from the Land of the Long White Cloud to the land of the Andes

Santa Fe, Argentina

2012-01-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

On our second full day in Buenos Aires we got on the bus to head 6 hours north to Santa Fe. The bus ride itself was long and the bus wasn´t exactly clean either... We obviously chose the wrong bus company.
The landscape was incredibly flat and unexciting but being tired, I managed to sleep a bit.

Santa Fe was hot! Since our bus was a tad early, Guille wasn´t there yet, but even at 10.30pm at night the air was still warm.

We weren´t waiting for long and soon we had a happy reunion and were heading back to her house, where she told us her mum had cooked us a delicious meal.

And delicious it was. I got to meet her parents finally, after meeting her 1st in NZ on the other side of the world. They were very nice and the food her mum cooked us was exquisite. We ate meat and potatoes, but the meat was the most delicious, melt in your mouth meat I´d ever had in my life! After eating and talking, a meal outside in a leafy garden with a perfect climate, we went to bed.

The next day, Guille and her mum took Genna and I on a tour of the two cities, Parana and Santa Fe. They´re both close together and connected by a 3km long underwater tunnel, below the Parana river.

Parana was a gorgeous city, with flowers and cobbled streets and a new shopping mall (quite small though). We stopped at a park up high with a view over the city and the river, and also at a stone auditorium.

On the way back to Santa Fe, her mum stopped and bought us materos.
Mate is a type of tea they drink in Argentina and Uruguay. It´s a very strong leafy tea.
To drink it, you simply pour heaps of the leafs into the cup and then some hot water on top. There´s a special straw you use to drink it out of which has a filter at the end.
Terere is mate, but with cold water or even juice.
Basically every Argentinean takes with them wherever they go, a thermos with cold water and the special cup and straw to driink mate. The flavour takes a bit of getting used to but I´ve found it´s actually quite nice. Cold. With juice.

We crossed the river again and arrived back in Santa Fe, to Guille´s home where her and a couple of friends came over to drink terere (it´s quite a tradition).

After that, we went into downtown Santa Fe and visited the most amazing building I have ever seen. It was the city council, old and colonial and massive. We also visited the cathedral where people were praying with rosary beads, and a colonial house that had turned into a museum. A stroll along the river took us to an incredibly huge outdoor swimming pool filled with water from the river.

The downtown part of Santa Fe was the cleanest downtown I had ever seen and vacant of street vendors. The council had prohibited it. The shops were really cool and it was bustling and lively at 7pm at night.

The stay at Guille´s was definitely a highlight of our trip - staying with Argentineans, eating Argentinean food and being shown around a city by a local, plus being able to catch up witha good friend!

Then all of a sudden it was a rush to return back to Guille´s, shower, drive to the bus station and take our bus to Puerto Iguazu, where we would arrive after 16 hours in a bus!

Back in South America (Buenos Aires)

2012-01-24T12:03:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a while.
So here's the good news... I'm currently sitting in my friend Melissa's apartment in Santiago, Chile, just over 2 years since I left this amazing country.

The other good news is that I haven't just arrived ... I've been travelling around Argentina and Uruguay for 8 days as well. I thought I'd have more time to blog during that part of the trip, but lines for computer access in backpackers hostels plus only 20 minutes per user has pushed blog entries low on the priority list, below hostel bookings and transport bookings.

But the trip so far has been amazing.

It started off with 2 nights in Buenos Aires, a steamy, hot, bustling city with delicious smells, gorgeous people and a continuous beat of cumbia, reggaeton and of course, tango. Love.

We arrived there (I'm travelling with a friend, Genna), put our bags in our rooms up a tiny twisting staircase in the funky and friendly Hostel Ostinatto - definitely recommended for it's extraordinarily friendly staff and cool atmosphere - and went straight into the tiny hostel bar for a tango lesson. Can't exactly say I'm up for a 'milonga' quite yet. It was a Saturday night but after arriving at Auckland airport at 7am and waiting until 10pm for our flight to depart, sleep was required. (After eating some yummy empanadas from the take-away place down the road).

The next day we made friends with a Brazilian family over the breakfast table and ended up bussing it to La Boca, the colourful, postcard friendly district of BA to have a wander.

Colourful houses from corrugated iron, street vendors of painting and handicrafts, tango restaurants were what was on offer. It was definitely picturesque but also alive with peddlers trying to charge pesos for photos, hustling for money... that was the bad side. OVerall we found it quite fake and touristy - not a genuine Buenos Aires experience, but definitely a must see for travellers.

We had lunch back on the same street as our hostel (which coincidentally, was called Chile st), and unfortunately another mildly disapointed naive-tourist experience, in which we reached the end of the restaurant filled street and upon finding nothing that looked that it would fit our budget (the restaurants there all looked quite pricy but as we later found out, weren't) a pushy waitress ended up seating us at the worst looking eatery on the st (with the same prices as the other place) and we ended up ordering from there. Luckily Genna and I shared a pizza and got the bargain, $6 each for half a pizza dripping with cheese and herbs, wasn't so bad after all. Note: due to their Italian roots, argnetinians are big fans of pizza and make it very well! Not italian style but defintiely delicious.

In the afternoon we wandered around the usual tourist hot spots of Buenos Aires - the obelisk, La Casa Rosada and the Docks.

The first two were in the centre of town and there were a smattering of people with cameras taking photos there, we managed to hustle some American tourists into taking a few photos of us in exchange for the same for them. Got a few 'jumping' photos in which the Argentineans sitting on the grass a few metres away were very interested.

Due to good luck or something, we arrived at the docks at dusk and were rewarded by the city of Buenos Aires reflecting in the water, it was a very polished, clean part of the city with smooth pavement - thank goodness! and lined with restaurants and wealthy looking people. The colours were gorgeous as well and it was thriving at 9pm at night.

Upon our return we checked up on bus fares and got some good travel advice from a BRazilian about airfares - a Urugayan airline, Pluna, offers specials every Tuesday (kind of like grabaseat, but all of South America) and you can get flights for $29 USD. Worth a look!

Day two:
Rather exhausted hot (after checking out of the hostel and storing our bags there), we headed to the botanic gardens in Palermo and a bit of the downtown area. The botanic gardens were shady and nice, surrounded by busy roads. In the later part of the afternoon we taxied to the bus station in a shiftier part of the city to take a 7 hour bus to Santa Fe to see a friend, Guillermina, who was an exchange student in NP last year.

Getting away from Buenos Aires seemed to take forever, it's a massive city. We seemed to have chosen not such a good bus line and it was quite dirty - at the same time, it also had a reasonable timetable for arriving in Santa Fe before midnight. It wasn't that uncomfortable apart from the dirt... But getting to Santa Fe was definitely worth it!

---> Video finally uploaded!

2010-11-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

I have finally managed to upload the video of my exchange to YouTube. Check it out! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq1MPPvDQU0

Los 33

2010-08-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

It's beenall over the news now, that a group of 33 miners frmo the mine San Jose are trapped in an underground shaft, 700m below surface. Funnily enough, this is where I lived last year. (Not in the mine, but in Copiapo.)
They have now been trapped for nearly three weeks, underground, without sunlight. Mining experts expect that they will be there until Christmas.
My host dad, who is a safety officer at an American-owned mine, was called in to be a temporary safety officer for two weeks, because the previous one left in disgrace.
As you can image, for this to happen the conditions would have had to have been pretty bad. It's true; I have visited Chilean owned mines and my host dad's mine and they are completely difference. My heart goes out to all the workers who spend a day underground in dangerous circumstances, day in, day out, get paid very little and stay in rickety lodgings. Most of all, often they are the only source of income for their family, and now that 33 miners are trapped, there will be 33 families going without, especially since the mining company is now going under.
Let's hope for a soon and safe rescue of 'Los 33', whose only way to communicate with those above ground is thruogh a 15cm tube.
Fuerza mineros!

Earthquake

2010-02-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

As lots will probably know by know, there has been a massive 8.8 ricter scale earthquake in Chile, in the Bio Bio region. It shook almost all of Chile, the power and water in Copiapo was cut and they felt it strongly, almost 1000km north.

When it happened, the AFS Santiago Orientation was taking place, the one I attended a year ago. My hearts go out to all the worried families, but a recent message from AFS Chile says that all students are safe and well.

Several Chilean seaside towns have disapeard under the sea due to the surge of water. Friends have been affected.

Host families of some of my exchange friends have had their homes destroyed. As well as over 1.5 milllion other people. It was in one the most populated region of Chile.

I've spoken to other exchange students, we all feel so helpless. My heart go out to everyone affected. I want to do something. It's awful. Think of them, pray for them, do whatever you can.

---> Adios

2010-02-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well now I've been back from Chile for just over two weeks. It's strange coming back . . .

My last few days (well weeks, or I could say months) were by far was the time of my life. When you've mastered the language, the culture and the customs, living as an exchange student in another country is simply brilliant. I can't describe it. Not a day passed when I didn't do anything. Basically the days of December and January passed like this: wake up (late...), have something to eat, help out in the house (clean up etc), have lunch, clean up, go out, arrive back to have supper (or not arrive back, it depends what it is that I'm doing), go out again, arrive back home late. Being back in NZ and not being able to go out like I did in Chile is hard. But then again, it's a cultural thing. While in NZ dinner is the main meal of the day, in Chile it's lunch, so after the main family meal everyone is pretty much free to do what they like (as long as it's ok with my family, of course. But going out was never a problem if I advised where I was going to go, who with and what times.) The convenience of having taxis and buses pass outside my home made going out easy.

The hardest thing about being back is definitely missing the life you had in your host country. I miss like crazy my host family, who welcomed me into Chile with open arms (I still remember clearly my first day - as soon as we arrived home, we started to look for my host sister's missing pet turtle). I miss my friends, I miss the other exchangers, I miss Copiapó, I miss speaking spanish, I miss Chilean school.

So in January we had an AFS farewell for the 4 exchangers leaving Copiapó. They gave us a special present. Hoodies with the Chilean national flower and the names of our host family members embroidered on it. Which was kind of funny, since us AFSers had also ordered hoodies with our nicknames and the emblem of Chile on it to be done.

Our Hoodies

I had a farewell party. Some of my best friends (the ones who could make it and had permission) came to my beach house, along with all of my host siblings, and my host brother's girlfriend and her cousin. Then suddenly we were more - friends from school, friend's of a friends - we went to the actual beach to party, to be with Giulia and her friends, but it seemed like a lot more people had heard about a party, and it could get dangerous, so we returned back to my beach house.

Best friends

On my last night my family did a special supper for me. My other host sister made a powerpoint about my year in Chile, which was nice and sad. On my last day, we all woke up after little sleep to go to the bus station to say goodbye to the German. After, Krista and Giulia came back to my house, to have breakfast with my host family and me. My younger host sister gave me a present, a necklace of a one peso coin from Chile. My host mum gave me my Christmas present, a book with the song lyrics of songs from Latin America, which she had compiled herself, and three CDs with all the songs on. Lots of memories.

Terminal Tur-Bus Copiapó is a place of many memories. Arriving to Copiapó and getting off the bus, there were a million posibilites ahead of me. How my school would be, how my family would be, how my friends would be, how my year and my life would be. I was a bundle of nerves. As the year passed I returned to the bus terminal to go to an AFS orientation, the AFS north Chile tour and a short term exchange to Punta Arenas. Each time there was posibility and adventure. Arriving back was like arriving back home. But the last time I was at the bus terminal I hated it. When would be the next time I'd get back? Who knows. In the car going to the bus terminal I recieved a phone call from the Brazilian. 'Anita, I'm not going' she said. 'What? You have to go' I replied. 'I can't go, I don't want to leave.' She said. All through my last few days in Copiapó I had managed to only shed a few tears. At her words, the reality of what was about to happen hit me. My eyes watered up, but I was unable to cry. We arrived at the bus terminal, and my friends were there to see me off. Hugs, giving of presents and taking photos. Suddenly my host mum said, 'Anita, the bus is leaving!' That was when the tears started flowly, as if they were going to flood the dry river Copiapó has. The bus that I had to go on was pulling out. I had to get on, yes or yes. The Brazilian and the Italian weren't on either. We were all unprepared to do the inevitable, which was actually leave for good. My host family went to the door of the bus and I hugged everyone - or did I? My memory is hazy. We borded the bus.... climbed upstairs. Me, Ananda and Giulia. Dumped our bags on the seats and stood there, hugging and crying. We couldn't believe it was over for good. Then it was to the airport. The other exchangers were arriving all through the day, and when the other NZer arrived, it was funny to see we were both wearing Chilean football tees, and stripy pants. The first group to leave were the Italians, which means Adios to Giulia. (At the airport with us was another AFS from Copiapó, Krista from Finland, who is in Chile for another semester. She also was in Santiago on holiday, and her and her host sister came to see us off.) We cryed when Giulia left. Then Ananda left... then much later, it was my turn to leave. I rang all members of my host family to say goodbye. Tears came. Then saying goodbye to Krista and her host sister...... it was the hardest goodbye I had ever said. She was the last person who I was close with in Chile who I had to say goodbye to. Saying goodbye is horrible.... I don't like airports or bus terminals.

Luckily on the flight to NZ I slept a lot. I was so tired, in the last 3 days I think I had slept about 8 hours. It was shock arriving to Auckland airport. I was home . . . did I want to be? After waiting a few hours at the airport to wait for the flight to NP, I boarded my plane. During the flight I shed a few tears. Now I was really home and I wanted to be in Chile. But when I could see a group of people standing in th airport, and it was a big group, it wasn't so bad. My family and friends were all there. It was an emotional moment and more tears were shed. My exchange year was over.

It feels strange to be back. Things have changed, and at the same time they haven't. It's like waking up from a dream and everyone is a year older. I feel older and . . . more confident. Living in a different country and not knowing how to speak the language, the culture and customs, then mastering that, makes one feel like there's nothing they can't do. It's like a self confidence boost, and also a new way of looking at the world. An understanding of why things are the way they are, and not looking at how they should change. I've never felt more open minded. Also, to be an exchange student, it's important to be open minded, perseverant, accepting and adaptable. I can't express that more. But doing an exchange extends and enriches those qualities. Being back you can see that - even if you'd rather stay in your host country. Chileans are extremely patriotic, but when they asked me if I liked Copiapó, and I replied with a yes, why looked at me strangely and asked why. My answer was always, because it's Chile. Although they may not like where they live, they love their country. I was lucky; I loved both.

---> Don't dream it's over

2010-01-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

My room is a mess, my head is a mess, my thoughts are a mess and I leave tomorrow.

This is the part of my life that overtakes anything hard that I have had to pass through in my life. Today I farewelled two of my closest friends here, maybe forever. I couldn't cry, the reality of what will happen tomorrow at 9.20 at night still hasn't sunk in fully.

Do you know what it's like to sit with your two absolute best friends, and think that maybe you'll see them again soon, maybe not. The friends that have gone through the same experience as you, that you have bonded with in the 6 months you have known them, to a point that you're unseperable. I really can't write, the tears are falling steadily now.

It's life.

I have been blessed to have had a wonderful host family, that always supported me and loved me, sisters who were like my best friends and an older brother who told me off if I wore a top that showed too much chest. The stupid things we did together, like when Ade and I were awake on a bus at 2am holding our breath until the bus reached more than 100kmph and the beeper went off. All the good memories, but now they're in the past. And the two suitcases sitting on the floor of my room are the future.

The antics of me and my friends. Bunking class to sit and talk, and hiding when the inspector came. (Sorry AFS, I promise it didn't happen often). Drawing on my legs in class, taking stupid funny photos and eating pizza at friend's houses. Looking after my tipsy friends, who were very economic drinkers. Nearly having our money robbed by gypsies.

The exchange students, the best friends I've ever had. Singing reggaeton in every place we go. The mall, the plaza, department stores, living rooms, taxis, AFS meetings, parties. Teasing each other about who we kissed at parties. Drinking tea. Drinking tequila and pisco, vodka and rum, beer and cherry liqueur. Pushing each other into pools. It's so hard to say goodbye to that. I can't accept that it WILL be gone.

It's like that whole side of my life has died.

I'm a different person now. I want with all my heart to be able to stay here, but there's something special about being an exchange student and there is a kind of magic in knowing you have a year and only a year in a certain place. It gives one a new perspecive on life. The hard times are extremely hard, yes, but the good times and SO AMAZINGLY GOOD.

With that, I'll get back to packing my life in two suitcases.

---> A Chilean Christmas

2010-01-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

I have now passed Christmas and New Year without writing one splodge of an update, and since I have time (which is a very rare thing) I will spill out a few letters.

In Chile, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th December, not the 25th. It's called Nochebuena. The general shindig that happens is the family goes to a mass, then returns home to eat a special dinner and open presents. Santa Claus is more a western tradition. He didn't visit my house, but I am sure that in a few younger families he does visit.

In my family, we helped in the afternoon prepare the food. Salad, this potato thing that was sliced pototatoes cooked in the oven with cream and cheese on top, and a meat casserolle. (I must say, I am having cravings for a huge Christmas ham right now!) The food was all prepared when we went to a mass, at 10pm. The mass was a bit long, but I got distraced by the adorable Chilean kids dressed in pretty dress (occaissonaly with angel wings) that buzzed around the church. Kids don't want to sit still for 1 1/2 hours.

When we got home, the food was nearly finished, and we ate. Oh, and opened a bottle of Champagne. Champagne with pineapple ice cream. Even my host sister of 14 years had a glass. After the meal, it was straight to openening the presents. I got some nice presents, my favourite of which was a scrapbook my other host sister made for me, of photos and memories of my year in Chile, with two CDs of songs. After all the present opening and talking, we went to bed at 4am.

The week leading up to New Year also passed extremely fast. On the 26th was the birthday party of Krista's host sister. Great party. Didn't know a lot of the people but made some new friends. Then on the 28th we met up with the some of the same people from the party for a tequila night. Why do they put worms in tequila?

New Year in Chile was epic. Again it is celebrated on the day before. The same thing - dinner, champagne. But this time, instead of going to a mass, we went to see the firework show. Once we returned to the house, I was so tired I actually went to bed. For one hour, because at 1.30am, a friend phoned to say she was outside my house. I slowly got up, changed clothes and put on make up, then went outside and we waited for other friends to arrive. At 2am, we walked down the road to the biggest, craziest New Years party in the world. I was there until 7.30am. Basically all of the youth in Copiapó that can go to this party, go to this party. There are three stages, one VIP (no thanks), one general taste - reggaeton, cumbia and a pisque of electronic, and one electronic stage. We arrived and everyone greeted a million people, it was crazy. Then the dancing, dancing for 5 hours... yup. It was an epic party.

So that's pretty much whats that happs here in Copiapó.

My bus to Santiago leaves at 21.15 on the 10th of January. I arrive there at 8.05am on the 11 January.

My flight to Auckland leaves at 23.10 on the 11th January. I arrive there at 4am on the 13 January.

My flight to my own city departs at 7.10am on the 13th January. I arrive there at 7.50am on the 13 January.

Those are the dates that I never wanted to know. I might have been so homesick at the start of my exchange, I still remember when I had spent a week in Chile and one year seemed like such a long stretch of time to be away from home. But I knew I was returning home. I don't know when I'll come back to Chile. It's indefinite. I want to stay, at least for the summer. Even in these last few weeks I have made so many new friends and have spent every day doing something fun and different, with new friends and old ones. To suddenly be separated from those friends, and the family that I love, will be, definitely, the hardest thing I will have to do in my life. But like we say here 'así es la vida'.

---> V Región

2009-12-24T14:49:00.001-08:00

I'm still catching up on all the things I have yet to write. But first let me say, Merry Christmas to everyone all over the world. It's not quite Christmas day here in NZ yet.

Christmas tree and cousins

In the first week of December we went to San Pedro, a small village in the fifth region of Chile, the region above Santiago. Unlike the desert, it was green and full of flowers. I ha never seen so many flowers in my life in an establishement. We visited a town called Limache and the air was scented with flowers and every single street had tall shady trees. Amazingly beautiful.

My favourite city we visited while we were there though, was Valparaíso. It's one of the most turistical Chilean cities and I didn't feel like I was the only foreigner. The city of Valpo it built on very steep big hills. To get to soe houses you have to walk practically horizontally. There are funiculars too but I'd say that the natives there must have very strong legs.

There was a tonne of graffitti there, but unlike the gangster markings and all that jazz, practically every patch of graffitti there was like a work of art. Imagine long flights of stairs with tall houses on both sides, and the walls full of graffitti.

Examples:

One of my favourites, a piece of art for the Mapuche Indians.

San Pedro is about a 40 minute car/train ride from Valpo. The first day that we visited, we went in the car, but my host parents had to return to Copiapó to work, so us four kids stayed with my host grandma to spend more time in the V region. The second day that we went to Valpo, we took two buses and a train to get there and went to the house of the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. His house was four stories high, and each story was filled with interesting objects. His collection of bottles, interesting works of art and other collections of things.

In San Pedro, I saw for the first time a Chilean rodeo. It's not the style of rodeo when the cow has to be killed. Instead, there are two cowboy (actually they are more like men) who ride horses with spurs and traditional chilean clothes. The aim is to get the little calf to bang against a cushioned part in the moon shaped arena. Points are given according to how well it collides with the wall. At first I was disgusted, but the aim isn't to injure the poor little calf, and although I'm sure they get a jolly good fright and that isn't a good thing, they get taken away in less than a minute and a new calf gets bought in. A relatively humane rodeo.

Waiting to fight

Anyway, I only have time for a short post. A Merry Christmas to everyone reading this and I'll be in touch.

Take care,

Anita

---> Off with a blast of reggaeton

2009-12-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

The life of an exchange student is never dull. In between a week in Punta Arenas and a week in Quillota, there was still time to fit in being the date for a friend of a friend to a graduation ceremony.

Let's go a few months back. While visiting my friend Cony after having sushi in town for lunch, she commented that she had a friend that needed an 'invite' for the Cuartos (year thirteen/seventh form/senior) graduation dinner, and if I would be interested. Never one to give up an oppurtunity, I said why not, and didn't hear anything of it until my second day in Punta Arenas. She phoned me to ask if I was still interest. I had two days in Copiapó before going to Quillota, which was time to meet him and go to the graduation, so another, sure why not? And I organised to meet him before the dinner.

On Friday afternoon we met and now we are engaged. Kidding! No shakespearian sonnets and shooting stars, although it was nice to meet new people and he was a nice, albeit shy guy. Being around shy people generally brings out the chatterbox side of me, I wanted to keep the awkward turtles to a minimun. He accompanied my into Falabella (department store) to get a new phone after we talked over ice cream (yum, chilean ice cream) and then off home to get ready.

Luckily earlier in the day I had bought some high heels to wear - I did not own any high heels up until then! My host sister was very excited to do my hair and make up, but I ended up doing the make up myself because time was running out. Instead of buying a new dress, I wore one I bought from New Zealand, with a bought black shawl and my new high heels. (A complete transformation from stripy fisherman pants, baggy AFS tee shirt and messy hair!)

Ta da!

Roses, what a way to win a girl's heart! I'm relieved my dress was blue and white and not red - red roses carry a specific meaning.

His mum was waiting in a car outside my house, we drove to their house first, got into a taxi and then went to pick up Cony and her mum, then onto the school, where the event would be held.

When we arrived, there was a lot of lining up outside (people in the school foyer had to check the entry tickets). It was amazing seeing some of the people I know from that school completely transformed, everyone looked stunning and handsome. I was even more stunned when we entered the school grounds. The dinner was in a ginormous tent (think 120 students, plus two parents and a date, it had to be big!) with tables set up, a space to dance, balloons floating from the centre of every table, and waiters carrying drinks. Alcoholic drinks to. This was a school event in Chile, remember. (But the chilean attitude towards drinking is generally very different than the NZ one).

Chile's Next Top Model! Cony is on my right.

After the headmistress gave her speech, everyone started to dig in. It was a bit dumb that we couldn't choose who to sit with at the tables, I feel sorry for those families who got paired up who didn't get along well. The mums at my table kept up a pretty good conversation though. After the meal the dancing started. Students, parents and even teachers were up there dancing.

Embarrassing moment: discovering your host mum is taking pictures of you dancing with your date! Papparrazzi much!

At the start the music was mostly cumbia (which the oldies prefer over reggaeton) but after most of the adults left, there was a lot of reggaeton, however there came a really cool part when the DJ put on music from Grease and everyone was dancing 50's style. It was awesome! I had until 3.30am which was when my host brother (it was his grad dinner too) would call a taxi. The dancing at that point was getting really motivated and the music really good too. Although I think any more time in high heels and I would have been unable to walk!

