s basically sort of trashy, I guess. It´s hard to explain and it´s not the nicest term but I´ve started to classify people like the Chileans do. I guess that means I´m adapting to the culture but it´s not the greatest adaption. I had a really good time at the dance though, because three of my exchange friends showed up and so we all hung out together all night. On Saturday I went to one of my best Chilean friend´s bday party and that was super fun. A lot of her boyfriend´s friends from college were there and my Finnish friend (who came with her boyfriend) Olga and I spent a lot of the night talking with new people, which was fun. I love, love, love my exchange friends. My Chilean friends are cool too but it´s different with exchange friends. We made shishkabobs and ate choripan (chorizo pan = sauceage in bread). YUM!! My Spanish felt really good and I talked all night with people. So that was really good. Then on Sunday I went back to the soup kitchen with Panchi and we helped out there and that was nice.
Next week, I think, is a normal week and we have a ton of tests. Math, History, Lenguaje and Quimica (I´ve sort of given up on Quimica though) plus a presentation in Bio and a collage in Art. Eeek! This afternoon I´m hoping to go into Viña to meet up with an exchange friend and buy a camera. What else to report...I´m learning the national anthem.
Also, this is mainly for Tess, but anyone else who likes reggeton, here´s some of the most popular songs here:
Que Tengo Hacer - Daddy Yankee
Somos de la Calle - Daddy Yankee
Y Volar - La Noche (they´re Chilean!)
Amame - Antonio Rios
Que Te Pica - Notch
Nada Va Pasar - Arcangel ft. Yaga y Mackie
Es el Amor - La Noche
Na de Na - Angel y Khriz
Dejame el Drama - Big Yamo
I accept zero responsability for any of the lyrics although a lot of them are sung super fast and are hard to understand.
So....that´s all for week 12. I´VE BEEN HERE FOR 12 WEEKS! I can´t decide if that´s a lot or a little. Oh by the way, the piggy flu came to Chile. I don´t understand why it´s called the human flu now. Aren´t all flus that we worry about human flus? In the newspaper there was a photo of a goverment official demonstrating how to sneeze properly. I´ve been doing it the right way.
Hope all is well!
Love,
Sela
Week 11
¡Hola a todos!
I´m pretty sure the internet is down again so I don´t know when I´ll actually be able to send this but I´m writing on Thursday as usual. Today is the 14th and I feel like it´s someone´s birthday today but I can´t remember whose...There are a ton of birthdays this month both here and at home. Well, two of my friends here have birthdays this week. This week was super different than normal because it was La Semana del Colegio (The Week of the School). This is our anniversary month and our school´s official anniversary is May 13th. On Monday it was The Day of the Student in all of Chile, I´m pretty sure, and we had a little party for our grade in the morning. My teacher brought in little notes with different life lessons on them and gave them to each of us and we ate cake and played Pictionary, the prize being added decimals to our Lenguage grade. My team came in second which is good because I can always use decimal points. After that a performer came and did, well, a performance for us. It was fine...pretty typical performer stuff. Then after lunch we had our Community Service project. We all went to this home for girls who have been removed from their families and we did activities with them and then all had a snack. The girls were all really fascinated by my gringa-ness and wanted me to speak English to them. I made bracelets with some girls although they struggled to get the hang of it. One of them wanted to know why I had dyed my hair, and my classmate had to explain that some people are born with blond hair. Then on Tuesday we had normal classes in the morning and in the afternoon, the Alianzas began. I can´t remember how much I´ve said about Alianzas so if I repeat myself I´m sorry. The entire school, Pre-K through 4º Medio, divides itself into two teams: the even-numbered grades and the odd-numbered grades. Each year the theme is different but this year the theme is countries. We are Brazil, the other team is Italy. We all have to wear green and yellow and they all wear red and white. There are a ton of competetions and the team with the most points at the end wins! Tuesday we had the girl´s soccer game and sadly we lost, 3-1 but I scored our one goal (lefty!). We played 8v8 and one of the Italian girls has a wicked shot and basically would just wham the ball. It was fun playing though. At halftime all the guys in my grade had advice for me, which they all gave at the same time and I spent an entertaining few minutes trying to ask them how to say “man on”. Then there were a few highly controversial rounds of dodgeball. Yesterday we had our anniversary mass, which was long and Catholic, as many masses tend to be. I really don´t understand very much because it´s hard to understand people when they´re using microphones but I like the singing. My religious vocab is improving. I can now say santificado, pecador, fraile, desayunar, rogar, rezar, pecado and part of Our Father. For Lenguaje we´re reading Los Milagros De Nuestra Señora, which is 12th century Spanish poetry celebrating the Virgin Mary. It´s actually not super hard, because they rewrote it in modern Spanish and it rhymes, which I like. After mass we had two classes and then people went off to do Alianza-related things. I stayed in the gym and helped decorate our side. The gym is divided in half and each Alianza gets to decorate their side. I was really worried because we weren´t getting much done and we had only two hours and then we had to go. Somehow, we managed to pull of an incredible design though. I´m going to send a photo of it when the internet is up again. It´s so awesome. Much better than Italy´s, which was traced. It was really fun seeing our decorations come out so well. Today was the first full day of the Alianzas. We all showed up with country´s colors and there were competitions all day. I competed in Musical Chairs, which we lost. There was a relay race of sorts that involved eating an entire onion raw and drinking a liter of coke (although different people did each) which was pretty disgusting. The poor kid was gagging and crying as he ate the onion. There were also the presentations of each team´s King and Queen and the team dances. Our Queen was accompanied by a group of drummers which was pretty cool. Each King and Queen had to demonstrate a talent. Our Queen sang and our King hit tennis balls at water balloons. This whole thing is pretty intense. People paint their faces and cheer and it can get pretty competetive. Tomorrow is the final day and it culmunates in a school party in the evening for the upper grades. This whole idea of La Semana del Colegio is cool. It´d be fun to do at FRCS instead of Field Day. It takes a ton of work though. The whole thing is run by the Student Council and there´s a ton of preperation involved. Next week is different too because it´s Navy Day so we´re going to have a parade I think. Details to follow...
Let´s see...what else? We had a nice Mother´s Day. We took a picnic to the beach and hung out there and then drove along the coast and saw some seriously rich neighborhoods overlooking the ocean. Yesterday was my halfway mark, I realized. I left home 11 weeks ago as of yesterday, and I leave here in eleven weeks. HOLY GUACAMOLE THAT¨S NOT MUCH TIME!!! It´s hard to be believe I´ve been here for such a short time and I´m leaving so soon. Seriously, in two and a half weeks it´s June and then it´s only four weeks until I have a month left. Yikes. It´s hard to believe that my Spanish is going to improve much in that time but I have faith. Sometimes it´s hard to stay in the moment and I start to worry if I´m accomplishing what I want to accomplish here and all that. Tedious, yeah? So that´s my task: Don´t worry, be happy, learn Spanish. Oh, and see a penguin. I would loooove to see a penguin.
I tried making brownies this weekend with my little sisters. Asher sent me a recipe and I don´t know if it´s the one he usually uses but they came out really different. It was mad hard trying to convert a US recipe to a Chilean kitchen. There isn´t really one food in particular that I miss from the US but it´s really weird going to the grocery store and not finding the things I take for granted, like chocolate chips. I think the have them in the bigger supermarkets but I had to settle for chopping up a chocolate bar. Anyways, the brownies came out funny but they were really yummy and it was fun baking. Asher, if you want a math challenge, convert all the recipes you send me into metric system. That would be incredibly helpful. Actually, what I miss here is breakfast. Chileans do not do breakfast well. We have bread and cereal but no omlets, pancakes or bacon. And bagels are an unknown thing here. I´m pretty sure that this is what seperates developing countries from developed countries: bagels. I really like the whole big meal in the middle of the day thing. On the weekends we have our big meal at around two and I think it´ll be weird to readjust to eating big meals in the evening.
So, here is what I´m wondering, if anyone would like to enlighten me...What´s happening with the playoffs? At a party of Saturday I spent some time discussing them with a guy in my class who actually knows a lot about basketball. For some unfathomable reason they broadcast the entire playoffs except the final. Because who cares about that, when they can watch the first round! Jeezsh.
Hmmm...what else? My camera broke so I think I´m going to have to buy a new one. At least I think it´s broken. Its bateries die literally within seconds and last time I tried turning it on it made a funny loud beap and flashed at me. Grrrrr.
Oh, one last thing. They really have fall here. The leaves turn red and orange (at least some do, although not in vast quantities like in New England) and sometimes when it´s cold it smells the same. South America is not all tropical and warm, let´s be clear on that.
Much love,
Sela
I´m pretty sure the internet is down again so I don´t know when I´ll actually be able to send this but I´m writing on Thursday as usual. Today is the 14th and I feel like it´s someone´s birthday today but I can´t remember whose...There are a ton of birthdays this month both here and at home. Well, two of my friends here have birthdays this week. This week was super different than normal because it was La Semana del Colegio (The Week of the School). This is our anniversary month and our school´s official anniversary is May 13th. On Monday it was The Day of the Student in all of Chile, I´m pretty sure, and we had a little party for our grade in the morning. My teacher brought in little notes with different life lessons on them and gave them to each of us and we ate cake and played Pictionary, the prize being added decimals to our Lenguage grade. My team came in second which is good because I can always use decimal points. After that a performer came and did, well, a performance for us. It was fine...pretty typical performer stuff. Then after lunch we had our Community Service project. We all went to this home for girls who have been removed from their families and we did activities with them and then all had a snack. The girls were all really fascinated by my gringa-ness and wanted me to speak English to them. I made bracelets with some girls although they struggled to get the hang of it. One of them wanted to know why I had dyed my hair, and my classmate had to explain that some people are born with blond hair. Then on Tuesday we had normal classes in the morning and in the afternoon, the Alianzas began. I can´t remember how much I´ve said about Alianzas so if I repeat myself I´m sorry. The entire school, Pre-K through 4º Medio, divides itself into two teams: the even-numbered grades and the odd-numbered grades. Each year the theme is different but this year the theme is countries. We are Brazil, the other team is Italy. We all have to wear green and yellow and they all wear red and white. There are a ton of competetions and the team with the most points at the end wins! Tuesday we had the girl´s soccer game and sadly we lost, 3-1 but I scored our one goal (lefty!). We played 8v8 and one of the Italian girls has a wicked shot and basically would just wham the ball. It was fun playing though. At halftime all the guys in my grade had advice for me, which they all gave at the same time and I spent an entertaining few minutes trying to ask them how to say “man on”. Then there were a few highly controversial rounds of dodgeball. Yesterday we had our anniversary mass, which was long and Catholic, as many masses tend to be. I really don´t understand very much because it´s hard to understand people when they´re using microphones but I like the singing. My religious vocab is improving. I can now say santificado, pecador, fraile, desayunar, rogar, rezar, pecado and part of Our Father. For Lenguaje we´re reading Los Milagros De Nuestra Señora, which is 12th century Spanish poetry celebrating the Virgin Mary. It´s actually not super hard, because they rewrote it in modern Spanish and it rhymes, which I like. After mass we had two classes and then people went off to do Alianza-related things. I stayed in the gym and helped decorate our side. The gym is divided in half and each Alianza gets to decorate their side. I was really worried because we weren´t getting much done and we had only two hours and then we had to go. Somehow, we managed to pull of an incredible design though. I´m going to send a photo of it when the internet is up again. It´s so awesome. Much better than Italy´s, which was traced. It was really fun seeing our decorations come out so well. Today was the first full day of the Alianzas. We all showed up with country´s colors and there were competitions all day. I competed in Musical Chairs, which we lost. There was a relay race of sorts that involved eating an entire onion raw and drinking a liter of coke (although different people did each) which was pretty disgusting. The poor kid was gagging and crying as he ate the onion. There were also the presentations of each team´s King and Queen and the team dances. Our Queen was accompanied by a group of drummers which was pretty cool. Each King and Queen had to demonstrate a talent. Our Queen sang and our King hit tennis balls at water balloons. This whole thing is pretty intense. People paint their faces and cheer and it can get pretty competetive. Tomorrow is the final day and it culmunates in a school party in the evening for the upper grades. This whole idea of La Semana del Colegio is cool. It´d be fun to do at FRCS instead of Field Day. It takes a ton of work though. The whole thing is run by the Student Council and there´s a ton of preperation involved. Next week is different too because it´s Navy Day so we´re going to have a parade I think. Details to follow...
