March April

So it has now been a month since I have written a blog post, the last one being about my brother, but I think I will be able to write about almost everything that’s happen. The last two months I fell back into routine as school went back into session. Although many days have gone past I do think I will be able to fit the majority of the important things that have happened to me. Un fortunately I will have to continue the pictureless blog as my computer has died and I have no way to upload large groups of photos.

After my brother finished his championship run I began my final stretch of my exchange in school, the first week of March. I started off very excited for a change from the summer, and a place to isolate my language skills and get better at speaking Spanish. The first couple weeks were so great. I finally understood my classes, and I had some sort of affirmation that I had improved in my Spanish during the summer, and the content was all of a sudden more interesting. I had this inspiration to get good grades even though they didn’t matter and I felt that must connected to my friends. I felt on top of the world and like everything was just going to go out with one big bang. Don’t get too excited, every exchange has its bumps in the road and nothing is perfect.

Before I touch up on anything negative I am going to spend a few sentences saying that the last week of February and the first week of march welcomed new exchangers to Coyhaique! This semester we welcomed Liam from Scottland, Stephen from Ohio, and Nattha from Thailand. Unfortunately Nattha did not speak any Spanish when she arrived but we have been working with her every day and she has already made some great friends in school. To welcome them Chilean style, their first weekend in Chile we had them all to my house and treated them to empanadas which are typical Chilean food. Not only were they very good, we had a great first night together and began planning the next few times we were going to get together. I am just very honored and proud to have such a great group of kids and support system here in Coyhaique. They don’t lie to you, exchange students are the best friends you will have on exchange.

One of the imperfections that is a bit more superficial is that my app to watch March Madness was not functioning well. For those who do not know what that means, it’s the basketball tournament for Division 1 Universities. As dumb as it sounds that I am even mentioning this, missing sports has been one of the only things that has brought upon homesickness and as it was something that I have shared with my friends and family since I was a little kid it was kind of sad for me not to have that. Moving on to another thing that was a little more important to me and I would put down as a large disappointment was not being invited to a Rotary event the last weekend of March. I have grown very close with my group of exchange students over the last 8 months. Unfortunately I am PHYSICALLY very far away from me. It was a trip to that was centered in educating the students about the natives from central Chile, the Mapuches, and visiting a national park. Even though I offered to coordinate my travelling and pay for everything they did not accept y offer. I was very bummed out and even felt unsupported by Rotary for a few days but I after a couple days of thinking I decided to stop dwelling on it as it was just a waste of worrying during my exchange. They had a great time and the pictures were amazing but I found a way to keep myself busy. That Sunday we had all the exchange students together again in the german girls, Robyn, house and her and Max (other german kid) cooked us schnitzel. It was so good. Max is quite the cook. Those are the types of experiences that you don’t forget during an exchange.

At the end of march I was pulled into my counselors office and informed that in two weeks I would be changing families. When something that drastic happens in such a short period of time sometimes its hard to adjust yourself. Fortunately I would be moving in with my counselor, in a house that I already was familiar with and people I was already familiar with so I knew it would be a change and an opportunity to get to know another family. Packing up all of my things for the first time was very strange. I had really found home with my first family the Auad Holmbergs. I had my bed, my room, my routine, my brother, my mom, my dad, and even an extended family. Even though I would be moving down the road it was hard to think that I would be leaving all that. However, upon getting to the new house in my new room with new brothers and parents and routine, I realized neither is better or worse, just different and that I was just fine in the new home. After 3 weeks here I am great and don’t regret anything. In fact one of my new brothers Benjamin is going to be going on exchange in New England next year, we are still waiting on the city and state, fingers crossed!!!

Now we are into April and I start to have some of my rough times. These first couple weeks of April have been my loneliest days in Chile. Its difficult to describe but basically it comes down to this. These last 10 weeks are very precious to me as they are my last in Chile. However, for my friends this time is 100 percent studying to improve their grades for college. Which I understand completely as it was me one year ago. The other thing that has been tough for me is I am not terribly close to everyone in my class, and in Chilean school you have 90 percent of your classes with your one class, same kids every class. I am familiar with everyone and have fun with the kids when we go out but I just haven’t made too many lifetime friends in this group (outside of the other exchange student, he is my best friend). However I would say I have 10 real friends outside of my class. 10 kids I really care about and plan on continuing to talk to for a long time to come. But with some living far away, being in a different class, or going to different schools, our schedules are just on polar opposites and its so hard to see them. It is hard for me to take in that I will not be seeing some of my best friends for the majority of the rest of my time in Chile.

To end on a high note basketball and chorus have started back up again with lots of promise to be great the next couple months. Chorus has doubled in numbers and basketball has a new young coach who is a great guy. Also one of my best exchange student friends will be making her way down to Coyhaique on Wednesday so that will be very fun. I am very fortunate to be ok here in Chile as there have been 2 catastrophes in the last 3 weeks. Keep  the victims of the Valparaiso fire and the Iquique earthquake in your hearts as they have lots of recovery to do. My exchange is going by very fast and I am scared for it to end. My return date is set at June 27^th. I will try to send another post up before the start of May. Keep it real readers. 