It wa a really fun night though, and I'm glad to have been able to go to a Chilean style ball/graduation!

---> Photoblog: Punta Arenas

2009-12-11T15:08:00.000-08:00

I'm happy - could finally put the photos I took in Punta Arenas on my computer. So I'll do what is called a bit of a photoblog, since I have already written a bit about my stay in the southernmost city in the world.

First of all, for all the shopaholics reading this blog, since Punta Arenas is the southernmost city in the world, and it has a mall, what does that make the mall? Why, the southermost mall in the world, of course. I did a bit of shopping there about bought some shorts, a tee shirt and a cardigan. It wasn't a particularly big mall, mainly consisting of the well know chilean department stores (LaPolar, Ripley (my favourite), Falabella and Lider (supermarket).

On my first say in Punta Arenas, Ashleigh and Kate, two AFs friends who live there, took me downtown to the plaza, where it is a touristy thing to kiss the Indian's foot, which means that you will return to Punta Arenas. Here I am licking his foot (not really actually licking it, that would be gross).

My favourite part of the trip was visiting the Torres del Paine. On the road there, there just happened to be some flamingos bathing in a lake. I love how I can be in northern Chile and see flamingos, then be in the southernmost city in Chile and there are still flamingos!

This was one of the first views of the Torres, when we stopped to *cough* take photos.

Although it doesn't look so blue in the picture, this is the Blue Lake. In reality, although the day was cloudy, the lake was an amazing saphire blue.

It was incredibly windy when we got out of the tour van to walk for a bit. I mean INCREDIBLY WINDY! We literally had to hunch over with our backs to the wind to avoid being blown away.

Here's the blue lake again, this time way more blue. There was an island there, with a hotel on the island. Perfect for honeymoons! It was stunning.

Crossing a bridge over the lake, you can almost see the towers through the clouds.

The next stop was the glacier. We walked for one and a half hours to a look out, over the lake Grey to the glacier. I was wearing about 7 tops and a scarf, and it wasn't a cold walk, but when we got the lookout the wind picked up and I was very glad to be wearing so many clothes!

The other bit of glacier which is not seen in the photo is guilty of cutting my finger.

Bits of glacier look out to it's mummy.

The last part of the trip was a stop by at a giant cave, La Cueva de Milodón. It was gigantic! In ancient times, the giant ground sloths (sloths, think Sid from Ice Age) lived there. Now, it's more of a tourist attraciton but there is still the occassional fox.

The next day, we went to the ski club of Punta Arenas, which is way to close to the city. In the little lodge, there was a map of South America, and to the right of Antonia's finger is where Punta Arenas is.

Although the ski fields were shut (not ski season), there were walking tracks open and we went for a walk in the alpine forest, where my cellphone rests to this day.

Here's a photo for my day, the Punta Arenas Andean Club.

In the afternoon, we went to a penguin colony. It was a beautiful view, over the Magallanes straight to snow capped mountains. It was the season of the penguins returning to their caves, and there were hundreds of penguins hooting and looking for there homes, coming in from the sea.

Here are some penguins entering from the sea.

And the lone flamingo, which is weird to see as they always are in groups.

Take care,

Anita.

---> Punta Arenas

2009-12-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this blog will be another blog without photos as my computer has become incredibly slow at uploading!

Last week I went to visit the city of Punta Arenas, which is the southernmost city in the world. It is so far south that it got dark at about 10pm at night and stayed dark until 5am. A very different landscape from Copiapó as well - more green than I had seen in a long time, with snowy mountains in the background and lots of beautiful clouds.

I discovered the reason why connections you make with other people are so important. A few years ago, a Chilean family lived in my town in NZ for just under a year, and I got to know them a little bit. I was a naughty girl and didn't get back in touch with them until after I was in Chile, which was a great surprise because they had no idea I would be doing a year long exchange. Since I couldn't go on the south tour with AFS, they helped me organise a short term exchange, and where to go? Punta Arenas. I got in touch with the family again and they said they would be delighted to have me. So when I arrived in Punta Arenas, there was Teresa and Victoria (Mother and daughter) waiting for me in the airport. During my stay there the whole family was more than welcoming and I had a great time with them.

I had the opportunity to visit Torres del Paine - which any Google Image search will bring up amazing pictures of an incredibly beautiful place on this earth. (Which is why my computer won't let me upload the photos!) I also went on a mountain hike (cellphone stayed on the mountain) and saw a penguin colony, as well as catch up with my exchanger friend who lives there, and another AFSer.

Back to school, and I had two days left before I finished at school - today was my last day at school, although I havn't really felt it sink in.

Anyway, better go, as I am heading into town to eat sushi with the other exchangers!

Chau,

Anita

---> Twelve lives

2009-11-23T05:11:00.000-08:00

Weekend, a great word that brings out millions of possibilities. 'I can't wait for it to be the weekend!' 'What are you doing this weekend?' 'Did you have a good weekend?' It's a word of hope, the awaited two days after five days pass before.

What you do in the weekend is important. Whether it's spending all day surfing the internet (which for any exchange student I don't recomend), going into town with friends, partying until five in the morning, it's what's fun that counts.

So the first crucial part of the weekend is Friday night. This is the make or break night. Plans on Friday? Good. It means you have a life (or at least, you have a life if you live in Chile.) It doesn't matter whether it's going out for coffee with friends in the afternoon, watching movies with the fam, or playing football in the street. The best thing to do obviously, in Chile, is to party.

School dance? Hey, that could be a Friday night. So instead of having a dance at Thursday night from 7pm to 9pm in the school hall, rule strictly no alcohol or smoking, let's turn the tables to how things are in Chile. First of all, a dance on THURSDAY? Ridiculo! Not in Chile, that's for sure. It has to be Friday. Second of all, starting at 7pm in the afternoon, how silly. Doors shut at 11pm, and finishing at 2am. (And absolutely noone enters before 11pm, then all of a sudden the groups crowded on the street rush to enter). The no-alcohol rule . . . well, when the parents drop us off at 10.30pm, and there's a bottle store round the corner, there will be students there, buying. Ciggarrettes, too. Smoking inside is ok, but also going outside to smoke it fine. Welcome to Chile.

The dancing thing is different in Chile too. It's not just anyone for anywhere, oh no. The strangest thing is that people dance in two lines, a boy on one side with the girl on the other. It's ok to have two girls dancing together, but two boys . . . no way, Jose! The music is Reggaeton, obviously. I just can't get over the fact that they dance in lines! It really does look funny!

And when the dance ends, there's no soft lovey dovey music, the reggaeton just -stops- and every heads outside to wait for parents to take them home, or to move on to another party.

Interesting fact: In Chile, cats have seven lives, and in Europe, 12. In NZ, nine.

---> Lonely sea and the sky

2009-11-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

Six girls + one house + a picturesque beach + yo ho ho a bottle of rum. (Or not . . . ) = one amazing weekend!

Caldera is one hour and $3 away from Copiapó and about half the population of Copiapó has a beach house there, including my family. In summer it's the refuge from the hot, still heat of the desert city. It comes alive with parties at night. But at this time of the year, clouds blanket the city and there are fewer people. There are three parts to the Caldera area. Numero uno is Caldera, a port town of about 20,000 people. There's a little beach and obviously a port, plus houses a plaza, restaurants and a smattering of shops. Then a few minutes drive away is Playa Loreto. There, there is a small diary, the streets are simply sand, and it consists mainly of holiday houses. There's a ciclorama which leads you to Bahia Inglesa, a beautiful beach with turquoise water, white sand. There are shops and cafes, but it's still quite small, although it fills up in summer. These three towns are simply there. The desert merges into the beach and the towns just pop up. The view is quite spectacular.

On Saturday we met at the bus terminal to take the bus to Caldera. Upon arriving, we had lunch at a 'local', which is like a cheap restaurant that sells food, fast-food style. Fried empanadas, hamburgers and the like. I ate churrasco, which is like a hamburger but with thin slices of beef.

While my host sister and her friend went to buy the food for the night, Krista, me and Sabina went to the bach in Loreto to open everything up and scare away the poisonous spiders.

Once everyone was back in the house, we figured out how to turn on the gas and electricity and then decided to walk to Bahia Inglesa. Giulia was staying with her host family at the beach and her host sister dropped her off at our bach.

Outside the wind was howling and my awesome stripy pants did not keep me warm! We started to walk the long 40 minute walk to Bahia but gave up when a colectivo came along and squeezed everyone into one car.

Jump!

It was really cold and windy!

At the Bahia, not much swimming got done because it was so cold, so instead we bought supplies for the night and returned to Loreto.

The food was incredibly yummy, I made fajitas, brownie and potato chips, which was a satisfying meal, while we played cards, ate, and talked. But after a while we decided to take the party down to the beach, where we rolly-pollied down the sand. Very childish, I know! We took millions of photos.

Just some of the 1000000000 photos we took at the beach

Giulia's host parents invited us to their bach, so we spent a few hours with olives to eat and little glass of piña colada, playing the grocery game, except this time it was about getting into the bus.

Then it was the pijama party phase of the night! Although really tired from all the exercise, we still all managed to stay awake to talk until late at night. As girls do!

The next morning passed lazily, we were all asleep until at least 11am, then we breakfasted and cleaned and arranged the house. Then this time we actually did walk to Bahia. We had lunch at Sabina's bach, then went to swim in the freezing water and to see the oyster festival. TV cameras filmed Sabina and Pamela, and today they'll be on the local news station. Unfortunatly by 3pm the festival was pretty much dead and we only got one oyster each.

Bahia Inglesa

My host dad came to Bahia, then we returned to the bach and packed everything up, then went to Chorillos, a beach a few kilometres south of Bahia. You drive off the highway, over a road made of sand, then get out of the car, walk 15 minutes over rocks, and finally you arrive at a picturesque bay. It was worth the intrepid travel, for sure. There were even grass and plants!

Chorillos

We walked on (and climbed up) rocks for a few more minutes, to be able to sit on a rock on the edge of the rockface, and watch as the waves crashed onto the rocks. Exhilarating, although a little bit scary.

The drive back to Copiapó was a little bit sad as we had all had way too much fun on Saturday night, however we all promised that we would do it again!

---> There are some things money can't buy . . .

2009-11-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

This is my life. Eight months and a bit in Chile, and a bit more. I'd like to stay longer, I really would. It sucks to be trying to plan things on a calender and realising you can't do something that weekend because of blahdy blah, then the next weekend you are going to blahdy blah, the next weekend blahdy blah is going to happen, then boom that weekend you'll be back in your own country.

Two facebook groups pretty much sum up exchange. One is 'being an exchange student is f******* awesome' and the other 'I never wanted to come back from my exchange'. Sorry Mum and Dad. Still don't understand why AFS doesn't do year and a half long exchanges. I'd so be in.

So before I have written about how fricking hard it is when you don't speak the language so well, when you feel isolated, when you are having problems fitting in at school with a group of people who have been friends for all there lives. Gosh there's a lot of things to whine about. Maybe another person would let all that stuff get to them and ditch the whole exchange shenanigans and return home. Then there's the type of exchange when hard times are few and far between and their life rocks from the beginning. I'm the one who suffered in the beginning - language, friends (I generally keep to myself I learnt, but I learnt that when you open up to people things really start to get going), day to day life, got me down and would have me secretly crying in the bathroom before school. Yes it can be bad. But being the internal 'don't panic' optimist I knew that is was a phase and as phases do, it passed. I won't deny the fact it was hard. It was bloody hard and although at times I wish I could have had one of those easy carefree exchanges, the harder the stuff the stronger person you become.

August was a turning point. Partly because by then was time enough to have got through all the hard stuff, and also with the new exchangers coming life got better. Before August I think I lacked meaningful friendships. With the language barrier those important conversations that you have with friends are harder and some people can get frustrated. Of course it doesn't mean I was a friendless hermit until that month, I had friends, but the level of friendship got deeper after August. We totally have the full out deeply personal conversations now and that's what friendship is about, the fun stuff and the deep stuff. Also in August arrived Giulia and Krista and although we've only known each other three months it could be like thirty years. Three different countries, three different schools, and we still spend heaps of time together. Today I spent hanging out at Krista's then going into town, meeting up with Giulia and getting our hair cut. (That's another story . . . )

Then there's the whole love life. Or lack of it! Yes there are some adorable Chilean boys out there; I get whistled at while out on the street (but that tends to be by old wrinkly scary men which is just plain EW!), and a while (as in 'back in the day') back that I became good friends with but nothing more. It kind of ended suddenly but for the better. It makes me sad to think of all the 'pololos' or 'pololas' that stay behind in Chile while their exchange student other half has to leave. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being single and happy. Better that there's one whole heart than two hearts far apart. And just for the record, just like in every country (except maybe Italy and Brazil) there are ugly guys, nice ones, and handsome ones. Chile varies a bit in that most of them are also short. (Hi Mum and Dad and my aunties and uncles, and AFS and all those other adults reading this and creepy stalker people, sorry for the necessary teenage gossip session!)

Word of advice to other exchange students: don't leave everything to the last two months! Looking at calenders with worried faces isn't nice. And having my mummy email me about plans when I get back just reminds me about how fragile and precious time is. At this rate I'll be an old lady tomorrow!

Hey folks! Please be darlings and leave me a comment. I know you're reading this.

I miss tasty cheddar cheese and fresh milk. But not too badly. Indian food too. Mum's baking. But only two more months, I Will Survive.

Peace out.

----> Andes, officially

2009-11-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

For all this time that my blog has been called 'from the land of the long white cloud to the land of the andes', I can now honestly say that I have oficially set foot on the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world. Offical Andean territory.

I could almost honestly say I have set foot in Argentina, but unfortunatly it was 20 more kilometres away and what we came for was on the Chilean side of the border. But I did meet Argentineans (aside from the gorgeous Argentinean waiter at my second favourite Copiapino cafe). My host dad saw the young lad with red hair and said v e r y s l o w l y 'has visto otro vehiculo pasar?' (have you seen another vehicle pass?), thinking that maybe the blond man was a gringo, but when he answered with a heavy Argentine accent we discovered that he, too, spoke Castellano.

Let me give some advice to any future travellers to the Andes. Being in a mountain range, it is high up, therefore cold and extremely windy. Remember to wear suitable clothing, like long pants, warm top layers, a wind breaker and a hat. Despite my broad experience of mountaineering and after school classes about tramping and how it might possibly be cold in the mountains, I came poorly prepared in knee length jeans, which did not give sufficient leg coverage nor protection from the elements that was required.

The first stage of the trip was driving through the desert, which isn't flat as one might think. It's full of huge hills (much like the Awakino gorge, of that size) and rocks and sand, which at times can be quite ugly, especially with litter strewn on the sides of the road, but also can be unspeakably beautiful.

'Cerro' from high up

The second phase of the journey started after we stopped for tinkle time at a small mine. I had previously visited the state of the art mine where my host dad works, with its huge offices, well furnished cateferia, games room, forest with trees grown from the wastewater, and luxurious things like that, but this mine was an old rickety thing. Red paint peeled from the walls, the cafeteria was small and shabby and there was no green. At that time, there were only 20 workers on site.

More driving, after zig-zagging through the tall hills we came of a top plain, where we had to pass through a border control. The road was at times fairly straight, but also could be quite curvy. There was a tribute sign to the Virgen Mary, who a bedraggled traveller saw on his journey which led him to civilization.

It was at some point here when I got my first sight of snow. This landmark is called the Three Crosses, which are three mountain peaks, the first that one will see as they drive along the San Francisco Pass.

Los Tres Cruces

Plains with the Andes in the background

As we got higher up, we started to see ice and a bit of snow. Not enough to cover the ground, but definitely snow. The guy at the border control told us that in the winter the petrol freezes in the cars, and there has to be a heater left on all day and night in the bathrooms so the water in the water pipes doesn't freeze.

After more driving, we came to the Laguna Verde. It was a lake high in the mountains that supposedly is green, but it was more a sky blue-turquoise. However, close to it was a bery green lake, with flamingos!

Laguna Verde, 4328m above sea level

It was at Laguna Verde where we had lunch, in a tent near the thermal pools. The wind was extremely cold and strong. Car doors swung open at a great velocity when the handle was turned.

The altitude affected all of us, with the air being thinner and all it makes one very tired after a tiny bit of exercise and lack of oxygen can cause headaches and dizzyness, all of which I got. It meant spending a bit of time lying in the car. But the fact that the Andes are a good four hours drive from Copiapó, meant we had time to see the lake, take photos, eat lunch, then we had to start heading back. Luckily I didn't miss much.

The drive back went a lot faster. We stopped at a waterfall where there were these really cute llama like creatures, called Guanacos, which are like a mix between llamas and camels. The river was really cool. It left a ribbon of green in the desert.

We got back to Copiapó reasonably early. After unpacking the car and eating a bit, my host brother set up the data projector to make me 'considerada persona'. This means watching five movies together - The Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings and two more films. We watched the first half of the Clockwork Orange but he saw that I was practically falling asleep so we saved the second half to watch another say.

On Friday, after going to school at 11am and talking with friends (no classes, because of the strike), I went to a friend's house to have lunch. She has two younger brothers and despite telling me they'll probably ignore me because I'm a girl, they fell to me really well and we had a good old chinwag about girlfriends and this toy called 'go go' (I'm talking about seven and eight year olds here), soccer, where Nes Zealand is, whether I should support NZ or Chile in a soccer game between the two and little things like that. Coni was really surprised that they liked me, one even gave me a lollipop! I guess it shows that I miss my little brother back in NZ.

After doing a bit of cooking - chocolate peppermint slice, which went down very well - we went to downtown to have an iced chocolate then to a singing competition in her school.

Me and Coni

Something I've learnt about being here - you would be surprised how much you stand out as a foreigner. After my drama class on Wednesday, I was standing outside with my host sister and another classmate. Wearing my navy Canterbury trackpants, sneakers, the sweater that I'm wearing in the above picture (bought from a store here in Chile) and with my hair out, I thought I looked pretty normal. The only thing going against my favour is the fact I'm taller than all of the girls I've met here and a good percentage of the boys.

So standing outside the Casa de Cultura, opposite the plaza, I was. On my left was one of the security guards, and who I thought was a friend, talking. But all of a sudden the 'friend' starts asking which country I was from. He hadn't even heard me speak. I then discovered he was just a typical drunk-off-the-street (but younger than usual) by the disgusting thing he said to me. He even reached out his hand for me to shake and I didn't know what to do . . . so I shook it. Ew! The naivity of gringos. If only I were shorter and darker.

Being a gringa does have its advantages. Now that I can speak and understand Spanish well, it's easy to converse and there's always a topic to talk about - home. People show a lot of interest in what another country is like, what school is like, what the parties are like, what the boys are like, what the food is like, basically a lot of things. I misunderestimated how much and what kind of things about my country I'd be talking about. There are a lot of things that my classmates find strange about where I come from. Sandals are part of the uniform! Single sex schools! Primary schools with mufti! Swimming pools in the schools! The 1/4 acre section! It's funny to see there reactions. And when they ask me 'do you like Chile?' I alway answer with 'sí, me encanta' (yes, I love it.)

Chau for now,

Anita.

---> Another Fat Student

2009-10-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

One of the inside jokes about AFS is that in place of meaning American Field Service is means Another Fat Student. (Side note: I'm sure my english grammar is not funcioning, in place of writing ing I want to write -ando, not to mention all the other little spanish words that my fingers have become accostomed to typing!)

Entonces (there goes another spanish word I use a lot, it means 'so'/'anyway'), those that go on exchange should be prepared to put on weight. It must be because exchangers are so open to trying new food! Yesterday I went into town with Krista and Giulia, other AFSers in Copiapó. What else is there to do in town than eat? We went to our second favourite completo-selling place, a little tiny cafe that sells completo italianos and bought a completo each. At that place they cost 700 pesos, which is a about $2 NZD, and at the más rico completo selling place (actually I think selling place means shop, as I said, my english is as wrecked as Hugh Grant in an action movie) sells completos for 600 pesos, with homemade mayonaise - which reeks of garlic but they are the best completos one will ever eat in their life. Completos del carrito.

Right, now that I've finished with my little completo essay, I'll get on with the story. With Krista and Giulia we smoked (well, I didn't smoke, I think another bad thing about exchange is that if you smoked before you came, you will smoke a lot more on exchange. Poor lungs.) and ordered completos. Then went to the s'mall (because it's a mall but it's small, ha ha) to take out money and recharge money on cell phones and buy perfume and make up, all the little downtown things that I actually had done the week before). After eating the savory completos we all wanted something dulce. Luckily in the mall there is a very delicioso bakery. Bought a cake called 'mil hojas' (1ooo leaves) which, when made well like my abuelita makes it, should have layers of homemade pastry with manjar and chopped nuts, and when made comercially is flaky pastry with a bit of manjar. But this mil hojas really rocked it. I though 'custard square in CHILE!' Because really is was like custard square on steroids. Lots of pastry with manjar in between, then custard, then more pastry and manjar. All for 700 pesos - and it was about twice the size of the NZ custard square. Perfecto!

I think cheap, good and exotic food is definitely the reason for durante-exchange weigh gain. So to really rub salt in the wound, we found a bench in the mall to sit. It was right outside a videogames place 'los gorditos' (the fat people). Justice.

Actually speaking of weight, I arrived to my theatre class on Wednesday and everyone commented on how I looked slimmer. Wow, and just that morning I had gone out for my first (very short) jog. Good to know the results show that fast! By the way, jogging and reggaeton mix so well its like magic. The steady beat of reggaeton encourages the jogger and while running it reminds me of good times in Chile - so I don't have to think about the road works people staring at the chubby gringa running with an iPod that probably costs more than they earn in a month - and because it's in Spanish I can also concentrate on distinguishing the words and widening my vocabularly. Gracias Daddy Yankee, Jadiel, Wisin y Yandel, Blindaje 10 y Makano.

What has made my (only two so far) jogging sessions possible is that the government in Chile ain't that good and the teachers of public schools are striking because they didn't recieve a payout that was due. So what do students of Liceo de Música do? We go to classes anyway.

A bit about my school. Three types of school in Chile. Fully private is expensive, top, snobby kids (although that's a bit of a generalisation, because I have met kids from the private schools here and they are nice!).

Mix of private and public - the government could pay only a little, so the schools are more 'top' because the parents have to pay a lot, or the government could pay a lot more of the fees, so they are less 'top' but still private because the parents have to pay a bit.

Public schools - the only fees that parents have to pay are this weird inscription kind of fee. Normally the kids that go there are from poor families (20% of the chilean population is below the poverty line, and there is a big gap between rich and poor). Some public schools are better than others - depends in which part of the city they are in. But generally they are 'flaite' which means gangster, problems with violence and bad grades. And unlike the other two types the schools are painted in bright colours.

So although Liceo de Música is public, is does have the advantage of being a music focused school, which means the students who go there are more 'sensitive' and nicer than students in other public schools. It's true. Not so many 'flaite' and if they are 'flaite' they're not scarily flaite, I'm friends with the ones that would be the most gangster students and they're nice. One of the downsides is that we don't have any sports teams. But the advantages, well...

The teachers are in strike. All of the other public schools aren't doing anything, but Liceo de Música, being a bit different with more motivated and sensitive students, has organised to to classes for those that want to come, every day at 11am (well really later than that, being in Chile). We have one class, done by a student in the final year, then lunch, then another class, then activities. And because of that, in came the news cameras and we got to be on the local news show. (There was a close up of my face in the segment that showed the coming news, how embarrassing!) Here is the video that I took of the news segment when it came on the news. See if you can spot me!

Photos from boredom

Supporting the teachers

Biology class. El Chavez appeared on the news.

Chile love: cheap things. Earrings especially. I have bought so many earrings! But wear to put them? I was in the market with my host mum a few weeks back and came across a man who made trees from wire to hag earrings. Perfecto! Now all my cool little earrings get so be on a tree, plus a few necklaces and butterfly clips. My favourite earrings are my giraffes and a bolivian couple. And this cute tree only cost mil pesos (1000 pesos, or $3.)

How do I pass my free time here? Friday = going to the movies with the exchangers. We saw a movie called Todo Incluido, a family drama made in Chile and México. It was really good, and so were the sour gummis that Fabian the German kept trying to steal from me. Before the movies, we all ate completos at the carrito. The cinema isn't in the centre of town, it's a part of the casino hotel, the tallest building the Copiapó has.

Before going out, with Krista

El Casino

On Saturday I hung out with Krista, went out for icecream with my friend Emily, then on Sunday again we went to see a basquetball game. The days fly by when you're having fun. A day is not a day if I don't go out.

