Ice Cream for Lunch

(11/12-11/15) Well I’ve realized that there’s only three more weeks of everything left, very sad thought. The time has flown so very fast, it’s incredible. Back to my week of events. Monday I didn’t really do anything. I mailed my last letters which was exciting. I also did a little grocery shopping for the first time in about three weeks. When I got back I cooked the dessert really early which was snickerdoodles and then cleaned the mess up. Eventually some students came over a little early so I hung out with them. Two students thought it would be funny to draw earrings on me since my ears aren’t pierced so I let them. I thought it was kind of funny too. After that the small groups started and it was pretty good. Then Donce started and we had this pasta stuff that was awesome. A student named Mauri gave his testimony which was good, but I didn’t really understand a lot of it. Mauri is a cool guy who has a physical handicap. He’s stuck in a wheelchair and doesn’t have complete control over his motor skills. He is precious though. After that I played ping-pong for a while with some students and then everyone left. Tuesday was a pretty neat day. That morning I woke up and pretty much left with Claudia to go to a girls group that are discussion stories of the Bible of strong women. There were about 6 of us there and we ate leftover pasta from Donce and Claudia bought a bunch of ice cream and cookies for dessert. I understood everything even the parts I had to read before hand in Spanish. It was really awesome though just being able to hang out with some girls from the ministry. When I got back home we had our Café a lo Gringo meeting and our Exchange Student Meeting that both went well. After that I played ping-pong with my friend Koke for a while. Then Eli came and got us because she wanted help making the announcement video so we went with her. I had a part in it where I had to say this one word several times and I could not, for the life of me, pronounce or remember the word. It was a blast though hanging out and making it. It took about 2 hours. When we got back Koke and I played more ping-pong and then he listened to me while I read in Spanish. He helps me practice so we’ve been reading this book for a while two chapters at a time. He’s a great guy. He left after that and then I went to bed. Wednesday was awesome. First I went to the fresh fruit and vegetable stand that I have been neglecting for about a month. I bought so much that I was worried it wouldn’t fit in my backpack. But it did, it was just insanely heavy. After that I went to meet a student named Caroline for lunch. Caroline is the student who got baptized on the Retreat a couple of weeks ago. We met at two and then I let her pick the place to eat lunch. She picked ice cream and I was very happy about it. We went to this huge ice cream place called Bravissimo. We both ordered this huge sundae with a brownie, bon-bons, little white chocolate bars, and three scoops of ice cream. It was delicious and I didn’t feel guilty at all. After that we walked around to several parks, stopping and having conversations along the way. Eventually we wound up at the Santa Lucia market and just walked around window shopping. We also hit two other markets along the way just hanging out and talking. On the way back I went and bought a new toothbrush and toothpaste and Caroline showed me the cheapest place to do that. It was about 9 o’clock and we were both tired from walking so much so we decided to go home. Once I got home I made dinner, watched some Netflix, chatted with some friends online, and then I went to bed. Thursday I went to staff meeting in the morning like usual. Then I made a huge fruit salad with all of my stuff from the market that I shared with all the staff. I hung out with Eli while she worked on the video and I worked on my Café a lo Gringo stuff. Then I did my chore, made my brownies, and got ready for Café to start. There weren’t a lot of people at Café but it was still good. Phil started with grammar time and then we played my game which was Mad Libs. I created stories where they had to fill in nouns and adjectives and adverbs and verbs. It was pretty funny hearing them read it. Once that was over Brent’s game was having the students read a song being very dramatic…which was hilarious! The best group had the song Baby by Justin Beiber. Tertulia started after that and we had hotdogs for dinner which was good. I did the cover band with Katie and a student named Camila and we did karaoke to Call Me Maybe. It was so ridiculous it was funny. Frizz gave the talk about what happened after Adam and Eve ate the apple and how it affects us today. It was pretty good. The band was pretty awesome too. Then we watched the announcement video that was hilarious because I couldn’t pronounce that one word. Once that was over I hung out with the students. After a while I went and played around the world ping-pong with some of the guys which was fun. Then Koke wanted me to be his partner again Abraham and Katie. It was intense. Koke is so competitive. They won the first game but we won the two after that making us the winners. Which I love winning so I was ok with that. After that everyone left and then I Skyped my friend Aubri after that was pretty exciting because I hadn’t seen or heard her voice since September. So we talked for about three hours and then I passed out. Good week! 

me and Susana

my earrings

me being super cute

me with Pulpa and Ruth, my favorite sisters!

haha me and Camila

Fantasilandia!

