March 30, 2008
Time has been FLYING by. It’s hard to believe that in two months time I shall be packing my things and be heading back home. In a way, while Camden, Maine shall always be my home, La Serena, Chile is also my home now. When I come in through the door I am always relieved to be “home”. I am comfortable with the people, language and the location. Everything has a certain amount of normalcy about it. In a way, it’s kind of boring – the initial shock and newness of everything has left. I chose not to update my blog during the summer because the days went by fairly similarly (although with some very exciting exceptions) and I figured I could write about it after I had time to reflect upon it.
La Serena is the place to be during the summer. There are people from all over the world who come to bask upon the beach and look at the stars at night. When I finished school last November I had not made very many strong friendships with people and the ones I had were going away for the summer. In Chile it’s very common for everyone to just pack up and leave with their family and not hear anything from them for months. Basically, I had to start fresh all over again. After the trip to the south with the exchange students we all became very close and we began to realize that we don’t really live all that far away from each other in Chile. There are three other exchange students who live only one hour away. During the summer I spent a lot of time with the other exchange students and various Chilean friends who happened to be with them or me. We did a lot of exploring of not only La Serena but also the few places around La Serena (we are allowed to travel 90 miles without rotary permission- granted there is absolutely nothing around La Serena for 90 miles). One thing that struck me as interesting was that while I definitely spoke more English during the summer, my Spanish got much better. It was like I was giving my mind a little break every time I got to speak English.
I was fortunate enough to have my parents come visit me in Chile. It was lovely for them to actually go to the places I had been speaking about and meet some of the people I knew. My host mum and I met them in Santiago at the airport (we had spent the day before with Kyle and stayed the night over in a hotel). We then drove up to La Serena (about six or seven hours). We had a few days in La Serena- getting to know the territory and then we traveled off to the Valle Del Elqui. I had only been once or twice to the famous valley beforehand (the valley is where they make the famous wine of while. In fact, the grapes in Hannaford’s probably come from there). We went to an observatory (lots of observatories here because the skies are so clear) and after several days returned to La Serena. My host parents made a BBQ for my host parents and then afterwards we went on a terrifying adventure in a car up a mountain (which I WARNED my parents would not be a fun-filled adventure- but who listens to ME?!?!) After departing La Serena and saying goodbye to my host parents we drove to Vina where we met…KYLE! We explored Vina but preferred the less stomped upon, Valparaiso. Lots of grins and giggles. Stopped at Pablo Neruda’s (famous Chilean poet) fantastic house. It’s SUPER long, near the sea, and filled with all sorts of treasures. Finally, we ventured to the capital city, Santiago (kyle’s home). Actually, for a capital city there’s not a lot to do in Santiago but I shall inform you- we did just about everything there! By the end of the trip my parents had fully worn both kyle and I out (We’re not used to the crazy gringo lifestyle). However, we were very pleased that my parents had been able to visit. We had a wonderful time.
School started on March 2nd and I understand everything that everybody says (however not everyone knows that). It’s nice to see progress. School is still unrewarding and my classmates are not in the least interested in me but it’s all a learning process. I still talk to them even if they don’t want to talk to me. : ) Since starting school I have joined the gym! Going to the gym takes quite the effort but I go about five or six times a week. My host mum picks me up at school at 5:00 PM and drives me home (we arrived around 5:30). I have my tea and then study until 6:45 when I have to take a colectivo (joint taxi) to the mall. When I get to the mall (7) I have to walk to the gym- about half an hour away. I go to the gym for an hour and then I have to repeat. Basically, going to the gym is a three hour event with only one of those hours being at the gym. Welcome to Chile!
Also, I have been making school more entertaining for myself by planning things on the weekend to do for myself. I have been to the observatory “Tololo” (which is very hard to go to so I was very lucky!) and Easter weekend I went with a school friend to the Valle Del Elqui. Upcoming events involve a trip to Ovalle (nearby city), Iquique, and a possible trip to Peru. I have realized that I only have six more weekends left actually in La Serena! Ahh! I am going to make the best of them!
I hope you are all well and enjoying this year. I am leaving for “The Shire” on June 4th. See you soon!