Watching From Afar

I apologize for barely blogging this summer, I have had very limited internet access. My plan is in the next week to finish up my blog talking about my summer so for all of you dedicated family members, friends, or strangers, can find out what I´ve been up to. This post will revolve around something a little different…Starting with a fairly unexciting Otter Valley blowout back at the beginning of December I said to myself that my brother´s basketball team was going to be about just how I expected. I thought they would be okay this year considering the new flow of Juniors and leadership, and the majority seeing their first varsity game this year. I couldn’t have told you what their record was going to be but it would have rounded out over 500, maybe 5 or 6 losses and a playoff win followed by a loss in the quarters. That is what I had thought, then they started winning…It didnt all happen at once. In fact they really didn’t show their greatness until later on the road but they just kept winning, and the one who surprised me the most throughout the whole show was my brother. He was playing the best basketball I had ever seen him play. He was also arguably the most consistent player on the team. He was going for 10 and 5 boards every game no questions asked and was playing with a ton of heart. I never played that well when I was a junior.Fast forward to the MSJ 3OT game. If you know my brother and the team then you are familiar with this game. If not I will sum it up. In the second game of the year my brothers team beat MSJ by 50. However, MSJ was missing 3 important players. Going into round two you can only expect my brothers team to be caught off guard when they turned out to be pretty good. So caught off guard in fact they found themselves in a 34-8 hole. That’s generally too much to recover from. I probably would have folded. But they didn’t. They just chipped at the lead little by little. At the end of the half they had cut it to about 18 and then the second continued their chipping. Led by Joe Shehadi (37), Tye Gadson (35), and Taylor Muench (20) they ended up forcing overtime. But before I jump the gun there are a couple important things to throw out in the air. This second half was when Joey really first showed that he was a star. We all knew it since he was 7 years old and knew it was going to come this year. But after seeing every game this year, this second half marked the turning point—where Joey when from scoring 15 a game to 25 a game and one of the best players in the state. He had a play where he hit two 3s in 6 seconds that literally gave me chills and goosebumps. Tye had his best game of his life to date. He knocked down important shots, never showed any type of fear or ounce of quitting and is a lot of the reason they are still undefeated… but we will get to that. Last but not least my little brother played hard the whole game and down 2 with 10 seconds left, when everyone thought it was over, didn’t quit on what EVERYONE thought was a buzzer beating shot. Ball misses and hits iron with .5 on the clock Taylor crashed and right place right time was there to put it back to tie the game. I was a proud brother in that moment.1^st overtime, once again, the reason they are still undefeated. Down 2 Tye takes it in his hands and his a stellar stepback shot to tie it that just had me jaw dropped. OT number two had a freshman on MSJ hit two NBA threes to put it into number 3 where Tye hit FTs and they snuck out on a 99-95 win. This game might have put them on the map at school but still undefeated almost halfway through their season still had them under wraps… until the Rutland game.I had said that there had to be something wrong with the town or the student body to not support this team. I mean they were getting very mediocre crowds and putting on shows for almost no one. Then I received a text from my mom of the student section during the Rutland game at home, and I finally they proved me wrong… and then some.The next 8 games included 2 Rutland, 2 MAU, 2 Brattleboro, 1 Mill River, 1 MSJ. This was the stretch, and they demolished it. They went 8-0 and only two of the games were even close at the end. The crowds came to the home games and before you knew it this whole town was on this teams back. Everything I ever wanted to be a part of or watch was happening. But I wasn’t there.This was the time where I began to feel a little selfish for not just being 100 percent happy for my brother and my dad and my former teammates but actually a little sad for me because, I couldn’t be there, or because I was jealous. But I have convinced myself that its okay and that its human nature to feel this way. In fact after years of being a fairly average brother I may have stepped into a better brotherhood in my own head by being more proud of mine than anyone. All I know is that last couple weeks of watching the games the day after or on blurry livestream and feeling very mixed emotions was far from over. Lets enter playoffs as the 1 seed and the first undefeated season since 1973.Round 1: it was a blowout. I shouldn’t have been too worried about not seeing it live because of my lack of it internet but the games just aren’t the same to me watching them when I already know what happens. I want to watch them with some sort of reality to it. So I ran to internet café to house and all about--sweaty like usual from stress and activity and finally got to see the 3^rd quarter before I lost connection again. But I was content in the fact that they would play MAU on Friday. I couldn’t explain how excited I was to watch this game, I felt like it was my own. I knew the buzz that was going around, the rivalry and undefeated season at stake. I had everything planned to have internet sufficient enough to watch the game, and then my plan crumbled. Nothing was working. By the time I had something working it was the 4^th and everything was in hand. During the internet crisis I was very upset. I had my first spurt of homesickness since Christmas and I was not in a good place. All I wanted was to be in that gym. I would have given everything I had just to be in that gym.But everything that’s happened on this exchange has me learning, every step of the way. As I watch my brother and my dad put together something that they will talk about for the rest of their lives, something I couldn’t be a part of and as I watch my brother come on the verge of history and something magical that I have to watch (hopefully live) from afar I will find some moral or something good that comes from it for me. But until I find that moral, whoever read this until the bottom you have one job and one job only:Critics hate us, they talk about us, but one thing they are right about, is we are in a way underdogs from here on out. We are the new team in D1 and we didn’t play a D1 schedule. So everything team that’s left has experience against the best of the best. If you live in the area, at Tuesday night at 6PM in the UVM gymnasium this team will take their talent and undefeated season against Mount Mansfield in the semifinal game. Go to the game and cheer on these kids. I cant do it but if you live in the area you are really lucky because you CAN. This is not only a once in a lifetime opportunity for them but it is also a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to see it happen. Get in your car and go… Ill be watching. 

January Vacation/Traveling pt. 1

This blog post will focus on the first half of my month long vacation in the capital, Santiago. For those of you who do not know, on the 3^rd of January I headed up North to visit a former exchange student who studied at BBA last year, Juan Ignacio. However, this would not JUST be hanging in his house for 28 days. Geographically Chile is very long, and I am at the VERY end of Chile in Coyhaique. So to put it in perspective just to get the center the country to Santiago is about the equivalent of a Vermont-Florida drive/plane ride. Because of this all my tickets are incredibly expensive every time I have to travel. During this month, I needed to take advantage of the fact that I am here and get to see as many people in the area as possible.

So I got there and the first thing I had to deal with was the fact I left all my money at home and my cellphone fell out of my pocket in the transfer; 0 communication, 100 dollars for 31 days, not going to be enough. I was helped by a large family of 4 kids and 2 adults in the airport to get everything set. They all spoke fluent English, the kids all spoke Spanish as a second language and the adults, Spanish. I was amazed at how well the adults spoke. I mean they had been in America/South Africa for 20 years but I still did not find a single accent or flaw in their English.

