Friday, February 28, 2014

Monday, February 10

Today I got up and took a shower (finally the water was back). We took down and packed up all the mattresses, sleeping bags, blankets, and tents and loaded up the car.
Then we ate breakfast and started the drive to Osorno. In Osorno, we walked first to a huge and gorgeous church, and then into the nearby plaza with dancing fountains in the middle.
There was a big statue of a bull in the middle because Osorno is famous for its meat.
Then we walked through the center of town to the town hall building and the feria that was next to it. I bought a book called Elegi Vivir, which is about a teenage Chilean who fell through a hole in a moving train and had all 4 of her limbs cut off. She was treated and went through all of her recovery in Rancagua, so I was excited to read about it. Then we went to a really nice restaurant called Club Aleman for lunch. I ordered nothing but a salad, and they all thought that was really weird. Here in Chile, a lunch has to consist of salad, meat, a soft drink or juice (can’t drink water like I always do), and a dessert. But they let me do what I wanted anyway. After Osorno, we drove to Puerto Montt, which is a large and famous port city. We walked along the boardwalk and through a huge feria, where I bought some socks made of sheep wool and the obligatory postcard and key chain. Then we went over to a fish market and bought Puerto Montt’s most famous product—salmon ahumado (smoked salmon).
Then we drove up to the edge of the ocean and took a ferry over to the island of Chiloe. It was my first experience in a ferry with a car, and it was awesome. We were able to get out of the car and go up to the second deck to look around right was the sun was setting over the water.
After the ferry ride, we had to drive almost 2 hours more to get to the other side of Chiloe to a town called Curaco de Velez. A friend of my grandmother lives there, and although she doesn’t know any of us except Nancy, whom she only met once, we called her and she didn’t hesitate to open her house to us. That hospitality and openness is something I really love about Chileans. We ate dinner while getting to know Tia Julia, and then her kids, Oscar (16), Javi (15), Yeni (25), and Fernanda (20) invited us to go into the town to a festival that was going on in the school gym. Yes, it was that kind of small town where everyone gets together in the high school gym. Maxi, Monse, and I all went and danced for a while.
It was the first time I’d seen Maxi dance, let alone danced with him, and although we’re both absolutely horrible dancers, we had fun together. We got back to the house around 2, and after talking for a little while, I excused myself to go to sleep.

Sunday, February 9

Last night we slept a lot better on the new mattress and so we got up later. I went for a run and when I got back there was no water in the camping and I couldn’t shower or brush my teeth or even wash my hands. I took my towel and wet it with water from a water bottle and kind of wiped the sweat off my body and that was all. After breakfast we drove into Valdivia and went to this gorgeous park and sculpture garden with a huge feria artesenal.
We went through the whole feria trying all the different foods. I think Nancy bought like 7 different jars of jam. Then we all were really thirsty, so we got natural juice and granizados which are kind of like icees. Then we drove to the island of Niebla, where they were holding the Festival Valdiviano. There was a space filled with booths selling traditional Chilean food like seafood, empanadas, and wine.
After we ate, enjoyed the live music that was being played from the stage, and walked around the little feria nearby, we went over to the river nearby and watched the fishermen come in their little boats with the catch of the day.
In the afternoon we got back to the camping and Maxi and I went out on the river in kayaks. It was a lot of fun and really gorgeous, but I was wearing normal clothes and when I got back to shore I was absolutely soaked, freezing cold, and wanted nothing more than to change into warm and dry clothes. There was a dock on the side of the lake, and Monse and I took out chairs and went to sit on the dock and look out at the lake. It was really relaxing. Then we all ate dinner together in the camping. After dinner I put on music from my cell phone and we had a game tournament. We played Lota, which is kind of similar to Bingo, and then we played Karaoka, which is super complicated but also really fun. Then around 12:30 I was dead tired and so I went to sleep.

Saturday, February 8

After the bad night I had last night, I woke up early to go for a run along the highway. It was absolutely gorgeous running along the side of the huge river Calle Calle with the trees on either side in the fresh morning air. Then I showered in the camping with hot water, got dressed and ready, and folded up all the sleeping bags and blankets and reilflated the mattresses while Nancy prepared breakfast. Then we all walked out to the highway and took the micro into Valdivia. We went to Entrelagos chocolate factory and had some ice cream, and then went to the river and walked along the side.
We saw a guy playing the harp and stopped to listen, then we walked through the feria artesenal and I bought a keychain (and so started the tradition of buying key chains for my Rotary jacket of all the cities we go to), then we kept walking until we found a giant sea lion lying along the fence by the river almost close enough to touch. At 2, we had to go to the dock to catch the boat tour we had signed up for. We sat in an elegant dining room and had a fancy lunch of salmon while cruising down the Rio Valdivia.
Our first stop was in Isla Corral, where we went to a Spanish fort and saw an act of when the Chilean army took over the fort from the Spanish, complete with cannons and people running around in uniform.
Our next boat stop was on Isla Mancera where we toured another fort. We went into the underground prison, and although it was cool to see where the prisoners were kept, the giant spiders along the walls really grossed me out. We were all shocked to learn that the island had only 27 permanent inhabitants. After we got back on the boat, there was tea and pie waiting for us on the table. After we ate, a “DJ” came in and started playing music and asking everyone where they were from. When they found out that I was from the US, everyone got really excited and they named me “La Reina del Barco Calle Calle” and made me stand up and dance cumbia with Eric in front of everyone. I’m getting used to dancing in front of large groups of people, so it really wasn’t at all embarrassing and actually kind of fun. After we got off the boat, we caught the micro back to the camping, which was called Camping Cutipay. Then we drove into Valdivia in the car to buy a new mattress that wouldn’t deflate on us. Monse, Nancy, and I would sleep on the big new mattress in one tent and Maxi and Eric on small mattress in individual tents. When we got back to the camping we had to inflate all the mattresses and although it was really cold outside, by the time we finished I was stripped down to my short sleeved shirt and I was sweating. Nancy cooked dinner of spaghetti, tortillas, salad, and soup, and we sat around talking until like 12:30.