Dear Rotary Club,
Wow! I could not wish to be in a better place to come on exchange for ten months. Everything has been slammed upside down and it’s great. Imagine coming from quiet, picturesque, quintessential, Camden, Maine as a high school graduate. Now imagine being thrown into La Serena, Chile where the people are loud, plentiful, and crammed into thousands of tiny houses all blabbering away in a language you don’t speak! It’s super!
I couldn’t have landed with a more wonderful host family. My host father is essentially a blacksmith and he owns a company with his family members. We all live on a parcel of land with his Italian mother, and three of his brothers. He has his workshop on this land. In his spare time he likes to go biking, hiking, and paragliding – on the weekends we always have an adventure of some sort! He has a crazy brother that is always jetting around South America looking for “buried treasure”. Currently he’s trying to set up a mission to Peru to look for a sunken ship with a legend of gold. Needless to say, he’s never found anything. My host mother is great and is always jetting me around the city. She takes care of my host dad’s finances and is always standing in line at the bank (They only have one bank where it’s possible to deposit checks for a population of 250,000). My host brother is studying to be a doctor in Argentina however currently he is home working with my host dad because it is summer vacation. My host sister is on Rotary exchange to Minnesota. I was fortunate enough to meet her when I arrived.
When I arrived I was thrown directly into the Italian school here – it was quite a shocker. School here is rather unorganized at the least. School “begins” at 8:00 AM (although usually not until at least 8:15 or 8:30) and lasts until around 5:00 PM. I will never complain about a long school day back at home ever again. We have a uniform and we are expected to stand up when the principal comes into the classroom. I am in a class with the 16 year olds which can sometimes be frustrating. It is amazing how little we accomplish in the day. There are a lot of tests and it is rather dull. The first three months I did not understand anything at all. For this reason, I got the opportunity to teach the 10 year olds English class! This certainly lightened things up for me and it’s my most rewarding aspect of school.
Chilean Rotary club is hilarious. I belong to the La Serena Oriente club which has approximately fifteen members depending on the week. The club is currently hosting five inbound students, five students abroad, and five students preparing to leave in August. This is one student per member. Each member also has a poor rural school which they individually support. One day my rotary councilor showed up on the spur of the moment at my school. He whisked me off and we drove insanely into the nearby valley. We stopped at his designated school to give presents to all the top students of each class. We were treated like royalty and given a tea party. Also, all the students danced the national dance.
Generally our Rotary club starts at eight on a Tuesday night. There is usually no one there at eight besides the other Rotary exchange students. We wait patiently until nine when the other members dribble in. In most cases everyone is there by ten when we start to eat a pile of mashed potatoes and fried meat. They discuss everything under the moon and we each have to say a few words at each meeting. Generally the meetings are finished by one or two in the morning. *phew*. We were invited every week for the first few months but now that it’s summer everyone has shifted gears to “relax mode” and I have only been once. I’m sure things will pick up just in time for school (which starts in March).
Keeping myself busy during the summer has been a bit of a challenge since the Chilean lifestyle isn’t like the rushed North American one. Everyone is much more relaxed and hardly anyone works. However, I have had some highlights. The first week of summer (December) was spent at a Rotary trip in Patagonia. We went to Punta Arenas (The southern most city), Puerto Natales (a small touristy fishing town…sound familiar?), and the beautiful national park “Torres Del Paine”. I’m really jazzed that I went on that trip because it boosted my spirits immensely. Being with the other exchange students was amazing.
My biological parents came to visit towards the end of January. It was truly “bakan” (the Chilean word for “awesome”) to have them here to meet my host family and finally see the places that I have so diligently talked about for so many months. After about a week in La Serena (and a quick detour to the Valley) we zoomed off to Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, and Santiago. We met up with my fellow exchange student- Kyle (from Camden as well). I had only seen him once before for an hour in a quick bus stop on a previous trip. We kind of had our own Camden community in Chile. I am truly fortunate to have had my parents come see me and every second was fantastic.
Until June forth I will return to school, fine tune my Spanish (I understand everything that is being said to me and can communicate back fairly intelligently. I’m still studying the more difficult grammar), go to Rotary club, go to the Chilean Rotary conference in Northern Chile, visit a home for abused children in the neighboring city, perhaps join the soccer team, and have a lot of mixed emotions about coming home!
