Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias! Yesterday was my first thanksgiving in Chile! They don't celebrate it here but I got to spend Thanksgiving with a fellow Estadounidensean! I haven't updated in a while so this will be another long post, It's easier for me this way because then I have lots to write about! So lets rewind a bit to the Andrea Bocelli concert, for those of you that might not know who he is he is an Italian opera singer and I absolutely love him! I had the privilege of seeing him in concert and got to share that with my chilean mom, Elba, we had such an amazing time it was one of those "you had to be there" it's not easy to explain how amazing he was! If you think he is amazing on CD seeing him live is like a million billion times better! It was just a fantastic evening! English class has been going swell! We are teaching prek-kinder with my host mom there is seven of us (including myself) and we go every thursday at 2:30 and we are there until 4:30 we have taught them greetings, colors, numbers up to ten, animals, and this coming thursday we will teach them the seasons, Its a blast! I really enjoy working with kids and we get to know each other (us intercambistas) We held a party for them for "Dia de los ninos" children's day, and we had a Halloween celebration as well.
I spent Halloween at the beach house with my family, I helped my mom pass out candy to all the little kids (only little kids dress up here!) It was a lot of fun it was a late night but fun.
On the 12th my club did Penatour, we toured the community in which my club is in we went to the Municipalidad, a park like place with really old buildings, we went to a garden, and to Villa Grimaldi, a memorial for all the men, women and children that were killed during the Dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It was a sad end to our tour but it held some very factual and terrible history, the memorial is built on the same land that was used as a concentration camp to those opposing the Pinochet regime. They had some of the original buildings that they would keep the prisoners in, it was awful.
On a better note after visiting all the different places we had a barbeque with all the families of all the students and our rotarians and just had a nice afternoon, it was quite hot that day like high 80's maybe low 90's.
Novemeber:
On 11/9/13 I had a presentation on Artesanía Chilena, Chilean handcrafts, I presented it with my host family to my peers and their families along with the rotarians of my club. It was a successful day, it was to test us on our spanish, even though most of us in my club hadn't been here long (just a little over a month) so none of our spanish was great, some better than others, I was in the middle, not the best but not the worst, I have struggled, but now it's all starting to come together! The ninth was also the day we found out our second and final host family (they only do two in Chile) I got to meet my new host mom, she is so sweet! and we found out we are switching after christmas and before new years (We have like a week to switch) Date's won't be finalized until probably closer to Christmas time hopefully sooner. My mom's name is Lucia, she is Colombian and I am pretty sure her husband is Chilean, I didn't get to meet him (and still haven't met him yet) I have an older brother who is 20, named Estaban and he lives at home (that's very common here in Chile while they are attending Uni to stay at home, its cheaper!) and is studying Law. I have a younger sister named Alejandra, Ale is in Michigan on exchange and I haven't gotten to meet her yet either.
11/16/13 I celebrated my 18th birthday with my family and my exchange student friends! It was a long day but a fun one, a hot one too. (Which is weird because normally it's cold and rainy on my birthday) I got my face shoved in my cake! Thanks to Madison (Canada) and Annabel (Germany), I am thankful to get to spend my birthday here and my 18th, this was really the best birthday present I have ever received, and I am more than grateful for this amazing opportunity!
Yesterday I spent Thanksgiving with a boy from Tennessee and my new family (They are his current family, his name is Aidan, we also do English class together) They invited me over so I went and I got to meet my brother and my new nanny who also lives with us, her name is Blanca she is peruvian! She is super sweet! My host mom made Pavo (turkey) it was super juicy! Turkey is super easy to dry out so I was pretty impressed, I normally don't eat turkey on thanksgiving because of that, the sides weren't traditional sides but at least their was turkey! lol. I helped her and Aidan set up their christmas tree it was fun and yesterday I really got the opportunity to talk in Spanish with my host mom and host brother! Estaban speaks English, so when I got stuck he would help me, but I was so proud of myself I was actually talking in Spanish! It's finally clicking and I am feeling more confident after yesterday, I have a hard time with my family now because they all speak English so they tend to talk to me in English and its so hard to practice if I don't get the chance too, or they speak waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to fast and I haven't a clue what they said, and usually out of frustration we all just give up, but it's gotten better after yesterday I feel better and more confident about speaking in Spanish, I even got complimented on my spanish by Estaban and Lucia, I was also translating for Aidan so that made me feel super awesome! It takes time and finally the language is starting to catch up with the understanding, it's no where near perfect but I knew eventually I would just burst out speaking in Spanish and everything would be fine.
Now this weekend I am going to make my host family their first thanksgiving dinner by doing like a Turkey pot pie, (which is very american) Something they haven't had before with a dessert of Strawberry short cake, and for breakfast stuffed french toast! This is the first time I am getting to cook for them I am a bit nervous but I am super excited! I love cooking and I am hoping to cook even more for them. We are preparing for Christmas, Christmas eve will mark my fourth month!!! That is so crazy! And to think after Christmas the rest of this year is going to go by so fast! It makes me sad every time I think about the newbies that will be coming in January! (from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa) My family has talked about taking me to the South of Chile as well (snow!!!!!!!!! and they have penguins!) I get out of school for summer on December 13th and will return to school in March. Its going to be a very hot Christmas! Something I will be experiencing for the first time! Super neat-o.
OH! I forgot about the earthquakes! So I have been in two since I've been here, the first one was like late September and I didn't feel it because it was so little, the second was in October it was a week or two before Halloween, I felt that one, we were at the beach house and I was by myself the rents were across the street and the doors started shaking violently I was kind of freaking out because its been a long time since I've experienced an earthquake, nothing fell or anything it was another little one but bigger than the first quake! Its super common here in Chile!
Well I guess that's it for now!!
Warm regards,
India.
