So just like that, a new adventure, a new life, a new language, and a new country has become the norm and I have spent my first month in this grand country, Chile. One month ago today I said goodbye to my family, my friends, and my country. Although I miss all three of those things tremendously, I have had a great month down south. In reality I am a little sad because I can feel the days getting faster and faster and I know that my time here eventually will come to an end. This blog post will be a recap of my month here in Chile plus some new photos.
I arrived with an orientation in Los Ángeles with the rest of the kids in my district. That was the best way for me to start my exchange. I had two days to speak English AND Spanish as well as have 14 friends off the bat automatically. I also got to meet Rotary resources who I know consider friends and Chilean mentors up north near Santiago. Whenever I have a problem I can contact them. I also got really close to several of my exchange mates and now am really looking forward to our October orientation where I will get to spend another weekend with them.
This summer I spent hours and hours listening to Spanish music, talking to my teachers, and doing anything I could to practice my Spanish. I wish I had spent about 5 times as much time, and in reality there is nothing you can do to prepare for exchange. Once you are officially within the language and you don't have English to reach out to it is a completely different world. For the the first few days I was always searching for the words and realized I just did not know them. This handicap disappears with time...lots of time. During this first week I got to meet and start to get to know my family. I have a mother (Marietta), father (Julin), brother (Jeremias), and sister (Valentina). My brother is Taylor's age and my sister is my age. Everyone in my family is great. They do anything they can to make me feel welcome and treat me like their own son.
Next came the start of school. I was incredibly nervous and very timid when I first arrived. I had no idea how I would be received or if I would be able to make friends with my lack of language skills. However, I quickly made friends and people at my school love me! Every single day I make new acquaintances. In fact, on my second day of school, I was picked to be the "Rey" of my fourth of the school. At the time I had not idea what that meant so I accepted. For more details about this experience scroll down to my post about the Aniversario.
Within a few days came my birthday! That was an interesting experience. During my exchange, like most people, I have been very tired very quickly. Especially during the first two weeks. At about 9 o'clock on Friday night August 9th, my birthday, I was mentally ready to collapse and go to sleep. However, as I have learned over this first month, in Chile everything is much later. My birthday gathering/party started at about 10 and ended at about 5 in the morning. We had family members, a few friends, and lots of Spanish conversation, card games, food, cake, the whole shabang. Unfortunately. I started to collapse at about 2 and went to bed at about 2:30. The next day friend's of Vale had a little party for my birthday and the soon-to-be-departure of my sister to France. It was very comforting to think that five days into my stay in Coyhaique I had people that were willing to make me a cake and celebrate my birthday within just days of knowing me.
That Sunday I went skiing for the first time in Chile. The ride up was a steep dirt road with a ton of ice and snow, it reminded me of over the mountain roads in Vermont. Except this one had the Andes as the background instead of the Green Mountains. The views from the skiing were ridiculous. Although the snow was sub-par for skiing and the equipment I rented was quite old. I enjoyed my time just looking at the mountains and talking with my sister.
Photos from Skiing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98473393@N04/sets/72157635240612719/
The next week I was the Rey (king) and there were lots of festivities regarding this. It was quite the show. I was involved in so many things and it could not have come at a better time. I got to know so many people and made so many friends from this. I became very well known at my school and was no longer a foreigner. I high suggest reading the Aniversario post, I will not recap everything right now from there. It's all down below. I also had to say goodbye to my sister this week. That was hard for me but exciting for her at the same time. I wish her lots of luck with her trip!
The next two weeks flew by in a blur. I am on the basketball team and in the schools choir. For choir we had a performance for the Aniversario that was really fun. We wore these cool little outfits that weren't so fashionable. For basketball I have practice for my school twice a week and had my first tournament this weekend. I am also on the regional team for region 11 in Chile. We have practice 3 times a week and a game every Saturday. We also will be traveling to Argentina in November for a whole week! What a great opportunity with a group of really nice kids. Other highlights in the last two weeks was a dinner with the my sister's friends. They have now adopted me as a part of their group and I could not be more thankful. I feel very welcome with them and very included. After the week of the Aniversario the whole school voted on the best king and queen out of the for nominations. My queen and I won! Next week I believe we will be crowned in front of the school. I also had a Rotary reunion where there the students that just returned gave presentations and all the rotarians watched over a great meal and lots of conversation. I even got to see my fellow Coyhaique student, Max! I am also in a group that works with small kids every week, playing games and teaching them English!
This weekend though was a huge highlight for me. We had our first basketball tournament! (and I talked to a fellow exchange student on Skype, follow her experience at dontforgetaboutsally.blogspot.com). We had a game Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. To start, the crowd was AMAZING. Thank you to all the fans that came. Although smaller than the crowds in the US they were incredibly supportive and passionate and words can't describe how great I felt after those games. During the games there is not a quiet moment. They are CONSTANTLY screaming and singing. VIVA CHILE! Oh and another thing that was great about the tournament was we WON! We won the first game 98-25. I had about 20-25 points in 20 minutes of play. The other team was not comparable to ours. On Saturday we won 70-30 (approximately) and I had 20-25 points in 25 minutes of play. Once again, the other team wasn't comparable. Sunday was the challenge for us. We were to play a team that flew in from Temuco, Chile. They were taller than us, and beat the other teams by about the same amount of points. With a very lively crowd awaiting and the girls team having just won their tourney, we tipped off. It was a heated game from the start. At the half we were down but 1 or 2. I had 9-11 first half points (don't remember well) and we were playing decent. I was getting facegaurded like I've never experienced. Chilean referees really let the games go. Because of this, I was getting fouled like crazy on the perimeter but nothing was getting called. We went down 30-22 after a cold second half start, when our point gaurd, Marcello, went on a 6 straight point tear. Down by 3 with the fourth quarter underway, I scored 4 straight to give us the lead. We never looked back. Marcello and a couple others chipped in to give us a lead as high as 11 and we finished with a score of 54-48 (I think). I finished with about 15 points in 40 minutes of play. It was hard to get the ball but I was so happy that we won. The fans stormed the court and we went crazy. This weekend may have been the highlight of my exchange thus far.
I am looking forward to what the next month has to offer me and please continue to follow my weekly posts!
Photos from Working with Kids + Generic Pictures from this week:
Photos from the BBALL tourney:
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