Beautiful

Today was an amazing day. First of all I was able to go to church and it is always nice to start a day off on a spiritual high. Then I was able to go horse back riding along the beach. It was so beautiful. My horse's name was Connautao... or something like that. She was a beautiful cream colored horse. I got to ride as the sun was going down. It was amazing. Looking over the ocean into the sunset on the back of a horse. I bet you can't top that:).

Yesterday the girls from USU and I had a girl's night out because one of the girls had her fiance break up with her over Skype. Sounds like a great guy, right? We talked about politics and the gospel and boys and everything over nice big bowls of ice cream. It was really enjoyable because all of us are so different and have different points of view on so many issues but it makes us over all just a really well rounded group. Dani is a sociology major too and I especially liked talking to her about the economy and politics. She wouldn't mind a socialist government and I am far from that but it was nice to just apply what I have been learning all these years in school to a real conversation and being able to express my opinions and have them make sense. My spanish, not so much in the making sense category, but I am trying. I have been able to get people to understand me when I ask questions or go to buy something at the grocery store. Slowly but surely, right?

I did have my official culture shock moment on Friday. The USU group changed the meeting place for the night and so I got lost trying to get to where we had originally planned. Then my Chilean phone didn't have minutes so I didn't bring it along and I couldn't get anyone to understand me or help me. I just got a really big ice cream brownie thing and went to town on it. Two big helping of ice cream in one weekend. It has been a tasty weekend! I came home after the ice cream and was just crying. My madre was home and was trying to comfort me. With my broken spanish I was able to get out that I got lost and my friends left me. She thought I was super bummed cause I got left behind, really I think it was just my 'what have I gotten myself into' moment that is pretty common from what I hear. It turns out that the group had been calling my phone all night to let me know about the change. I am buying phone minutes the second I get out of school tomorrow. After a goodnights sleep and a little run the next morning everything was better and life was back in perspective. I am gonna get this language down!

pictures

i am working on posting pictures but it is a work in progress. come back later if you can't read and need pictures

coming along

I have been in Chile for a week and a half now. The language is coming along, not as quickly as I would like, but it is coming along. My Chilean mom and I have had a little bit of trouble communicating because of the language barrier. She is so sweet and I feel bad that I can't understand everything she is saying. The first day we met she was telling me about the government and history of Chile. Well, I understood that she was talking about history and the government but I some how concluded that she was talking about what her husband used to do before he retired. I was under the impression that he worked for the government and had a pretty high profile job. I asked Ale, in english, more about what her dad did when she and I were alone later on. I told her what I thought her mom had told me and was asking detailed questions about it. She just laughed and laughed. She was like, "I can't leave you and my mom alone together to talk. Today my dad was the president, tomorrow you will make him the pope." It was pretty funny. Madre kept laughing too. So now that is the running joke around here. When Madre and I talk without Ale interpretting she swings by to make sure we are speaking about the same things. We are getting better though. She knows more english than she thought and I know more spanish than I thought. With the use of a dictionary and gestures I think we get the basic idea of what page the other person is on.

I have another funny story about how I need to learn spanish. Yesterday Madre came downstairs in the morning and I was all dressed and ready to go because I got up early to study. Normally they come downstairs and have breakfast ready for when I wake up and then I get to eat it in bed (I am so spoiled, they know it and I know it). Well because I was up she thought I had already eaten breakfast and asked if I wanted more. I thought she was asking me if I wanted to eat. So I said yes and she made me a big ol' bowl of oatmeal. It was very tasty, but then Ale came downstairs and made me more food cause I had only eaten oatmeal. I think that Chileans believe we have a whole breakfast of pancakes and eggs and bacon and the works for breakfast everyday. I don't mind a bigger breakfast though cause then I don't get hungry at school and snacking is never on my mind. All in all I think I ended up eating enough for the whole household. And then if that wasn't enough I ended up getting two 'onces' too some how cause I can't understand what I am saying. They ask if I want to eat and all I understand is the word eat and so I think they are asking if I already ate. Not always the case. They are so good to me though. They are the best family away from my family that I could even have.

Ale is going to try for a natural birth and was talking about essentail oils and things. I whipped out mine. She just kept saying how cool they all were and she wants tips on kinds to get to help with labor. I sure don't know. Any suggestions??? That is brave. If I have kids I plan on having epidurals just as soon as they will let me. Go modern day medicine!