Let´s see...what else? We had a nice Mother´s Day. We took a picnic to the beach and hung out there and then drove along the coast and saw some seriously rich neighborhoods overlooking the ocean. Yesterday was my halfway mark, I realized. I left home 11 weeks ago as of yesterday, and I leave here in eleven weeks. HOLY GUACAMOLE THAT¨S NOT MUCH TIME!!! It´s hard to be believe I´ve been here for such a short time and I´m leaving so soon. Seriously, in two and a half weeks it´s June and then it´s only four weeks until I have a month left. Yikes. It´s hard to believe that my Spanish is going to improve much in that time but I have faith. Sometimes it´s hard to stay in the moment and I start to worry if I´m accomplishing what I want to accomplish here and all that. Tedious, yeah? So that´s my task: Don´t worry, be happy, learn Spanish. Oh, and see a penguin. I would loooove to see a penguin.
I tried making brownies this weekend with my little sisters. Asher sent me a recipe and I don´t know if it´s the one he usually uses but they came out really different. It was mad hard trying to convert a US recipe to a Chilean kitchen. There isn´t really one food in particular that I miss from the US but it´s really weird going to the grocery store and not finding the things I take for granted, like chocolate chips. I think the have them in the bigger supermarkets but I had to settle for chopping up a chocolate bar. Anyways, the brownies came out funny but they were really yummy and it was fun baking. Asher, if you want a math challenge, convert all the recipes you send me into metric system. That would be incredibly helpful. Actually, what I miss here is breakfast. Chileans do not do breakfast well. We have bread and cereal but no omlets, pancakes or bacon. And bagels are an unknown thing here. I´m pretty sure that this is what seperates developing countries from developed countries: bagels. I really like the whole big meal in the middle of the day thing. On the weekends we have our big meal at around two and I think it´ll be weird to readjust to eating big meals in the evening.
So, here is what I´m wondering, if anyone would like to enlighten me...What´s happening with the playoffs? At a party of Saturday I spent some time discussing them with a guy in my class who actually knows a lot about basketball. For some unfathomable reason they broadcast the entire playoffs except the final. Because who cares about that, when they can watch the first round! Jeezsh.
Hmmm...what else? My camera broke so I think I´m going to have to buy a new one. At least I think it´s broken. Its bateries die literally within seconds and last time I tried turning it on it made a funny loud beap and flashed at me. Grrrrr.
Oh, one last thing. They really have fall here. The leaves turn red and orange (at least some do, although not in vast quantities like in New England) and sometimes when it´s cold it smells the same. South America is not all tropical and warm, let´s be clear on that.
Much love,
Sela
Week 10
¡Hola a todos!
Today is Saturday and I´ve officially been in Chile for ten weeks. This was a pretty good week. On Saturday, after much deliberation, I went to Fantasilandia with a group of exchange friends and Chileans. Fantasilandia is an amusement park in Santiago and at first I wasn´t sure if I wanted to go because I find roller coasters and other unnatural contraptions of death a bit unpleasant. Nevertheless, I had no other plans and I love my exchange friends so I decided to go, which turned out to be a good idea. It was me, Mihi (his real name is Michael but the Chileans pronounce in Mihi), his friend, Sally, Tanja, Ham, Nut (a Thai kid from San Fernando), Lee Hao and his friend, Ham´s host brother Juan Pablo who was our chaperone although he´s my age and Clint, a kid from KY who was on exchange in Argentina but is now at a university in Valparaiso. We took a bus into Santiago at around 9:30am and got to Fantasilandia at a litle before noon. We all split up into groups and I spent the day with Sally, Juan Pablo and Clint. We didn´t go on any of the big roller coasters, but we did go on the Extreme Fall. They have it at Six Flags too. You go this tower and they just leave you sitting there waiting and then suddenly you fall back down. It was slightly terrifying but fun too. The one unpleasant moment occurred on the slide. There was this big slide thing that you took a little raft down and they put water down to make the boat go faster. Juan Pablo promised me I wouldn´t get wet at all. My entire butt and back of the legs got soaked. So I spent a lot of the day feeling a bit cold and clammy. On the bus ride home I spent the time talking with Mihi and his friend, who wants to go on exchange to the US. He had a lot of questions about English grammar and it was really funny because Mihi, who´s German, was able to answer them much better than I was. People get really confused by “do” as an auxilary verb. So all in all, the trip to Fantasilandia was fun.
Monday was a little hard but after that the week was much better. Tuesday was a really good day. Here´s one part of my exciting news for the week! So a few weeks ago we took a PSU (their equivalent of the SAT) Language test where we had to analize poetry and stuf like that and she handed them back on Tueday and I got a 5.3!!! In normal circumstances this would be a pretty average grade but considering I was taking a college-entry test in Spanish, I was pretty psyched. My teacher said I did really well. The weird thing was that my classmates scored wicked low. I had one of the higher grades, which was funny. Then later that day we got our history tests back and I passed my first test from way back in March with a 5 and somehow had managed to get a 4.2 on the PSU Precolonial Chilean History test, where I pretty much just guessed on every single one and chose the names I liked best. So passing a test always makes me feel good so passing three was very exciting. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had our midterm Language test. That was pretty hard. We had to analize poetry, read paragraphs and identify the thesis and intent of the writer, do synonyms, stuff like that. A lot of it was multiple choice, which was good but there was some open response too. On Wednesday we had to read and analyize a Neruda poem and afterwards my brain was exhausted. I feel like I´m begining to understand more, but I have to constantly be paying close attention, which is exhausting. In class discussions when everyone is talking over each other, yelling at each other to shut up, and just making lots of noise in general it´s completely overwhelming. I much prefer talking to people one on one.
One thing I really love about Chile is the public transportation. I can take a colectivo to and from my house to town for about a $1.50. I prefer to walk to town though and then take the colectivo home. I love being able to get around by myself. It makes me feel incredibly independent. On Wednesday I walked into town, did some little errands and then met up with Olga and went and talked to the people at the Tourism office, who know us. There are also buses to take into Viña but I haven´t taken one yet and I want someone to go with me the first time.
Thursday was a weird day. One of the funny things about being an exchange student is that you´re often surprised by things. On Thursday I get to school and all I knew was that the police were going to come and show us their dogs. Instead of Math, which is our first class on Thursday, we left the classroom (I had no idea where we were going) and went to the little chapel to have our school anniversary mass with 4º Medio. Next week is the official anniversary of the school. So we had mass and then went and hung our class cross on a tree out in the back field. Yes, we have a class cross. I think we go and pray to it if our class is having dificulties, I´m not sure. All I know is that FRCS never gave us a class cross. What´s up with that? Then after half of literature class we went and heard a presentation by a member of the Chilean GOPE (their version of SWAT). He talked to us about being a GOPE officer and showed us a video of their training. Then we went and saw a demonstration of the police dogs doing tricks. Some of it was pretty cool. By the time we had finished lunch, we had pretty much missed all of our classes except for PE. So that was all good. On Friday we also learned that in the national standardized test last year, my class scored the best in the region, and sixth best in the country in math. They were all so excited. The math profesor was so happy too. He said we´re going to have a celebratory breakfast.
Two more exciting pieces of news. One is I finally called home this week, since it was Mom´s birthday. I was really nervous about calling home because I thought it´d make my homesick but it was just really, really nice. J The other exciting piece of news is that I FINALLY EXPERIENCED A TEMBLOR!!! I´ve been in Chile for more than two months and although there have been others, I didn´t feel them, much to my disapointment. But yesterday we were sitting in Literature class and there´s this sort of far-off rumble and then everything just shakes a little bit. It was cool.
So that was my week. In a about a half-hour I´m going to soccer and then I´m hopefully going to a party tonight. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mothers!!!!
Much love,
Today is Saturday and I´ve officially been in Chile for ten weeks. This was a pretty good week. On Saturday, after much deliberation, I went to Fantasilandia with a group of exchange friends and Chileans. Fantasilandia is an amusement park in Santiago and at first I wasn´t sure if I wanted to go because I find roller coasters and other unnatural contraptions of death a bit unpleasant. Nevertheless, I had no other plans and I love my exchange friends so I decided to go, which turned out to be a good idea. It was me, Mihi (his real name is Michael but the Chileans pronounce in Mihi), his friend, Sally, Tanja, Ham, Nut (a Thai kid from San Fernando), Lee Hao and his friend, Ham´s host brother Juan Pablo who was our chaperone although he´s my age and Clint, a kid from KY who was on exchange in Argentina but is now at a university in Valparaiso. We took a bus into Santiago at around 9:30am and got to Fantasilandia at a litle before noon. We all split up into groups and I spent the day with Sally, Juan Pablo and Clint. We didn´t go on any of the big roller coasters, but we did go on the Extreme Fall. They have it at Six Flags too. You go this tower and they just leave you sitting there waiting and then suddenly you fall back down. It was slightly terrifying but fun too. The one unpleasant moment occurred on the slide. There was this big slide thing that you took a little raft down and they put water down to make the boat go faster. Juan Pablo promised me I wouldn´t get wet at all. My entire butt and back of the legs got soaked. So I spent a lot of the day feeling a bit cold and clammy. On the bus ride home I spent the time talking with Mihi and his friend, who wants to go on exchange to the US. He had a lot of questions about English grammar and it was really funny because Mihi, who´s German, was able to answer them much better than I was. People get really confused by “do” as an auxilary verb. So all in all, the trip to Fantasilandia was fun.
Monday was a little hard but after that the week was much better. Tuesday was a really good day. Here´s one part of my exciting news for the week! So a few weeks ago we took a PSU (their equivalent of the SAT) Language test where we had to analize poetry and stuf like that and she handed them back on Tueday and I got a 5.3!!! In normal circumstances this would be a pretty average grade but considering I was taking a college-entry test in Spanish, I was pretty psyched. My teacher said I did really well. The weird thing was that my classmates scored wicked low. I had one of the higher grades, which was funny. Then later that day we got our history tests back and I passed my first test from way back in March with a 5 and somehow had managed to get a 4.2 on the PSU Precolonial Chilean History test, where I pretty much just guessed on every single one and chose the names I liked best. So passing a test always makes me feel good so passing three was very exciting. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had our midterm Language test. That was pretty hard. We had to analize poetry, read paragraphs and identify the thesis and intent of the writer, do synonyms, stuff like that. A lot of it was multiple choice, which was good but there was some open response too. On Wednesday we had to read and analyize a Neruda poem and afterwards my brain was exhausted. I feel like I´m begining to understand more, but I have to constantly be paying close attention, which is exhausting. In class discussions when everyone is talking over each other, yelling at each other to shut up, and just making lots of noise in general it´s completely overwhelming. I much prefer talking to people one on one.
One thing I really love about Chile is the public transportation. I can take a colectivo to and from my house to town for about a $1.50. I prefer to walk to town though and then take the colectivo home. I love being able to get around by myself. It makes me feel incredibly independent. On Wednesday I walked into town, did some little errands and then met up with Olga and went and talked to the people at the Tourism office, who know us. There are also buses to take into Viña but I haven´t taken one yet and I want someone to go with me the first time.
