Loca

I'm going to take a leap here and say that Chile's national anthem is not the song they play when Chile wins an Olympic gold medal; it's this song by Chico Trujillo:

The title of the song is a good description of what Chile is like. If you haven't noticed already by reading my blog, Chile is kind of loca.
Honestly though, everyone knows all the lyrics and Chico Trujillo is considered a god. When I asked my host brother to give me the names of some good Chilean musicians to listen to, he wrote this guy's name first with three check marks next to it. I looked up some of his music and actually bought some on iTunes, much to my host sister's disbelief. When I told her I bought music on iTunes, she was seriously dumbfounded. I guess no one actually buys music (or movies, for that matter) here in Chile; it's all pirated. You should've seen her face. Loca.

If you didn't hear the vuvuzelas and car horns yourself, then you may not know: CHILE CLASSIFIED FOR THE WORLD CUP! Last week Chile's national soccer team played Ecuador and won 2-1, meaning they have officially qualified to play in the World Cup tournament! Immediately after the game, the streets became mobbed because everyone left their respective houses and favorite local bars to celebrate. Everyone was drunk and reckless, so things got crazy pretty quick. This is pretty much what it consisted of: chants, flags, vuvuzelas and other noisemakers, beer, costumes, drums, dancing, and yelling. In one word: Loca. It looked like a huge riot was happening (which wouldn't be uncommon for Chile, but I'll save that for another time) so I'm just glad I wasn't there to witness what it would've looked like if Chile had lost! I recorded this video below to give you a taste of what it was like. (I realize that you may have Chico Trujillo's song still playing. You're just going to have to figure out how to manage having two videos to watch. I believe in you.)

There was a Circus in town! But it cost too much for Colin and I, plus the long line of people at the entrance consisted of either children under ten or their parents. We tried to go in with our friend Areyonna and pretend like we didn't understand that it cost money, but I kind of messed up the plan by actually speaking Spanish. Whatever, it was cool to look at from the outside. 

5000 pesos = 10 bucks. Like anyone could even afford that. 

 On Saturday I went to the Santiago with Colin and an amigo santiaguiño, Ricardo. First we went to the largest mall in Latin America which is connected to the tallest building in Latin America, or at least that's what they say. 

Oh, you fancy, huh? 

And as we were walking in the city, looking for book stores and places to eat completos, we came across a Zombie Walk. It's kind of a creepy march across the city where people dress up as the living dead. It originally started by fans of "The Walking Dead" TV show but now it's just something fun people do to express their love of zombies. I was actually very  impressed with some of the makeup some of these people had. I saw extended jaws, missing eyes, gashes across the face, nasty protuberances, and plenty of blood spilling all over the place. Loca.

What's next, Meth Head Walks for "Breaking Bad" fans? 

And this is the part of my blog where I try to be serious. Let's see how that works out. 

We went to the zoo! I loved it a lot. But while trying to capture photos of all the animals, my camera kept focusing on the cage instead of the animal behind it. But this made me realize something profound. These animals are being taken out of their natural habitat and placed in a confined space behind a cage without enough room to live properly. And the only reason they are put there is so people like me can go and take a hundred photos to upload to Facebook and their blog. Here are some of the pictures I thought were rather saddening, whether it was a monkey trying to climb towards the freedom that wasn't there or a Nile Crocodile that should've been renamed Puddle Crocodile.

                    


 Now, I'm not going to join PETA or anything because of this, but it's definitely something to think about. Also, something else to think about is the fact that while squinting into my camera, it was trying to open my eyes to the truth. Loca.

An American in Chile. (Why isn't United Statesian a term?)

Remember that time when I wrote, "This is a blog for now, but don't be shocked if it becomes a list of funny things that happen to me"?

Voilá

So this is what I feel like here in Chile. (No, for real, click it - it's funny. Make sure your volume is up). I'm trying to assimilate myself to the Chilean culture here as much as possible, but sometimes there's some confusion. Here's my unorganized list of those confusions (and other funny experiences I've had).

