Host Family Switch

So about a week and a half ago I switched host families. I now live with Cristian and Cristina Sepulveda, a really nice couple who live only one street away from my old house. I was so relieved when I found out that they lived in the same neighborhood because my neighborhood is so convenient--I am within walking distance to school, running distance to my gym, and right on the public transportation line.

Cristian is an engineer for a major phone company in Chile, Entel, and Cristina is the co-owner of a local café. Although they work a lot, they are very social. We always eat lunch and dinner together and stay for an hour to two hours at the table, talking. The Sepulvedas are also very active Rotarians, and Cristina is president of the Women's Rotary Club (here the Rotary clubs are segregated by sex). They used to be very active in their church and even though they aren't so involved anymore, they still go regularly and always get together with their group of church friends (sound familiar?).

I was a little nervous on Moving Day because first of all, they changed my moving date about five times because the Sepulvedas were visiting their children in Santiago (their two kids, Tamara and Mati, are 30 and 22 and live in Santiago) and weren't sure of their return date. I finally ended up moving in at 11:30 PM on Sunday, March 8th and was greeted by Cristian. Cristina was still in Santiago, but Cristian made me feel right at home. We ended up talking until 1 AM until I said that I needed to go to sleep since I had school the next day.

But I have settled into life in my new house--their lifestyle really suits me a lot better than my old house, just because they interact a lot more with each other and have a much broader social life. And not much else has changed because I still go to the same school and still have the same activities--only now I get to practice Spanish a lot more because I easily get 2 more hours of Spanish conversation in a day.

Hiking in Las Termas de Chillán!

This past weekend I went hiking with some friends close to Chillán to the Laguna Huemul. I went with my good friends Emil, Claudio, Seba and his friends Cristián (a.k.a. Kuko) and Simón. Claudio's niece, Karla, and her boyfriend Jesús, also came. Seba told us to meet at his house at 12 PM on Saturday, only in true Chilean fashion we didn't leave until 3:15 and drove to Las Termas de Chillán, which are about an hour away.



By the time we got on the trail at 5:30 we didn't have enough daylight left to hike the four hours up to the laguna (pond) so Simón said we would just camp at the refugio. Now, I am thinking that refugio is like a lean-to or something we are going to sleep in, but it's actually this decrepit house that was clearly a handsome mansion in its hayday. So, obviously, we didn't sleep there but in a campsite nearby. On our way to the refugio, we passed through a really cool field of black, volcanic rocks.





Right near the moutain we hiked is Volcán Chillán that is dormant now, but years and years ago it errupted and we walked through its lava trail (lovingly dubbed "Mordor") and saw the immensity of it as we hiked up. The volcanic rocks look insanely cool, exactly like the Mordor depicted in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings.






<-- Mordor from above I was so excited to be camping again!





And my favorite part was that at night we all gathered around the campfire and sang songs along with the old acoustic guitar Claudio brought along. It reminded me of all the 1990s Maholchic family reunions and the experience was completed with marshmallows roasting on the fire (although graham crackers are almost impossible to find here, we didn't have s'mores).





<-- Emil, Seba and Claudio singing by the fire






The next day, we got up and hiked about two hours up to the laguna. Now, this might sound easy, but I assure you it was not. It was a steep climb to the top of the mountain and the way was paved with loose rocks, so one had to be very careful where he put his feet. It also didn't help that we climbed up at the hottest part of the day, around noon.

Just before we got to the pond, we ran into one of Seba's friends, Cristian who was supposed to meet up with us the day before but had never showed up. Apparently he had gotten his act together wayy before us and had taken a bus to Las Termas. He had slept at the pond the night before and was on his way down, assuming that our group decided not to go but quickly turned around and stayed with us that night.

Emil, Claudio and I hiked faster than the others and were the first ones to make it to the pond. As soon as we got there, we jumped in its icy waters--you cannot imagine how refreshing it was!! Half an hour later, the others joined us and we set up camp.







<-- Laguna Huemul




That night everyone was really tired, so we headed to bed much earlier than the previous night, around 10:30 PM and slept soundly (although a little uncomfortably, because if you can believe it, ground is HARD and no one had brought a foam pad). The next morning we had to "move quickly" because we had to hike back down in time to catch the bus back to Chillán.

Before we left however, we squeezed in a hike to this amazing cliff overlooking the pond. It was tricky to climb up--at one point we had to brace our backs against a rock and stick our legs out in front against another rock and shimmy ourselves up. But the view at the top was well worth it, we could see everything from up there.






