Living the Vida Loca

Well it has been a whirlwind of life these past few days. 

Apologies for not writing in a while, I've wanted to but I have been so exhausted that I couldn't find the words in English or Spanish. Let's do a quick recap of the past few days to get you up to speed.

On Saturday I got up at 2:45. Yup, you read that right. 2:45 IN THE MORNING. Sorry. I just needed to get that out. But it was for a very good reason because we had to bring Almendra to the airport so she could leave for her own exchange year in Germany. I'm very glad I went because I got to spend time with the whole family but I was fighting tears the entire time. All I could think about was how 3 days before that I was standing in the airport with my family, seeing them for the last time before I left for a year. 

This is the part of the blog that gets a little depressing but just bear with me a moment. 

Being in Chile, all by myself, over 5,000 miles away from my family and all I've ever known, where everything is in a language I only half understand, is the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life.

 I'd like to think that is saying something because I've experienced some hard things before. I've pulled long hours for FFA events, I've worked at various different farming operations, I've had to make hard decisions about my priorities in life, I'm very familiar with the circle of life, and I'm the eldest daughter. Hopefully that's enough justification for the phrase "I've done hard things" and if it isn't you'll have to take it up with my secretary. 

I am grateful because my experience with those hard things is the only thing keeping me together in this country. I have never experienced this kind of mental strain before. 

My brain is constantly running at a million miles an hour. I have to think about social cues and what they mean in this culture. I need to consider my safety in each situation because I am not used to living in a city at all. I need to ask questions about everything because if I don't express the things I need, my host family will have no idea that I'm having trouble. But I need to ask them carefully because I don't want to be offensive or say something rude. I have to eat food I'm unfamiliar with and be confused a solid 60% of the time because I don't understand what people are trying to tell me. Oh, and on top of all of that running around in my head, I also have to translate it to Spanish. 

So yeah. This is really hard. And there are moments when I literally just want to buy a plane ticket and come home. I miss my family and my friends. I miss my car and being able to drive. I miss my bed and my bathroom that has more than 7 minutes of hot water. I miss American food and music and all of the back roads that I know all too well. I miss the freaking Hannaford in Greenwich and the Northshire bookstore and the Cambridge Stewarts. I miss the girl that I would have become if I hadn't decided to go on this adventure and instead went to college like all of my friends.  If I got sent home tomorrow, it would honestly feel so good.

 But I know that I would wake up after one day back in America and feel like a failure. Because even though this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life so far, I also know that because it's so hard it's really good for me. So I'm going to keep trying, but if you're reading this, please know that I miss you so so so much. And to be brutally honest, I've definitely cried about it. 

Back on track now, thank you for the emotional intermission. 

After we dropped Almendra off at the airport, I had breakfast with the family and tried some new pastries. Don't ask me the names because I don't remember, but I do recall that we had this loaf of sweet bread called "The Arm of the Queen" or in Spanish "Brazos de la Reina". Then I rested a little bit in my room because Claudia insisted, and after that I hung out in the restaurant for a bit and people watched with Abuela. 

Isaac, my youngest host brother, and Sara, his girlfriend, were planning to come back to the house and take me to the beach but that didn't end up happening because they ended up staying later than anticipated at Sara's father's birthday party. 

Instead, they took me to buy socks for school, and then for ice cream, and then to their apartment to meet their cats (LuLu and Princess Caroline were their names for any cat lovers out there) and then they took me to a comedy show. That's right. On my fourth day in Chile, I went to a comedy show at a night club. It was freaking awesome. And I hardly understood a word. 

I truly don't understand why Isaac and Sara like hanging out with me because if I was a 24 year old adult, living with my significant other, I would not want to spend time with my parents' foreign exchange student. But they act so excited to bring me places and I am beyond grateful. 

I've learned so much Spanish from them because they love helping me with my grammar and Isaac understands a decent amount of English so he can translate if I really don't understand something. It is so fun to hang out with them. Isaac was also a foreign exchange student when he was my age, so he understands what I'm going through. I think part of the reason he is so interested in taking me places is because he didn't finish his own exchange because of a bad host family experience. No matter what, I am so grateful. 

 

We got home pretty late from the comedy show, but it really was an epic day. And get this, after the comedy show they asked me to go with them to a park the next day. Obviously I said yes. 

The next morning, I got to sleep in a little and I finally showered (this is when I discovered that during the winter, there really isn't a lot of hot water in Chile. But don't worry, I'm tough. If cold water is the worst I have to deal with I will take that as a win.) and after breakfast I hopped in the car to drive 2 hours to this park. Isaac took a really scenic route and he and Sara explained lots of things to me about Chile and each city that we passed through. 

When we got to the park I realized that it was actually an aviary and a bird sanctuary in addition to a regular park. We saw all kinds of crazy birds, hiked a bunch, and once it was all over we stopped and got cookies in Valparaiso (a famous coastal city) and then empanadas. Sara and Isaac even let me pay after I begged them all day and my excuse was that I needed to learn how to use my Chilean pesos, which was true. But I also just wanted to do something nice for them because they have been so kind to me. 

We got home late once again, but before I went to bed I ate an entire fresh artichoke with lemon because apparently that is a common snack in Chile. I kind of didn't like it, but oh well. At least I can say I tried. After that I went to bed, because the next morning I had to get up and moving for my first day of school.

Stay tuned for that update because right now I need to go to bed. 

Much love from South America,

Anna