Seeing Juan Ignacio was very cool for me—fun fact, I was Juan Ignacio’s tutor with the English language at BBA, will touch on that more later on—because it was the first exchange student I had seen outside of BBA. It has also inspired me to get on my high horse and try to get out more to see exchange students (money is always an issue). The first thing that I noticed when I arrived was the fact that it was SO hot out. It was about 45-50 in Coyhaique when I left and it was a nice 95 upon landing. I was obviously far overdressed and sweating so much. I ran to the bathroom, stripped down and we headed to his house. Santiago is not New York. It does not have a skyline and instead of being on the ocean it is surrounded by mountains. The air and the pollution just gets trapped in the city from the mountains and it leaves the city with a very thick smog and and not very good visibility at distance. The first thing we did was go to the pool, and boy did I need that. It was a nice chance to just sit down and talk to Ignacio for the first time face to face and a very long time. He told me about his life, I told him about mine. We shared similar exchange stories and just enjoyed the end of the day’s sun. The rest of the agenda was to visit his cousins in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso (two adjacent cities about 2 hours north of Santiago, right on the ocean), meet up with some exchange students in Santiago and then spend the last week in Concepción with one of my best exchange friends in his family.

I found out the first night that we  would be headed straight to Viña and Valpo in two days. Which got me really excited to get to the beach! Especially after reading the weather reports about the US, sorry guys! The next day we after lunch the plan was to hike a short little mountain to a church on a hill, which overlooks the city. When we left the house there was visibly more smog in the air and that was when his mom said that there must be a fire somewhere. Another couple things about Santiago that I never experience, forrest fires and earthquakes. Both of which happened quite often. We didn’t think too much of the fire and headed to the mountain anyway. Well unfortunately the smoke just filled the city. The hike was a short hour but it was hot and sweaty and smokey. When I got to the top I actually had pain in my lungs from the smoke that had entered, it was not comfortable. I know the smoke isn’t the same but after feeling that in my lungs it reassured me that I never want to smoke. We got to the top and were very disappointed in the view. I am going to be honest with you, you couldn’t see anything. It was incredible how much smoke was in the city. You couldn’t see more than 3 buildings ahead of you in the city and from afar on a mountain you could not see absolutely anything. However, the hike was not in vain because the church on the hill and the statue of the Virgin Mary is a spectacle. The Virgin Mary is huge and beautiful and the Church is a nature(ish) church where the services are done outside. Which was just too cool for me. That night we packed out bags and got ready to go to the beach.

The trip to the bus was quite an adventure. We got there right on time but unfortunately, we couldn’t not find the bus. Two different people sent us the wrong way, and then when we got to the station the bus had left, but we could see it. We ran after it and caught up as it was heading onto the main roads the conductor was nice enough to allow us on anyway. A short bus ride accompanied by a Robert Patinson movie I had never heard of—easily his best work—and we were there. I also bring my guitar which has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that I have to have it with me all time and we were a good 30 minute walk from the beach. We put our bags at his grandparents work and then we were there. It was a nice 75 degrees which was perfect and we went beach walking. I loved the city already. The beach was beautiful, the buildings were beautiful, there wasn’t a lot of contamination, and the woman were BEAUTIFUL. Honestly, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life; mostly because about half the people on the beach were from Argentina. I ended up taking a little nap on the beach before we took a bus to the sand dunes. Now these things were cool. You could actually rent dune sleds and slide around on the them. They were steep, natural, difficult to climb, and straight up fun. We climbed up there with out stuff and just relaxed and played some guitar. After a couple hours of napping and enjoying the sun Ignacio’s cousin, and 5 classmates who were also in Viña joined us. Honestly, one of the best parts about exchange is just meeting people. I want to have connections anywhere and everywhere, whatever nationality or language you speak, I want to know you. So it just helps this objective when I get to meet people in every city. We spent the next two hours duning, sledding, talking and eventually counting down the sunset with some French people. We were picked up by Ignacio’s aunt and with his cousin we headed back to the house where I met the girl cousin, and father of the family. They were all very nice and it was a good night of talking and getting to know them. I forgot to mention that on the beach I found a group of people selling empanadas out of their car that were literally so unbelievably good. I can’t describe the goodness. I bought 6 over the next three days. 12 dollars well spent.

The next day it wasn’t great weather and we went to the movies. I went to Wolf of Wall street and Ignacio and Jose Tomás (his cousin) went to a Chilean movie. The reason we didn’t go to the same one was for two reasons. 1. The Chilean one was purely a satire on Chileans, so I wouldn’t have gotten any of the jokes. 2. Wolf of Wall Street was an 18+ movie which neither of them were so we parted ways for a few hours. I will just say I liked Wolf of Wall street but am still confused on my opinion, which would be better explained in a different blog post. After the movie I was surprised by the rest of Ignacio’s classmates with Ignacio and his cousin. They ended up coming to see the movie as well, this only meant that all of us got to hang out even more! We took a walk on the beach except at this point the sun was setting and it was quite a site. There were actually some people swimming even though the temperature had dropped to a brisk 55-60. As the sun was setting I had a moment of realization. I walked away from the group and stripped down to my boxers—unfortunately I was wearing a very unflattering pair at this moment—and without thinking I ran into the ocean and went swimming. Everyone thought I was crazy but honestly it wasn’t even that cold, I am from Vermont for pete’s sake! It was a very memorable moment as I watched at the sun fall behind the mountains from the Chilean sea. You can see Valpo from Viña and it’s really cool. It’s a city built on little hills. So the buildings are built on a slant and when it’s dark out you can see the mountains light up and it’s really something.

The next day we made an attempt to go to Valpo and take some tours and climb the little hills as well as see a house that housed the most famous Chilean writer ever, Pablo Nerudo. We got there and immediately Ignacio was not feeling well. He decided to sit out a boat tour that his cousin and I went on. This tour took us around the ships that surround the city and the history behind them. I enjoyed the tour even though I did not understand much. I am fairly advanced with Spanish but when it comes to history it’s hard to concentrate so I decided to take it easy and just enjoy the ocean and the ships. When we got back from the tour Ignacio just did not feel well so we went back to Viña for the day. I was a little disappointed but he did not feel well and it would have been torture for him to continue so I understood. That night was one of Taylor’s basketball games and with the new system I watched the live stream and saw as Taylor avenged the state championship game and came out on top with a victory by about 30. Ignacio’s cousin actually watched the whole game with me which was awesome because I could share that experience with someone.