<--Me, Seba, Emil, Claudio, and Jesús before hiking up the precipice





We were late heading out of camp (surprise! not.) and I was getting worried because the trail coming up was full of loose rocks and very steep, which I knew would not be fun to go down. Luckily for us, just as we were about to leave a guide came up and told us about an alternate route down through the forest that had no rocks and would get us to the town much faster. I was so relieved! The descent still wasn't a piece of cake because the ground was so dry that there was a good inch of loose dirt that would rise in clouds, blinding us and making us cough like hard-core smokers.

Everything turned out well, though. We got down in time to catch a bus back to Chillán. I have to say, I felt bad for everyone else on the bus having to ride an hour back to Chillán with eight dirty, dusty, sweaty teenagers.

The Patagonia--Round Two

On December 29th, I flew back to Punta Arenas to spend three weeks with my friend, Romina Ojeda. Romina was a Rotary exchange student in Plymouth, Mass last year and since my dad was her Rotary coordinator she had come to my house multiple times. We kept in touch and she invited me to spend some of my summer vacation at her house.

<--Romina, her mom Gina and her dad Ovaldo

It was great to go back to Punta Arenas because it is absolutely gorgeous down south and my first trip had been so rushed and crammed full of things and my second visit was much more relaxed. Also, I was speaking in Spanish the entire time because I was hanging out with only Chileans, while in Chillán I see the other exchange students fairly often and we usually speak in English. So while I was down south my Spanish improved even more because Romina's family is very talkative and friendly. Her parents, 28-year-old sister Shol and she live in a cozy house only a fifteen minute walk from Punta Arenas's town center.

For New Year's, we had a midnight family dinner in her house--her brother, Ariel, and his girlfriend also joined us and we had an absurd amount of food ranging from meat to sushi. On New Year's in Chile, everyone generally has a family dinner around midnight and then around 1 or 2 AM people ages 15 to 30 go out and party until 6 or 7 AM. We didn't stay out that late, we came home from Romina's friend's house around 5:30 AM.

In addition to hanging out around Punta Arenas with Romina's friends and family, we went on a few family field trips to places like Monte León, a sheep shearing town founded in 1872 by English settlers that is abandoned now but the original buildings are still standing.

I went with Shol and her boyfriend, José, who actually knew quite a lot about the history of Monte León so it was a little bit like having a guide come with us.

<--José showing us a sheep-shearing factory. These pens are where the newly sheared sheep were held.

We also went to Río Gallegos, Argentina for the afternoon which is only a two and a half hour drive from Punta Arenas, although crossing the Argentinean border took a full hour. The first thing we did in Río Gallegos was go eat brick-oven pizza, which was absolutely delicious. In Chile, the pizza is pretty substandard so it was especially wonderful since it was the first piece of delicious pizza I had had in five months. While Romina's dad went off to the casino to try his luck at the slot machines, I went shopping with Romina's mother for painting supplies (she is an avid oil painter) and books. I bought the book Twilight in Spanish and for the record, it is just as good in Spanish and it is in English.

Another day the Ojeda family took me to see Fuerte Bulnes, a fort built by President Bulnes in the late nineteenth century.

<-- Fuerte Bulnes

<--Suppedly the fort has a clear view of the sea from the North and the South.

It was really cool to walk around this wooden town that didn't only have armories but also day-to-day buildings such as a church, a prison, and commerce building.

My two Danish friends from Chillán, Claudio and Frederick, ended up coming to Punta Arenas a few days before I had to fly back to Chillán and announced they were going to go backpacking in the Torres del Paine mountains for eight days. They didn't have any equiptment, not even hiking boots. So, of course, we spent an afternoon shopping in the centro the day before they went and while we were in a cute café taking refuge from the bitter wind, Claudio turns to me and says, "Jennie! Why don't you come with us to the Torres del Paine??" And after thinking about it for a second, I realized that I had brought my hiking boots and quick-dry clothes to Punta Arenas just in case I were to go hiking. I knew I wouldn't have another chance to do this, so after talking it over with Romina's parents and my parents in the U.S. I decided to go with them and it was incredible!

I could only go for two nights because I had to come back to Punta Arenas to catch my flight, but I got to see the Torres up close at the lookout spot which was amazing.

<--On my way up the mountain

<--Me, Claudio and Frederick at the Torres del Paine lookout! The Torres are the three tower-shaped rocks in the background. This mountain used to be a volcano and after an erruption, the tower-like rocks were pushed up.

It did rain the entire second night and day, but the important thing was that our tent and sleeping bags were nice and dry (trust me, that is imperative for having a good night's sleep). The hikers on the trail were almost all foreigners and the Danes got really excited when we came across a group of 14 Danish hikers because as Denmark only has 5 million people in the whole country, it is quite rare to come across a Dane by chance.



<--One of the rivers we had to cross to get back down the mountain on the second day post-rain. It took an hour and a collaborative effort from 10 hikers from around the world to lay logs across so we could cross.