Thursday was a weird day. One of the funny things about being an exchange student is that you´re often surprised by things. On Thursday I get to school and all I knew was that the police were going to come and show us their dogs. Instead of Math, which is our first class on Thursday, we left the classroom (I had no idea where we were going) and went to the little chapel to have our school anniversary mass with 4º Medio. Next week is the official anniversary of the school. So we had mass and then went and hung our class cross on a tree out in the back field. Yes, we have a class cross. I think we go and pray to it if our class is having dificulties, I´m not sure. All I know is that FRCS never gave us a class cross. What´s up with that? Then after half of literature class we went and heard a presentation by a member of the Chilean GOPE (their version of SWAT). He talked to us about being a GOPE officer and showed us a video of their training. Then we went and saw a demonstration of the police dogs doing tricks. Some of it was pretty cool. By the time we had finished lunch, we had pretty much missed all of our classes except for PE. So that was all good. On Friday we also learned that in the national standardized test last year, my class scored the best in the region, and sixth best in the country in math. They were all so excited. The math profesor was so happy too. He said we´re going to have a celebratory breakfast.
Two more exciting pieces of news. One is I finally called home this week, since it was Mom´s birthday. I was really nervous about calling home because I thought it´d make my homesick but it was just really, really nice. J The other exciting piece of news is that I FINALLY EXPERIENCED A TEMBLOR!!! I´ve been in Chile for more than two months and although there have been others, I didn´t feel them, much to my disapointment. But yesterday we were sitting in Literature class and there´s this sort of far-off rumble and then everything just shakes a little bit. It was cool.
So that was my week. In a about a half-hour I´m going to soccer and then I´m hopefully going to a party tonight. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mothers!!!!
Much love,
Two Months...
Hola a todos!
I have now been in Chile for TWO months. That´s twice as long as it was a month ago. :)Time flies here. I now only have three months left here, which feels like no time at all. Eeek! This week was a short week because tomorrow we have the day off, due to it being Labor Day here. This week has been okay. I was sick again, only this time it was my stomach instead of a cold. I think we exchange students are extra suceptible to getting sick. Anyways, that was no fun but it´s all good now plus I got to meet the nurse at school who´s super nice. I left math class to get something for my stomach and ended up staying in the nurse´s office for like a half hour talking to her. She had an exchange student from the US stay with her last year and so she knows all about the exchange process and all that. She told me any time I need to talk I can come see her, which I´m happy about. Oh my god, there´s this horrible music playing right now. Our house is under construction right now and the carpenters are playing really bad, repetetive reggeton-ish music. Anyways, last week I went on the AFS tour. It was fun. It was all of the exchange students from Quillota as well as all the prospective exchange students who are getting ready to go abroad and some exchange students from Viña y Valpo. My friend Leah is in Viña so that was good to see her. Oh, the morning of the tour I FINALLY got my carnet. In Chile everyone, even my two year old brother, has an ID card and all of us exchangers had to get one as well. Needless to say, there were some incredibly irritating complications with mine and I got mine like a month after everone else. But I have it now and the photo isn´t actually that bad. It´s all official and cool. I´ll show you guys when I get home. Anyways...tour. We started in the plaza and took a bus to this little emporium where we had breakfast. Then we went to the Carabinero School of Horses or whatever it´s called. It´s where the mounted police of Chile train. Is that how you say it? My English is getting a little funky. The horse that set the world record in jumping was from there and he jumped SUPER high. It´s crazy. So we walked around there and saw the museum and then got back on the bus and headed over to the huaso museum in the center of town. In Chile there is a tradition of rodeos and the cowboys are called huasos. One of Panchi´s friends is a national competitor in rodeoing. After that we hung out in the plaza and then went out to lunch at this little restaurant that served a TON of food. Remember, lunch is the big meal of the day but this was excessive. First came a salad, then a very large empanada de pino (ground meat, hard boiled eggs, onion and olives...yum) and then a heaping plate of mashed potatos and pork or chicken. Then ice cream. It was all very yummy. Then we went to this art school and checked out the work there and then went up to this rental space and everyone had to sing a song from their country. We gringas all sang Rudolph the Red-nosed Reighndeer. Then we had onces (tea and sandwhiches) and then we went home. I met a Chinese kid who´s been here since August who´s pretty cool. He told me that he saw the entire US Nat´l Mens Basketball team in person in Beijing. Lucky! On Friday night I went to a classmate´s birthday party, which was fun. She has a wicked nice house. The cakes here are sort of different from those in the US. For one thing, almost every sweet thing here incorporates manjar somehow. Manjar, manjar, manjar. I love manjar.
School this week was okay. I finished both the books I had to read, which I was proud of. I understood one of them, the other was really weird and surreal and I didn´t understand it very well. The problem for me is that I understand what I read but I have trouble retaining it afterwards. I think it´s because I guess what a lot of the words mean so I don´t remember them afterwards so I can´t picture what I read. This week my language teacher finally passed back our tests on the Odessy. I was really looking forward to seeing my grade but unfortunately she couldn´t understand what I was trying to say in my test so I have to stay after school and explain it to her. AAAGHH!!! That was sort of a blow to my ego, because I thought I could write better than that. Oh well. School is really hard. My next book to read is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It´s an abridged version I think.
There´s lots of talk here about the pig flu. Here it´s called gripe porcina, I think. Anyone coming into the country from the US or Mexico has to get a health inspection and my sister told me that people are wearing masks in Viña. Chivas, a Mexican soccer team, is here for a game against a Chilean team and apparently when the players went to the mall everyone was staying clear of them. It´s really weird hearing about what´s happening in the US as "over there". It makes me a little worried to hear about the flu in the US. Please everyone be careful. I feel so disconnected from what´s going on in the US. Yesterday I figured I should check up on what´s going on so I went on the NY Times website and discovered that the MLS has been in session for a MONTH and I didn´t know it. Weird.
What else to share...winter´s coming here. For the past two months it´s been super sunny and now all of the sudden it´s really cloudy all day. It´s sort of depressing. And cold. Here´s what I don´t get: I go to the most expensive school in Quillota so how is it they don´t have indoor heating? We wear skirts for God´s sake and there´s no heating! I miss Señor´s incredibly toasty warm classroom. Seriously, we thought Mr. Wallace´s room was bad? It´s not actually that cold here, like in the 50s, but when you´re sitting in a skirt at your desk all day it gets to you. Another weather-related observation....I´m still waiting to feel a tremor. In Chile, like San Francisco, there are very frequent tremors in the Earth. There have been two since I´ve been here and I haven´t noticed them. I was so disappointed because I was really curious to feel one! I can now take public transportation by myself. Well, I can take a colectivo. There´s like taxis but they have a specific route and take multiple people. It costs roughly a dollar to take one into town. I have yet to take a bus but I´want to learn to take them myself so I can go to Viña and visit friends.
So that´s all for this week I think. .
Much love,
Sela
I have now been in Chile for TWO months. That´s twice as long as it was a month ago. :)Time flies here. I now only have three months left here, which feels like no time at all. Eeek! This week was a short week because tomorrow we have the day off, due to it being Labor Day here. This week has been okay. I was sick again, only this time it was my stomach instead of a cold. I think we exchange students are extra suceptible to getting sick. Anyways, that was no fun but it´s all good now plus I got to meet the nurse at school who´s super nice. I left math class to get something for my stomach and ended up staying in the nurse´s office for like a half hour talking to her. She had an exchange student from the US stay with her last year and so she knows all about the exchange process and all that. She told me any time I need to talk I can come see her, which I´m happy about. Oh my god, there´s this horrible music playing right now. Our house is under construction right now and the carpenters are playing really bad, repetetive reggeton-ish music. Anyways, last week I went on the AFS tour. It was fun. It was all of the exchange students from Quillota as well as all the prospective exchange students who are getting ready to go abroad and some exchange students from Viña y Valpo. My friend Leah is in Viña so that was good to see her. Oh, the morning of the tour I FINALLY got my carnet. In Chile everyone, even my two year old brother, has an ID card and all of us exchangers had to get one as well. Needless to say, there were some incredibly irritating complications with mine and I got mine like a month after everone else. But I have it now and the photo isn´t actually that bad. It´s all official and cool. I´ll show you guys when I get home. Anyways...tour. We started in the plaza and took a bus to this little emporium where we had breakfast. Then we went to the Carabinero School of Horses or whatever it´s called. It´s where the mounted police of Chile train. Is that how you say it? My English is getting a little funky. The horse that set the world record in jumping was from there and he jumped SUPER high. It´s crazy. So we walked around there and saw the museum and then got back on the bus and headed over to the huaso museum in the center of town. In Chile there is a tradition of rodeos and the cowboys are called huasos. One of Panchi´s friends is a national competitor in rodeoing. After that we hung out in the plaza and then went out to lunch at this little restaurant that served a TON of food. Remember, lunch is the big meal of the day but this was excessive. First came a salad, then a very large empanada de pino (ground meat, hard boiled eggs, onion and olives...yum) and then a heaping plate of mashed potatos and pork or chicken. Then ice cream. It was all very yummy. Then we went to this art school and checked out the work there and then went up to this rental space and everyone had to sing a song from their country. We gringas all sang Rudolph the Red-nosed Reighndeer. Then we had onces (tea and sandwhiches) and then we went home. I met a Chinese kid who´s been here since August who´s pretty cool. He told me that he saw the entire US Nat´l Mens Basketball team in person in Beijing. Lucky! On Friday night I went to a classmate´s birthday party, which was fun. She has a wicked nice house. The cakes here are sort of different from those in the US. For one thing, almost every sweet thing here incorporates manjar somehow. Manjar, manjar, manjar. I love manjar.
School this week was okay. I finished both the books I had to read, which I was proud of. I understood one of them, the other was really weird and surreal and I didn´t understand it very well. The problem for me is that I understand what I read but I have trouble retaining it afterwards. I think it´s because I guess what a lot of the words mean so I don´t remember them afterwards so I can´t picture what I read. This week my language teacher finally passed back our tests on the Odessy. I was really looking forward to seeing my grade but unfortunately she couldn´t understand what I was trying to say in my test so I have to stay after school and explain it to her. AAAGHH!!! That was sort of a blow to my ego, because I thought I could write better than that. Oh well. School is really hard. My next book to read is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It´s an abridged version I think.
There´s lots of talk here about the pig flu. Here it´s called gripe porcina, I think. Anyone coming into the country from the US or Mexico has to get a health inspection and my sister told me that people are wearing masks in Viña. Chivas, a Mexican soccer team, is here for a game against a Chilean team and apparently when the players went to the mall everyone was staying clear of them. It´s really weird hearing about what´s happening in the US as "over there". It makes me a little worried to hear about the flu in the US. Please everyone be careful. I feel so disconnected from what´s going on in the US. Yesterday I figured I should check up on what´s going on so I went on the NY Times website and discovered that the MLS has been in session for a MONTH and I didn´t know it. Weird.
What else to share...winter´s coming here. For the past two months it´s been super sunny and now all of the sudden it´s really cloudy all day. It´s sort of depressing. And cold. Here´s what I don´t get: I go to the most expensive school in Quillota so how is it they don´t have indoor heating? We wear skirts for God´s sake and there´s no heating! I miss Señor´s incredibly toasty warm classroom. Seriously, we thought Mr. Wallace´s room was bad? It´s not actually that cold here, like in the 50s, but when you´re sitting in a skirt at your desk all day it gets to you. Another weather-related observation....I´m still waiting to feel a tremor. In Chile, like San Francisco, there are very frequent tremors in the Earth. There have been two since I´ve been here and I haven´t noticed them. I was so disappointed because I was really curious to feel one! I can now take public transportation by myself. Well, I can take a colectivo. There´s like taxis but they have a specific route and take multiple people. It costs roughly a dollar to take one into town. I have yet to take a bus but I´want to learn to take them myself so I can go to Viña and visit friends.
So that´s all for this week I think. .
Much love,
Sela
Week 8
Hola a todos!