I hope that you are all having a wonderful year. I cannot thank Rotary enough for this spectacular opportunity which I hope I have been able to share a part of with you in this letter. Thank you every so much and see you soon!
Best regards,
Christina Phaup
RYE Chile
January 2, 2008 Out with Nynne and Jordan in the center today. There are a lot of sales! We met up with an exchange student from La Serena who was hosted by Jordan’s club in Canada last year. Small world. Went for Pizza. There was a little print/drawing of a light house. I thought it looked familiar and when I looked closer it said "Portland Head Light" and I got super excited. Again, small world.
January 1, 2008 (weird!) We stayed there until 6:30 AM to watch the sunrise. Afterwards we walked back to Jordan’s apartment to sleep. We didn’t sleep very much and woke up at 11 perhaps. Lazed around and then I went home at 2. Slept!
Monday December 31, 2007 Woo! New Year! A lot has happened and changed this year…wow. My host dad, host cousin and I made a “hot air balloon” out of tissue paper to launch when midnight struck. Afterwards the family came over and we had a similar affair to Christmas. We all had party hats and wigs. At midnight we launched confetti and the hot air balloon. Unfortunately the first one caught on fire but someone else had made another one so we ended up launching the second one just fine. It was so pretty to watch it float up into the air. Afterwards we all piled into the car as we all went out “dancing”. I got dropped off at Jordan’s apartment and unfortunately all the phone lines were really tied up so I couldn’t call to tell her I arrived. I was stuck in the stairwell for quite some time. Afterwards we went to the beach with everyone in the whole of La Serena. We met up with other exchange students, someone’s class from school, and a whole bunch of people. There ended up being 50 or 60 of us on the beach. Sunday December 30, 2007 Biked to Coquimbo with my host dad today. It’s about 16 miles round trip so it only takes about 2 hours to complete.
Saturday December 29, 2007 Went to the beach with my fellow exchange students to wish Kate (exchange student New Jersey) a happy birthday. We had a cake and everything! Also, Jordan brought the puppy that her family received for Christmas. It’s so adorable. Actually, they don’t want the puppy so now Jordan gets to raise it. We went for Chinese food after the party. It was a day of celebration!
Friday December 28, 2007 Unwell Thursday December 27, 2007 Unwell
Wednesday December 26, 2007 Went to Nynne’s for a Boxing Day dinner (They don’t have Boxing Day here…everyone works.) Her host dad is the president of our Rotary club. We cooked hamburgers and had an overall good time. The kids from Ovalle showed up and it was just a lot of laughter. Afterwards we all climbed into a truck (back of the truck) and went to the beach to Jordan’s apartment (her host family owns an apartment in La Serena). I wasn’t feeling 100% so I went home.
Tuesday December 25, 2008 Merry Christmas everyone! Today I woke up to a surprising Christmas stocking sent by my real parents. Thank you : ) It had all the normal things inside it that Christmas stockings are supposed to have in them…gold chocolate coins etc. The rest of Christmas day was quiet and everyone was just lazy. We went out later in the day to watch the kids in the center play with their new bikes and we went to a craft fair. Afterwards we went to the Japanese garden. It’s very pretty and it’s lovely now as the ducklings have hatched.
Monday December 24, 2008 Yey! Christmas Eve! Everyone was super happy today. In Chile, as well as a lot of countries, Christmas Eve is more important than Christmas day. We had my mum’s side of the family over and we ate a special meal. Afterwards we sat around and waited until midnight to open our presents (they are eager). They have Christmas stockings but they are filled with only food. Overall Christmas passed very well indeed.
Sunday December 23, 2007 Preparations…wrapping presents….the city is nuts. Completely and utterly nuts. No one wants to go outside but everyone has to so there is quite a bit of congestion.
Saturday December 22, 2007 Jordan came today! We sat in the mall trying to make an agenda for the day but both of us were just relieved to see one another as time spent after THE TRIP has been a bit dull in comparison. We ended up “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” which Jacob sent to me as a Christmas present. Hilarious!
