It's Fall, Charlie Brown?

(10/26-20/28) Friday started off swell. I woke up and just went shopping by myself for a little bit in the morning. It was relaxing and I enjoyed it. I picked up snacks on my way back too because I had invited some frien­­­­ds to come over and watch a movie with me later that night. When I got back to the El Oasis house the boys were grilling some meat and asked if I wanted some. Of course I did. It was really chewy though and took forever to eat because of that. Probably not worth the money we all had to pitch in, but it was ok. When lunch was over we headed to a park to practice some soccer for the retreat next weekend. We’re going to play Futbol Flamenco, which is soccer where the girls are on two legs and the boys are on one. It was a lot of fun playing with the other girls and we were out there for about three hours. I took a shower when I got back and started setting up for my movie night with my friends. They were supposed to be here at 8 but since they’re Chilean they got here at about 9. We searched Netflix to find a good movie for like an hour after that. The first movie we watched was called Mr. Brooks and the second movie was 10 Things I Hate About You. Both were pretty good, Mr. Brooks was a little graphic though. During the movies we ate cookies, chips, sour patch watermelons, other fruit candy, popcorn, and drank quite a bit of Sprite. We went to sleep shortly after the movies though because it was 3am in the morning and I just can’t stay up late anymore. I’m getting old fast. Saturday morning the girls left at about 10:30ish and we got ready to go to a birthday party. Phil’s girlfriend Eli was having a surprise birthday party hosted by her sister. It turns out though that the surprise was on us and she had us go to this beautiful tree and find the bag with our name on it. Inside was a handwritten note, cookies with our names, and candy. It was so sweet! It was really pretty too. After that we ate hamburgers which were very tasty, played games, had cake, and just hung out with each other for a few hours. It was fun but I was definitely ready for some downtime. When I got home I wrote some and had a little bit of me time. Later that night a couple of friends from back home Skyped me for like an hour which was really awesome and I enjoyed it a whole lot. I went to bed not too terribly long after that. Sunday I made myself a huge breakfast of pancakes and cheesy scrambled eggs. I spent the rest of the day watching tv, doing laundry, and took a shower. It was my last free day for a very long time so I wanted to soak it up. Katie, Brent and I at about 11 o’clock that night decided to watch It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I ate my cheesecake pumpkin cookies, candy corn, popcorn, and chocolate pretzels. I was getting into the spirit of fall.  I miss Gerogia fall. It’s finally getting really warm here and it’s so weird because I keep thinking it should be fall. It was really fun though. Brent made us watch something really stupid after that which Katie and I did not want to watch but we did it to be supportive. After that we did Insanity and went to bed. 