1.Please tell me how to eat this.
Because soups usually require spoons.
And potatoes usually require forks.
And drumsticks and corn on the cob usually don't require utensils.

This was my first meal here so I didn't know what the table manners were yet. I was able to pretend like I was thirsty for long enough to realize they use a knife and spoon to eat it all. I've eaten it probably four times now and I still suck at it.

2. I'm sure you know what I mean by the smile and nod.
Even when people are speaking me to in English I do this. I don't want to make them repeat themselves or make them stop telling their story, so I just smile and nod, hoping that'll hide my ignorance. As you can imagine, it happens even more when I'm constantly being spoken to in Spanish. Of course it happens less and less as my ear improves, but just yesterday I was eating lunch with my family and my host mom was reminding me about something that happened last week and all I could understand was 'frutilla' (strawberry) so I asked her to repeat it but it didn't help. So I pretended to think about it and then exaggeratedly responded with "OOOH oooh sí!" and then made eye contact with my host sister's boyfriend and shook my head and rolled my eyes to show him that I had no idea what she was talking about. I feel like it's something Kelly Kapoor would have done.

Notice the ceiling. Notice how I'm not standing straight. 

3. Everything seems smaller in Chile, for a variety of reasons. (For more information on that, read my friend's great blogpost). But here I will only be talking about the actual physical size of things.
Examples:
a. Every morning I take a shower where I can't do a 360 without my shoulders hitting the walls. At least the thought of dropping the soap doesn't frighten me because there's no possibility of retrieving it.
b. The second floor of a club I went to had a ceiling barely over six feet tall. This becomes a problem when you yourself are barely over six feet tall.
c. I saw some hats I wanted to buy but upon trying them on, I realized my head was a bit too big. It's too bad though, because they were selling hats that said "Boston Bruins: 2013 Stanley Cup Champions" which made me smile and frown at the same time.


4. I still don't fully understand the way greetings happen here. From what I've gathered, you kiss a girl on her cheek and you shake a guy's hand. You can also hug the guy if he's your close friend. The only time I've seen guys kiss on the cheek was between family members. Getting the kiss right is tough though. I never know if I should also grasp her opposite shoulder, or how hard I should kiss, or when it's appropriate to actually kiss her cheek as opposed to just making the cheeks touch. I'm pretty sure I put more thought into each kiss I make here than I did my first kiss ever - it's that complicated. Plus, you do this twice; once to say hello and once to say goodbye. Plus you have to do it to everyone in the room. It makes it quite a show when someone leaves an event early and has to sufficiently make their rounds. There's no getting out of it. This is also why I try to get out of church as soon as it ends because even just ten seconds of dawdling means you've become sticky fly tape.

John Mayer : Kanye West :: Sam Skold : Chileans

5. If you've been keeping up with the Kardashians me, you'll know that I sometimes get annoyed when people respond to me in English. It's usually with strangers when I ask them the location of a sushi restaurant or the bus terminal or whatever. So I decided to do something about it. One week Colin and I showed up late to church and we must have had super concerned looks on our face because this guy came up to us and said in English, "We just started, you can enter" and I gave him a weird look and said "No entiendo inglés" (I don't understand English). His face went white and he began to apologize profusely in Spanish saying he thought we were from North America. Luckily I didn't have to prove myself because we were immediately ushered into the service, so that worked out well. Is it bad that I'm proud of making someone else embarrassed? #sorrynotsorry

That's not all, but I think that's sufficient for now. Expect more. Expect many more.

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. 

Adventures in Pucón

July 4 is a pretty exciting day for those from the US. A typical Independence Day celebration involves a parade, some fireworks, and a large BBQ with the extended family in an uncle's backyard. 

September 18 is a pretty exciting day for those from Chile. A typical Independence Day celebration involves everything mentioned above but 10 times grander. 

