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!