On a medical note and just to let you all know that I have not changed at all I will tell you I had my first normal bowl movement in Chile today! Hooray! It was followed by a super not normal episode though. Someday I will get used to the water. Someday

Santiago and Classes

I had two days of classes last week and then we had a four day weekend because of a national holiday. I am not completely sure because the explination I got was in spanish, but I think that it is to celebrate a battle that Chile had a long time ago. They actually lost the battle but they were able to win other battles because of the battle here. I am thinking that it is kind of a 'lost the battle, but won the war' situation. If anyone has spare time feel free to research that and get back to me. I would not mind an explination in english.

I have two classes like I said before. One of them is on grammer and the other is on the Chilean culture. Both are very interesting. I am learning spanish so much quicker here than I thought was possible. Concepts that took a week or two before are only taking one class period now. Living in a place where every situation you run into requires you to speak spanish makes learning the language a necessity and not just a want. Don't get me wrong, I still can't speak it, I just really need to learn and learn quickly. I am able to come up with single words and I try to string them along to make sentences. My Chilean family is very good about guessing what I am trying to say. On the streets however people can't understand me. When I go to stores or need help with something I go up to a worker and say my single word sentences and they try to reply with full and very quick sentances. Then I pull a lost look and they find somebody that speaks English for me. Soon I will understand and they will understand me. I just keep telling myself that. I have been practicing my vowel sounds because I won't lie, it is a little frustrating when I know I am saying the correct words and people still can't understand me. When I get back hopefully I will be so used to saying words in Spanish that I will sound like a foreigner when I get back to Utah. (lol)

One time when I was walking home from the bus stop and I got lost. I saw a man walking on the other side of the street and I decided to ask him for directions. I was a little scared at first but it was getting dark and so I just figured I would ask for help. I asked him where the road I live on was. He heard my accent and recongnized me as being someone with a first language of English. It just so happened that he also spoke English. I was very excited about that because directions are much easier to follow without a language barrier. I asked him where he was from and where he learned to speak English. He said that he lived in the States for a long time and that he was a Mormon and lived there after he converted to the church. Can you believe that? I am super blessed. I told him that I was from Utah and he gave me his card with his info on it. It was so nice to know that a Priesthood member was close by and could be reached at anytime. I also felt a lot more comfortable telling him my address at that point and having him help me home. It was a tender mercy for sure. At church on Sunday I didn't understand a good portion of the things that were said, but I recognized what was going on because of the routine that we have in church. Nate Anderson, one of the other students, started joking around during the announcement time in Sacrament meeting. He said, "stake conference is coming up soon and ward temple night is next week so on and so forth". Of course Nate couldn't understand, but that is just what the announcements always are, pretty predictable. It was funny... maybe you had to be there.

With the 4 day weekend a bunch of us people from the states decided to take a trip to Santiago. I had so much fun. We were able to see the Santiago Temple and art museums and the giant statue of Mary and the President's palace and much more. There is so much culture and so many things to do and learn about there. The city really came alive at night though. Last Thursday night we went to a club because the club was advertising a show with traditional dancing and singing that night. The flier said the performance was at 11:30 PM so we got there around 11:00 PM just so that we could get good seats and get settled in. Well, the actual performance started at 1:30 AM. We looked like big time gringos getting there on time. I don't know how they party so late. I do have an idea though. I hear that after lunch people sleep until late at night and have a small dinner called 'once' and then get ready and head out on the town. I could get used to that. Don't you agree, Mom? (he he he) That was pretty much my schedule back in Utah. Now with school and language barriers I need all the rest I can get at night. Not a whole lot of clubbing all night for me. While we were waiting for the traditional number we stopped by another club to do some dancing. I had so much fun. It was like a big stake dance because there was just a group of us girls dancing ridiculously and all the guys standing around. Normally the guys dance too here, but it was a Thursday night and not many guys were really there. We had the club mostly to ourselves. One of the students that was with us understands quite a bit of Spanish and was able to understand when people would make fun of us. We knew that was going on, but we were having so much fun that we just didn't care. We just kept shakin' our booties. That was one time that not understanding was just fine with me. I wouldn't want it to interfere with my groove. In Santiago we stayed in a hostel. I love it. It was so much fun. It reminded me of a nice little bed and breakfast run by college students. We all had a bar-b-que one night we were there and they even made good old fashion North American food. Hamburgers!! Of course they still had guacamole as a topping to put on it, but what can you do, we were still in Chile. Guacamole and mayo are every where and they are in bags. Yes bags, I will have to take a picture of it sometime. I got a crack out of it the first time I saw it.