Currently I am reading La Pasión Según Carmela (Passion according to Carmela) by an Argentinia author, Marcos Aguinis. Latino literatura. previously I had read Matilda, Boy Meets Girls (A chic flic by Meg Cabot, but in Spanish) and Twilight (in Spanish), which were all translated into Spanish, and I understood pretty much everything. Now the difference between those and that, is that written originally in Spanish there are phrases and a lot of words I have never come across. It needs concentration. I'm also reading Cronica de un Muerte Anunciada by the famous Gabriel García Márquez.

I owe my life to the genius who invented dictionairies. Although I am conversant, reading literature (note, literature, not books) is another story. But I need to read and this is a satisfying challenge.

Thanks to Krista, I am in love with a Spanish band, La Quinta Estación (The 5th Season). There's more to spanish music than reggaeton. And the cover album art it so cool. Que Te Quería is one of my favourites.

La llama se apagó - The call finished
No sé - I don't know
Matamos la ilusión - Let's kill the illusion
Tal vez - Maybe
Y dónde quedo yo - And where does that leave me?
En este mundo sin color - In this world without colours
Sin historias que contarte - Without stories to tell you
Sin saber cómo explicarte. - Not knowing how to explain it to you

Que hoy te veo - That today I see you
Y aunque lo intente no se me olvida - And although I try I can't forget it
Que eras tú el que no creía en las despedidas - That it was you that didn't believe in goodbyes
Que sigo siendo la misma loca que entre tus sábanas se perdía, - That I'm still the same crazy person that got lost in your sheets
Y a fin de cuentas no soy distinta de aquella idiota - And after all I'm not any different from that idiot
Que te quería - That I loved you

No importa como fue - It doesn't matter who it went
ni quién - nor who
Queríamos beber, sin sed. - We wanted to drink, without thirst
Y dónde quedo yo - And where does that leave me
en este mundo sin tu voz - In this world without your voice
ignorando las señales que me llevan a encontrarte - Ignoring the signs that take me to find you

Que hoy te veo
Y aunque lo intente no se me olvida
Que eras tú el que no creía en las despedidas
Que sigo siendo la misma loca que entre tus sábanas se perdía,
Y a fin de cuentas no soy distinta de aquella idiota
Que te quería
Que todavía espera verte sonreír - That still hopes to see you smile
Que todavía espera verse junto a ti - That still hopes to see herself together with you

Que hoy te veo
Y aunque lo intente no se me olvida
Que eras tú el que no creía en las despedidas
Que sigo siendo la misma loca que entre tus sábanas se perdía,
Y a fin de cuentas no soy distinta de aquella idiota
Que te quería
Que sigo siendo la misma loca que entre tus sábanas se perdía,
Y a fin de cuentas no soy distinta de aquella idiota
Que te quería

Love that song! So much that I translated it on my blog, ja ja.

Got to go to lunch now. Bye all :)

---> Back in time

2009-10-21T15:26:00.001-07:00

Since I havn't had a lot of time to update lately I'm going to skip back to two weekends ago and write about then!

So . . . what did I get up to then?

First things first. Friday night:

I was re reading the email about the AFS activity that was going to happen on Saturday, when I came across a word I did not yet know so I asked my host brother and to my horror, discovered that I meant I had to make a poster about New Zealand. In three hours, but first I had to go into town and buy paper and glitter pens. (The latter being very essential). Frantically I phoned the other exchangers to ask and Krista, from Finland, was already in town looking for the things, so I hopped on board a colectivo and flew downtown. We went to a good stationary shop where the assistant was incredibly helpful and bought all our necessary items, then decided to go and have something to eat while we were in town.

I returned home and started making my poster, frantically because my counsellor was coming by in a few hours to pick me up (I was staying in her house for the weekend as my family went to Coquimbo). She arrived (luckily all my bags were ready!) and we drove to her house, where I finished making the poster and ate a really good alfajor (biscuit with manjar in the middle, coated wth chocolate) and a glass of milk. Then went to bed with the poster finished!

Saturday:

The day started sunny and full of promise. The other jeep-loads of AFS affiliated people arrived to the house of my couseller, (where we had arranged to meet before we drove to Caldera to sell things in the market). Krista arrived but with a really pale face and told me that something horrible had happened. It was such a difference from how she was the day before. I followed her to find out what was wrong and it was so horrible. Her host brother had been in a horrible accident and passed away, her parents had gone to the city where we was studying and her exteneded host family was all at her house. All of us AFs people were really really shocked and upset for her and her family.

We arrived to Caldera and set up the stall for selling clothes and the easels with the posters about our countries.

Me, Giulia, Krista, Fabian and Ananda with our posters

This whole 'selling clothes' thing was to raise money for a national scholarship to send one student on their exchange for free. Us students talked to the people about exchanges and a nice couple from the south of Chile wanted a photo with people from other countries!

I had fun telling people that The Lord of the Rings was filmed in NZ and The Last Samurai too, and that the latter was filmed a five minute walk from my house! (Yes, I did see Tom Cruise!)

After, we had a barbeque and Fabian had to go for a swim in the freezing cold water as a kind of punishment/dare, due to the fact that his poster was just a little bit smaller and well... with just a little bit less information!

With Giulia and a girl who's going to France we had a look in the market at Bahia Inglesa, the market there is one of my favourites (even though I love just about any market in Chile!)

We drove back home in time to watch the soccer game in which Chile bet Columbia 4-2 and qualified for the World Cup! Chile is an extremely patriotic country and with my temporary hosts we drove to the centre of town to fly the Chilean flag and honk the horn a lot, which about half the city was doing! It was amazing, everyone was crazy and walking round with the flag, or in the car with their flag, hugging and cheering and shouting 'Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le Viva Chile!'

This took quite some time, but while we were in town we decided to watch a movie at the cinema, and watched one called La Nana, which is about the life of a maid in a Chilean household. My counsellor didn't like it but I found it interesting.

Sunday:

Tacos for lunch! I hadn't realised until then how much I missed mexican food!

After lunch we went to the church to pay our respects to the family of Krista, giving flowers like it is the custom to do, and sitting for a while in the church. It was a sad moment.

After that, I was dropped of at the house of my chapter president to stay for the other night. There were cousins from Santiago visiting and I helped them make an advert for a project they had to do. It involved me saying something like 'spanish spanish spanish OH MY GOD spanish spanish spanish'. It's really funny in Chile when the gringo say 'oh my god' because it is said so much in the Hollywood films, it's like a stereotype.

We were called to have onces right after the video was finished. Completos and torta for onces, yum! Then because this is Chilean and Monday was a holiday, we prepared ourselves (or the younger ones) to go out to a party and that is what we did!

Monday:

After getting up late (which everyone did that morning!), we ate lunch and then I watched TV for a while with Javiera (the daughter of my chapter president, who went to Denmark) and the we went to the funeral of Marcelo (Krista's host brother).

The funeral was pretty sad, it was such a contrast to Saturday, which was full of laughter and fun. But in exchange you have to really prepare for everything and that's one of the things that can happen. It shouldn't though.

RIP Marcelo

---> Where I could be now . . .

2009-10-15T13:04:00.001-07:00

(In Santiago)

Such a long time since I have done an update! Sorry about that everyone. Today I'm feeling a bit regretful of my general disorganised-ness. I'm not sure whether my life in Chile has influenced it or over seven months of no heavy deadlines (yes I have to meat deadlines but they're not life-or-death the way they would be if I was a real student in my NZ school), but despite being before the deadline in getting my forms in for a tour of the south of Chile with AFS, I've missed out on going as the spaces filled up too fast.

To rub salt into the wound, I was told I would be contacted if by any chance a space did become clear. Yesterday I was sitting on the micro (crowded, rackety bus but cheap and exchangers like 'cosas baratas' (cheap things) and I received a phone call. My heart thudded with excitement and images rushed into my head of me arriving in Santiago and greeting my AFS friends who thought I wasn't coming. I answered, said '¿Qué? Lo siento, estoy en el micro y no escucho nada?' (What? Sorry, I'm on the bus and I can't hear anything) and the man on the other end of the phone said something then hung up. My stop was two seconds down the roads. I'm not deaf or anything, bus it's so hard to hear when the bus is rattling over the potholes and there are boys rapping two seats behind you in the bus.

I waiting for about an hour for them to call me back, then finally rang the number only to find out it doesn't exist. That was more than salt being rubbed into the wound, it was lemon juice as well. (Which as a matter of fact, here in Chile, it there's any slices of lemon left over from a salad, you put salt on it and eat the lemon.) Finally I figured out I had to take off the plus sign and the first two digits then call. The phone finally rang - my heart really was pounding! - and suddenly the disapointment sunk in when I discovered that it was Entel PCS, my phone company, that had called me.

So the four-day process, of getting the papers printed, getting the signature of my AFS chapter president, depositing the money, buying the bus tickets and sending the papers had all been in vain. Or had it? I went with Giulia, from Italy (and who was lucky enough to be going on the trip) two days that week to try and buy the bus tickets - the first time we didn't buy them because we had underestimated how much they cost (thanks to the bus terminal lady that would have made us pay MORE for bus tickets) - and the second day we bought them and after walked to the town plaza to have an ice cream. Because we're so gorgeous and famous, we have our problems with the paparazzi following us but couldn't avoid them getting a shot of us as we sat down to enjoy our gelatos. The next day we appeared in the social pages of a top Chilean tabloid. Okay, joking. But while we were sitting down talking in the plaza, a photographer from a local paper asked us if he could take our photo. He took our photo then asked for our names (and although I made sure my surname was spelt correctly it was mispelt in the paper and makes me sound incredibly 'flaite' (gangster)).

Oh so famous

I'm on the left, Giulia on the right. Social pages of El Diario de Atacama

The plaza is definitely one of my favourite places in Copiapó, I love how in Chile there are many areas for 'social gatherings'. There are little plazas in nearly every neighbourhood and between the two lanes of some roads, there are footpaths in between with grass and trees on both sides and benches to sit on.

But back to the plaza, frecuenctally there are markets on, there's the 'normal' market and at times another market on the other side of the plaza. Both markets sell the same sort of things, earrings (I have an earring fetish!), scarves, bags, fanny packs, chocolate, tee shirts, necklaces and bracelets, hats, books and much, much more. I spent a while at the plaza last week talking to a Mapuche (the indigenous people of Chile) about what the symbols on the earrings meant and the south of Chile. That day, as well as Mapuche earrings, I also bought a bag, because my AFS NZ backpack is simply huge and apparently I have knocked someone with it on the bus (how embarrassing!). So I love the markets and the plazas here, that's for sure.

Anyway, speaking of plazas, that's where I'm heading in a few minutes, so chao! (Yes, it's ciao in Italiano, but in Chile we also say chao. Adios sounds so . . . formal, for this relaxed country!)

---> Time's a loaded gun

2009-09-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

Seven months into my Chilean exchange and I think the only thing that still hasn't met the (very few) expectations I had before I came is that my hair has not grown nearly quite long enough just yet! (Chilean girls have long hair in general - my hair was chin level when I arrived!)

I think a good analogy for an exchange is that it's like a show in the theatre. The first part of a show is always the rehearsing - learning the lines, where to go on stage, what else will be happening while you're performing and those kind of things. The second part is knowing what to expect and performing, everything in synch. Which means, the first half of the exchange is learning the language (or getting a good mastery of it), becoming accustomed to the culture and day to day life and making friends. Then comes the second half, which is easier than the first half because most of the hard work is done, and you now know what to exepect, understand what is happening and can communicate well to other people what you want.

It's also the best half of the exchange, but that is bittersweet because time goes by fast when you're having fun.

Extra, extra! Exhange advice section-

One of the aspects I like most about where I am now is having true friends, who I can communicate well with. I am really going to miss them - the first few months can be so isolatin because although people try to include you, you can never laugh along with the jokes knowing what the joke is actually about, whereas now it's possible to tell jokes yourself. Communication is the big thing, it's possible to have another level of friendship, because I can talk to my friends about more serious things, and they too confide in me, because they know I actually understand what is being said. It's probably the most rewarding part of exchange, when the friendships become more profound and meaningful. (Unfortunately it makes it harder to leave too!)

There are so many rewarding things about going on an exchange, it's an oppurtunity not to miss. To know that you are capable of making such strong friendships despite not understanding well the language for the first few months actually really rocks. I love the 'moments' I share with my friends and gosh to think I only have so much time left to spend time with them.

And although I'm talking here about friendships becoming stronger, there are still new friendships forming. In classes, if for some reason people sit in other places I'll probably end up talking to some other classmates, and that means I'll greet them too when I see them, which means we'll probably talk more, and viola! more friendships formed! There's absolutely no way of knowing how many potential friends one has in the world, I've learned.

I still laugh about the day (during the school anniversary) when hardly anyone came to one class (civics) and because it's an elective, there were kids from the other third grade class there. All of the friends I normally sit with had chosen not to come to class, as well as about half of the class. So what did we spend the class doing? Hiding in boxes and sellotaping bags to chairs . . . good times!

With (some) of my awesome friends

---> 18th September

2009-09-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Last week every single house flew the Chilean flag, cars put flags on their bonnets and way too much meat was barbecued.

Last week lots of Cueca was danced, empanadas were eaten and reggaeton was played.

Last week was the 199th anniversary of Chile's independance from Spain, and being the patriotic country it is, it sure was celebrated!

On the Wednesday there were activities at school, traditional dances from Rapa Nui (easter island), Mapuche dances (the native inhabitants of Chile), Cueca, and a lot more.

A lot of people, especially the younger ones, came to school in traditional costume, which for girls is either a colourful patterned dress and white socks, or a long black skirt, white blouse and black jacket, and for men is black trousers and jacket, hat, poncho, boots and spurs and shin guards (my host sister also wasn't lying when she said that the guys look exquite in their 'huaso' clothes).

School festivities

At a large park in Copiapó was a colection of stages, where different groups supposedly played traditional music, which sounded a lot more like Cumbia (tropical) to me, and people danced, there was a market and traditional food stalls.

So what are some of the traditional Chilean 18th September foods?

-First, empanadas, a meat turnover.

-Choripan, which is Chorizo sausage in a bread roll.

-Churrasca, thin bread rounds cooked on a barbecue.

-Ferros, meat skewers with capsicum and onion.

-Mote con Huesillos, which is barley with a syrup and rehydrated peach (sounds strange but it's yummy)

That's all I can think of for now, but so much barbecued meat shouldn't be eaten in one day!

In my family, we celebrated my driving two hours south to my uncle and aunt's in Vallenar, where, like every family in Chile, we had a barbecue, with lots of yummy food and salads, a typical family get together, making the skewers together, sharing a meal and sharing laughs. It went well.

Also, another interesting fact is that it is illegal NOT to fly the Chilean flag from your house on the 18th!

---> Cumpleaños Eileen

2009-09-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

There's getting to be quite a big list of things I haven't done before coming to Chile, and one of those things is going to a birthday party on a weeknight until very late at night . . .

On Monday was the celebration of my friend Eileen's 18th birthday, and to celebrate was a dinner with family and close friends. It was different from other birthday celebrations I have been to, on Saturday I went to one that was exactly the opposite - a huge party with lots of people in a rented out location. This was a family kind of celebration, with a huge table full of yummy food like barbecued meat, salads and most surprisinly of all these onions that had been bathed in water and marinated in cumin. Food was eaten, speeches were made, then birthday cake and dancing!

Andrea, Eileen, Cony and I

The last weekend really was a busy one, because not only on Monday did I go out, but on Friday night went to my friend Sofía's house to watch movies and have pizza, but on Saturday was a barbecue for members of the Rotary club, and family.

Friends in Sofía's room

The barbecue was really fun, it was at like a kind of park one rents out, it had like a little unit, a barbecue and some swings and a fire pit. We ate lots of barbecued meat, then after played pool, danced Cueca, the national dance of Chile. Rotary does student exchanges too, and one of the Rotary exchangers was there, as well as a returnee who went to Canada. Us three hung out a bit, and waited for the bread cooked in the barbecue to be cooked. Pan Amasado is really really really yummy with butter, like pretty much all the bread here.

And here's a thing which makes me think 'oh, Chile'. Last Sunday night was a kind of cultural celebration of Chile, and later on was a concert. There's not really a mosh pit, but there were a lot of people there watching the show. I was right at the front, when I looked back and saw that some of the people standing behind me were standing around something. I looked down and there was a drunk man sleeping, right in the middle of the crowd of people watching the concert. Ah, Chile. He'd just fallen asleep right there.

Coming up is the 18th of September, which, this year, is the 199th anniversary of Chile having it's independance. It's a hugely important celebration here, because Chile is an incredibly patriotic country. Even now cars have Chilean flags on them, houses have put up flags, and today my school had a celebration of dances and traditional Chilean food to celebrate. I'll update after the 18th to let you know just how it went.

---> Revolution

2009-09-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Out of the 7 exchange students here in Copiapò, I am the only one by myself at school (eg, without another exchanger) and also, in a public school. It was a bit strange at first to get used to taking toilet paper to chool, as although we have school toilets, and toilet paper rolls, there is no toilet paper. Rarely there is soap, and quite a few of the toilets don´t flush. However, now I a happy to say that for the first time in my history of being here, the toilets had toilet paper, liquid soap AND paper hand towels. It´s a revolution baby.

I was also told by the school inspector, that my school is probably the only public school in all of Copiapò to have toilet paper in the toilets, let alone soap and paper hand towels, and we could be the only public school in the whole of Chile to have that.

Some of the differences between my school here and my school in NZ are:
-firstly, it´s mixed and the kids start at primary
-little kids start doing tests right from the word go
-there´s no playground for the littlies and a tiny patch of grass that nobody walks on
-during the first break the school gives those who need it a breakfast of hot milk and bread
-the littlies wear an apron like coat over their uniform
-supposedly we´re not supposed to, but everyone wears noticable earrings
-chairs are uncomfortable and normally you stay seated at the same desk all day
-the gate shuts at 8am and if the inspectpor is nice he´ll let you in without taking down you`re name and class, if you arrive after 8am
-there are these dudes called inspectors that make sure everyone behaves well, and usher everyne into the classes when the bells go. but most of them are really cool
-my school has a dining room and microwaves to heat lunch!
-after lunch you brush your teeth
-and after PE, you shower and wash your hair (that´s when we actually do something in PE)
-there are school dogs
-the palm tree is the best place to sit and the 30 cent ice blocks are the best
-and th 45 cent packs of alfajors... yum yum!
-everyone in the class is friends
-and because of that generally not much work gets done . . .

That`s all I can think of for you. Been busy lately, going out, watching a television series wth my sister and just general things, I love it like this.

Chau for now!

---> The BIG shock

2009-09-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

Some might say that moving into a new country, the differences and strangeness of everything comes as a huge shock. It's true. Adjusting to a new culture is a strange process, when strange little things can throw you off or make you incredibly homesick. I went through that in my first few months here, but little did I know there was a bigger shock to come. As an exchange student, I knew the best thing to do would be to stand talk, keep my chin up, keep on walking and toot the flute. It was the moment I realised 'Banda' didn't mean concert band, but marching band.

The first clue I got about the band I had joined at my school would be different was when the director asked us to memorise music. The other students had been in the band for longer than I had, so alread had the music down pat (I didn't realise they played the same tune each year at first, I thought, being in a music high school, that they were talented musicions and learnt 4 songs in a week, while I was struggling to learn 4 bars in a week).

The first shock came when I realised the reason we had been asked to learn the music off by heart. At 5pm one Friday afternoon, during my first few months here, when to my hope and joy we seemed to be packing up early . . . to my dismay, everyone was simply moving outside with their instruments. Why? Another thing I haven't done before - play music off by heart on the flute while marching in the first line of a marching band. It's not as easy as it sounds, and my first time I was awful at it. Firstly marching in time. That's not too hard, but when it is your first time and you are in the first row and don't know the director's hand signals, it gets messy. Secondly, marching in time AND playing an instrument, supposedly with music you know by memory. Concentrating on marching is one thing, and concentrating on playing music off by heart is another thing, and they must use different sides of the brain or something because I almost walked into about 3 poles. (While trying not to bump poor Carolina with the end of my flute). Then there's the marching well, concentrating on the music and trying to keep your flute held high. It all sounds pretty complicated, and as I now know, some things are a lot easier said than done.

However, we have not come to the BIG shock. What we were practicing for in my first few months was the 21st of May, a date of a naval battle in Iquique, and all of the schools' marching bands play on that morning. However, due to the strike of the teachers in the public schools, my school did not play - and I thought that was the end of marching band - back to the familiar playing the flute sitting down stage.

Ha. Last week at Band practice, guess what we did - Marching band again!

This was for the school anniversary, so on Sunday morning we had to be at school in uniform, ready to march from the school to the town plaza to celebrate the anniversary.

Marching Along

We marching on one side of a two lane road at one stage, and cars still came along alongside us! That's one of the things different about here, traffic isn't as considerate. (I won't scare my family reading this by telling them that I have lost count of the times I have nearly been run over here). Stray dogs aren't very considerate either, but it's lucky they poop on the footpaths and we marched on the road. But one did join the parade. It wasn't just the marching band marching either, the whole school (or those that could get themselves up on Sunday morning and weren't in the choirs or dancing Cueca in places around town) had to march. So we waited for a while by the mall, and my friend Barbara took some photos.

Waiting . . .

The marching band it very traditional, and there are certain 'passes' we have to do, one of them it the Retreat. I accidently stood on the back of someone's shoe when I was coming forward. But the retreat is when all the classes come through and they say the name of the class, as I understood.

Then, before we could go home, we were given cartons of juice, and started to set up chairs for the concert in the plaza. We played a few songs, then packed up and were given free empanadas and more juice - it was a hot day! One of the interesting things my host parents told me is that in the times of Augusto Pinochet, every single Sunday there had to be a parade in the plaza, because Pinochet (militarist dictator of Chile about 30 years ago) liked military things.

The concert

In other news, another week has passed, I have been out a few times with the other exchange students, and now know the best place to eat completos! This is fure sure the best half of the exchange. I'm having the time of my life here.

---> Aniversario

2009-08-30T16:19:00.001-07:00

Have you ever passed an onion on to another person using only your mouth? Heard of competitions 'Mr Legs', 'Miss Butt' or 'Sexy Dance?' Seen a game of soccer being played on dirt in a dry river bed? I can proudly say that I have!

Over the past week was the school anniversary. Every school in Chile has an anniversary, and it's a week full of activities for the students. In the mornings we has classes, and in the afternoons are the activities. It was a competition between 4 aliances, the 60's (green), 70's (red), 80's (black) and the 90's (white). My class, plus two more classes, made up the aliance of the 90's.

On Monday we had the 'show'. Each aliance had to present, well, a show, using music from the decade, and it had to be 10 minutes long. Each dance was really really good. The 70's won, but I thought our 90's show with the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys was pretty cool. After the shows, they had competitions for things like Gala Couple, Beach Couple, Miss and Mr Cake (Butt), Miss and Mr Legs, Strange Couple, and impersonations. The competitions were really interesting to watch, although I was a bit shocked by the promiscuity of some of the dances, especially with the teachers watching.

One of the dances

During the week were soccer games, the boys' soccer game was played on the dry Copiapó river bed, and the girls' on the the basketball courts in the school. People went down to support the teams, with drums and balloons of the colour of the aliance. There were competitions for human tables, passing an onion from person to person using only the mouth, passing water back in a line while sitting down to fill up a bucket.

The onion competition

They had a dancing competition, and each aliance danced to some songs of the era. The 90's dance won that one - I helped a bit with the choreography of the YMCA song by The Village People. The guys in the dance wore leather jackets and helmets and looked really good in their costumes, the Backstreet Boys part they had jeans and singlet tops. It was a really polished dance, opposed to some of the others.

Supporting the aliance

Although supposedly we had classes in the morning, everyone was practicing the dances and preparing things for the competitions, so we didn't actually do a lot of school work that week. One of the most fun 'classes' was with a few people from 3ºA who were sellotaping everything to everything. Good times!

The anniversary also was a chance to hang out with different people, because school was treated as very optional that week by some of my friends. I helped backstage for the show and the dances, straightening hair and gossiping during class with the people that did come to school, making videos at lunchtime with my friend Mauro and taking photos with other friends.

Soccer game in the riverbed

The anniversary officially finishes with a prizegiving ceremony, not only the winners from the aliances but also to award the students with the highest grades and presend student acheivements. There was a special assembley in formal uniform on Friday for this. Then after, on Friday night, was another ceremony, to crown the Queen and King, and the Fiesta Gala, which is basically a social but with formal clothes. Starting at 11pm and going until 2am on Saturday morning!

