Well with x-mas here in Chile I have noticed a lot of differences! THERE IS NO SNOW!!!!!
And it has inspired me to have this blog entry be completely about differences between Chile and USA!
I will do the top 10! Enjoy
1. It is summer now in chile. i hope you are all enjoying the snow in maine! :D
2. The moon is tilted to the left 90 degrees here
3. The water goes down the toilet the other way! I KID YOU NOT!!!
4. It is normal to not have dinner, but you better be ready for a BIG lunch
5. I wear a uniform in school here :(
6. They use the metric system! I hate doing conversions!
7. Gas is crazy expensive here like a $1.25 a liter and there is about 5 dollars a gallon
8. Public transportation is AWESOME!!! You can go ANYWHERE and if you are lucky you get a show. Last week I was on the bus and two clowns came on and started like a stand up comedy routine about how Reaggton music is all about sex. My favorite line from their routine I'll translate into english for you they are talking about the song Mi cama huele a ti, which means my bed smells of you. "Mi cama huele a ti, gentlemen if your bed smells of your girl friend after she just left, she needs to shower more often!" Telling the story again it isnt that funny but it was funny in the moment!
9. Underage drinking here is a huge problem, but the police dont do anything about it. Stores sell to minors!
10. The biggest difference for me. Parties!
Yes we all know in Maine that parties start around 7pm and run until about midnight which is a late party. Here in Chile the parties START at like 11pm and do not finish until about 3 or 4am. one night I didnt get home until about 530am and we left the house to go to the party at 1030pm. That was one long night! Thank god I didnt have to wake up early for breakfast.
Well I could only think of about 10 tonight but I'll have more for January!
have fun with the snow and cold weather everyone in Maine! :P
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
November Update!
Well here we are another month down!
Crazy to think I have been here 3 months already! Wow time sure does fly by!
Well things are going good here we just had the anniversary of our school here in Chile. It is basically like CHRHS's homecoming but no one comes home lol. But it was a lot of fun a lot of music and dancing I did some djing at the dance we had. Everyone calls me dj gringo now its funny.
At the end of the month I am going to another city to a huge rotary meeting! I am not exactly sure what we are going to be doing but the youth exchange program counselors say its very important and fun!!!
um....
There is just so much going on I cant think about what to write about!
School is starting to make a lot more sense now I love it! I can talk to teachers now and they understand me and I understand them. Classes are making more sense now. But there are still some gray areas. But that will just take time. I barely ever use English anymore. Normally people still think my spanish is terrible so they speak to me in english and then I answer in spanish and they are all amazed. "news flash! I know spanish! Just speak to me slowly and clearly and I can answer back in spanish"
The weather here is getting really nice, we are able to do more stuff outside now. Last weekend we had a big party at my house for my brother and his friends and we ended up having a bbq outside with music and a bonfire it was a lot of fun. God I love this reverse seasons thing
in December i am heading to Argentina with my class from school. We are going by bus and going to spend a week in Bariloche! I am soo excited I cant wait! But 20+ hours on a bus I am not looking forward to!
Well if anyone has questions or wants to know anything more about what I am doing please leave comments with questions or email me and I'll be more than happy to answer questions!
Chao
Crazy to think I have been here 3 months already! Wow time sure does fly by!
Well things are going good here we just had the anniversary of our school here in Chile. It is basically like CHRHS's homecoming but no one comes home lol. But it was a lot of fun a lot of music and dancing I did some djing at the dance we had. Everyone calls me dj gringo now its funny.
At the end of the month I am going to another city to a huge rotary meeting! I am not exactly sure what we are going to be doing but the youth exchange program counselors say its very important and fun!!!
um....
There is just so much going on I cant think about what to write about!
School is starting to make a lot more sense now I love it! I can talk to teachers now and they understand me and I understand them. Classes are making more sense now. But there are still some gray areas. But that will just take time. I barely ever use English anymore. Normally people still think my spanish is terrible so they speak to me in english and then I answer in spanish and they are all amazed. "news flash! I know spanish! Just speak to me slowly and clearly and I can answer back in spanish"
The weather here is getting really nice, we are able to do more stuff outside now. Last weekend we had a big party at my house for my brother and his friends and we ended up having a bbq outside with music and a bonfire it was a lot of fun. God I love this reverse seasons thing
in December i am heading to Argentina with my class from school. We are going by bus and going to spend a week in Bariloche! I am soo excited I cant wait! But 20+ hours on a bus I am not looking forward to!
Well if anyone has questions or wants to know anything more about what I am doing please leave comments with questions or email me and I'll be more than happy to answer questions!
Chao
Friday, October 9, 2009
LONG OCTOBER UPDATE!!!!
Ok well I am in school yet again, waiting for school to start. I get here so early, but it doesn’t really bother me. Well, I have been hearing that people want me to blog again so here I go. So I have some topics to talk about while I sit here waiting for school to start.
1. The Chilean holiday on Sept 18th,
2. Sept 11th and why I had to stay inside all day
3.What are rotary meetings are like
4. Snow boarding
5. The rotary meeting I had with the other exchange students.
1. So the Chilean holiday which was the birthday of Chile, is sort of like our Fourth of July, but totally different. I woke up pretty late that day cause I was at a party the night before with my brother, we didn’t get in until late so I was tired. I did my normal morning stuff and went down to the kitchen to find no one there. Remembering my parents said something about cooking with fire on the birthday of Chile I went outside to where I knew the grill was. Sure enough they were all standing around cooking some food on the grill. They told me they were cooking food for lunch it was typical Chilean food. Ok cool it is meat and sausage, stuff I’ll eat, cool no problem.
After they were done cooking we started out with the sausages, which were AMAZING!! I can’t even think how to spell the name of it. It would be something like an Italian sausage but like 10 times better. Anywho, we had wine with that and yet again AMAZING!! I am not a huge fan of wine in the United States but this stuff was great! Sooo smooth there was no kick to it. It was almost like drinking just a sort of strong grape juice. I really liked it. After we had the rest of the meat grilled on the grill, which was a combo of pork and deer I believe. It was tasty. After we just hung out around the house. I studied my Rosetta Stone that my mother had just sent me (THANKS!!!!). After a while my host mother came into my room and told me that I would be going out with my brother’s friend’s sisters. To make it easy their names are Barbra and Denise, and they are now close friends for me when it comes to me wanting to go out and hang out with people my age. So we left for their house around 10 and hung out at their house, had a few cups of coffee while we were at it. Around midnight we finally went out. We went to an area close to my house, which was interesting, but we didn’t go to the club first, we went to a friend’s house where we hung out and met more people to go to the club that were friends of Barbra and Denise. Finally we left for the club at 2AM. I was really tired at that time. I don’t like this late late night stuff. But I guess I’ll get used to it.
So we arrived at the club and paid to get in. I thought I might get carded but nope, I guess because I was with the girls they didn’t feel the need to card me. That night at the club there was a live performance from the Reagaton Boys. From what I could gather they were from the Caribbean, needless to say they were Africa American, and that is shocking to a lot of people here…strange. The club was very different than the other one I went to when I first got here. It was smaller and only one floor where the other one was three floors and easy to get lost. But this one had louder music. I have never felt my whole body move because of the bass. It was crazy. We finished that night at around 0530. Wow what a long day!!! Saturday was devoted to recovering and sleeping. Thank goodness I wasn’t going to go out Saturday night too.
2. About a week before the Chilean holiday was the anniversary of not only September 11th for the United States but for Chile too. From what I gathered (I need to research it in more detail), but back in the 1970s Chile was run by a dictator and on September 11th with the help of the United States government, Chile over threw its own government. More to come on that one. But still on that topic I was not allowed to go out that day because there were riots and protests going on that day and my family deemed it unsafe for me to leave the house, I am assuming because A. riots and protests are just not a good thing to deal with, and B. because I am an American, and it would not be a good thing to be out in public on that day.
3. Ok my third topic, what Rotary meetings are like? Well I have been to two so far and they are different from the United States ones. They are first off in the evening, so they have dinner. There are WAY less people; in my first meeting I went to there were only about 8 of us including me. On my second trip to Rotary there were about 12 of us including my brother and I. Most everyone in Rotary speaks English, which is really cool. So when I had to give my presentation I just translated the PowerPoint into Spanish and did the speaking part in English. I sure am lucky. Other than that, Rotary is pretty relaxed and the meetings here are smaller, very different than in the states.
