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

Public Transportation part 2

Public transportation is the most popular way of commuting for everyone in Santiago. At night around 1130,I think the metro stops working...personally I think that is a really bad decision on the city's part because the public buses are unreliable. You could be waiting for a bus for an hour or two or just not know which buses are running at night. Taxis are still running but it makes transportation from different parts of the city very difficult. I've learned from personal experience. :)

Halloween in Chile

Halloween is somewhat of a new concept here in Chile and has only been around for about 15-20 years...which is why not everyone here gets as pumped up as people in the US. When my friends said that not many people get dress up, I was expecting actually no one and when I left my house in the evening, Iwas quite surprised to see a few kids walking up and down the street asking for candy. Unlike us, mischief night is also celebrated the same night as halloween but all they do here is throw eggs i think because i didn't see any houses tee-peed...In supermarkets and grocery stores they are not banning selling eggs to children at night either because when i stopped by a store, i saw 4 little boys about 12 buying a two cases of about 24 eggs.

As for halloween parties...most of those I heard of were being organized by exchange students, but as for the night, it was basically a regular Saturday and people could dress up if they wanted too...festivities that we have in the US were definitely missed but no big deal, there are costume parties all the time here and costumes aren't as easy to find.

so...i went camping.

I should say it straight out...I am not a camper.

However, I joined scout(yes, girl scouts...very different than in the US) and we had a 5 day camping trip this weekend. basically the entire school does scout and went camping. Around 300 people. All of the scout leaders are alumni of the school and scout is done through schools here. There for everyone who went goes to "San Juan Evangelista."

anyway...

It was really fun...i fell in the mud right when we got there and my
feet got covered in mud because i sank...we arrived at 11pm. we were
able to bath in a lake...gross but i was like i need to rinse off. i
cut my foot on something in the water...it rained saturday, so more
mud...the rest of the days were nice...freezing at night. took a while
to set up our huge 10 person at 11pm with only a flashlight. there were
only 5 ppl in my tent. the food was actually pretty good. i am not a
fan of going ot the bathroom in the woods but with toilet paper is
wasnt that bad...we did a lot of bonding activites which were really
fun. nights were freezing cold and went to sleep everyday around
2/3am and had breakfast at 9am...scout here has wierd cultish ceremonies/song

things that they do alot. interesting but litereally reminded me of a cult haha

i have another camping trip in 3 weeks...halloween weekend...lucky for me halloween doesnt exist here :(

i will be sure to take pictures next time.

A Week of Vacation

Since the 11th is a national holiday in Chile, many schools have the entire week after off. I am pretty sure the 18th of September is also a holiday, but I am not positive. Throughout the city of Santiago there are many parades and "Fondas" which I think a similar to fairs the we have in the US. (I did not go to any of these). The festivities equal out to a combination between the 4th of July and New Years. On the 18th there is a barbeque with tons of meat, salad and traditional foods such as empanadas. This meal would be equivalnent to our Thanksgiving because it is a meal shared with relatives and family members.

For vacation, my family took me to Valle del Elqui a town/area up north where there were not the same festivities practiced. It was the country and there did not seem to be anything going on. My family took me to "nearby" towns that had artisan shops where were cool. The place where we were liked alot like the deserts of Arizona and Utah and did not have much to do. Also there was barely any internet which is why I relate it to my Vermont house, with maybe 3 less stars For those of you who have been there...you know what I am talking about. I was there from Tuesday night until Sunday morning). Not to mention the 6hr car ride up there that was included. The drive home was beautiful, most of the time. The road we took was parallel to the coast. Sad to admit this was one of the highlights of the trip.

September 11

Similar to us in the United States, September 11 is a historic day throughout Chile. In Chile on September 11, 1973 was when President Salvador Allende was over thrown by the military coup. All throughout chile people are celebrating. It is a national holiday and is celebrated for a week. Therefore many schools are out for the entire next week. Mine included :) Before this day in gym classes throughout the country, the students learn the different traditional dances and each grade has a different dance to learn. The dances are so well performed and so fun to watch. The colors, music and enthusiasm from everyone makes it a spectacular performance. I was practicing to perform the dances with them but opted out to take pictures. I am happy I did. My favorite dance was performed by students in "cuatro medio" which is equivalant to our senior year in the US. It is called "la tirana." It is a dance from the north of chile. The music and costumes were beautiful.