Friday December 21, 2007 Went to a holiday Christmas party at the philosophy center where my dance class is held. We had a gift exchange and there was lots of dancing. It was really fun! I’m glad I went. Had to come home early because tomorrow my friend Jordan from Ovalle (one hour away) comes to visit! Thursday December 20, 2007 Guanaqueros some more. Caught the bus back with some friends at 1. Went home and slept for quite a bit of the day. Afterwards we had an “end of the year” festival at school. Unfortunately I was the only one from my class to show up since they were all in Guanaqueros and I also was the only person there to arrive in uniform. Ahahahaha. Embarrassing. It was basically a celebration to show who was the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd best student in each class.
Wednesday December 19, 2007
Class trip today! Un-chaperoned to Guanaqueros. Quanaqueros is a beach about half an hour away. Someone in my class owns a cabana there. We lay around on the beach which was okay except that I think there was red tide and there was also a dead seal rotting away in the sand. It was rather dead and it was impossible to move it as it was melting into the sand rather badly. Nevermind. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Afterwards we went back to the Cabana and they attempted to make a BBQ. Unfortunately none of them had taken Mrs. Wilcox’s cooking class because they didn’t have proper meat handling habits. It was a bit frightening actually. Well, the meat ended up tasting fine. Everyone was happy that school had finished and we all stayed up until 4 in the morning.
Tuesday December 18, 2007
Went out with Nynne to the center. We were looking for her Christmas package which appears to be sent to have been sent to Korea by mistake. It is now waiting in Santiago to be picked up. Afterwards I went to dance class. We have a performance coming up…oh noes!
Monday December 17, 2007
Just recuperated today. I think I’ll take the opportunity to explain Chilean food here. Since my family is Italian I don’t really think I have the full “experience” but I’ll try to explain. Empanadas are big. There are little empanada huts all over the place. Empanadas (or “emps” as we have nicknamed them) are doughy moon shaped pastry with meat, egg, olives, cheese…you name it…it’s a type of empanada. They also have sweet empanadas filled with chocolate or rhubarb. Apart from empanadas BREAD is really big here. They have all kinds of bread and some types that don’t have butter so it won’t “make you fat”. We eat that kind. Everyone knows the different health benefits of the different types of breads. Also, for lunch we have a combination of things:
Rice and Beef
Rice and Chicken
Potatoes and Chicken
Potatoes and Beef
: )
On Saturdays we always have fried fish and rice that my host mum buys at the Saturday market across the street.
Always for lunch there is “’salad” which isn’t really a salad but just veggies placed out on the table. They always have lots of salt, lemon and olive oil with their salad and if you don’t put it on they look at you strangely.
Desserts here aren’t really good at all. The only thing that’s good is “manjar” which is dulce de leche (just condensed milk boiled for two hours to make a caramel type thing). They have crepes and manjar. They also have this really strange dessert that is a pickled apricot in apricot juice with rice. It’s super weird but it manages to taste okay. All the Chileans go crazy for pickled apricot. Oh, also..rumor has it that the milk is numbered here. The milk is really pasteurized and it is not kept in the fridge in the store. It’s kept on the shelf. There are numbers on the bottom of the milk: a number once signifies that it has only been pasteurized one time. Once it goes by the sell by date it gets re-pasteurized and labeled with a number 2. This goes up until number 7. Just so you all know, number 7 tastes exactly like water!
Sunday December 16, 2007
Arrived in La Serena at six. I was super grateful that we were on a bus with “beds”. I managed to sleep a good five hours. Nevertheless, I was happy to see my bed when I got back home. Slept and relaxed for the rest of the day.
Saturday December 15, 2007
Traveled to a “viewing deck” to view the city. There are a lot of red roofs! There was a sign post that pointed to a lot of cities in the world and how far away they were. Traveled to a “women’s fair” where local women brought their trades to sell. There was lots of jewlrey and empanadas. Afterwards went back to the hotel for a last meal..it was depressing as no one wanted to leave. Hopped on the airplane at three. Got back to Santiago at six. My luggage was 45 minutes behind everyone elses…super! Had to say goodbye slowly to various people. Got on a bus and traveled to the Santiago bus terminal. Hung out there for a while. It was pretty sketchy! The kick of the trip was that Kyle and his exchange buddies were in the neighborhood and they popped round to say hello! It was smashing to see him! It was also kind of weird seeing a familiar face… We chatted for an hour or so and then it was time for me to leave on the bus. Kyle brought me a green balloon with the words “Dog Chow” on it. Nothing’s changed! : ) Traveled on the bus at midnight.