Host sister and I before the Fiesta Gala

I loved how the aliances had not only colours, but decades, it really made the dances and shows really cool, for the 60's Show, they had the Man on the Moon. There were lipsynchs to Blondie for the 70's, Britney Spears for the 90's and unfortunately I can't remember the rest! The anniversary is also all organised by the students, the week before my class voted on a Queen, who acts as a house captain and organises everyone. The ambient in the school was very relaxed, the teachers seemed a lot cooler and the students friendlier than normal, although there was a very competitive attitude out there. It was a good week to complete my 6 month anniversary of being in Chile too.

---> A tad sick

2009-08-18T15:48:00.001-07:00

Up until now I'd been fairly healthy healthy here in Chile. One cold, and the usual adjusting-to-the-different-food kind of tummy problems that practically every exchange student experiences. Nothing horribly horribly bad that has resulted in me needing to go to the doctor and get an injection. Not that I mind injections, it's where they put them I do mind. Unlike NZ, where the arm is a perfectly non-embarrassing site to have a needle inserted into your body, Chile finds a buttock equally effective. Luckily I didn't need an Injection!

But on Saturday morning I woke up and got out of bed, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast, but was feeling tired and headachy. I wasn't my usual self at brekky (on Saturdays everyone eats breakfast at the table together). So I went back upstairs to bed and slept. My host sis asked if I wanted lunch but I just wasn't hungry. I got myself up at about 7pm, I think I ate an orange or a mandarin or something. Then later we watched a movie, Sunshine Cleaning, but my tummy started to hurt more, and I was yawning my head off altough I'd slept basically the whole day, so I went back to bed and straight to sleep.

Sunday was the day my host sis and I had planned to make empanadas, a traditional Chilean food, it's a pastry turnover with a meat filling. They had bought all the ingredients, and although I was feeling sick I helped make them, because I said I would and I love empanadas. I went back to bed while they were cooking though, but ate one for lunch, along with a fruit salad which my host sis had prepared. Meanwhile, my other host sis had also started to feel sick.

On Monday, us two stayed at home and watched Fringe, a TV series, on the computer for part of the day, and slept. My host mum made raspberry jelly (and I'm not a jelly person but this was good jelly!) and bought home my FAVOURITE peach juice! Today we also stayed home from school, but will be coming to school tomorrow. No longer do I feel tired, sick and dizzy and I miss my friends. I have been told that being sick makes you miss home a lot more, I guess it did a bit, but not as much as I imagined. Which was nice. I had enough homesickness at the start and I don't need any more.

So the culprit for causing the illness? Nobody knows, maybe Dr House but he's not real. I'm leaning towards the idea of pastel de choclo (corn tart). It once was my favourite food here but now not so much. On Friday, me, one of my host sisters, my dad and host brother all ate one, and it seems to have only affected us girls. But they were bought from the market, so you never know. Although I have eaten food (aside from fruit) from the markets before. Who knows? It doesn't really matter.

Now for other news! Last week on Tuesday I went to see Harry Potter with my friends Andrea and Nicole. It was in Spanish - they pronounce 'Harry' differently! I felt proud that I understood everything. We took a few photos while waiting outside the casino (where the cinema is) for Nicole.

Andrea and I

On Friday was the AFS welcome for the two new students, Giulia from Italy and Krista from Finland. I also met the students who are postulating to study abroad next year, one of which I am happy to say hopes to come to NZ! The host parents of each of the students said a few words, then we got to eat and talk. Conversations with other exchange students always go well, time passes fast!

Two of the postulating student, me, and Giulia

By the way, cool fact I learnt - the moon is owned by a Chilean!

Shout outs: (I don't know why I'm taking a leaf out of The Edge, but I am. If you read this guys please let me know here or on my facebook!) - To Robertine who I heard scored the meanest basketball goal AND write me letters! And to my Aunty Catherine and Uncle Roger - for the hunky-dory birthday gift I am stoked with! (inside joke).

---> how long have you been 17 for? . . . a while . . . (10 days)

2009-08-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the Twilight quote. I'd been waiting until I could honestly say that. Not that I'm a fan (or fan club, as one of my friends says here).

My actual birthday was Sunday the 2nd. That day I was jumped on in my bed by my host sister with whom I share a room. My other host sister came into my room and wished me happy birthday too. I went downstairs and there was surprisinlgy nobody home . . . so I made myself a cup of coffee and some cereal with yogurt and ate that.

Later arrived my host dad, from playing tennis with the neighbour, then my host sis and mum from the supermarket, and we got to work setting the table for brunch. I didn't have to do anything to help they told me, but I had already started peeling (yes, peeling, why cut in half when you can peel?) and avocado, which is strangely satisfying and I was happy doing. Then I mashed it up which yeah, again strangely satisfying.

We put everything on the table and the neighbours arrived, Tío Oscar, Tía Marina and Ignacio (they're not really aunt and uncle, but it's polite to call them that). The brunch was huge, lots of fresh bread, avocado, salami, ham, cheese, apple cake, and not to mention birthday cake! I swear in Chile I have eaten desert for breakfast far too many times. It was a very jolly breakfast that's for sure.

I'm 17 in this picture!

Then on Friday I had some friends around for a little party. We were fewer than I expected but it was a good party all the same. We ate completos. (Completo = hot dog with avocado and tomato and mayonaise), chips, watched the start of Transformers 2 and I taught everyone how to play the Chocolate Game (when you have to roll a six with a dice, put on silly clothes and use a knife and a fork to eat chocolate).

Andrea and I eating completos

The bar of chocolate ran out way too fast and we all still wanted to play but everyone changed their mind when the only food item we had to play with was the frankfurters from the completos!

Playing the Chocolate Game

Amigas para siempre!

So that all went pretty well.

I am more than halfway through my exchange and like I have been told so many times, the 2nd half is the better half and so far it's proving to be very very true. Having a better grasp on the language makes such a difference, and I am far more independant now. I can go out after school as long as I'm in some kind of transport (micro or colectivo) by 8pm. Going to the post office does no longer make me nervous. Friends really feel like friends.

And not to mention I have been really busy lately. Last week, every single day of the week I was doing something. Which makes time go by a lot faster!

I have also started a drama class, something I have been wanting to do for a while. I was the second youngest person there though, everyone else aside from me and my host sister were adults!

So that's enough for now. Thanks to everyone who's reading this blog, and I'd like to copy The Edge a bit and give a huge shout out to Natalie, Simon and Grandfather, who all have had their birthdays recently. Happy Birthday!

---> Bay bay Conors

2009-08-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

(Bye bye Connor)

Last week my friend Connor, here for only a semester, returned to the United States. We had an AFS meeting to farwell him, which alongside with yummy food also included dancing of Chile's traditional dance, the Cueca. Two (Chilean) students danced first for us, then the boy came up to me and the girl up to Fabian and we were forced to dance... or try to dance, as I still yet have to a) learn how to dance the Cueca and b) actually dance well! So basically I was standing there waving a paper napkin and smiling while everyone was laughing, but all of us students had to do it so it wasn't so bad.

Obviously pro at the Cueca

Then the next day I went with my host brother to the bus terminal where all of Connor's friends had gathered to farwell him. It was surreal, to think that this would be me before I knew it.

AFS had given him a hoodie and also his class, with the classes names embroidered in the back. When the bus left everyone chased it as far as they could go. Tears were shed.

Bus terminal

Along with Connor, who lived in Copiapó, a lot of my other friends for semesters also left, mainly from the USA and Austria. Aside from a few, I think they all would have liked to stay for a year.

But a few days later, arrived the new students. Here now in my city are two girls, one from Finland and one from Italy. On Wednesday, Fabian, Ananda and I met with them in town to show them around town, talk about Chile things and eat Completos. We all got along really well and hopefully will be making a tradition of our Wednesday meet-ups.

Sorry this is a short post, but I've been really busy lately. I have a lot to update but it will be sometime in the weekend hopefully.

Connor, Ananda, me and Fabian, at the AFS farewell for Connor. Now we're three girls and one boy in Copiapó.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading this and commenting/emailing me about this! It makes my blog worth writing. If there's anything particular anyone would like to know, do tell me and I will include it.

---> Sand, snow and sun

2009-07-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Interesting weather we had here in the holidays. On Tuesday it rained tonnes - well tonnes for the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world. But because it rained in Copiapó, and the further inland and the higher altitude one goes, the colder it gets, about 100kms inland from us it snowed!

Road, desert, snow

This wasn't just a light dusting of snow, this was brown desert that had been replaced by white - it stretched on for kilometres with the small mountains of the desert in the background. There were a lot of other people there who had come to see the snow. It was something I never expected to see during my time in Chile - snow, and in the desert!

The huge amount of snow, everything was white and blue

Snow means snowmen, so I started to build a snowman on the bonnet of the jeep. When my family realised what I was doing, they helped by sticking some sticks in his neck to support his head better. We drove for about 40kms with Otto the Snowman on the bonnet, but due to some purposeful sharp breaking on my host dad's part (despite our protests) Otto unfortunately died at about 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Host sisters and I with Otto

Cousin, host grandma, host sibling, host dad and I in the snow with the other snowman

NZ represent! (AFS top, Icebreaker thermal and Canterbury pants!)

From Wednesday evening to Saturday evening I spent at the beach in Caldera, which is one hour away from Copiapó, where my host family has a little beach bach. It was only my host sister (the one who's 16) and I. We packed our bags on Wednesday, took a colectivo downtown to get to the bus/taxi station. We got off and as we arrived at the station, the driver of the bus was calling out 'anyone else for Caldera?' So we ran to the bus. Because it was really full I ended up sitting next to an old man and my sister further at the back of the bus. But as people got out along the way, there was a seat next to her where I could sit. We arrived in Caldera and took another colectivo to the beach house, which is at another little beach about 15 mins walk away (it was cold and we had bags, and it was dark). There was a bit of cleaning to do - sweeping away the termite dust and cleaning the toilet, as the last people to stay there were my host dad, uncle, granddad and brother, and men do not think to put chlorox in the toilet bowl . . . - anyway, my host sister's boyfriend arrived while we were making pasta for supper. After supper we went to another beach house, where Rafa (host sis's boyfriend) was staying with a friend (Sebastian). There were a few of the friends of Rafa and Seba there - Ramón and Luis (Lucho/Tata), and Patricio (Pato). So we played cards for a few hours.

The next day was a lazy day - we all got together at Lucho's house to have lunch, which was prepared mainly by the guys, Rafa and Seba. An entrée of tomato, avocado and sardines, and a main of rice and a sausage. In Chile they prepare the rice differently too, first they chop up carrot into small pieces, and maybe a capsicum or peas, cook the carrot and other veges for a bit in oil, then add rice and water, then let it cook slowly in the pot on top of a toaster frier (which I have only seen in Chile). After lunch we watched a movie (well Seba, Lucho and I watched a movie while host sis and Rafa watched House). Then went to buy supplies for a barbecue later that night.

The real men cooking

The barbecue meant buying meat, sausages and an onion (to clean the grill thing), oh, and fanta and beer (as long as you look old enough, shops will sell alcohol to underage people). And just to stop anyone reading this from having a heart attack, it was one bottle of one litre between six people, with plenty of food. We are responsible teenagers. The barbecue was cleaned my rubbing the onion against the grill plate while the fire was going underneath (this is a proper artesional barbecue, with fire, not with gas.) Someone is in charge of the meat and it gets taken off the barbecue at various stages of rare-ness, cut into bite sized pieces. It's not like in NZ when once everything is cooked everyone starts to eat, here we get fed gradually. So we ate and played cards and had a good time.

I bought some NZ sweet 'Kiwi poo'/Choc raisins to have before the barbecue

Rafa, host sis, Seba, me and Lucho at the barbecue

The next day (Friday) we had lunch at Seba's beach house - rice and hamburger meat with a salad that I made. It was funny how my host sis had originally planned to come to the beach for one night (Wednesday) and we ended up leaving on Saturday! On Friday night we watched some of House, then we went back to our house because my host brother had arrived, I made a supper of rice and sausages for us while my host sis and boyfriend went for a walk.

Outside the beach house:

Saturday was a lazy day, we didn't really have any food for breakfast until someone bought bread. This time we all had lunch at my host family's beach house - oysters, pasta and sausages. It was a great lunch. Since we had stayed so late, Seba's dad drove us all back home, as we was coming anyway to pick up Seba and Rafa.

On Sunday, the last day of the holidays, I spent the morning cleaning and tidying my part of the room, not to say it was untidy but I wanted to have a good sort through my stuff. We went to a chinese restaurant for lunch, then afterwards I walked the dogs, and started to sort through all the emails I had missed while I was away! And now the holidays are over . . . These have definitely been great holidays!

---> Month numero 5

2009-07-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

And so suddenly, it seems, I have been in this country as an exchange student for five months! It is amazing to be an exchange student and live the life that people live in another country. There are the hard times obviously. But just being here is amazing and I don't regret for one second choosing to do an exchange.

So for those of you who ask, what could possibly be hard about doing an exchange? Here are the answers.

1. Isolation. Remember nobody speaks your language. You are from another culture. You are weird but interesting. Friends might include you or might not. If you have friends . . . maybe you don't have friends.

-What you learn from isolation: it goes away. There are times when you feel more isolated than others. And as the exchange students, it's up to YOU to break the barriers, even if you can harldy speak the language. Photos of home country help.

2. Communication: Not only do they speak a different language, but also have a different way of saying things. The first mission is to get your message across, the second stage of that mission is to convey it with the sense that you would convey it with in your native language, which means understanding a lot more of the culture than it appears at first.

-What you learn from that: Although it's nice to be able to know fully that you are getting your point across, it's generally not going to matter if you can't. If you can't explain something, will it matter next week? It's like survival class, do what is necessary to survive and the extra bits are like treats.

3. Being different: Kind of like isolation. Being around people from a different culture, who you are generally taller than can get a bit hard sometimes. You want to joke around and be yourself but sarcasm and your style of humor isn't as well understood yet. Which means you long for your friends back home who get you.

-What you learn from it: It can be fun too. Just get over it, and saying that to yourself does help, because it's no use being miserable when you could be having fun!

What I tell myself whenever times are hard is that it's not going to be hard forever. Because that's true. It's part of life to go through the tough times and nobody said life was going to be easier, it just makes it that much harder when you are in a foreign country.

The good stuff by far outweighs the hard stuff.

1. Being an exchange student. You always have something to talk about - your home country. A good way to break the ice with someone. And you get special attention because you're foreign. Like being called by your full name instead of just your first name.

2. The food. Empanadas, cakes and tortes. All is good. Bread too, because it's like little buns instead of loafs.

3. Markets. Jewellery really cheap and cool. Scarves cheap and cool. Markets are cool.

4. Spanish. Speaking in a different language and thinking in a different language!

5. Friends. From around the world. It's just plain neat!

There's so much more, but one of the things I don't like is being tired so I'ma going to have to go to bed now!

---> Holidays! (At last!)

2009-07-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

I am in the second week of the school holidays in Chile and I already don't want to go back to school! Well I do, but these holidays are going so well too, and unlike in NZ, we only get one two week holiday during the year, not three. So everyone is really getting into the spirit of things.

On Wednesday (I updated on Tuesday) I went out with a friend. This day turned out to be one of my best and worst days here - I got what I

had been waiting for then is was suddenly gone - it's the feeling you get when all the possibility you have is gone, a horrible let down feeling. It came for a multitude of reasons I won't get into here, but I can say I am very lucky to have my friends back in NZ and one of my good friends here to be here for me when I needed them.

Thursday passed as a quiet day, but at night I went to

a party for the birthday of one of my host sister's friends, who has become a friend of mine too. A lot of here friends have nicknames, like El Gato (the cat), El embarazado (the pregnant one, and it's a guy too), El Negro (negro is Spanish for black, it's not meant as anything offensive here), and this party was for El Tata (the Grandpa). It's interesting how these people get their names too. Luis (El Tata) is called that because at times he resembles and old man. So for his gift we gave him a blanket with Tata sewed on it. The party went well, although it is very, very cold at night - about 5ºC or below normally!

On Friday my host uncle and host Grandad came for lunch, so everyone has to help out preparing things and cleaning up the dishes (as per usual, but there are more). Saturday was the 18th birthday of my friend Carolina. It was at her house with her friends and classmates from school. Her family had made a slideshow with baby photos and members of her family and friends giving her their wellwishes. The food was sopaipillas, which are like circles of friend dough made with pumpkin, cheese empanadas, pizza and birthday cake. It's a Chilean tradition to stuff your head in the birthday cake, but Caro didn't want to so only put her chin in. We talked, danced and played cards. Somehow the hours that you spend at a party seem to go by quite fast. Somthing that I don't understand is that, as long as I give my host parents plenty of notice about a party, they don't seem to mind too much picking me up and dropping me off. I always thank them for doing this too, but I don't like to ask too often. They prefer to do this so they can see where the party is, and although I could go home, like many do, in a colectivo, this is Chile, and it is dangerous, so like for all my siblings they prefer to come by and pick me up rather than me go in a colectivo.

Francyn, Marcelo, Caro, Ferry, me and Mauricio at the party

On Sunday, my host grandmother (La Lela) and a host cousin arrived from Quillota, a city near Santiago. With them arrived a huge carton of little cakes, like sponge cakes with manjar in between, and also a huge heavy torta, made from layers of home made pastry with manjar between each layer.

Today is Monday and I went to see Ice Age 3 with my host sibs, Lela and cousin. I also played Ping Pong with my host brother and lost horribly - when my host sister's boyfriend was playing with the Lela, the ball landed in my mug of coffee.

My five month point is coming up so soon. Thinking about leaving is something that I find simply weird. I don't want to think about it too much, making the most of my time here is what I am doing. Some of my good exchange friends here will finish their semester exchange shortly. I am glad I'm here for a year - at this point I have a fairly good grasp of the language, I have friends, I fit in well with my family - but if I was leaving I would feel like I was losing something. And the advice I will give to all students considering exchange, is unless your school really really won't let you go for a year, unless you have a serious relationship or a really strong reason to go for a semester. A lot of the semester students I have talked to don't want to return and wish they were here for a year. Although it seems like a long time at first, time goes by a different clock during exchange - you're always learning something, doing something, achieving something - so it seems to zoom by.

---> Survival in the desert

2009-07-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

I think living here has definitely taught me a few things about life, or more like, life in the desert. One month and a few days before I came here, I got my host family information, and discovered I would be living in Copiapó, a city in the middle of the driest desert on earth, the Atacama. I imagined days filled with scorching heat; the Kiwi turning into a tomato from the strong, bright sun; having siestas every day because the heat rendered anyone incapable of working between 12pm and 4pm; pavements so hot you could barely walk on them between those hours - and I could go on and on. Obviously I was a little bit off on my predictions - today, it rained. And for anyone coming to the same city as me for their exchange, it gets very cold at night.

I'm nearing the halfway point of my exchange, and like I have been told by many people, this is the point when everything starts to come together, the soft concrete foundations of friendships start to harden and strengthen, the mastery of the language happens and you feel like you're really part of the family. So far all of this has been true. I honestly would be regretting making the choice to do a semester if I had chosen that, I am fully glad with my choice to do a year.

A couple of weeks ago, well actually the weekend after I got back from the North Trip, my host dad took us on a trip to see the mine where he works. Two other families came, and it drove through the desert for one and a half hours until we arrived at the mine.

Desert

When we arrived it was straight to the office to put on safety gear - a vest, goggles and a helmet, all very model-eske and well fitting. As you can see...

Afterwards we boarded a bus to get a good view of the mine, which is an open pit mine. Lots of big, grunty trucks. The copper that is mined is first treated to be pure copper and put in bricks of 45 kilograms, then is sent by truck a few hours north to the city (or outside the city) of Antofagasta to be shipped.

It was a rather brief time at the mine, enough to get a view of the mine, see my host dad's office and where he stays during the four days he works during the week - it might be four days, but that's four 12-hour days!

No outing with other people would be complete without an 'asado' (barbeque). So we drove about one hour south to Caldera, where one of the families had rented out a unit, and were getting ready the barbeque and food. After a few hours we returned to Copiapó, in the wee hours of the morning.

This last week at school before winter holidays (or recess, according to my philosophy teacher) has been a bit strange. Being winter, bugs and viruses are quite common but now I understand why in Chile they say so many things can make you sick - walking around barefoot, not blow drying hair, - while we pass around drink bottles freely, give bites of food to each other, kiss on the cheek (ironic really but anyway), because in Chile when it's winter nearly everyone gets sick! So obvioulsy taking preventative measures like wearing shoes and socks at all times would come in handy. Everybody means, in the case of my host mother's school for example, that out of a class of 30 students, only two were well enough to come to class. Touch wood, I havn't been sick yet.

As a matter of fact, the last day of the semester was suspended because 30% of the students at my school were away sick. Thursday was quite a flop of a day, because it was nearly the holidays, and so many students were sick or just didn't turn up, that we had half a class for the first class of the day, then after that about half of that half left. I think some people came because they just wanted to drug snails. (We tested the reactions of snails after being put in water, alcohol and nicotine). The snail we put in alcohol was the only one that sank to the bottom of the beaker.

On Saturday we drove the five hours south to Coquimbo, for the 80th birthday of my host-grandfather. It was a quiet family get together, and I must say his birthday cake was absolutely delicious - it was layers of thin crepe with manjar and lúcuma cream. Lúcuma is a type of fruit that has a fruity-caramely taste and is orange on the inside and dry and powdery but very good in a cake.

We drove back on Sunday, then on Monday I was the only one in my house that wasn't sick! Touch wood I won't get sick! Nobody was seriously ill but colds can get you down. In the afternoon I went out with an exchange student from Finland that was visiting Copiapó with her family and Ananda. We saw Ice Age 3 (in Spanish), and I understood all of it! After that we went for coffee in a cafe - had to leave in a bit of a rush to get back before my curfew, but I think being able to stay in town until 8pm is pretty sweet anyway.

Today my host sisters and I cleaned out a room where my host grandma and a cousin are going to stay when they come to visit, which involved putty-ing all the marks on the wall, apparently tomorrow we are going to paint it!

That's all for now. Sorry I hadn't updated in a while, at this point in my exchange the last thing I'm thinking about is my blog, I'm living life here and making the most of my time in Chile!

---> Those little Chile things

2009-07-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Like in New Zealand, Chile has its own distinct 'groups' of people. There are the normal people, but then there are the groups that the 'normal' people turn their noses up at, and those are the Pokemonas and the Flaites. My host mum doesn't like us saying certain words because they are 'flaite' or 'pokemona'.

Flaite is basically the Chilean version of a gangster - baggy clothes, 'bling', that kind of thing. Normally if they wear caps though, they are with peaks. Not so much 'bling' as a typical gangster, and another thing they do is wear rosaries (like you can buy in any old market), but instead of being Christian rosaries, they have the names of the two enemy Chilean soccer teams on them, Colo-Colo or Universidad de Chile. Adidas is a huge flaite brand, and they might wear Adidas sneakers instead of skate type shoes, and Adidas caps too. Girls wear street clothes, like skinny jeans and small tops, but you can tell they're flaite from the colours they use and the exact style of their clothes, ad just by seeing them. It's hard to define a female flaite. Haircuts are normally mullets for the guys.

Now on speaking flaite - I'm going to get technical here so if you don't understand Spanish it might be a bit hard to follow.

Speaking flaite means adding the reflexive part of the verb twice in a sentence. For example, to say 'I'm going to go' normally, you would say 'me voy a ir'. The 'me' part is the reflexive parte of the verb 'ir', to show that you are doing the action to yourself. But to make it flaite, you say 'me voy a irme'. The 'me' part has been added twice, and therefore is flaite, because that's how flaites speak. Also, apparently this is flaite but it's more of a slang that all young kids use, is to say 'reeee' (pronounced like 'red' but without the 'd') instead of 'muy' (very). For example 'es reeeee simple' instead of 'es muy simple' (It's very simple).

Now for the music part of being flaite. Reggaeton is a Chilean style of music that is played at every party. It's distinct because it has a beat that is very good to dance to - like BOOM shicka shicka shick shick - and the lyrics are incredibly dirty, some are cleaner, depending on the artist. So there's the Reggaeton and then the more tropical sounding music that has . . . trumpets, but it's still flaite. Basically the lyrics are what make it flaite, the dirtier the better and more flaite. Not just flaites listen to the flaite music, because reggaeton is played at every big party.