Thursday afternoon and I´m the only kid home, as all my sisters are off doing track or studying for the college entry test. We´re doing construction on our house right now so it´s REALLY loud. I hear what sounds like a jackhammer going and it´s been going for the last while. We´re all super psyched for them to be done, especially my host parents because then they´ll have their own room again. Our house used to be white, but it has since been painted bright yellow. At first I wasn´t so psyched but I think it´ll grow on me. This week was a really short one, school-wise because on Wednesday we had our class jornada and tomorrow I´m skipping school to go on a tour of Quillota with AFS. Our jornada is a yearly event where our class skips school and goes to the house of one of my classmates with our head teacher and religion professor. We have a theme that we talk about and do activities around and at the end, we do something fun. Our theme was sexuality and we talked about different aspects but I can´t really give too much detail because I didn´t understand a whole ton. We played some games where we had to solve a sexuality crossword and stuff like that. Afterwards we had a bbq and all ate hamburgers and listened to music. It was fun. Tomorrow my school is celebrating International Book Day. There´s all this stuff planned. Each grade has produced a radio theater piece and they´re going to be performed. My English class is doing a production of War of the Worlds and my Lit class is going to be doing a poetry performance. Unfortunately I don´t think I´ll be able to participate because I´ll be with AFS. I´m bummed. I signed up for the tour before I really knew about the Book Day and I also really wanted to go, because I´ll get to see exchange friends from both Quillota and Viña. It´s hard to chose between being with my class and being with AFS. This week was another tough week. I just get very frusterated because I can´t understand as much as I´d like and communicating is hard. Grrr. Yesterday I was super frusterated so I walked to town and bought myself a Bon o Bon, which is a little chocolate thing with Chilean peanut butter inside.That helped, getting outside and moving around. I went into the center last night as well, to hang out with a friend from Finland. Her name´s Olga and she´s pretty cool. We just sat and talked, and it was super nice to talk to another exchange student.
This Saturday I went to play soccer at a soccer school at my school. It´s affiliated with La Universidad de Chile, one of the professional soccer teams here. There were only three other girls though, and they were freshman and younger. I´d like to play soccer but I want to find something to do that will help connect me with more people outside my school or with people my age. My soccer skills are incredibly rusty and I´m very out of shape. I´d like to join a gym here. Have to investigate that!
I´ve been sick this week but I´m feeling much better now. Actually, it was this weekend that was the worst - a bad cold. As such, my weekend here was very chill. I read a lot, because I have two school books to finish by next week. Yikes! I´m also still reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (in Spanish) and that´s going well.
Ooooh, exciting news. I PASSED MY MATH TEST. I PASSED IT, AS IN NO LITTLE RED FAILING NUMBER!!!! I got the lowest passing grade but I don´t care because I PASSED! Chem, no. But that´s okay.
What else...Oh, I know! In a few weeks, my school has it´s anniversary week. It´s called Alianzas (alliances) and all the odd-number grades are together and all the even number grades are together. My little sisters and I are together, but Panchi´s on the other alianza. There are all these different events. I´m going to be playing in the soccer game. Alianza is four days long and sounds really intense. There´s a theme every year, and this year it´s (Asher, you´´ll appreciate this) Brazil vs Italy. My team is Brazil! There´s going to be some samba-dancing going on.
Hope everyone´s well,
Much love,
Sela
Thursday afternoon and I´m the only kid home, as all my sisters are off doing track or studying for the college entry test. We´re doing construction on our house right now so it´s REALLY loud. I hear what sounds like a jackhammer going and it´s been going for the last while. We´re all super psyched for them to be done, especially my host parents because then they´ll have their own room again. Our house used to be white, but it has since been painted bright yellow. At first I wasn´t so psyched but I think it´ll grow on me. This week was a really short one, school-wise because on Wednesday we had our class jornada and tomorrow I´m skipping school to go on a tour of Quillota with AFS. Our jornada is a yearly event where our class skips school and goes to the house of one of my classmates with our head teacher and religion professor. We have a theme that we talk about and do activities around and at the end, we do something fun. Our theme was sexuality and we talked about different aspects but I can´t really give too much detail because I didn´t understand a whole ton. We played some games where we had to solve a sexuality crossword and stuff like that. Afterwards we had a bbq and all ate hamburgers and listened to music. It was fun. Tomorrow my school is celebrating International Book Day. There´s all this stuff planned. Each grade has produced a radio theater piece and they´re going to be performed. My English class is doing a production of War of the Worlds and my Lit class is going to be doing a poetry performance. Unfortunately I don´t think I´ll be able to participate because I´ll be with AFS. I´m bummed. I signed up for the tour before I really knew about the Book Day and I also really wanted to go, because I´ll get to see exchange friends from both Quillota and Viña. It´s hard to chose between being with my class and being with AFS. This week was another tough week. I just get very frusterated because I can´t understand as much as I´d like and communicating is hard. Grrr. Yesterday I was super frusterated so I walked to town and bought myself a Bon o Bon, which is a little chocolate thing with Chilean peanut butter inside.That helped, getting outside and moving around. I went into the center last night as well, to hang out with a friend from Finland. Her name´s Olga and she´s pretty cool. We just sat and talked, and it was super nice to talk to another exchange student.
This Saturday I went to play soccer at a soccer school at my school. It´s affiliated with La Universidad de Chile, one of the professional soccer teams here. There were only three other girls though, and they were freshman and younger. I´d like to play soccer but I want to find something to do that will help connect me with more people outside my school or with people my age. My soccer skills are incredibly rusty and I´m very out of shape. I´d like to join a gym here. Have to investigate that!
I´ve been sick this week but I´m feeling much better now. Actually, it was this weekend that was the worst - a bad cold. As such, my weekend here was very chill. I read a lot, because I have two school books to finish by next week. Yikes! I´m also still reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (in Spanish) and that´s going well.
Ooooh, exciting news. I PASSED MY MATH TEST. I PASSED IT, AS IN NO LITTLE RED FAILING NUMBER!!!! I got the lowest passing grade but I don´t care because I PASSED! Chem, no. But that´s okay.
What else...Oh, I know! In a few weeks, my school has it´s anniversary week. It´s called Alianzas (alliances) and all the odd-number grades are together and all the even number grades are together. My little sisters and I are together, but Panchi´s on the other alianza. There are all these different events. I´m going to be playing in the soccer game. Alianza is four days long and sounds really intense. There´s a theme every year, and this year it´s (Asher, you´´ll appreciate this) Brazil vs Italy. My team is Brazil! There´s going to be some samba-dancing going on.
Hope everyone´s well,
Much love,
Sela
Week 7
Hola a todos!
I´ve now been in Chile for almost 7 weeks.
Before coming to Chile I´d never....
*had a cellphone and texted regularly
*seen yogurt and milk sold in bags
*kissed my teachers hello
*greeted pretty much everyone with a kiss
*eaten so much avocado, manjar and ham
*worn a uniform to school
*been on the other side of the hemisphere
*straightened my hair so much
*heard reggeton everyday
I feel like there should be a ton of those, but I can´t think of any. I don´t know if that´s because my life here isn´t that different or because I´ve become accustomed to the changes. I´ve been waiting to have some kind of cultural revalation but so far I haven´t really. I was watching the movie Twilight though and there was this scene in which one of the characters tells her friends she´ll see them later and leaves without giving them a kiss or anything and I thought "how cold!" before remembering that in the US we don´t kiss everyone. I really like how affectionate people are here. It´s very friendly. I´m still not completely used to how physical students can be with teachers.
Let´s see..This week wasn´t the greatest. I was really missing my family, esp. my brothers and I just felt frusterated with everything, esp. the language. I really go through ups and downs, or mountains and valleys as Señor McDonnell calls them. Some days I feel really confident with everything, other days no. I ended up having a talk with my host mom and my oldest host sister and that really helped me to feel better and I feel much better now. I feel my Spanish improving though because I can know undertand my soap opera fairly well. I think Camilo is now officially with his secretary but his family´s really mad and his old girlfriend is back in the picture I think. Scandalous!
Oooh! Here´s something exciting! I CAN READ SPANISH! As in read, read. In my Language class we´re reading El Hombre en Busco de Sentido, which is written by a psychologist who was in the concentration camps. I think it´s called A Man in Search of Sense or something like that in English but I´m not sure. Anyways, he´s basically writing about the psychological impact of the camps on the prisoners and it´s really interesting. But it´s a real book, and I CAN READ IT! It´s tough and I keep my dictionary close beside me but it´s definitely a triumph. Can´t say the rest of my classes are going so well. Math completely baffles me, as well as Chemistry. I have a Math test tomorrow and I´m so lost. Oh well. This week was Easter, which I thought would be a big deal but it was very chill. I went to mass with my host dad and we had a family lunch. The Easter Bunny came to our house and left eggs for my little sisters, but they shared them with me. Last Thursday I went to help out at a soup kitchen. It´s for homeless men and a few of my classmates and I helped prepare food and serve it to the men. It was a cool experience. I actually went back with a few classmates again to help out on Sunday and one of the old guys there read us his poetry. Another one welcomed me to South America. I´d like to go back again. The men there are really nice.
I have to go because my sister needs the computer. Sorry it´s so short.
Hope everyone´s well!
Much love,
Sela
I´ve now been in Chile for almost 7 weeks.
Before coming to Chile I´d never....
*had a cellphone and texted regularly
*seen yogurt and milk sold in bags
*kissed my teachers hello
*greeted pretty much everyone with a kiss
*eaten so much avocado, manjar and ham
*worn a uniform to school
*been on the other side of the hemisphere
*straightened my hair so much
*heard reggeton everyday
I feel like there should be a ton of those, but I can´t think of any. I don´t know if that´s because my life here isn´t that different or because I´ve become accustomed to the changes. I´ve been waiting to have some kind of cultural revalation but so far I haven´t really. I was watching the movie Twilight though and there was this scene in which one of the characters tells her friends she´ll see them later and leaves without giving them a kiss or anything and I thought "how cold!" before remembering that in the US we don´t kiss everyone. I really like how affectionate people are here. It´s very friendly. I´m still not completely used to how physical students can be with teachers.
Let´s see..This week wasn´t the greatest. I was really missing my family, esp. my brothers and I just felt frusterated with everything, esp. the language. I really go through ups and downs, or mountains and valleys as Señor McDonnell calls them. Some days I feel really confident with everything, other days no. I ended up having a talk with my host mom and my oldest host sister and that really helped me to feel better and I feel much better now. I feel my Spanish improving though because I can know undertand my soap opera fairly well. I think Camilo is now officially with his secretary but his family´s really mad and his old girlfriend is back in the picture I think. Scandalous!
Oooh! Here´s something exciting! I CAN READ SPANISH! As in read, read. In my Language class we´re reading El Hombre en Busco de Sentido, which is written by a psychologist who was in the concentration camps. I think it´s called A Man in Search of Sense or something like that in English but I´m not sure. Anyways, he´s basically writing about the psychological impact of the camps on the prisoners and it´s really interesting. But it´s a real book, and I CAN READ IT! It´s tough and I keep my dictionary close beside me but it´s definitely a triumph. Can´t say the rest of my classes are going so well. Math completely baffles me, as well as Chemistry. I have a Math test tomorrow and I´m so lost. Oh well. This week was Easter, which I thought would be a big deal but it was very chill. I went to mass with my host dad and we had a family lunch. The Easter Bunny came to our house and left eggs for my little sisters, but they shared them with me. Last Thursday I went to help out at a soup kitchen. It´s for homeless men and a few of my classmates and I helped prepare food and serve it to the men. It was a cool experience. I actually went back with a few classmates again to help out on Sunday and one of the old guys there read us his poetry. Another one welcomed me to South America. I´d like to go back again. The men there are really nice.
I have to go because my sister needs the computer. Sorry it´s so short.
Hope everyone´s well!
Much love,
Sela
Week 6
Hola!
