My Fox News Interview

http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/4058364/scariest-two-minutes-of-my-life/?playlist_id=87249

Earthquake in Chile

Waking up to an earthquake. Not fun. The night before perfectly calm and relaxed. Temperature in the 80's a normal night. Going to sleep that night I was not aware that I would be woken up the next day to a natural disaster. Anyway so about at 3am I was woken up to violent shaking. A few weeks ago there had been a small shake so I wasn't thinking that I was in a huge earthquake until seconds later. I heard screaming and sounds of glass shattering and pots breaking. My host dad runs in the room and is yelling "teremoto, been aqui rapido!" We run under the post of the door and are standing there for 2 minutes. Probably the longest two minutes of my life. After the quake stopped, my host family and I went downstairs people that is what most of the people in the apartment were doing. Once getting downstairs seeing peoples faces was horrible. Everyone had tears in the eyes and trying to call relatives and see how they were doing but the phone lines were down or very slow. Anyway everyone was waiting down in the lobby until about 7 because we were all waiting for the after shock, which eventually came at around 8 again when I went back to sleep. I woke up to get my day started around 8:30 and went to my “aunt’s” house. There we watched the news and saw the destruction of this earthquake. Hard to believe that in 2 minutes buildings that were in perfect condition the day before were completely leveled to the ground. Anyway, since my uncle here owns one of the biggest jean companies in Santiago he wanted to go see how his stores and offices were doing. He volunteered to take me around driving and take photos if I came with him to check. I obviously said yes because I wanted to see what other parts of the city were like. I saw areas that were extremely devastating and I saw areas that had barely any exterior damage. There were apartments that had no back walls so when I stopped to take pictures I could see into people’s bed rooms. There was barely anything open because so many buildings were destroyed and people needed to take care of their families and homes. There were a few gas stations opened however when we stopped to get gas, we had to wait in a line for 30 minutes. I saw bridges that were broken and roads were closed. My cousins who were in the south just for a day trip were unable to get back to Santiago because the roads were backed up with tons of traffic because of the limited roads. People who were supposed to leave for vacation or come to Santiago for vacation are unable to at the moment because the airport is in such bad condition. It was horrific to see what was on the news about other areas in Chile and it makes me feel extremely lucky that I only had to suffer the shake and a few things breaking and luckily I still have a home to live in for the rest of my stay in Chile. I will put my photos on photo bucket because there are too many to post in this blog entry.

Camping gone bad

As most of you know, I am in Scouts with my school here in Chile. This past month there was a camping/community service camp that I took part in. The trip started January 4^th, but I had to arrive later because I had other things to do. Anyway so I started my trip on the 20^th of January and got home the 27^th. I left Wedsnday morning at 12am and arrived in Yungay, a small city 6hours outside Santiago, at 6am. I travelled via public bus with my two host sisters who are “jefas de scout.” I meet my clan in the Plaza of Yungay at 8am because they were traveling in from Chiloe, a small island in the south of Chile, which is 12 hours away from where we were going. Since we wanted to make a grand entrance for “ Campamento de Verano,” we had to wait around all day until night fall. We wanted to wait in the Plaza because it was the perfect place with shade. However the town of Yungay was celebrating something and kicked all 40 of us out of the Plaza and we were left to find another destination. That is when we found the area near some small stream where people bathed and we just sat and hung out. Finally around 9:30ish a truck literally a truck came to pick us up. It had no back so 40 girls and all of our extreme camping backpacks plus random other things were shoved into the back of this truck and we were set to get to the camp. We were dropped of about a half km outside the base camp site. This was so we could prepare our grand entrance. Our entrance was carrying torches of fire (in a VERY VERY DRY area) and fireworks…brillant I know. Luckily no ones face was blown off or anything…however, later one of my friends burned her hand with one of the fireworks…shes fine now. Anyway we ran into the base area where all the younger scout groups were waiting and we chanted random songs and people danced around a circle of fire….very clan/cult like activity. We were setting fireworks off and everything, not a good idea because we almost set the woods on fire a few times because of all the trees that were around :/