This is a photo of what was performed by "tercero medio", equivalent to junior year.

photo 1: performing "la tirana"

photo 2: boys dress for "la tirana"

photo 3: girls dress for "la tirana"

After two weeks

So it has been two weeks since my arrival in Santiago, Chile. Everything is still looking up and I continue to climb the "exchange student mountain" so far without any boulders to over take. School is great besides the 2hr classes and ending at 1630. However, I have a week vacation for the national holiday starting Friday afternoon! I understand a lot of what is going on in class especially the math that we have been assigned by our sub teacher since our teacher is away on a ten day class trip. It is SAT math so it is a piece of cake :) I take a wide range of classes: art, music, theater, religion, math, spanish, advanced english, philosophy, science and gym. In the english class I correct and translate paragraphs from spanish to english. Translating is harder than I thought because not only am I translating for something to make sense in my mind, but it actually has to make sense when written on paper. After school a bunch of students just hangout after getting snacks at the local mini-mart near the bus stops on the main street near school. I take the bus back with one of my friends and sometimes we have other students who ride on the same route as us. The company on the 30-minute bus ride defiantly makes the trip go by much faster. The weather here has not been great, but a few days ago the sun came out and the views from my window and even from school are spectacular of the "cordilleras." Clear sky and the white capped snow mountains. This week there is prediction of sunny with clouds and with the past few days of tons of rain I am hoping the forecast is correct.

First Rotary Confrence

1st Rotary Meeting was Sunday Sept. 6. I was picked up at 9 by my rotary advisor and we went to a Rotary building for one of the sections of Santiago. It was a nice building besides the fact they did not have any heat. We had a bunch of different speeches that were given to us. A lot were about the rotary rules in the program. Then they had a student from New Zealand share her experience in Chile so far since she had been here for 7 months already. Then a couple students who were from Chile shared their experience on their exchange trips. Then the Chilean FBI like people came...they are called the PDI and they gave us speeches about sexual abuse. Then we all went and had lunch. The rotary club organized a children's performing group from Maipu, a section in Santiago, to perform a few traditional dances and songs. It was a very organized meeting or so it seemed and it was fun getting to meet all the other exchange students from all over the world. I wouldn't say I am looking forward to the next meeting because they do take all day.

Weather: downpour and not sunny. With the amount of rain they got there were mud slides in different parts of the city and the roads were flooding. You also might think people would drive cautiously in the rain...not the case because on the way to the conference we passed an accident with a man who was lying in the street after getting hit by a car. Not a great way to start saturday mornings.

Daily Weekday Schedule

6:50 - Wakeup/shower

7:30 - Leave for school (20/30 minute car ride)

8:15 - Classes start (Each class is 2hrs long except for the one right before lunch which is 1hr. I have a total of 7hrs of classes before lunch...then lunch which is an hour. Then 2hrs after lunch.)

1630/1700 - Chill with people from school at corner store while waiting for Micro(bus)

1730 - "Tomar once" - snack time

2100 - Dinner

00 - Sleep

Public Transportation

After my first week of having the privilege of getting my host parents to bring me to and from school. Day 2 of my second week I was on my own. However, taking the 2 buses that drive on large main streets is nothing like riding the NYC subways for the 1st time and not knowing which way you are supposed to be traveling so I would have to admit it is a piece of cake. However, today while on the bus, my friend and I were trying to move towards the back door while the bus was still stopped. Just as we were about to reach the spot we wanted to be in the bus started moving again and I was thrown back...practically fell on the floor, luckly the bus happened to be really crowded and my friend grabbed me so I didn't actually hit the ground. But I am sure everyone on the bus enjoyed a small show from the "gringo" in a school uniform :P

The subway system is the same as all subway systems. There are only 4 lines I think that run throughout Santiago which makes it pretty manageable. It does take a while though to get from certain parts of the city to other parts. But on the most part it's pretty convenient.

Escuela

Yesterday, was my first day of school at Colegio San Juan Evangelista. I have a wonderful uniform that I wear which includes a blue skirt, polo shirt, black shoes and navy tights. I can wear any colored blue/black sweater because there is no heat that circulates the school. In the mornings it makes it alittle chilly, but as the day progresses it starts to warm up. The school is K-12 however they have a different system for grades which I have not really caught on to yet. I am in "curso III C" which I think is similar to 11th grade because there is one more year ahead of us. We do not change classrooms for the classes unless we are going to one of the few sciences or elective classes. There are 3 homerooms for year III and my homeroom has about 20+ students. I have meet many new people however with everyone having similar names and with people coming up to me constantly it has been hard to remember them. The classes I am in a pretty good, some are a little boring, but I am understanding a lot which is not what I expected. My math class today was very easy because it was something I had already learned. The teacher student relationship is nothing in comparison to the US. It is a more friend to friend basis the relationship and the students and teachers have jokes with each other which I could not picture having with most teachers in the US. The school day starts at 8 and goes until 430 every day except Wed when it then ends at 120. Extremely long days. The schedule goes 2hrs of class 15 min break 2hrs 15 min break 1hr then 1hr for lunch then 2hrs then school is done. I'm getting used to it. There are no after school sports I don't think, but people stay after playing "futbol" and basketball.