This is my sixth week in Chile (as noted above in the subject). Today I´m home from school because it´s Semana Santa. In Chile, schools get Thursday and Friday off. Yesterday was a half day and in the evening we had a via crusis for all of the families. A via crusis (for all you who aren´t Catholic) is when you walk through the 12 stations of the cross and sing songs and say prayers. I only know one half of a prayer and that´s Our Father. I know it in English thanks to going to mass with Javier so it´s easier to pick up in Spanish. We all had candles and walked around to different classrooms and people read stuff at each station. It was fine but I didn´t understand very much. I liked the candles and singing though. Tomorrow we might go to Riñaca, a city next to Viña, for a via crusis on the beach but it´s still up in the air. A lot of the time our plans are up in the air until the last minute. I´m not quite sure what else we´re doing for Easter. I think we´ll go to mass on Sunday and have an egg hunt for the little girls. I´m sad to be missing passover. I think our family sedar was today or yesterday. This is my second time in two years missing it and it´s really a bummer. I was hoping to have a sedar here with a Jewish exchange friend but I don´t have a way into Viña and it would just be complicated, legistics-wise.
This week´s been okay. On Friday I got to leave school at 3pm and all the other exchangers in Quillota/La Calera and I took a bus to Santiago for our one-month orientation. That was pretty cool. There were about 50 of us there, all from the central part of the country. The students to the North and South had their own orientations. Lots of Americans and Germans. My Spanish was pretty good on Friday and it was a little hard to switch over to English because I was happy speaking Spanish but it´s so much easier to communicate with everyone in English rather than Spanish. I have to say, as much as I love speaking in Spanish it was such a relief to be able to express myself without really having to concentrate super hard. It was really nice to be with people who were in my same situation more or less and I click really well with a lot of the exchangers. We had to do some talking in groups about culture shock, which wasn´t that helpful because it was pretty general. I liked it much more when we just talked as a group about our experiences. On Saturday we went for a short bus tour of Santiago. We went to La Moneda, their version of the White House and took pictures outside. We also went to the central plaza, where there happened to be a group of actors doing a performance of Jesus Cristo Super Estrella. It was so funny. It took me a minute to realize they were singing in Spanish. Everyone was wearing hippy-ish clothing and dancing. We took a picture with the actors. Santiago is a fine city but I don´t think I´d like to live there. It´s super crowded. You can see the Cordillera from the city though, and it´s super pretty. One of the american girls waved from the bus at another bus driver and he waved back at her, lost his focus and crashed the bus. Not seriously crashed it but it made a loud noise and some glass broke. On Saturday night we had a party and voted King and Queen of the Camp. The winners were Thor, a 6ft+ guy from Iceland who looks exactly like you´d expect someone from Iceland to look and is really cool and Olga, a Finn living in Quillota who is also super cool. They got paper-napkin sashes and danced together. It was awesome. On Sunday we hung out and did an obstacle course competition which involved getting flour all over our faces and then we came home. When I came home, my Spanish was pretty horrible. I knew I could speak much better than I was but the words just wouldn´t come and I couldn´t understand my family very well. Aggh!! It´s better now though.
The highlights of this week: I found out I passed my bio test AND my physics test, with a 4.4 and a 4.1. They grade on a scale of 1-7, and 4 is the minimum passing grade. If I pass, I´m satisfied. My friend wanted to know how we grade at Four Rivers and I tried explaining it to her, although without the hamburger rubric it was pretty difficult. Let´s see...what else? Last night Panchi and I went over to my friend Cata´s house with a bunch of other friends and we had homemade sushi which was really good. We also sang kareoke in Spanish and English, including A Dios Le Pido by Juanes (speaking of Juanes, I saw a word search activity book with Juanes on the cover). There were really weird music videos that went along with the songs, including a video of baboons that accompanied a love song. This week was also the begining of soccer. It´s super chill. The first day there were only 6 girls: two from Primero Medio and 4 from Tercero Medio. The skill level isn´t super high and I´m super rusty, as in laughably rusty, but it felt really good to run around and play. We did some passing and finished with three v three and my team won. So that was all good.
I´ve been okay but feeling a little frusterated because everything takes so much work. Just talking can be draining and my Spanish is okay considering, but I still miss a lot and talking can be a challenge. Making a plan to go into town to meet a friend is this huge challenge because I don´t know my town very well, I don´t know how to use the public transportation and it´s hard to talk on the phone. I end up feeling like a little kid because I need so much help with everything. I´m SO looking forward to speaking Spanish better. Ahh well...in time. I can read Angels and Demons pretty easily, so that´s good. I have to admit, I´m hooked. I´m also sort of hooked on a Chilean soap opera called Cuenta Conmigo hasta que Morir (Count on my until death). It´s really funny and dramatic and they speak Chilean Spanish so it´s really good practice. This guy´s wife is going to die of cancer so he finds a replacement for her, who happens to be his secretary, but then his wife doesn´t die so he´s in a sticky position. I´m pretty sure there´s also a pregnant 15yr old and some other stuff is happening too but I don´t watch it often enough to understand, plus I miss a lot of the dialogue.
Oooooh! I had my first real empanada. I´d had empanadas before but they were pre-frozen. This was a real, huge empanada de pino (ground meat, hard-boiled egg and olives) and it was delicious. We ate them at the orientation. They served them at lunch and I thought that was our lunch because they were so big and then after that they came out with these big plates of chicken and rice. So much food. I also had this really good pastry on the bus. It was a cone of dough filled with manjar mixed with cream. It was yummy. I´m definitely going to bring back manjar for you guys, because it´s awesome. I don´t know what the difference is between manjar and dulce de leche but I´m pretty sure there is one.
Alright, I think that´s all for now.
Much love,
Sela
This is my sixth week in Chile (as noted above in the subject). Today I´m home from school because it´s Semana Santa. In Chile, schools get Thursday and Friday off. Yesterday was a half day and in the evening we had a via crusis for all of the families. A via crusis (for all you who aren´t Catholic) is when you walk through the 12 stations of the cross and sing songs and say prayers. I only know one half of a prayer and that´s Our Father. I know it in English thanks to going to mass with Javier so it´s easier to pick up in Spanish. We all had candles and walked around to different classrooms and people read stuff at each station. It was fine but I didn´t understand very much. I liked the candles and singing though. Tomorrow we might go to Riñaca, a city next to Viña, for a via crusis on the beach but it´s still up in the air. A lot of the time our plans are up in the air until the last minute. I´m not quite sure what else we´re doing for Easter. I think we´ll go to mass on Sunday and have an egg hunt for the little girls. I´m sad to be missing passover. I think our family sedar was today or yesterday. This is my second time in two years missing it and it´s really a bummer. I was hoping to have a sedar here with a Jewish exchange friend but I don´t have a way into Viña and it would just be complicated, legistics-wise.
This week´s been okay. On Friday I got to leave school at 3pm and all the other exchangers in Quillota/La Calera and I took a bus to Santiago for our one-month orientation. That was pretty cool. There were about 50 of us there, all from the central part of the country. The students to the North and South had their own orientations. Lots of Americans and Germans. My Spanish was pretty good on Friday and it was a little hard to switch over to English because I was happy speaking Spanish but it´s so much easier to communicate with everyone in English rather than Spanish. I have to say, as much as I love speaking in Spanish it was such a relief to be able to express myself without really having to concentrate super hard. It was really nice to be with people who were in my same situation more or less and I click really well with a lot of the exchangers. We had to do some talking in groups about culture shock, which wasn´t that helpful because it was pretty general. I liked it much more when we just talked as a group about our experiences. On Saturday we went for a short bus tour of Santiago. We went to La Moneda, their version of the White House and took pictures outside. We also went to the central plaza, where there happened to be a group of actors doing a performance of Jesus Cristo Super Estrella. It was so funny. It took me a minute to realize they were singing in Spanish. Everyone was wearing hippy-ish clothing and dancing. We took a picture with the actors. Santiago is a fine city but I don´t think I´d like to live there. It´s super crowded. You can see the Cordillera from the city though, and it´s super pretty. One of the american girls waved from the bus at another bus driver and he waved back at her, lost his focus and crashed the bus. Not seriously crashed it but it made a loud noise and some glass broke. On Saturday night we had a party and voted King and Queen of the Camp. The winners were Thor, a 6ft+ guy from Iceland who looks exactly like you´d expect someone from Iceland to look and is really cool and Olga, a Finn living in Quillota who is also super cool. They got paper-napkin sashes and danced together. It was awesome. On Sunday we hung out and did an obstacle course competition which involved getting flour all over our faces and then we came home. When I came home, my Spanish was pretty horrible. I knew I could speak much better than I was but the words just wouldn´t come and I couldn´t understand my family very well. Aggh!! It´s better now though.
The highlights of this week: I found out I passed my bio test AND my physics test, with a 4.4 and a 4.1. They grade on a scale of 1-7, and 4 is the minimum passing grade. If I pass, I´m satisfied. My friend wanted to know how we grade at Four Rivers and I tried explaining it to her, although without the hamburger rubric it was pretty difficult. Let´s see...what else? Last night Panchi and I went over to my friend Cata´s house with a bunch of other friends and we had homemade sushi which was really good. We also sang kareoke in Spanish and English, including A Dios Le Pido by Juanes (speaking of Juanes, I saw a word search activity book with Juanes on the cover). There were really weird music videos that went along with the songs, including a video of baboons that accompanied a love song. This week was also the begining of soccer. It´s super chill. The first day there were only 6 girls: two from Primero Medio and 4 from Tercero Medio. The skill level isn´t super high and I´m super rusty, as in laughably rusty, but it felt really good to run around and play. We did some passing and finished with three v three and my team won. So that was all good.
I´ve been okay but feeling a little frusterated because everything takes so much work. Just talking can be draining and my Spanish is okay considering, but I still miss a lot and talking can be a challenge. Making a plan to go into town to meet a friend is this huge challenge because I don´t know my town very well, I don´t know how to use the public transportation and it´s hard to talk on the phone. I end up feeling like a little kid because I need so much help with everything. I´m SO looking forward to speaking Spanish better. Ahh well...in time. I can read Angels and Demons pretty easily, so that´s good. I have to admit, I´m hooked. I´m also sort of hooked on a Chilean soap opera called Cuenta Conmigo hasta que Morir (Count on my until death). It´s really funny and dramatic and they speak Chilean Spanish so it´s really good practice. This guy´s wife is going to die of cancer so he finds a replacement for her, who happens to be his secretary, but then his wife doesn´t die so he´s in a sticky position. I´m pretty sure there´s also a pregnant 15yr old and some other stuff is happening too but I don´t watch it often enough to understand, plus I miss a lot of the dialogue.
Oooooh! I had my first real empanada. I´d had empanadas before but they were pre-frozen. This was a real, huge empanada de pino (ground meat, hard-boiled egg and olives) and it was delicious. We ate them at the orientation. They served them at lunch and I thought that was our lunch because they were so big and then after that they came out with these big plates of chicken and rice. So much food. I also had this really good pastry on the bus. It was a cone of dough filled with manjar mixed with cream. It was yummy. I´m definitely going to bring back manjar for you guys, because it´s awesome. I don´t know what the difference is between manjar and dulce de leche but I´m pretty sure there is one.
Alright, I think that´s all for now.
Much love,
Sela
One Month...
¡Hola a todos!
I have now been in Chile for a month. It both feels like I´ve been here for a while and just got here. Things are going pretty well. I´m in a super good mood right now because a) the week is almost over, b) I´m going to Santiago this weekend and c) I had a really good time at the pool today. This week was okay. We had a test in Physics (pretty sure I failed that one), a test in Lenguaje (I don´t know if I passed or not...I hope so) and a test in Chemistry, which was today. Honestly, I had no idea so I had to guess on quite a few. Hmmm. My stepbrother and brother´s names start with a so I´ll pick a! Oh well. Oh and I had a spelling test with the 6th graders as well. I think I got almost all the words right! It´s really weird to go from being a good student in the US to failing everything here. It´s really frusterating and can be sort of stressful, but I´m trying to keep everything in perspective and not put too much importance in how well I do. Hopefully I won´t have to repeat any courses in the US. I stayed after school with my math professor two days this week and that really helped. Yeah, school´s a challenge. I think right now it´s the hardest part of this experience. I´ve decided to transfer from my historia elective (lots of research) to art, which I hope will be less academic and a bit easier to follow.
