Thursday, August 7, 2014

Final Report and Advice to Future Exchange Students Who Don't Want to Read This Entire Blog ;)

RYE Final Report: Alex Bryant Chile 2013-2014
I think I should start out by saying that I had the absolute best exchange that I could have asked for. Before leaving, I heard so many people say that same phrase, and I always wondered what constituted “the best exchange”. During the hard times of my exchange, I thought that surely I couldn’t be having the best exchange while I was fighting with my family, or while I was sitting at home alone on a Friday night with nothing to do, or while I was not being invited to a single rotary meeting, or while I still didn’t understand everything my friends were saying after 6 months. As I look back on those moments, I realize that my expectations for the year were completely impossible. A year abroad is like a roller coaster with unavoidable sadness, happiness, success, and failure. I also realized that this complete experience, including all the rough patches, was much more amazing than the one I had in my head ever could have been. Through the fighting and reconciliation I had with my family, I became much closer to them (after all, real families don’t always get along), I was able to use the nights alone to spend extra time with my family, I was able to change rotary for the better, and I realized that that fact that I was able to complain about not understanding little details of the language actually meant I was improving a lot. I think that “having the best exchange” is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is stay positive, make the best of any situation, and know how to laugh at yourself. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you want them to, but they are always new and exciting experiences. I’ll illustrate my point with the story of how I spent my birthday in Chile. It was during summer break (February), and my family had just returned from a 3 week road trip through the south of Chile, so I hadn’t seen any of my friends for a long time. I hadn’t had a cell phone since December (long story), so Facebook was my only means of communication. We arrived home and I was excited to talk to friends and plan something to do for my birthday, but I quickly found that my dad hadn’t paid the internet bill, so there was no wifi in the house. I had no cell phone, no internet, no texting, no way to communicate with neither my Chilean friends nor my friends and family from the US who wanted to wish me a happy birthday. All I did the whole day was go for a run and then organize my room with my little sister Monse. I tried to act like I wasn’t disappointed, but my one and only exchange birthday was not going as planned. I was in my room watching Disney channel with Monse when my brother Maxi came in and asked me to help him with something outside. I went to the living room and found it completely decorated with balloons and a big Mexican (my favorite food) meal on the table. My best friend Cata was waiting there with a gift and a giant hug. We had a great meal, my family shoved cake in my face, and although it wasn’t the amazing birthday filled with greetings that I had imagined, it was still amazing and perfect in its own way because it showed me how much these people care about me. Later in the week Cata and I had a joint birthday party for our school friends and went out dancing at a club, and a little afterward all the exchange students got together to throw me a surprise birthday party. I was so sure that my birthday was going to be one of the worst memories of the year, and it is actually one of the best.

Recommendations for Exchange Students:
·       - Bring a California flag as well as a USA flag because in all the group pictures you are going to want to stand out
·       - Bring California postcards to write letters on
·       - Bring candy to share with everyone—they’ll all want to try the cool US candy that doesn’t exist there (ex: Sour Patch Kids, Goldfish, Jolly Ranchers, Juicy Fruit gum, Tootsie Rolls, Graham Crackers to make s’mores)
·      -  Printing out pictures of you with your host family and friends always makes a good gift (a great end of year gift could be a framed picture, so bring nice frames from the US)
·      -  Learn some good card games to teach people (ERS was a big hit)
·      -  ***Learn your US history and especially the history of US involvement in the country where you’ll be going. At least in South America, there is a lot of resentment toward the US for their foreign policy during the cold war, and you will undoubtedly get questions from friends, parents, and history teachers about what you think of the situation. You’ll want to be informed.
·      -  People will make fun of you for carrying pepper spray around, but I always felt safer with it although I never had any problems or the slightest reason to use it.
·      -  Make your pins California related, not USA related, because you’ll want to stand out from the million other USA pins that will be on everyone else’s blazers
·      -  Don’t worry about talking to other exchange students instead of people from the country you’re in because they understand better than anyone what you’re going through and can provide a nice break from constantly working to communicate and understand the language. At the same time, make sure you put your host country friends first and make a big effort to spend as much time with them as possible because after all, you didn’t travel so far just to be friends with more people from the US.
·     -   Don’t let your host family or friends speak to you in English, at least until you feel comfortable in their language
·     -   When communicating with your host family, be specific about the cultural practices and beliefs that you and your real family have about house rules and family interaction. It can’t hurt to over clarify because that’s the only way to explain differences and miscommunications that are sure to come up
·     -   Don’t be lazy before leaving on exchange. Learn as much of the language as you can, especially grammar rules. It’s easy to pick up vocabulary when you get there but grammar is a little harder, especially if you know nothing about it. When you step off the plane and realize that now this new language is the only you will make friends, understand street signs, or ask for help, you will wish you had worked a little harder beforehand. Read books, watch tv or movies (preferably movies you’ve already seen), listen to and familiarize yourself with their music (super impressive when you go out dancing and know the words to their favorite songs), chat with your host family over Skype or Facebook
·     -   ***MAKE AN EFFORT. Be social, be nice, be real. Ask people about themselves, remember people’s birthdays, hug people often. Always laugh at yourself and allow people to correct you if you make a language or cultural mistake. Break the stereotypes that people from the US are all cold and rude and driven only by their capitalistic interests and that exchange students are only looking to party, get drunk, and have a good time.

