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 27th. I will try to send another post up before the
start of May. Keep it real readers.