Friday December 14, 2007
Went to a museum about the history of Punta Arenas. It was probably the weirdest most eclectic museum I’ve ever been to. There were lots of dead animals and shrunken human heads. Afterwards we went to the third most famous graveyard in the world (simply because a lot of rich families are buried there so it’s pretty to look at). We went to “kiss the foot” of a Magellan statue. It’s a custom that if it is your first time to sail through the Strait of Magellan you go to the statue to kiss it for luck. Today we were given a lot of free time.
Thursday December 13, 2007 Today we drove back to Punta Arenas. On the way we stopped at a farm to look at Emus, llamas, and other typical animals of Chile. We were given a typical Chilean meal (meat from the fire, potatoes and mayo, “salad”, and bread without butter.) Afterwards we had to do to the Cueca (national dance). We drove to a penguin colony and awww the penguins are sooo cute! They weren’t the big penguins that live in Antarctica but they were adorable. Afterwards we drove fully back to Punta Arenas and we were given free time to wander about. Wednesday December 12, 2007
Boat tour early in the morning! It was supposed to be a 7 hour boat tour (to go see the glaciers) but it turned out to be only three. The boats have to go in pairs as it is too dangerous to go solo. The exchange kids were in one boat and a bunch of old people were in the other. It was incredibly wavy and we all had grand fun standing outside getting soaked and almost tipping over. Only two people were sick on our boat. BUT apparently on the other boat everyone was sick and collapsing so we had to turn around and go back. We then drove three hours to go to a remote, remote, remote farm house (in plan to go see the glaciers). We sang all the way. There was honestly nothing around and I have no idea how these people got their food. We ate a good meal but it started to rain. When we went outside there was rather sad news that two boys who had been lost in the mountains for a month and half had been found dead. There were news people around. We went for a walk but it started raining hard. The head rotary woman decided that we couldn’t go see the glaciers so we drove back to Puerto Natales. We went to a craft fair. It was Vilma’s birthday so we had a party for her until 1 in the morning. Lots of singing and dancing in the dining room. This trip really restores personality. When you are stripped of your language you are stripped of your personality.
Tuesday December 11, 2007
Up early and drove three hours to the national park: Torres Del Paine. It’s gorgeous! The water of the lakes there is this amazing blue color which is apparently…if I’m not mistaken due to the amount of calcium in it. It’s also very salty and cold. You will die in 4 minutes if you go in it. We drove to various spots and went hiking to a waterfall. Afterwards we ate in a restaurant on the side of the road with the most wonderful view of a glacier. There we sang songs and played guitar. Afterwards we drove to the icebergs (we drove a lot!) The icebergs were suppperrrr. It was so windy that we could push ourselves towards the wind and stand up. We went for a hike around the icebergs (which are also bluer than I expected due to how compact the ice particles are). Had dinner at the hotel and then we were allowed to go out until 12:30 AM. Just walked around the “city”.
Monday December 10, 2007
Woke up at 4:30 and sleepily got on the bus. Drove to Santiago and arrived at 7. Our plane was super delayed and we didn’t end up boarding until about 10. We arrived there at 1 and we were met by our tour guide who we called “Tio John” or… “Uncle John” (keep in mind that he is 20). We stopped for lunch at a hotel in Punta Arenas and then drove about 3 hours to go hiking and visit a cave where mylodons and other pre-historic animals lived. We drove about ½ hour to Puerto Natales where our hotel was. We were allowed to have free time until midnight so I went out with my chums to go play on the playground and explore.
Sunday December 9, 2007
The kids who aren’t going on the trip went back to their respective cities and we all hung out for the whole day. We found out what we had to bring on the trip (thanks for telling us the day before!) and they gave us our monthly allowance! *hurrah!*
Saturday December 8, 2007
Today was the infamous testing day…ahhh! In the morning we had to speak for about 5 minutes each…which actually turned into about 15 minutes each after questions and thinking. That took all morning and a large part of the afternoon. There are about 30 kids in district 4320. Afterwards we had our “audio” test and they read us a paragraph super quickly and we had to answer questions. After that we had to write about three pages in 20 minutes about our exchange year. It was a long day and afterwards we had to perform the talent show until 1 in the morning! We ended up getting 3rd place! Yey! And I passed all my tests!! Hurrah!
