Livin' on a Prayer

So much has happened. I really should do this more often. Make sure you grab your coffee and get comfortable before you continue reading.

I'm going to split this up into sections.

Part 1: THE STREETS
The streets are straight up scary. I have decided that there is only one rule: as long as you honk and speed up, you are free to do whatever you want. If there is a person walking in the crosswalk, honk and speed up. If there is a car pulling into your lane or if you are dangerously pulling into another lane, honk and speed up. If you want to run a red light, honk and speed up. One thing I have definitely learned is to not trust any moving vehicle ever.

Also the dogs have no fear. One time some of us decided to walk home from school instead of take the bus, and up ahead of us we saw a dog literally walking straight into oncoming traffic. Luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic or else he would've been a goner. The cars had time to swerve out of the way, but all of us who are new to this whole street-dog thing were all squealing and gasping and looking away every time a car came close, expecting him to be roadkill when we looked back. If you ever are afraid of something, just channel your inner Chilean street-dog and you will be fine. This is not a joke.

Twice now I have seen fights in the streets. One was between two drunk men who were (and I am not exaggerating) kicking and punching each other in the middle of the street. I'm sure their spirit animals were Chilean street-dogs because they couldn't have cared less about the oncoming cars that only honked and sped up. One man did get thrown into a car. The other fight I saw was between a colectivo driver (kind of like a taxi) and a bus driver. They both tried to get in the same lane at the same time so they both stopped their vehicles and began to punch, kick, and yell while their passengers waited. Along with what seemed like a mile-long traffic jam they created behind them.

Here's where the drunk men fought. Great placement to get hit. 

Speaking of colectivos, Colin and I had an interesting experience with them, to say the least. Neither of us are even used to taxis in the states, and these colectivos are on a whole different level, so I was definitely expecting something exciting. We didn't know that they fit as many people in them as possible, or that you pay at the beginning, or that you have to get out the right side only, or that the driver won't stop at the location you told him to unless you say something again, or even how much it costs. All of these unknowns led to an interesting experience where we got off at the wrong spot and I'm still not even sure we paid the right amount. If our looks didn't give us away that we are gringos, our actions definitely did. Dead giveaway.

Here's a model shot of Colin. 

Part 2: Carretes
In Chile they don't say "Fiesta", they say "Carrete" (thank you Stacey for warning me). But everyone is always going out to party or having parties at their house or doing something at night.
One night a couple of us went to a karaoke bar and we did like any good gringo would do and we belted out American classics. Sam (a friend of mine) and I did a duet to "Livin' on a Prayer", Colin and Sam sang "Yellow Submarine" (they love the Beatles here), and Alexa (another friend) did a Norah Jones song and "Hey Soul Sister". They loved them all and they clapped for us. "Don't make us sing....don't make us sing!"

There have been 2 family birthday parties in the past two weeks that I've been here. One was last week for one of the aunts at a restaurant with only about 15 people, and another was yesterday for one of the cousins with somewhere around 40 people. The family is so huge, and it was only one side of it! Now, I'm used to having big family birthday parties, but this was just ridiculous. There was tons of food, tons of people, tons of pictures, and my favorite: tons of singing. After the birthday girl blew out her candles, a night of singing commenced, complete with 3 guitars, 2 microphones, bongos, and a whole lot of voices. Having Skold and Brown genes inside of me, I fit right in and we had a good time. I loved it a lot and it reminded me of my family back at home. They made me sing American classics like (yepp, you guessed it) Beatles songs and "Livin on a Prayer". I really should have memorized those lyrics from the screen in the karaoke bar.

Too much fun. 

And then a couple nights ago I went out to a restaurant at 10:30 with my host sister and some of her friends. In the states, people come home from the restaurant at 10:30, but here we left our house at that time. And after the restaurant we went to one of their apartments and hung out until 5 am. Guys, this is normal here! And they expect me to wake up at a normal hour the next day? Good thing I've practiced staying up late in college - I knew there was a good reason for that ;) We ate Chorrillana. Here's a photo I found online of this popular heart attack on a plate.

I feel like Ron Swanson would like this. 

One last party to talk about (Are you bored yet?) Some church friends invited Colin and I, along with other gringo friends, to their house and we had an Italian dinner! It was a bunch of fun and we got to learn a lot of slang and chilenismos. These are the "jovenes" (young ones) of the church so we got to learn all the hip words.  Lo pasé chancho. :) 

Part 3: Untitled
This is where I list all the other random things that have happened. I went to the fair/market with my mom and we bought two-weeks worth of food. It was like a farmer's market but everyone in the whole town goes to buy their food. I felt like a local there. Too bad no one saw me as a local.....I also went to Valparaiso again with a group from school and we got to go inside Pablo Neruda's house and take the incline and do all the touristy things. Including almost dying on the bus going around sharp and steep curves.

For me, this view doesn't get boring. So you're gunna have to deal with all the photos of it. 

 One day we had a little taste of Maine in our house! I brought Moxie, blueberry jam, lobster meat, and saltwater taffy, and that's what we had for lunch. The Moxie wasn't super popular, but the lobster meat sure was :) I can now say that I drank Moxie in a different continent. This makes me pleased.