4. Ok fourth topic, snowboarding!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! IT IS AMAZING!!!! If you have ever gone skiing in the mountains of Maine or New England you know what I am talking about when I say the “east coast struggle”, nothing but ice and often slush. Well being on the west coast of Chile we don’t have to deal with ice! That’s right no busted tailbones when you fall, no horrific accidents, nothing! I have been twice so far. The first time was interesting to say the least, it was snowing and there was a mix of freezing rain also, because of that only two of the like ten chairlifts were working so I was only able to go up a little more than half of the mountain. Which would be about the height of two Camden snow bowls. So it was still fun. We ended up skiing for about five hours until I was so tired I was almost dead. No way was I in shape or form ready for snowboarding in the “summer” (the winter here). So that wasn’t quite as fun as the second time I went.
The second time I went it was about 100 times better. The weather was perfect and the snow was also perfect. The snow was wet and perfect for making snowballs, which made the snow slippery so I was able to get some serious speed going on my board. I know I have been only snowboarding for about a year now but I feel almost like a semi-pro. I have gotten carving down I just now need to be comfortable carving at high speeds. But that will come with time. I love snowboarding here! When we reached the top of the mountain I could see for miles!!! I was able to see the mountains in Argentina and a good portion of the Andes mountain range. It was breath taking. I thought being on top of Ragged Mountain (Snow Bowl) was amazing, being able to see the ocean, but this was 100 times better. Really the only way you can even try to grasp what I am talking about is to experience it yourself. Oh and when they say you should put sunscreen on, don’t turn it down; they are serious when they say the sun is strong on the in Chile. I came away from that trip with a TERRIBLE sunburn, it is now 3 weeks old and my nose just finished peeling. Oh well. It was totally worth it!
5 Ok last topic that has been asked. Orientations. I love orientations!!! Last month we went to Chillan, which is two hours away from my house in Concepcion. It was a blast other than waking up on a Saturday at 7 am. I took a bus to Chillan with my counselor and an exchange student (her name is Viola) from Denmark. Wow the buses are nice here. Wicked roomy and on time. Why can’t airplanes in the United States be like that, I would have much rather been sitting on a plane that size coming to Chile. Anyway,
we arrived in the city of Chillan to only figure out that we were going to all cram 15 exchange students who are about as tall as I am in a Dodge Sprinter with all of our over night gear and sleeping bags. Yea right. Well…we did it!! All 15 of us got in a Dodge Sprinter. We then drove an hour towards the ski hill that I normally go to when I have been snow boarding. After an hour we ended up at some persons house, turns out it was another Rotarian, he opened his house to us and we spent the night in his house. Boys in one room downstairs and girls upstairs in two rooms. Yes there are more girls than there are boys. It was fun. We hung out around the house and had empanadas and tortillas for like a little snack before we had lunch. After we had our “snack” we went outside and walked around and found a trail that we had been told about by one of our counselors, turned out that at the end of that trail there was a waterfall. After about a half hour of hiking through the woods, dodging bushes with rather huge spines or as we call them in Maine “pricker bushes”, we came across the waterfall. It was not Niagara Falls sized, it was just a small waterfall but, hey it was a waterfall. We ended up taking photos of who could get closest to the water and group photos; it was a blast. By the end we were all soaked to the bone.
After, we all hung out around the house eating dinner and talking in a mix of Spanish and English to one another. The counselors had brought common Chilean games and music for us to play and listen to. It was very interesting. After we had all settled down after the games and dinner, half of us ended up watching the soccer game. I think it was Chile vs. Argentina. I don’t know and most of the Americans all left the area and went to hang out in a room upstairs. By the end of the night all 15 of us ended up in the room upstairs, it was quite a scene all 15 of us either laying on beds or the floor. We were just all swapping stories of our home countries or amazing things that we do in Chile. I had a blast.
Around 1am we were all told to split and go to sleep. Fine with me I was tired. But thinking about it hey there is only two beds in the boys room and there are 5 guys, someone is going to have to sleep on the couch. I quickly volunteered! I couldn’t pass that up a bed all to myself and o yea to top it off it was next to the fire so I could stay warm all night. SWEET!!!! So I slept on the couch that night not a bad deal.
The next day we all had breakfast and talked to the counselors about life in Chile, like how are our families or our schools. No one really had any problems. I love my family and I strongly voiced that. After that small meeting we ended up all climbing into a larger bus to go to Termas De Chillan. Which is the skiing hill that I go to. Sweet, I thought, we are all going skiing. No, it was raining and snowing pretty hard at the top of the mountain and none of the trails were open, so we were all given the option to go to the spa or not. About seven of us opted to pay about 26 American dollars to go swimming in thermal waters from the dead volcano that is in part of Termas De Chillan. It was a blast I have never had so much fun in my life. The pool was outside so we started out just swimming and ended up playing in the snow. It's really great fun to have a snowball fight in the water. I had a blast and will probably never have a chance like that ever again in my life.
We all headed back to the house to have lunch and crash after having a blast in the pool. After lunch, the 5 of us who went swimming were so tired we just spent time watching movies on my laptop in Spanish and we all ended up taking naps. Around 3pm we started our long trip home, from the house to the bus terminal and the bus terminal to home. What a great weekend!! I love all of the other exchange students they are like another huge family here in Chile; we are all our own support system. It’s going to be sooo sad when we all have to go back to our home countries.
That’s all I got for now ill start doing smaller updates every week! I would love feedback or questions you all may have that I could answer!!!
Chao!!!
1. The Chilean holiday on Sept 18th,
2. Sept 11th and why I had to stay inside all day
3.What are rotary meetings are like
4. Snow boarding
5. The rotary meeting I had with the other exchange students.
1. So the Chilean holiday which was the birthday of Chile, is sort of like our Fourth of July, but totally different. I woke up pretty late that day cause I was at a party the night before with my brother, we didn’t get in until late so I was tired. I did my normal morning stuff and went down to the kitchen to find no one there. Remembering my parents said something about cooking with fire on the birthday of Chile I went outside to where I knew the grill was. Sure enough they were all standing around cooking some food on the grill. They told me they were cooking food for lunch it was typical Chilean food. Ok cool it is meat and sausage, stuff I’ll eat, cool no problem.
After they were done cooking we started out with the sausages, which were AMAZING!! I can’t even think how to spell the name of it. It would be something like an Italian sausage but like 10 times better. Anywho, we had wine with that and yet again AMAZING!! I am not a huge fan of wine in the United States but this stuff was great! Sooo smooth there was no kick to it. It was almost like drinking just a sort of strong grape juice. I really liked it. After we had the rest of the meat grilled on the grill, which was a combo of pork and deer I believe. It was tasty. After we just hung out around the house. I studied my Rosetta Stone that my mother had just sent me (THANKS!!!!). After a while my host mother came into my room and told me that I would be going out with my brother’s friend’s sisters. To make it easy their names are Barbra and Denise, and they are now close friends for me when it comes to me wanting to go out and hang out with people my age. So we left for their house around 10 and hung out at their house, had a few cups of coffee while we were at it. Around midnight we finally went out. We went to an area close to my house, which was interesting, but we didn’t go to the club first, we went to a friend’s house where we hung out and met more people to go to the club that were friends of Barbra and Denise. Finally we left for the club at 2AM. I was really tired at that time. I don’t like this late late night stuff. But I guess I’ll get used to it.
So we arrived at the club and paid to get in. I thought I might get carded but nope, I guess because I was with the girls they didn’t feel the need to card me. That night at the club there was a live performance from the Reagaton Boys. From what I could gather they were from the Caribbean, needless to say they were Africa American, and that is shocking to a lot of people here…strange. The club was very different than the other one I went to when I first got here. It was smaller and only one floor where the other one was three floors and easy to get lost. But this one had louder music. I have never felt my whole body move because of the bass. It was crazy. We finished that night at around 0530. Wow what a long day!!! Saturday was devoted to recovering and sleeping. Thank goodness I wasn’t going to go out Saturday night too.
2. About a week before the Chilean holiday was the anniversary of not only September 11th for the United States but for Chile too. From what I gathered (I need to research it in more detail), but back in the 1970s Chile was run by a dictator and on September 11th with the help of the United States government, Chile over threw its own government. More to come on that one. But still on that topic I was not allowed to go out that day because there were riots and protests going on that day and my family deemed it unsafe for me to leave the house, I am assuming because A. riots and protests are just not a good thing to deal with, and B. because I am an American, and it would not be a good thing to be out in public on that day.
3. Ok my third topic, what Rotary meetings are like? Well I have been to two so far and they are different from the United States ones. They are first off in the evening, so they have dinner. There are WAY less people; in my first meeting I went to there were only about 8 of us including me. On my second trip to Rotary there were about 12 of us including my brother and I. Most everyone in Rotary speaks English, which is really cool. So when I had to give my presentation I just translated the PowerPoint into Spanish and did the speaking part in English. I sure am lucky. Other than that, Rotary is pretty relaxed and the meetings here are smaller, very different than in the states.