Friday, February 7

Today we woke up at 7 in the morning to start the long drive we had ahead of us. The first stop was in Chillan, where we went to the huge indoor market first. There was an unsettling quantity of meat stores all around, that sold everything even the heads of pigs. I wanted to take a picture with the head, and the worker thought I wanted to hold it so he got it out and offered it to me. I decided why not and asked him if he had a sink where I could wash my hands after touching it and he assured me that he did. Eric and I took a picture holding the (surprisingly heavy) head, and then I gave it back to the worker and asked for the sink.
He gave me a damp and dirty rag and said I could wipe my hands on that. It was disgusting and I didn’t touch anything else until I got back to the car and used hand sanitizer. We went to see the only church in Chile with a rounded ceiling. It was huge and ornate and very Catholic and impressive looking.
Then we went to a feria atresenal where I started the tradition of buying a postcard from every city we went to. After we got back into the car and drove a little bit more to the monument of Bernardo O’Higgins, the liberator of Chile (like our George Washington).
He grew up in Chillan and we got to see the remains of his house that was destroyed in the earthquake. Then we got back into the car and didn’t stop to eat although it was almost lunch time. Chileans have a tradition of eating bread and hard boiled eggs with salt during long car rides, so we ate that and I shared my pretzels from the US. On the drive we watched 4 movies and I looked out at the scenery for a while and watched it become more and greener as we drove more south (it rains like all year in the south). It started raining as we drove into Temuco. We walked around the center of the town in the freezing cold, and we went to the big feria atresenal. Temuco, and a lot of the south, is the home of Chile’s indigenous people, the Mapuches.
They are the only indigenous people in the world who have not been conquered by the government within which they live, so there are a lot of Mapuche traditions, cultures, and knickknacks to see in the south. The signs for the bathrooms were written in both Spanish and Mapudungun. We bought some of their traditional seasoning, merken ahumado, which is super spicy but also really good.
Then from Temuco we drove to Valdivia. We visited the Kuntsmann beer factory and then found a camping nearby to pitch our tents. Although the ground was all wet from rain, the camping was on the side of a lake and had private bathrooms, so we were happy. We pitched the tents and inflated the mattresses while Nancy prepared dinner, and in about 2 hours we were eating. During the work, I had the first of many experiences with family fights on family vacations. I just kept quiet and stayed out of it, which would be my strategy most of the trip when I wasn’t involved in the fight. After dinner, we drove into the city of Valdivia and walked along the river where there is a feria artesenal and some Navy boats.
We got back to the camping late at night and some Argentinean guys who were camping nearby invited us over to talk and drink mate. They were from Cordoba, and apparently that is the city most famous for having a heavy accent. We were having a great time talking about the Argentinean economy and problems they are having when it started raining and we had to go back to our tents. We went to sleep at 1, but I had an absolutely horrible night. It was raining and everything was slightly damp, the sleeping bag was small and I couldn’t spread out the way I wanted to, the mattress disinflated and I woke up in the middle of the night lying on the floor. I also had that same problem with drinking too much tea and had to get up in the middle of the night to walk to the bathroom in the rain. Overall it was a bad first night in camping.

Thursday, February 6

Today I woke up around 9, showered, and helped the family go through the whirlwind stress process of packing up the car. Whenever we go anywhere, Nancy likes to be prepared with food, plates, silverware, even a thermos of hot water to drink tea on the road. In the afternoon, we drove to Talca, which is about a 2 hour drive but passed so fast for me because I had finally updated the music on my iPod for the first time since arriving in Chile. When we got to the grandparents house, we had a lunch of humitas with tomato, and then Maxi, Eric, Nancy, and I drove into the center to find a notary for some documents Maxi needed to get his US visa. I really wanted to walk around and see the center of Talca, so Nancy came with me. We walked around for a while and went into different stores to look around.
We found another one of those letters for the world cup in the center, and we signed it and took pictures. Now my signature will appear on two different letters cheering for Chile in the summer.
Then we went into the mall and had coffee and pie together. We had a great conversation there where Nancy really opened up and told me all about her life. She told me about the huge family drama they have with Eric’s side of the family (his dad disowned him for choosing to marry Nancy) and about how she wishes she had had more boyfriends before marrying Eric, her first real boyfriend. We talked about how the expectations of women are different here in Chile, and it was just a really nice, open girl talk which is exactly the thing I miss most about having my mom with me. We got back to the house in collectivo. When we arrived, Josefa, Flo, and Tio Rodrigo were there and everyone was getting ready to eat dinner. We talked for a while after dinner, and then I excused myself to go for a run. It seems that I drank way too much tea during dinner because I had to return to the house 3 times during a 50 minute run to go to the bathroom. They made a lot of fun of me and told me I was forever forbidden from drinking tea. After I showered and got in my PJs, I went outside to play escoba with Monse, Eric, and Tata, but I was really tired so I decided to go to sleep early. Side note: I’ve been sick for almost a month now (since Techo). Like I don’t feel sick or anything but I had a really bad cough and a runny nose. My family keeps trying to cure me with these homemade remedies. I had to eat bread with a spread of lemon, garlic, and chili pepper on top. I also drank beer with a bunch of lemon and salt dumped in. Then they gave up and gave me antibiotics, which I was really bad about remembering to take, but my cough finally disappeared anyway.