(11/9-11/11) This weekend was a pretty exciting one. Friday a student and I went out to lunch at a restaurant called J. Cruz where I tried chorrillana for the first time. Chorrillana is French fries with eggs, onions, and steak on top of it. It’s delicious. I could have eaten the whole plate by myself but I was sharing. I was meeting with a student because she needed help making a video for class interviewing someone in English. She asked me to help her come up with questions and then asked to interview me on camera. I said of course I would help her. Their English accents are so cute, I hope I sound cute with my Spanish accent. So that took about three hours in total. When we finished my friend Koke was at the house so we went and played ping-pong for about an hour or so. Eventually I needed to take a break and laid down on the couch where I apparently fell asleep for about an hour. When I woke up Eli and Jorge said they were going to the store to pick some stuff up at the market to make pizzas that night because a few people were coming over for pizzas and a movie. They told me I was going with them so I did, I love them very much, my family here. When we got back it was about 8:30 so we started cooking the pizzas and the people started trickling in. We sat around talking until about 1am when they decided that was the time to start the movie. I let them use my Netflix but went to bed around 2am because I was exhausted and Saturday was a big day. What was so big about Saturday you ask? Well I went to Fantasilandia, basically their version of Wild Adventures Theme Park. It was awesome though! Except we ended up waiting over an hour for everyone to get to the designated meeting location before hand, that’s Chilean time for you. I rode so many roller coasters and got to hang out with 6 El Oasis students (Carla, Ruth, Kevin, Koke, Moises, and Katie) all day. It was about $16 to get into the park which the students thought was expensive but compared to the US it was so cheap. Also the food in the park was really cheap comparatively. I ate a hamburger, large fry, and a large drink for less than $10. I was impressed. The rides were pretty awesome too. There was one that spun you upside down and then shot water in your face, it was weird but I liked it. It was the perfect day too, sunny with the high of 74, but the whole theme park was decorated for Christmas. It was so strange! There was even a parade with Santa Claus. They don’t have Thanksgiving to celebrate so right after Halloween they go straight to Christmas. We were in the park for about 7 hours and I wasn’t bored for a minute! It was such an awesome day. We got back to the house around 9 that night and then I played ping-pong with the guys for a little bit. Then when they left Katie and I played ping-pong for a little while. It was fun but I was pretty freaking tired so I showered and went to bed after that. Sunday was pretty awesome too. A student (Koke) had invited me to go to church with him so I took him up on his offer. Their pastor is a guy from the US so his Spanish was really easy for me to understand. Plus they had a visiting pastor from the US who didn’t know Spanish so we got to hear the sermon in English and in Spanish, it was very cool. After the service, Koke invited me to his house for lunch. I don’t pass up on free food. So I went. Koke and I hung out while his dad finished cooking lunch. The lunch was awesome though. It was like a cheesy zucchini casserole thing that was awesome and french fries. It was cool being able to talk to his dad and brother at lunch and understand what they were saying to me. Some days this language just clicks in my head and some days it’s harder. Luckily I was having a good day. His mother was at work so I didn’t get to meet her. After lunch Koke and I played Guess Who for a little while. Then he showed me his most prized collection, his movies. He was so happy that I went through all of them. He had a lot! It was about 3 by then so I decided to head back home. Plus he lives an hour+ away from El Oasis. When I got back I did laundry and ate beef jerky and sour watermelons while watching some Netflix show. I relaxed the rest of the day and it felt good. What a great weekend!

my delicious chorrillana

our group at Fantasilandia!