Last weekend I went over my friend Vale´s house with some other girls and we watched Twilight and hung out, which was fun. On Saturday I went with my family (minus Panchi and Valentin) to this really popular resturaunt in Quillota called el Buho (the Owl) which is burger joint. The hamburgers are delicious and enormous and they make great fries. Then we all came home and the little girls and I watched a teeny-bopper movie. Sunday was, like always, a family day. I really like Sundays because they´re super chill. Everyone stays home and we prepare a really big lunch. I love hanging out in the kitchen and helping get lunch ready. It´s one of my favorite parts of the weekend. On Saturdays I also usually go to track with my little sisters. Me running track. Ha! Soccer starts next week. It seems super laid-back. We only play once a week. I´m also going to do theater, because one of my friends suggested it to me so why not?
Tomorrow I´m going to Santiago for a weekend-long AFS camp. I´m really psyched to see my fellow AFSers! Plus we get to leave school early to catch the bus there. It´ll be weird to speak English so much (which will probably happen). I speak almost all Spanish here. I´m not sure if my Spanish has improved in the last month. I can´t really tell. I hope so! It´s a little weird writing in English. It feels sort of awkward.
Sports....This week there were two World Cup Qualifying games for Chile. We beat Peru 3-1 and tied Uruguay 0-0. The Peru game was super intense. There´s some inter-country tension right now over rights to the coast and so add that to an already intense soccer rivalry....tons of security in Lima! It´s fun watching the games. The big news is that Argentina lost 5-1 to....BOLIVIA!! I have to say, right now I´m sort of glad to be on the other side of the ecuator than the Knicks. Oh dear, is all I can say.
So...everything is good. There are good days and hard days. The great thing about the hard days though is that often when I talk to someone about how I´m feeling down they really cheer me up. Tuesday was sort of rough and then I talked to a friend on the phone and she completely cheered me up.
I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Sela
I have now been in Chile for a month. It both feels like I´ve been here for a while and just got here. Things are going pretty well. I´m in a super good mood right now because a) the week is almost over, b) I´m going to Santiago this weekend and c) I had a really good time at the pool today. This week was okay. We had a test in Physics (pretty sure I failed that one), a test in Lenguaje (I don´t know if I passed or not...I hope so) and a test in Chemistry, which was today. Honestly, I had no idea so I had to guess on quite a few. Hmmm. My stepbrother and brother´s names start with a so I´ll pick a! Oh well. Oh and I had a spelling test with the 6th graders as well. I think I got almost all the words right! It´s really weird to go from being a good student in the US to failing everything here. It´s really frusterating and can be sort of stressful, but I´m trying to keep everything in perspective and not put too much importance in how well I do. Hopefully I won´t have to repeat any courses in the US. I stayed after school with my math professor two days this week and that really helped. Yeah, school´s a challenge. I think right now it´s the hardest part of this experience. I´ve decided to transfer from my historia elective (lots of research) to art, which I hope will be less academic and a bit easier to follow.
Last weekend I went over my friend Vale´s house with some other girls and we watched Twilight and hung out, which was fun. On Saturday I went with my family (minus Panchi and Valentin) to this really popular resturaunt in Quillota called el Buho (the Owl) which is burger joint. The hamburgers are delicious and enormous and they make great fries. Then we all came home and the little girls and I watched a teeny-bopper movie. Sunday was, like always, a family day. I really like Sundays because they´re super chill. Everyone stays home and we prepare a really big lunch. I love hanging out in the kitchen and helping get lunch ready. It´s one of my favorite parts of the weekend. On Saturdays I also usually go to track with my little sisters. Me running track. Ha! Soccer starts next week. It seems super laid-back. We only play once a week. I´m also going to do theater, because one of my friends suggested it to me so why not?
Tomorrow I´m going to Santiago for a weekend-long AFS camp. I´m really psyched to see my fellow AFSers! Plus we get to leave school early to catch the bus there. It´ll be weird to speak English so much (which will probably happen). I speak almost all Spanish here. I´m not sure if my Spanish has improved in the last month. I can´t really tell. I hope so! It´s a little weird writing in English. It feels sort of awkward.
Sports....This week there were two World Cup Qualifying games for Chile. We beat Peru 3-1 and tied Uruguay 0-0. The Peru game was super intense. There´s some inter-country tension right now over rights to the coast and so add that to an already intense soccer rivalry....tons of security in Lima! It´s fun watching the games. The big news is that Argentina lost 5-1 to....BOLIVIA!! I have to say, right now I´m sort of glad to be on the other side of the ecuator than the Knicks. Oh dear, is all I can say.
So...everything is good. There are good days and hard days. The great thing about the hard days though is that often when I talk to someone about how I´m feeling down they really cheer me up. Tuesday was sort of rough and then I talked to a friend on the phone and she completely cheered me up.
I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Sela
Week 4
Hi!
So, today we are nearing the end of Week 4. It´s been fine. What is there to report.....I know! Last weekend I saw Jeevon! Super exciting. I didn´t think we were going to be able to hook up but he called me on my cell on Thursday evening and we decided to hang out on Friday. I went over to their hotel after my AFS meeting. I hung out in their hotel room for a while then we went to go get something to eat. Ended up having Pakistani food. We just hung out together and talked until around 1:30 when Panchi came to pick me up. I was so happy they came down to see me. Really good feeling.
Let´s see...what else? This week I got the grade for my first math test: 3.3 out of 7. Ouch. I don´t understand my math profesor, but then neither do my classmates. Tomorrow I have a Biology test. I´ve stopped taking English because it was pointless and am now taking extra Language classes. One day with the sixth graders (who are super cute) and one day with the sophomores. I´m psyched. Any extra practice is great.
Yesterday I had a friend over for the first time. We hung out, talked and made bracelets. Tomorrow I might be going to a friend´s to watch Twighlight and High School Musical 3. People here are OBSESSED with Twighlight (it´s a book series). This weekend we might go to my host dad´s hometown for a festival but it´s not definite yet. Next weekend I have a three-day orientation in Santiago with the other AFSers. I´m looking forward to seeing everyone. I ate part of a rabbit yesterday. It was yummy....and cooked. I´m always super hungry here and I eat a ton. Yumm yumm yumm. They have this caramel stuff called manjar. Frickin´ amazing. You can put it on bread or pancakes or crackers or whatever.
Anyways, I´m feeling a bit grumpy today (don´t worry, nothing serious! :) ) so I´m going to make this short. One last thing: they have the game Guess Who here, but all the people have Spanish names like Guillermo, Maria, Roberto, etc. I started laughing when I saw it.
I miss you guys!
Love you,
Sela
So, today we are nearing the end of Week 4. It´s been fine. What is there to report.....I know! Last weekend I saw Jeevon! Super exciting. I didn´t think we were going to be able to hook up but he called me on my cell on Thursday evening and we decided to hang out on Friday. I went over to their hotel after my AFS meeting. I hung out in their hotel room for a while then we went to go get something to eat. Ended up having Pakistani food. We just hung out together and talked until around 1:30 when Panchi came to pick me up. I was so happy they came down to see me. Really good feeling.
Let´s see...what else? This week I got the grade for my first math test: 3.3 out of 7. Ouch. I don´t understand my math profesor, but then neither do my classmates. Tomorrow I have a Biology test. I´ve stopped taking English because it was pointless and am now taking extra Language classes. One day with the sixth graders (who are super cute) and one day with the sophomores. I´m psyched. Any extra practice is great.
Yesterday I had a friend over for the first time. We hung out, talked and made bracelets. Tomorrow I might be going to a friend´s to watch Twighlight and High School Musical 3. People here are OBSESSED with Twighlight (it´s a book series). This weekend we might go to my host dad´s hometown for a festival but it´s not definite yet. Next weekend I have a three-day orientation in Santiago with the other AFSers. I´m looking forward to seeing everyone. I ate part of a rabbit yesterday. It was yummy....and cooked. I´m always super hungry here and I eat a ton. Yumm yumm yumm. They have this caramel stuff called manjar. Frickin´ amazing. You can put it on bread or pancakes or crackers or whatever.
Anyways, I´m feeling a bit grumpy today (don´t worry, nothing serious! :) ) so I´m going to make this short. One last thing: they have the game Guess Who here, but all the people have Spanish names like Guillermo, Maria, Roberto, etc. I started laughing when I saw it.
I miss you guys!
Love you,
Sela
Week 3
Hola a todos!
I´ve almost finished my third week of school. It´s going pretty well. I like my classmates a lot, and some of the classes too. My favorite is my Literature elective, because I understand almost everything. The class is small, and I like the teacher. She´s also my head teacher so I´m more used to her voice, hence better understanding. Math, Bio and Physics are baffling. I just got home from an extra help session in Math but sadly I missed out on the help part. I dunno if it´s the language barrier or that I´m just so used to IMP that I´m completely lost in another teaching style. Probably a combo of both. I knew IMP wasn´t helping me! :) The teaching style here is very different from that of FRCS. It´s very traditional: the teachers talk and we take notes. In my history elective we´re doing a research project on the Chilean topic of our choice. My partner and I are researching the Chilean Public Health System and whether or not it´s serving all Chileans. School is hard. Actually, speaking Spanish 24/7 is hard. I sometimes feel like I´m living in my own little Spanish cloud and I don´t really know what´s going on. I just go where people tell me and figure it out as I go. I think my Spanish has improved since I got here though. I´ve learned some new words at least. Yesterday we had mass at school and I heard the priest use two new words I´ve learned: ayunar y pecadores (to fast and sinners). I was psyched! We don´t have mass every week. This was just the begining of the year mass. People get really interested when they hear I´m Jewish. It´s funny. I guess there aren´t many Jews here. I´m trying to figure out what I´m going to do for Passover. I don´t even know when it is. I´m hoping to have a sedar with one of my exchange friends in Viña but I don´t know. Speaking of which, last weekend I went to Viña and Valparaiso! Okay, so last weekend my host dad´s parents showed up and spent the weekend with us. They were really nice. My host mom asked me about five times if I live in the city or the country. On Sunday we all went out to lunch and then my grandparents left and we went to see Valentin´s (my host brother) apartment. It´s right in the middle of the city. Viña seems pretty cool. It´s right on the ocean and it was really awesome to see the water. There are a ton of colleges in Viña. After going to Valentin´s we drove along the coast. Viña and Valpo are right next to each other. Literally, you drive out of Viña and you´re in Valpo. I´m not sure why there are two cities right next to each other but it it works, awesome! We went to this little open air antique market and my host mom got me this tiny little bouy that says Valparaiso Chile on it. It was fun getting to see another part of Chile. Oh, back to the restaraunt. So I was talking to my sister Javi and she was describing papas fritas to me, and what she was describing was potato chips. Names of foods differ by country so even though I´d learned that french fries were papas fritas, I thought it was probably just a Chilean thing. Then she described papas hilos and I thought she was describing french fries. So when we were at the restaurant I wanted to order french fries so I ordered papas hilos. Well, papas hilos are true to their name. They are literally fried strings of potato. Papas fritas apparently can mean either chips or french fries. Oops!
Speaking of Chilean words, here are some new words I´ve learned:
maceavo - someone who does whatever their girlfriend tells them to.
pa´ mas remate - and on top of it all...
rancio - nasty, disgusting
choro - cool
arto, caleta - a lot
cachai? - You know? This one I love.