The next day Ignacio was still feeling sick and it was hard for me to just sit in the house. I was not going to ask Ignacio to rally for me and go out because he just couldn’t. But I was in a city I may never return to and I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted (we were leaving the next day). So I decided to just go to the beach alone. I was not very familiar with the area or the public transportation system so I made sure I paid attention to the route on the way there. Ignacio’s aunt dropped me off and then I was off on my adventure. An adventure that contained about 7 drops of sunscreen; I was screwed. I just accepted it and had a very YOLO mentality. It took some good searching but I found a part of the beach that was primarily Argentinean and that meant maté tea. Every single person was drinking maté and I knew I was in the right place. I ended up sleeping almost a total of 4 hours on the beach. I knew I was burned I just didn’t know how bad or where. I was told by Ignacio’s aunt that I was supposed to take a bus back to the house, it was about 3 miles. But like I mentioned before I knew I would screw up the bus and paid close attention to the route to the beach. So I left an hour before the meeting point and headed back on foot. This was way better than a bus. I actually love walking. I will walk just about up to 10 miles if I have the time. It’s a great way to think and just enjoy your surroundings. I ended up getting to the meeting spot at 6:55 (5 minutes early). I ran into the grocery store and bought some food for the family—mostly because I had eaten the rest of it in the house—and met up at the spot again at 7:03. I got in the car and immediately apologized for being late because to me I was late. I was always raised that if you are on time you are late. Well she was thanking me for my punctuality; this is the difference between Chile and the US. The rest of the night was spent with a movie and then sleep. Ignacio woke me up at 12 and told me we were gonna go home early because he still wasn’t 100 percent (we were planning on going home at 9pm). We got on the first bus that was available at 2 and just like that we were gone. Thank you so much to Ignacio’s extended family for hosting us. It was very amazing to know you guys and I had a lot of fun during the week!

I am writing this on the way to my friend’s house in Concepción. This blog post covered January 3-9. I plan on posting something about the time in between then and departing for Concepción in the near future. I apologize for the delays.

END OF PART 1. 

Chilean Christmas

Even though I had a couple adventures last weekend I will get to those in a the next post or two because I think this weeks topic definitely should be my Chilean Christmas. Unfortunately for you guys who actually read my blog and fortunately I have been outrageously busy. This has been the first morning I haven't woken up to something that ended up taking up my whole day, so I take this time to tell you about my Christmas…

If you want a quick summary so you can back to what you are all doing it was a fairly sad couple of days for me. I have avoided homesickness pretty well. I was a little homesick in October but to be honest that all passed fairly quickly. I had avoided homesickness on Thanksgiving and almost all through December (the time when they say is the hardest to be an exchange student). I had already talked myself off the ledge and had told myself that I was okay without a Christmas this year and that the next one was just going to be that much better. Then midnight came on the 24th, and we began celebrating in my house… and then it hit me. I realized that I would never be okay without a Christmas and without Christmas spirit. 

I am going to now insert the positives of the Christmas. I spent it with my host family, for the most part. My mom got me a beautiful silver necklace and everyone seemed generally happy the whole time. The food was really good. I also ready a poem that I wrote in Spanish in tradition of how we do Christmas with my family. 

Here in Chile Christmas is a little different (a tradition I have yet to understand) but they celebrate the night of the 24th when the clock strikes midnight. I do not understand this because it kind of destroys the whole Santa illusion. Unfortunately this means that the 25th is an almost nothing. This was very weird to me because every year I have generally celebrated Christmas between Black Friday and New Years. Maybe that's a little longer than it should be but I just love the whole idea behind it. The movies, the music, the family, and of course you can't leave out the presents. To have a celebration for two hours and nothing more was very odd to me. During December our town was decorated very nicely with a big tree, with lights, and with the occasional musical performance in the plaza but it just wasn't the same. In my house there was never a sign of Christmas, not even a little evidence that we were in December. It was summer outside too, that definitely didn't help. I tried watching a Christmas movie every night in Spanish but watching them alone, although fun, didn't boost the lack of spirit. I have had a rule this whole trip that I will not listen to music in English and I actually stood by that very religiously until the 24th, it was too much. I needed something to revive me. 

I am going to talk a little about the emotions I felt when the clock struck midnight and then the eventless 25th followed. All I wanted to be was with my family. We started saying Merry Christmas to each other and all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks and I had to separate myself from the rest of the group for 5 minutes or so. I was saying Merry Christmas and for the first time I realized what time of the year it was and all I wanted was my family. 

So after reading this I want that all of you to really take today to appreciate your family. I have only been away from my house for almost 5 months and now I finally truly appreciate my family and would do anything to see them. Love your friends, appreciate your family and have a great day. 

P.S. I played guitar around all the shops and last minute XMAS shoppers during the 24th and made 15 bucks!

A Cultural Experience

Since I returned from my awesome trip, I have been very bored. Every day I go to the gym and my friend from Norway and about 3 times a week I go running, but that's about all the excitement I've got. I wake up late, I eat, I exercise, and I watch TV and go to bed. There isn't a lot of practicing Spanish (at least with the natives) and the boredom hit me like a Randy Johnson fastball coming off a trip of a lifetime. 

About 4 days ago my mom asked me if I wanted to go the farm with my dad and brother to work a little bit. I obviously said yes because it was bound to be a cool cultural experience. She also invited Knut, the Norwegian, to come with us and so it would be a great cultural experience of the time two of us. They told us to wear old clothes because we were going to be marking the sheep and there would be a lot of crap (literally and blood that could get on our clothes). So when the day came I changed into clothes that were either broken or the color red (for the blood). Unfortunately Knut is from Europe and definitely had no idea what he was getting himself into and wore really nice and expensive clothes that were not really to get seriously dirty. I mean he wasn't dressed to go out to a club or a party, but his version of warm clothes and sweatpants to get dirty are nice Nike or Adidas sweats, and mine were crappy thrift shop sweats. 