Pokemonas are not those Japanese 'gotta catch them all' characters. They're the chilean version of Emos. But because chileans are pretty much really happy and nice, they don't fit with the typical NZ stereotype of emo, which is a wrist-slitting corner-sitting 'I'm so sad and everyone needs to know I'm so sad and I like getting attention because I'm so emo'. Pokemonas wear black and colour - generally red or yellow. They wear skinny jeans (both genders) which are normally not only black, like tartan red and black or striped. Lots of piercings, and perhaps wrist bands with black and another colour checkered. Pokemona music is not so easily defined, but maybe music from the United States like My Chemical Romance and 'emo' bands.

A typical stereotype of a Pokemona, like if you wanted to pose Pokemona-style in a photo, the camera would be above your head, you would be looking at the camera and have your hand over your mouth and a shocked expression on your face.

They speak pretty much normal Spanish, but add the suffix 'iwi' at the end of words, like 'Hola' would be 'Holiwi'.

What Pokemonas are pretty well-known for is a thing called Poncia. So there are clubs in Chile for people more than 18 years old (because alcohol is sold there), and then because it's not fair for the younger ones to miss out, there's the Pokemona clubs for the people who aren't old enough, and for the Pokemonas. Why are these clubs different? There's like a competition called Poncia. The Poncia or Poncio is the person who kisses the most people - not just cheek kissing. So everyone shouts 'Poncia! Poncia!' and in the club everyone is kissing each other and trying to kiss as many people as possible. So it's quite dirty, but that's like a distinct group of people and one normal people like exchange students and their friends aren't part of.

Pelo laise and Cuica Rubia mean respectively 'Straight Hair' and 'Snobby blonde'. These are the groups of the upper class, or just names to give people who act snobby. The Cuica Rubias dye their hair blonde to appear more European, and the Pelo Laise have straight hair. They are upper class so dress upper class and that kind of thing. They talk fairly normal Spanish, but don't roll the 'r's'.

Chileans have these distinct groups, but one thing I have noticed is there's not like the 'nerdy' people and there's really no such thing as a nerd in Chile. Same with the 'weird' group. Everyone is fairly indiscriminate about this type of thing. There are groups of friends who might be more 'nerdy' but really everyone is generally friends with anyone.

Now for some Chilean words:

bakan = cool

fome = lame

filo = forget it

buena onda = means literally 'good wave' but is used to describe a person, like to say they have a good vibe

next = yes, it's an English word, but in Chilean context people say it when something is lame and they want to move on to the next thing (they don't say it to people though!), although it came from a dating show when the lady would say 'next' if she didn't like a guy.

po = is added to the end of words like 'Sí (po)' just because it is . . .

mish = cool

carrete = is literally the word for a reel of thread, but also means a party

cachai = understand? It come from Englsish too (did you catch that?)

pololo/a = boyfriend/girlfriend

pololeando = dating, but more just being a boyfriend and girlfriend (comes from the word for a type of bug, I believe, and is how those bugs behave around each other)

guagua = baby (but pronounced 'wah wah'

That's all I can think of for now. Until next time.

By the way, I was thinking of whipping out my camera at a correct time to snap a photo of a Pokemona or a Flaite when I saw one on the street, but decided Google Images might be a bit more couth.

---> Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows

2009-06-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Another seven months or so, and I will be home in New Zealand. Today (or yesterday, as I am writing this at 9 minutes past midnight), I have been in Chile for four months. One month from now, the semester students will be returning to their home countries.

How does one feel after spending four months in a foreign country?

Well I must say it's a strange feeling. Chile has felt like, for quite some time, like my 2nd home, like my second life. As I gradually adapt to become more and more Chilean in my ways, I become more in sync with the Chilean culture and become in essence Chilean, perhaps not in the blood, but a part of my heart will always be Chile.

It's not like every day I wake up with a bounce to my step and think, man oh man, look at me, I'm in a foreign country, a 12 hour plane ride from my parents, I can do whatever I like. I can eat cake for breakfast (well, actually, if there IS cake, breakfast is normally when it is eaten), I can party all night and sleep all day.

No, it's not like that. I have my responsibilities here too. For example, to be ready at the time we leave the house to go to school (7.40am). To inform my host mum of anything, if I'm going to be going out after school, if I have a party in the weekend, if I need to take lunch to school. As and AFS student, I have a responsibility to go to school and try to do what I can, also to stay in class and not bunk school, even if the teacher is one hour late, but normally some of my classmates stay too, so I'm not the lonely one.

I think I am less independant here than I am in New Zealand, I need to be very clear on the communication side of things, because miscommunications cause problems - for example, normally every Friday, my classs finish at 12.50pm, I go home for lunch, and return for band at 4.10pm. This Friday, because we have to recuperate classes because there was a very long strike, I have afternoon classes from 2.30pm till 5.30pm, so I have to lunch at school. I had told my host mum twice that I had afternoon classes on Friday. (But not that I had to have lunch at school). Because in the morning, there was no lunch as usual to take to school, I took some of my money to buy a lunch (don't like asking for these sorts of things, especially to take a lunch two minutes before we leave, even if I'm the one dishing some leftovers in a container, because it would cause a fluster.) So I was fine with taking some money to buy a lunch. At lunchtime I have lunch, do my afternoon classes, stay after school to talk with my friends, return home. Upon arriving home, my host mum asked me (kind of accusingly, to me), why I didn't tell her that I had to have lunch at school. I said that I did say I had classes in the afternoon this day - what happened, is she thought I was referring to my normal band practice in the afternoon, so thought I would be eating lunch at home as usual, with my host siblings and host dad (as she works). So that's the kind of communication error, when it's nobody's fault, but you learn from it to be more informative and clear.

The north trip of Chile was definitely a highlight of the month (and the year), but one of the sensations I think all us exchangers feel is a bit of a sense of limbo, especially the year students.

At the bus station, while waiting for our buses after the trip, there was a feeling of not wanting to return to our respective host cities, and wanting to return straight back to our home countries. It was a depressing situation, we had just said goodbye (and to some, goodbye forever) to the students, and the semester students which are leaving in July. And after any holiday, it's always a bit depressing to have to return to 'reality'. And then there's the waiting for the bus, with nothing to do in the bus terminal, tired, sad, dreaming of Wattie's spaghetti.

It stayed with me (and from what I have heard, most of the other exchangers) for a few days after returning. But once I got back into the rhythm of life, it goes away, the feeling of limbo alleviates. But it's normal to feel like this, every moment of an exchange is not meant to be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.

There are times that I look forward to a lot, I'm lucky in the sense that I have friends at school, ad I like my somewhat crazy, misbehaved class (I know other exchange students who are lovely people but don't have a class they fit in), the first day back I had a lot of people asking how the trip went, big hugs from my friends and it was good to be back at school and see everyone. Then the next day, I kind of noticed the subtle changes that had happened, the main one being, girly things, like two of my friends are no longer friends with each other, and one of my better friends is now good friends with a girl who isn't all that nice, and that influences her. But that sort of thing is beyond my control, but it changes the dynamics of everyday life.

I guess one of the exciting 'language barrier' things is when you start to think in your host language. I have been thinking in a mix of Spanish and English for a while now, at first very very little Spanish, but it's slowly getting more and more. It's still only a little bit at the moment, but I'm noticing it. Mainly it happens when I am translating English from Spanish for something to say, and my thinking 'around' that changes to Spanish too. It's hard to function in two languages at the same time!

I keep thinking I've advanced in Spanish, after 3 months I thought I was quite good, but I keep getting better, and there's still a lot more to go. Like with English, I'm still learning that as well. I still don't talk as much as I do in English, which could just be the people who I'm with, or that the art of conversation in another language hasn't come to me yet. It does lead me to analyze what converstation anf friendship actually means. Friends are always talking to one another! How do they think of what to say all the time? How does their conversation keep flowing? Is it because they think similarly? It does lead of over-analyzing at times.

So down to one of the chilly aspects of Chile - I may be in the driest desert in the world, but that doesn't mean the hottest! Like all deserts, it does get cold at night. And also, as Copiapó is inland, we actually do experience a winter. And it's freezing! I can wear stockings, socks, pajama pants, trackpants, a tee shirt, a cardigan, a polar fleece and another jersey and still be cold. The mornings are really cold, the only time the temperature is more comfortable is about 3pm. There are no heaters in the classrooms either, nor in my house.

On that note, I'm going to snuggle down in my nice cosy bed which has about 3 blankets and a duvet, as it is rather late now!

---> Rocking the north of Chile

2009-06-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

For the past 11 days I have become very, very scarily accostomed to living out of a suitcase. The reason? The 2009 AFS tour of the north! There were 37 of us students from around the world (USA, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Denmark, China, Thailand and Russia) together on a bus for 10 days. We had awesoe tour guides, Jorge and Alejandro, 2 very nice AFS volunteers, Pato and Carmen Gloria, and two other New Zealand teachers, Aroha and Uenuku to accompany us. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I had so many memorable moments and made even more friendships. But like everything in exchange, it's bittersweet - I found out I would not be seeing many of my friends again, as they are the ones that are only here for 5 months, and our next orientation is not together.

So here's how it went:

I caught the overnight bus to Santiago on Thursday (4th June). As usual it was late. It was the type that has bigger seats and can go back further. Fabian and I from Copiapó went, but I was on the bus by myself because Fabian was already in Santiago for the holidays.

Day 1 [getting together]

Waiting at the bus terminal in Santiago was Rodrigo from AFS and the students from Temuco and Valdivia (in the south). Laura from Germany, Sebastian from Denmark, Anastasia from Russia, Stephanie from the USA and Stephanie from NZ. We waited for ages at the bus terminal for more students to arrive, then were taken in a mini van to another place, which turned out to be the place where we had out first ever orientation in Chile.

It brought back a lot of memories, and arriving there for a second time we all thought about how much we'd grown, experienced and changed in those 3 months. For the next few hours we lay on the grass and listened to our iPods, and talked. While we waited more and more students turned up. At about 2pm, we went into the dining hall to eat lunch. It was so exciting to see one another again. Finally after everyone arrived, the AFS people called us into a room to talk to us about safety and give us hand sanitizer and these awesome blue jackets. We then got on the bus - the bus we would be in for the next 10 days, and drove (a very slow journey, because the traffic was horrible) to McDonalds. AFS had reserved the upper level, and we suppered on hamburgers and french fries. I have now become accostomed to dipping french fries in mayonaise AND ketchup, and opening the hamburgers to add mustard.

They said we could go to the mall after maccas, so we walked along to the mall, and I hung out with Analisa and Emily from the USA, Martta from Finland, Stu from NZ, Michael from Germany and Sebastian from Denmark. We had to find something to do to fill in the time, so ended up going to Falabella (a department store) and us girls picked out an outfit to make Sebastian the Denmarkian look gay. Epic fun. He even did a catwalk for us.

We went off to the supermarket and to buy gelato (it's amazing here) and ended up being the last ones to get back on the bus, because we thought the time we were given was a different time. Therefore I ended up sitting in the front of the bus with one of the bus drivers, and was a little bit annoyed because I was expecting to be sitting there the entire overnight journey to Caldera. But thankfully things have a way of sorting themselves out, and at about 11.30pm, we stopped for 'dinner' at a very nice restaurant, with tables all laid out ready for us.

Then our first overnighter commenced. And overnighters in buses aren't fun. You can't lie down properly and stretch out, and I think although everybody appears to be asleep, they're just lying there with their eyes shut. We also got stopped at about 2am to use the bathrooms and buy stuff from a petrol station. There were other stops along the way, the bus drivers have to check in at these police checkpoints, I'm not sure why, but that's why the bus was stopping.

Day 2 [beach life]

Finally we arrived in Caldera, had breakfast and a chance to shower and change. We walked to the cathedral and had a look around the markets and in the afternoon went to Bahia Inglesa, where some brave boys swam, and my friends looked for a place to buy coffee/ice creams.

Iris and Erika (USA) at Bahia Inglesa

Me, Niklas (Germany), Nic (Australia) and Laura (Germany) at the port of Caldera

In the evening we had dinner, which was soup, chicken and rice, and fruit for desert, then went into Caldera and walked around the town at night, and I went on a mission to find Bon O Bon's, a sweet here that I really like. It's a nut truffle centre, then a wafer, then covered in chocolate. They cost 30 cents and are soooo good!

Kiwi Stephanie and I got back earlier because we both wanted to shower, and after then others got back we all went to bed, because we were exhausted, and had to get up early the next morning for the trip to San Pedro de Atacama.

Day 3 [bus times]

San Pedro de Atacama is a very very very long way from Caldera. On the ride we stopped at El Mano del Desierto, which is a giant hand sticking out of the desert sand. The distances in the north are very long, everything is extremely spread out, and for miles and miles all you can see it blue sky and yellow desert sand, so it was nice to have a bit of an interruption. The heat was amazing too, and the dryness (the Atacama desert is the driest desert in the world).

El Mano del Desierto (with the Denmarkian, a German and a girl from the USA)

To keep us entertained on the bus, our guide Jorge got us playing a game, where each side of the bus was a team, and we had to be the first side to pass a quantity of something forward on the bus, like 10 sunglasses, 5 shoes, that kind of thing. We also had a competition to see how many clothes we could get someone wearing, and a fashion parade/competition for when we dressed Simon the Frenchman as a women, and Sebastian the German too, then Sofi the Austrian and Olga the Finn as boys. It was hilarious when Simon and Sebastian were doing the catwalk down the aisle of the bus and the music playing was Katy Perry 'I Kissed a Girl'.

At night we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, and it was freezing cold, but dry cold. It's 2600 metres above sea level and I discovered that we were at a very high altitude when I got my brush out of my toilet bag and noticed it was covered in a mix of face wash and shampoo. Altitude makes liquids expand. We also noticed that our skin was very dry, and it was very cold. The hostel room had two bunk beds (very creaky) and one bathroom, with a scary shower that would wait for a while then suddenly shoot water out, and it was funny because everyone who had a shower always screamed when it happened! We had a walk around San Pedro the village but were tired so went to bed.

Day 4 [San Pedro and salt]

Another early morning (after a late night) and we departed for Laguna de Chaxa. On the way we passed some tiny desert villages, and a plantation of trees, and llamas. No single llamas though, they were all in groups. These were to be the only wild llamas I saw on the trip. It was very flat, and because San Pedro is really far inland, we were driving alongside the Andes, a few hours drive away was Bolivia and Argentina. We also saw a smoking volcano in the Andes range.

The lake wasn't one huge lake, but lots of small ones. For as far as the eye could see was salt, so it was blue and white, then mountain ranges then sky. It was absolutely breathtaking (literally too, because of the altitude). My photos just couldn't capture the sheer wonder of it all. In the lakes were flamingos, and they would fly over us a few times. At the bottom of this page I have included a photo I havn't reduced in size, just to show how amazing it looked. Click on it and you will be able to see it full size.

There were little paths of salt underfoot that crunched as we walked, just like snow. And with the Andes in the background, wow. They say life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but the number of times it takes your breath away, and I'm definitely alive!

Salt

Toconao was a small village, and instead of having a market, people sell stuff in shops inside their tiny homes, and we had a little walk around the village to see what was sold. In a small village near the Andes, the standard of living isn't as high, there were not sealed roads, the houses were tiny and made of mud and straw (they don't need to be watertight, because it never rains, and smaller is easier for keeping in heat at night, when temperatures can drop below zero). The people were more Peruvian looking, and had more leathery skin, because the sun can take a toll. I couldn't imagine living in such a small, isolated community. But it was beautiful, and the plaza and church were very pretty.

We had a very yummy lunch in a restaurant in San Pedro - cafes don't really exist in Chile, and it's safer to go to the more expensive restaurants, rather than little eateries, because of the risk of food poisoning. Lunch was a vegetable lasagne, which everyone loved. Once we finished lunch, we were free to wander around San Pedro, which is incredibly touristy, full of people speaking differend languages, and shops selling overpriced goods. I bought postcards, a Chile flag badge and a warm hat, but nothing else because I'd seen them for cheaper prices elsewhere.

San Pedro de Atacama

In the afternoon, we visited Valle de la Luna, which is supposed to look like the moon in twilight. But before it got dark we went for a lovely walk through a long rocky cave. In the dark. But with the different levels of sunlight it was very dramatic, the craggy rocks beneath the deep blue sky.

When twilight was about to come, we drove to a sand dune, climbed it - which took ages! This was to see the sun set on the valley, at it was yet again breathtaking. The colours of sunset came up on the rocks in the distance, and the white part of the valley began to glow. We waiting more and more for the moon to rise, and we had timed it perfectly with the full moon, which illuminated the valley and made the scenery very dramatic. And it was cold, too. (Clever me who left my warm polar fleece on the bus!)

Then after that, back to the hostel to have dinner and shower then go to bed, ready for the long trip to Iquique the net day.

Valley of the Moon

Day 5 [the wheels on the bus go round and round]

Another long day of travelling. A few students were very tired because they had gone sand boarding then night before (something I wish I had done, but didn't know anything about it till it was too late!) We began the drive to Iquique, but stopped for lunch in a gorgeous desert village called Pica, where they grow a lot of fruit. It was very green and flowery for a desert village, because it is an artificial oasis.

Another stop we made was to see the hieroglyphs, where NZ Stephanie and I had a very creative way of using our blue jackets to stop us getting sunburnt.

It's like an umbrella!

After lunch we went to a hand made ice cream shop and I tried quinoa ice cream, becuase quinoa is grown there. Then we went to the nearby village of La Tirana, to go to the hot pool, which is thermally heated. I didn't swim, but the students that did looked like they had fun.

Swimming

In the desert it is very isolated, so they try to attract people to live there - one of the things the council does it to have free wi-fi in public places!

After, we visited a church, which was special because the ceiling of the church was covered in gold stars. When someone wants to donate money to the church, a gold star gets put on the ceiling. It was a beautiful church, too.

The church

There wasn't much in the way of markets there, but Stephanie, Allie (from the USA) and I got some shaved ice. It was quite funny because after we ordered it, I remembered it's not a good idea to drink water that's not bottled, and there was not way of knowing where the ice came from! But luckily I saw the man put ice cubes in the machine from a plastic ice cube sealed bag, so we were lucky!

We continued the bus ride up to Iquique. One of the things we have to do before we arrive in the hotels is allocate the rooms, because normally there are rooms of 4 and 5, and sometimes 6. My AFS buddies were the two other Kiwi girls, Ashleigh and Steph, then Allie and Stephanie from the USA, so we liked to get a room of 5. Sitting in the front of the bus was handy though, because we were normally up there first.

The arrival to the hotel in Iquique was very exciting because the hotel was so flash! When we went up to our rooms, the doors were opened with a card, not a key, and we each had a card. It was the flashest hotel we stayed in, and had a gorgeous view of the sea and the city, and the clock, which was a giant digital clock on the dunes that surround Iquique. When we arrived at the hotel we all ran around screaming because the rooms were so nice! We walked on the beach for a bit then had dinner and went to our room, where we watched TV then went to bed.

Day 6 [surprise time]

Pato, our volunteer, had lived in Iquique and been to school there. We had been told earlier that there would be a surprise for us in Iquique, but we weren't sure what. We got in the bus and headed off downtown.

The place we arrived at was a school, a school for the arts. The courtyard was all set up with chairs. Students at the school performed traditional Chilean dances for us, with their own band playing, wearing proper costumes. It was great, very polished, and they looked to be about 12 years old too. The highlight was when the dancers grabbed the hands of some of us to dance with them.

It was embarrassing though, because after the Maori teachers who were with us performed the haka, the New Zealanders (Me, Ashleigh, Stephanie and Stu) were asked to come up and perform Pokarekare Ana with them, in front of an entire school - and I can't remember the last time I listened to, let alone sang, that song, before the trip!

We visited classrooms in the school, because the school is an arts school, it has the 4 art focuses - music, dance, visual and drama. One of the classrooms for visual arts was amazing - there were kids sitting there painting their own versions of masterpieces, like Guernica by Picasso and Salvador Dali painings, and they were very very good.

We did some more dancing with the students, and also, lots of the girls crowded around one of the blonde haired germans asking for his email address.

Before we left the school, we were given some Chumbeque, which is a bit like a Shrewsbury biscuit, to take home.

Next stop was the museum, where there were very old mummies. The architecture in Iquique was very colonial, and lots of stuff was made from Oregon Pine.

We went to the town square and a market, and also a chocolate shop. Lunch was in a restaurant, where I talked to Sofi, who came here last year, about a camp she went on with AFS in Chile for community service, which sounded amazing, and hopefully I get a chance to go one one too.

The town square plus me and Allie

We had free time to go to the beach once we got back to the hotel, so we went and walked along the beach and played in the sand, then walked back to where the hotel was, ready to go to the huge duty free mall, Zona Franca. Iquique and Punta Arenas both have duty free malls to try and encourage more people to live there, because they are so isolated. The Zona Franca was a bit of a disappointment, it wasn't a nice mall, lots of the stuff was cheap and junky looking, but some students managed to make good purchases.

Me, Ashleigh, Allie, Stephanie, Iris and Stephanie at the beach in Iquique

Iquique was a really nice city by Chilean standards, it had a really nice waterfront area, with a little llama park and a turtle park. Although it has a population of about 220,000, it still is really compact, and surrounded by either dunes or sea.

Posing in the sunset

Day 7 [the bus life]

This day we were allowed to sleep in a bit, as long as we were ready to leave by 11.45pm. Breakfast was until 10pm, and my room was the first to go down to have brekkie! After that we got our bags ready and went to the supermarket, then everyone met at the bus and we boarded for the drive to Arica, the northernmost city in Chile. On the way we stopped at a ghost town, called Humberstone, which was an old mineral town, but now is completely deserted. I must say it was really cool and freaky, and it definitely would have been scary at night! Lots of the stuff there was made from iron, and there was like a refrigeration building, which despite the heat of the desert, was really chilly inside.

The swimming pool made from shipping containers

A grave yard in the desert. The crosses are decorated with iron flowers.

In the bus we watched The Others, which was a thriller movie, and oh how the guides loved our scared faces! One of the roads we drove on was cut into a huge huge desert sanddune, with a huge gorge on our right hand side, and along the road were cars that had gone overboard, and the little memorials for people who had lost their lives on the road. When it was sunset, the gorge was absolutely spectacualer. I was stoking it because I was the first to notice how beautiful it looked through the curtains, then more people started looking until everyone was over the right hand side of the bus with their cameras!

We arrived in Arica and had supper, and who came after supper but our New Zealand friend Chris, who is hosted in Arica. He hung out with us that night, when we went for a walk all together down to the markets and after just talking at the hotel. It was great to see him again, since we hadn't s

een him since February.

Day 8 [sleepiness and museums]

This was the day I was the most tired, probably due to the late night before. On the bus I was nearly asleep, but we arrived at this museum and our guide gave us a tour of it. I was so tired I can't remember much from it! Outside was really beautiful - there are lots of brightly coloured flowers in Arica! The museum was in Valle de Azapa, where lots of fruit is grown.

Chris, Stephanie, Ashleigh and Allie outside the museum.

We went to a place where we could look out over Arica, because of the coastline, we could see Peru as well - a first for someone who could never before see another country from her country!

Arica

Lunch was in the fast food place called Roly's, recommended to us by Chris. The special thing about Roly's, is that everything it GIANT! The hot dogs and churrascos were so big, I ate just under a half of my churrasco. Then we went a-marketing.

The markets in Arica were amazing, and I bought a lot of gifts there. It's good to see the markets vary from city to city!

We boarded the bus for the overnight trip to Antofagasta after dinner. I never will be a fan of overnight bus rides.

Day 9 [grunginess]

Grunginess pretty much describes how everyone feels after overnight bus trips. We used the same bus for the whole trip, so it wasn't the cleanest either, although it did get cleaned during the trip. Antofagasta was cloudy, and that seemed to bring out the dirtiness of the city. But what was cool was seeing people playing rugby in fields by the beach!

After breakfast, we went to a train museum, where the first train between Chile and Bolivia was. We visited the town square, where I made friends with a lion.

Meet my new friend. I'm scarier.

Lots of students had bought these pajama-like trousers, and a group photo was taken of them. Unfortunately I didn't get a pair. I should have. We went to the mall next, and I am glad Copiapó doesn't have a mall like in Antofagasta, because it had heaps of nice shops. I didn't buy anything thought, because I had set myself a budget for the tour and wanted to stick to it.

After lunch, which was at the same place we had breakfast, and where the fries were really good, we started the journey to Caldera, to stay the night. On the way in the bus, we danced to Chilean Reggaeton music, which is the perfect music to dance to. And not only reggaeton, bus also the Macarena! Good times, good times! Everyone was really tired though, and we slept in the bus earlier.

Tired people

Can you see cars? Because I can't . . .