4. Ok fourth topic, snowboarding!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! IT IS AMAZING!!!! If you have ever gone skiing in the mountains of Maine or New England you know what I am talking about when I say the “east coast struggle”, nothing but ice and often slush. Well being on the west coast of Chile we don’t have to deal with ice! That’s right no busted tailbones when you fall, no horrific accidents, nothing! I have been twice so far. The first time was interesting to say the least, it was snowing and there was a mix of freezing rain also, because of that only two of the like ten chairlifts were working so I was only able to go up a little more than half of the mountain. Which would be about the height of two Camden snow bowls. So it was still fun. We ended up skiing for about five hours until I was so tired I was almost dead. No way was I in shape or form ready for snowboarding in the “summer” (the winter here). So that wasn’t quite as fun as the second time I went.
The second time I went it was about 100 times better. The weather was perfect and the snow was also perfect. The snow was wet and perfect for making snowballs, which made the snow slippery so I was able to get some serious speed going on my board. I know I have been only snowboarding for about a year now but I feel almost like a semi-pro. I have gotten carving down I just now need to be comfortable carving at high speeds. But that will come with time. I love snowboarding here! When we reached the top of the mountain I could see for miles!!! I was able to see the mountains in Argentina and a good portion of the Andes mountain range. It was breath taking. I thought being on top of Ragged Mountain (Snow Bowl) was amazing, being able to see the ocean, but this was 100 times better. Really the only way you can even try to grasp what I am talking about is to experience it yourself. Oh and when they say you should put sunscreen on, don’t turn it down; they are serious when they say the sun is strong on the in Chile. I came away from that trip with a TERRIBLE sunburn, it is now 3 weeks old and my nose just finished peeling. Oh well. It was totally worth it!
5 Ok last topic that has been asked. Orientations. I love orientations!!! Last month we went to Chillan, which is two hours away from my house in Concepcion. It was a blast other than waking up on a Saturday at 7 am. I took a bus to Chillan with my counselor and an exchange student (her name is Viola) from Denmark. Wow the buses are nice here. Wicked roomy and on time. Why can’t airplanes in the United States be like that, I would have much rather been sitting on a plane that size coming to Chile. Anyway,
we arrived in the city of Chillan to only figure out that we were going to all cram 15 exchange students who are about as tall as I am in a Dodge Sprinter with all of our over night gear and sleeping bags. Yea right. Well…we did it!! All 15 of us got in a Dodge Sprinter. We then drove an hour towards the ski hill that I normally go to when I have been snow boarding. After an hour we ended up at some persons house, turns out it was another Rotarian, he opened his house to us and we spent the night in his house. Boys in one room downstairs and girls upstairs in two rooms. Yes there are more girls than there are boys. It was fun. We hung out around the house and had empanadas and tortillas for like a little snack before we had lunch. After we had our “snack” we went outside and walked around and found a trail that we had been told about by one of our counselors, turned out that at the end of that trail there was a waterfall. After about a half hour of hiking through the woods, dodging bushes with rather huge spines or as we call them in Maine “pricker bushes”, we came across the waterfall. It was not Niagara Falls sized, it was just a small waterfall but, hey it was a waterfall. We ended up taking photos of who could get closest to the water and group photos; it was a blast. By the end we were all soaked to the bone.
After, we all hung out around the house eating dinner and talking in a mix of Spanish and English to one another. The counselors had brought common Chilean games and music for us to play and listen to. It was very interesting. After we had all settled down after the games and dinner, half of us ended up watching the soccer game. I think it was Chile vs. Argentina. I don’t know and most of the Americans all left the area and went to hang out in a room upstairs. By the end of the night all 15 of us ended up in the room upstairs, it was quite a scene all 15 of us either laying on beds or the floor. We were just all swapping stories of our home countries or amazing things that we do in Chile. I had a blast.
Around 1am we were all told to split and go to sleep. Fine with me I was tired. But thinking about it hey there is only two beds in the boys room and there are 5 guys, someone is going to have to sleep on the couch. I quickly volunteered! I couldn’t pass that up a bed all to myself and o yea to top it off it was next to the fire so I could stay warm all night. SWEET!!!! So I slept on the couch that night not a bad deal.
The next day we all had breakfast and talked to the counselors about life in Chile, like how are our families or our schools. No one really had any problems. I love my family and I strongly voiced that. After that small meeting we ended up all climbing into a larger bus to go to Termas De Chillan. Which is the skiing hill that I go to. Sweet, I thought, we are all going skiing. No, it was raining and snowing pretty hard at the top of the mountain and none of the trails were open, so we were all given the option to go to the spa or not. About seven of us opted to pay about 26 American dollars to go swimming in thermal waters from the dead volcano that is in part of Termas De Chillan. It was a blast I have never had so much fun in my life. The pool was outside so we started out just swimming and ended up playing in the snow. It's really great fun to have a snowball fight in the water. I had a blast and will probably never have a chance like that ever again in my life.
We all headed back to the house to have lunch and crash after having a blast in the pool. After lunch, the 5 of us who went swimming were so tired we just spent time watching movies on my laptop in Spanish and we all ended up taking naps. Around 3pm we started our long trip home, from the house to the bus terminal and the bus terminal to home. What a great weekend!! I love all of the other exchange students they are like another huge family here in Chile; we are all our own support system. It’s going to be sooo sad when we all have to go back to our home countries.
That’s all I got for now ill start doing smaller updates every week! I would love feedback or questions you all may have that I could answer!!!
Chao!!!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Things got better!!!
Well I am at school now actually waiting for school to begin; I have no clue why my mother needs to get me here so early it makes no sense. Any who, so I have some time now why not blog a bit.
I received an email ask me several questions about my life here in Chile, so I felt as though I should answer some of them. Everyday life seems to be a big topic of what people want to know about. So here goes a normal day.
0630
Wake up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, I was told by my mother to not make my bed she will do that and to not worry about cleaning my room. Ok fine with me.
0725
Leave the house, drive to school, which takes about 15 minutes on the scary roads I told you about earlier.
0740
Arrive at school, stand around and wait for my friends to show up which usually happens around 0800
0815
School starts, today’s schedule is as follows,
0815-0945 Math class- which I sit around and do nothing cause the teacher speaks no English and doesn’t expect me to do much until I sorta learn the language.
0945-1005 Break time- hang out with friends do nothing try to learn some Spanish.
1005-1135 Biology- I sorta understand what is going on in this class because all of the words have Latin bases in them and I remember them sorta from English so I try to pay attention in this class
1135-1145 Break time- have some sort of food that my mother packed for me and hang with friends
1145-1315 Music Class- I was told in this class we sit around listen to music for a bit and then have free time to jam and stuff. YAY sitting around doing nothing!!!
1315-1325 Break time – finish off the food that is packed in my bag
1325-1455 Language Class- yet again another class where I sit around and do nothing because I don’t understand the language!
For some strange reason they use the 24 hour clock in school but that is the only place so far I have seen use it.
After school I end up going home having a mid afternoon meal, yesterday I had spaghetti and salad, and after that I normally just hang out around the house use facebook, check mail, blog, or sleep. Around 2000 I will end up having dinner and after I check my facebook a few more times and talk to sparky or my parents then I am off to bed. Yea, really great life here. It’s sorta like being at home.
Oh one thing that keeps bugging me is this Spanish. To me I can’t get myself over the fact no one here speaks English. A few people do but I keep thinking this s a terrible Spanish class and everyone is just messing with me and not speaking English to me at all. I am learning more and more everyday.
Ok so last time I blogged I was venting about how miserable I was here. Well that def changed after last weekend. I figured out how to make myself happier. Hanging with friends and going to parties and clubs.
Friday night around 2030 one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go and hang out at a friends house I did my best at asking my mother if I could and she let me, little did I know this party was going to be at a house that is bigger than any house I have seen in the states. Like probably as big as Mr. Cawley house in Camden. Yea it was huge.
Also little did I know that a bunch of people were going to show up. At first when I got to the house there was only a few people there it was the friend who invited me, her friend, another friend, and the other exchange student who lives near me! Any who what started out as only five of us turned out to be about thirty or so people. Mostly good-looking girls so I was ok with it. We all listened to music and I was asked twenty or so questions about the united states, what I liked to do, what sports I did what music I listened to, stuff like that. It was fun. My mother gave me a curfew of 1am, yea that’s right 1 am. People here are crazy they love to party late at night. So yea I went home around 1am and fell asleep really quick cause I knew the next day I was going to be off to the clubs.