Friday December 7, 2007
Traveling! Got to the bus station at 11:30 where Renato (my counselor) was waiting for us. He had our bus tickets ready. The bus was supposed to arrive at 12:30 but ended up arriving at 1:30. Sometimes I miss American punctuality. All of the La Serena kids joined up with two kids from Ovalle (about 45 minutes away) and three other kids from Copiapo (four hours north). We all jumped on the bus and away we went. The bus ride was about 6 hours long and we arrived in Ville Alemana (two hours from Santiago) at about 7:30. We arrived at the orientation center very hungry but we weren’t allowed to eat until 9. Everyone was really happy to see one another.
Thursday December 6, 2007
Today I got together with the exchange girls: Heidi, Kelsey, Kate, and Nynne. We met at the music school and went into the center to buy random things we needed for the trip (snacks!). Afterwards we went to Nynne’s apartment to practice our dance for the orientation talent show. We are doing a dance to “Stop” by the Spice Girls. Ahhahahaha.
Wednesday December 5, 2007
Resting for the trip south!!!
Tuesday December 4, 2007
Went to the beach with Heidi and her friends. It turned out that Naty and Maka (school friends) were at Maka’s swank apartment using the pool. We went over there and relaxed. Today I got my first sunburn : (
Monday December 3, 2007
Hanging out with Naty. Singing and such.
Sunday December 2, 2007 Went to go see car racing today. My host dad thought it would be highly entertaining but both of us found it rather dull. Afterwards we went for ice cream as usual. Saturday December 1, 2007 Today was a comedy of errors. I tried to meet up with my friend Estefano to go to the beach but unfortunately I hopped on the wrong colectivo. I ended up in the center with a 45 minute walk ahead of me. I tried to call Estefano to call him and tell him but my minutes decided to die out just then. So off I walked…when I got to his house, guess what?!?! He had gone in a colectivo looking for ME! So I waited 45 more minutes until he got back to his house by which point we decided to not go to the beach. I went to go see “The infection” (I think!?) with Nynne.
Friday November 30, 2007
First day of summer vacation! I went to the center to run some errands and afterwards I went to Estefano’s graduation. I was the only one of the exchange students to show up so it was a little awkward- not too awkward…just enough. It was very “touching” and they played lots of slow music (a similar affair to the thing that happened at my school). Afterwards we walked back to his house with some friends who had also graduated. We were supposed to go out to a disco but that didn’t happen so we stayed at his house watching Teleton until 2:30 in the morning. Everyone was sobbing. Teleton is a fundraiser for children who have disabilities.
Thursday November 29, 2007
Apparently my last day of school! I didn’t know it….well I did bring my camera and got some sweet pics. They cooked hot dogs on our solar cooker today.
Wednesday November 28, 2007
Math test today. We’ll see how it went. Math is weird and different here. I managed to get a 4.4 on a history test and a 4.3 on a PSU (their version of the SAT) practice test….so…I’m just passing! : )
Tuesday November 26, 2007
Today we shared our projects in art with the kindergarden kids. The assignment was to make a diorama of a famous story or movie. I did “Monsters INC” and they loved it! They wanted to take it back to their classroom along with some selected others. Of course I gave it to them. It made my day.
Monday November 25, 2007
Today was the last Monday and we didn’t have gym class sine we had the sports day over the weekend. Naty and I took the bus to her house where we chilled for a little. Her sister gave me a t-shirt for voting for her so many times (she was running for “miss six days” at the motorcycle competition and she won). Naty is trying to hatch eggs so we looked at them for a little while. We played the “YMCA” theme song by the village people. I explained what the YMCA was to Naty.
Sunday November 25, 2007 First day at the beach! It was wonderful. A perfect day. I met up with Heidi and Arden at the beach. Arden had found a bike in the middle of a field and used it to get to the beach. Heidi and Arden went swimming and Arden got stung by a jellyfish. Our friends Preston, Nynne, and Mathias (from my school) and his friends showed up too. We were on the beach for a long time just having a good time…thinking of all our freezing friends in the Northern Hemisphere ; )