Fantasilandia!!!

giant swings

captured

me being angry at Christmas decorations

Pancakes and Mary

(11/5-11/8) Monday I woke up at about 1:30 in the afternoon. In my defense, that retreat wore me out, plus I did wake up at 10:30 to eat breakfast and then went back to sleep. Anyhow, not much happened on Monday. I ate and watched tv with Eli, both of us still in our pajamas. After a while the staff came over and had their meeting at like 4pm and Jorge came over so he walked with me to get lunch. I went to El Guaton, my favorite restaurant here. My friend Koke came over later and we practiced Spanish and English together and then we played ping pong for about an hour. That night instead of the usual event (Donce) we had Doncine. The staff knew after the retreat they didn’t want to have to plan and get a bunch of stuff together so a few students came over and we watched a movie called In Time. When the movie was over we got into groups of about 4 students and talked about the movie. It was pretty cool. Tuesday I went to lunch with Eli at Barcelona. I really wanted steak and fries but they were out and I was sad. After that I just hung around for a while reading and uploading pictures and stuff like that. That night I took two students out to dinner with me, Susana and Cynthia. We went to this cool restaurant called Por Amor al Arte (for the love of art). Me and Susana had gone once before and just loved it so we took Cynthia this time. It’s such a cute place, everything in it is for sale and the food is pretty good. It had so many cool art pieces I could have stayed in there all night. Wednesday was probably the most eventful day. Katie and I decided to climb San Cristobal and it was fun. A little hot but I prefer this heat to GA humidity any day. So we climbed and hung out at the top for a bit and then climbed down. On the way back to the house we stopped by a Lider to pick up a few things for dinner because we had invited a few students over for dinner that night. After Lider I spotted a student sitting on a bench waiting for the bus so we went over and talked to her until her bus came and then we made our way back to the house. I showered and hung out a little. I got a text about an hour before we were supposed to start cooking with the students we had invited that said they wouldn’t be able to come over. It was sad, but randomly there were two students here practicing for their cover band, Ruth and Pulpa who are sisters. We asked them if they would want some dinner and they said yes. So the four of us went down stairs and started cooking pancakes! It was awesome we made 6 different types of pancakes: plain, chocolate chip, banana, nutella, peanut butter, and manjar (which is kind of like caramel). They were all pretty delicious. We watched a movie while eating the pancakes called Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist which I had probably seen about 10 times but it was still fun. They helped us clean up after and then I went to sleep. Thursday was an awesome day too. I was sitting in the living room watching tv when Carla walked through the door. Carla is one of the girls we invited for pancakes but sent me that text saying she couldn’t make it. She came bearing gifts for me. She brought me lunch, KFC. It was so sweet! We ate together and watched the Princess Bride. That was the best. I had to start my chores a little after that so I cooked my brownies and printed everything for Café a lo Gringo. Then we set up for Café a lo Gringo and then, obviously, started Café a lo Gringo. This week’s theme was questions, how to form the questions, how to ask questions, and how to answer questions. My game was Bingo and it went really well. The whole Café went pretty well and after that Tertulia started. We started a new series this week about the world how it began and how it will end. So this week was on the Creation. I don’t know why, but it was very hard for me to keep my eyes open. Afterwards I went around taking pictures for a while until the ping pong table was free. When it became free I played with Koke and after three games I finally won one! It was so awesome and I was very excited. Then everyone had to leave because of the metro. I went to bed shortly after that. 

me and Mary

all the pancake mixes

pancake group

final product

me and Koke and my new shirt!

Carla and Cami playing Bingo!

Retiro de los Sexos!!!