HA the clubs, yea that will be something that sticks with me for a long long time!!! It was so much fun. Most of the night I was completely confused but hey what is new that is how I go through life here. Well my host mother was going to a wedding that night and wanted Matias and I to stay at a friends house so I was fine with that. I went to the clubs with the sisters of Matias’s friend. They were 22 and 26 way older than me but hey the drove and they took me to a club I cant complain. Now normally if I want to go out and have fun at night I usually at the latest go out around 9pm but in Chile that is when they are having dinner so that doesn’t work well. No, they leave around 12am, and so we did, we left the house to “make our way to the club” at 1230am. Once we left the house we ended up picking up two more people needless to say you can have 6 tall people in a Toyota Yaris. It was crazy. Before we went to the club we stopped at two peoples houses to have drinks and hang out. Before Su or anyone gets upset about me drinking, I was a good exchange student and didn’t drink at the houses, I really didn’t want to get sent home in the first week I was there. And the girls that I was with all understood that and didn’t force me to drink. So after going stopping at those two houses we went to the club finally around like 130am and we stayed and danced until about 330am. In the club it was nuts it was filled with smoke from people smoking cigarettes and it was dark with lights flashing all of the time and loud music, I have never had such a bad headache in my life. So things are looking up for me I think more to come!!!
I received an email ask me several questions about my life here in Chile, so I felt as though I should answer some of them. Everyday life seems to be a big topic of what people want to know about. So here goes a normal day.
0630
Wake up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, I was told by my mother to not make my bed she will do that and to not worry about cleaning my room. Ok fine with me.
0725
Leave the house, drive to school, which takes about 15 minutes on the scary roads I told you about earlier.
0740
Arrive at school, stand around and wait for my friends to show up which usually happens around 0800
0815
School starts, today’s schedule is as follows,
0815-0945 Math class- which I sit around and do nothing cause the teacher speaks no English and doesn’t expect me to do much until I sorta learn the language.
0945-1005 Break time- hang out with friends do nothing try to learn some Spanish.
1005-1135 Biology- I sorta understand what is going on in this class because all of the words have Latin bases in them and I remember them sorta from English so I try to pay attention in this class
1135-1145 Break time- have some sort of food that my mother packed for me and hang with friends
1145-1315 Music Class- I was told in this class we sit around listen to music for a bit and then have free time to jam and stuff. YAY sitting around doing nothing!!!
1315-1325 Break time – finish off the food that is packed in my bag
1325-1455 Language Class- yet again another class where I sit around and do nothing because I don’t understand the language!
For some strange reason they use the 24 hour clock in school but that is the only place so far I have seen use it.
After school I end up going home having a mid afternoon meal, yesterday I had spaghetti and salad, and after that I normally just hang out around the house use facebook, check mail, blog, or sleep. Around 2000 I will end up having dinner and after I check my facebook a few more times and talk to sparky or my parents then I am off to bed. Yea, really great life here. It’s sorta like being at home.
Oh one thing that keeps bugging me is this Spanish. To me I can’t get myself over the fact no one here speaks English. A few people do but I keep thinking this s a terrible Spanish class and everyone is just messing with me and not speaking English to me at all. I am learning more and more everyday.
Ok so last time I blogged I was venting about how miserable I was here. Well that def changed after last weekend. I figured out how to make myself happier. Hanging with friends and going to parties and clubs.
Friday night around 2030 one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go and hang out at a friends house I did my best at asking my mother if I could and she let me, little did I know this party was going to be at a house that is bigger than any house I have seen in the states. Like probably as big as Mr. Cawley house in Camden. Yea it was huge.
Also little did I know that a bunch of people were going to show up. At first when I got to the house there was only a few people there it was the friend who invited me, her friend, another friend, and the other exchange student who lives near me! Any who what started out as only five of us turned out to be about thirty or so people. Mostly good-looking girls so I was ok with it. We all listened to music and I was asked twenty or so questions about the united states, what I liked to do, what sports I did what music I listened to, stuff like that. It was fun. My mother gave me a curfew of 1am, yea that’s right 1 am. People here are crazy they love to party late at night. So yea I went home around 1am and fell asleep really quick cause I knew the next day I was going to be off to the clubs.
HA the clubs, yea that will be something that sticks with me for a long long time!!! It was so much fun. Most of the night I was completely confused but hey what is new that is how I go through life here. Well my host mother was going to a wedding that night and wanted Matias and I to stay at a friends house so I was fine with that. I went to the clubs with the sisters of Matias’s friend. They were 22 and 26 way older than me but hey the drove and they took me to a club I cant complain. Now normally if I want to go out and have fun at night I usually at the latest go out around 9pm but in Chile that is when they are having dinner so that doesn’t work well. No, they leave around 12am, and so we did, we left the house to “make our way to the club” at 1230am. Once we left the house we ended up picking up two more people needless to say you can have 6 tall people in a Toyota Yaris. It was crazy. Before we went to the club we stopped at two peoples houses to have drinks and hang out. Before Su or anyone gets upset about me drinking, I was a good exchange student and didn’t drink at the houses, I really didn’t want to get sent home in the first week I was there. And the girls that I was with all understood that and didn’t force me to drink. So after going stopping at those two houses we went to the club finally around like 130am and we stayed and danced until about 330am. In the club it was nuts it was filled with smoke from people smoking cigarettes and it was dark with lights flashing all of the time and loud music, I have never had such a bad headache in my life. So things are looking up for me I think more to come!!!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
ok here is a long one!
Ok first day of school…. not going well…. I don’t understand a thing everyone talks so fast and I forgot how to say, "Slow down please". …. CRAP…. I am writing now in my chemistry class where we are having a test…yea that is right first day of school I have a test. The teacher even gave me the test to see if I knew anything…. yea like I would know anything I have not had chemistry in two years, its in Spanish, and oh yea I barely passed chemistry in English! So far not a good day. Where is the pool!
People although are really nice here, everyone wants to speak English with me but it kinda pisses me off cause I wanna speak Spanish but nooo I am the gringo and I don’t understand Spanish. O yea and math class this morning ha what a joke! We sat around for an hour and a half talking in English with my friends it was more or less and “study hall” than anything. So now I am sitting here with no Internet cause it is all locked up, waiting for my next class, which is Spanish like the literature class I would take in the states.
O yea coffee in school is terrible!!!! Way too hot and it is also tastes really nasty so I am sitting in class with a nasty flavor and a burnt feeling in my mouth…could life get any worse? Probably….
This whole kissing on the cheek thing is starting to be normal but when meeting girls for the first time it is really strange to practically go in for a kiss but I think I could get use to it though. It will be hard going back to hand shakes and or hugs when I return to the states.
Ok so I have no clue where I left off last time on my blog but I guess now it is good time as any to talk about my travels to Chile.
Boston:
Got there with Virginia and my parents, no big deal, got lunch, no big deal, said our goodbyes, I am going to miss them especially Virginia and all my friends it was tough saying goodbye to her cause she was the last person I would see for a long time. Anywho. Security: no big deal kinda went quick. Waiting for my plane, lonely very very lonely
Boston to Dallas = long flight!!!!
Sat next to an antsy kid with his mother tried to sleep but I couldn’t stretch my legs out. Talked to a cute red head that was off to Mexico for vacation from the cape.
Dallas, got off the plane took the train on a trip to the other concourse where my plane for Chile would be. Got to the concourse realized I left my ipod wire at home next right on the stairs so I bought a new ipod wire thing for my computer. And then searched for a place that would serve hamburgers. I found a McDonalds and a BurgerKing but there was no way my last American burger was going to be a “fast food” burger no I wanted something real. So I went to a sit down restaurant and had a real meal, half way through the meal I saw a kid wearing a Rotary jacket, I threw mine on and went to flag them down and have them eat dinner with me. Yes before you all ask it was a girl. She was from Conn so it was nice to see another New Englander. After I finished eating my 20-dollar burger, yea I know it was expensive but I didn’t care! It was my last one! After I paid we went to sit down at the terminal and wait for more exchange students, after 15 minutes there were 5 other exchange students who showed up. We exchanged pins and cards and had a few laughs before we boarded the plane.
Dallas to Santiago= long long long flights
Sat next to a crazy lady who was going to Chile to go snowboarding and o yea did I mention I was in the back of the bus!!! Yea coach seating no legroom, no privacy, no nice comfy bed to sleep in, nothing. And I had an isle seat which I cant really complain except at 4:00 in the morning when a stewardess trips over your foot or at 5:30 in the morning when you are sound asleep and another stewardess runs over your foot with one of those food carts…its like “Good Morning welcome to “crunch” Santiago” if I fly over seas again I am going to fly first class!!!!
We arrived in Santiago and did this paperwork that I was the only exchange student who had to do cause I was 18. I knew if I messed it up I would not be allowed in the country. Thankfully I didn’t. Only three of the exchange students were going on to another city and the rest were staying in Santiago yea cool no problem ill figure it out. We saw a sign that said what we thought was connecting flights and we went there and had to go through security again. Strange we thought. Yea well turns out it was connecting flights for international flights like to Brazil or Argentina. GOD so far Chile is not turning out to be good.
