I came, I saw, I ate, I conquered.

I should blog more often. I wouldn't regret writing these if I did them more often and they were shorter.
Oops, I mean....I love updating you all about my life! (Skip ahead to Number 1). P.S. I'm sorry if that link made no sense to you. If it did, you are probably my sibling or close family member.

Life has been so great here in Chile! I've officially been here for over two months - it's hard to believe I'm almost half-way done with my Chilean experience. Let's not think about that though, and just live every day to its fullest. Agreed? Agreed.

I got to go surfing two weeks ago! The moment I heard there was surfing here, I told myself I was going to try it out. The original cost was 10 bucks for the board and 10 bucks for the suit for the whole day. We bargained it down to 10 bucks total for two hours. We originally planned only surfing for two hours anyways, so we win. The trick was to pretend like we wanted to surf longer. The first hour was a little rough; it was tough to even get up on my knees. But then I began actually standing up! By the end of the two hours, I had gotten up on my feet quite a few times! I also took a couple nose dives but whatever - what goes up must go down, right? It's only science. It probably helped that after the first hour, I lost all feeling in my face, hands, and feet. Wait, did I say helped?

Third-wheeling with an engaged couple. Or maybe it's called third-finning?

A friend of mine (who was a friend of a friend of my brother but is now my friend and was always a brother (in Christ)) Actually, the friend of my brother is also now my friend and was always my brother (in Christ) so I guess I could've said a brother of a brother of my brother, or a friend of a brother of my brother, or a brother of a my brother. Or just my brother. Or just my friend.

...so this friend of mine is in a Chilean Gospel Choir and they had a concert last week. I took a bus over to the church in Valparaiso with a friend of this friend (Okay, I'll stop) who was also in the choir, so we got there an hour early for them to practice. During this time, I walked around town because it was a nice day. What I found was so great. There was a worship service going on in the middle of the central plaza, so after snagging some street food, I watched and praised the Lord! 

Praising God...

...for this.

The gospel concert was amazing! I got there at 6:45 for a 7:00 concert. And it started a little after 7:30. I had to remind myself that I am in Chile and this is regular...But honestly, they sounded so good, and I recognized almost all the songs, except they were in Spanish. It's a cool feeling when you realize that the Holy Spirit doesn't only move in the states and doesn't only speak in English. Christianity is a worldwide religion, and our God speaks every language! That's so cool to think about. (PS, I hate to break it to you, but Jesus wasn't white.)

¡Jubilosos!

So this is the transition sentence. (I never really figured out how to do those in middle school 5 paragraph essays.) I'm in a choir! I joined the University's choir made up of about 10 people. There aren't many activities other than sports to do on campus because in Chile, you don't live at school in dorms, you live at home or an apartment and commute to school. So since no one really stays on campus for much other than classes and the gym, the few extracurricular activities that they have aren't very popular. Anyways, after practice last Tuesday, one of the girls in the choir brought up the idea of singing in the school's talent show the next day. So we picked a song (Hey Soul Sister), made up parts, and learned it all in just one hour. The next day we met once before going on stage to review the parts and everything. There was actually quite a large crowd (this was "University Day") and it was a little frightening, but we went up there and sang like pros. Seeing as we picked the song just 24 hours beforehand, it was a pretty great accomplishment that we got SECOND PLACE!

I'm guessing you can tell who the other foreigner is. 

In other news, I met this super famous guy. A man named Alejandro Chafuen who is from Buenos Aires but is a graduate of Grove City College and is now a famous economist and is on the board of advisors to the Center for Vision and Values at GCC and he's founded all these things and is the president of various things (John Steinbeck's got nothing on my level of detail). Basically, he's so famous that after the other two GCC students here in Chile and I ate a super fancy lunch with him, he went to go talk to the president. Of the college? No. Of the nation of Chile. He literally left the college and went to the capital to talk with Piñera. We got a picture with him but they haven't uploaded it to Facebook yet (ugh...adults and their lack of FB immediacy)

This past Friday there was another included excursion through our program - to Pomaire! Pomaire is a small little town known for their pottery. Literally, there was almost nothing but pottery sold there. OK, I guess I'm being dramatic; there was also marijuana plants being sold on the street. You think I'm joking, don't you. I guess that's why they call it pottery.

First we went around and bought things, like good little gringos. And then we ate lunch. Colin and Kyle are the two other Grove City students here this semester. We shared our lunch between the three of us. Now, if three hungry 20 year-old guys are going to share a lunch, it better be pretty freakin huge. Take a gander at this baby: 

The best part about this picture is the girl in the background is a vegetarian. 

Yeah, that was one of the most satisfying lunches ever. I call it "Big Pot of Meat". It has a name in Spanish but I always forget.

And then we got to make pottery, with the potter's wheel and everything. But first we watched a demonstration by the professional. He was so amazing at it and made it seem so easy. Like, honestly he turned a slab of clay into a fully enclosed apple in about a minute.

I'm going to pretend this is me and not the professional

Then we all got to try. I was too big for my workspace. Every time I kicked the wheel to make it go, I smashed my leg on the tiny table. But after a lot of failed attempts at this whole pottery thing, I got pretty mad so I started kicking things on purpose. Worked out great - no one noticed. 

Monkey See, Monkey Cry because he can't Do.

It was super tough but it was a great experience. But let's just say those "bowls" I made aren't coming home with me to the states. Sorry mom and dad, looks like my gift to you will be plants I bought on the street.