I really like Chilean Spanish. It´s super hard and they talk FAST but I like it. I´ve been trying to imitate the accent but it´s not really been working. People thing it´s really funny when I use Chilean words though. I´ve started reading Angels and Demons in Spanish. So far so good. I´ve also started to love the Disney Channel. Weird, huh? It´s because I can understand what they´re saying more easily. Seriously, I´ve almost got Hannah Montana down. Almost. Let´s see...what else? Soccer starts in two weeks. I´m PSYCHED!!! I haven´t been getting hardly any excersize lately and I really need to run around.
Another strange thing...I´ve started to feel really affectionate towards anything from home. I was watching TV (here it´s good to watch TV because I´m learning Spanish, cachai?) and I saw an ad for the World Baseball Classic, with Derek Jeter. I was like, awwwww Derek Jeter. That would NEVER happen at home. I was also watching a TV show where they had a Boston phone number and I got a warm, fuzzy feeling seeing 617. Yeah, it´s weird.
Yikes, this email has been pretty rambly. Sorry if it´s not super coherent. I´ve been at school from 8am - 6pm. Tomorrow we´re having an AFS chapter meeting. I really like the exchangers in my district. They are:
Tanja - Austria (she´s in the grade below me at school)
Ham - Thailand
Iris - Seattle, USA
Sali and Michael - Germany
Olga - Finland
On Tuesday we all got to skip school and go to the town hall to get our carnets. They´re Chilean ID cards. Every Chilean has one, even the little kids. It was really nice to have a day off. We went into town afterwards and hung out with one of the volunteers and then went to the AFS Quillota president´s house and chilled and ate pizza. Yum. It was really nice to connect with other AFSers. Tomorrow I´m hoping to either go out with friends or see Jeevon. Last weekend I went to see Benjamin Button with some friends. I liked it! It was in English with subtitles. The screen was square, not rectangular. This weekend is my host mom´s bday so we´re going to have a barbaque and make her tiramisu tonight.
What else.....tomorrow is my math test and I´m going to fail. Oh well. My little host sister is standing next to me with my little host brother. They´re pretty cool. O, bacan as they say in Chile.
Anyways, that´s all for now!
Love,
Sela
I´ve almost finished my third week of school. It´s going pretty well. I like my classmates a lot, and some of the classes too. My favorite is my Literature elective, because I understand almost everything. The class is small, and I like the teacher. She´s also my head teacher so I´m more used to her voice, hence better understanding. Math, Bio and Physics are baffling. I just got home from an extra help session in Math but sadly I missed out on the help part. I dunno if it´s the language barrier or that I´m just so used to IMP that I´m completely lost in another teaching style. Probably a combo of both. I knew IMP wasn´t helping me! :) The teaching style here is very different from that of FRCS. It´s very traditional: the teachers talk and we take notes. In my history elective we´re doing a research project on the Chilean topic of our choice. My partner and I are researching the Chilean Public Health System and whether or not it´s serving all Chileans. School is hard. Actually, speaking Spanish 24/7 is hard. I sometimes feel like I´m living in my own little Spanish cloud and I don´t really know what´s going on. I just go where people tell me and figure it out as I go. I think my Spanish has improved since I got here though. I´ve learned some new words at least. Yesterday we had mass at school and I heard the priest use two new words I´ve learned: ayunar y pecadores (to fast and sinners). I was psyched! We don´t have mass every week. This was just the begining of the year mass. People get really interested when they hear I´m Jewish. It´s funny. I guess there aren´t many Jews here. I´m trying to figure out what I´m going to do for Passover. I don´t even know when it is. I´m hoping to have a sedar with one of my exchange friends in Viña but I don´t know. Speaking of which, last weekend I went to Viña and Valparaiso! Okay, so last weekend my host dad´s parents showed up and spent the weekend with us. They were really nice. My host mom asked me about five times if I live in the city or the country. On Sunday we all went out to lunch and then my grandparents left and we went to see Valentin´s (my host brother) apartment. It´s right in the middle of the city. Viña seems pretty cool. It´s right on the ocean and it was really awesome to see the water. There are a ton of colleges in Viña. After going to Valentin´s we drove along the coast. Viña and Valpo are right next to each other. Literally, you drive out of Viña and you´re in Valpo. I´m not sure why there are two cities right next to each other but it it works, awesome! We went to this little open air antique market and my host mom got me this tiny little bouy that says Valparaiso Chile on it. It was fun getting to see another part of Chile. Oh, back to the restaraunt. So I was talking to my sister Javi and she was describing papas fritas to me, and what she was describing was potato chips. Names of foods differ by country so even though I´d learned that french fries were papas fritas, I thought it was probably just a Chilean thing. Then she described papas hilos and I thought she was describing french fries. So when we were at the restaurant I wanted to order french fries so I ordered papas hilos. Well, papas hilos are true to their name. They are literally fried strings of potato. Papas fritas apparently can mean either chips or french fries. Oops!
Speaking of Chilean words, here are some new words I´ve learned:
maceavo - someone who does whatever their girlfriend tells them to.
pa´ mas remate - and on top of it all...
rancio - nasty, disgusting
choro - cool
arto, caleta - a lot
cachai? - You know? This one I love.
I really like Chilean Spanish. It´s super hard and they talk FAST but I like it. I´ve been trying to imitate the accent but it´s not really been working. People thing it´s really funny when I use Chilean words though. I´ve started reading Angels and Demons in Spanish. So far so good. I´ve also started to love the Disney Channel. Weird, huh? It´s because I can understand what they´re saying more easily. Seriously, I´ve almost got Hannah Montana down. Almost. Let´s see...what else? Soccer starts in two weeks. I´m PSYCHED!!! I haven´t been getting hardly any excersize lately and I really need to run around.
Another strange thing...I´ve started to feel really affectionate towards anything from home. I was watching TV (here it´s good to watch TV because I´m learning Spanish, cachai?) and I saw an ad for the World Baseball Classic, with Derek Jeter. I was like, awwwww Derek Jeter. That would NEVER happen at home. I was also watching a TV show where they had a Boston phone number and I got a warm, fuzzy feeling seeing 617. Yeah, it´s weird.
Yikes, this email has been pretty rambly. Sorry if it´s not super coherent. I´ve been at school from 8am - 6pm. Tomorrow we´re having an AFS chapter meeting. I really like the exchangers in my district. They are:
Tanja - Austria (she´s in the grade below me at school)
Ham - Thailand
Iris - Seattle, USA
Sali and Michael - Germany
Olga - Finland
On Tuesday we all got to skip school and go to the town hall to get our carnets. They´re Chilean ID cards. Every Chilean has one, even the little kids. It was really nice to have a day off. We went into town afterwards and hung out with one of the volunteers and then went to the AFS Quillota president´s house and chilled and ate pizza. Yum. It was really nice to connect with other AFSers. Tomorrow I´m hoping to either go out with friends or see Jeevon. Last weekend I went to see Benjamin Button with some friends. I liked it! It was in English with subtitles. The screen was square, not rectangular. This weekend is my host mom´s bday so we´re going to have a barbaque and make her tiramisu tonight.
What else.....tomorrow is my math test and I´m going to fail. Oh well. My little host sister is standing next to me with my little host brother. They´re pretty cool. O, bacan as they say in Chile.
Anyways, that´s all for now!
Love,
Sela
Finally in Chile!
Hola a todos!
I am sitting at the computer in my host family´s house right now, right outside my room. Today is Sunday, my first day here. I will give you a synopsis of my trip so far
MIAMI
I met all the other AFS students in the airport and we had an orientation in the airport in a weird conference room with florescent lighting. It was really cool to meet the other students going to Chile and Argentina but the orientation was a little pointless. We left the US on 2-26 at 9:15pm or so... I didn´t sleep nearly at all on the plane! My first view of Chile was incredibly gorgeous...we started our descent into Santiago just as the sun was rising over the Andes. Everything was golden and pink and I was like "wow, this is my country for the next 5 months!"
ORIENTATION - SANTIAGO
This orientation was awesome. All the inbound exchange students from all over the world met for two and a half days in this religious center in Santiago. It was pretty nice and the food was good! I got to meet students from Austria, Germany, Thailand, Iceland, Finland, Russia, Brazil, Japan, France, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway. So cool. Everyone spoke English and I started speaking in a weird accent and with wierd English because I was hearing so many accents. The AFS volunteers there cool and the info was very helpful too.
Today I met my family. They came to meet me at the orientation this morning. Well my host dad, Panchi and Jaci came. I was SO nervous about meeting them but when they showed up, I very quickly became at ease. They´re super nice and super welcoming. I can communicate MUCH better than I expected and lots of people have complemented my Spanish. I´m learning Chilean words and that´s fun. The Chilean Spanish is difficult but so far not impossible. We´ll see how school goes tomorrow...Our house is gorgeous. Quillota is surrounded by mountains and it´s like being in a beautiful bowl. I´ll send photos later.
I am good right now. I miss you all a lot, and I probably won´t call for a while because I think that would be hard. I´m a little nervous and overwhelmed, but I´m also very happy and excited. I´M IN CHILE! Es increible.
Sorry this is short, but I don´t want to spend lots of time on the computer.
Besos y abrazos a todos,
Sela
I am sitting at the computer in my host family´s house right now, right outside my room. Today is Sunday, my first day here. I will give you a synopsis of my trip so far
MIAMI
I met all the other AFS students in the airport and we had an orientation in the airport in a weird conference room with florescent lighting. It was really cool to meet the other students going to Chile and Argentina but the orientation was a little pointless. We left the US on 2-26 at 9:15pm or so... I didn´t sleep nearly at all on the plane! My first view of Chile was incredibly gorgeous...we started our descent into Santiago just as the sun was rising over the Andes. Everything was golden and pink and I was like "wow, this is my country for the next 5 months!"
ORIENTATION - SANTIAGO
This orientation was awesome. All the inbound exchange students from all over the world met for two and a half days in this religious center in Santiago. It was pretty nice and the food was good! I got to meet students from Austria, Germany, Thailand, Iceland, Finland, Russia, Brazil, Japan, France, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway. So cool. Everyone spoke English and I started speaking in a weird accent and with wierd English because I was hearing so many accents. The AFS volunteers there cool and the info was very helpful too.
Today I met my family. They came to meet me at the orientation this morning. Well my host dad, Panchi and Jaci came. I was SO nervous about meeting them but when they showed up, I very quickly became at ease. They´re super nice and super welcoming. I can communicate MUCH better than I expected and lots of people have complemented my Spanish. I´m learning Chilean words and that´s fun. The Chilean Spanish is difficult but so far not impossible. We´ll see how school goes tomorrow...Our house is gorgeous. Quillota is surrounded by mountains and it´s like being in a beautiful bowl. I´ll send photos later.
I am good right now. I miss you all a lot, and I probably won´t call for a while because I think that would be hard. I´m a little nervous and overwhelmed, but I´m also very happy and excited. I´M IN CHILE! Es increible.
Sorry this is short, but I don´t want to spend lots of time on the computer.
Besos y abrazos a todos,
Sela
One Day Left
Hola a todos!
Sorry I haven't been writing much. I've been pretty busy getting everything ready to go. The Friday before February break was my last day of being a junior at an American High School. All that week I was stressing to finish all the work I needed to hand in to get credit for the trimester. Not a fun week by any means. Even though I had been dying to be done with school, I still felt a little sad leaving. There are a lot of people there that I'll really miss while I'm in Chile. This past week has been filled with visiting friends and family and final preperations. Lots of shopping. I did a practice packing a few days ago and my suitcase was only 36lbs!
Today is my last day at home before I leave for Miami. Tonight we're going to stay with some friends near the airport and tomorrow Mom, Dad and Asher are bringing me to the airport. Ahh!! I'm so excited! I'm really nervous too. I still have a lot of packing to do, which I should actually be doing right now. It's weird thinking I won't be back here for 5 months.
I've been in more contact with my host sisters through Facebook. It's really cool talking to them and I'm super excited to meet them on Sunday!
Alright, I should go back to my packing. My next post will probably be from Chile!