Wednesday, February 5

Today was a day of intense work getting ready to leave for our two week long camping trip in the south tomorrow. I spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon catching up on like a month’s worth of blog entries and photos that I was procrastinating on. People always ask me why I even bother to write such a detailed blog when I know that very few people actually have the time and energy to read all of this. I do it because I want to remember everything, even the little things that happen and little day to day emotions that I have. When I look back at this with my children in 30 years I want to be able to relive this incredible experience through the words and pictures that I put here. Anyway, after my brain was absolutely melted from staring at the computer screen for so long, I walked to the Jumbo to pick up supplies to make chocolate chip cookies. The family absolutely fell in love with them the first time I made them and they want to bring a bunch on the trip. I mixed up the batter and started cooking them. While I was supervising the oven (I have a habit of burning all the cookies I attempt to make here in Chile), I worked on scholarship essays. I’m feeling a little pressure there too because I won’t have internet access during the whole trip and if I get a scholarship email and its due before I get back I will be completely out of luck. After I finished the cookies, I Skyped with Ana while I packed up my suitcase for the trip. We talked for a long time until I heard noises in the house and hung up to go see who had arrived. Nacho, Matias, and Gabriel, my cousins, had arrived from Santiago to pick up some documents that Gabriel had left here. We talked for a while and joked around, and then when they left, I worked a little more on scholarship essays and then went to sleep.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Tuesday, February 4

Today I woke up around 10 and ate breakfast, showered, and then played computer games with Monse until like 1 when I took a collectivo to meet Fernanda and Lila in the center. We walked all through the center to get to this sushi restaurant hat they said was amazing, only to find that it was closed. So, Fernanda took us to this little hole in the wall sandwich place that she likes, and we sat around and ate sandwiches and talked for a while. Then, we walked around the center and past a giant A with signatures all over it. Naturally we were curious, so we went up and asked the girl standing there what it was and if we could sign it.
She explained that they were placing letters all throughout Chile to spell out the sentence YO AMO LA ROJA and then they were going to bring the letters to the world cup in Brazil to cheer on the Chilean team. We were supposed to sign the A with some inspiring message for the Chilean team. Naturally, I wrote in English.
After we finished signing, we walked over to the mall and got some frozen yogurt. The store was really cool because you choose two fruits and then they put the fruits in this mixer with some natural yogurt and it shoots out fruit flavored frozen yogurt. I know it doesn’t sound that cool but it was actually fun to watch. Then we sat down in the mall eating our cones and talking.

Around 4:30, I took a collectivo home because I could tell my family was starting to get put off that I spent so much time away from the house. When I got home, Nancy invited me to work in her taller with her, so I made two plates out of napkins with cute Chilean patterns. While we were working in the taller, Eric came in and joined us to work on his computer and Monse came in to work on a thing she was learning to sew. Then we all went in and ate completos as a family. After dinner I Skyped with Kathryn for a little while and then my family called me to watch a movie with them. We watched El Discurso del Rey, and then I went to sleep around 1:30.

Monday, February 3

Today Katie and I woke up around 11 and Katie was sick. We went downstairs and drank some tea and had breakfast, and then went back to her room and talked for a while and looked through her old pictures on Facebook. I went back to my house in micro around 2, and my family was eating lunch. I sat down to eat with them and told them all about my weekend and thanked them for letting me stay and get my fill of friends when I really needed it. We talked for a while, and then around 4 Cata came over on her bike and rode with me to pick up my backpack full of stuff from Mariana’s house and then back to her house. We talked for a while and it was so perfect to catch up with Cata.
She’s like my best friend here, and I feel so comfortable and happy with her, and it had been way too long since we’d last seen each other. We swam in the pool and then sat outside to sunbathe for a while, and then we went back upstairs to get dressed. Her family dropped us off in the center of town around 7 because our friend Joaco’s theater was doing a free show at 8 and we wanted to go see him.
We walked around the center a while and she showed me her dad’s store called La Casa Zuniga that’s in the center. Then we went back to the place where the show was—outside a school in the middle of a circle of desks. We sat in the desks and watched a bunch of actors dressed up as animals walk around pretending to be their animals. Then after a while the show started and we found out that it was George Orwell’s Animal Farm in Spanish.
It was definitely interesting, although I didn’t understand very much because we were outside and they didn’t have microphones. The costumes were hilarious because they really did look like their animals. After the show finished, we went to congratulate Joaco and then we went in collectivo back to Cata’s house and then her mom dropped me off at my own house around 11. It was all around a great day with Cata, and I want to see a lot more of her. At home, I Skyped for a while with Emily and Kim-Sa before going to sleep around 1.

Sunday, February 2

Today I woke up later than I thought I would, so I had about 20 minutes to throw on clothes and get ready before I had to run out of Mariana’s house and catch and collectivo to Terminal O’Higgins to meet up with Katie, Sally, and Louis. We were going to a theme park in Santiago called Fantasilandia. We made it from Rancagua to Santiago and then had to take the metro and change lines once to get to Fantasilandia.
I was a little worried since we hadn’t been there before but it turned out to be really easy. We got into the park around 1, and we did a few rides before Sally decided she was starving and we had to go get food.
We waited in a line that took about a year, just to find out that they didn’t have any salad left, so I had to order a hamburger and then eat just the bun and the tomato. After lunch, we went on a couple more rides. While in line for a water ride, this guy came up to us and asked if we spoke English. He told us he was from Australia and had been staying with his cousins in Santiago for 2 months (he didn’t know a word of Spanish) and would be there a year. We talked with him the whole way through the line and he was super cool. We exchanged Facebook and maybe we’ll go up to Santiago to see him again.
It was really hilarious in all the lines we were in to watch the reactions of the people around us when they realized we were speaking English and to listen to the conversations about us that they had in Spanish without realizing that we could understand. Fantasilandia wasn’t all that great; it was more like the quality of rides that are at the OC Fair than at Disneyland.
Actually some of the same fair rides were there with the same names like G-Force and Insanity (sadly there was no Zipper), but we still had a great day together. Around 8:30 we went back down to the metro to get to the bus station. While I was walking up the steps of the metro to leave, a man came up behind me and touched my butt really forcefully. I jumped and screamed and was really grossed out, but there was nothing I could do about it so we just kept walking. We got on the bus to Rancagua around 9:40 and were home by 11. Katie W’s brother came to pick us up at the terminal and I stayed at her house that night.