Anyways, we drove about 40 minutes outside of Coyhaique and arrive at this cute little farm house. When we walked in we were greeted by a bunch of little chickens that ran out of the house. I was like this is a true farm. The man, Claudio, that was sitting in the kitchen didn't have all his teeth and the way he talked reminded me of a good old serious Tator Hill Vermonter or something. He was really redneck/hilbilly Chilean. It was awesome. 

We drank some coffee and maté and then we were ready to work. We headed down the pen and there were 100+ sheep and a giant cutting bored--yikes--waiting for us. I knew what we were doing beforehand however, I definitely wasn't prepared for it. Claudio went out there, lassoed in sheep like it was his job--cause it was--and then with his freshly sharpened knife sliced off the tips of the ears and the tail, without hesitation. I was tough to watch at first but after 66, yes 66, sheep I got very used to it although not used to it enough to venture into the task myself. It was really fun feeling like an actual rancher. Although if you watched Knut and I with the also you would have laughed you *** off because  we were just way out of place. I am going to add another part thats a little more gruesome in a different font, read at your own risk. If you don't to read it skip to the paragraph with the regular font…

All the sheep together. 

Farmer Weston

*** 

Claudio also neutered the sheep. If you are unfamiliar with this process it goes like this… You catch the sheep and sling it onto the cutting board. Then after that you check to see if its a boy and you slice open the sack. Once the balls of exposed you go in head first and take the balls out with your mouth and spit them out in a bucket. It was raunchy. He was in pretty good spirits the whole time and in fact said how tasty the balls were when he was done--he was a strange man.

***

I am sorry if you read the previous paragraph and did not expect what I said. Anyways working on that farm was one of those moments where I really thought about where I was and what I was doing and was just really happy. I was having these cultural experiences with people from different countries and on the other side of the planet. It is just so profound for me. 

After working for 2 hours or so we headed inside to eat lunch and relax. We ate really good meat (like usual) and then we had about 3 hours where we just did what we want. Knut, my brother Jere, and I went down by the river (CHRIS FARLEY) and explored a little. There were a bunch of animals running around the farm, sheep, pigs, horses, chickens etc. It was very farmy. All of a sudden Knut had this desire to ride a horse even though he had never ridden a horse before and before you know we are up by the house and Knut is on the horse. The horse did not respond to him at all. My dad and Claudio did not seemed worried and just let him ride the horse without a helmet, on his own, and without supervision or instruction. After a minute, Knut was gone. We just thought he was trotting around and didn't think anything of it. Turns out he had lot control of his horse and also flew off it. It started cantering and he had no idea what he was doing. The story was quite entertaining. Because my mom is so interested in horses I decided I wanted to hop on, get a picture, and hop off. I thought I would be safe because it was tied to a tree but within 3 seconds of being on the horse it spooked and started to trot away from the tree but this didn't work because it was tied up. When the rope became taught and he head jerked back towards the tree, he stopped moving and I flew off the other side. Fortunately I wasn't hurt and I left laughing like crazy but unfortunately Knut was too busy laughing he didn't take a picture or a video. Let's just say it was funny. 

Knut before the horse took off. 

Other animals on the farm: pigs.

                                   

The next night we cooked the tails ups and ate them. Apparently there is a little bit of meat on those suckers and they are good. Living in Patagonia and with a farm family I get to have these cultural experiences that a lot people don't get to share with me. It makes me appreciate where I am so much and makes me really enjoy it. The time is flying by so fast and it just scares the crap out of me that I have already been here for almost 5 months. Someone slow the clock down. 

SIDENOTE:

Today I went to a Rotary lunch with a about 30-40 Rotarians and their families and got to meet a lot of people. Not only was it a great social event with unbelievable food, but it was also on another farm with a bunch of sheep. The own picked Max (the german), two Rotarians, and I to have a competition to see who could catch a sheep first with our bare hands. Well, I had some practice. I had one in my hands within two minutes. I carried it up to the house and everyone took pictures and said congrats to me. I am starting to become a bit of a farmer. Yeehaa.

P.S. If you want more photos that are more graphic shoot me an email at westonmuenchrotary@gmail.com  and I would be happy to show you some more details. 

RYLA + Southern Tour

So a few days ago I returned from a trip that I will honestly say were the best two weeks of my life. Unfortunately for the small few of you who get to the end of all my blog posts, I will not be writing about every detail. I just don't have enough time. Sometimes I get the feeling that this blog is more of a chore instead of enjoyment and that is probably why you have noticed a thinning out in the number of posts every month. However, I am going to try to spill out as much as I can. So here it goes…

P.S. I have broken it into 3 parts: The RYLA, In between events, and Torres del Paine… read whichever you choose. 

PART 1: THE RYLA

Starting two Thursdays ago Max (German in Coyhaique) and I embarked on our two week journey away from home. The rest of the district were about to experience two separate Rotary events. But because the two of them were far away and only separated by 3 days it didn't make any sense to have the two of us go all the way home so we would be staying in Rotarian's houses meanwhile. The first event that we would be going to is a Rotary leadership two camp called the RYLA. The people that were invited to this camp were the current exchange students along with all the postulating students in the district. This meant that there were 60 kids--40 being chileans--that we got to meet and spend the weekend with. Normally I go into details about the traveling but there is just too much to talk about. What'll I'll add was that Max and I spent the first day with one the postulating students' family who happened to also be a family friend of Max's host family. They had a 12, 15, and 16 year old and we all got along very well in their house in Puerto Varas. Thank you for your hospitality. 

Upon arriving at the hotel/camp we would be staying at in Los Angeles, the first people I saw were my fellow exchangers and I couldn't have been more happy to see them. I gave them all big hugs and kisses on the cheek and we all entered nervously to sign in. Turns out there were no need for nerves. Immediately I started connecting with people. In fact, I met someone randomly within five minutes that used to go to my school and is best friends with one of my friends in class. Turns out they are literally the same person so we got along very well. While a lot of the exchangers were starting it off with interexchanger conversation, I decided to speak only Spanish the whole weekend. That made making friends much easier since I was the only person that was speaking Spanish with everyone. By the time the orientation started an hour later, I definitely already had people I could joke around with outside of the exchange group. 