Chau,
Sela
Sorry I haven't been writing much. I've been pretty busy getting everything ready to go. The Friday before February break was my last day of being a junior at an American High School. All that week I was stressing to finish all the work I needed to hand in to get credit for the trimester. Not a fun week by any means. Even though I had been dying to be done with school, I still felt a little sad leaving. There are a lot of people there that I'll really miss while I'm in Chile. This past week has been filled with visiting friends and family and final preperations. Lots of shopping. I did a practice packing a few days ago and my suitcase was only 36lbs!
Today is my last day at home before I leave for Miami. Tonight we're going to stay with some friends near the airport and tomorrow Mom, Dad and Asher are bringing me to the airport. Ahh!! I'm so excited! I'm really nervous too. I still have a lot of packing to do, which I should actually be doing right now. It's weird thinking I won't be back here for 5 months.
I've been in more contact with my host sisters through Facebook. It's really cool talking to them and I'm super excited to meet them on Sunday!
Alright, I should go back to my packing. My next post will probably be from Chile!
Chau,
Sela
Getting Closer to Departure
I’m leaving in 25 days!! On February 2th I fly to Miami and I will stay overnight there for an orientation with all of the other Latin-America-bound AFSers. I don't know exactly what we're going to do there but it'll be cool to meet other exchange students, especially the ones who I'll be in Chile with. The next day all of us exchange students fly to our respective countries. When we get to Chile, we'll be having a two day orientation with all the inbound AFSers before we go to our host families.
I can’t believe that it is so soon. I remember how a long time ago I would say “I want to go on exchange when I’m older.” Then when I was in early high school, it'd be like “yeah, I’m going to go abroad to Latin America junior year.” Then earlier this year I would say “I’m going to Chile next semester.” Then it was “I’m going next month.” Now it is only days until I leave. This is so crazy. It's starting to feel real that I'm actually doing this. It’s a little overwhelming actually...overwhelming but exciting. I have so much to do before I leave, in terms of both school and packing. Today I made a to-do list and a packing list and bought my suitcase. It’s the first real suitcase I’ve ever had and it’s pretty cool. I’m not really looking forward to packing though. I can only bring one 44lb suitcase. I’m not sure how much 44lbs is but I don’t think it’s that much, considering I’m going for five months. It’s good to pack light though.
Good news! I heard from my host family! We’ve been in touch for a few weeks now. I received a long, incredibly nice reply to my first email from my host dad. He told me the school I’ll be going to, what the family is like and what Quillota is like. Turns out I am in the city. He and his daughter have both been on exchange to English-speaking countries so they speak English but he said that they’ll speak Spanish with me, which is great. I’m so, so excited to get to use Spanish all the time. I’ve also emailed with the 18yr old daughter, the 12 year old daughter and the son. They all sound incredibly nice and welcoming, and I’m really excited to meet them! I got to see some photos too, which was pretty cool. It sounds like I’m also going to have another exchange student in my school but I’m not positive.
Other good news: I got my visa! I was really worried about it because the visa process is supposedly really hard but I went in and got mine in a single day. It was an enormous relief to have it stamped and in my possession. I’m that much closer now to being ready!
That’s all for now!
Chau,
Sela
I can’t believe that it is so soon. I remember how a long time ago I would say “I want to go on exchange when I’m older.” Then when I was in early high school, it'd be like “yeah, I’m going to go abroad to Latin America junior year.” Then earlier this year I would say “I’m going to Chile next semester.” Then it was “I’m going next month.” Now it is only days until I leave. This is so crazy. It's starting to feel real that I'm actually doing this. It’s a little overwhelming actually...overwhelming but exciting. I have so much to do before I leave, in terms of both school and packing. Today I made a to-do list and a packing list and bought my suitcase. It’s the first real suitcase I’ve ever had and it’s pretty cool. I’m not really looking forward to packing though. I can only bring one 44lb suitcase. I’m not sure how much 44lbs is but I don’t think it’s that much, considering I’m going for five months. It’s good to pack light though.
Good news! I heard from my host family! We’ve been in touch for a few weeks now. I received a long, incredibly nice reply to my first email from my host dad. He told me the school I’ll be going to, what the family is like and what Quillota is like. Turns out I am in the city. He and his daughter have both been on exchange to English-speaking countries so they speak English but he said that they’ll speak Spanish with me, which is great. I’m so, so excited to get to use Spanish all the time. I’ve also emailed with the 18yr old daughter, the 12 year old daughter and the son. They all sound incredibly nice and welcoming, and I’m really excited to meet them! I got to see some photos too, which was pretty cool. It sounds like I’m also going to have another exchange student in my school but I’m not positive.
Other good news: I got my visa! I was really worried about it because the visa process is supposedly really hard but I went in and got mine in a single day. It was an enormous relief to have it stamped and in my possession. I’m that much closer now to being ready!
That’s all for now!
Chau,
Sela
To Begin...
¡Hola!
For all of you who don’t already know, my name is Sela and I’m a junior in high school. This February I will be leaving New England and traveling with AFS to Chile where I will spend the spring semester of my junior year. SO PSYCHED!! I’ve wanted to go on exchange ever since I was in the third grade and my teacher told me about his daughter going to France. Back then I was taking German so I wanted to go to Germany, but after I started taking Spanish I decided I would rather go to Latin America instead. I have been taking Spanish for four years and I am completely in love with the language. I am so excited to be immersed in it for five months. I already find myself thinking in Spanish sometimes. I’ve heard that Chilean Spanish is wicked hard, but once you master that accent you can understand any of them. Plus they use a lot of slang, which sounds cool.
Why do I want to go on exchange at all? For a lot of reasons. I have always been really interested in other cultures and languages. I love meeting people from different countries and learning words from their languages, even if I forget them soon after. Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica, Switzerland and Mexico and I discovered how much I loved traveling and experiencing other places. I was in Mexico for a month, stayed with a family and made friends who spoke only Spanish. I got to try new foods, see other customs and expose myself to a different way of life. When I came home from Mexico, I was incredibly excited to study abroad and again get to experience a different way of life.
I applied to go on exchange back in March. It involved a HUGE application and a lot of waiting. My first choice country was Chile, second was Paraguay and third was Argentina. Originally I wanted to go to Paraguay, but in the end I decided on Chile because the AFS organization there seemed very solid. I’m really glad that I picked Chile though. I chose Chile for a lot of reasons actually. For one thing, they are a Spanish-speaking country and I want to become fluent in Spanish. The culture sounds uniquely Chilean without a ton of US influence, which is also something that really appealed to me. According to the pictures I have seen and books I have read, Chile has an incredible landscape with mountains, forests, lakes and penguins! I really hope that I see a penguin while I’m there. Anyways, I sent my application in my application for Chile in April but AFS-Chile didn’t start looking at applications until September so I had to wait all summer to find out. Turns out I wasn’t officially accepted into the Chile program until mid-October. Then came the fundraising. I worked all summer and fall at a café to raise part of my tuition. This basically meant having no social life on the weekends all fall but I made a fair bit of money, and I think that working so hard for it made it that much more worth it. I also received a merit scholarship from AFS, which helped me tremendously. To raise the rest of my tuition I wrote to friends, family and people in the community asking them for contributions. I got no responses back from the businesses and clubs I asked, but my family and friends were incredibly generous in their support, which meant a ton to me. To everyone reading my blog who contributed to my trip: THANK YOU!!
Once I got accepted to Chile, it was really open about when I would find out about my family. I waited and waited and waited, and explained to my parents over and over again that I didn’t know when I would find out. I got my all of my visa stuff ready but still no family information. Finally last week during English class I was working in the library and checked my email for news, even though I wasn’t really expecting any. I was surprised to see I had an email and shocked to see it was from my adviser, with the subject: AFS Placement. It was super exciting! I’ll be living in Quillota, which is in between Santiago and Valparaiso. Quillota is both a region and a city so I’m not sure if I’ll be in the city or not because I don’t know how to read my family’s address. I’m going to have five siblings. Two brothers, ages 2 and 20 and three sisters, ages 8, 12 and 18. I’m glad that I’ll have siblings because coming from a big family it’d be strange being an only child. I emailed my family but am still awaiting their reply so not much else to report there.
I leave in one month, one week and four days. I’m super excited! I’ve already gotten in touch with a lot of AFSers from all over the world who will be in Chile with me. There is still a lot to do to get ready though…
That’s all for now!
Hasta luego,
Sela
For all of you who don’t already know, my name is Sela and I’m a junior in high school. This February I will be leaving New England and traveling with AFS to Chile where I will spend the spring semester of my junior year. SO PSYCHED!! I’ve wanted to go on exchange ever since I was in the third grade and my teacher told me about his daughter going to France. Back then I was taking German so I wanted to go to Germany, but after I started taking Spanish I decided I would rather go to Latin America instead. I have been taking Spanish for four years and I am completely in love with the language. I am so excited to be immersed in it for five months. I already find myself thinking in Spanish sometimes. I’ve heard that Chilean Spanish is wicked hard, but once you master that accent you can understand any of them. Plus they use a lot of slang, which sounds cool.
Why do I want to go on exchange at all? For a lot of reasons. I have always been really interested in other cultures and languages. I love meeting people from different countries and learning words from their languages, even if I forget them soon after. Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica, Switzerland and Mexico and I discovered how much I loved traveling and experiencing other places. I was in Mexico for a month, stayed with a family and made friends who spoke only Spanish. I got to try new foods, see other customs and expose myself to a different way of life. When I came home from Mexico, I was incredibly excited to study abroad and again get to experience a different way of life.
I applied to go on exchange back in March. It involved a HUGE application and a lot of waiting. My first choice country was Chile, second was Paraguay and third was Argentina. Originally I wanted to go to Paraguay, but in the end I decided on Chile because the AFS organization there seemed very solid. I’m really glad that I picked Chile though. I chose Chile for a lot of reasons actually. For one thing, they are a Spanish-speaking country and I want to become fluent in Spanish. The culture sounds uniquely Chilean without a ton of US influence, which is also something that really appealed to me. According to the pictures I have seen and books I have read, Chile has an incredible landscape with mountains, forests, lakes and penguins! I really hope that I see a penguin while I’m there. Anyways, I sent my application in my application for Chile in April but AFS-Chile didn’t start looking at applications until September so I had to wait all summer to find out. Turns out I wasn’t officially accepted into the Chile program until mid-October. Then came the fundraising. I worked all summer and fall at a café to raise part of my tuition. This basically meant having no social life on the weekends all fall but I made a fair bit of money, and I think that working so hard for it made it that much more worth it. I also received a merit scholarship from AFS, which helped me tremendously. To raise the rest of my tuition I wrote to friends, family and people in the community asking them for contributions. I got no responses back from the businesses and clubs I asked, but my family and friends were incredibly generous in their support, which meant a ton to me. To everyone reading my blog who contributed to my trip: THANK YOU!!
Once I got accepted to Chile, it was really open about when I would find out about my family. I waited and waited and waited, and explained to my parents over and over again that I didn’t know when I would find out. I got my all of my visa stuff ready but still no family information. Finally last week during English class I was working in the library and checked my email for news, even though I wasn’t really expecting any. I was surprised to see I had an email and shocked to see it was from my adviser, with the subject: AFS Placement. It was super exciting! I’ll be living in Quillota, which is in between Santiago and Valparaiso. Quillota is both a region and a city so I’m not sure if I’ll be in the city or not because I don’t know how to read my family’s address. I’m going to have five siblings. Two brothers, ages 2 and 20 and three sisters, ages 8, 12 and 18. I’m glad that I’ll have siblings because coming from a big family it’d be strange being an only child. I emailed my family but am still awaiting their reply so not much else to report there.
I leave in one month, one week and four days. I’m super excited! I’ve already gotten in touch with a lot of AFSers from all over the world who will be in Chile with me. There is still a lot to do to get ready though…
That’s all for now!
Hasta luego,
Sela
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