Saturday, February 1

Today Mariana, Fernanda, and I woke up around 11 and sat talking in her room and playing cards for a while until Fernanda’s parents came to get her. Then Mariana and I sat around talking and downloading music. She laughed a lot that all the songs in Spanish that I know by heart are from the year 2000, but she was still impressed that I knew so many and she downloaded them so we could sing together. Then I took a shower and put on normal clothes and we made lunch. We were planning on making spaghetti with cream sauce, but she looked in the fridge and couldn’t find the cream. I suggested we put lemon juice on the spaghetti and she looked at me like I was crazy. She was brave and tried it anyway and actually ended up liking it a lot. I wish I could have told her that it was normal in the US to do that, but really I think it’s just me who likes to eat spaghetti hat way. Anyway, after lunch we sat outside for a long time on the balcony of her apartment and played a bunch of card games. She taught me how to play Rapidito and Conchasumadre (which is also a really bad word in Spanish). Around 8, Mariana went off to shower and get ready because more people were coming over for another get together that night. Augustin came over first, and they walked over to buy alcohol at a store nearby (Mariana is 18 so she’s actually allowed to drink and Augustin isn’t 18 but he does it anyway) and then we sat out on the balcony listening to reggaeton from the year 2000 and playing cards until Stefano and his cousin Luciano came over. Then we started playing drinking games with the card deck (Luciano doesn’t drink either so we just served ourselves soda and it actually made the game more fun because I didn’t really care if I lost and had to drink a whole glass of soda hahaha) and talking for a while. They all stayed over until like 2, and I had a lot of fun. I feel a lot closer to Augustin and Stefano now, and I know they are super hilarious and sweet. When they left, Mariana and I were both really tired after two nights in a row of staying up late, and so we went right to sleep.

Friday, January 31

Today I woke up late again and got dressed and started working on my blog. Then I got a message from Lila asking me to come visit her at the Jumbo, so I walked over there. We got some ice cream and sat around and talked for a while. I hadn’t seen her (or any of my friends) in so long and it was really nice to catch up even though we didn’t have very long to do it. Then she had to go and I went over to the Apple store to see if they could fix my broken cell phone. They told me that because Cristobal had changed the screen, the technology on the inside had been messed up and there was nothing they could do about it and the only solution would be to buy myself a new cell phone. I still don’t know what I’m going to do about that. Anyway, we got home and had lunch together with everyone. We had been planning to drop the Argentineans off in Santiago and then come back that same day but Eric told me that they had changed their minds and we would be staying in Santiago until Sunday. I absolutely flipped out and couldn’t take it anymore. I called my mom and sat on Skype crying to her for like 20 minutes. My family hadn’t let me see any of my friends here for so long. I couldn’t stand one more day of waking up late and then sitting in the house and making awkward and boring conversation with adults all day and trying to have fun when I really wasn’t feeling it. I could feel myself losing that spark that I usually have because honestly there is nothing new that I can tell people whom I’ve been with 3 weeks without a break.  I was absolutely desperate to get out of the house and I couldn’t see a break in sight because we would be in Santiago until Sunday and then we were going on a family vacation camping in the south for 3 weeks. My mom told me it was absolutely unfair that they don’t let me out especially considering that I am on exchange and came to take advantage of everything Chile has to offer and not to sit around the house with my family cooking and doing nothing and wasting days. I knew I had to talk to them, and it was bad timing because there were so many people in the house and they were all packing up to leave for Santiago but I had to do it so Nancy and Eric met me in the taller to talk. I was desperate and crying hard as I tried to explain to them. Ever since Nancy sent me that text message during my trip to Patagonia that said they felt as if I didn’t want to spend time with them and was treating their family like a hotel I have been afraid to even ask to go out and I have spent so much time with them and made such an effort to talk to them and make them feel loved, and honestly I have enjoyed our time together and I love being a part of the family, but I have also felt completely suffocated. I haven’t had a good, hard, real laugh in like 3 weeks and I can’t take it anymore. I am bored and stifled. Eric basically just told me I can do whatever I want as long as I tell my parents in the US where  I am and he doesn’t even care if  I come on the camping trip with them and I got even more angry and I yelled at him to stop treating me like I don’t matter to the family and to stop acting like  I don’t spend time with them and that if the fact that I’ve spent the last 3 weeks almost completely with them and I’ve refused so many invitations from friends to spend more time with the family doesn’t tell them that I love and care about them then I don’t know what will and there’s nothing more I can do. I don’t really know if he got the message that he wasn’t treating me like a daughter and he was basically reinforcing the fears I had before of not being loved by my family but anyway they let me stay the weekend in Rancagua instead of going to Santiago.
They dropped me off at my friend Mariana’s house and I said goodbye to the Argentineans. Mariana and I hung out for a while and caught up on a lot of stuff because we hadn’t seen each other in so long. Then we went shopping at the Jumbo with her mom to buy food for the little get together she was having that night.
When we got home, Fernanda, Vicente, Augustin, Luciano, Stefano, and Mane came over and we hung out for a while. Then the boys left and the girls stayed a while longer and we had a nice long gossip session. I learned a lot of new and intense gossip about my classmates and it was really interesting. Then Mane left and Fernanda, Mariana, and I stayed up talking and watching The Ring until 6 in the morning.

Thursday, January 30

Today we all woke up late and hung out for a while around the house. Then, Nancy sent Monse, Seyla and I to the jumbo to buy her condensed milk. We bought the milk and then bought ice cream from McDonalds and sat outside eating it and talking for a while before walking back home. When we got home, Tia Cecilia and Benja had arrived from Santiago, and we all sat down to eat lunch together. After lunch, Nancy taught me and Tia Cecilia how to make this amazing yogurt dessert with Maraguya (a fruit that doesn’t exist in USA) and I taught Tia Cecilia how to make Oreo bonbons. After we finished cooking, I went outside to find Monse, Laurie, Gabriel, and Tio Rolando in the pool. I immediately put on my bathing suit and jumped in with them. It was the first time I’d used the pool in the backyard and I had a great time. We played volleyball, monkey in the middle, we threw water balloons at each other, and we even put Yasmin in the pool for a little while. I like playing games because it’s a way to bond with people without having to worry about the language barrier (even though there really isn’t much of a language barrier anymore). Around 6, Seyla and I got out of the pool and showered and got ready to go meet my friends to see a movie. We took a collectivo and then a micro to get to the movie theater (Seyla’s first Chilean public transportation). We were meeting Nicolo, Louis, and Katie, but when I got there I only saw a giant group of punk looking Chilean kids. I looked closer and realized that my friends were in the middle of the group. Apparently all the Chileans were there to see the Justin Bieber movie and they had seen Nicolo and decided he looked just like Justin. When I walked up to them, Nicolo quickly told them that I was from Canada.  I caught on to what was going on and I said “yeah actually my cousin is Justin Bieber”. They all freaked out and came toward me asking if it was true. I said nope it was a lie and then they all laughed. I love how easy it is to make friends here in Chile. We said goodbye and went to buy our tickets. We saw The Book Thief, which I absolutely loved. Then we walked from the movie theater over to a little shopping center nearby where we sat down to eat some ice cream. It was another awkward mix of Spanish and English, since Nicolo and Louis didn’t even want to say hola to Seyla in Spanish and although she understood our English she didn’t want to speak it with us. I ended up talking half the time in English and the other half in Spanish, trying to be the bridge between the two languages and keep everyone involved in the conversation. My mom came to pick us up around 11, and I laughed when Louis had to greet my mom and he didn’t kiss her on the cheek. I remember when the kiss on the cheek was weird and new to me and people used to get slightly offended when I forgot it just like my mom did when Louis forgot. After dropping Katie off at her house, we went home. They had already eaten dinner, so Seyla and I cooked ourselves hot dogs and ate together. Then we went outside and sat with Nancy and Tia Cecilia while they did an art project together until like 2 when I went to sleep. 