Flor and I, new friend that lived in Coyhaique!

The start of the orientation was immediately to split up in the groups called our "families" and we ended up spending the rest of our time with this group. I noticed fairly quickly that the kids were a lot different, younger, and not really my type in terms of identifying friends. However, I could not have cared less. I was ready to make this group gel. I did make a connection with of the guys in the group immediately and he ended up being my best friend out of the Chileans when it was all said and done. 

The next couple hours were spent playing metaphorical leadership games and listening to Rotary presentations which in reality wasn't that much fun. But it was the idea of being with a new group from all over that really had me enjoying the day. I will not bore you with individual details of the boring stuff but at the end of the day we went on a short little hike to a nice little view and took a bunch of pictures and it was hear I began to realize something the Rotary people didn't seem to get. We were gelling really well and were getting along fantastic. But it was all happening outside of the orientation part: during breaks, on the hike, during meals etc. They didn't have a great line up set for us but we seemed to make it worth our while anyway with every free moment we had. 

My "family" at the top of the hill we hiked. 

All the American exchange students. 

Our failed attempt at a pyramid.

We came down the hill and were greeted with hot dogs and then later in the night grill beef. The rest of the day had no orientation involved. Just sitting and laughing and later on dancing. They had two professional dance instructors come and dance with us and play games for an hour. It was fun but it was hot as balls and I still can't dance. It's amazing watching these people dance and physically not be able to do the things they are doing. 

Leaving the dance floor in a sweaty pile the Rotarians wanted us to head to bed, like that was going to happen. At 1 we "said goodnight" and then when the elders hit the sack we all met up in a patio and listened to music and talked until about 5 in the morning. 

The next morning there was some orientation stuff but it was really about spending the rest of the time together. We had about 3 more free hours together. What I realized after it was all said in done was how quickly a group can come together. I mean we left making so many jokes and having so much fun and we did this really coming out of a pretty boring orientation. We were 60 strangers 30 hours before and when we left we were far from that. The next day was spent hours on Facebook sharing pictures and on chat groups (that two weeks later are still very active) and it made, especially us exchangers, feel really special and unified throughout Chile. I can honestly say I had 5-10 people I really didn't want to say goodbye too. They are people that I could have really seen myself being friends with for a long long time and most of them I was probably saying goodbye to for good. But hey you know everything comes to an end and I am going to be saying a lot of goodbyes this year so I might as well get used to it. 

Cup scout Weston is all the way to the right
in the blue. 

PHOTOS FROM THE RYLA :

https://www.facebook.com/weston.muench/media_set?set=a.10202708819626823.1073741845.1388974335&type=3

PART II: In Between

While Max went back down south to say with a family friend during the next three days, I stayed up north in Los Angeles. What's awesome about this is that there are 5 different Rotary friends that live near or in Los Angeles. So instead of just having boring days on the computer we filled them with really great memories together. To start, the next day I got to sleep in until I wanted to. It was so nice considering I slept for a total of 5 hours the two nights before. Then I did some errands with my temporary host mom and at 5:30 one of the french, americans, germans, chileans, and a person (the best friend I mentioned) from the RYLA who took a 45 minute bus, met up at the mall to see the movie I had been waiting a year to see, HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE! We elected to see it in English with Spanish subtitles, which made it easier for me. This isn't going to turn into a movie review but it was the fasted 2.5 y life and was SO much better than the first movie. We left the movie and hung out for a little before we ended up going home to rest ourselves for a long night together the next day.

Getting ready for the Hunger Games

Hunger Games movie ticket.

The next day we had a plan to all meet up and we were going to buy food and have a big BBQ together. It was so much fun. To start, the kid that lives outside of LA cooked the meat and it was the best meat I have ever eaten. Like I think I hate 2 pounds, without exaggeration. Second we stayed up until about 5 in the morning just talking, some good things, bad things, funny things, but just talking and really getting to know each other. We listened to music and laughed and when it was all said and done we found ourselves very tired on a Wednesday morning at 9 o clock. The girl who's house we stayed at had piles and piles of CDs and a CD player so after eating breakfast we all danced to a mixture of Chilean music and Frank Sinatra. It was so good to hear Franky's voice after a long break.

Tastiest meat I've had. 

The rest of the day was spent hanging out, eating food, looking at pictures and at the end getting the french girl and I ready for our trip. Which we would be taking that night on an overnight bus. This week I had so much fun that this blog can't do it half justice. However, the real was was only waiting for me on the other side of that overnight bus. 

PART III: The Southern Tour/Torres del Paine

For most of the group this was their exciting trip to Patagonia. For Max and I it was a trip to explore deeper into our region. The first step of our week long journey would be on a plane to head way down south to Punta Arenas. It was a 2.5 hour flight that had me sleeping like a baby and before you knew it it was nice and cold again just how I had remembered. We took a tour of the city and the plaza as well. In the city we took a tour of a very strange graveyard. It was cool and we took pictures but it was really difficult to think about what it really was as we kind of walked through it like it was nothing. There was even a section for babies that had passed. It was pretty heavy. After this we had some free time at a mall and it turns out for like 4 bucks we could skate around on a dinky ice rink for half an hour. When I say dinky, I ain't lying. It definitely wasn't safe especially with us screwing around on it. But it was more than worth the four bucks and several bruises for that half hour. We headed back to our hotel after the city tour and my oh my the shower was cool. It looked like a transformer. After dinner our tour guide took us out for a walk to stretch our legs. We came upon a gambling protest and all of us took a turn with the megaphone to put in our two cents, or shout out AMERICA! Let's just say, some shirts came off during this half hour. I am not going to disclose the contents of the conversation but after returning we had a 4 hour conversation, all of us together. We laughed…a lot. 

Just posing next to a street sign. 

First day group photo. 