After that, we walked threw the camping grounds to look for a place to set up our tents. We found a field and everyone was too tired to continue looking (not to mention we had not eaten dinner and everyone was super tired) so we stopped there set up camp and agreed to move the next day to an area that would have shade. That evening there was a dinner with “las vacas” y “los watones” which is the girl and boy group of the 11^th and 12^th grades along with the “jefes.” The next day we just hang out, bathed in the river, caught up with everyone who we hadn’t seen in a while. Then that evening, our clan sat in a circle and discussed positive criticisms about each other. However, everyone had to sit in the middle of the circle to make it even more awk and have spotlight haha. Since I had missed the beginning half of the camp I noticed I had clearly missed some events that happened because people were getting harsh “positive” criticisms and I was completely oblivious to the situations they were referring too. The next day we sat around again, hung out, did various group activities. Today was the day that were everyone in scout grouped together and we had a competition with various stations. We had to complete a bunch of activities with our group. There were about 15 people in each group and 16 stations. A few activities we had to complete were memorize a song with each person in the group, fill a cup to a certain point with a sponge but only moving the sponge with our feet, spitting in a cup and filling to a certain point with mucus(joy), memorize 45 random items, and various other team building tests. My team won which was great, however there was the ultimate test between the 1^st and 2^nd teams to see who would win the prize. That was to guide a person on your team threw an obstacle course to get to a key and open the lock where the head “jefe” was tied up. Luckily, we won that challenge too and our prize was a watermelon, 6 cantaloupes and 6 1 liter sodas. These were delicacies at camp because people had not eaten these items in a month so it made it taste better for them. Anyway, the next day in the evening we did some other random things and then had this secret event that is only done with the 3^rd and 4^th years and I am very sorry but I had to promise not to tell anyone about it. It is a traditional ceremony that is only done for the 4^th years that are leaving scout and this “campamento” for them. It is almost like a prize night ceremony because later on in the camp they have a graduation like ceremony. For almost everyone this is a very emotional time because most of the people have been in scout since 5^th grade with the same people and doing these same traditions for years and it is finally coming to an end. This event ended at…7:30 am and we had to be at the base camp at 9 for breakfast and ready to do other activitiesss FML.

The next evening, we had our clan good bye party which consitited of whichever food we bought at the store before we got to the camp and some people who asked a few jefes to go into the center to pick up some of the other foods that we needed. My group had cookies, and hamburgers…I had cookies and everything Chileans put inside a hamburger minus the burger part and trust me, that is A LOT. (Palta aka avocado, tomatos, ketuchup, mayo, mustard and onions…sooo good – on bread of course) J

Now for the problems at camp. ANYWAY. So there were a few people who were getting sick but nothing major but enough to keep people alittle worried. Fevers, stomach aches and head aches what not…but ya no big deal. Well not so fast…the 25^th, there were about 50 people who were really sick with fevers of about 104, headaches, stomach aches, diarriah and vomiting. Not good when you are in the middle of the woods and don’t have many resources. Let alone water being not the easiest thing to get. A few of these people had to go to the hospital in Yungay, but the best place for them would have been in Santiago. Anyway, camp was alittle worried and every one tried to stick to their normal schedules of activities. People were still dropping like flies…in the end there was a total of 150/300 people who were sick 68 of which had to go to the hospial. They set up a sick unit in base camp for everyone which looked like a hospital unit in a war. Bodies of the sick were just lying there. The people who were not sick, the only thing we were told to do was to start packing things, clean up, and help the younger kids. That is what I did for the remaining 3 days of the camp. We had to offer extra tents for the sick people and squize ourselves into as little tents as possible because they needed tents for the sick to sleep in during the night. Also at this point there was really no super clean water because the sick were going to the bathroom and vomiting in the river where we were supposed to be getting water and bathing in. sooo wonderful. The people were so sick that some people could not even move their bodies they were in so much pain. Unforunatly the base camp was about a 20 minute walk for some of us because we wanted sites far to do what ever we wanted. So when people got sick we had to work together and carry people on our backs 20 minutes in the sun to the clinic. Ughh not a fun experience. Also they ran out of food because they were spending all the money on medication for everyone who was sick. It was a blissful experience and I was soooo happy when I reached Santiago and took a nice long shower. Ahhh felt great. Here is a link to one of the news sites where they reported what happened at the campsite. The situation reminded me a little bit of the movie Outbreak minus the fact that no one died in our situation thank god. Everyone was super happy once we got to Santiago because we were now safe from the virus. The only downer about the situation was that we missed the two biggest activities that are done at “campamento de verano” which consisted of a “paseo” and “un fogon.” The paseo is the graduation like activitiy for the 4^th years who are leaving and any of the jefes who are leaving. This was depressing that it was missed because that would be like cancelling a graduation. Then the fogon is where everyone sits around a fire and the 3^rd and 4^th year girls (aka my group) performs our presentation. Luckily that was cancelled because we had not prepaired anything long enough because of the chaos with the VIRUS.

http://24horas.cl/videosRegiones.aspx?id=18550&idRegion=8

that’s all for now…WATCH THE VIDEO …hope you understand :P

New Years in Chile

So for New Years in Chile, it is once again a very family oriented tradition. Since I just changed families, I was going to be celebrating New Years with my new family. Funny how Rotary makes you switch between Christmas and New Years the most difficult times for some people when they are on exchange. Anyway, yeah so for New Years my new family and I go to my “aunts” house where she is having this huge dinner. We go over around 10 and are talking and having appetizers. Meeting new family members again. Great fun. Then we all have a Christmas like dinner which ends at 11:30 so everyone can prepare for the 12 moment. Everyone has to get a glass of champagne and twelve grapes to represent I am guessing the twelve months of the year before so you can get prepared to start of f a New Year. It is very difficult to eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds. Anyway after that everyone gets ready to go to their New Years eve parties. I went to a disco for maybe people 30 years old with my cousin…we still had fun but ya nbd.