I went bodysurfing in the Pacific Ocean! Sam met these really cool Chileans who invited me to go swimming and I of course said yes. They even gave me a wetsuit to try on. It was frigid water but it wasn't so bad with the suit and plus there was an amazing sunset on the horizon, so how am I supposed to complain? This has been my favorite memory so far.

Here's my superhero picture. With that suit on? I had to. 

BlahBlahBlah If you are still reading this, congratulations. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. One more thing: Colin and I went to a bakery to buy some empanadas. And guess what was on the radio? Livin' on a Prayer.

Oh yeah, also classes began last week. But they're boring to talk about so I'll spare you the pain. I'm going to be living on YOUR prayer that I can do well in those ;) But for real.

Everything I've Ever Learned Is Wrong

Ok, maybe that's an overstatement. But let me just say that Chilean is a language of its own. I feel like every time I remember a word from even my middle school Spanish, it's wrong and they laugh at me. I'm going to have to write a post just with all the words that they say differently here.

But let's rewind.

After a night of surprisingly not stressful packing and preparing, I left my house on Thursday at 12:45 pm to get to the bus station in Portland. Then I took a 1:30 bus to Boston Logan airport with plenty of time to spare before my 5:40 plane to Miami. With the 60% on-time performance rate that American Airlines has, I wasn't surprised that my flight didn't actually start boarding until 6:45. I arrived in Miami just in time to board the next flight to Santiago. This is where I met up with Colin, my friend from Grove City who is also studying in Chile. It was a squishy 8-hour overnight flight that didn't include much sleep but did include complimentary dinner and breakfast. I've always heard airplane food is gross but it wasn't too bad. Other than that bun. That bun was gross. Also, since I stayed up for the majority of the night it meant that I was able to see the sunrise behind the Andes.

#ImsocreativebecauseItookaphotoofthemountainsoutsidemyplanewindowandincludedthewingoftheairplane

We were told beforehand that we were to look for a man holding a sign with the University insignia on it. Too bad there were literally 30 men holding their own signs with their own insignias on them. Luckily we found our group and after a bit of introductions, we headed on a bus to Viña del Mar. I fell asleep for most of it because the comfort-level was seven times higher than the plane. Too bad there was no complimentary food though.
We got to Viña del Mar and we were immediately picked up by our host families. My mother introduced herself as "Pilar" and we got to know each other a little bit on the ride to the house. I had no plans so I just stayed at home and rested a bit.

My own little corner, my own little chair

We had lunch and that's when I got to meet my brother Raimundo (Rai, 23), and my sister Camila (Cami, 26). The whole family is very sweet and, at least for now, they speak slowly enough for me and have the patience to make conversation with me, always teaching me Chilenismos (there are many) which are not things you learn in the classroom . Like I said, everything I've ever learned is wrong. Fun facts about Chile: the biggest and most important meal is lunch, and dinner is small and not super important. The whole family is there for lunch and it's sometimes over an hour, if you include the conversation that takes place. Dinner is usually some bread with cheese and avocado or marmalade and some salad and some fruit. Bread is eaten at every meal and there's a lot of it. I went to bed early that night.

That was all day one. (and a half)

Saturday: Orientation at my school, La Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. They say it's the best business school in South America so there are tons of international students from all over the world. Today we got acquainted with the school, other new students, and the leaders of the program. We also got acquainted with a Spanish exam and the regret of not studying Spanish all Summer. But the view of the city from the school is amazing and they say it never gets old.

I can see my house from here! 

But you know what's better? The view I saw that night at the beach. I'm a ten-minute walk away from this. 

God worked overtime for this one. Praise Him. 

On Sunday, Colin and I walked to church, and because of some miscommunication, we got there for the last 20 minutes. But they still made us two stand up at the front and introduce ourselves, which I was honestly ready for that to happen, so it didn't shock me. They were very nice and we are excited to go back.

After lunch, I went out with Cami and her boyfriend Fernando to Valparaíso, the town bordering Viña del Mar. It is a tourist town with quite the sights; murals all over the walls, one of the most beautiful ocean views ever, and even Pablo Neruda's houses!

Christmas tree, wheels, Menorah, boat, Chilean flag, bombs, mushrooms. One of these things is not like the other. 

I'm sure Pablo wouldn't be pleased with everyone peeking in his windows and taking photos.

The three of us talked so much all day that my brain hurt and yearned for some mindless Youtube videos in the English language. But when we returned to the house, we ate dinner and kept conversing, and I found myself trying to explain things which I can't even explain in English. This caused my first mind freak-out. I was so tired from speaking and hearing Spanish all day that my mind went to mush. Like, I even messed up cognates. But I guess that's a good problem to have.

That was my first weekend and it was altogether amazing. I'm excited to the max, and I would love prayer from my brothers and sisters back home. Pray that I will keep my eyes focused on the Lord and remain grateful and humble. This is truly an amazing opportunity to serve Him, so pray that He will guide me to wherever He wants me to do just that.

I miss you all from home, from church, from camp, from school, and maybe even from that one random time we met (I know that's one of you). You are all in my heart and in my prayers! :)