The next day was a day all of us were really looking forward to, the penguins! The plan for today was to go to see the penguins and then return to Puerto Natales. When we all loaded the bus to go see the penguins we were hit with some tragic news. Apparently about three weeks ago a pack of stray dogs came and ate and killed about 2000 of the penguins. We almost didn't go because there was some speculation that there weren't any left. Turns out there were about 200 left so we bussed ourselves over there. It was so cool to see actual penguins. They move around and look just like the penguins in the movies and documentaries and it was just took cool. We took a bunch of group pictures and then took the long buss ride back to Puerto Natales were we set up camp for the night. This is another really cool city farther south in Patagonia. The mountains that backgrounded the ocean were incredible. We walked down there before dinner and just talked a little while admiring where we were. The rest of the night may be the most I have laughed in my whole life. Between the hours of 12-4 I had the most fun I've ever had. Unfortunately, that our memory that will not be posted on a public blog. 

Penguin!

Following that awesome night we headed to the main event, Torres del Paine and the Milodon Cave. These two places are very famous in Patagonia. It was literally like looking at a painting the whole time. We took lots of pictures of our flags I may or may not have taken my shirt off and used the US flag as a cape for a picture. That's for me to know and you all to find out. 

Confirming speculation about my shirt. 

My favorite picture of me from the trip. 

I think the biggest problem I had with Torres del Paine was the fact we were there for one day only, took pictures, and then left. I really didn't read my emails too carefully so the truth was I thought it was a 6 day Torres del Paine tour and did not know that it was the southern tour which included visiting Torres del Paine. Although the trip went really well, it was so hard to get so close and not climb it. So far on my exchange, despite the fact I am living in Patagonia, I have not had many nature opportunities. I really don't have a ton of time left, I hope this changes for me soon. Back to the trip…

We visited many parts of the national park including a beach that had the strongest winds I have ever experienced. We are talking hurricane force gusts. It was so cool. we could lean forward and the wind would hold us up. The beach came right after a landmark that ended up producing an amazing small world story. We met a person from Vermont so I was like wow way too cool and we started talking. Turns out she grew up in Burlington and was classmates with the son the of owners of Brown Ledge Camp (aka he's a friend of my mom). Talk about weird. That night I shaved my No Shave November beard. Thank god. Another great night following the legendary night before. 

Hannah (Vermont) and I!

Final NSN Beard!

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip came the next day when we took a 3 hour boat ride to the Balmaceda Glacier. A lot of us were tired including myself but what really surprised me was that half of the group stayed on the boat the entire time sleeping while about 6 of us spent a good amount of time outside enjoying the view (because it was a PERFECT day). The view was spectacular and we had a lot of laughs on that boat. Then the actual glacier was crazy cool. It was very powerful seeing first hand the effects of global warming. There really wasn't a ton of the glacier left. In face there were hundreds of pieces of floating ice. It was a good time to stop and think about the big picture, at least for me. I think there were a couple kids in my group that have not matured enough to think that deep and didn't really appreciate where we were, and the fact it might not be there in the future. On the ride back all the passengers on the boat got a small glass of whiskey with glacier ice in it. Even though we were with Rotary we were permitted to have it but with a small quantity. The glacier ice was so tasty. We ate lunch at this spot off the water that was absolutely beautiful and had a really hefty lunch of Patagonian meat. A long bus ride followed and we arrived at Punta Arenas at 9:30 for dinner and another long and fun night. 

Casual Titanic Pic

Floating ice. 

Group next to the glacier. 

We hopped on another plane and headed back to Puerto Montt. That airport is becoming a bit too familiar. We then hopped on our bus (lots of bussing this trip) and headed to Puerto Varas. I thought we were going to be spending our time in the city but actually we headed out of the city into the more naturey area. To start, we ate lunch. This lunch was my favorite of all. It was a choice of Salmon or meat. Well, I got them both. May I add that I ate a lot this trip…a lot. It was easily the best Salmon I have ever eaten and the meat was way above par as well. I left satisfied. Where we ate lunch was located right next to an unoccupied beach. There we spent about 15 minutes taking pictures and goofing off in the sand. This was where we encountered another one of the small problems I had on the trip. There were several things that we really as a group wanted to spend our time doing or a least more time doing and this little beach thing was one of them. Even though on paper it looks like a time waster, our young little brains were entertaining ourselves greatly on this dinky beach overlooking the Osorno Volcano. We could have spent 2 hours there if we wanted to. Unfortunately our time was abruptly cut. Luckily we had so many cool things to look at we forgot about it rather quickly. We spent the day looking at different forests and rivers and buying alpaca jackets. It was definitely the most low-key day but at the same time it was really relaxing. The thing that was amazing about this part was the water. The water was SO BLUE. It was unbelievable. As blue as any blue I have ever seen and it was completely natural. Amazing. When we got back to our hotel in Puerto Montt we had dinner and then got ready to take a night out on the town in celebration of our last night together as well as the birthday of one of our fellow germans. I'll definitely never forget what happened during the following hours.

On the beach with the Osorno Volcano.

Very blue water.

Random group of girls, Max, Nathan, and I. 

The next morning we hopped on a ferry to take us to the island Chiloe. I didn't really know anything about this island but it is completely separated from the rest of the world but once you're on it feels the exact same. Relatively big towns and cities, lot of people, and tourism. It was a very relaxing and kind of enjoy yourself type of day. We started it off with a brief historical story telling by our tour guide and then it was all boat tours and exploring the city from there. We went through markets, talked to locals and just goofed around within ourselves in this really neat little spot. We even took a tour of a church that is literally made out of just wood. it has burned down before (as you can imagine) but it completely structured from wood. INCLUDING the nails. Before you knew it we were back on the boat to head back to the bus that would take us home, ending but for most of us was the best week of our lives. What happened on the way back to the bus was pretty special.

All of our Alpaca Jackets. PPAP!

Wooden church

Bring hipster in front of the church. 