For more information than anyone could ever possibly want about my exchange, or just to look at some pretty pictures of Chile, check out my blog:


Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Sunday, July 13

Today I woke up on my last morning in Chile. Lilian brought me breakfast to my room and I showered, got ready, and put the finishing touches on my suitcases. There were more weight problems and I had to take more things out and weigh the suitcases a bunch of times with Manuel’s little fishing scale, but I got it to all fit (barely). I took a collectivo over to the Jumbo to meet up with my friends one last time. First I spent about an hour sitting a bench with Pablo just talking and laughing. It was kind of the last time we were going to hang out, and we both knew it, but there was no awkward sadness or anything. We had just as much fun and laughed just as much as we always do, and I had a great time. Pablo has the fastest Spanish in the whole world and sitting on that bench and just chatting with him and remembering how before it was always almost impossible to understand him made me realize how far I’ve come in a year. He left, and then I met up with Nico, Augustin, Isi, Isa, Ale, Chichi, and Heian at Berezzi.
We had café helado and just chatted for a while. Isi brought a camera, so we took a lot of pictures. This was a lot sadder because we all knew it was a goodbye and it was sort of long and drawn out. I got a text from my family saying that they were waiting for me to eat lunch, so I began the long process of hugs and promises to keep in touch and last photos with each of them.
We cried, hugged, and promised to stay in touch. As I was walking away from them, looking around the Jumbo for the last time, it was shocking how this city and those people, all completely unknown and foreign to me just 345 days earlier, had become my life and my best friends. And now I had to leave them. I took my last collectivo back home and ate lunch with my family. I gave them a parting gift of a Brighton framed photo of the three of us and letters for each of them. My friend Mapache came over to say a quick goodbye and to give me a hug. Then Lilian drove me into the center so I could change my Chilean money into American dollars. When we got home, it was almost 4 and we had to be off to the airport. We put all my suitcases in the car, and I was saying goodbye to the house and getting ready to leave, when Manuel came out to the car. On the back of the car they have that cute little family of stickers—Manuel, Lilian, Fran, and Cassandra, their pitbull. He had the pack of stickers, and he told me to choose one and put it on the back of the car because I was their daughter too. It was so adorable and simple and said I love you so much more clearly than words ever could have.
We all piled into the car and went up to the airport. I was pretty nervous about checking my suitcases because of the weight, but it went smoothly—one was exactly 23 kilos and the other was 31.5 (the overweight max is 32) so everything was perfect. I checked in and then there was nothing left to do but wait until 7:30 when I had to go through security.
My friends arrived pretty soon, and I was truly shocked by how many of them made the 2 hour bus journey up to the airport to say goodbye. We sat around talking and laughing and being pretty normal (except there were moments of silence when where we were sort of dawned on all of us). My cousin Nacho and his pants had also come to see me off. The San Martins still hadn’t arrived. I called Nancy and she said they had left the house late and were rushing to the airport but that it was going to be close. She was telling me to delay going through security to wait for them, but my friends were telling me that I couldn’t miss my flight and that I had to go.
I was so stressed and just wanted the San Martins to arrive (with Sally and Vicente). It was about 7:40 and they still weren’t there, so I started taking pictures with my friends and family that were there and I was resigning myself to the fact that they weren’t going to make it on time. As I was taking a picture with someone, I heard running and was enveloped in a giant hug from Sally, Monse, Nancy, Maxi, and Cristobal. That release of the tension that I had that they weren’t going to make it brought the waterworks, and I finally started crying. Nancy was crying too because she had been really scared that she wasn’t going to get to see me again. She told me that Eric had tried to find parking but couldn’t so he was waiting outside in the car. We ran out of the airport together so that I could go hug him and say goodbye. Then I ran back in and started going around the circle of people and hugging each of them and letting them know how much I loved them and how I would never forget them.
That was really all I could say in that moment. I remember the goodbye with Cata, and the goodbye with Pablo, and those were really sad because they have been some of the most important people in my exchange and we just hugged and it was understood how much this goodbye was going to hurt both of us.
But honestly I can’t choose a single goodbye as the hardest because they were impossible and surreal and blurred by tears. I really did have to do through security of I would miss my flight, so I walked through the door, waved a final goodbye to my entire huge Chilean family, and tried not to look back again.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Saturday, July 12

Today was my last full day in Chile. I spent the entire morning packing. Throwing an entire life into a suitcase that cannot weight more that 23 kilos is not as easy as it might seem. Manuel had promised me a long time ago that he was going to take me up to the hills overlooking Rancagua, and he came into my room around 11 and invited me to go. I thought a last morning spent with my dad would be nice, so I agreed.
We drove up through the hills and past the little mining town next to the big copper mine, Codelco, where Eric works. We arrived pretty far into the hills to the place where the border patrol between Argentina and Chile begins, and then turned around.
We arrived a few hours later, and Lilian was waiting for us to go get lunch. We went to our favorite restaurant, the Mini Sheraton. The wait is always long, but today it was terrible, and we ended up waiting about an hour and a half for a table. We started eating lunch at 4 in the afternoon and it really couldn’t have come sooner because Lilian was really crabby from being so hungry. After lunch, they took me over to Sole’s house so I could say a quick goodbye to her. We hugged and she cried and told me that even though she had made fun of me about my accent and always told me that Chile was a much better country than the US, that she really did love me and was going to miss me. I already knew that, but it was really sweet to hear her say it. Then my parents dropped me off at the Jumbo. Jose met me there, and although I didn’t have very long, we walked around for a while catching up. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and although we aren’t exactly best friends, Jose was an important part of my exchange and definitely someone worth saying goodbye to. We said goodbye, and I got into a collectivo to go home. As the collectivo was pulling out of the jumbo, Cata called me crying. I asked her where she was and she said she was at the Jumbo. I asked the driver for my money back, got out of the collectivo, and while running back toward the jumbo, told Cata to wait where she was. We sat outside the jumbo on a bench and she cried and told me her problems with Louis, and how Cristobal coming back hadn’t been how she had expected it, and how she didn’t know how she was going to deal with everything once I left, and I just hugged her and was happy to be able to be with her in this moment in a way that I would never be able to again once I left. After about a half hour, I really had to go home. I got in a collectivo and went back. I was planning on just having a quiet last night, when Sally called me. She said that Lilian had been supposed to take me over to the San Martin house blindfolded because they were planning a surprise goodbye Alex/welcome Cristobal party that night, but that Lilian had obviously not understood the plan, but that I should come over quickly and look surprised.
I went over and the whole family from Talca and Santiago was there. They were having an asado and Nancy had prepared a giant buffet of desserts. Vicente, Louis, Cristobal, and Sally were there. Also my cousins Pedro, Javi, Maria Jesus, and Nacho. I talked to and caught up with all the amazingly warm people who had grown to become my family in just one year, and us kids had fun together talking and joking around.
 Nancy commented to me how amazing it was that I was almost more a part of the family than Cristobal was, because he still felt different and unsure of where he fit in after a year abroad. Eric gave a speech about how happy he was to have his son back, but also how hard it was to see his daughters, Sally and I, go. I gave a speech thanking everyone for being my family and for giving me the best year of my life. Around 2:30, I asked Eric to drive me home because I had a big day in the morning. We all cried as I said goodbye to my family. I went to sleep for the last time in my comfortable bed in my house in Rancagua, Chile.