Wednesday, January 29

Today I woke up around 10 and was once again shocked to find everyone sleeping in until all hours. After the adults woke up, I went to join them for breakfast and we sat around the table talking for a while. Then we all drove over to the Jumbo and hung out there for a while shopping for Seyla and Gabriel. Seyla and I went off by ourselves to the teenage section and we had a lot of fun laughing at the outrageous clothes they were selling there. Then we drove home and had lunch together outside.
After lunch, I left to go into the center and hang out with my exchange student friends. We met up at Starbucks with Sally, Sally’s Chilean friend, Nicolo, his Chilean sister Mica, Katie W, and me. We then walked around for a while looking for the new kid from New Zealand called Louis until we finally found him outside Instituto O’Higgins. It was really fun hanging out all of us but it was definitely an awkward mix of languages because Nicolo and Louis don’t speak any Spanish and obviously the Chileans didn’t want to speak English. I tried to hang out with the Chilean girls and speak to them in Spanish so they wouldn’t feel left out because I know exactly what it’s like to be in a group and feel alone because you don’t understand anything what’s being said. We hung out in the center of town for a while, then went back to the mall to buy food for quesadillas, and then took a micro back to Katie’s house to make them. I cooked quesadillas for everyone and we put avocado and tomato and beans on them, and then we spent a while watching funny YouTube videos. Then we went outside and talked for a while and it was really cool to be the one talking about exchange from experience instead of always being the newbie. It made me realize how long I’ve been here and how much I’ve done here and been through here and learned here. After Nicolo and his sister left, Louis, Sally, and I made Oreo bonbons and kept talking about our problems until like 11 at night when Eric came to pick me up. Louis asked if we could give him a ride too, but when we got back to Instituto O’Higgins, he couldn’t remember how to get to his house so he told my dad (well I actually told my dad in Spanish after Louis told me in English) to drop him off at O’Higgins and let him walk. It was a little sketchy to let him walk in the dark at night but he insisted and so that’s what we did. You just have to laugh at the awkward embarrassing moments that always come with an exchange. When we got home, everyone was just sitting down to eat a pizza dinner (way too late for dinner but no comment) and so I sat and talked with them while they ate, and then around 1:30 I excused myself to go to sleep.

Tuesday, January 28

Today I woke up late in Santiago, but still earlier than all the other kids (I don’t understand how they sleep in until like 1 everyday). Nancy, Tia Irma, Tia Gladys from Argentina and I all walked down to a nearby feria to buy vegetables and fruit for lunch. We came back absolutely burdened down by bags. As we were walking back to the house, a thief that had stolen a woman’s purse and was running away ran into Tia Irma and almost knocked her over. I thought that was a pretty cool/scary situation but nobody else seemed at all phased by it so I just kind of let it go. I then helped them cook lunch, and Seyla and I peeled beans for a while. After we had peeled all the beans, they realized that they hadn’t bought enough, so they sent Seyla, Nancy, and I back to the feria to get more. We cooked lunch (I found this great recipe of cauliflower, peanuts, and homemade mayo mixed together to form a really yummy salad) and ate all together. After lunch, a lot of people went upstairs to take a nap (I didn’t understand how they could possibly be tired after sleeping so late and not doing anything all morning) and I went to play computer games with Benja (Nacho’s 9 year old brother), Monse, and Gabriel. We played “The World’s Hardest Game” for like 3 hours because we couldn’t pass the stupid level. Then Matias came back from babysitting his little cousin and I was so absolutely bored that  I couldn’t handle it anymore and offered to take all the kids to get ice cream down the street. Gabriel, Matias, Benja, Monse, and I walked over to get an ice cream and then hung out in the nearby park eating the ice cream, playing on the play structure, and talking.
We had relay races, I taught Monse how to sit spider on the swing set, and we had a good time. Nacho joined us after a while, and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and Nancy and Gladys came looking for us because although they knew where we had gone, it was a dangerous neighborhood and we had been gone a long time. We went back to the house, had a quick dinner, and then Nancy, Monse, Gladys, Tio Rolando, Gabriel, Seyla, and I drove back to Rancagua through heavy traffic and while watching the dramatic Mexican soap opera. When we got home it was around 10:30 and I was expecting us to sit around talking for a little while and then go to sleep. What I was not expecting was for Eric to be waiting for us with meat on the grill outside. We prepared a bunch of salads and bread and everything and had a giant asado outside. We stayed out there talking until like 3:30 in the morning. I know I said that Chileans stay up late but I actually think that Argentineans are worse.