From what I have heard, Fiestas Patrias used to only be a one-day celebration. And then the 19th was included as a day of festivities. And then the 17th. And sooner or later they just decided to celebrate the whole week. This year was actually the first year my school had vacation all week. So pretty much this year September 18th is being celebrated from September 13-22.

Here's a step-by-step guide to a Chilean Fiestas Patrias celebration:

Step 1: Drink alcohol

Step 2: Repeat Step 1

Step 3: Eat meat.

Step 4: Repeat Step 1 and 2

Step 5: Repeat Step 1, 2, and 3

Step 6: Repeat Step 4

Step 7: Once you are inebriated a good amount, dance cueca, the national dance. 

Summary: Drink, drink, eat, drink, drink, drink, drink, eat, drink, drink, dance! 

For real though. Look at this game at the carnival in town. It's ring toss with alcoholic drinks and if you ring a bottle, that's your prize. 

But think of the children! 

By now you're probably worried that I, being underage in the states but legal here, am taking advantage of this Chilean tradition by getting drunk every night this week. But don't worry, because Colin and I have been in Villarrica and Pucón all week, doing fun things that we will be able to remember.

We set off on Friday night on an overnight bus to Villarrica, Chile. We brought huge camping backpacks, a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, cooking supplies, etc because we were planning on staying at one of the campsites we found online. We got off the bus and started walking in whatever direction. The small amount of planning I did for this trip included finding some names of campsites online but never getting their information. After a bit of walking we found a tourist information center, but it wasn't open until 9 AM. So we walked over to the nearby lake to wait, and man was that beautiful.

The first step is to admit you have an addiction

So at 9:00 we went to the office and the guy gave us the directions to the three campsites in Villarrica. After the thirty-minute walk, we find out all of them are closed. I started wondering about the qualifications of that worker who sent us to closed campsites. And then I started wondering about the qualifications of the person who looked these campsites up online but didn't realize they weren't open until January.  And then I realized that was me. 

So our only plan to stay at a campsite was already dashed by 10 AM on the first day. We kind of just sat down on a bench and stared at the lake for a while. And when we returned to the tourist office, it was unexpectedly closed. I trusted you, Tourist Information Office, I trusted you.

We ended up just finding a hostel that was $15/night each person. I told the owner that we didn't have enough money to accept his $18 original offer. This is a big step for me - I'm usually too nice to bargain prices. Even though it was a lot more than our original $4/night campsite plan, it turned out to be really great. The owner is a chef and he made us Chilean empanadas every night!

You love empanadas. He loves empanadas. 

Writing this out now, it seems like that whole escapade was no big deal. But in the moment we were super bummed because we didn't want to spend a lot of money and we already brought all our camping gear and we were tired and annoyed with everything. This is where I first realized that this trip was just going to be a test of my faith. When we were just staring at the lake, I asked God to take control of the situation. This is something I should have done before our trip even began. 

Since I've already spent too long writing this post (is that selfish?) I'm going to highlight the best parts of the rest of the trip. 

We went horseback riding! We got to ride through the beautiful Chilean landscape, up and down green hills with farm animals welcoming us at every turn and volcanoes in the distance. Colin seemed to ride his horse with ease. I tried to make it seem like I rode my horse with ease. Let me just defend myself here: First of all, this was my first time actually riding a horse before, so I knew nothing about the form, and the guide's hand motions and grunts didn't help me too much. So I picked my brain for movies that had people riding horses, and tried to mimic what I remember. So between War Horse, Lord of the Rings, Toy Story 2, and Cowboys and Aliens, I think I managed to figure it out. Secondly, I was too heavy for my horse. Going downhill was a struggle to say the least- at times I thought about getting off to give him a break, but I didn't want to try to maneuver that. Thirdly, (and this gets a little graphic) I really had to...use the restroom. And bobbing up and down on a horse is not the best thing to do when you are in that situation. Let's just say that afterwards was the most relieving bathroom break of my life. So during this three hour ride, I didn't know if I was going to make it or not, but if Britney Spears can make it through 2007, I can make it through my first horseback ride. 