The three of us had to go through immigration and we saw we had to pay $151 to get into the country…. yea right no way was I going to fork over that money to just “enter” the country. Well turns out I don’t have to pay that and we went right through. Then off to customs!!! O yea!!! It wasn’t that bad though although we had to get our bags and leave the airport basically and then go back into the airport, no wonder we had such a long layover we had to do so much! We met a bunch of rotary kids and guides in front of the airport and we hung out with them for a while and moved upstairs to get our bags rechecked. Everyone was making fun of me because I had two huge bags when everyone else had like either one big bag or two smaller ones. Whatever I didn’t care.
We hung out after checking our bags for like an hour or two sharing stories of home and things like that talking about our favorite things to do or see in our home country. There were 3 Americans 3 kids from Denmark, and 3 kids from Germany. And we all spoke English it was really funny out of three countries we all choose to speak English rather than Spanish or another language we all conformed to the Americans and our English.
Santiago to Concepcion= what a flight short and what a view.
Again I sat in an isle seat again and I got to peak out the window every so often I sat next to one of the girls from Denmark named Viola. She is nice and we talked about our home countries it was fun. Once we started to descend I saw out the window water! Yea I was looking at the west coast. Funny thing is I suddenly reached for my phone to call Scotty, o yea wait I was in Chile the only thing my phone is good for is a paperweight. The West Coast looks a lot different sandy beaches small fishing homes it was kinda pretty but kinda sad cause there is a lot of poverty here. And when I looked out the other side of the plane I saw the foothills of the Andes Mountains. How beautiful!!!
In Concepcion we got our bags and we met by about 25 rotary exchange guides! Kissing and hugging and talking to us in Spanish soooooo soooooo fast it was crazy!!!! I was overwhelmed to say the least. I kept saying to myself just smile and nod, smile and nod.
Concepcion to Tome = yea that’s right one last “bus” ride to our final destination. No big deal I thought its just like a big mini van I have rode in those all of the time in Maine. HAHA o was I wrong. I see why we are not allowed to drive in Chile. THEY ARE CRAZY DRIVERS!!! I know everything is in kilometers per hour but we were going 100 k/h in a small van on a bunch of small back roads, yea to top it off there was no seat belts!!!! Everyman for themselves.
Really don’t feel like talking about the orientation so here it is in a nut shell, people who can barely speak English teaching us basically everything I learned before I left the states, and lots of free time and eating food. That is about it! O and drinking lots of coffee. (Thanks Scotty I love to drink coffee, if you had not made me start drinking coffee and got me off those nasty energy drinks I would be screwed here!)
Ok now back to school… Ok so second day of school has come and gone, yea not bad I really cant complain we didn’t really have to wear our uniforms but we did have to wear our gym clothes which are actually pretty comfy. But we had gym today and we learned the countries dance called “La Cuequa” correct me if I am wrong on the spelling. If you want more info on it just Google it, when the teacher told us what it meant it was in Spanish so naturally I didn’t understand anything.
We had English class, ok now that isn’t soo bad. But I normally end up arguing with the teacher because they are learning how to speak “British” English and it just sounds sooooo wrong to me! When I am in the class if feels like a never-ending BBC TV show.
No more to talk about the second day of school but I am getting used to not paying attention to the teacher just like ALL of the other kids in the class.
Today I am writing while the rest of the class is taking a test in history class, and the wicked brilliant teacher actually gave me the test and I just gave it back smiling and saying I don’t understand. More free time for me! Moving on.
Well this weekend’s plan of going skiing has gone WAY OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!
We are pretty much having a Nor’ Easter today (for all of you NE folks back home). We have high speed winds, rain and to top it off it is wicked cold. (Haven’t used “wicked” in a while)
I woke up at 6:40 this morning thinking o great I am late I ran out of my room to see that nothing was going outside no lights just noise. It was wind and rain on the windows. I was about to go back to bed when I heard my parents moving around so I must still have school. The entire morning I am saying to myself “just imagine if this was snow” but anywho. Yea I was dropped off in a puddle today at school, good thing I decided to wear boots today. (On Fridays we don’t have to wear our uniforms!) But yea huge huge puddle, ha and lee said I didn’t need my boots! I am glad I brought them. “Thanks bub, Big thumbs up to you ☺”
So now that I cant go skiing I am going to a club! I am nervous and excited. I am excited cause I get to go clubbing cause I am 18! But nervous cause I am going with people I don’t know. They are mati’s (host brother) best friend’s sisters who are in college, my mother actually asked me if I wanna go. She is soo cool. But anywho, I am also anxious because I don’t know what to do in the club, besides dance, it’s going to be my first time here, And I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I AM DOING!!! But hey that is how I go through life in school I just follow my classmates here and there from room to room.
*If you are in Rotary you may wanna look away or just disregard what I wrote from here on, its not very positive it is just me venting. * I needed to get it out *
Funny thing happened today…. someone asked me what I liked about Chile…. Took me a minute and in the back of my head I said…. ha nothing. For me I am not as free as I used to be in the states, I cant drive, I cant smoke, I cant drink (not that I do in the states but it is customary here in Chile and I feel like I am being left out of something), I cant date, I cant talk to girls cause they don’t know English and I don’t know enough Spanish, my internet doesn’t work at home, my host parents don’t speak English, and the weather is terrible it cold and I wish I had brought more winter clothes but o well. Now on with the answer I gave the person who asked me, I told her I have not been here long enough to pin things down as things I like or dislike, I told her it is just different than the states and that is good. It was a safe answer I thought.
The food here is interesting, lots of chicken, turkey, pork, cheap steak, veggies and fruit, and juice, o yea and coffee too. Not a lot of junk food. I miss my burgers from Harbor Dogs near my office ☹. I miss the pizza with whole grain crust from Zaddiks, I miss sorta the coffee from French and Brawn. I have to keep telling myself to look at the positives…besides this just being an experience of a lifetime I um don’t see anything positive coming out of it… sorry guys…☹
I am stuck in a real hard place. I want to go home and go back to everything normal, but on the other hand I know I have to stay and I want to stay, but I just want some things to go back to being normal, either give me back my food or get rid of the silly rules that rotary puts on me or at least give me back driving, really that is one thing I really want back!......thinking about it now I can hear Su saying to me “Taylor suck it up, change and adapt.” And that sorta helps me move on. Ill try and figure something out, I probably just need to go to the pool. Yea that sounds good.
Ok well typing about home is not helping so I am done typing for now I am going to put this through a spell check and be done. And maybe reread it and make sure it is good for Rotary. Love you all!
See you in 9 months and 3weeks…hehehehe too soon?
Peace!
People although are really nice here, everyone wants to speak English with me but it kinda pisses me off cause I wanna speak Spanish but nooo I am the gringo and I don’t understand Spanish. O yea and math class this morning ha what a joke! We sat around for an hour and a half talking in English with my friends it was more or less and “study hall” than anything. So now I am sitting here with no Internet cause it is all locked up, waiting for my next class, which is Spanish like the literature class I would take in the states.
O yea coffee in school is terrible!!!! Way too hot and it is also tastes really nasty so I am sitting in class with a nasty flavor and a burnt feeling in my mouth…could life get any worse? Probably….
This whole kissing on the cheek thing is starting to be normal but when meeting girls for the first time it is really strange to practically go in for a kiss but I think I could get use to it though. It will be hard going back to hand shakes and or hugs when I return to the states.
Ok so I have no clue where I left off last time on my blog but I guess now it is good time as any to talk about my travels to Chile.
Boston:
Got there with Virginia and my parents, no big deal, got lunch, no big deal, said our goodbyes, I am going to miss them especially Virginia and all my friends it was tough saying goodbye to her cause she was the last person I would see for a long time. Anywho. Security: no big deal kinda went quick. Waiting for my plane, lonely very very lonely
Boston to Dallas = long flight!!!!
Sat next to an antsy kid with his mother tried to sleep but I couldn’t stretch my legs out. Talked to a cute red head that was off to Mexico for vacation from the cape.
Dallas, got off the plane took the train on a trip to the other concourse where my plane for Chile would be. Got to the concourse realized I left my ipod wire at home next right on the stairs so I bought a new ipod wire thing for my computer. And then searched for a place that would serve hamburgers. I found a McDonalds and a BurgerKing but there was no way my last American burger was going to be a “fast food” burger no I wanted something real. So I went to a sit down restaurant and had a real meal, half way through the meal I saw a kid wearing a Rotary jacket, I threw mine on and went to flag them down and have them eat dinner with me. Yes before you all ask it was a girl. She was from Conn so it was nice to see another New Englander. After I finished eating my 20-dollar burger, yea I know it was expensive but I didn’t care! It was my last one! After I paid we went to sit down at the terminal and wait for more exchange students, after 15 minutes there were 5 other exchange students who showed up. We exchanged pins and cards and had a few laughs before we boarded the plane.