(11/2-11/4) Well this weekend El Oasis went on a Retreat! I can’t remember the name of the place but it was about 4 ½ hours south of Santiago. Let’s start with Friday though. I woke up early to go grocery shopping with Claudia, Eli, and Amy. It took about two hours to shop for 70 people for 3 days. I think there were about 6 grocery carts full of food. When I got back I finished packing. Then I went to lunch with Amy at an empanada place. When we got back students were starting to arrive with all of their stuff. Not too much later the buses arrived and we loaded up and moved out. I slept a little on the bus, but not very much. My job was to go around and make everyone introduce themselves. I about lost my voice yelling everyone’s answers. We played a few games too and after that I sat with a student and we listened to music the rest of the trip. When we got to the place I immediately had to help in the kitchen cooking dinner. My job was dicing tomatoes and it took forever! The dinner was actually hotdogs so we diced tomatoes and smashed some avocados because that is how Chileans eat hotdogs, along with some mayo. After dinner we played a game which I don’t know the name of but my CCF plays it on retreats as well. I was partners with Carla and we came in third place. After that we had a dance competition which was very very tiring. They would play four whole songs and then eliminate only four teams…and there were 40 teams! Abraham and I got out on the second round but I’m pretty sure both of us wanted it. When that was over everyone just kind of did their own thing. I hung out with some girls who started doing karaoke and dancing. I probably made a complete fool of myself for over two hours but it was a blast. I went to bed around 4am. I woke up at 8 to go help with breakfast like I was told to do but of course it was only me. Two other students walked in pretty soon after me so we just went ahead and did everything ourselves. It was too much work because it was cereal and milk but there were only 20 bowls and we had 70 people. As soon as people were done eating we had to immediately wash their bowl so the next person would have something to eat on. It was all good. After that we had our first talk of the weekend. I’m not going to lie, it was my least favorite part. This husband and wife talked about sex which was fine but the guy talked so fast that even the students were having trouble catching what he was saying. I hardly understood anything and it lasted two hours. The music before and after was really awesome though. Then the girls got together and worked on our dance that we were going to do at the beginning of our soccer game. Apparently the boys and the girls perform a dance before the epic match. Then we ate lunch and got ready for the game, all the girls got decked out in black and pink and just started pumping each other up. Some background on this game, the competition started in 2009 and the boys have won every single time. So we really wanted to win. I started in the game and my primary job was defense. So I had to be extra aggressive. For everyone who knows me, that wasn’t very hard. I knocked a lot of guys down and stopped a whole lot of goals. Our whole team worked extra well together. I think I played 45 minutes of the 50 minute game. We played our little hearts out. You know what we got for it? EVERYTHING!!! We won for the first time! ALMORRICAS! It was such a thrill. After our celebration we all ran down to the river to cool off and have a victory swim. The river was absolutely gorgeous. I was also the first goal to jump off of this huge rock. A few boys did it and it looked really fun. You had to climb up the side of the rock and it didn’t seem very high up until you got to the top. It was crazy and a ton of fun. We all got out and took showers. While I was waiting for my shower, I found a huge spider in our cabana. I freaked out and made a boy go in and get it. It freaked me out! Then I showered and went to dinner. I was starving so I ate two good platefuls of pasta. Then we had another talk and again I was pretty lost but I did some journaling and that was good. Afterwards we split the guys and girls up and the girls got to ask the men on the El Oasis staff questions while the guys got to ask the girl members on the El Oasis staff questions. It was pretty cool hearing the questions and the answers. It got done at about 1am and then we went and made a campfire. Everyone was singing and having a great time. Then we made s’mores!! I love s’mores! It was a great time with everyone though and I stayed until about 3:30am and then I was about to fall asleep. In the morning I went to breakfast and ate eggs and an apple. Then we did music and communion. After that a student went and got baptized in the river. It was very beautiful. The band played a couple of songs and it was just really awesome. Then we packed up, cleaned, and headed out. The bus ride back seemed so long because my body was so sore from soccer and I couldn’t get comfortable. We eventually got home and after about an hour everyone had left so I did laundry and watched tv while it dried. Then I slept for a good 11 hours. It was an awesome retreat and I’m so glad I got the chance to experience it. I got to know a lot more about the students and grow closer to everyone. Awesome! 

me and my friend Susana!

our victory swim

the number of goals we scored = 7

campfire

the gorgeous river

Caroline's baptism

Almorricas!