WE CLIMBED A VOLCANO! The best part about Pucon is the volcano. Everywhere you stand you can see it in the distance, in all of its glory and might. Our number 1 goal for this trip was to climb the volcano so we went to every volcano-climbing business and finally settled on one, mostly because there was another group we could join (the minimum was 3 people). The night before we made our super-energizing lunches which included lots of peanut butter, jelly, and MANJAR (God's gift to humanity. It's like dulce de leche. Or caramel - but way better. Please pray it will be sold in the states soon). Then the next morning we ate this:

Not what you think it is

Oatmeal with fresh bananas and MANJAR. We met at the business at 7:00 am, got all geared up, and drove to the base of the volcano! Even before we started, I was busting a gut with excitement. There was snow everywhere and the massive monster of a mountain straight ahead. 

At that point I told myself, "Even if I have to turn around now, I am pleased." It was that amazing. But no, we didn't turn around there...not yet. The climb was actually tougher than I thought it would be. The snow made it so every time you took a step, your foot would slide down to where you started, so you had to put in double the effort. 

I took an artistic shot, how many points do I get?

It was pretty slippery so you had to keep an eye on your feet but this was hard for me because of the view. Everywhere you looked, up/down/left/right, there was something magnificent to see. Whether it was the clouds wisping through the mountaintops below us or smoke lightly floating at the peak of the volcano, or the lake down at ground level, it was jaw-dropping. But eventually the weather started getting worse and we got to a point where the visibility was so bad, the ice was so slippery, and the wind was so strong, that we had to turn back. It was too bad we didn't get to the top, but like I said at the base, no matter where I had to turn around, I was so pleased with what I experienced.

Hey Mom look: I'm wearing that hat you made me. Am I your favorite now? 

The whole experience was just so powerful and one where I felt very close to God. He kept reminding me of the Bible verse Matthew 17:20: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." 

No matter how grandiose this strong structure is, God can move it with just one word. His creation is mighty but He is mightier! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you - just have faith! 

Even though we did have to turn around, this was the most fun part. We got to slide down almost the whole way! In our bags we packed little sleds that you can clip on to your belt, and it actually goes pretty fast! The whole time I was just like, "I'm sliding down a freaking volcano right now!" My grin was ear to ear, but so was the snow on my face. 

When we got to the bottom, it was decided that the guide was going to have an asado (BBQ) at his house and the whole group was invited. So after returning to the hostel to shower and pack our things, we went to his house and had an authentic Chilean celebration: we drank, ate, and danced. 

Chile is one long Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercial

As you read, listen to this. Play it in the background, and it will get you in the mood. Make sure no one who you don't feel comfortable crying around is near. (Don't worry, it won't be as bad as the first time you heard Adele's "Someone Like You")

I can't believe it's already been a month since I arrived in Chile! I remember back when my first day was over, and I thought, "Before I know it, the first week will be over, and then the first month!" Now I am mad at my past self for jinxing me and making time go by too fast. Why you little!!

The past two weeks have been pretty legit. I actually traveled outside my city, are you proud? Let's start there. With some others through the exchange program, I went to Santiago, the capital of Chile. The Andes are always in view...if the smog doesn't block them, and there are (unsurprisingly) dogs everywhere. So there's this super fun game (I just lost the game) I thought of that's actually spreading. Here are the instructions:

• Rule 1: Go to Chile 
• Rule 2: Walk outside
• Rule 3: Look for a dog
• How to win: If you see a dog, you win

I have only lost once. For all of you still listening to the song, I hope it's at the chorus right about now, because about 10 steps later I saw a whole pack of dogs laying on the grass nearby. One of them was dead. I still haven't decided if that's bonus points or not. Remember when I said this game was fun? 