Dallas to Santiago= long long long flights
Sat next to a crazy lady who was going to Chile to go snowboarding and o yea did I mention I was in the back of the bus!!! Yea coach seating no legroom, no privacy, no nice comfy bed to sleep in, nothing. And I had an isle seat which I cant really complain except at 4:00 in the morning when a stewardess trips over your foot or at 5:30 in the morning when you are sound asleep and another stewardess runs over your foot with one of those food carts…its like “Good Morning welcome to “crunch” Santiago” if I fly over seas again I am going to fly first class!!!!
We arrived in Santiago and did this paperwork that I was the only exchange student who had to do cause I was 18. I knew if I messed it up I would not be allowed in the country. Thankfully I didn’t. Only three of the exchange students were going on to another city and the rest were staying in Santiago yea cool no problem ill figure it out. We saw a sign that said what we thought was connecting flights and we went there and had to go through security again. Strange we thought. Yea well turns out it was connecting flights for international flights like to Brazil or Argentina. GOD so far Chile is not turning out to be good.
The three of us had to go through immigration and we saw we had to pay $151 to get into the country…. yea right no way was I going to fork over that money to just “enter” the country. Well turns out I don’t have to pay that and we went right through. Then off to customs!!! O yea!!! It wasn’t that bad though although we had to get our bags and leave the airport basically and then go back into the airport, no wonder we had such a long layover we had to do so much! We met a bunch of rotary kids and guides in front of the airport and we hung out with them for a while and moved upstairs to get our bags rechecked. Everyone was making fun of me because I had two huge bags when everyone else had like either one big bag or two smaller ones. Whatever I didn’t care.
We hung out after checking our bags for like an hour or two sharing stories of home and things like that talking about our favorite things to do or see in our home country. There were 3 Americans 3 kids from Denmark, and 3 kids from Germany. And we all spoke English it was really funny out of three countries we all choose to speak English rather than Spanish or another language we all conformed to the Americans and our English.
Santiago to Concepcion= what a flight short and what a view.
Again I sat in an isle seat again and I got to peak out the window every so often I sat next to one of the girls from Denmark named Viola. She is nice and we talked about our home countries it was fun. Once we started to descend I saw out the window water! Yea I was looking at the west coast. Funny thing is I suddenly reached for my phone to call Scotty, o yea wait I was in Chile the only thing my phone is good for is a paperweight. The West Coast looks a lot different sandy beaches small fishing homes it was kinda pretty but kinda sad cause there is a lot of poverty here. And when I looked out the other side of the plane I saw the foothills of the Andes Mountains. How beautiful!!!
In Concepcion we got our bags and we met by about 25 rotary exchange guides! Kissing and hugging and talking to us in Spanish soooooo soooooo fast it was crazy!!!! I was overwhelmed to say the least. I kept saying to myself just smile and nod, smile and nod.
Concepcion to Tome = yea that’s right one last “bus” ride to our final destination. No big deal I thought its just like a big mini van I have rode in those all of the time in Maine. HAHA o was I wrong. I see why we are not allowed to drive in Chile. THEY ARE CRAZY DRIVERS!!! I know everything is in kilometers per hour but we were going 100 k/h in a small van on a bunch of small back roads, yea to top it off there was no seat belts!!!! Everyman for themselves.
Really don’t feel like talking about the orientation so here it is in a nut shell, people who can barely speak English teaching us basically everything I learned before I left the states, and lots of free time and eating food. That is about it! O and drinking lots of coffee. (Thanks Scotty I love to drink coffee, if you had not made me start drinking coffee and got me off those nasty energy drinks I would be screwed here!)
Ok now back to school… Ok so second day of school has come and gone, yea not bad I really cant complain we didn’t really have to wear our uniforms but we did have to wear our gym clothes which are actually pretty comfy. But we had gym today and we learned the countries dance called “La Cuequa” correct me if I am wrong on the spelling. If you want more info on it just Google it, when the teacher told us what it meant it was in Spanish so naturally I didn’t understand anything.
We had English class, ok now that isn’t soo bad. But I normally end up arguing with the teacher because they are learning how to speak “British” English and it just sounds sooooo wrong to me! When I am in the class if feels like a never-ending BBC TV show.
No more to talk about the second day of school but I am getting used to not paying attention to the teacher just like ALL of the other kids in the class.
Today I am writing while the rest of the class is taking a test in history class, and the wicked brilliant teacher actually gave me the test and I just gave it back smiling and saying I don’t understand. More free time for me! Moving on.
Well this weekend’s plan of going skiing has gone WAY OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!
We are pretty much having a Nor’ Easter today (for all of you NE folks back home). We have high speed winds, rain and to top it off it is wicked cold. (Haven’t used “wicked” in a while)
I woke up at 6:40 this morning thinking o great I am late I ran out of my room to see that nothing was going outside no lights just noise. It was wind and rain on the windows. I was about to go back to bed when I heard my parents moving around so I must still have school. The entire morning I am saying to myself “just imagine if this was snow” but anywho. Yea I was dropped off in a puddle today at school, good thing I decided to wear boots today. (On Fridays we don’t have to wear our uniforms!) But yea huge huge puddle, ha and lee said I didn’t need my boots! I am glad I brought them. “Thanks bub, Big thumbs up to you ☺”
So now that I cant go skiing I am going to a club! I am nervous and excited. I am excited cause I get to go clubbing cause I am 18! But nervous cause I am going with people I don’t know. They are mati’s (host brother) best friend’s sisters who are in college, my mother actually asked me if I wanna go. She is soo cool. But anywho, I am also anxious because I don’t know what to do in the club, besides dance, it’s going to be my first time here, And I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I AM DOING!!! But hey that is how I go through life in school I just follow my classmates here and there from room to room.
*If you are in Rotary you may wanna look away or just disregard what I wrote from here on, its not very positive it is just me venting. * I needed to get it out *
Funny thing happened today…. someone asked me what I liked about Chile…. Took me a minute and in the back of my head I said…. ha nothing. For me I am not as free as I used to be in the states, I cant drive, I cant smoke, I cant drink (not that I do in the states but it is customary here in Chile and I feel like I am being left out of something), I cant date, I cant talk to girls cause they don’t know English and I don’t know enough Spanish, my internet doesn’t work at home, my host parents don’t speak English, and the weather is terrible it cold and I wish I had brought more winter clothes but o well. Now on with the answer I gave the person who asked me, I told her I have not been here long enough to pin things down as things I like or dislike, I told her it is just different than the states and that is good. It was a safe answer I thought.
The food here is interesting, lots of chicken, turkey, pork, cheap steak, veggies and fruit, and juice, o yea and coffee too. Not a lot of junk food. I miss my burgers from Harbor Dogs near my office ☹. I miss the pizza with whole grain crust from Zaddiks, I miss sorta the coffee from French and Brawn. I have to keep telling myself to look at the positives…besides this just being an experience of a lifetime I um don’t see anything positive coming out of it… sorry guys…☹
I am stuck in a real hard place. I want to go home and go back to everything normal, but on the other hand I know I have to stay and I want to stay, but I just want some things to go back to being normal, either give me back my food or get rid of the silly rules that rotary puts on me or at least give me back driving, really that is one thing I really want back!......thinking about it now I can hear Su saying to me “Taylor suck it up, change and adapt.” And that sorta helps me move on. Ill try and figure something out, I probably just need to go to the pool. Yea that sounds good.
Ok well typing about home is not helping so I am done typing for now I am going to put this through a spell check and be done. And maybe reread it and make sure it is good for Rotary. Love you all!
See you in 9 months and 3weeks…hehehehe too soon?
Peace!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
CHILE!!!!
alright here it goes i am relaxed and in my bed with my host family!
.....basically....it.....Freaking.......Rocks here!!!!!
right now it is winter and it is about 40 degrees all the time, yea not bad.
everyone speaks, drives, and does stuff so fast!!!!!
i am not jetlagged or anything but you prob want to hear about my travels.
thursday morning we drove from maine at 7 am with my best friend virginia,
got to boston aroud 1130 checked in, go lunch and talked until 2ish
then i said my good bys and it was sad but i got over it cause i had to go through security and it sucked.
then i was alone on the plane to dallas but i did met a cute girl from cape cod (senior in college) o well but her and i needed to go to the same concourse in the airport so we were together for a bit and helped eachother.
once i got to the concourse i checked in and made sure i was at the right place and went to find dinner! i wanted a burger and i didnt care how much i had to pay for it
i spent 20 dollars at a sit down restuarnt for a burger fries and a coke! it was a great last american meal.
after that i went to the seats and met a bunch of american exchange students and we sat together until we got on the plane and then all but one of us sat together.
we shared stories and pins and business card. it was great fun!
we got to santiago and we were sooooo confused! needless to say a group of us really wasted alot of time going through a check point we didnt need, immigration is a pain, and so is customs, but meeting other rotary kids was awesome. we met 3 kids from germany and 3 from denmark. we all flew to concepcion together and that is where we met a lot of other rotary people taking pics of us and shouting things in spanish it was nuts.....
more to come i am off to bed love you all!!!!