Supper was ready on arrival in Caldera, in the same place we stayed at the first night. The adults had food and stuff, so we could have a party, but it never really got off the ground. The mood started to die near the end of the trip, it was so good it should have gone on forever.

Day 10 [finality]

In the morning we left Caldera for La Serena. Only a six hour bus ride. When we arrived, we had a choice of doing sightseeing, but everyone was too tired and we opted for relaxing and going to the mall for supper. Immediately after we arrived, we went to a buffet for lunch, and after a walk downtown.

W went to a cathedral, one of the many in La Serena, and shook hands with the Archbishop of the region. It was a gorgeous church, with amazing stained glass windows. The market was next, because Chilean markets are amazing, then back to the motel to chill before the mall.

The motel was across the road from the beach, so we went there and spent time at the beach, me, Ashleigh, the Stephanies, Allie and Iris. It was so fun, we were on a bit of a high and walked along the beach signing and taking photos. We ate churros (donuts, which are so yummy!) and talked. Then back to the hotel to get ready to go to the mall for supper.

The AFS gals at the beach - Me, Stephanie from NZ, Iris and Allie from the USA, Ashleigh from NZ and Stephanie from the USA

Supper at the mall was pizza. After our supper, we went to the supermarket and bought chocolate chippie mix, butter, milk, marshmallows, chocolate, milo, wine biscuites, lollies and milk. We wanted to do something special to celebrate the last night of being together, and decided to make cookies, hot milo and s'mores. (The motel had cooking facilities in the rooms). The volunteers laughed at our purchases, becuase they were kind of random!

Before we made our treats, we gathered, all of us, to elect the person with the best spanish (Sofi, who had been here for nearly a year), the nicest girl (Erika, who is really nice), the nicest boy (Michael, who is from Germany and nice), the most punctual (Pan, from Thailand) and the latest (Pinja, from Finland).

Back to our rooms, and us AFS BFFs began to make the chocolate chip cookies and the milo. Nobody was really hungry for s'mores after the supper, and we had a huge conversation about everything exchange related, and it was good to talk to people who fully understood, to let out a few whines and just do what girls to best, which it talk. It got cold, so we all went to the double bed and sat under the duvet and carried on talking, till the wee hours of the morning, when we decided it was best to get some sleep.

Day 11 [the end]

After our suitcases were loaded in the bus, we went back to our rooms to have breakfast, then get on the bus for Santiago. The very very end. On the way we stopped at a place and got cheese empanadas. The students that live along the way got dropped of, and the rest of us arrived at the bus station to wait for our buses. It was a really weird feeling of being in limbo. We were all a bit depressed because the trip had ended and we weren't going to be seeing some of the people again, but also happy because we had had such an amazing time. So it was weird. But finally it was my and Fabian's turn to board the bus, and it was a double decker bus and we were on the top deck, which was cool.

I had the best time on the trip, and I am so glad I went. It is filled with good memories that I will never forget, and the chance to spend time with other exchange students is also amazing. I'm back in Copiapó now, but in my head I'm reliving the good times from the trip.

Here is a large photo of Laguna de Chaxa, click on it and it will get bigger.

Edit: sorry, it didn't work.

---> Gracias, ¡Listos!

2009-05-29T12:39:00.001-07:00

Before I left for Chile, my friends from my Spanish class at school gave me a present. It was a book of memories basically . . . all the good times we'd had in Spanish class over the past years. Without ¡Listos!, I don't know where I'd be with my Spanish. Those weekly irregular verb tests, writing practices that we did, were all made easier, gracias to our ¡Listos!

Of course, being given just the plain textbook is a bit boring. So instead of an actual textbook - because stealing is bad, and the books belong to my school in NZ - they photocopied all the pages that would come in handy for me.

This is the inside cover, with the school stamp, and a photo of my Spanish buddies after our Spanish exam.

The additional bit of writing outlined in green says 'When I finish in the university, I want to marry and have a family. A divorce is sometimes necessary. I have experience.'

This is the section where we learnt how to read, write, listen and speak about drug dependancy. Drugs however, are a big no-no. Salchichas locas, no necesito eso!

Around some of the pages, they practiced their Spanish writing.

My host brother finds this part hilarious . . .

And of course I have to live with the possiblity I might get ill . . .

On the right, are the different forms of the verb, we even had a song to remember them.

The back cover.

Without my ¡Listos!, I don't know where I'd be. So a huge shout out to my Spanish buddies for this!

---> February 26th, 2009

2009-05-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

The 26th of February was the last day of normality for me. The last day I would speak only English, the last day I would have a breakfast of (actually I forgot what I did have for breakfast), the last day I would see my mum, dad and siblings for 11 months, the last day I would lead only one life.

Once I got off the plane in Santiago, I was plunged, unreadily, into the world that would be my home for almost a year. I say unreadily because my only regret is that I didn't spend as much time with my friends and family as I should have before I left. But once I arrived in Chile I began to lead a life that to my family and friends back home, is new, exciting, different, perhaps a dream life even. I don't know. A life they could only imagine about.

Now I have been leading this life for three months. A typical Chilean life, that the other 16 million people in this country lead. I go to school, do chores, socialise with friends, try doing homework, and live as part of a Chilean family. Through these three months I know I have changed. I don't mean changed as in my personality as much (Nic: Anita's crazy but we love her. Sound true enough?) But now things that concerned me, and where I want to go in my life has changed. If I had lived these three months in New Zealand like a normal Kiwi, I know I wouldn't have become as worldly, and enriched as I have become in Chile.

I wouldn't have seen poverty, I wouldn't have felt so isolated, I wouldn't have learnt so much about myself if I hadn't chosen to do an exchange.

I used to love a book about a boy with cancer who had a notebook that would take him to a different world if he fell asleep thinking of that world. In that different world he lead a life full of danger and mystery, while back in his own world he was bedridden and fading away. He got to experience two worlds in one lifetime, but eventually had to give up on one world.

I am a bit like that boy (except I'm not a boy, and I'm healthy). My life here is something surreal at times. I have moments when I think 'whoa, I'm in Chile!' But the thought that I'll have to return home also scares me. I'm happy with both the places I live, Chile and New Zealand. They're different, in obvious and subtle ways. But they're both Home.

Communication has become easier. After three months, conversational Spanish is pretty much understandable, and I can contribute to a conversation, as well as understand more without having to translate. And that does make life SO much easier!

Friends are friends, not people who are interested in the Foreign Exchange Student. I know now they are friends with me because they actually like me, not because I'm new and interesting!

Family is family. I feel like less of an outsider, although at times I do still feel like an outsider, but that's only natural becuase they have been a family for years and years and I have been in the family for three months!

I've learnt to be more patient. That if I wait it out, it will be okay in the end. And if it's not ok, it's not the end. I've learnt what makes me happiest can also be what causes the most pain. I've learnt to go with the flow and not worry about where that might take me. I've learnt that I can put my full trust in some people because I can't not do that. I've learnt that even if I try my best, it might not show, and to cope with that when it doesn't. I've learnt to be more self-sufficient, think more for myself, and be more independant. I've learnt that in these three months I've changed more than I have expected, and am happy with where I am now.

I've learnt that life is for living, that I have to take every moment as it comes, embrace life, live if to the full and not have any regrets.

I've learnt that time goes faster that I ever imagined, and that if these three months have passed, I only have eight left, and I have to carry on making the most of every minute.

---> Coquimbo/La Serena

2009-05-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning we all piled into the jeep and headed south for five hours to the cities of La Serena and Coquimbo, which are two cities about 15 minutes away from each other (except they're practically joined). The drive there was fairly uneventful. It was a little frustrating at the start when my host family explained to me we were driving on the alternative road that trucks use to transport dangerous goods, because they can't drive through the cities, and I wanted to ask what kind of dangerous goods, but couldn't think of the spanish and they repeated the same thing (that I already knew) 3 times instead. At times like that you just accept that being an exchange student has its downsides - communication in this case. But finally I clicked that unlike in NZ, where the trucks can drive through the cities, sulfuric acid is a lot more dangerous than milk. And the sulfuric acid is for the mines in the north.

Day 1:

We arrived in Coquimbo at about 2pm, just in time for lunch! We stayed with my host grandparents, the parents of my host dad. With them lived my host uncle, and my host aunt. My younger host sister told me that every time they come to Coquimbo, there are always home made empanadas waiting, and she was right! So we had lunch. Their apartment was on top of a hairdressing studio, and it was a big apartment. There was even a rooftop terrace!

The apartment

My host parents used to live in Coquimbo, so after lunch and relaxing - everyone always has some 'quiet time' after lunch, my host dad took us kids (3 host siblings, me, and older host sis's boyfriend) on a tour of downtown Coquimbo. The whole 3 days we were there it was very foggy and damp. Unlike Copaipó, Coquimbo is hilly. It is a port city, so it's not as rich as La Serena. Downtown there was a little plaza, with a fountain, and at the port part, two statues which I thought were Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but were actually just statues or English things, because it was a port city and an important port for the English. Lots of the people there were blonder and had blue eyes, because of English ancestry. For onces we ate cerviche, which is a seafood dish with onions and spices. We also had a custard pie and apple pie that we bought from the supermarket for onces, which were both yummy, of course! Then we went to La Serena to see a movie, but the tickets were sold out, so we hung out in the huge mall instead.

Day 2: (Friday)

After breakfast, I went with my host mum to downtown Coquimbo because she needed to buy something for the classes that she teaches. The population of Coquimbo is about 400,00, therefore there are a lot more shops than in Copiapó. A lot of the architecture is very British inspired too, and the buildings are taller than in Copiapó. We got back in time for lunch, which was at 2pm. This time lunch was cerviche and empanadas, which I can never complain about! After lunch we went to La Serena because my host sibs wanted to see X-Men: Wolverine, and there is no cinema in Copiapó. Luckily for me, it was in english with Spanish subtitles! After that we had something to eat in the mall. The La Serena mall is huge and fancy, but we stayed in the food court part. Chilean fast food is churrasco, which is like a hamburger, except with real meat and avocado, tomato, mayonaise, and the buns are proper bread. There's completos, which are hot dogs with tomato, avocado and mayonaise, lots of ice cream shops, and the usual KFC and McDonalds. But I think it's a lot nicer than the kind of take outs we have in NZ! The we walked around the centre of La Serena, saw a cathedral (La Serena has about 40 churches) and a market there.

Day 3:

My host dad gave us a little tiki-tour of Coquimbo, where he grew up. First of all we went to the port, to the fish market. I was a little bit worried about going there, as I had a little bit of a sore tummy, and the smell of fish is a little bit unpleasant when you have a sore tummy. But it was ok. I mean it still smelt like fish but my sore tummy went away thank goodness! The fish market had an indoor part and an outdoor part. Us kids walked through the indoor part, where there were stalls selling all types of sea food, and some in ready to eat plastic cups. There were a few eateries, with people showing menus and trying to get customers. It was packed too, like a can of sardines!

Fish market

Restaurant in the indoor part of the fish market

After the fish market part, there was a proper market, the kind that sells earrings, scarves, bags, jewellery, minerals, glassware, you name it. I noticed a lot of the prices were cheaper than in Copiapó - I bought a scarf which would have costed $15 in the Copiapó market, for a mere $6 in Coquimbo. The day was grey and cloudy, but we still got a good view over the port and across the bay to La Serena.

Me at the port

A sign I found quite funny!

Next up on the tour was to see the statue of the Mirador, which is William Drake, looking out over the bay. (The statue is on a hill). A lot of the landscape in Coquimbo is similar to that of Copiapó, it has huge rocky, sandy hills (albeit with more plants than in Copiapó), and a more humid climate, (Wikipedia lies, when it says precipitation is sparse).

The Mirador

View of the bay from the Mirador lookout. And a cannon

After getting a bit lost driving on a big hill in the poor part of Coquimbo, we made it to the biggest tourist attraction in Coquimbo, the Cross of the Third Millenium.

The cross as seen from the port

It's a religious structure, and at the base is a church, and a papal museum. We had a look in the (small) museum, but then went up the cross in a lift to see the view of the city. The lift went all the way to the cross part of the cross, which was very high. Host dad said it was higher than the statue of Jesus Christ in Brazil.

The cross and I

It also showed a lot of the inequality in Chile. I was standing in a building that had cost millions of dollars to build and attracted rich tourists from around the world (I swear there were Spanish tourists in our little tour group of the museum), yet down below, we could see slum like buildings, right next to this huge expensive monument. I could see people washing clothes in a tub outside of there houses, street dogs, lots of rubbish, and poverty.

For example:

Sign I found funny - 'Ocean Pacific Horizon', 'Photographic zone', 'Keep out place clean', and 'Watch out your children'

Back home for lunch. After lunch I had organised to meet up with my two AFS friends hosted in La Serena/Coquimbo, Nic the Australian and Ines from Austria. We met up in La Serena while my host dad and host sister saw a movie. But there was a bit of a problem with meeting up - I described a church to them as a place to meet, but turns out, La Serena has quite a few churches! So we were waiting in two different places. But we met up in the end, and started to walk down to the beach. About halfway there, Ines got a phone call from Nic's host brother (because he speaks German) to ask when they were going to see a movie. So we decided to walk back to the mall to see the movie. In the line to buy tickets was my host dad and host sister. But the tickets to the movie we wanted to see were sold out, so we went to McCafe and had coffee and talked - us exchangers talk a lot! Then we took a colective to Nic's house, so Nic did a tour of his big house for me, and we hung out, and had onces with his host mum and host brother. After that my host dad picked me up and we went back to Coquimbo.

Day 4:

In the morning, we visited the property my host parents own in La Serena, then went to a cake shop to buy cakes for lunch, had lunch, and packed the car to return to Copiapó. We go back at about 9pm yesterday.

I don't have school today because the teachers are on strike.

Just a small thing:

To leave a comment, write the comment, type the letters from the box into that box thing, then write your email address and password in the other boxes. I think that's how it's done, because you don't need a blogger account to leave a comment.

---> This is NZ | Yeah Right

2009-05-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a place that was definitely nothing like New Zealand. It is a national park in the Atacama Region of Chile called Pan de Azúcar, or Sugar Bread.

Two false facts about the desert.

1. It's boring

2. It's hot

1. The scenery was amazing. At first it was just desert, but then we were driving through this coastal town and to get there the road was literally built on the most jagged rocks I have ever seen. Luckily the road was a nice safe looking one. The rocks weren't.

The first place in the park where we stopped to take photos (we as in the 4WD convoy of people who my host dad works with) was mountains mountains mountains GREEN! And I was so excited to see green again!

The mountains were amazing, the weren't particularly big as in what we would call mountains (and they weren't the Andes either, in case you're wondering), but it was a massive range of them. About the same size as the hills by Urenui /Uruti, when you're driving to Aukland.
So after the hills, it was not hilly, but uneven ground and covered in cacti! There wasn't any road, we were just driving on a track that previous jeeps had left. The cacti were big (for me) and it was misty and you could see the mountains in the background. I think I actually really let out a sigh of awe that day, the scenery was so dramatic and amazing.

Host sisters by a cactus.

We stopped again because it was spectacular, the road going into the mountains. These photographs really do it no justice.
At one point was a very, very, very high cliff, with the sea at the bottom, and it was like desert, desert desert, sea, mist, and nothing. Surreal.
At the 'beach' you couldn't swim, it was so rocky, but it was where we had a typicaly Chilean lunch of seafood and meat stew, cooked over a fire, and sausages and bread rolls. Instead of each family taking their own picnic, everyone brought some food, and we all pitched in at the tables preparing it and cooking it.

This is the sausages and bread being cooked

Me eating lunch. It wasn't cold, the jacket was to stop me getting sunburnt. And the beer wasn't mine. Those round thangs are potatoes baked in earth

A fox we saw (the only wildlife we saw in the park. No llamas, unfortunately)

Host family and the Grunt Wagon

After we returned to the place where the other families had camped, we had tea and biscuits (I tried Happy Chirimoya flavour, which were like wine biscuits with a chirimoya and orange filling), the group of us was invited to have tea at the place of one of the families that lives there (I think). In any case, it's rude to refuse, so we all drove the short distance there, where not only was there tea, but the little girls (the daughters of collegues of my host dads, nobody actually seemed to have any sons) were rolling out dough to make empanadas, and there was also fish, sopaipillas (fried bread dough) and rice. I wasn't hungry so was satisfied with just an empanada. It's a Chilean custom to invite people over to have tea but actually have a proper meal! While the adults were talking, I sat on one of the sofas outside, and in another sofa was a little girl called Sofia pressing the on and off switch on the torch. So I sat next to her and started talking to her, and then got out my camera so we could press more buttons. But what are cameras for, but taking photos? So we took some photos. More girls gathered round (all young, about 3-5yrs) and I showed them photos on my iPod of my dog and the beach, and they tried to imitate the 'peace' sign. All were absolultely adorable, although it was hard to understand baby spanish talk!

At one stage I was telling Sofia that when I was a little girl, I used to have blonde hair.

She looked at me in shock, and said, incredibly surprised 'What happened?'

Her mum was on the sofa then too, and we were both in fits of laughter! Cutest thing ever! I do miss being around younguns', eg the kids I babysit in NZ and my little brother. But I got a big enough dose of warm fuzzies to tide me over for a while.

The gorgeous Sofia (showing off her Winnie the Pooh top)

Me and the girls. Guiliana, on the right, was 5 and the most well behaved, sweet little girl I have ever met!

Monsi, in the middle, reminded me of my cousin Annabel (especially her hair!)

And finally, we returned to Copiapó VERY late. Here's a photo of the sunset in the camping place.

Friday, also, was the Day of the Student, so instead of normal classes there were class competitions for singing and dancing. It was also my first day back after two days off, and I was greeted extra enthusiastically, which was really nice. School also started later, and so I got a bit of a sleep in too!

After that, I went out with my friends to have lunch, so we went to the supermarket and bought pizza and soft drinks, then got back and ate it, and after played Pictionary. The pictionary game was hilarious! Instead of drawing, we mimed the things, and one of the things I had to mime was Tractor! It was a really fun day, and a nice break from normal classes. I also felt more like a part of a group of friends, rather than The Exchange Student.

Playing pictionary. Cony, Me, Nicole, Andrea and Nicole

But everyone was like 'whoooaaa' when I said something really fast, something random like 'I think the doll is a girl'. It was a funny moment, we were actually discussing the gender of a doll. My spanish is at the level when I am translating in my head less and less and just automatically knowing what the words mean. I have managed to make another mistake - I wanted to jokingly say 'I'm going to marry a chilean' but instead said 'I'm going to hunt chileans'. So watch out!

---> My house (in the middle of the street)

2009-05-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

So today and yesterday I havn't been at school because I've got a bit of a cold and am doing everything possible to get better, which means lots of bed rest, drinking lots of water, wearing warm clothes, socks and getting early nights (none of which I would do in NZ when I get colds, but the Kiwi 'she'll be right' attitude doesn't apply to me when I'm in Chile and should obey my host mum's wishes for me to not contaminate everyone else in the house and recover in time for Friday, when we will be going to the Pan de Azucar with a group from my host dad's work. The other reason is if I have to go to the doctor (it's a cold, only a bit of a cough, a headache, runny nose, nothing serious) I have been told I will get an Injection. So in NZ, people give injections in the arm. No problem (although injections for colds, that's new). A month back I was talking to my Aussie friend, who was too sick to come to the one-month orientation, and he was telling me how horrible it was to be so unwell in a foreign country. What made it so horrible? Injections. With a Capital I. Because, in Chile, you see, they don't inject into your upper arm. Oh no. They inject into your buttock. So that's why I am trying to get rid of my pesky cold.

So while I was home alone yesterday I whipped out my camera and took a few photos of my casa. The only parts I didn't take photos of were the bedrooms of other family members and bathrooms (Chilean toilets are pretty much exactly the same in NZ)

My house, in the middle of the street. All houses in Chile have fences

Me in front of the house. There's a roundabout at the end of the street with a little park in it

The back of the house. My room on the left

The front door

Room at the back of the house. It's what I'd call an 'Utility Room'

The study

Lounge. Dining room table on the bottom left

Laundry. The door leads out to a tiny courtyard where the washing is hung

Kitchen. We use a water filter because the tap water has a flavour. Most Chilean families don't have dishwashers (or dryers, in Copiapó, because it's sunny all the time, except at night and when it's misty)

Other part of the kitchen, with the door I got my fingers jammed in on Sunday

Upstairs little corridoor. Forgot to rotate

My room, my desk on the left, host sister's on the right. That's my closet, and notice there's no curtains. Well that thing on my desk is the curtains to be velcroed up.

My corner of the room. There's a hairdryer on my shelves, because I have to dry my hair. The NZ flag takes pride of place above my bed. The rubbish bin is actually a beer cooler, for the Chilean beer Cristal. Havn't tried it.

The backyard, from my room. In the corner is a little waterfall. In the bottom left hand corner is the barbecue

What am I having cravings for at the moment? Spaghetti and cheese on toast. Marmite and cheese on toast. Mince and cheese on toast. Tasty cheddar cheese. Curry (without cheese). Fresh milk. My doggie. Sneakily taking bits of my Dad's secret supply of lollies. Mum's baking. The beach. Fellow Kiwis. NZ music (which I'm currently listening to on youtube, to celebrate NZ music month). Biking down my street with my coat, scarf, gloves and hat under my helmet and being snuggly while my ears feel like they have frostbite. Driving. The mountain beside the sea. People who I've known for nearly all my life. Sheep.

These are also the things I would most like to share with a person who is foreign to NZ. Being an exchange student and experiencing something new in another country has made me realise how much I would love to be a host sister to an AFSer and show them New Zealand. And although I'm missing the things I listed above, I'll be able to come back to them. So it's a missing feeling, but not a sad feeling.

There are things I tell my classmates about NZ and they are absolutely shocked by. For example, my school in Chile goes from primary to high school, and is mixed. So imagine their surprise when I said my school in NZ is a high school, with 1300 girls. And they were in awe at the fact we wear sandals in the summer terms, because here (in the desert) it's shoes and socks all year round (and trousers for the boys).

My school in NZ has a cafeteria, (-forgot the word to put in here-) referred to as The Caff. Where they sell pies, cordon bleu's, pizzas, muffins, drinks (but not fizzy ones), biscuits, yoghurt, fruit, sammies, potatoe tops, noodles, soup, panini's... etc. So if you need a bought lunch you buy one or two things, a panini and a cookie for example.

Here in Chile, if you buy a lunch from the school kiosk, it comes on a tray with little sections. Rice and chicken in a sauce, chopped lettuce, beetroot and lemon to put on it. A bread roll. A little cup of juice. (And if you get the slightly more expensive one, a dessert like jelly or flan). Cheaper than a NZ caff lunch would be too.

Well that's all folks,

until next time :)

---> A day in the life of an exchange student

2009-05-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

My weekdays:

6.40am - Get out of bed, wash face

6.46am - Back to bed (it's too early to get up, but my host sister showers.) Listen to iPod

7.05am - Get up and ready, have breakfast, brush teeth

7.35am - Drive to school

8.ooam - School starts, but the teachers are never in class that early

9.30am - 10 min break

9.40am - 2nd period

11.10am - Other break

11.20am - 2rd period

12.50am - Break

1.00pm - 3rd period

1.35pm - Lunch. Try and run to be one of the 1st in the queue to use the microwave

2.30pm - 4th Period

4.00pm - School finishes, walk to place to take colectivo. Wait.

4.30ish - Arrive home, change, wash lunch containers, relax, do homework, chill

5.30ish - Host Mum arrives home. Talk to her, watch TV

7 - 9pm ish - Eat onces (tea/hot chocolate, bread/leftover lunch)

9.30pm ish - Shower, brush teeth

10.00 pm ish (because I don't use the shower for 1/2 an hour) - go to bed, read a children's books in Spanish, listen to iPod, SLEEP (normally about 11ish)

Tuesday: Band until 5.40pm

Thursday: English 'conversation' with the eager kids to learn English and the Gringo teacher

Friday: Band until 5.40pm

Last weekend I went to Caldera on Friday, because it was a holiday. We had one of my favourite Chilean foods for lunch, Pastel de Choclo, which is a meat mixture, with lots of onion, and a ground corn topping, and surrounded by pastry, which is more like pizza dough. On Saturday I went to a vintage clothing shop with my host mum and older host sister, and found a really cute yellow skirt, perfect for summer. We had lunch at a 'public' restaurant, which is like the place where all the locals go - a friend empanada and Churrasco, which is like a hamburger, but oh so much better because it is Chilean. We returned on Saturday night, and my older host sister, brother and I got ready to go to a carrete (party). It was at the same place as last time, but this time there was an asado (barbecue, chilean style) and a few different people. But unfortunately my conversation person, a really nice person who is patient with my Spanish and very nice, didn't turn up so I was a bit lonely. It was the birthday of the Embarazado, a friend of my host siblings, and it's a tradition to shove people's heads in their birthday cakes.

