I made the Chilean school Instagram page, no autographs please

 

My very dapper uniform (you can't see them but I am wearing knee high socks)

 

Chilean Countryside

 

First Week of 13th Grade

  It is finally here! The blog post about Chilean high school. I know you were all waiting anxiously, so thank you for being patient because I've been trying really hard to just figure out how things work here and create a routine and not worry about anything else. 

Before I begin, I would just like to say that my primary discovery from this first week is that highschoolers are quite literally the same everywhere. It's actually kind of crazy. 

There are still jocks and popular girls. You've got your theater kids, band geeks, class clowns and slackers. Oh, and how could I forget about the nerds, artsy types, and overachievers. I recognize that was a lot of stereotyping, but the point I'm trying to make is that you can go to a completely new country, but people are still people no matter where you go. What a beautiful thing. 

Anyway, let me try to explain to you a little bit about how Chilean high school works. 

For starters, my school is called the Institute of Rafael Aritzia and is in affiliation with a group of high schools called "The Maristas". There are about a dozen of different Marista high schools in this region of Chile, but they are all in different cities.

For example, there is a Marista high school in Rancagua, Quillota (my city), Limache, and Los Andes, among many others. It is a Catholic, private school. Yes, I have to wear a uniform. And I did ask what "Maristas" meant, and it's apparently some abbreviation for the children of Mary, as is the mother of Jesus. So yeah. That's pretty neat. 

Furthermore, each day ends at a different time. It all depends on the electives you've chosen, the extracurriculars you participate in, and your grade. 

On Monday's I finish school at 6pm or later. This is because I am in 11th grade here and we all have a really packed schedule on Monday's. Tuesday's I leave at about the same time, but it is because I elected to take a history class that starts at 3:00 and goes until 4:20. After that I also have theater club which goes until 6pm. 

On Wednesday, I get to come home around 2 with my last class being an Economics elective. This may change though because I am fairly certain that theater meets on this day as well. On Thursday's I will have to stay late in the future because there is band rehearsal, but this week I had theater and that ended at 4:30. Friday's I have nothing after 1:45 so I get to be home by 2:00.

Sorry, that was a lot of information. For those of you who got lost, I am going to list my classes below and you can just know that the times my day ends varies from day to day. 

-Education of a Citizen (Don't ask me what this is because I have yet to figure it out.)

-Language and Literature

-Math (I thought I would be fine in this class because math is math everywhere, but they are learning geometry....I learned geometry 3 years ago during COVID....it's safe to say I am NOT fine in this class)

-Religion Class (Once again, don't ask because I really don't understand it, but the professor did give us a book today called "The Art of Love" which I almost feel is a little targeted, but I am excited to read it.)

-Philosophy (I actually hate this class because I never know what the professor is saying, but he always looks at me to see if I'm listening so I just have to nod along and pray it's not anything crazy. He gets so existential sometimes that I think even the Chilean students here don't know what he is talking about.)

-Science of Citizenship (This class has only been about natural disasters so far, so when I figure out what the point is I will make sure to let you know)

-Design and Architecture (an art class that keeps me sane. There is this girl Ornella who I sit next too and she is actually a riot)

-Economics 

-Another Language/Writing class that is abbreviated with the letters LEE but I can't remember the actual name

-English (my fave, besides lunch)

-History (pretty chill besides the fact that the teacher started quizzing me about Donald Trump. I just pretended like I didn't know what he was saying) 

I'm trying to join the band too, but we will see where that goes. Right now I am part of the theater club, which is fun even though it's really small and not the best. I like watching though and helping when I can so it's a good use of my time. Claudia thinks it would be good if I also checked out track too, so I'll see where that gets me. 

A little more explanation on how the day actually works, there are 45 minute blocks just like in the U.S. The classes are all on a six block rotation so it gets a little complicated.  Additionally, at 10:15 and 12:05 we have recreation time where we all hang out in the courtyard and talk or buy snacks from the little vendor cart. It's pretty cool, but the overachiever in me feels weird wasting time like that. I feel like I should be doing something more productive, but then I just remind myself that socializing is literally my job for a year. 

I can feel that mindset creep in during classes too. There is a lot of downtime during a Chilean class. The professor gives you an assignment, explains it a little bit, maybe does half a lesson, then tells you when the test is and sits down to leave you to your own devices. Normally, I wouldn't mind this. Except for in Chile, I rarely fully understand an assignment and feel so lost when I sit down to work. When I ask my classmates for help, they are very accomodating and kind, but I rarely see them doing their own work so it is hard to know what to emulate.

 Chilean students love to goof off and play games on their phone during class. It honestly shocks me how much they get away with, but I genuinely think that is just the culture here. The students aren't that concerned with school, but they try every now and then. The teachers don't really seem to mind, so long as no one is in danger. For example, today for English class we spent 30 minutes by ourselves because we didn't have a teacher. When one finally showed up, we did 10 minutes of English and just called it a day. No extra homework. No freak out about irresponsibility. No one really bat an eye. 

The last big thing that is different about Chilean high school is that lunch is at 1:45pm and lasts until 3pm. We have an hour and fifteen minutes to eat, or leave to go purchase food, or do whatever we please. Once again, I feel weird with all of the downtime in the middle of the day, but I am working to acclimate. 

A few random updates before I officially sign off:

I got in contact with my local Rotary club and should be going to a meeting within the next 2 weeks! I'll let you know how that goes. 

I also think that there may actually be hot water here. Somehow it came up in conversation with Claudia that I didn't have hot water in the shower and she said that's not right. She also said sometimes if you shower too soon after someone else there may be issues (this is the same as my house so I understood), but otherwise I should have plenty. She told me to try showering at a different time and to let her know how that goes. This probably isn't something that any of you care about, but for me it means I can finally enter the bathroom without feeling a gut punch of disdain for the shower. Major win. 

My Spanish is going well, I have a long way to go, but I can already feel myself getting better. It has only been a week, I can't imagine what 10 months is going to do for me. 

This is terrible, but I can feel myself wishing the time away a little bit. I want to go to college and be with my friends and my family. This is probably normal, but I still am a little upset with myself for doing it.  

Finally, thank you so much for checking in on my blog. I can't see specific names or anything, but there is a stats page I can open that tells me how many people have seen my writing day to day. It brings me so much joy to know that there is interest in what I am doing and that my messages are being received by someone out in the wild blue yonder. Muchas gracias :)

Stay tuned for weekend adventures of an 80's party and a rugby game.

Much love always,

Anna 

Birds from the Aviary

 

Comedy Club Night with Isaac and Sara

 

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