.....basically....it.....Freaking.......Rocks here!!!!!
right now it is winter and it is about 40 degrees all the time, yea not bad.
everyone speaks, drives, and does stuff so fast!!!!!
i am not jetlagged or anything but you prob want to hear about my travels.
thursday morning we drove from maine at 7 am with my best friend virginia,
got to boston aroud 1130 checked in, go lunch and talked until 2ish
then i said my good bys and it was sad but i got over it cause i had to go through security and it sucked.
then i was alone on the plane to dallas but i did met a cute girl from cape cod (senior in college) o well but her and i needed to go to the same concourse in the airport so we were together for a bit and helped eachother.
once i got to the concourse i checked in and made sure i was at the right place and went to find dinner! i wanted a burger and i didnt care how much i had to pay for it
i spent 20 dollars at a sit down restuarnt for a burger fries and a coke! it was a great last american meal.
after that i went to the seats and met a bunch of american exchange students and we sat together until we got on the plane and then all but one of us sat together.
we shared stories and pins and business card. it was great fun!
we got to santiago and we were sooooo confused! needless to say a group of us really wasted alot of time going through a check point we didnt need, immigration is a pain, and so is customs, but meeting other rotary kids was awesome. we met 3 kids from germany and 3 from denmark. we all flew to concepcion together and that is where we met a lot of other rotary people taking pics of us and shouting things in spanish it was nuts.....
more to come i am off to bed love you all!!!!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Late but finally here
Ok well I know it has been a while but hey better late than never.
Well I have my visa, I have my itinerary for my flight down to Chile. Yea, that is going to be fun....not I think we have figured that I have to wake up at like 5 or 6am leave the house by like 7am (in Maine still) drive to Boston, and go through customs and all that crap at the airport. and i leave at 4pm to fly to Dallas (yea I think my mother is going crazy making us leave so freaking early but whatever just keep her happy) then from there I fly to Santiago from Dallas I leave at like 9pm and I fly to Santiago over night (first time I have done this so I am a little not happy about being cooped up on a plane for that long. and I arrive about 10 hours later in Santiago at about 8 am.
and then I have to wait a day in Santiago for an orientation I believe and then I am off to Concepcion on Sunday at 1pm. Needless to day I am going to have a few busy days. o joy!
Well I have been busy with lots of things these days, working at the ymca in the mornings, doing private spanish lessons in the afternoons twice a week, working at the harbor on weekends needless to say I am very very busy. and in that "freetime" I have I am hanging with friends or doing stuff around the house. ie packing and such.
O yea packing holy crap I have been getting new clothes and new things to take to Chile. Great thing is that I wont be there during much of the winter so I wont have to take huge jackets and warm things to Chile that will weigh down my bag. Its going to be hard to pack away my life for 10 months in two suitcases adding up to only 50lbs a piece. Lots of luck with that I say. well I am sitting in my car now waiting for my spanish lesson to begin I dont see my tutor around anywhere. did she forget idk. ........
.....
....
Well she finally showed up about 10 minutes late, o well as long as she is here. well I have got to go
Hasta Luego!
Ill come back prob on friday or saturday and write somemore.
Well I have my visa, I have my itinerary for my flight down to Chile. Yea, that is going to be fun....not I think we have figured that I have to wake up at like 5 or 6am leave the house by like 7am (in Maine still) drive to Boston, and go through customs and all that crap at the airport. and i leave at 4pm to fly to Dallas (yea I think my mother is going crazy making us leave so freaking early but whatever just keep her happy) then from there I fly to Santiago from Dallas I leave at like 9pm and I fly to Santiago over night (first time I have done this so I am a little not happy about being cooped up on a plane for that long. and I arrive about 10 hours later in Santiago at about 8 am.
and then I have to wait a day in Santiago for an orientation I believe and then I am off to Concepcion on Sunday at 1pm. Needless to day I am going to have a few busy days. o joy!
Well I have been busy with lots of things these days, working at the ymca in the mornings, doing private spanish lessons in the afternoons twice a week, working at the harbor on weekends needless to say I am very very busy. and in that "freetime" I have I am hanging with friends or doing stuff around the house. ie packing and such.
O yea packing holy crap I have been getting new clothes and new things to take to Chile. Great thing is that I wont be there during much of the winter so I wont have to take huge jackets and warm things to Chile that will weigh down my bag. Its going to be hard to pack away my life for 10 months in two suitcases adding up to only 50lbs a piece. Lots of luck with that I say. well I am sitting in my car now waiting for my spanish lesson to begin I dont see my tutor around anywhere. did she forget idk. ........
.....
....
Well she finally showed up about 10 minutes late, o well as long as she is here. well I have got to go
Hasta Luego!
Ill come back prob on friday or saturday and write somemore.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Update
Well, well well, it has been some time since I last updated my blog so here it goes!
1. I received my guarantee form from the rotary club in Chile and I am leaving the 7th of August.
2. I am over mono.
3. I am now considered the assistant assistant aquatics director at the YMCA
4. I am now a harbor master in the town of Camden
5. I am extremely busy all of the time working and getting ready for Chile
6. I am tired all of the time (see above bullet)
7. I am taking private Spanish lessons from a tutor in Rockland
8. I am doing J24 (keelboat) racing on Thursday nights, rain or shine!!!
9. I received my pins from the lobster council today in the mail. (thanks guys(www.lobsterfrommaine.com)
10. I am off to the office at the harbor to sit and answer tourist questions, Oh wait is it raining there are no tourists! I am tired of the rain!!! so
I'll keep updating my blog, but I must run.
1. I received my guarantee form from the rotary club in Chile and I am leaving the 7th of August.
2. I am over mono.
3. I am now considered the assistant assistant aquatics director at the YMCA
4. I am now a harbor master in the town of Camden
5. I am extremely busy all of the time working and getting ready for Chile
6. I am tired all of the time (see above bullet)
7. I am taking private Spanish lessons from a tutor in Rockland
8. I am doing J24 (keelboat) racing on Thursday nights, rain or shine!!!
9. I received my pins from the lobster council today in the mail. (thanks guys(www.lobsterfrommaine.com)
10. I am off to the office at the harbor to sit and answer tourist questions, Oh wait is it raining there are no tourists! I am tired of the rain!!! so
I'll keep updating my blog, but I must run.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Mono
Yea thats right I got mono!
yea just in time for graduation and the end of the year, and not to mention my 18th birthday!
yea so I spent my entire birthday in my bed. o boy how fun.
and now I cant go anywhere! no harbor no school no work and now it is possible that i wont be going back to school for the rest of the year. I wouldnt mind that but I hate laying around the house being bored!
I think that I am going to be over the mono very soon because I have felt like crap for the last few weeks so I think I am in the middle or the end of this mono!
I just want to go to school or hang out downtown with friends!
well I'll try to keep this updated more often.
see you guys later!
yea just in time for graduation and the end of the year, and not to mention my 18th birthday!
yea so I spent my entire birthday in my bed. o boy how fun.
and now I cant go anywhere! no harbor no school no work and now it is possible that i wont be going back to school for the rest of the year. I wouldnt mind that but I hate laying around the house being bored!
I think that I am going to be over the mono very soon because I have felt like crap for the last few weeks so I think I am in the middle or the end of this mono!
I just want to go to school or hang out downtown with friends!
well I'll try to keep this updated more often.
see you guys later!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Update
Well I know it has been a while and i have alot to do today so I am going to keep this brief.
I heard back from my host family a couple weeks ago. It was so fun I got to talk to them on my computer through skype. my mom and dad were in the kitchen with me as I talked to Javi my host sister. I am going to be living in a town called concepcion, it is the same town that lee is in right now. I had a long weekend this week and I think a nap sounds good later!
I heard back from my host family a couple weeks ago. It was so fun I got to talk to them on my computer through skype. my mom and dad were in the kitchen with me as I talked to Javi my host sister. I am going to be living in a town called concepcion, it is the same town that lee is in right now. I had a long weekend this week and I think a nap sounds good later!
Monday, April 6, 2009
VA Trip
Ok well here I am in another study hall, blogging as usual. I got back from the VA trip last night and wow... what a trip!!!!
