Wednesday, November 9, 2011

another you know you are an exchange student when...

I decided to do another one of these because i think of them all the time:

You know you are an exchange student when
- you unknowingly load money on your micro/ metro card everyday and actually find out it not necessary. haha lesson learned.
- when some one tells you that you speak well/ or have a good accent and you just give them the most ridiculous smile in the world.
-  you find it harder and harder to remember you own native language.
- you have a whole conversation completely in a different language and you feel so accomplished
- you have random homesickness moments and have done nothing to provoke them.
-  you are a part of like 10 different groups solely for exchange students on facebook.
-  the first words you learn in school are words you should never say.
-  you are talking to another exchange student and then realize you are both speaking spanish and understand eachother...coolest feeling ever.
- you discover hulu and pandora dont work, and you are crushed. ( But Chile did get netflix...finally..now all i need is the password. haha)
- you find yourself translating english songs and other things for your friends.
-you still have pictures you took at an outing in october but still haven't uploaded them to facebook yet.
- your new wears off
- every class becomes art class
- you discover there is no word for "akward" in your host language and that there is no way to describe "swag"
- you say you dont know the language just so you don't have to deal with sales people.
- you don't know how everyone is able to cross the street with out getting run over because the moment you take one step into the road, you come inches away from getting hit. and to make it better there is an extremely scary cross walk right next to school so everyday everyone gets to watch the crazy foreign kid play chicken.

- you have to constantly explain to your friends at school that high school in America is not like the movies at all and the parties aren't like the movies either.
- you cant tell jokes anymore because they just are not as funny in your host language.
- your friends at home just don't understand anymore
- when you try to convince yourself that a word in your host language is also a word in english...(entonces..definatly not a word in english)
- some english words sound wierd to your ears
- you see facebook posts in all different languages because you have friends all over the world
- you have to clarify which family you are talking about


real talk- thanks for reading :)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween in Chile

hey everyone! Just an update about how last week went. Last week my school had alianzas which i guess you can describe it like a competition between grades. My school is all ages starting from kinder. My class was in the white group and we had to do a musical- Chicago. We also danced a cheerleading dance like i mentioned before...it went really bad but we all had fun doing it. The little girls also had to dance and they danced to a song from camp rock 2. The older girls also danced to to katy perry and the older guys danced like Watchiturros. It was really fun and the musical "Chicago" went really well and we won third place. So obviously we were upset because everyone knew that it went REALLY GOOD! So like the rebellious teenagers that we are we all decided to come to school the next day in black clothes, as a way to protest and to show "mourning" because white is a happy color and no one was happy so we wore black instead. Thinking back on it now it was just a silly competition but it was serious at the time. Haha. I thought the wearing of the black clothes was funny, plus it didn't hurt anybody so it was fine. My friends are awesome.
Also Halloween weekend  I went to Rancagua, which is about an hour away from Santiago. I stayed with my friend Lucy who is an exchange student from Oregon. How do I know her? well I met her at a Rotary Orientation and we were immediately friends. This just goes to show how you can immediately become friends with another exchange student. I went on Friday and we went to a Halloween party. Man! It was so fun. More people looked at me wierd because not only am I blonde, but Lucy is blonde as well and two blonde girls, together in a small town in Chile look like tourists. I guess in Santiago it is more common to seen light haired people. I felt like it was my first week again because everyone was looking/staring at me and I didn't know anyone. The party was really fun though! I stayed until monday ( which we had off of school for halloween) which I though was pretty neat because we dont get halloween off in the States. hahahaa. We saw the movie "Contagio" which i guess in English is Contagion?

I am at a point in my exchange where I can understand everything..minus the slang ( Chile has cool slang but sooo much of it) and I can speak when necessary. Also being with Lucy this past weekend and then skyping friends and family back home I have discovered that not only is it hard to speak spanish, it is equally as hard to speak my native language as well. It is hard to switch from english to spanish over and over. It is hard to explain.

Things I miss from home; Obviously my family and friends!
- Free refills
-free water
- being able to drive where ever
- my bed
- spicy food
- fuzzy's tacos
- bible class at PR
- oddly enough, babysitting
- leadership class-
- not having to say "sin gas" when i order water ( first time got me..haha)
-salad dressing
- costco hotdogs
- the smell of my house
- the quietness of my neighborhood
-cheap clothes
- cheap shoes

Things I love about Chile;
- My family
-My friends
- the GINOURMOUS MALLS!!!!
- the shopping (dont worry mom and dad I just look ;)
- the hustle and bustle of Santiago and all the strange/ interesting people I see everyday
- EMPENADAS!! :D
- waking up and looking out my window at the beautiful Andes mountains
- how it is cold in the morning and cold at night

I feel like my first list was longer and I feel it shouldn't be that way but i really do love it here. I have a family friend who just arrived from Texas today and he is here in Santiago on business and he has a suitcase full of things from home for me. I get to see him tomorrow and I think seeing him will make me feel more at home and also when he returns home he can reassure my parents that I am doing fine here.  I am excited. My dad put Stride gum in there. :) anyways..that wasnt about halloween at all but honestly I couldnt think of a title.