Friday, July 11

Today was the last and most important day of the alianza. We started by watching the “flash mob” of each alianza, which was just a dance in which more and more people added in. Then all the girls had to go to the classroom to change our clothes and get ready for barras.
Our theme was go karting, so we had the outfits of the girls who wave the checkered flags at the beginning. We went outside and practiced the dances and our positions in each one a few times, and then it was time to go to the gym for the performance. Everyone was nervous, because although this was just a school competition, we had worked for a long time on this and barras is by far the most important competition in the whole alianza. We went into the bathroom and painted our lips black with paint. It was really disgusting and the paint got all over our teeth and we had to keep cleaning our teeth while we waited for the paint to dry on our lips. Our alianza was the first to go, so we put up our scenery and lined up at the back of the gym. Everyone was jumping up and down and yelling and nervous and excited and the atmosphere was great. Before we went on, they said, “guys let’s do this for Alex because today is her last day at school” and it was just the cutest thing ever. First Isi, the queen of the alianza, entered on a motorcycle, jumped off, and waved a checkered flag. Then Felipe, the king, entered in a go kart. He got out as all the senior girls and guys were entering. We did this sort of call and response dance between the boys and girls, and then the boys went off the stage and the rest of the girls came on and we did the rest of the routine. The guys also had another dance and participated in the lifts. We went through the whole performance without any major problems. We all danced full out, smiling and enjoying the performance the whole time, and all of our lifts and pyramids (the thing I was most worried about because I really just didn’t want anyone to fall down and hurt themselves) went off without a hitch. At the end we all yelled a cheer about “Alianza Gris” and ran off. The whole routine lasted about 10 minutes. We were so happy and amped up and proud of our performance. It was a really great feeling. You guys can watch the performance here: Barras Alianza Gris Then we watched the other two alianzas, which were also really good, but we were pretty sure that we had done the best, which was surprising because we had never really expected to win barras. After barras, there were a few more tests to watch, like a parade of cultures where people had to come out dressed in clothes from other cultures and a teacher-student partner cumbia dance. Pablo, Stefano, Isa, and I sat in the gym watching them. Then the bell rang and I had to go back to the classroom to say goodbye to Lila before she left. I was planning on seeing the rest of my class at the school party that night, so I only needed to say goodbye to Lila and Angulo, who weren’t going to the party. They both gave me gifts, and I hugged Lila for a long time, and she was the first person to make me cry. We cleaned up the disaster zone of a classroom (just the 3 of us because everyone else ditched), and then walked out of the school together. I tried not to think about the fact that this would be the last time I saw Instituto Ingles, at least for a while. When we had to part ways, I hugged each of them and tried not to cry too much. I walked down to the big stoplight to get a collectivo, and I let myself cry. Just as I crossed the street in front of Instituto O’Higgins, I saw Katie outside with one of her friends, also crying, because today was her last day too. We just saw each other and hugged because we understood exactly how the other one was feeling. With promises to visit before Katie left the next day, I got into the collectivo. That was the last time I saw Katie, but it’s really okay because I think goodbyes are overrated anyway. I got home around 2, said hi to Manuel, and then went up to my room to put the finishing touches on all the suitcase packing I had to do. Everything was overweight and nothing fit and I had to try 7 million different combinations of things to get everything in and fitting and the proper weight. I had to keep taking unwanted clothes out of the suitcases to leave in Chile. Around 6, I changed clothes and got ready to go over to Cata’s house. She was going to take me to the school party later. Manuel dropped me off at her house. I walked in and said hi to her, and she led me into the kitchen. There was a sign there that said “Alex te queremos” and suddenly a bunch of my friends jumped out to surprise me. It was a surprise going away party for me.
They all hugged me and laughed at how surprised I had been. We ordered pizza and talked and played Just Dance and Band Hero and had a lot of fun.
Ica, my other blonde half

I was the third person of their couple

Cata's family was definitely my third Chilean host family

Pablo is basically just awesome
I realized how much I absolutely love these people and feel so comfortable here in my life. We had to leave Cata’s house around 11, and nobody wanted to go to the party, so we ended up going over to Nico’s house. I did feel pretty guilty about not going to that party to say goodbye to all my school friends, but at the same time, I was surrounded by my best friends and the people whom I would truly miss, and I decided that was much more important anyway. We talked and played word puzzle games at Nico’s house until like 1:30 when Manuel came to pick me up. I tried not to make the goodbye incredibly sad, I just hugged everyone goodbye like I normally would, thanked them for the great party and for being such amazing friends, and walked out the door. I went home and went to sleep.