Monday, January 27

Today I woke up early and went for a run in the neighborhood. . It was an exciting day because Sra Adela returned from her month away and I was really happy to have her back. Then I sat around the house catching up on my blog and letting Monse paint my nails until lunch time. We ate lunch together with Monse, Tata, and Sra Adela because the rest were out getting Maxi’s passport. After lunch, I went over to the Jumbo to hang out with Pablo for a little while. We sat around and talked and I had a lot of fun. Between his crazy hilarious stories and the effort I have to put out to understand how fast he talks, there is never a dull moment around him. Anyway, I got home around 4 and everyone was already packing and ready to drive up to Santiago. First, Monse, Nancy, and I dropped Maxi off at the bus terminal because he was going back to San Carlos for a week to work on the robotics project with his team. It was kind of crazy how protective Nancy was of him, making sure he got his suitcase on the bus and bought his ticket in advance. After his bus left, us girls drove up to Santiago. We went to Tia Irma’s house, where our Argentinean relatives were staying. We all ate dinner together and talked for a while, and I was really proud that I understood so much more of the Argentinean accent. Then Seyla and Gabriel (the cousins from Argentina), Nacho, Matias, and I went upstairs and hung out for a while listening to music and talking. Then Monse came in and had this giant play fight with Nacho that lasted over half an hour and included her whipping him with a belt.
Later, we all went downstairs and I taught them how to play ERS and they taught me a similar card game called Nervioso. We played until about 2 and then I was dead tired and excused myself to go to sleep.

Sunday, January 26

Today I woke up late and didn’t have a chance to run because we had to leave the cabana before noon. I helped pack up the car and put all the food in the cooler, and then Monse, Laurie, and I played escoba for a while to help Laurie learn how to play. Then we all piled into the car and drove for like 2 hours to this German village in the south where they were having their annual bierfest. We parked the car and walked around the artisan fair, played on the jungle gym equipment, walked through the nearby gardens, and tried some weird flavored beers (like chocolate and lucuma flavor).
Later, we all sat down in the restaurant and had German food. Monse and I shared a roasted chicken breast, while the rest of them got more exotic and scary looking dishes of meat. Then, while Nancy was out buying German food from the little store they had, Tata bought us all soft serve ice cream. Then we all got back in the car and drove all the way back to Talca. It was like a 3 hour drive and the entire time we watched this Mexican telenovela. It was honestly really dumb and dramatic but I got pretty into it. We got to Talca, quickly dropped Abueli off at her house (she’s Eric’s mom), and then went back to our grandparents’ house to pack up all our stuff. We left in about an hour for Rancagua (the grandparents came with us because they had doctors’ appointments in Santiago in the morning) and arrived around 9. I helped Nancy unpack the cooler and then make dinner—chancho en piedra (which is tomatoes crushed up with a mortar and pestle and mixed with garlic, salt, and oil. After we ate, I talked to my friends on Facebook for a while—my phone wasn’t working and I’m going to have to go fix it—and went to sleep.

Saturday, January 25

Today I woke up early and went for a run along the highway in Salto de Laja. I didn’t used to understand why my mom liked running so much while we were on vacations but now I realize that it’s the best way to really get to know a place. I had a great time exploring until this giant scary black bee started chasing me and I had to run into a fancy restaurant while I was all sweaty and gross just to get away from the stupid bee. Anyway, I got home and took a quick (cold) shower and got ready to leave. We drove a few minutes over to this random spot in the road, and then Maxi, Eric, Tata, and I got out. Apparently this town of Yumbel is also famous for a catholic tradition called la manda.
People believe that if they come to Yumbel every year and walk about 8 kilometers up a hill to the church of San Sebastian, God will grant them good fortune and happiness. There are also more specific mandas—you can literally ask God to do something specific (like cure your mom of cancer) in return for you walking up the hill every year.
There are actually a lot of stories of the wishes coming true. I personally think it’s a little weird to believe in something so specifically give and receive like a business transaction, but I like the walk every year for good faith idea. Anyway I walked for about an hour and a half up the hill with them while Nancy, the 2 grandmothers, Monse, and Laurie followed us in the car. In town, they parked the car and met us and we went into the church. They were in the middle of mass, so we sat down and listened for the last few minutes. After mass, we walked around the town a little while and ate popsicles together. Then we drove over to this camp ground by the side of Rio Claro. We parked by the side of the river and set out a picnic table and lunch. We ate a quick lunch and then Maxi, Monse, Laurie, Eric and I went to wade in the river.
It was only about knee high, so I thought I would be fine in shorts and a tank top. I wasn’t wet at all until the giant splash fight we had. We walked back to the beach and dragged Nancy in too to participate in the soaking. By the time we finished walking around through the river I was absolutely soaked and absolutely sun burnt. We all got out and played escoba (a card game) for a while before Nancy and I decided we were freezing cold. Nancy put on Laurie’s clothes, and I put on Monse’s. We looked really horrible but at least we were warm as we were driving home. We got back to the cabana, put on normal clothes, and walked down to the waterfall.
This time we walked all the way down to stand right in front of it and take pictures where the ground is slippery with mud and the mist from the waterfall drenches you if you stand there too long.
On the way back, we walked past all the artisan shops and admired the knick knacks. When we got home, Nancy barbecued while we all played cards together for a while and hung out and talked and had a really great time. We stayed up late talking and drinking mate again.

Friday, January 24

Today I woke up early and went for a run. Then when I got back to the house everyone was packing and preparing to leave. The program that had invited Maxi to the US as a translator for the team of Chilean underprivileged kids who are going to compete in a robotics competition was having a meeting today in a town called San Carlos that is about 2 hours south of Talca. We had a quick lunch in Talca and then all 9 of us piled into the car and drove the distance to San Carlos. When we arrived, there was a huge group of people waiting for us including the leaders of the program, the principal of the school, and all the kids who were there every day all day for 6 weeks building the robot.
They gave us a presentation on the program, the competition, Los Angeles (my favorite part of the presentation), and Maxi’s role as a translator. Then we went into another room where the kids demonstrated the robot and explained the mechanics behind it. Then Eric made a speech about how thankful he was for the opportunity they were giving Maxi and then he asked me to give a speech about California. I just said how excited I was for Maxi to see my culture and my home in person because it’s impossible to communicate everything there is to know about a place or a culture through just words and pictures. After the meeting the kids came around and chatted with Maxi and I for a while and I even got to drive the robot. Then we left and made our way down another 2 hours to a town called Salto de Laja. We rented a tiny cabana on the side of this really gorgeous waterfall. By the time we got there it was kind of late and we were all starving, so we fired up the grill outside the cabana and had a barbecue.
It was great to spend some quality time talking to my family and we were all in really good moods. Then we walked down from the cabin to the bridge overlooking the waterfall and through the artisan fairs that were along the side of the road. We were all together, talking and laughing, and I felt truly happy and truly in my family. It was a great night. Then when we got home, we sat around talking and drinking mate a while longer before going to sleep around 2.