The cake was nice though, despite that. It was really a torte, which consisted of layers of pastry and manjar, and manjar-cream. Very addictive. Very much so. We went out to the street for some reason and sat on benches there and ate cake and drank coca-cola. Then went back and played a game when you have a dice, choose a number, and if your number comes up on the dice, you have to drink Pisco. I didn't play because I don't drink but was the person who rolled the dice.

Sunday was a chilled out day. I found out that my conversation person wasn't at the party because he studied then went to the Casino. I'm not sure if that means the Casino Casino, as in the tallest building in Copiapó, or whether it's another kind of place with the same name. They really don't worry about gambling here. The Gran Casino is opposite a church, too. So it's like pray-play-pray-play. Well not really but yeah.

This week was a busy one. Traffic here can be nasty. There are speed limits but nobody really patrols them. It just feels like on the roads, everyone is in a rush to be somewhere. Then when not driving, everyone is really chilled out. I don't know what it would be like if we all had bicycles. Twou'd be interesting.

Spanish grammar has begun to slip into my English. One of my friends wants to practice English, so sometimes we talk in English, and on Thursday I managed to say 'book of Biology' instead of simply biology book.

Last night, my host brother and I had fun googling the places I'll visit on the North tour, they all look surreal and awesome in the photos on Google images (google, or googly, as they pronounce it here). I'm excited to see the flamingos. And llamas too, hopefully. Not to mention my AFS family.

And it's true, we're all like brothers and sisters here. One of my friends was having problems and a few of us were taking part in an epic facebook messaging session giving him advice and friendliness. There are a few of us who are like the tight group, me and a few Americans, and then also I have like a 'big sister', one of the other NZ girls, and one of the other NZ boys is like my brother, I'm kind of an orphan because I don't have parents in that aspect. And we all have our elaborate marriage plans too. And general things we talk about.

I was sitting on a bench in school with my friend Andrea and she said to me that sometimes she thinks it seems like I'm Chilean. That made my day. I also get called 'Kiwi' at school now (or 'Kiwi Loca' (crazy Kiwi). Not Gringa.

I'm listening to Sigur Rós while I write this and I think it's influenced my writing style. Interesting.

---> It's how I roll

2009-04-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my host mum called me into her room. So I paused writing my speech in Spanish on Vladimir Bechterev, ran downstairs to my host parents' room, and looked at what was happening on TV.

The National Anthem for Chile was playing, along with video clips from all around Chile. But it wasn't just playing on once channel, every single channel had the national anthem on it. This was because the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, was about to speak. And guess wat she spoke about? The Porcine Flu. Which currently, up to my knowledge, isn't in Chile, but it's pretty close, because now Peru has it. So stay safe everyone.

What also happened yesterday is I made a complete goofball out of myself in my Theory (of Music) class. We were in the Audiovisual room (eg, the room with the projector), to watch a powerpoint and youtube videos of Arabic music. I was sitting on a chair, so were my friends, and some were on the floor (carpet, in there!) and so we were all spread about, and pretty relaxed because it was the last class of the day. So we're all sitting there, and the teacher is playing Arabic music, so me and my friends bust out the gangster as dance moves while sitting down - you know the ones, like the Indian one, when you clasp your hands above your head and move your head, and then I busted out the Sprinkler as well (one hand on ear, other stretched out in front and moving to the side to the beat of the music). Obviously I must have been busting out some pretty mean moves, because the next thing I hear, is practically the WHOLE ENTIRE CLASS chanting 'Anita! Anita! Anita! Baile! Baile! Baile!' (dance). And guess what? The exchange student turned bright red. And they didn't just say my name three times and the word dance three times, it went on for quite a while, and included the English version on 'Baile'. So I couldn't feign not understanding that time.

That embarrassing moment eclipsed the time I was walking past my classroom, and did a double take, then carried on walking ahead, while looking back, and walked into the fire hose. Aren't I cool?

Aside from that little bit of excitement, this week has probably been one of the more stressful weeks for me in Chile, mainly thanks to a man that wears apple-green striped polo shirts, tucked into blue jeans, with brown leather shoes, black framed glasses, a gold necklace of the Crucifiction, has a round face and brown hair brushed to the side. Mr Filosofía Teacher. Who I swear has it in for every student in the school. On Monday, me, along with my group consisting of Juan Pablo and Sebastian, were supposed to present about Psicologia Reflexologia Rusa (Soviet Reflexology Psychology), but we hadn't started (having only been given the task the previous Thursday, and me being sick, not having a cellphone, etc, we hadn't been able to work on it.) So on Monday he called me up to see him, and said in Spanish, in a mean way, why I (yup, just me) hadn't done the work . . . And to be honest, I had no idea what we had to do, since (Welcome To Chile, Anita), all classes are taught in Spanish. So I spent the next few days researching the topic, which was VERY hard to do, even in English, and living in fear of this horrible monster. On Wednesday, after school, Juan Pablo, Sebastian and I met and since the school has no computers students can use, we went to the public library, where there were no books on the topic, but luckily managed to plan our presentation, so I went home and wrote a talk in Spanish about Bechterev.

One of the reasons why I was so scared of the teacher is that, the girls that did present their project, did so with a Powerpoint presentation, and were wearing formal uniform, and did what I thought was a brilliant job of it. Then the teacher basically critized the beep out of it. And my group couldn't do a powerpoint, not to mention lack of information about the topic.

Today was the day we presented it, and well . . . we did our best. We wrote key point on sheets of paper, Juan Pablo presented his information by heart, Sebastian . . . well, read straight from the sheet of paper in a low voice (but he can't help being shy!) and I said the introduction and my bit about Bechterev. Then came the critiquing time. Which I'm sure went very well for the teacher, but that means it didn't go well for us. The thing was, I absolutely love my class, they may be a bit crazier than classes in New Zealand, but I think part of the critiquing was quite unfair (that I could understand, because I had researched a lot of information, and not been able to translate it, and the other information in Spanish, not been able to understand the ideas, only some words). But one girl got angry and the teacher, and I'm pretty sure she was standing up for me, because I understood the words '2 months', and I have been here for that long. But still, talking in a raised voice at a teacher probably isn't the best way to go about things, especially when he was telling her to be quiet. So she got up and left the room. Then about five more people did the same. Then the inspector came. And after school I saw those people come out of the office, and the girls were crying. I'm not quite sure exactly what happened, but it was a very dramatic day. But I still said 'Hola, Profe' to the teacher when I passed him on the way to the English Conversation.

The English Conversation was . . . well, a conversation in English. My school is public, and we have two Californians volunteering as part of a government programme to teach English. They're married (to each other), young, and are here for about 6 months. A friend from my class asked if I'd like to go along, so I did, and there were three of my classmate there, and another girl from a lower class. We introduced ourselves, and talked about what we like and don't like. Jason and Anna, the gringos, basically organised it to help the students who want to get better at English. I must say I was rathered challenged, but I think I did okay. . . It was actually really fun, and I had a chance to get out my panoramic postcard that my aunt gave me, which is a view of my town in New Zealand, and everyone was awed by the beauty of my town (so I think I boosted the tourism there too, because the gringos said they wanted to visit), and after we talked about food. And it was good to speak english again, and know not only the words, but manner of saying them, is being understood (by the gringos though). You do miss being sure of how you communicate.

Every Tuesday and Friday, I have band practice. And unlike my band in New Zealand, I play in a marching band here. Although the music is a lot easier, I have to learn 4 pieces by memory. the first time we went outside to practice playing our instruments while walking in form, all the music went out of my head, because I had to concentrate on making sure I was walking with the correct foot at the correct time. And we walked round and round the courtyard. Which was different. Not to mention, I'm in the first line. But I'm getting used to it now, just have to learn the pieces better.

I'm enjoying having flute lessons here. My flute teacher is really nice, and especially in my first few weeks here, I looked forward to the lessons, because music at least is an international language (although the notes are called Doh-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Te, not A B C D E F G). But last week, which I don't think I played too well because I was still suffering the aftershocks of the migraine I had last Tuesday, while I was packing away my flute, my teacher said to me 'Your grade, Anita. Six point eight.' And I thought . . . what? my grade? in a flute lesson? so I said "My grade?" And he said, "This week was a test". So I thought "Oh." Luckily, a 6.8 out of seven is actually a high grade, one of the highest that the flute students got, so I was quite happy. Unlike in English, when I got a 6.6, only because the two questions I got wrong, were badly written questions.

Here's some photos of me and my friends at school.

Me, Andrea and Eileen

Erica and I

By the way, do leave a comment! I do read them, although I might not reply to them (limited time, my friends). But it is rather discouraging to go to the effort to write a blog, if nobody is going to leave a little comment of feedback, or just a little comment. You don't need to have an account to do so, just click the 'anonymous' button. I swear I will turn emo if I do not get at least 2 comments on this post.

---> In the hands of Time

2009-04-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

This is my official 2-month mark. I honestly cannot believe that time could have flown this fast. There have been times when I wished it would hurry up, but if it's gone by this fast, the day I will leave this country is going to pop up at me out of nowhere like an unexpected visitor.

My Spanish is improving, and it makes life a lot more easier and fun to be able to talk and joke again. Sarcasm doesn't exist here, however, but that's okay because it's not that funny anyway.

I'm feeling a lot closer to my classmates, and I think Chileans can be so sweet at times. One of my classmates, Pedro, left the class last Friday because he is moving to another city in Chile, and his friends bought a banner to school that everyone was decorating and leaving messages on, and I didn't think they would be the type of people to do that. But it was so lovely, and after class everyone stayed behind to wish him luck and take final photos, and several of the girls were crying. And they presented him with the banner. Then yesterday was the birthday of one of the boys in my class, and his best friend in the class walked in late to our Lenguaje lesson with a birthday cake for him, and e

veryone started singing 'Cumpleanos Feliz' and hugging him on his birthday.

Us farewelling 'Peggy'

Me and som of my friends at school (Emily, me, Sofia, Erica and Andrea)

I have also made a few more language mistakes. On Thursday I was feeling really tired, despite having slept for a good eight hours the night before, and one of the girls in my class asked me what was the matter. I told her I was so tired, but I have had a lot of sleep last night. But my pronounciation wasn't right, so it ended up sounding like I said I was tired because I'd drank too much last night!

The other one was today, when my host sisters and I were joking about how much percent certain my 14yr old host sister was that she didn't like a guy. We were going up in percentages, 100%, 150%, 200%, 250%, so I meant to say 'one million percent', but my pronounciation sucked, and instead I said 'a melon percent'.

This month I've felt myself become much more accustomed to the ways of my host family and of Chilean culture in general.

I've learnt to fold the socks differently, unplug appliances when they're not in use all the time, to get up to wash my face then go back to bed because I don't want to be using the bathroom when my host sister has her shower, and it's too early to get up. I'm used to breakfasting on either cereal and coffe, or jam rolls and coffee. I am used to taking my lunch to school and heating it up in the microwave, I'm used to kissing my friends on the cheek to greet them, I'm used to not knowing what is going to happen and just going along with what does happen, but most of all, I feel I'm getting used to considering myself a New Zealand-Chilean. And dealing with the fact that although I've only been here two months, the day that I leave is going to be a sad, sad, day.

---> It gets better

2009-04-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

To completely change the tone of my last post, I have to say that I had a fantastic weekend.

On Saturday, I went to a soccer tournament for the school that my host sister Andrea and brother Pablo go to. Their school had a separate sports ground, with a pool, field, stands and cafeteria. It wasn't that exciting, but I spent a good bit of the time helping Andrea make the fire for the barbeque, which took a bit of effort! The fire kept going out.

That night, although I wasn't too sure if I was going to enjoy myself or not, I was invited to go to a carrete (little party) with Andrea and her boyfriend Rafa. It wasn't what I would call a little party, there were about 15 or so people there, but it was crazy fun! Although I go to a different school from the others, all the people there were really nice to me. Chilean parties are great.

Unlike in New Zealand, where it is normal to bring your own drink, for only you to drink, in Chile, they put forward some money, and someone goes and buys drinks for everyone, and some of the friends were bartenders/DJ's for the night. I don't drink alcohol, but was perfectly content with my class of lemonade. There were a few others that didn't drink as well.

So what sort of things do you do at parties here? There was music, reggaeton and cumbia. At this party, we didn't dance much, but for one of the songs, a Metallica song, all of the guys were absolutely hilarious because they did what I would call a 'fake' fight - they were running around pretending to fight each other, but it was so funny to watch. There are also the typical party songs, which everyone sings along to. Two of the guys had guitars, and played on them also, and after we sung happy birthday to the birthday boy, they played another song, and everyone sung along to it, which sounds cheesy but it wasn't, there was a great sense of friendship and fun. People also played cards, and simply talked. (And smoked). I found it a lot easier to communicate at this party than at my first one, and spent all the night talking in Spanish.

Some of us at the carrete

On Sunday, a friend from school, Emily, invited me to her house for lunch. I had met her family before, and while they aren't rich in money, they are one of the nicest, most hospitable families I have ever met. Emily tried to teach me to play guitar, which I have decided is not my forte, then we had Chinese for lunch (which her mum cooked herself, it was delicious!), and her younger brother told us hilarious stories, he is the kind of person that tells stories and everyone at the table is in fits of laughter - and he's only seven! His expression was so funny. After lunch I played Jenka (Tumbling Towers) with her brother and dad while Emily got ready for church, then thanked her mum for lunch as was dropped of at home.

Because I wasn't the best last week, I decided this week that I would make a goal to put more effort into interacting with my class friends, so on Monday I came to school ready to come out of my shell a bit more, and it's true when they say, the more you give, the more you get. So I had a really good day at school on Monday.

Unfortunately, today, at about 1pm, in my Civics class, I noticed something wasn't right when I could only see half the Civics teacher's head. I started having trouble reading, and seeing - it was like I was looking at something, but parts of it were missing. This, I realised with fear, was a sign I was about to get a migraine. And sure enough, after half an hour I'd started to feel dizzy and the pain on the left side of my forehead had increased. I found my host sister Valeria in the cafeteria and she took me to the inspector, and it was really difficult trying to explain what was wrong, because somehow my Spanish wasn't funcioning either, and she was asking if I had eaten something funny, if I was getting a cold, and I just wanted to tell her that I don't get migraines from anything, the only other two that I have had, have just happened. After I had a panadol, I went back to the cafeteria, but I just felt worse so went to the office, where Valeria tried to get hold of someone to give me permission to leave the school. I ended up leaving with her at 3.15pm, when her classes finished, after my host dad spoke to the school. We went home in a colectivo, and I got into my pajamas and went straight to bed. The thing is, with a migraine, I can't read or do anything, even sleep, so I get really bored, which makes time pass slower. I think I did sleep however, luckily.

I really love the kindness and caring ness (sorry if that's not a word, my English is getting worser and worser) of the Chilean people though. While I was sitting, dazed out on the sofa in the office, Emily was stroking my hair and keeping me company, and my friends Eileen and Nicole somehow managed to get out of physics to come and sit with my for a bit. My English teacher also asked what was wrong, and my Biology teacher checked my glands and my throat and diagnosed me with the flu, then said I would have to have an injection - and in Chile, they give you injections, not in your arm, but in your buttock. So I'm glad I don't have the flu!

I'm feeling much better now, and I'm going to get an early night tonight. I can't believe I've been here for nearly two months now!

Chau!

---> Mountains

2009-04-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

'Can we climb this mountain? I don't know, higher now than ever before'

I'm climbing a figurative mountain here. It's uphill, so it's hard. Exchange is hard.

When you first think 'yes, I would like to climb that moutain', you think, 'wow, I am going to do something amazing, it's going to be amazing, I know it will be hard, but it will be amazing and exciting and I want to do it.'

So I'm climbing this mountain. There are times when I can stop for a breather, and look out at the view and it's beautiful, and you thank yourself for making the effort to climb the mountain.

Then there are the other times, when it's just so hard you want to give up, but the slope is so steep and gravelly that you have to keep going or you'll slip down too far, and you wonder why you are putting yourself through it, but you just keep climbing because there's no way you can do anything else.

You reach the top of the mountain, and you've made it!!! You've accomplished something huge. And then you miss the views you could see from the rest stops you made coming up the mountain. The hard times have faded a bit in your memory.

For other exchangers, it was different. Some were fitter than others, so the climb was easier. Others climbed mountains that were harder to conquer. And because everyone's mountains are different, when you are climbing one of those steep gravelly slopes, and other exchangers are staring transfixed at their views, it's useless to compare. Using walky-talkies, you can share how tough a time you're having, and be encouraged by others who tell you it's not all the time steep and gravelly, but it's your individual pursuit. But when you all make it, you can proudly think, in the words of Sir Edmund Hilary, '...we knocked the bastard off'.

I'm nearly 1/5 of the way into my exchange now, but the reality is, I have been writing a lot about the good stuff, when there's not-so-good stuff to do with exchange as well, and to be realistic about exchange, it's not good times all the time. Everything does not stay new and exciting, there's a point when it settles into familiarity. Of course the familiarity includes the good times, but there are points when I am homesick, when I'm tired, when the language barrier becomes frustrating, and other times like that.

Homesickness is a normal part of every exchange. I was very homesick when I first got here, other exchangers were experiencing a 'honeymoon' phase, when everything was new and exciting. But everyone is different. I am going through one of my homesick phases now. There are funny little things that I miss, for example, 750ml water bottles and having a room of my own. There are also the more obvious things that I miss, like my family, friends, routine back home and the delicious meals my mum prepares nearly every night. It's harder to find a private space here, my room is shared, and bedrooms are generally the 'private' rooms of the house. But I'll get used to that. It's things like that that you think of when you're homesick.

The language barrier is slowing coming away. I am really glad I had taken Spanish for three years before I cam here, because it definitely helps to know how verbs are conjugated. I never thought I'd think this at the time, but I am thankful for the tests my Spanish teacher gave us, when we had to memorise irregular verbs and 80 words per week. I have been able to communicate more and more. At the start it was frustrating, because I knew I could say more in Spanish, it was just that if I said something, I would not be able to understand the response. I'm used to the accent and the pace of speaking now.

When I am feeling homesick, I do know that I am in one of the low points, and it will only get better. I really believe in myself now, I have faith that it will get better, and that's something I thought I had before exchange, but I really believe that I have now. This past week, I was finding mornings really tough, probably partly because I think I'm coming down with a cold, so I was going to bed earlier and still waking up tired and dreading the day ahead, I would cry a bit in the bathroom while washing my face, and in my first two classes I'd just be really tired and sad and want to sleep. But that's the low points, and at the end of the day, I don't feel like that anymore, school gets better and I feel better and happy, and have been through the low point, and when I feel better, when I have a next low point, I know that given some time, it will get better.

For example, yesterday I was just feeling really homesick. I was also worried because we had a test, and everyone seemed to be studying for it, so I went into the classroom to study, and was reading the notes and listening to my iPod, when a song came on that reminded me of home, and that set off the waterworks. A friend noticed I was crying, and came over and hugged me, then led me to the bathrooms, where more friends saw and they all hugged me and we had a big group hug, and even though I was sad, it was so nice to see how my new friends were supportive and caring. And like I knew at 6.40 in the morning, I started to feel better and it turned out to be a pretty good day.

But the reality of exchange is, like climbing a mountain, it's not going to be easy and fun and amazing all the time. It will settle into normality, it will be harder at times, but it will get better and there are always the good times to look forward to.

'I know we can make it if we take it slow, that's takin' easy, easy now, watch it go'

---> the Great Marmite Taste Test

2009-04-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

---> One-month orientation

2009-04-08T16:15:00.001-07:00

It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right…

I can’t begin to describe how much I enjoyed the one-month orientation that I went to last weekend. It was one of those times that you measure how fun they were by how you feel when it’s over. Which was, for me, and surprisingly too, that when my friends at school here asked me how the weekend was, I started to cry. The bond that exchangers’ form is an incredibly close one, it’s like having a best friend that you share everything with, after knowing them for two days. My ‘group’ of friends at orientation was Ashleigh from New Zealand (Punta Arenas), Connor from the USA and Ananda from Brazil (Copiapó), Captain Awesome from the USA (San Bernando) and Angela from the USA (Linares). Of course I didn’t only hang out with those people, but we spent the most time together when orientation activities weren’t taking place, and sat next to each other nearly every mealtime, not to mention all the ‘inside jokes’ that we share.

On the whole, everyone was a lot more relaxed than at our arrival orientation, when we were all jetlagged and nervous to meet our host families and our new homes. My orientation was for students from the Central area, so there were about 50 of us, and the two from Punta Arenas and one from Coyhaique, as it was easier for them to come to the central one. There were two other orientations, one in the north for the 10 students, and one in the south for about 15.

So here’s how the orientation went:

Transit
The Copiapó people (me, Connor, Ananda and Fabian) left the Copiapó bus terminal at 10pm on Thursday night, for an overnight bus ride on those incredibly comfortable seats again. We weren’t all sitting together, so it kind of sucked, but being an overnighter, sleep is more necessary anyway. And for me that was about 2 hours of sleep. Which was ok, I mean, I got to see more of the countryside, and a bit of La Serena as we drove through. We arrived at the bus station and Rodrigo from AFS was there to greet us, and drove to the orientation place in a taxi, and the two of us in the car of another volunteer. This orientation place was different, it was still nunnery-ish, but this time with more a hint of Harry Potter – there was a Harry Potter staircase! It was two-storeyed, the rooms were bigger – Ashleigh and I scored on getting one of the bigger bedrooms – and the garden had more shade.

Day One
The only students who arrived so early were the Copiapó students, and the three from the far south who arrived the night before. And because of that, we got to see a bit more of Santiago than the others who arrived that evening. On arrival, we had time to take our bags to our rooms, change/shower and unpack a bit, and then one of the volunteers took us for a trip to the mall! We had to catch a metro, which was a first for me.

On the metro

The mall we went to was absolutely huge, and really fancy. Why don’t they have cinemas and 10-pin-bowling in malls here? First we went 10-pin-bowling, and were one of the only two groups using it.

Bowling, me and the Germans

Happyland! Where the bowling alley was

After that, it was lunch in the food court, so four of us got DoggiS, which was completes, fries, processed empanadas, coke, and a sundae, for about 2000 pesos, or $6 NZD. And it was good value for money – we could have had McD’s, but chose the Chilean take-out place. Connor was in charge of ordering the food, and when it came time to give his name, the lady looked at him funny, so he ended up calling himself ‘Pablo’. Which became his new name.
After lunch, we went to see a movie, and the Germans chose Underworld, which was a vampire/lycon fantasy gothic flick, and after it, I don’t think anyone found it that great, but the cinema was! The seats were elevated in levels, the screen was huge, and yet again, it was practically to ourselves.
We returned to the orientation place, and more students had begun to arrive – the part we had all been waiting for, seeing one another again! We had an orientation activity in groups – my group was the Kiwis, the Austrians, and Icelandic, and the Finns. The other groups were only the Germans, the Thais and the Japanese girl, and the USA people. So I got a mix of cultures!

There was a dinner, and the rule with AFS is now, I think ‘thy exchange student shall never be underfed’. I can’t remember what it was, but all of the meals were delicioso.

And after dinner, what do exchange students like to do – talk! We talked so much; you find that when you haven’t been able to communicate for 5 weeks, you have quite a bit to say! My playing cards came in handy too, but there was a lot of talking!

Day 2
Breakfast was rolls, ham, cheese, coffee or tea. And chatter as well! We went straight to orientation activities, talking about our first month in Chile, and how much we knew about our routine, host family birthdays, where to put dirty laundry, etc. There was a break, then an activity on the cycles of adaption, and we got a chance to share if we were having problems with our host family. Luckily only one of us was. But for the rest of us, no problems.
Then it was lunchtime, as usual it was delicious, and after that we piled onto two double-decker buses for a tour of the city. As Santiago is so huge (6 million people, 1 ½ times the population of New Zealand), we got to see downtown, including the main plaza, a lot of the amazing architecture, the Presidential Palace, and we also saw Jesus, in an outdoor performance of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Outside the Presidential Palace

Ananda, Alvaro, Connor, Me and Captain Awesome outside the Presidential Palace

Jesus, and the Jesus Christ Superstar Performers

They wanted a photo with us!