Thursday, July 10

Today was the first day of the real alianza. We would spend the whole day in the gym watching a bunch of different activities and competitions. First came the “igualito a” which is where each alianza had to recreate two songs sung by famous people. Our group did Tom Jones and Ricardo Arjona. Tom Jones was hilarious because he sings “sex bomb” and Javier danced all sexy while some girls from my class acted as backup dancers in super high stilettos fawning all over him. The next competition was the live music.
From my alianza, Fernanda and Rocio (a girl from a grade below us) were singing “Counting Stars” while Angulo played guitar and I played flute. The flute part was literally 3 notes and incredibly easy, so I wasn’t really nervous to play it in front of the whole school. Another group from our alianza sang “A Thousand Years”. We were really happy with our performance and everyone said we did really well. We ended up getting second place! Next came the fashion show of recycled clothes. For all the hectic hot gluing that had taken place that morning in our classroom, our outfits really looked excellent and I was proud of all the help I had been able to give.
After that there was a lull in the activity while the little kids did relay races and obstacle courses. We went back to the classroom to talk and chill for the rest of the day.
Cristobal and Louis had come to school that day for the alianza and I hung out with them for a little while. I was sort of surprised by Cristobal. He had just come back to his school and was seeing his friends for the first time in a year and he didn’t really seem excited at all. I talked to some of his friends who had excitedly run up to hug him and ask him about his exchange only to be met with a surly “good” and nothing more. They were a little offended by his lack of excitement and I also frankly found it shocking. I would later learn that going home is not as emotive as one might think and that really for the first week that a person is back, they are not thinking about how happy they are to be back in their country but about how much happier they would be back in their host country with their friends and family.
After school got out at 1, Mariana and I walked into the center to eat at a Korean place called “The Rice”. Louis, Cata, Pablo, and I had met the owner at a bar about 2 weeks ago, and I said hi to him. He ended up standing by our table and awkwardly talking to me in English the entire time Mariana and I were eating. It was incredibly uncomfortable and that fact that the food wasn’t very good only made things worse. We walked back to school and had barras until 6. Then after 6, Fernanda’s mom drove Fernanda, Lila, and I over to Maca’s house so we could continue practicing barras. It was dark outside and absolutely freezing cold, and we were all starving, but we went outside and practiced the dance a bunch of times and it was kind of a bonding moment. My whole class was there, plus the girls from the grades below who were a part of barras. We talked and ate chips when someone finally brought something to eat, and Sole’s mom came to pick us up at 9:30. She dropped me off at the Jumbo, where my parents were waiting for me. We drove home while I told them all about the alianza. Then I showered, prepared all my stuff for tomorrow, another hectic alianza day, and went to sleep.

Wednesday, July 9

Today Mariana and I woke up late and we had to hurry to get ready for school. We still arrived on time, and we brought all the cookies we had made yesterday. Within 20 minutes, all 300 cookies were gone. I was glad to be able to have made some typical American food for my classmates one last time before I leave. I had also brought cards that I had written for all my teachers and my friends, and I passed them out, saying goodbye to the teachers and telling my friends not to read the cards until Sunday when I leave. The teachers’ cards were postcards from California, and the friends’ cards were pictures that I had printed out of us together and written on the back of. I also passed my Chilean flag around all day so that people could sign it. We spent the whole day working on things for the alianza. Then after lunch we all went to the gym to watch the presentation of the queen. The whole school was there divided into three parts of the gym for yellow (C), red (B), and grey (A, my team). The kids in the stand were cheering and yelling for their team.
The "mascot" of the yellow alianza
All the seniors were super stressed out making last minute preparations for the performance. When it was our turn, Chichi and I stood up on desks at one end of the gym floor (the stage) and held the banner. It was great because we got a front row seat of the performance. All of the performances were really good, complete with costumes, makeup, music, smoke effects, and elaborate scenery. Our class went away really happy because ours was definitely the best.
The "sexy dwarves" of our alianza
We stayed after school until 6 practicing barras and putting the finishing touches on the recycled outfits. I went home at 6 because I had to finish a jacket I was in charge of making out of pens. I was feeling a little pressure to get it done and pack up my suitcase and everything, and I think Lilian noticed because she brought me once up in my room to eat while I glued millions of pens onto a trash bag to make a suit vest. I finally finished the vest and finished writing goodbye letters to my family around 11, and by that time I was so tired that I just fell into bed.

Tuesday, July 8

Today I went to school, and the entire day we just prepared things for the alianzas.
We glued recyclable things onto trash bags to make clothes, we practiced the dances, we practiced the presentation of the queen (every alianza has a queen, and the first competition is that each alianza has to make a 10 minute skit based on a famous movie in which the queen acts—we’re doing Snow White, and the other two are doing Tangled and Mulan).
After school we stayed until 6 practicing barras. Then Mariana and I took a collectivo over to the Jumbo. She had invited me to sleep over at her house that night. We bought the supplies we needed to make peanut butter cookies, and then went back to her house to make them. We made a triple recipe, so we were cooking for about 3 hours. We took a break from cooking for a little while to walk through Mariana’s apartment complex knocking on doors and collecting nonperishable food items. That is another alianza competition—the team that collects the most food to give to a homeless shelter nearby. I had to knock on doors and explain everything in Spanish. It kind of reminded me of when I did Siempre Por La Vida in September and had to talk to people and couldn’t do it because I was afraid of not understanding. Now I had no problem. It was cool to see how far I’d come. Anyway, Mariana and stayed up talking and making cookies until like midnight, and then we went to sleep.

