I think of my exchange year in three distinct parts: Part One lasted from August to December. I went to school during those months. I got to know my family and the language and got comfortable with both of them. Part Two was summer, December to March. I traveled a lot with my host family, I became comfortable navigating Santiago by myself. It was hot. This week, I start Part Three, the part that ends with my return to the United States. I returned to school today, March 4th, and to the structure and work that comes with it. And on Saturday, March 7th, I will be switching host families.
Every student in my District was supposed to switch families between Christmas and the New Year, and most of them did. Due to some confusion on Rotary's end, I did not, and here I am, more than two months later, sitting tight with my first host family. I had just started to let myself hope that no one would say anything and I wouldn't need to switch, so I am a little disappointed. I have been with this family for six and a half months, and I feel like part of the family. That being said, the second family is very nice and I'm sure we will get along well. By some crazy bit of good fortune, my second host family is only a few houses down the road from where I live now. I don't think you can understand how remote the chances of that are unless you are involved with Rotary. Most of my friends moved to completely different parts of this huge city.
The night before last, at about 3:00 am, a volcano in Villarica erupted. This is the volcano's first big eruption in 30 years. I was nowhere near it when it happened, but I was there in
October. The town that I stayed in, Pucon, was evacuated in the middle of the night. I just figured that I should cover this since a few people have already asked me about it.
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| A real picture of the volcano erupting last night |
My last post was about all the
weird things I've eaten in Chile. I should have waited just a couple of weeks, because I could have added sea urchin to the list. It was not good. Chileans say it gets better each time you try it,and to that I say it's not worth it.
On a different note, the month of February was a month of vacation (photos below). Well, three weeks of vacation would be more accurate. We spent a week at Lake Rapel, which is a couple hours south of here, and then two weeks at a beach a couple hours north of here (here being Santiago). I jet-skied for the first time in Lake Rapel, where I also did lots of kayaking and attempted wind-surfing. I didn't do anything much more exciting than sleep while we were at the beach. These three weeks were like Spanish boot-camp. For the first week, thirty of us were staying in one house. That is not an exaggeration. The house was massive, though, so that helped. The second two weeks were more relaxed, but I was still craving some English by the time we got back to Santiago.
Photos from Vacation 2/2015
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| The house in Rapel |
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| Jet skiing |
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| Windsurfing |
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| I did better on land |
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| The kind of place that charges you 60 cents to enter, gives you five squares of single-ply, and asks you to return what you don't use. |