I really didn't want to leave the gorgeous mountains, but I had to come back to Punta Arenas to catch my flight and luckily, I made all three bus connections to get from the Torres del Paine National Park to Punta Arenas.

Christmastime! Who Brought the Sunblock?

I came back from my Punta Areans trip with Rotary on December 22nd, and in true Jennie fashion, I had not bought any of my Christmas presents yet. So I enlisted two of the other exchange students, Kasey and Tyler from Arizona as reinforcements and went to the centro.

<--Later, Kasey and I went back to her house and made Christmas cookies and listened to Christmas carols.

Chileans celebrate Christmas with a big family meal on the 24th and then they open the presents afterwards, usually around midnight. But my Christmas Eve was insanely hectic! I had to make two apple pies, go to the centro before noon to mail postcards, and meet up with Kasey in the centro to finish Christmas shopping. I pretty much ran around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning and afternoon, so it was really nice when I got to my aunt's house that night just to relax and talk to the whole family.


Waiting for the meat to cook...

Clockwise from top left: Tía Jacquie, Tío Miguel, Josefa, Tía Gabriela, cousin Lelo, my grandma Lela, me, Tío Marco.

We went to my host mom's sister's house in Coihueco for Christmas, the farm town about 25 minutes away from Chillán around 8 PM and had another asado, which was delicious! For our Christmas dinner we grilled beef, chicken, lorganiza (spiced sausage) and had a wide variety of salads. Dinner was served around 10:30 PM and we all sat outside in the fresh night air at a long wooden table, talking, sharing food and laughing.

After dinner we went inside, opened presents, had a Christmas drink and ate my apple pie (which was a big hit and very exciting, mainly because pies don't exist here). Around 12:30 AM, my host mom and I were fading fast and came back to Chillán to our comfy beds...

<--My host mom, Doris and host brother, Nacho, distributing presents

Christmas Day was definitely different than any other Christmas Day I have ever had. Normally I am the first one up, rush down the stairs at around 7 AM in my fuzzy bathrobe and spend the morning eating cinnamon rolls in front of the fire and opening presents. This year however, I woke up around noon, called my parents quickly in the U.S. and spent the broiling afternoon tanning alongside my host mom. Because the sun is so hot here, wearing sunblock is imperative and even with SPF 55 I got a pretty nice tan from sitting out for a few hours.

<--Me and my host mom!

PATAGONIA

So last week I went with Rotary to Patagonia for 4 nights. It was everyone who had been there in our August orientation, half of whom live really far north and I hadn't seen since then. We were 27 exchange students in total and we had a blast! The 9 kids in my district took a bus at 1:30 AM on Saturday morning from Chillán to Santiago and from there we went to Viña del Mar just for a few hours. We got to Viña around 10:30 AM and drove around, just getting out a few times for a few minutes to take pictures and then getting back on the bus.





<--All 4 exchange students here in Chillán--my brothers and sister. Top left to bottom right: Emil Larsen (Denmark), Tyler Gillespie (AZ) Kasey Peelen (AZ), and me!




Later that afternoon we went to Villa Alemana (2 hours west of Santiago near the coast) for a Rotary check-up. They gave us a small Spanish test, but it was basically 3 days of just sitting and talking and catching up with everyone which was awesome.



<-- This is my table at lunch at Villa Alemana








We got up at 4 AM on Tuesday to go to Santiago to catch our flight to Punta Arenas. When we got to Punta Arenas, we hit the ground running. We landed early in the morning and went straight to an animal "zoo" where we saw llamas and real penguins!

We ate at a fantastic restaurant which looked much more like someone's house. We had an asado of cordillero (lamb rib barbecue) and they had delicious homemade chocolates for dessert mmm.






<--We got to see them roast the meat before we ate it





We went back to our hotel, which was located just in the town center around 7 PM and had an hour or two before dinner to walk around and check out the town center.

The next day we hopped into our rented bus and our tour guide led us to a lookout point where you can see all of Punta Arenas with the ocean, and it was absolutely gorgeous! While we were there, a group of venders came up with folding tables and plastic bags full of handmade scarves, sweaters, hats, bags the whole tourist trap package.




<--View of Punta Arenas








After that we went back to the city of Punta Arenas and saw a cool museum about Chile's idígenas (native Americans), then to the most beautiful cemetary I have ever seen. That evening before dinner we went to the town center again and bought some more memorabilia before going back to the hotel.










<--Main plaza in Punta Arenas. This me and Emil in front of a statue of Hernando de Magellanes (Magellan).






Our third day we had to get up early and pack our bags and head off to Puerto Natales (a small town about 2 hours away from Punta Arenas) where we stopped off at a huge natural cave, called Cueva del Mildón, which is a natural national monument. After walking around the cave for an hour, it was back to the bus to head off to go see the world-famous Torres del Paine (Blue Towers) mountains which are absolutely breathtaking! We stopped to take pictures for about half an hour before heading to the beautiful Hotel Patagonia Explora for a delicious lunch.