soccer break

a student braided my hair

my cookie from the "surprise" birthday party

our fall movie extravaganza

Lunch Dates

(10/22-10/25­) This week was jam packed with stuff. I still feel like I haven’t stopped yet and I have more plans for tomorrow! It’s good though. So Monday started off my week pretty well. ­­I met with a student, Camila, for a late lunch. She came over here and the first thing she told me was that she had bought lemons and wanted to make lemonade. So we made lemonade and it was delicious and reminded me of the south. After that I had to make the Donce dessert which she helped with along with Katie. I made banana chocolate chip cake. It was delicious. Anyhow while it was cooking, Cami and I went outside and talked for a while. We also took turns showing each other youtube videos that we loved. It was pretty fun! It was time for our small groups after that so I went to mine and she went to hers. Then Donce started and we ate lasagna and Eli gave the talk. The game was charades and the first team who could finish the card won. We didn’t win but we didn’t lose either and that’s all I care about. Not much more happened that night. Tuesday morning I woke up and cleaned a little. Not too much later I went to lunch with a friend of mine, Cynthia, in Plaza de Armas, which is a big town square. I let her pick the place and she chose a Chinese restaurant. I was actually surprised by how delicious it was. I trust that girl. I went and did a little shopping after that because the restaurant was only a block away from my favorite ferria. When I got back to the El Oasis house, we had our Café a lo Gringo meeting and then our Exchange Student meeting. They both went pretty well, they were just a little longer than usual. When that was over I hung out with a student named Susana and we played music and talked about what we liked about the music. Then I Skyped my parents, it was my dad’s birthday and I wanted to tell him happy birthday all the way from Chile. I stayed up a little later talking to a friend and went to bed after that. Wednesday was awesome. First of all, a few minutes after I woke up, the doorbell rang. David came back inside hauling two packages. Then he called my name and said that both were for me! I got one from my sister and my grandma and one from my aunt and cousins. It was such an incredible way to start off the day. They were both so thoughtful and so very much appreciated. After the excitement of that was over, Katie and I left to go to a Chilean student’s (Carla) house because she invited us to lunch. So we went, which was a pretty complicated trip and it was like an hour away. There was also another Chilean with us, Nani, who also got the invite. The trip was worth it though. We ate this soup that she cooked for us which is a famous kind of soup here and takes a lot of preparation. I can’t remember the name of it. After we ate we went for a walk just around her little neighborhood, it was super cute. When we got back to her house we watched a movie, that wasn’t very good but I take the blame because I picked it. After that her mom drove us to the metro station which was awesome because I hate riding the bus. When we got off at our metro station, I ran inside the first store we passed to buy milk and bread so I could use things from my packages. I made pancakes from my sister’s package and I made a peanut butter sandwich with the package from my aunt’s. Then I talked to yet another friend from home. It was obviously a good day. Thursday I woke up and went to staff meeting. When staff meeting was over, Eli asked me if I would like to go to Lider with her to shop for Tertulia. So I went with her along with her brother Jorge. It was really fun shopping, they’re both really fun to be around. When we got back I ate my lunch and then had a Skype date with a friend back home. This week I have talked to more people from the United States than I have the entire time of me being here. I liked it though because I got to catch up on the lives of my friends and that’s important. Anyhow, after that Skype date was over I made the brownies for Tertulia. Then we started getting ready for Café a lo Gringo. This Café was restaurant themed and each table had to make a plate of food. My table won and it was really awesome looking. Tertulia started after that and the dinner was this pasta stuff. It was pretty good. Tertulia was awesome. The band played really well and Frizz gave the last talk on the Our Father series about temptation, which I understood most of. After that I just played around the house with some students until they had to leave. Then I ate some brownies that I had made and added peanut butter. It was delicious and a great ending to a great week. 

my delicious package dinner

the food my table made at Cafe a lo Gringo

my table from Cafe a lo Girngo

Eli just thinks she's so funny :)

Singing and Walking

(10/19-10/21) Interesting enough I woke up Friday with an eye infection. It wasn’t pink eye but half of my left eye was bloodshot red. I decided it would be a good idea to wear my glasses for a few days and buy some eye drops. Not much happened during the day Friday so I read and watched Dr. Who for a little while. Then we started getting ready for Open Mic. Open Mic is an event they have here once a semester where the students can showcase their talent whether it be singing, playing guitar, dancing, or reading poetry. Frizz hosted is as Spandex Man, it was pretty funny. I had three acts during the evening. I did a song with Katie, I did a song with Claudia, and I did a dance with a few other girls in El Oasis. It was really fun. Some other acts included the Backstreet Boys, Adele, and Jeremy Camp. There were a lot more songs in English than there were in Spanish, but I thought the Spanish songs were really pretty. Anyhow it lasted about three hours and everyone had a blast. After it was over I Skyped my parents for a little while and then I met up with a group at Guaton which is my favorite restaurant. I decided not to buy food though because I had eaten there twice this week. We got back to the house and I went to sleep. Saturday was pretty awesome. I had made plans to meet a student for lunch, her name is Natty Meli. I met her in the metro station, which was complicated place to meet someone because it was huge, and we walked to a fairly nearby restaurant. We decided Italian food would be good so she led the way to this pretty fancy restaurant. It was delicious though and I really enjoyed it. I will be going back there. It was ironic though because as Natty Meli pointed out we were in an Italian restaurant in Chile and they were playing Mexican music. Pretty funny. Anyhow, at lunch we talked about our mission work. She spent the summer in Kenya, Africa with a program called Reach. It’s like Globalscope but just for the summer and there are a ton more locations for Reach. It was really cool hearing about her experience. After that she asked if I wanted to go check out some museums, which of course I did. We went to three different museums and all were very different. The first one was about art and didn’t have a whole lot because they were switching exhibits, it was pretty though. The second one was a Memorial Museum and it was really sad because I learned about the torture and how people were treated under the dictatorship and how people were violated on a daily basis. It was a beautiful museum, just extremely sad. The third museum was a history museum and it walked you through the forming of the earth and plants. It was really neat! It also showed a bunch of old animals, and a bunch of Chilean animals I had never seen. After that we decided to walk to this park that had a bunch of clothes for sale. I found a UGA shirt and just started laughing. There’s always a bunch of random American clothes. Then we walked all the way back to Plaza de Armas looking for a music played for Natty because hers broke a couple of weeks ago. Then we walked to the subway and said our goodbyes. We spent about 8 hours walking the city and had to have walked over 15 miles. It was great though and I really enjoyed getting to know her. I understood about 80% of our conversations too which was awesome. Once I got home I had just enough time to eat a sandwich and then Katie and I had to go to a friend’s (Katy’s) birthday party. I was pretty exhausted after all that walking but I had to push on. We got to the place around 10:30 and it was this restaurant with about 20 other of Katy’s friends. We were pretty crammed around this table. WE sat there talking until about 12:30 and that’s when the music started and so did the dancing. By this time I was ready to fall asleep standing up. After an hour of dancing I was pretty dead so Katie and I decided to leave. It was really fun though. We walked home and went to sleep. Sunday I woke up at 12:30pm which was pretty impressive for me, I think I was beyond worn out. It rained almost all day so I didn’t get the chance to go out. I did laundry, watched some Netflix, and did some design work for my mom. Katie and I watched a movie that night and then I wrote some letters and read a little. It was a pretty good do nothing day and a pretty good weekend. 