Thursday, January 23

Today we woke up around 10 and Nancy, Tata, and I went to the feria to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. I always get excited to go to the feria because all the colors of the fruit and sounds of people selling are really pretty and everything just feels alive, but what I always forget is that carrying the bags filled with fruit is killer on my fingers and I always end up just praying that Nancy will stop buying food so we can leave and put the bags down. Anyway, after a few hours at the feria, we got home and got ready to go to a local water park called Aqua Life. We went with Abelita, Tata, Maria Jesus and her mom, Paula, Rodrigo, their kids Flo and Josefa, their baby Pascale, and Tio Pedro and his kids Pedro and Javi. The park wasn’t exactly Wild Rivers—it was 3 water slides and 3 pools surrounded by a big grassy area for picnics and get togethers. Jesus, Pedro, Maxi and I talked while Nancy used one of the grills in the park to cook kabobs for lunch, then we ate the cookies I had made for lunch, hard boiled eggs with salt, and kabobs for lunch. After lunch, even though it was pretty cold outside, I got in the pool with Monse, Laurie, Flo, and Josefa, and we swam around for a while and played games until they opened up the water slides.
I went down like 4 times but really waiting in the line in the freezing cold was torture and I couldn’t handle it anymore so I stayed in the pool a little while longer until it started pouring down rain. I got out immediately and ran to the bathroom to change into warm and dry clothes. When I got back, everyone was packing up the food and towels and making a mad dash for the car. By the time we piled everything and everyone into the car we were all soaked. We drove over to Paula and Rodrigo’s house and while they were cooking dinner, I stood by the stove and tried to warm up my frozen fingers. Then we all sat down together and ate a very long dinner with a lot of conversation. I feel like I know the whole family really well now and I can actually be a real part of the conversation because I’m familiar with the things they’re talking about now so it’s really nice. After dinner, Maxi, Jesus, Javi, Pedro, and I sat around and hung out for a while talking and listening to music and doing nothing until Nancy decided we should go home. We got back to our grandparents house around 10:30 and I was dead tired, so after talking to them for a little while, I went to sleep early.

Wednesday, January 22

Today we woke up late again and had a late breakfast. Then we all packed up our stuff and drove for an hour and a half out into the countryside to this big ranch owned by one of Tata’s friends. There was a big room apart from the house just to eat in, and nearby there was a river, horses, sheep, and plenty of space to walk around. Monse, Maxi, Laurie, and I entertained ourselves for a while playing with a slingshot, throwing apples at sheep, and playing rayuela (a typical Chilean game that involves throwing little metal balls so that they land in a certain square). Then we all sat down to eat a late lunch. After lunch, we put on our bathing suits, and Nancy drove us about 15 minutes down the road to this secret place she used to go with her friends when she was a teenager. It was like a giant natural pool of water. It was up in the rocks, surrounded by trees, and absolutely beautiful, but the water was fricken freezing.
I decided to tough it out, and I went in and swam around until I was numb. The rest of them were chickens and got out after 2 seconds, but I stayed in the pool exploring and even got up the nerve to jump off the rock ledge into the deep part. After about 20 minutes I really couldn’t handle the cold anymore, so I got out and wrapped myself up in the towel Nancy had waiting.
On the car ride back, I basically just concentrated on getting my fingers to return to their normal color instead of the creepy purply white shade they turn when I get really cold. Maxi and I changed into running clothes, and after eating a quick dinner with everyone, we went out to run along the only road that ran by the farm. The place was surrounded by mountains and huge trees and paralleled by a big gorgeous river, and I had to keep pinching myself to reminding myself that I was really running along the freeway in Chile in this absolutely gorgeous place. After about 25 minutes, Maxi and I stopped and walked over to the edge of the cliff overlooking the river and sat for a while and just soaked in the beauty of the place. Then we ran the 25 minutes back to the house. When we got back everyone was getting ready to leave, so we were forced to ride the hour and a half back to Talca without showering. I showered as soon as we got home, and then Nancy, Abelita, and I made chocolate chip cookies from my recipe. We made so much batter that we had to make like 7 batches of cookies and we were up until like 2 in the morning doing it, but it was ok because I had a good time talking and laughing with them.

