---> Sand, snow and sun

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This wasn't just a light dusting of snow, this was brown desert that had been replaced by white - it stretched on for kilometres with the small mountains of the desert in the background.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

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!)

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

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

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

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

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.