Monday, July 7

Today I woke up early for my last Monday at school.
Ale has the same name as me and she is also an only child, so we say that we are twins. We kind of look alike right?
I didn’t know it at this point but today was my last day of actual classes because the rest of the week we just worked on stuff for the alianzas all day. It was a full day of history, which I love. After school, I stayed until 4:30 doing nothing because we were supposed to be rehearsing barras but nobody was organized at all and so we did nothing and talked. At 4:30, Vicente and I went back to his house.
He didn't want me to take his picture ;))
We walked over to the jumbo to drink a coffee in Berezzi. When we met like 11 months ago and he found out that I love manjar, he promised that he would take me to get a coffee with manjar in it, and we kept putting it off until this last week when we finally did it. We sat outside drinking coffee for a long time, talking and laughing. Vicente is really shy but he’s also one of the sweetest guys I know and really funny if you get past his shell. We got back to his house around 7:30 and it was dark so he walked me over to catch a collectivo back to my house. I got home, showered, ate once with the family, and went to sleep.

Sunday, July 6

Today I woke up around 10 and immediately went over to the San Martin house. It was supposed to be a surprise, but Sally had let it slip to me that Cristobal was getting home a week early as a surprise for his mom. When I arrived at the house, Cristobal had already arrived, surprised Nancy (who was actually furious because she had wanted to wait for him at the airport), and was out surprising his friends at their houses. Sally and I made key lime pie while he was gone, and it was ready by the time Cristobal and Vicente arrived back at the house. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with the family, eating a big lunch, and just chilling with Maxi, Vicente, Cristobal, Sally, Monse, and I.
A little later on, Vicente and I invited all of Cristobal’s friends (who are also our friends) to a pick up soccer game at a field nearby. When they arrived, they were surprised to find Cristobal there playing. We all played (even me, although I am terrible and was dressed in jeans and tennis shoes not cleats) for about an hour, and then the San Martin offered to take me home. I live far away, and so when I saw that we were driving next to a collectivo that would take me to my house, I told Eric to stop the collectivo so I could get into it. It was a hilarious car chase while we tried to get the driver’s attention, but he finally pulled over, and I jumped out of the San Martins car and into his. I got home, took a shower, ate once with the family, and went to sleep.

Saturday, July 5

Today I woke up late, and was working in my room when Manuel came in and invited me to go to this outdoor warehouse of food where the vendors of the feria get this food. We drove out to it and he bought a big crate of grapefruit to make juice. From there, he dropped me off at school right as all my classmates were getting out of preu. We were all planning on staying at school until like 6:30 doing work for the alianzas. We practiced barras, worked on all the suits we had to make out of recycled material, and practiced lifting people up like cheerleaders (which is also part of the barras routine). By 6:30 I was really bored and tired of doing nothing and basically just kind of in a bad mood. Everyone was going to Popi’s house to continue working, but she lives so far away from my house and I didn’t have a way to get home after, so I begged off of going and just went home. I spent the night with my family, talking and sitting by the stove. I got into bed early. 

Monday, July 7, 2014

Friday, July 4

Today Sally and I were supposed to wake up at 8 to be able to get to her school by 9:30 (we were missing he first class because they had an English test). Her alarm didn’t go off until 9, and we had to rush out the door.
We arrived at Colegio Quimahue at like 10:30, and entered in her classroom in the middle of history. Her school is about 1/5 the size of Instituto Ingles, and it is completely red (the floors, the doors, the walls, the railings, all red).
Her classroom was about half the size of mine and there were only 20 people in her class. There are only 40 people in her whole generation (in mine there are 110). I met all of her friends during the breaks, and they were really nice and made me feel very welcome. The guys, as all Chileans are, were very flirty, and whenever any of them would talk to me all of their friends would stare and whistle, but it was still fun. After school, Sally and I went with her friends Paula and Elena to eat sushi. We laughed a lot, and they were amazingly sweet with me and included me in their conversation. I think if I had been in Quimahue they would have been really good friends.
Sally told me that one of the main differences between her new school (which has a reputation for being for a poorer class of people) and her old school is that in her old school, her friends would buy everything for her, and in this school, her friends can’t even eat out at restaurants that often because they don’t have the money. I didn’t really notice any differences in the way the people behaved. My Instituto Ingles friends told me that at Quimahue I would be so afraid of the low class people who talked with bad words (like my friends don’t do that) and were reckless, but I actually found Quimahue’s kids just as welcoming and sweet as Ingles’ kids. But it’s true that the two schools wouldn’t have been friends. They are different types of people. I took a collectivo home after sushi, packed up a bag, and then Manuel took me into the center in the hunt of sparklers for the “4th of July” party I was having tonight. We went to 3 different stores, but apparently they’re illegal here in Chile, so I had to show up to Pablo’s house with only my USA sunglasses, “American cut” potato chips, ingredients to make s’mores, goldfish that my mom sent me months ago and are now stale, and American flag key chains as presents for people. Nico, Dani, Fernanda, and Vicente arrived later, and we all sat around and talked and laughed and watched funny YouTube videos. I had an amazing time with them and laughed until my stomach hurt like I always do, but in my mind the whole time was the fact that this was probably our last get together. Manuel came to pick me up around 9:30, and I left, wishing them all a Happy 4th of July (although it was without fireworks this year, at least we had s’mores and good company). I went home, talked with Manuel and Lilian for a while, and went to sleep early.