Still Alive

Sorry all you blog followers. I have been lacking in my blog writing because it is summer for me again and I just never sit down to write something in the blog. Anyway, I just returned from my trip to Patagonia which was incredible! Of all the places I have been too, this destination is definitely the one I would recommend someone save their money on and splurge. This place was magical. I have never seen views and sceneries as gorgeous as in Torres del Paine. The mountains with a bit of snow on the top and then the tropical ice cold blue glacier water with greenery to surround them made for a surreal setting. Personally, most of the time I felt as though I was in Lord of the Rings some of the views were just un-imaginable. The thing I was most suprised about however, were that even though the glaciers were very close to Antarctica, they were not as big as some of the glaciers I have seen in Alaska. The weather there was not unbearably cold, but of course it is summer there. There were however great winds which did make it a little nippy at times. The water was ice cold. Yes I did go swimming in the Strait of Magellan at 10:30pm. Freezing ice cold water. We ran to the water so by the time we got there we were pretty hot, but after seconds I could not feel my legs. In fact it was so cold it was painful.

Aside from the Patagonia Trip, life back in Santiago is great. I am enjoying the 90 degree weather. However, hearing that all the people on the East Coast are enjoying great coastal storm/blizzard, I will admit I do miss the snow. And the Christmas season is not even close to being the same. It does not feel like Christmas here. You don't see the rush of people in the stores doing Christmas shopping. No Christmas trees on top of cars because everyone here has plastic trees. Also the minimal christmas decoration definitely helps set the non-Christmas mode. Lets not even talk about the Christmas music...I had to go on the 99.9 Kiss FM's website and listen to Christmas music live a few days ago. I am still not sure how my family celebrates Christmas. I know I am going to mass tonight and then we come back to the mom's house to open some gifts and eat. Then tomorrow I go to the dad's house. After the festivities I will post a blog giving details. Chao for now...HAPPY HOLIDAYS

International Thanksgiving

So even though I did miss out on the 8 hour car drive, family stories, black friday and getting a long weekend for Thanksgiving festivities, I did end up celebrating Thanksgiving with the other exchange students. Having never prepared a Thanksgiving, I must say just saying what type of foods you want at the dinner is exciting and 100% guarantee that half the foods you talk about having at Thanksgiving will not be there. Anyway, my two fellow american exchange students made our list of what we were making and then had other people say what they were planning on bringing. Many of which ended up saying they could not bring the dish because Chile does not have their specific items for that dish. Anyway, my friends and I were making the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans since they were the biggest, most necessary for Thanksgiving and since the dinner was going to be held in my house it made the most sense to prepare everything there. We prepared the mashed potatoes and green beans Wednesday night and the turkey Thursday. The turn out was great there were many exchange students about 20ish. Everyone had a great time and we had many dishes from other countries including New Zealand and Australia. All the food turned out great for all of it being prepared by amateur cooks. We got the recipes from our families at home and foodnetwork.com which turned out to be very handy. Even though we did not have measuring cups and all the various seasonings we have in the US everything turned out to be very tasty. The hardest part was "cut" the turkey...it turned out beautiful but when the time came to carve it no one knew how to do it.

preparation for stuffing.

exchange students who are staying in Santiago. the turkey.

10 Weeks

So it has already been two and a half months. Funny how fast the time is going. Everyone in the U.S is probably preparing for the major holidays of the year and bundling up because the temperature, I'm guessing, is dropping rapidly. Here everyone is putting away the winter clothing and preparing for summer. Christmas in EXTREME heat is what I am preparing for. That will defiantly be a change for the wonderful New England Christmas weather. School is pretty hectic because I have exactly 21 days left until summer. All of the people in "cuatro medio" aka seniors are preparing for the PSU - a test similar to the SAT except their life kind of depends on it...The rest of the school is preparing for typical end of the year things, last tests before finals and so forth. Once we get out of school, I have a 4 month summer to look forward to. In that time I am going to Patagonia, on a 20 day scout trip which will consist of bonding activities and community service, and then switching families.

26th of November -Thanksgiving (not celebrated here)

27th of November - LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

13th-19th of December - Patagonia Trip

25th of December - Christmas

27th of December - Switch Families