<--Torres del Paine








Another bus ride later, and we were trekking across a beach with ferociously strong winds to get to another lookout point--only this time we were going to go and look at the glacier Perito Moreno that is actually in Argentina but could be seen off in the distance. I loved this part because after walking (or, staggering rather because of the wind) across a mile of beach, we had a mild hike up to the top of the hill where the lookout point was. There was a small speck of melted glacier just in front of us, which was really sad because it used to be a whole lot bigger ten years ago but the global warming has made it shrink badly. Our Rotary chaperones had brought a bottle of Jack Daniels up there so that all of us could have a taste with real glacier ice. Real glacier ice seems to be colder than real ice, but it is extremely clear, like crystal, and very pure.

Our fourth and last day of our trip was dedicated to driving to Argentina to see the glacier Perito Moreno up close. There was a little bit of drama because we had to show proof that we were living in Chile and not tourists (i.e. our Chilean ID cards and/or passport visas) because it was only $8 for Chilean entry and $22 for tourists.

After driving 6 hours to Calafate, Argentina, we headed off to lunch at an amazing all you can eat restaurant. I definitely ate all that I could eat, and it was delicious!





<--Me in front of the glacier Perito Moreno








After lunch we met up with our Argentinean tour guide and rode the bus over to the glacier. We got off and walked a path that winds down a huge hill so you can see the glacier at almost eye level, it was incredible!! It took about an hour, an hour and a half to walk the whole circuit and we stopped and took amazing picture after amazing picture.


<--Closer view of the glacier. Right to left: Alex (NY), Julie (Denmark), Jori (Canada), Emily (NY), me, Margaux (CT), Gina (CO), and Jess (IL). Everyone but Margaux and me are from the Northern district, so we hadn't seen them since arriving in August!




After viewing the glacier, we had half an hour left to shop in a tourist souvenir complex. Only our Rotary tour guides were a little vague on what time we had to be back in the bus, so we were about 20 minutes late leaving and everyone was really worried that we wouldn't make it to the Argentinean/Chilean border before 9 PM when the border closes. Luckily we made it, but we didn't get back to the hotel until about 11 PM that night and we were exhausted!

The next morning we had to get back on our plane to Santiago and it was sad to split up after spending so much time together. But the trip was amazing, and the only bad part was that it was so short!

Los Angeles!

This weekend I visited another exchange student from the States, Emily Hughes, who lives in Los Angeles, a city 1.5 hours south of Chillán by bus. I went on Saturday afternoon and had lunch with her family. Another exchange student from Connecticut, Taylor McCurdy, came over to hang out with us in the afternoon because he lives really close to Emily.

That night we had another asado(barbecue) with Emily's family and some family friends (it started at 10:30 PM) and then we went to Emily's brother's friend's birthday party.

We didn't leave Emily's house until 11:45 and we ended up getting home at 6 AM, which apparently isn't that out of the ordinary for them haha.

<-- This is me with Emily, Carolina, and her friend Fabiola at the party.

We went out with Oscar, Emily's 23-year-old host brother, and his girlfriend, Carolina. When we went to the party, there were about 20-25 people there, just hanging out, drinking, eating, and talking. However, because it was a Chilean party, we were outside and around 3 AM I started to get REALLY cold and so some of us moved inside to sit on a couch and talk, which was much better :D.

And while Emily, Oscar and Carolina got to sleep in the next day, I woke up at 9 AM to drive to Salto de Lajas to run in a race with Taylor and his classmate.




<-- This is Salto de Lajas where we ran the race.







I ended up coming in 3rd out of all TEN women who ran and first in my age group, so they gave me a medal and a backpack as prizes.

<-- This is me receiving my prize...they put me on a podium and gave me a medal and evertything!

<-- Taylor and me just after he finished running

That night, we three made an American breakfast for "once". "Once" is their dinner, and usually it is just bread, cheese, ham, tea, coffee, maybe some leftovers from lunch. We made banana chocolate chip pancakes, french toast, bacon and homefries. I made everything but the pancakes (mostly because I missed making breakfast food so much) and everyone really liked it, especially the homefries. Although I didn't add paprika because they had run out, so they weren't totally perfect, but pretty close.

Then on Monday morning, we all slept in really late. I slept in until 10:30, ate breakfast, and then slept from 11 to 12:30 (a feat for me), and everyone else in the house was asleep too. Emily's family had to go to the campo (country/farm) for her grandpa's birthday party around 1:30, so I went and had lunch with Taylor's family and hung out with him until it was time to catch my bus back to Chillán at 5.

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.