Thursday, July 3

Today was an interesting day at school. Sally and I decided that it would be fun to see each others’ schools, and today she came to mine. It was a little awkward at first, but I just introduced her to all my friends during breaks and she sat with me during classes and it was fun. The only thing I don’t like about having my exchange student friends meet my Chilean friends is that the Chileans always end up comparing us. Who is prettier, who speaks better Spanish, who is nicer, stuff like that, and it is really annoying and unfair especially when they have only met the other person for like 2 seconds. It happens when I meet other people’s friends and when they meet mine and none of us like it, so we basically avoid introducing each other, but sometimes it is fun, like it was today with Sally. After school, we didn’t want to sit through language, so we decided to try to leave early. The guy at the front desk saw me coming, said that if I didn’t have a note there was absolutely no way he would let me leave, and turned us away immediately. We went out the front and decided to search the perimeter of the school (which is completely walled in) for a place where we could escape. We found a couple interesting spots, but I was pretty chicken about it because I was imagining how embarrassed I would be if we were caught. We went to the back of the school behind the track (we had to pass by Maxi running on the track and all the teachers eating lunch in the cafeteria) to a hidden spot with a low wall that came to a little above our heads. Sally looked over and said it was a lot, so she threw my bags over the wall and boosted me over. I looked and saw that in fact it was a person’s house and that their front gate was locked, so we would have no way out once we jumped the fence, but my bags were already there, so we had to try out luck. We jumped over, and as we landed in the person’s backyard, we realized that there was a big dog there. Sally started yelling for the person in the house. A startled and confused woman came out, we explained that we were exchange students escaping from school and had had no idea that this was a house, and she opened the lock on the gate for us and let us out. We ran down the street, filled with the adrenalin and terror of what we had just done. We went over to Louis’s house, where the exchange students from Rancagua were going to have a “last get together”. We made chicken burgers and sat around Louis’s table and talked about life for like 4 hours. I gave them each (Louis, Sally, Katie H, and Nigel) photos that I had printed of us with letters on the back, and flags from the rotary club of Laguna Niguel. We said goodbye around 7 and Sally and I went back to the San Martin house. We cooked brownies, talked to Monse, and watched Back to the Future with Maxi. Around 11, we went to sleep in Sally’s room.

Wednesday, July 2

Today was a very busy day. I arrived to school at 11:20 because I didn’t want to go to either English (because it is boring) or Calculus (because we had a big test). I arrived, and my friend Gonzalo immediately called me, yelled “Alex come to the auditorium there are gringos there” and hung up. I went and found a group of like 15 gringos with all the kids from the English elective at my school. They all cheered when I showed up and the gringos told me they had told them all about me. They were from a school in Missouri and had come to Chile for a month long exchange. They were super sweet and excited to meet me and talk to me, although I had to say goodbye really fast because break was over. After school, we stayed rehearsing barras until 6. I usually am bored at barras practice because everyone is very disorganized and we never get anything done, but today we accomplished a lot and they taught us 3 new dances. I went home in collectivo at 6 as it was getting dark. When I arrived, I Skyped Ana, and we talked for 2 hours while I hot glued pens to a trash bag to make a suit jacket for the recycled things fashion show at the alianzas next week. Around 8, we hung up, I ate once with my family, showered, and watched Dead Poets’ Society before going to sleep.

Tuesday, July 1

Today was a little less cold that yesterday (maybe because I put on like 10 layers today), but I was still freezing. During physical education, we had free time to work on things for the alianza, so we sat in the classroom painting posters. After school there was no barras practice because they had a mock PSU test, so I got to go home early. I sat and talked to Manuel for a while, then went for a run, showered, and ate once with the family. We went out to Monchito (my counselor)’s office to get my $400 security deposit. I said goodbye to Monchito and was so happy to finally not have to see that careless, lazy man again. I’m just happy I ended up getting everything that Rotary owed me before I left the country (and it wasn’t easy—I definitely had to fight for it). 

Monday, June 30

Today was the coldest day I have experienced yet in Chile. It was horrible and all I wanted was to be next to the stove in the classroom and not move or think or talk to anyone. During English, I went to the library to sit by the stove. A bunch of guys from the class below mine were there, and the all talked to me and were super nice. We had a great conversation and laughed a lot. I love how being an exchange student allows you to talk to anyone and always gives you something to talk about. After school we rehearsed barras until 4:30. Then I went home and went for a run (in tights, sweatpants, a shirt, and a sweatshirt because it was so cold out). I got home, showered, ate once with the family, and then went to bed early. 

Sunday, June 29

I woke up at Cata’s house around 10, we ate breakfast together, and then she walked with my over to the Jumbo so I could get a collectivo back to my house. I arrived home, chilled in my room for a little while watching the Mexico world cup game (they also lost), and then we all went out to get lunch at this Chinese restaurant.
The food was good, and it was nice to just be calm and happy with my parents for a while. Then we started talking about my last day in Chile. I had been planning to go up to Santiago like at noon to have lunch with the San Martin family and all their various relatives who would be in Santiago that day to pick up Cristobal (who arrives July 13 in the morning). I told them that and they got a little offended because they thought I was saying that I didn’t want to be with them. I hadn’t thought that I would have to choose one family on my last day. I was almost in tears while they were getting all offended at me because it’s going to be hard enough to leave and I don’t want drama between the families to complicate it any more. We went home and I went up to my room to relax for a while. Later I went for a run, and by the time we sat down to eat once, I was relaxed again and had accepted that what will be will be. We ate once, talked for a while by the fire, and then I went upstairs and went to sleep.