My Chilean mom got back from her visit to her daughter's house on Sunday and I got to meet her on Monday. She is so sweet. She just kept kissing my cheeks. The other students have been teasing me because I am so spoiled here. We have a maid that does all the cleaning and if I am not awake when Ale comes downstairs in the morning she brings me breakfast in bed. It is like living the life of a movie star. The maid even irons everybody's sheets. Can you believe it?

I got a converter today so I will be able to use my straightener tomorrow for my hair. I am super excited. No ponytail tomorrow!! There is a giagantic store here similar to Walmart called Jumbo. One of the students described it as Walmart on steriods. I think that explanation fits. It has FOUR floors and is very wide. They sell almost anything imaginable. Last week I went with Kathleen and Dani, other USU students, to find junk food for them. I didn't get any because I get fed so much here I don't need to buy any more food. I don't think my tummy could take it. Well, we were looking for potato chips but we could not find them so I went up to a worker and said, "Donde esta las papas... (then made a crunching sound with my mouth, yes ghomp ghomp ghomp). And I said it a lot louder than I thought. Everyone in the isle heard. We all got a good laugh out of it. The worker almost lost it. He was trying to keep his composer but he was laughing so hard he wasn't able to hide it very well. The other shoppers thought I was crazy. I guess so, but just crazy for potato chips. ( I just read what I typed, I think that it was a 'you had to be there' for it to be funny story)

Day Two

My second day in Chile was very action packed. I had my first day of school and got to see the campus. It is very beautiful and has a lot of historic buildings and culture. Tomorrow we get to take a tour of the city and start our official Spanish grammar and language classes.

I am in Chile!

I am now officially in Chile. I am loving it here! Ale and Hugo are so nice. They both speak English and so I have able to communicate using my Spanglish. Ale is fluent in English and Hugo can read it but he is timido about speaking it, so he and I are in the same boat.

I have my own cuarto y bano. The sink in actually in my room and the toilet and shower are in the other room. It is kind of nice having a sink in my room. Most of the students are living with their families in apartments but I get to be in a house. It is absolutely beautiful. We had all of our meals out on the patio. It is so warm and nice. And Ale is an excellent cook. When I first got here ... oh Ale is here. I will finish tomorrow.

36 Hours!

Time is cruising by! In about 36 hours I will be on a plane in route to Chile. I am in the process of weighing and re-weighing my suitcases now to make sure that everything will be just right. I am getting more and more nervous and excited the closer my leaving time gets. Does anyone have any travel tips for me? To try to prepare myself to be surrounded by Spanish I have been watching the Spanish telenovela... they have some funky shows on TV! I have found that the infomercials are the easiest to understand because they speak very slowly and loud. (he he he) Maybe that means I should just stick to the shopping market in Chile. I might be able to handle that.

I found out that the Spanish LDS Bibles will be available in September. It will be really cool to get one. I got a Father's Blessing today for the trip and the blessing let me know that if I read the scriptures in Spanish that the language would come easier. I will take any extra help I can get!

I have a second family!

I got an e-mail telling me about my Chilean family!! They sound so great. My "mother"(Elizabeth) and my "father"(Augusto) are retired. Their daughter and son-in-law also live with them and they have a two-year-old little son. The daughter, Ale is a lawyer and her husband is finishing up his schooling to be a cardiologist! These are smart people. I am going to have to work on my study habits so I don't feel stupid there. I have e-mailed Ale a couple of times and I found out that she is 6 months pregnant. I love babies and am super excited to have a brand new one around. I am going to miss my own family bunches and bunches so I am glad that my Chilean family sounds nice and caring which will make being in a foreign place a little easier. This is a picture of Ale and her husband Hugo, they are so cute.


I also found out that I am going to live in Vina del Mar. In Vina there are multiple beaches and the temperature ranges from 48 degrees 78 degrees Fahrenheit. It looks absolutely beautiful.

Thursday, April 30, 2009, was my last day of work at State Farm. I am relieved to be done with work and being able to focus on school, but it is weird to not have to go to work. Until I leave I don't really have that much responsibility. I could get used to this.