This past weekend I went to RYLA in Las Mellizas, which is an upscale campground (our cabins accomodated 7 people and were equipped with a full kitchen and living area) just over an hour south of Chillán. All the exchange students in my district went as well as any Chileans who were involved in Rotary programs or were interested in being exchange students. Our bus left Chillán at 9 AM on Saturday morning and when we got to Las Mellizas at 10:15 it was already burning hot. We relaxed for about half an hour, had a little something to eat and drink and got situated in our cabins and then it was nonstop activities until 11 PM that night.
We divided into alianzas (teams) and competed against each other in various teambuilding games and activities. As you can see, my team was red (rojo) and they passed out square pieces of red material for us to wear...we look a little bit like girl scouts.In between said activties we had charlas which according to the name (meaning discussion) were supposed to be interactive presentations about ROTARACT and INTERACT and YEP (Youth Exchange Program) and leadership, but they were like us fighting off sleep in a conference room while Rotarians gave PowerPoint presentations.
Even though the activities and the charlas weren't the most fun, I still had a great time hanging out with all the other exchange students and meeting Chilean teenagers from the area.
Here I am with two other American exchange students on Saturday night. After our dinner (at like 10 PM) ended, we all trekked back to the cabins and hung out. Taylor (CT) is living in Los Angeles and Kasey (AZ) is with me in Chillán.
I went to bed on the early side, like 3 AM but some of the boys told me the next morning that they went to sleep at 4:45 AM. This wouldn't be THAT bad, only our activities started again the next morning with breakfast--at 8:30 AM.
Unfortunately, my alianza didn't win the competition, the alianza amarilla (yellow team) won. However, one of the activities that we had to do in our teams was come up with a service project and the Rotarians voted on which one they would support and try to make a reality and my team won! We suggested that Rotary help build a playground for kids ages 2--18 in Santa Bárbara (a city near Los Angeles) equipped with a junglegym, basketball courts and soccer fields.
Me and another exchange student from New York named Emily (she lives in Los Angeles here) We were supposed to be listening to a presentation, but we got a little bored and decided to take pictures instead haha-->
After lunch it was time to say goodbye and we ended up getting home at like 5 PM. I went home and talked to my mom for a while and then we went for a 45 minute walk just chatting it was really nice :D
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