Sunday, August 28, 2011

Estoy aquí

Hey amigos!! Well I made it to the beautiful country of Chile. By beautiful I don't just mean the landscape but I mean the people as well. Chileans are beautiful people with beautiful hearts. My family is so nice and they all love each other so much. They all joke with each other and are just so laid back and relaxed. It is so different than being in the U.S. Here are a few things that are differente:

  • the obvious ( language) I knew it was going to be spanish but Chilean spanish is so different than the textbook spanish we learn. They shorten phrases ( like we do) and they have different sayings and pronounciations too. Like for instance instead of saying "buen de fin de semana" (have a good weekend" chileans just say "buen finde" instead. So I am having some troubles with the language. however it is only my first day. I will learn.
  • another thing is the coffee. They don't make coffee in a coffee maker, its a coffee powder in a can and you just add leche(milk) & water. It still has a coffee taste ( not as good) but it works.
  • the food is different. It was good. The big meal is lunchtime, they eat light meals for breakfast and dinner. For lunch we had carne(meat-beef) and this potato vegetable mix and celery with a lemon dressing. SO GOOD! and the helado (ice cream) was amazing it was "helado pina, platanos con salsa chocolate" which was this pineapple ice cream with chocolate sauce on top of cut up bananas. It was so good I had two bowls, They were so happy I liked it. :) They eat bread every day. At "dinner" we had "coffee" and tea and bread. They put avacado on thier bread, Texan don't be fooled avacado is not the same as guacamole. Avacado on bread is not bad, but they had nutella too. I also had a lemon cake that was my host dad's abuela's (grandma's) recipe. The "dinner" was a light meal more like a snack.
  • also the meals are different too. In the U.S we hardly ever eat any meals as a family and if we do, we get up from the table after we are done eating. Well not here, we eat every meal together and we sit and talk after we are done eating, we just stay at the table and laugh and fellowship. Even though I have no idea what they are saying now( probably talking about how confused I look), give it a few months and maybe I will even crack a few jokes at the table :) hehe
also I learned that is the "azul" (blue-Universidad de Chile) team is playing futbol (soccer) then thats the team my family cheers for, so that is the team I will cheer for :)

my brain hurts from trying to translate and figure out what the strange words mean. I need rest and I could write a whole lot more and maybe I will later but as for now. Chau! (they say chau instead of "adios")


Monday, August 22, 2011

VOY A CHILE! :)

Ok. Wow. I finally have time to breathe.
Saturday was my "going away" party and it was tons of fun and it was extremely refreshing to know how many people are supporting me and loving me through this whole process. I am so thankful to God for giving me such amazing friends and a wonderful church family. I am so unworthy of it all.

After all the circles the FBI and the Chilean consulate sent us in, I finally have my FBI background check (Chile is on of the few that requires one...convenient right?) Originally I was scheduled to leave yesterday at 9:20pm but due to circumstances out of my control, I was forced to reschedule my flight for this Saturday instead. I also had to get Congresswoman Kay Bailey Hutchison's office involved with hopes of them helping me get my FBI check expedited. They were very nice and patient and did everything in their power to help me out. I was extremely impressed with the patience and diligence that they put into my case. In fact, they said that if I had not contacted them, who knows when I would have actually gotten the coveted background check. Although it was not in time to leave on Sunday, it finally arrived Friday afternoon. I am going to Houston tomorrow night and will go for my interview at the Chilean consulate to get my visa at 11:30 am on Wednesday. Then I will get on a plane at 9:30pm on Saturday night at DFW airport and fly nonstop all the way to Santiago International Airport where I will be greeted by my host family and possibly some Rotarians. I was talking to my friend Jenna, who has been there a few weeks and she said she absolutely loves it! I can not wait. I was ready to go yesterday. Ok well thats not true, I have not packed yet but it is a slow process. Packing for a year. I think the longest I have ever packed for was maybe two weeks? So packing will be a new experience, but I am ready for the challenge of packing my life for a whole year.

Today, my sister started kindergarten and my brother started high school. I can't even believe it. People always told me "time goes fast" but I never thought it would go this fast. My friends started back at school today, most of them for their last year. It is sad that I didn't get to be with them but I'm hoping I can meet them for lunch sometime this week. I will miss my friends so much! The up-side to the delay as I mentioned earlier, is that I am able to go to my high school's first football game and see all my friends and then hang out with y church youth group at 5th quarter afterword. So I am glad things worked out the way they did.

I will try my best to post as often as I can. Thank you all for reading :)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Lukewarm

Wow. Im less than 3 weeks from leaving on my exchange. I'm so excited to be there and meet my family! I titled this post "Lukewarm" because just recently I attended a party with my friends from school. They were talking about next year  (senior year),  about the new teachers, new classes and schedules. I could already feel I was losing those connections. I thought I would be sad when this started to happen (which I knew would sooner or later) but I wasn't sad or happy. My feelings were lukewarm. Since theoretically I'm done with high school in the states (still hard to comprehend) It was hard for me to connect with people who were still in "high school". I don't say this to sound ignorant, because technically I am still a high school student myself. I didn't want this to happen, but its inevitable. Its just that now my biggest worries aren't about what teachers I will have next year, or what my schedule will be like, or if I will have "off" periods or not. If I was not going on this exchange I would be worrying about these things like most of my senior friends. However,the biggest things on my mind right now is getting my visa, and what will I pack? What do I do when I arrive? Then it will be adapting to the cold, meeting new people and getting used to hearing spanish instead of english.

Again, its weird to think I am done with high school, and have no desire to go back. It's kinda one of those "been there, seen, enjoyed, don't wanna go back"Im ready to go adventure and see, and ADAPT (exchange students are very familiar with this word.) Being at that party made me realize how different exchange students are or become (  and I haven't even left yet!). The whole time I was at the party I was thinking about my exchange, I wanted to be actively involved in the conversation but I felt as if I was kinda done with "gossiping" and teachers. I had fun at the party, and I'm so glad I went and got to see everyone. Something inside of me has changed, Im not even sure how to explain it. " its not good, its not bad, its just different."

Like I have said in previous posts, My emotions are a roller coaster. I'm lukewarm about some things I used to care a lot about  (I think part of it is I'm just ready to be there.) This is a huge step and I'm only 18 days away!! :)