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