It was even better than the Washington trip I took this last summer with the junior class. o well. yea it was 70 out everyday and it was sunny. HA thats right SUNNY!!! and I have a bit of a tan now. and I was able to be outside on the beach with my friends. We had a dinner theater in another hotel and I was the main focus of it, yea they were making fun of me but it was hilarious. and then the we competed and WON!!! thats right a little high school from maine had a clean sweep of the awards for the bands. IT was amazing!!! and then we had a dinner cruise and dance party, that was by far the most fun I have had in a LONG TIME!!!! I have never danced so much at a party. we finally ended up with a trip to Busch gardens where it was sunny and warm. then it was back on the buses for a long trip home. yea the bus ride sucked but o well yay for sleeping.
now I am back in Maine with all of the cold weather! It isnt fair, I woke up this morning and I was about to put some shorts on when I realized it was 37 out !!!! anywho tonight I have work and I am going to make a small fortune! yea 2-7 5 hour of sitting on my butt! god I love my job!
well ok my laptop is dying I'll blog later if i have power but i doubt it. I'll also put pics from the VA trip on here. really I'll only put the ones of me because my buddy Scott took a bunch of me and they look soooo cool.
It was even better than the Washington trip I took this last summer with the junior class. o well. yea it was 70 out everyday and it was sunny. HA thats right SUNNY!!! and I have a bit of a tan now. and I was able to be outside on the beach with my friends. We had a dinner theater in another hotel and I was the main focus of it, yea they were making fun of me but it was hilarious. and then the we competed and WON!!! thats right a little high school from maine had a clean sweep of the awards for the bands. IT was amazing!!! and then we had a dinner cruise and dance party, that was by far the most fun I have had in a LONG TIME!!!! I have never danced so much at a party. we finally ended up with a trip to Busch gardens where it was sunny and warm. then it was back on the buses for a long trip home. yea the bus ride sucked but o well yay for sleeping.
now I am back in Maine with all of the cold weather! It isnt fair, I woke up this morning and I was about to put some shorts on when I realized it was 37 out !!!! anywho tonight I have work and I am going to make a small fortune! yea 2-7 5 hour of sitting on my butt! god I love my job!
well ok my laptop is dying I'll blog later if i have power but i doubt it. I'll also put pics from the VA trip on here. really I'll only put the ones of me because my buddy Scott took a bunch of me and they look soooo cool.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Maine Morning
Alright I just had to blog about this day!!!
This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn at 6 AM to help out the harbor master pull his ice boat off the lake. Yea it was heavy, yea it was hard work, yea it was dirty, but hell it was fun!
during the entire time we were talking about things I can not discuss on the internet, but it was funny a 50 year old man talks to me like he is a teenager. O well it was fun.
and then after he treated me to coffee and a donut. We sat on the front bumper of his truck and talked more about skiing and boating and life. It was amazing.
anyways I would add more but I have to go eat dinner. I'll be back tomorrow
see ya!
This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn at 6 AM to help out the harbor master pull his ice boat off the lake. Yea it was heavy, yea it was hard work, yea it was dirty, but hell it was fun!
during the entire time we were talking about things I can not discuss on the internet, but it was funny a 50 year old man talks to me like he is a teenager. O well it was fun.
and then after he treated me to coffee and a donut. We sat on the front bumper of his truck and talked more about skiing and boating and life. It was amazing.
anyways I would add more but I have to go eat dinner. I'll be back tomorrow
see ya!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Good News, Bad News
ok, well here I am in PK's classroom with a sub so yea we should be doing work but NO ONE is doing work we are just watching a movie about the ocean on the TV. I guess I'll do a bit of blogging!
Well bad news first I guess, I dont get to go to my senior prom because I get to go on a awesome schooner trip with all of the current exchange students and also with this year's outbounds. yea iIcant wait, I hope I get to do some time at the helm. (driving the boat)
Good news is....... (drum roll) I have been accepted to my number one choice college!!!!!! thats right Taylor is going to Champlain College when he returns in the summer of 2010. I got into all three of my schools. New England School of Communications (Husson, Maine) was pretty easy and was def. my back up school.
Lydon State College (Lydonville VT) was also a bit easier to get into. But was my number two choice school because of how close it is to skiing and how awesome of a program they have.
And finally.....
Champlain College (Burlington VT) was by far the hardest school to get into out of my three. and because of that it was my number one school. I fell in love with it the minute I visited it last spring. I am sooo pumped!!!
Also another bit of good news, the harbor is opening up and the snow is melting around town and off the mountains so that means we can start putting in docks down at the harbor and I can start training on our new boats we have. this summer is going to be awesome for me! Dockmaster at the harbor and a camp counselor. Needless to say iIwill be busy this summer but I will have a blast doing it all!!!
well i am off ill talk to you all later thanks for supporting me on my blog and following me on my wonderful journey of life!!!
Adios,
Taylor
Well bad news first I guess, I dont get to go to my senior prom because I get to go on a awesome schooner trip with all of the current exchange students and also with this year's outbounds. yea iIcant wait, I hope I get to do some time at the helm. (driving the boat)
Good news is....... (drum roll) I have been accepted to my number one choice college!!!!!! thats right Taylor is going to Champlain College when he returns in the summer of 2010. I got into all three of my schools. New England School of Communications (Husson, Maine) was pretty easy and was def. my back up school.
Lydon State College (Lydonville VT) was also a bit easier to get into. But was my number two choice school because of how close it is to skiing and how awesome of a program they have.
And finally.....
Champlain College (Burlington VT) was by far the hardest school to get into out of my three. and because of that it was my number one school. I fell in love with it the minute I visited it last spring. I am sooo pumped!!!
Also another bit of good news, the harbor is opening up and the snow is melting around town and off the mountains so that means we can start putting in docks down at the harbor and I can start training on our new boats we have. this summer is going to be awesome for me! Dockmaster at the harbor and a camp counselor. Needless to say iIwill be busy this summer but I will have a blast doing it all!!!
well i am off ill talk to you all later thanks for supporting me on my blog and following me on my wonderful journey of life!!!
Adios,
Taylor
Monday, March 23, 2009
Swimmingly
I am done with swimming!!! thats right I just finished last weekend!!! now I am looking for a new sport to chew up my time. sailing? golf? baseball? biking? any ideas??? school just seems to be dragging on and on!!!! I am tired of it. I should have graduated but that would have been no fun. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I guess I'll have to just push through it! The band Virginia beach trip is starting next week!! yay 20+ hours on a bus to go and play in band for no more than 30 mins! Oh I am over joyed. I made this trip last year with the Washington trip why would I want to do this again? Oh well, it gets me out of school!!! Our teachers keep going on and on about how nice the water is going to be. HA yea right it is going to be colder than you know what!!! yea and the weather....give me a sec here...checking the weather......oooo cool RAIN!!!!!! yea I am going to want to be on the beach with rain. HA wow sounds like I need to bring my movies and the projector and watch movies in the room while it is RAINING outside. gosh and I wanted to get my bronze on!!! yea its going to be cold no matter what!!! Oh I am over joyed now! Oh well 149 some odd days till I leave for chile where it is in the 80s now!!!! yea thats right 80s during the winter!!!!! Oh I cant wait!!!! o and to my one follower *cough* mom *cough* comment on my blogs so I actually feel like someone cares about what I am doing with this. lol see ya!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Changing and Adapting
Thats right the motto of the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Change and Adaptation. I am once again in school in a study hall bored out of my mind, "god i want school to be over!!!" I am sitting in Mr. Kelly's room as he is preparing what I believe is some sort of escargot or pasta I cant remember what he said it was. But it has snails in it that much I know! I am a very picky eater. If it looks funny I am not up for it, even if it smells funny.. yea, not my thing. But over the past few days I have been living with a friend because my folks are out of town and I have been trying new things. my first night there I had a delicious haddock and I NEVER eat fish. but I found it was very tasty. we went to a mexican restaurant during a trip to a swim meet and I tried different things on my tacos and other such things. and to my surprise it is all very tasty.
so today in Oceanology I am going to be eating escargot. I am a bit nervous but hey nothing ventured nothing gained.
I hope I dont have an allergic reaction to it like I did to the turkish delights the other day in Mrs.Heal's room. *crosses fingers*
ok well class is about to start.
wish me luck!
Taylor
so today in Oceanology I am going to be eating escargot. I am a bit nervous but hey nothing ventured nothing gained.
I hope I dont have an allergic reaction to it like I did to the turkish delights the other day in Mrs.Heal's room. *crosses fingers*
ok well class is about to start.
wish me luck!
Taylor
It's just the beginning
Ok, here is the start of my blog, it has been set up for some time now I am just wayyyy toooo forgetful to update it and post things on it. Oh well. I am in school now just thinking of the summer wanting all of the snow to go away and the summer to start and the harbor to open up again. Spanish class starts in 3 mins and everyone is crowding around my computer. kinda strange...o well. well I just wanted to get this done to make Su happy and keep the Rotarians happy see you guys later. hasta luego!
Taylor
Taylor
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