 

Katie and I singing "We're Going To Be Friends" by the While Stripes

Claudia and I singing "We Found Love" by Rhianna

our group dancing

the second part of our dance!

Cooking for the Masses

(10/15-10/18) Monday I woke up and immediately started cooking. I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to cook the staff lunch to show my appreciation to them. I cooked homemade French fries, cheesy cheddar garlic biscuits, hamburgers, and brownies. It took three hours to make all of that, but they seemed to really appreciate it which was awesome. They kept thanking me all day. After that I took a quick nap on the couch and then woke up to cook the dessert for Donce. They were supposed to be cookies, but something went wrong and I blame the recipe. Anyhow they pretty much stayed in a liquid state and wouldn’t bake all the way through. I talked to Claudia about it and she came up with the genius plan of getting ice cream and letting the chocolate mess be the topping. It was perfect. David cooked the dinner which was this chicken cheesy rice stuff that was fairly delicious. During the talk I was scooping ice cream so I have no idea what it was about. After dessert, I got my prize for winning the game from last week along with the rest of my team. After that we played this week’s game which was really hard. You had to blow darts in a cup across the table. Our team only got two, but thankfully one team didn’t get any so we didn’t lose. Yay! I took a shower and went to bed shortly after Donce was over. Not a whole lot happened on Tuesday. I woke up and went to the post office to mail a few letters. I grabbed lunch and then went to a Bible study with Frizz and two other students. I understood stood and then I had to read some which was hard but I did it. They corrected me a lot but it was good. After that some girls came over because we are doing a little choreographed danced for Open Mic this Friday and we needed to practice. That took well over two hours but it was fun. When that was over we did our Exchange Student Meeting and our Café a lo Gringo Meeting. Both were good. Katie and I made pancakes for dinner. Katie used vegetable oil instead of butter so it tasted really weird. It was good though. There was a big soccer game on so we watched it with all the guys. Chile lost to Argentina but it was a good game. I went to bed not too long after that. Wednesday Katie and I went to the market and on the way we found this little chocolate store we’ve never noticed before. We went in and I bought a little bag of chocolates which I later shared with everyone in the house. The market wasn’t very crowded which was good and makes shopping a lot easier. When we got back I started reading Blue Like Jazz and that’s what I spent about 5 hours of my day doing and I finished the book. I just wanted to read. There wasn’t a lot going on in the house so it was better than wasting time on the internet. The night was pretty dull and Eli, Katie, and I all sat on our computers with our headphones in working on various tasks. I took a shower and went to bed early although I didn’t sleep very well. Thursday I woke up and went to staff meeting like usual. I didn’t do whole lot during the day. I ate, read, wrote, watched Netflix, and got ready for Café a lo Gringo. I also practiced a song because they asked me to do the cover band that night. Café started around 6 and it was really fun. The first game was a spelling bee and some of the students were really good and some were not so good but it was a learning experience. The second game was charades and it was pretty funny. They had to act out daily tasks like brushing teeth, riding a bike, shopping, etc. Tertulia started after that and we ate pizza for dinner which was really good. I did the cover song by the Weepies called World Spins Madly On and I’m not sure how it went because I couldn’t hear myself. Everyone seemed to like it though. After that the band played which I always love and Brent gave the talk. It was the part about forgiveness in the whole Our Father who art in heaven prayer. What was really awesome was that Kamilio (the student who recently got in a bar fight and got his throat cut) got up and talked about why forgiveness was so hard for him. The students left pretty soon after Tertulia was over and not much else happened that night. 

the lunch I prepared everyone

the cookies I tried to make

me singing at Tertulia