Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Despedida de los Cuartos (Farewell to the Seniors)



In Chile, they combine prom with an all-night graduation party called "La despedida de los cuartos" and mine was last Friday night. It is essentially a prom, but they have it as a graduation celebration for the seniors and the juniors--technically--are the ones who throw the party for the seniors, so the seniors go for free and the juniors pay for themselves and for a senior. The party started at 10 PM and went until 4 or 5 AM (I left "early" at 3:45 AM).


I went to the hairdresser's with my friend Cata and went back to her house until our friends Vale and Vale (both are named Valentina, a very popular name here) picked us up and drove us to the centro to the building where we were having the despedida. Unlike in the US, there are no huge pre-prom parties where all the friends go to one house to take lots of pictures beforehand, we took most of ours on location before the doors opened.



Once we got inside, all the teachers passed out alcoholic cocktails to all the students (even though you are supposed to be over 18 to drink and all the juniors are under 18) to toast to the seniors. After an hour-long "cocktail" we went to have dinner where they had some version of scalloped potatoes and steak with gravy. Even though they couldn't compare with my grandmother's scalloped potatoes, I was still ecstatic because it is one of my favorite dishes that I have never seen here before.

I spent most of the rest of the night dancing to reggaeton, which is all that they dance to here in Chile, like a latin version of hip-hop. Although it was a very different dancing setup because in the USA kids usually dance in clusters with their friends, all in a circle and so it doesn't really matter if you don't have a "partner" because everyone is all bunched together anyways.




But in Chile, it is REALLY strange not to dance with a partner (usually boy-girl but it's okay for a girl to dance with a girl). And since kids still want to dance close to their friends, 2 parallel lines end up forming of couples dancing instead of clusters all smushed together like you see in the U.S.

Monday, November 17, 2008

RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Weekend

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

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Santiago!





<-- Plaza de Armas in Santiago








This past weekend was a long weekend and I went to Santiago with my host dad's family and Nacho. It was amazing! We stayed in my host dad's father's house, who lives in the northeast corner of the city, and we arrived at about midnight on Thursday (or...technically Friday?) and Tata Miguel (my host dad's father) had a whole spread of bread, cheese, ham, and hot drinks laid out for us and even though everyone was exhausted, we stayed up until 3 AM talking and eating.


On Friday we drove an hour to go to the zoo and spent a few hours there walking around, looking at all the animals. We went to an animal show around 3 PM and the hawk that they were showing took off and flew RIGHT OVER MY HEAD! Thank God his foot was securely fastened with a cord otherwise he could have easily terrorized the whole audience!


On Saturday all of us except Tata Miguel went to Santiago center to go sightseeing, including my host dad's 2 little kids, 4-year-old José Miguel and 18-month-old Josefa. Without a stroller. Which meant that my poor host dad had to carry a hefty 18-month-old around Santiago and refused me every time I offered to carry her for a little bit so that he could rest. Since it was their Labor Day, Santiago was much emptier than usual (therefore much more conducive to touring with small children).



First we went to La Moneda (a.k.a. the Chilean White House). The weird thing about La Moneda is that it is right in the center of downtown Santiago and there is very minimal security compared to the White House--you only have to present your bag to a guard and have him pass a metal detector wand over you to pass through the courtyards that lie inside La Moneda.


Our next stop was the Supreme Court where all Chilean lawyers are sworn in after passing the bar exam. Because it was a holiday, we had the entire Supreme Court to ourselves!


After taking a small snack break and buying Josefa a new shirt to change into (because her old one had french fries and ketchup all over it) we visited the Cathedral and the Plaza de Armas, a truly beautiful place full of street vendors selling paintings and trinkets for tourists. By this time we were all exhausted and the decision to return to Tata Miguel's house for lunch was unanimous.












<-- The Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas






That afternoon while the younger children went with my host dad and his wife to a local park, Tata Miguel took me on a driving tour of "Nuevo Santiago" (New Santiago), a brand new and expanding neighborhood where the up-and-coming Santiago businessmen are building their houses. Nuevo Santiago is to Santiago as Beverly Hills is to Los Angeles, only Nuevo Santiago is in the process of being built. However, I think that Nuevo Santiago has a distinct advantage over Beverly Hills because it is right in the middle of the Cordilleras, the mountain range right next to Santiago.

Sunday morning I made everyone my favorite version of scrambled eggs: sauteed onions with garlic, scrambled eggs, basil, salt, pepper, and cheese. The Chileans had never seen eggs like that before, and were completely fascinated by them. However, I miscalculated and made way too many eggs, but luckily Tata Miguel was able to use my old scrambled eggs in the Chinese rice he made with lunch so they didn't go to waste. After breakfast, we went to Los Dominicos, a beautiful touristy place very close to Tata Miguel's house that consists of a quaint church and a small neighborhood of touristy stores that sell beautiful, quaint Chilean souveniers.