This building was built to look like a cellphone.
So it was cool for one year...maybe

No matter how high we ascended up the incline on Cerro San Cristobal, Mother Mary was always looking down with a gentle smile . The view from the top was pretty sweet and we even got to see a glimpse of the Andes mountains. Oh and there was a dog up there. Did he ride the incline as well?

Look at that beautiful tower! Too bad there's something blocking our view of it.

We also got a tour of "La Moneda" which is like the White House...but it's for the Chilean president...so it's healthy. The president was actually there using up some of the rooms so the tour was cut short, but at least we got to be a room away from the president of Chile. It's sad the lack of security they had at the door. They literally looked at the top layer of the contents of my backpack and then I went through a metal detector. There was more security at my brother's graduation! But then again, Denzel Washington was there. Oh and there were dogs outside La Moneda.

Do you think the President's guards do duck-faces? 

We also went to the center of the city, "Plaza De Armas" which had street performers, statues (some alive, some not), pigeons, and La Catedral de Santiago. Oh and there were plenty of dogs. 

The school gave us a budget of 10,000 pesos each for lunch. That is $20! Are you alarmed that we went to a fancy place and ordered beverages and dessert with our meals? I mean, if you don't use the whole budget, then they give you less next time, right? 

I went to Chile so I could eat burgers! 

Mote Con Huesillos means wheat berries with a full peach plus super sweet juice.
I want my burger back. 

I stayed for the weekend to visit my brother's friend Gabrielle who actually came to Santiago with him for a semester four years ago. Fun fact (I promise the thing that's fun isn't about dead dogs this time) : she fell in love with a Chilean and now they live happily ever after. Her blog is quite informative and comical, so you should probably read it. THEY HAD PEANUT BUTTER AT THEIR HOUSE! And fresh honey from their own freakin bees. That was a good day. That weekend was full of card games, manjar, ice cream, cool friends, surprise visits, and more touristing! The surprise visit was on Sunday when I visited my brother's host family from four years ago. As soon as they saw me, their eyes got big and they said, "Iguales!!" which basically means "they look identical!" The day before, though, we walked up another hill, saw a beautiful view of the city, ate 'mote con huesillos', and saw our fair share of sad, hopeless, rejected, and lonely dogs (Donate to the ASPCA in the next 20 minutes for a free scratch-and-sniff street dog plush doll). 

My favorite moment of the weekend was on a bus when I heard a "My Heart Will Go On" saxophone solo on what I thought was the radio. This turned out to be a man on the bus with his own speakers, jamming to this heartbreak of a song. I lost it. But being the only gringo on the bus, I thought I had to sing along, so you bet I did. 

This part is called ConConConColin. Concon is a place. Con means 'with'. Colin is my friend. Cachai? We had one plan: to get on a bus to Concon. We literally planned nothing else for the day - it was an adventure. The things we ended up doing:

Walking along the beach.

finding really cool mini-crabs,

drinking Escudo (means Skold in Swedish / Shield in English),

eating both shrimp and crab empanadas,

seeing surprisingly amazing wildlife at a rundown park,

meeting some dogs,

and climbing sand dunes in Reñaca where we could see all of Vaplaraiso, Vina Del Mar, Reñaca, and Concon!

It was super fun. 

So everything is super fun and grand and exciting...until a Chilean tries speaking to me in English. It has happened too many times where I speak to a Chilean in Spanish and he/she responds to me in English. My first problem is that I came to Chile to practice speaking and hearing Spanish. My second problem is that they have such an accent that I don't understand what they say. Colin and I were paying for our subway tickets, and I asked in Spanish, "Two tickets to Puerto please" and I hear something that I totally don't understand. I look to Colin to see if he understood, and after she repeats it a couple times, she then says "In English! Espere!" I then realized that was she was saying was 'Wait' but since we were expecting Spanish and she had such a thick accent, we didn't understand. She wasted everyone's time.

Keep praying for me as I am praying for you all! There are some ministry opportunities that may be coming up, so pray that I will be able to take advantage of them. Love and miss you all! 

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! :)