All of us were sitting in the back and I decided to start talking about how I had changed as a person. Let me prelude this by saying this group has spend a total about 8 days together and in the scheme of things has had almost no time together. After I started talking about this everyone chimed in how they had changed so far and this led to very very very deep conversation about families and family issues. Conversations that normally only take place between the best of friends IF that. However, it was then that I realized that these ARE my best friends right now. When we return to our countries and start to live our normal lives again only the closest will probably maintain a relationship (just like high school or college), but as for right then, they were my best friends in the whole world. The clock slowly ticked away until we were sitting in the terminal waiting for everyones buses. Of course Max and I would be staying the night and later taking a plane as usual but that wait in the terminal to say goodbye was terrible. I managed to squeeze a few laughs out of everyone when I began to play guitar for money on the side but when we really had to give our last hugs, kisses, and goodbyes it was really hard. Mostly because it was the last time that ALL of us would be together until March (I stress the ALL and will explain that in a second). I had a group of people I never wanted to say goodbye. What made it even more difficult was that in just one week, they would be getting back together to celebrate Christmas and a birthday of one of our group members but because Max and I live so far away, we would not be allowed to join in the fun. I will see you all next March, it was the best time of my life. 

PHOTOS FROM THE SOUTHERN TOUR: 

https://www.facebook.com/weston.muench/media_set?set=a.10202789163915380.1073741846.1388974335&type=3

The Circle Game

After sleeping in until 11 o'clock on a classless Friday morning. And after eating a nice hefty bowl of rice with a shortened maté session, I took a look in the mirror and I looked at the calendar. Do you know what the date is? It is November 15, 2013. That is 18 years, 3 months, and 6 days after I was born. More importantly, it's 3 months and 13 days after I arrived here in Chile. If you know me, does it feel like that much time has past in the US (or wherever you are while reading this)? Because for me, it doesn't even feel like half that much time. It's starting to freak me out a little bit. Is this going to be the rest of my life? Dragging my feet to stop the clock? Or am I out of the water after this year because like every cliché I'm living the "you're exchange is going to go by so fast".

As for looking in the mirror, which is something I didn't address in the first paragraph, I am not sure if I should be happy at what I saw. Proud? Sad? I could easily say all three. I could easily say none of the above. To help me come to a conclusion, what did I see? I saw a pitiful excuse for a beard, you think being in another country is going to stop me from participating in No Shave November? It's called sharing cultures, you were sadly mistaken. I saw a buzzed head of no hair, which is a result of my first time traveling with the basketball team. I am noticing that parts of my hair isn't growing as fast as the front. Wait, am I really seeing symptoms of balding? I am praying that it's just early unevenness in my hair due to the fact that I only shaved it two weeks ago. However, it does have me scared. Everything is pointing me in the direction of a bald head, genes and the fact I've had a receding hairline since I popped out of the woom. What else did I saw beside my patchy facial and head of hair? To tell you the truth? I saw a man. I don't know if I need to reiterate what I mentioned in the first paragraph, but I'm 18 years old. I am not a little kid any more. Mom. Dad. When I get home, you aren't going to see or talk to the same person (almost used the word kid here) that you had in your house just three months ago. I will have changed physically but more importantly I will have changed emotionally and mentally. Should I be proud of this? Should the two of you be proud of this? I guess the correct answer would be yes because every adult wants their child to grow up to be a strong, mature, and healthy adult. However, is the answer deep down really no? Because the reality is, no adult wants their child to grow up, it means that they too are getting older, and the train starts moving faster. Mom. Dad. You think this is depressing or reality checking? Hold your thoughts, because if you look at the calendar again you'll see that Taylor is more than halfway done with BBA and that he will be receiving letters from colleges in one year to say whether he got in or not. Woah. 

I've listened to two songs recently that not only sparked this reality check, but also helped me check reality. The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell and Stop This Train by John Mayer. Both of which tell the same story of life passing us by. I am now the person dragging my feet to slow the circle down and asking, no sorry BEGGING to stop the train. But in reality, begging for something that isn't possible is just wasting my breath. My childhood has slipped past me and I have to move on from the fact I'll never see it again. It's time I have to move into adulthood with purpose. I have to understand I'm not a kid and take some initiative. Fortunately, I have 7 months left of this wonderful adventure before that really begins. Who knows though, I may close my eyes to fall asleep tonight and wake up and it'll all be over. When my mom worked at Brown Ledge Camp in Burlington, Vermont, we would always sing this song. As 10 year old Weston sang with 200+ girls at the beautiful girls summer camp he had a smile on his face and had no idea what in the world he was singing about. Whenever, we started singing there was this one girl who was about 7 years old and she would run our of the dining hall crying every single time. I always asked my mom why and she always said I don't know. I just didn't understand, because I was in the stage of the song where "words like when you're older must appease him". That little girl, at age 7, understood getting older when I didn't get until 18. I know my mom knew exactly why she was crying, but I am glad she didn't tell me. I need to pass through the phases of the Circle Game, I mean that's life isn't it?

Take a minute or two and read the lyrics of the two songs if you aren't familiar with them. If you are reading this, take 10 minutes today and just think about this topic. 

The Circle Game : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9VoLCO-d6U

Yesterday, a child came out to wander

Caught a dragonfly inside a jar

Fearful when the sky was full of thunder

And tearful at the falling of a star

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

Then, the child moved ten times 'round the seasons

Skated over ten clear frozen streams

Words like, "When you're older", must appease him

And promises of someday make his dreams 

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look behind

From where we came, 

And go round and round and round 

In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now

Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town

And they tell him, "Take your time. It won't be long now.

'Til your drag your feet to slow the circles down" 

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty

Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true

There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty

Before the last revolving year is through.

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return, we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and 'round and 'round

In the circle game

And go 'round and 'round and 'round in the circle game.

Stop This Train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BTzNX5OMN4

No I'm not color blind

I know the world is black and white

Try to keep an open mind but...

I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

But honestly won't someone stop this train

Don't know how else to say it, don't want to see my parents go

One generation's length away

From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train

I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't but honestly won't someone stop this train

So scared of getting older

I'm only good at being young

So I play the numbers game to find away to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man

Said help me understand

He said turn 68, you'll renegotiate

Don't stop this train

Don't for a minute change the place you're in

Don't think I couldn't ever understand

I tried my hand

John, honestly we'll never stop this train

See once in a while when it's good

It'll feel like it should

And they're all still around

And you're still safe and sound

And you don't miss a thing

'til you cry when you're driving away in the dark.

Singing stop this train I want to get off and go home again

I can't take this speed it's moving in

I know I can't

Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

(think I got 'em now)