Tuesday, January 21

Today we all woke up around 10 and ate breakfast together. Nancy, Abelita, and I went to buy fruit from a local fruit market and then fresh bread from the bakery. Afterward, with the help of a neighbor, Nancy and I made homemade humitas. I was in charge of using the cranking machine to turn the corn kernels into this sort of mush that you put into the corn husks. Then I tied each corn husk off with a length of string and put them in the pot over the grill to cook. It was a really cool process. As we were about to eat humitas for lunch, a bunch of family members arrived at the house. My little cousins Flo and Josefa came over with their parents Paula and Rodrigo and the baby Pascale, who was born on the same day I came to Chile. Maria Jesus came over too. We all ate lunch together and then all the girls went outside to paint each others’ nails. I painted so many fingers and toes that I lost count. While we were painting, we heard music in the street, and they all took me outside to show me a typical Chilean organ grinder who was walking through the streets playing music and selling toys for kids on a little cart. It was such a simple, summery day. After nail painting, me, Maria Jesus, Maxi, Nancy, Abelita, Paula, and There (Jesus’ mom) went to this giant thrift store nearby. They call thrift stores Ropa Americana because it’s used clothes from the US that they send overseas for super cheap. It was hilarious because all the clothing brands were familiar to me, like OP, Old Navy, Hanes, The Limited, Gap, and Limited Too. They all asked for my advice on which brands were good quality. We all ended up finding things that we liked—I got a basic shirt and this super warm Old Navy coat that only cost $10! On the way home we stopped to eat tortillas (but they’re not the Mexican kind, they’re more like round, fat bread) cooked in ashes with I know sounds really weird but they were actually so good. Then, at home we chilled for a little while before eating dinner. After dinner, I went for a run while Jesus and all the kids went to the park to play. I met them at the park after my run and I taught everyone there how to play steal the bacon (roba el tocino). They loved it and we played until like 11 at night when the visitors had to drive home and Monse, Laurie, and I walked back to the house. I took a quick shower, and then we all popped some popcorn and watched a movie together. After the movie, Maxi asked if I would practice English with him for a while. A friend of the family is involved in this program that gives underprivileged young people to chance to go to LA, California to compete in a worldwide robotics competition. The team needs someone who speaks a little bit of English to get by in the US, and this dude invited Maxi since he goes to Instituto Ingles and he’s been studying for years. He doesn’t speak perfectly, but he speaks enough to get by, and I’ll be helping him in the coming month. I’m really beyond excited that he’s getting the chance to go to the US and to LA of all places. He’s literally going to my city. I always tell them that I can use a million different words to describe the culture, climate, people, lifestyle, or food where I’m from, but the only real way to understand it is to go see it for yourself and Maxi is going to have that chance. I hope seeing where I’m from will help him understand me better and understand why I am the way I am and why my reactions to things in Chile are what they are (good or bad). I also really want my parents to drive up and meet him! We spoke English together until about 3 am and then we went to sleep.

Monday, January 20

Today I woke up around 9 and went for a run finally. I’ve really been neglecting my exercise and it’s showing in my weight, so I’ve decided to start running for 50 minutes instead of 30. I really need to stop gaining weight—I finally got up the courage to weigh myself and I’ve gained about 7 pounds!! Anyway, after my run, I showered, ate breakfast, and packed my suitcase because we were leaving that day to go to Talca for a week with our grandparents. Nancy invited me to go with her to wax her legs, and although I was scared, everyone here in Chile does it and they say it’s so much more practical than shaving every day, so I decided to try it. They pour this hot liquid wax on your leg, then wait a little while, then rip it off. It doesn’t hurt as badly as I expected it would, but it definitely does hurt. Anyway, when we got home, Maxi, Nancy, and I ate lunch. Side note—Sra Adela came back today after her month long recovery process from a surgery she had done. It’s so nice to have her back and not just because now we don’t have to do all the chores. I really did miss her company. Anyway, after lunch, while we were waiting to leave, Monse and Laurie (who was also coming with us to Talca), painted my nails and watched TV with me for a while. Then, finally, around 8, we were all ready to go and we made the 2 hour drive to Talca (Eric stayed at home because he has to work this week). When we got there, we drank some tea, ate watermelon, and sat outside and talked for a while. Around 12, I called Monchito. I told him the truth and I didn’t hold back. I’ve been feeling absolutely and totally neglected by Rotary these past 5 months. They don’t pay me my money on time and they owe me $200. They never ever invite me to meetings or to do things with the club. Monchito doesn’t call to check in on me ever, and he doesn’t even return my calls when I call him. He apologized, although he was a little angry with me too because he works a lot and he really doesn’t have time to be at my beck and call (which I understand now and I apologized to him for being so harsh) and he promised to be more attentive to my needs. I hope to be able to spend more time with him and actually get to know him and the rotary club before I leave. Anyway, by that time it was around 1 in the morning, and I went to sleep.

Sunday, January 19

Today we all woke up around noon after such a late night the night before. We went down and ate a breakfast of leftovers from the appetizers we had prepared for the party. Then we packed up and left for the mall. Nacho, Mathias, Maxi, and I left our parents and went to eat some ice cream. Then, when we met back up with them, they had already paid to buy us ice cream, so we had to eat twice and we were all completely stuffed by the end. After handing out in the mall for a while and buying a birthday present for Ana Maria, the daughter of a friend of the family who had her birthday yesterday, we went back over to Tia Irma’s house to drop off Mathias and Nacho and pick up the grandparents. Then we went over to Ana Maria’s house to wish her happy birthday. We stayed there like 5 hours sitting and talking with the family, and went home around 10. When we got home, I was pretty tired, and so I watched TV for a while with Monse and Maxi, and then I went to sleep around midnight.

Saturday, January 18

Today we all woke up really late, and when I got up, I showered, ate a big breakfast with everyone, and immediately was put to work cooking. Nacho, Cecilia, Nancy, and I cooked for a good 6 hours straight, making all the different appetizers they were going to serve at the party tonight.
As our break, Maxi, Nacho, Jeremy, and I went down to this plot of land that Jeremy and Nacho are leasing to grow corn. They work so hard on that plot and whenever I text them they are working, so it was really cool to see how all their hard work had paid off with tall stalks of corn. We sat in the bed of the pickup truck there for a while and talked and they explained the process of growing corn and all its intricate details to me before we drove back to the house. Everyone had already eaten lunch when we got back, so we ate quickly together and then were put back to work cooking.
Around 8, the work stopped and we all went upstairs to put on makeup and nicer clothes for the party. The party started around 9:30 and all the aunts and uncles came. I hung out for a little while with my grandma, and then basically spent the rest of the night with Maxi, Nacho, and Mathias (another cousin who’s 18). We talked and they told me funny stories about their antics from the past. We listened to music and I had fun embarrassing myself while singing along to Spanish songs. I Skyped with my parents for a little while around 3 in the morning because it was my mom’s birthday yesterday and we didn’t get a chance to Skype. It was really fun talking to them, and it was hilarious to listen to my dad speak to my cousins in Spanish. He’s embarrassing, but I love him and I’m really excited for my parents to come visit and meet everyone here and have all of my friends and family in Chile meet them. We went downstairs to where the party was to sing happy birthday and indulge in the dessert buffet, and then danced for a little while. People started leaving around 5 in the morning, and by 5:30 I was absolutely exhausted and went upstairs to go to sleep.