Saturday, June 28

Today I woke up in Chichi’s house at like 7 to be ready for her mom to drop her off and preu (and drop me off where I could get a collectivo to my house) at 8. I got ready, and then Chichi came into my room and told me her mom had decided to let her skip preu and that we could sleep longer. We went back to sleep for a few more hours, and then around 9:30 we woke up, got ready again, ate breakfast, and Chichi’s mom drove us into town. I took a collectivo back to my house. When I got home, I showered, and then got ready to watch the Chile vs. Brazil game with my family. We all laid down together on Manuel and Lilian’s bed to watch on their giant TV. The game was amazing, went into overtime, and then finally penalty shoot outs, where Chile ended up losing by 1. It was a nerve wracking, intense, and really good game. Everyone was pretty depressed afterward, but I was proud that Chile had gone out fighting hard against such a good (and controversial) team. After the game, I took a collectivo over to the Jumbo to meet up with Lila and Angulo. Lila was driving when they picked me up. We drove all the way out to Lila’s country house.

Lila and I painted all the sets for the alianza (we’re doing Snow white, so we had to make a castle and a lot of things), and then went in to sing while Lila’s sister and Angulo practiced the song they were playing for the alianza (I’m playing the flute in the song too).
Around 9:30, Angulo’s dad came to pick us up, and he drove me back into Rancagua to Louis’s house. Pablo, Cata, Louis, and Louis’s friend Vicho were there. We were planning on doing another “bar crawl” tonight. We walked around through the center of Rancagua stopping in at various bars so the boys could drink beer and Cata and I could drink Diet Coke because beer is gross. We went to a new bar that had opened up called Voodoo, where there was dancing and music, and we stayed there for a while. We met a South Korean guy and his friend from Sweden who had been in Chile for 3 months and had come to open up a restaurant. I didn’t like them too much because they spoke horrible English and didn’t speak Spanish at all and basically spent the whole time we were talking with them bashing Chile and saying that they didn’t like the country because it was dirty and the people were too touchy. I felt weirdly defensive of what I have come to think of as “my country”. Anyway, we left around 2 and walked back to Louis’s house so Cata’s dad could come pick us up. Cata and I went back to her house to have a long talk about boys and problems and the fact that I’m leaving soon, and we didn’t go to sleep until around 4.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Friday, June 27

Today was a very busy Friday. Manuel let me go into school at 9:40 (after the first class) so I could get a little more sleep. Fridays are always pretty boring at school because we have all the stupid classes. Instead of paying attention, we basically spent the whole day sitting around folding the wrappers of tea bags to make recyclable outfits for the alianza. After school we had barras until 4:30. It was kind of sad when I had to leave at 4:30 and say goodbye to Molly because she was leaving for Boston tomorrow. It made the fact that I have millions of goodbyes coming my way in like 2 weeks all too real. Anyway, from there I took a collectivo to the Jumbo. I was walking in when I ran into Isa. I accompanied her while she bought Chichi a birthday gift and wrote her card. Then Ale’s mom picked us up, dropped Isa off at her house, and brought Ale and me to Ale’s house. There, we got warm in front of the stove and then changed out of our school clothes. Around 8, Ale’s mom took us over to Chichi’s house. Her house is truly impressive. It is a big country house with a bunch of rooms and doors and passageways everywhere and it’s completely decked out in cowboy things. It’s seriously crazy, but it’s also kind of cold and daunting. We sat down in the living room by the big fireplace and talked for a while until Isa arrived.
We all sat down in a circle and decided to ask each other questions (kind of like truth or dare) to get to know each other better. We told embarrassing kiss stories, awkward moments, and funny things. We listened to awesome music and sang along. A little while later, the pizza delivery guy arrived and we ate pizza and talked for a long time.
Isa and Ale left at 1, and Chichi and I quickly went to sleep because we were all dead tired. Chichi let me sleep in her sister’s room, alone, and it was definitely a little creepy to be in that huge cold house alone, but I was so tired that I fell asleep anyway.

Thursday, June 26

Today was another good day. School was fun. I promised my friends Vicente, Stefano, Augustin, and Heian peanut butter cookies like the first time I met them, and finally, after 11 months, I gave them the cookies. They laughed at me and said that they were really good even though they were burned and hard as rocks. After school, we had barras until 6. It’s kind of annoying that they make the rehearsal 3 hours long and then we basically do nothing the whole time and everyone finds some excuse not to attend practice and I end up alone with like 2 other classmates. Anyway, after barras, Popi drove me and her friend Molly (the one who she met while she was on exchange in Boston and is now visiting her here) back to her house. We changed clothes and then Maca came over. We all went over to the casino in between Rancagua and Santiago that’s huge and famous. It’s called Monticello and it’s really gorgeous with walls of lights that change color on the outside.
One of the last things on my bucket list was to go to the casino, since you only have to be 18 to enter here. We got in and immediately went to start playing. We wanted to feel all grown up and professional and awesome.
It ended up a disaster. We tried to insert bills into the machines and they kept getting rejected until Popi finally worked up the courage to ask someone how to do it. We had to go put money on cards to be able to play. Then we tried scanning the cards and the machines still wouldn’t start playing. We had to ask an old woman playing next to us to explain to us how to use the machines. Once we got it, it became easier. Popi and Maca each won $30 and Molly won $60. I lost the $6 that I had been playing with. I looked on the bright side and decided that I don’t have good enough luck to develop a gambling addiction.
It was still really cool to be with them when they won and to watch the money amount rise and rise and rise. Around 9, we left the casino and stopped by McDonalds for dinner. We talked and laughed (all in English because Molly doesn’t speak any Spanish) and had fun. It was the first time I’d talked to Popi and Maca in English and it was cool seeing how their personalities change (just like mine does) in English and Spanish. Popi dropped me off at my house at like 11, and after filling in Manuel and Lilian on my lack of luck, I went to sleep.