About 30 minutes into the tour, the tour bus behind us crashed into our tour bus, and it was only after the tour when I found out why. Turns out, a girl from the USA tour bus was waving at her bus driver, and the bus driver waved back at her – and therefore wasn’t looking at the road!
There were so many people in Santiago downtown! I’d never seen to many people congregate in one place. It was absolutely crowded, and when people had a turn to cross the streets, they kept crossing well after the traffic light was green.

Some photos of Santiago, and the architecture

We did another orientation activity about different ways of adapting, had another delicious meal. Before the meal we had a little random corridor conversation, which turned into a huge discussion about kebabs, marmite, cities, and other things like that. I swear that there were no awkward silences ever at this camp. It was great.

But this meal came with a difference – the day before I left, I had received a package from home, and in it came none other than MARMITE!!! So we had the Great Marmite Taste Test. Connor liked it, none of the volunteers did, and Captain Awesome with his dual USA/Australian citizenship told me it tasted like vegemite. I have a video of it too!

The dinner table - Me, Ashleigh, Felix (Germany), Angela, Simon (France), Captain Awesome/Alex (USA) and Connor

After that, and another orientation activity, we had to announce the King, the Queen, the nicest person, and the nicest volunteer. Thor from Iceland was the King, Olga from Finland the Queen, Erika from the USA the nicest person, and Jorge the nicest volunteer. The volunteers had decorated the place with balloons, and the winners got cute hats and chocolate. Then, we had

to sing happy birthday to Leonie from Switzerland, and everyone sang it in different languages, which was really sweet. Afterwards we had a little party and cake, which was, yet again, delicious.

The King and Queen (Rey and Reina)

That night went into early morning, as my group just talked and talked and talked, and about serious stuff too, like what we had been worrying about, that kind of thing, but it was a lot of laughs too, as when we went into Angela’s room to mime out an awkward scene that had taken place (or just see where everyone was sitting), we heard footsteps, and thought it was the people we were talking about, but it was Captain Awesome.

It was just one of those funny moments, nonetheless. Later that night, when Ananda and I were brushing our teeth, the German boys thought it would be funny to use the girls’ bathrooms, and when a volunteer noticed something was up, she waited for them to come out, but they didn’t, they had perched on the loos in the cubicles to no feet would show, but then a German head popped up, and they all got caught out. It was absolutely hilarious, the whole scene, and especially when all the volunteers gathered round to wait for them to come out.

Playing cards in Ashleigh and my room

Day 3

This was the last day, and everyone was really tired from the night before, but breakfast still managed to be cheerful and funny. We had our final orientation activity, then played an obstacle course game outside, which involved being spun around 10 times, doing the egg-and-spoon race thing, except with water balloons, fishing a lolly out of a plate of water with your hands behind your back, doing the same afterwards, except with a balloon in flour, blowing up the balloon, then jumping over something, army-crawling under chairs, doing the limbo (all with the balloon in your hands) and finally sitting on the next person’s lap with the balloon

underneath to pop the balloon. Afterwards, we all had beards of flour, but it was huge fun.

The obstacle course:

And after! Olga (Finland), Thor (Iceland), Emily (USA), Me, Mollie (USA) and Marrta (Finland)

Getting funky with the water balloons!

Ashleigh, Anita and Angela

People’s host families in Santiago arrived, so goodbyes were said. After we had the ultimate lunch, first of fruit and bread and salad, then huge, delicious empanadas, then pasta and chicken. The empanadas were amazing. And finally, at 3pm, the bus station group said their goodbyes and headed off to the bus station.

Transit
Us Copiapó people were the 3rd to last to go, which meant waiting in the bus station for 7 hours. And yet again, my cards came in handy. Finally the only students left were the Copiapó four, the Punta Arenas two, and the Thai girl in Coyhaique. The other three had to stay the night at the bus station hotel and catch planes early in the morning, so we went to McDonald’s to have dinner. And for my first McDonald’s burger in ages, it was actually quite delicious! At 10pm the Copiapó students said our sad goodbyes to the others, and boarded the bus to reality.

I hope you had the time of your life.

And this is me, Felix and Emily, Felix had the most adorable tee shirt

---> Not better or worse, just different

2009-03-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Being in a different country, with a different culture, one is bound to notice the things that are different from how they are at home. As an exchange student, I have learnt to notice these differences without passing judgement as to whether it is a good difference or a bad difference, it is, and will always be, just different.

So here are some of the different things about Chile:

-The meals - small breakfast, large lunch (eg, dinner in NZ), and a snack at about 9pm called Onces (Spanish for 11, although it's not eaten that late.

This is a special onces, some yummy pastries

-Public transport. There are Micros and Colectivos. Micros are buses, they follow a fixed route, but at any one time, there will be quite a few micros on that route. They are really cheap, about $0.80 for my route. They are dirty, pack in as many people as possible, and really hot. Colectivos are similar to taxis, except they follow a fixed route too, and normally have 5 people in a fie seater car. They're black, with a number on a thing on the roof. Cheap too, $1.50NZD. And you don't wear seatbelts. To signal a micro or colectivo, you stand on the side of the road and hold out your index finger. There's no fixed stopping place.

-Food comes in bags. No mayonaisse jar, or ketchup bottle, most condiment are in bags with a little screw thing in the side.

-Normally bread is either these little roll things, call Maraquet, which are oval, or round shaped, with fork holes in the top, and there are like layers of bread, so it is easy to split it in half, and put it on a contraption to toast over the stove

-Here, in Copiapo, since the nearest farms are hundreds of kilometres away, all the milk is UHT, and taste like processed cheese to me. (So I never have just a straight glass of milk

-When students enter late to a classroom, most people wolf-whistle and make kissing noises

-This also happens when I go for a bike ride with my sisters, and workmen drive past. The name for them is 'Hawties', Spanish for Hawke. It's basically someone who hits on a lot of people

-The plugs (for electrical appliances) have three holes, lined up, and no on/off switch, you just unplug everything when you're not using it.

-The light switches are long, and sideways

-Toilet paper is never flushed, you always put it in a bin beside the loo, as the plumbing system can't handle it

-Driving is on the right hand side of the road

-Driving is crazy, and there are quite often policemen to signal traffic. Traffic occasionally stops at pedestrian crossings, but normally you just walk out when there are no cars coming and pray that the ones that do come, stop for you

-Policemen wear green, and police cars are green

-In some shops, instead of queuing, you take a ticket from a red metal dispenser on the wall, and wait for the number on your ticket to come up on a red screen above the till.

-There are stray dogs everywhere, some are really cute and fluffy, and some are huge German Shephards

-On Saturdays and Fridays, everyone stays up really really late

-Being late is normal, except for school, when if you are late, this person writes down your name and class if you are a senior, and lets the little kids walk right through (they don't take a reason, like when I was late once because the traffic lights had broken, and traffic was really bad. I thought it was really unfair that I was put in the same basket as someone who had simply slept in.

-All school books are spiral bound, and made from graph paper.

-After lunch, everyone brushes their teeth, and reapplies makeup (well not the boys)

-After PE, we all shower

-In PE, we do heaps of stretches and running, no games.

-Shoes are worn at all times, inside and outside the home

-Jeans are really cool here, not the plain styles like in NZ

-Nobody texts. I have not sent a single text since arriving here.

-To greet someone, it's a kiss on their right cheek. Some people hug too, and guys just shake hands

-Even though it's against the rules, pretty much every student takes a MP3/cellphone with MP3 to school, wears makeup, and talks during class. I have not seen anyone with an iPod, however.

-We stay in the same classroom for all our subjects, the teachers change instead.

-At lunctime in school, students can return home, or they can take a lunch to school in a Chili-bin thing, in little plastic containers, or their parents take them their lunch at lunchtime, or they get a hot lunch from the cafeteria

-A lot of smoking (but luckily noone in my host family). Teenagers smoke at parties

-All houses have gates, and in the centre of town, have bars over the windows too. Some fences have spikes/barbed wire on top.

-Furniture is not pushed up against the walls because of the Chilean Recluse Spider, which on Wednesday night, I found right next to my bed, on the wall next to where my head would have been. Even scarier is that most people get bitten when sleeping. It's fatal too.

-There are slums. Not extremely bad ones, but definitely quite a few poorer districts where I live

Poorer houses painted bright colours

-Well, my school uniform is different from my one in NZ! I don't normally wear the vest, but it is normally quite cold in the mornings.
-On PE days, everyone wears the school tracksuit to school, during PE, and after (but changes socks, underwear and the PE top.

-Water is heated by a Calefont (Kelly-font). You have to turn it one before showering, which means using a match to light this thing, then turning a switch and holding it in place for about 15 seconds.

-Since my school is a music school, the Band I am in (it's a marching band) is hardcore. There are heaps of clarinets, brass instruments, like horns, tubas, euphoniums, there are all the different kinds of saxophones, quite a few bassoons (in Spanish, fagots!) and of course, flutes! And we have to learn music of by heart, and march. And I am a little bit worried about learning music of by heart and marching to it, but yes, it's different!

-Dishes are washed by running them under the tap, and using a cloth and a bit of dishwashing liquid. Then they are rinsed so there is no foam on them. We don't have a dishwasher. (or a clothes dryer)

So that's the end of the differences, now it's time for an update about my weekend!

On Friday, after school (which finished at 1pm) me and my host sister decided to do a bit of baking, and ended up making two things from NZ, Anzac biscuits, and Louise Cake. Both went down really well, and I managed to explain the history of Anzac biscuits in Spanish! (It's amazing the sorts of things about NZ I have explained - from Anzac biscuits, to netball, to ACC and OSH, to the Haka, what Kiwis are.) Things I never thought I'd explain!

So here we are making Anzac Biscuits:

And last night (Saturday), I went to a concert of the band Los Llacos. (Spanish for the tool that miners use, it's like a hammer, and I can't remember the name - pick?) It's a band of traditional music from the Copiapó region, and it was amazing. It was indoors, in a proper theatre. The bad was playing, and behind them on a screen, images were projected. It was traditional music, but there were contemporary instruments like a saxophone, drumkit, electric guitar and modern flute, as well as a rain stick, pan pipes, and a bamboo whistle thing. Lots of people in the audience were taking photos with flashes too.

My younger host sister had a few friends come, and my family asked if I wanted to invite the other new exchangers, but Connor and Fabian were in La Serena, so it was me and Ananda. And Mum, you should be proud of me for organising something over the telephone (as opposed to texting), and in another language!

Some of the words of the songs I could understand, or get the general idea from, like the song about the resistance of the Mapuche (native people to Chile) when the Spaniards came. It was really a great show.

The band on stage

After the show, one of the members of the band was outside, and my host parents were talking to him, so Ananda (the Brazilian exchanger) and I got a photo with him, underneath the banner. I also managed to do a bit of promotion for Womad - it would be amazing if they could come there next year, I was listening to the band and imagining how great they would be at Womad (I thought of the concert as my own mini-Womand, since I couldn't be there this year.)

Me, the guy from Los Llacos, and Ananda, underneath the poster for the band

After that, we went outside, where there is a beautiful plaza, which is a memorial for the hereos of the war between Chile and Bolivia-Peru, in the 19th centry. there was a statue, and a gorgeous mosaic on the ground. My host dad told Ananda and I about the mosaic and the statues, and I was pleased to note that I also knew a bit about it from my history class at school!

In front of the statue

In front of the Catholic church in Copiapó.

In the beautiful plaza

On Thursday it was my one month anniversary of being in Chile. It's amazing how quickly time has flown by. When I first arrived, I was really quite homesick (although I didn't blog about it). The next 11 months looked very far away for me, and at school I was fighting back tears several times every day. (I discovered that fake-yawning helps disguise that).

Exchange isn't meant to be easy, and my first few weeks here were the hardest so far. One day, I was feeling homesick at reakfast, and when my host mum asked me what was wrong, and if I missed NZ, I began to cry. But I have such a lovely host family, my host mum gave me a long cuddle and said comforting things, my host sisters and dad hugged me, and my host sister wiped my eyes. Since then, my homesickness has got better, and I definitely feel like I'm becoming accostumed (sorry, I'm forgetting how to spell) to the culture, developing a routine, and becoming part of my host family. In this past month I have learnt a lot about myself, I've learnt to be patient, I've had absolutely no idea what is going on, and just gone with the flow, I've felt really isolated at school from the language barrier (and that is an ongoing thing), but after 11 months, I (hopefully) will be a more mature person, and I know it will be worth it.

There is the reality, when new things become familiar, and when your imagination of what your host country will be like, is no longer imagination but reality.

But every day will start to go faster and faster, until my year here has ended, and my goal for this year is to Carpe Diem. Time is precious, and I want to make the most of my time here in Chile.

---> The weekend!

2009-03-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to weekends. Two days to sleep in and relax, and without the pressure of school.

Unfortunately this weekend was different.

I had to go to school!

Luckily it was from 8am - 12.50pm, no later. But school on a Saturday . . . well having a two day weekend seems to have become a luxury. The reason my school had to attend classes on Saturday is to make up for the days we'll have off later in the year - 4 terms with 2 week holidays between, another NZ luxury!

But luckily after something not-so-nice came something good - an AFS Copiapó welcome. The first time I had seen the other exchangers in a few weeks. We had to stand up in front of everyone (host families, returnees, and the AFS people) and introduce ourselves. Which would have been easy for me, had it been in English. As soon as I have to talk in front of a group of people in Spanish, my Spanish goes out the window. So I managed to utter 'Hola, soy Anita. Tengo 16 años y soy de Nueva Zealandia. Me encanta Chile y mi familia aquí...es todo.' Which translates to Hello, I am Anita. I am 16 and from New Zealand. I love Chile and my family here.... um..... That's all. (What I meant by 'that's all' was that's all I can think of, not that's all I love here!)

Me, Fabian, Ananda and Connor

After the introductions was a chance to eat some delicious food, and talk with the other exchangers. One of the returnees spent a year in South Auckland, and it was good to talk to someone who understood all the Kiwi slang!

On Sunday afternoon, I went with my host dad and sisters to Paipote, a small village on the outskirts of Copiapó. There is a giant sand dune there (well, a bit bigger than Back Beach) and we climbed it - no steps! - an a bit further to get a view of some of Copiapó and take some photos.

Sisters and I on sand dune

Me on sand dune

The weekend after this up and coming weekend is an orientation in Santiago for us exchangers. Looking forward to it heaps!

---> A birthday!

2009-03-19T14:34:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday it was the 14th birthday of one of my host sisters.

In the morning I gave her a hug, as did every other member of the family except for my host dad as he works in the mines from Sunday night to Thursday night.

After school we had to walk to the centre of town to buy our tracksuits for PE (yes, we were winter tracksuits here in the desert, for PE!)

But upon returning, the house had been decorated with balloons, a Feliz Cumpleaños banner, the table had been set, and all we had to do was wait for our cousin (who is a student at the university here) to turn up.

Then we ate! Pizza, lollies and cake. My host sister opened her gifts, and it was a very jolly occasion.

All of the kids at the table - Host sister, host sister's boyfriend, host brother's girlfriend, host brother, me, host cousin and the birthday girl

The birthday girl!

And for another little story, I thought I would tell you about some language mistakes I have made while here in Chile.

Firstly, I was at a mall place with my host sisters (on Tuesday), and there was a poster (luckily, there weren't many people around). I thought I'd read the poster aloud. Couldn't understand any of it, but just to practice speaking. So I read it, and in a loud voice as there weren't that many people. The word I said loudest was 'Pap'. Quite a bit louder than the other words.

As we were walking away, I asked my sisters what 'Pap' meant. Turns out it means the same in Spanish as it does in English. It was a poster for Pap Smears.

The other language mistake I made involved me explaining to my host brother, in Spanish, what backstabbing was. I was doing quite a bit of miming to explain myself, and standing in a position that a pirate with a sword might adopt, to mime out someone with a knife, I said 'It's like when someone comes up behind you and stabs you back . . ." and I got the word for knife mixed up with the word for ... "SPOON!"

---> My first party in Chile

2009-03-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

Last night I went with my host sister (the one who's the same age as me) to my first Chilean party.

It was the birthday of one of her friends, and as they all go to a different school than me, I knew absolutely no-one, but luckily I'm getting used to that!

I arrived at 10pm (it's normal to be late), and was introduced, talked with the other girls there, learnt how to play Blackjack, with caramel popcorn as chips (as in, betting chips), talked about music with the girls there.

The music playing was a style called Cumbia, which everyone says is good to dance to. Well, it might be good to dance to, but me, dance? Something I hadn't done in about 3 years . . . But when a guy offered to teach me I decided to give it a go (no, Mum and Dad, this does not mean anything!) It was quite fun and we got into a conga line around the pool.

One cultural difference I noted was that it's normal to be huggy/touchy with the opposite gender, even if it's just friends. One of the girls I was talking to was lying on a deck chair with her guy friend, then when he left she held the hand of another guy, and there's nothing wrong with that. In NZ it might be considered cheating on your boyfriend, but it's just a friends thing, and it's perfectly acceptable and normal.

There was alcohol and smoking there, but I had neither, but the drinking was responsible drinking, no binging, which would have made me uncomfortable. Everyone had a good time that they will be able to remember!

Some people went for a swim/got thrown into the pool. I tried a cute little mini ice cream, like a Trumpet, but much smaller and the cone was chocolate. We took some photos (not with my camera, I didn't bring it).

It was a good night, and my first 'carrete' in Chile!

Now I have to attempt to do my homework!

---> Caldera, and my first week at school

2009-03-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went with my host family to a beach resort town called Caldera. It's about 100km from Copiapó, and the drive there is completely through the desert. Because it's through the desert, it basically means the road is dead straight. And literally dead, because all through the highway were memorials for those who had lost their lives on the road. As it's so straight, people speed, and accidents happen.

The memorials are a Chilean tradition. They're simply not white crosses like there might be in NZ, instead they are beautiful edifices, like little white tiled rooms, I guess you could say. There are fresh flowers and candles around them, and little fences. The sad thing is, on the one hour journey on a straight, reasonably flat desert road, there were about 81 of them.

Caldera itself is a very beautiful seaside town. When we arrived we had lunch at an amazing restaurant, where the interior decor complemented by wrought iron monuments, like the drama faces, and other things. There was also a singer/guitarrist on a level above. The food was good too, but I tried to stay away from the cochroach that came out from under the table!

The little port at Caldera was gorgeous, and there was a white sandy beach with the town and desert in the background.

At Bahia Inglesa, I kayaked with my host dad, and there, was the biggest oyster farm in the world. It seemed to stretch on for kilometres. The sea was very calm, and there are what I would call massive rocks (but not boulders, more like the rock pools, but smoother) and there was a kiosk on top of one.

After the kayak, my host sister and I got churros, Chilean donuts. Mine was filled with manjar (dulce de leche/caramel). Yum yum!

Then on Monday was my first day of school. First my host mum and I went to the office, and then a teacher (I think) came and showed me to my classroom. I was looking kind of lost, but a girl invited me to sit next to here, and then some students gathered around and asked so many questions: (in Spanish)

'When did you arrive?'

'Where do you come from?'

'Where do you live here?'

'Who do you live with?'

'What's NZ like?

'What music do you like?'

'Do you have a boyfriend?'

'Do you like Chile?'

Questions like that came at me for the first few days. A teacher arrived at 10am (school start at 8am). The teacher before was sick, and there are no relief teachers. The class decided on the class rep, secretary and other positions.

For lunchtime, students can either return home or eat at school, and because it takes about 20 mins to return home, I eat at school. I ate my lunch with the same girl who had let me sit with her, but lunchtime was fairly boring, and being bored makes my mind wander to home, and homesickness sets in.

I had been told school finished at 5.30pm, but for my class it finishes at 4pm, so I had to wait until I could call my host mum. Luckily some other friendly girls noticed me looking lost, and kindly kept me company until I could be picked up. They took me to see the flute teacher to organise lessons, let me copy out the timetable and showed me a bit of the school. It was great.

On Tuesday some more people invited me to sit with them, so I got to know more people, and had lunch with them, which I couldn't really follow their conversation, but it was a much more lively lunchtime than on Monday.

I can't understand any of my classes, except Physics and Maths, as I've already done them at home. My classes are: Physics, Biology, Maths, English, Spanish, PE, Music Theory, Philosophy, Audiovisual Communication, Civics, and Language and Society. And one more, that I can't remember.

All of my classes except one are in the same room, and the seats here ar horribly uncomfortable. Between each class, there's either a 10 minute recreo (2 in the morning) or a break while we wait for the teacher to arrive, then race to the classroom before she/he shuts the door.

Each lunchtime I liked better and better, and I think that my understanding of Spanish has improved. After everyone finishes their lunch (that has either been brought with them in the morning, or delivered by a parent at lunch), we all go to the bathroom and do what the sign tells us, which is brush our teeth. And the girls all re-apply their makeup as well.

The uniform is a white polo, or a white blouse with a navy and red tye. And a vest or a jersey. A navy skirt with lots of pleats, above the knee, for girls, and grey trousers for the boys. Navy socks, and black shoes. For PE, it's navy tracksuit pants, and the school sweater. Earrings, necklaces and bracelets appear to be allowed as well.

Most of my classmates are really friendly, but there are a few that just keep to themselves and aren't bothered with a new student (I don't mind), and they invite me to sit with them, stand with them during breaks, and show me around the school. To greet friends, you give them a kiss on the cheek, or the boys just shake hands (I think). It's considered rude not to do that.

And now here are some photos:

A train track statue at Caldera (sorry it's not rotated)

In the Atacama desert, on the way to Caldera

My first empanada! With Ananda, from Brazil

In the Atacam desert with my host sisters

---> The first few days (+ photos!)

2009-03-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first full day in Chile, and there was plenty to do!

I was woken up early, because I had to register my visa. When Andrea and I arrived at the Policia de Investigaciones, all the other new exchangers were there, and it was great to see them again. We waited for ages, but eventually we were one by one, taken into an office, where we had to hand in our passport, and the person there typed some things from it into the computer, then took a photo of me, and printed out 2 copies. I had no problems with my visa, but unfortunately Ananda did, and couldn't go on to get her CARNET (Chilean ID card).

The rest of us piled into Alvaro's car (Connor's host brother, and a volunteer) and drove to the civil (?) office to apply for our carnet. Instead of lining up, you take a number out of a roll from a red dispenser, and when that number appears on the screen over your booth, you take your turn. (This is quite common here). So instead of waiting around, at first we went outside and talked, but Connor was hungry, so we walked to a cafe to get something to eat. The food here is great, and toast (which we all ordered) isn't just thin slices of bread, it's a huge bread roll, with avocado, cheese and ham, or jam. Yum! After our snack we walked back, but Fabian's host mum was there and had parked downtown, so we piled into her car and drove back to the civil registry, where our numbers were still not near to coming up (even though this had taken the good part of an hour).

Finally my number came up on the screen, and I went with Andrea to apply for my CARNET. You have to have your passport, documents that show your visa has been registered, and it cost 40050 pesos (about $12 NZD). After that, we took a colectivo home. A colectivo is like a taxi, but it follows a route, and you try to get as many people in as possible. No seatbelts!

We had lunch once we arrived home, and after lunch Valeria and Pablo and I went round the house, writing down the words for things in Spanish, and I would write the English. Surprisingly, we did this for quite a while! The Chilean accent is quite strong, so even when I know the word, it sounds different, which is another reason we wrote things down.

Once my host mum arrived back from work, she drove me back into town to meet up with the other exchangers in Copiapó, which Dominique, an Austrian who has been here for 6 months already, organised. There were about 10 of us, and 4 were newbies. We met at a hotdog/burger place, and I had a hot dog with avocado and tomato. The food here is amazingly good! After we ate something, we then went to the Plaza and talked, then to the shops (really crowded at 7pm!), then to another plaza to talk. The students who have been here for half a year seem so old and wise to us youngun's, and in 6 months, I guess we will be like that to the half year arrivals!

My host mum picked me up at about 8:30, and we returned home, watched TV, and I explained when we wear sandals for the school uniform (in Spanish!) and about terms and national exams here.

And at last, some long awaited photos!

activities on the 1st day of orientation

Ashleigh, Nic, Tamika, Chris, Me, Stu and Stephanie (Kiwis and Aussies) in the girls' room

In front of the orientation place, you can see the mountains in the background

My orientation group

Analisa, Ashleigh, Stephanie, Lexi, Stu, Allie, Alvaro (volunteer), Molly, Chris, Emily, Me, Erica and Leah

The Kiwis - Stu, Stephanie, Chris, Ashleigh and I

(This is at the NP airport, but you can see my cool AFS tee shirt!)

Sela and I

Brazil, France, Finland, Finland, Denmark and Finland