My Family

In the house I am staying in there is:

Loreto Warner(20) - Hermana (sister)

Andres Warner(22) - Hermano (brother)

Patty - Madre

Cache - Step-Father

Sacha - perra(dog)

My "Fathers" House

Tomas Warner Sarasua(5) - hermano

Andres Warner Soffia- padre

Soledad Sarasua Nieto - Step-Mother

Other People

Esteban - step brother (cachi's son)

Maria - step sister (cachi's daughter)

easy words...huge family :)

The Futbol Game

August 23rd: 6:30pm @ Estadio Nacional: Universidad de Chile v. Everton

I have never been to an actual futbol(soccer) game, so when my host "step-father" invited me to go I agreed. Upon arrival at the game Cachi(step-fathers name) kept saying how this is an ancient stadium and that is was very famous...I was thinking o there must have been some awesome futbol games played here. When we got to the stadium (Estadio Nacional), it looked oddly familar but I could not put the pieces to the puzzle until Cachi said something about Allende. Thats when I realized I had seen this exact stadium in the movie Missing with Sissy Spacek (great movie btw). This was the stadium that they used during the coup in Chile to murder and hide the bodies. Interesting...anyway the game was fun, alittle cold and boring but I was able to handle it. The stadium was not full because it was not a major game however, the crowed still had great spirit. No one won the game...it was tied 1-1 (nice cold 2hr game for it to be tied)

The Journey

Finally I have arrived in Santiago, Chile!

I left Saturday afternoon on August 22nd and arrived Sunday August 23rd. LGA airport was of course confusing and even though I had an e-ticket I still had to wait in a line for about an hour because one of my bags were oversized and because the e-ticket machine was being annoying. Anyway when I got to the desk the attendant at the counter said that it was possible that my 3:05pm flight to Dallas would be cancelled so he put me on an earlier flight. (better for me since the travel agent suggested I arrive at LGA airport 3hrs before my flight leaves. clearly not an experienced traveller.) The flight went smoothly and arrived on time. Only a 4hr flight about. Once arriving in Dallas, I wandered the airport a bit because I had 5hrs and even attempted to go to the Admirals Club...no such luck getting in. Eventually, I wandered towards my gate/terminal which was about a 10 minute airtran ride. At gate D25 there were about 7 other outbound Chilean exchange students. We all chatted talking about the "pre-preparation" for the chile trip and what we all had to do. With in our group there were a few girls from Ohio, on boy from North Carolina, a girl from Pennsylvania, a girl from Iowa, Wyoming, 2 students from Massachusetts, one from New Hampshire and a girl from California. So we all were from all over the US. A few of us had flown before and a few who had not travelled as much. The plane ride was not that bad...even though it was a 9 and a half hour flight it went by pretty fast. Arriving at the Santiago Airport in Chile was a great feeling...finally, the moment I had been waiting for since December 2008 after hearing I was going to be going to Chile. I went through customs and immigration smoothly. Walking out of the actually airport section and into the arrival area where people are always standing was great. All of our families were standing there with signs, posters and cameras waiting for us. They were all very excited upon our arrival. My home was about a 20/30 minute ride from the airport. We drove through the city so I got a brief tour.

O and I think I forgot to mention that it is FREEZING here haha

chao!

ps. here is the link for the arrival photos

http://photobucket.com/aknight

Pre-Departure

So i have recently returned from Spain. I was there for a month and had a great time. However, now that I have returned I need to focus on when I will be leaving for Chile. Umm I am not sure when I leave yet...it is August 2nd and I don't know. With in a few days though, I will be going to the Chilean Consulate in New York City where I will be able to pick up a visa and then I know my exact departure date. I am extremely excited for this trip and for me I do not think this will be as hard for me as it will be other exchange students because all of my friends are also leaving for college so I won't feel like I will be missing anything at home.

Test Run

Hey everyone,

I am new to this blogging thing(test run)...personally I am more comfortable with Facebook and putting up different status' to inform people with what I am doing but with the gap year I am taking before college, this is kind of a requirement.

peace
ale