Wednesday, June 25

Today was a fun day at school for no particular reason at all. I had had kind of a depressing day yesterday, and I decided that today would be better and it was. After school we had barras until 4:30 and then I went home. I knew I should have gone for a run, but it was so cold outside that I decided to stay indoors next to the heater. I did some work for the alianzas (we have to have a fashion show with 10 outfits made completely out of recycled material), worked on my blog, and watched Sherlock. I ate once with Lilian and Manuel, and then we made peanut butter cookies together. They got a little burnt (like my cookies always do), but we had fun making them together. I ended up getting to sleep around 11.
Cuarto Medio A

Generacion 2014

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Tuesday, June 24

Today was Manuel’s birthday. I had known for a while and had planned his gift and everything about a week in advance, but when I got in the car in the morning, I had other things on my mind, and I forgot until we were almost at my school. I apologized and wished him a very happy birthday, and he forgave me. School was pretty average, and after school I stayed at barras only long enough for the tailor to take my fitting for the costume. Then I went home to be with Manuel. I arrived as he was sitting down to eat lunch (he always eats alone in the house), so I accompanied him and we had about a 2 hour conversation. I had been feeling a little down today because it was the day of the graduation ceremony at ANHS, and I was missing my friends and sad that I couldn’t take part in this important rite of passage with them, but talking to Manuel made me happier. I went upstairs to relax for a while, and then when Lilian got home, we went over to the Jumbo to eat Manuel’s birthday dinner out at Berezzi, the coffee shop we always go to. We had giant sandwiches and café cortados.
I gave Manuel his present—a keychain from California (that I bought for myself in the airport on the way here) to add to his collection of keychains from around the world, and a card that I wrote.
We talked and laughed and enjoyed. Then we went to the Jumbo to buy groceries, and we arrived home around 9:30. It was late, so I said goodnight to my family, watched the rest of the movie The Bucket List, and went to sleep.

Monday, June 23

Today was a very fun day at school. Chile was playing Holland at 12, so the whole school stopped learning around 11:20, and everyone went to their classrooms (where students had brought TVs from home) and watched the game.
My generation went to a big auditorium to watch the game all together. Everyone had their faces painted (I brought the tattoos Manuel had given me and passed them out to all my friends) and was wearing Chilean jerseys, and we all watched the game intently.

Chile ended up losing 2-0 to Holland, but it was a great game and it was even more fun because I was with all my classmates and they kept singing rally songs and screaming at the ref’s calls. After the game, Chichi, Thomas, Joaquin, and I ditched English class to listen to Joaquin play guitar and talk. After school we had barras until 4:30. Then I went home for a while before Pablo came over. He had come over with the intention of studying math (I was to be the tutor), but we ended up just talking and laughing and sharing good music that we knew the whole time. He had once with my family, and it was a lot of fun all of us talking together. Pablo is the kind of person who can have fun and be himself in any situation, which is something I love about him. He is hilarious, and even though he spends a lot of time making fun of me, we always have a great time together. He left around 9:30, which was late, and so after he left I just got in bed, watched a bit of The Bucket List, and fell asleep.

Sunday, June 22

Today I got up late, ate breakfast with Manuel, chatted with him and Lilian for a while, and then went up to my room to work on my blog for a while. Then I went with Manuel to the feria. He goes a lot, so many of the vendors there know him. We talked to one of his friends for a while, and the guy let me try some candied sweet potato, which is a treat here.
random dude walking through the feria playing guitar for tips (there was another guy with a boom box dancing cumbia for tips)
Then we walked through the rest of the feria and while Manuel bought what we needed, I took pictures of all the cool things that you would never see in a farmers’ market in the US. A guy selling peanuts noticed me taking pictures and asked me to take a picture with him. Of course, I did it.
Around 2, I went over to the San Martins’ house. Nacho, my cousin, was visiting for the weekend, and he told me to come over because we hadn’t seen each other in a long time and he was sad that I was leaving soon. I spent the day over at their house, catching up with Nacho, having a long talk with Maxi about history, and making crepes with Sally and Nancy. I was planning to leave around 5 to watch the USA World Cup game with my family at home, but they convinced me to stay and watch with the whole family. They had face paint left over from the Chile game, so Sally and I painted our faces with the US flag (she will probably never let me forget that her painting of my face turned out way better than mine did… The flag on Sally’s face only had 4 stripes).
We sat down to watch the game with the whole family plus Nacho and his mom, dad, and brother Benja. Nacho’s mom was sitting in the room cutting Eric’s, Maxi’s, and Nancy’s hair while watching the game. Nacho and I were laughing and talking, and every time the US scored (twice), Sally and I would run up to each other screaming and hug. I was never this spirited about the World Cup in the US, but here in Latin America it is a much bigger deal. We ended up tying against Portugal 2-2. After the game finished, Sally, Nacho, and I made chocolate chip cookies. Around 9, I really needed to go home to my family, and so Nacho drove me home. To my great surprise, his car was a Hyundai Sonata in silver, which is the exact same car I have in the US. It was pretty cool to be sitting in “my car” again, and it made me realize how much I miss the freedom that being able to drive gives me (although I know I’m lucky to have so much public transportation available to me), and made me excited to return to that freedom so soon. I said goodbye to Nacho, talked to my family for a while, and then went upstairs to shower and go to sleep.