Terremoto

I've been without a functional computer since mid-January, so there's a whole whole whole lot to catch up on. However, that extensive recap has to wait a little bit longer. This entry is a quick jump out of my narrative to address in a timely fashion the thing that most people are concerned about--the earthquake.

When the earthquake hit, at 3:34 AM on Saturday the 27th of February, I was fast asleep in my bed. I stayed fast asleep. I was with my mom(dear Roz Becker was visiting from the USA) in a cabin in the rural river valley of Chepu on Chiloe Island, about 430 miles (700 kilometers) south of the epicenter. I woke up the next mornging around 7:30 when a friend from Curicó, Francisco, called me. He asked me where I was and how I was. In my very gravelly I-just-woke-up voice, I told him I was fine in Chiloe, and asked him the same. He told me he was in Curicó, and that there had been an earthquake. I thought little of it-- he didn't tell me any details and the power was out so I couldn't get any news. Carefree, I went kayaking with my mom. When I came back, the power had returned and from the minute of TV I managed to snag, I realized what a catastrophe it was. I was worried. My new host family was in Concepcion, 71 miles (115 kilometers) south of the epicenter, and Curicó where I have been living for 6 months and have many friends, is less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the epicenter. Both were all over the news. Internet was down and cell phone service and signal were both extremely patchy. My mom was scheduled to fly out the next night, and we had bus tickets to Santiago for that night (we actually almost booked the bus for the night before, which would have left us incredibly close to the epicenter at the moment the earthquake struck). We managed to talk to the airline, found out that the airport was closed for at least the next couple of days, and managed to reschedule her to the next available flight-- Thursday.

We decided that the best course of action was to head into Ancud, the nearby town, to talk to the bus company and try to be able to get connected. When we got there, the bus company told us that becuase of all of the bridges that were down and other road obstacles, there weren't any buses heading to Santiago yet, but if we came back the next evening, they'd know what's going on. After that, we went back to our hostel and checked the internet. When I checked my email and my facebook, I realized that many people back home were extremely worried. My mom and I were both a little taken aback-- we hadn't really seen anything on TV, hadn't gotten news from anywhere else, and hadn't been affected by the earthquake in anyway other than being without power, internet, and sure travel plans. It was very comforting that so many people cared (thanks!), but it really made a lot of the seriousness of what had happen sink in. We reassured everyone that we were okay, then waited to figure out what the best course of action was.

When we went back to the bus station, they told us that the first available bus was to leave Wednesday night (this was on Sunday), so, we decided to pass the days in Puerto Varas (great city, but that's for the next blog) until we could get north. In Puerto Varas, it was surreal knowing what had happened because the only evidence of the terremoto there was the absurdly long line at the one gas station that had gas(it goes well past what you can see in the photo). Other than that it was life as usual there, although with a cloud of worry always hovering nearby. The bus was overnight, so we saw little damage en route. When we got to Santiago, there was also little to see, but we were affected. Several places we intended to go were closed, though I believe it was all for the havoc wreaked within the building and not for structural damage. At the end of the day, after my mom had headed of to the airport (3 hours early because the terminal had been torn up by the quake), I took the last bus home to Curicó.

I arrived at about 11:30 to something quite different than I was used to. As we entered the centro, I saw many houses with crumbling facades, crumbling roofs, was expecting to take a colectivo home (they generally run till midnight) but none came. Therand a few that had collapsed quite entirely. There were also very few people out, and a ton of government/emergency/police vehicles with their lights flashing. I didn't know, but there was a midnight curfew imposed on the area to prevent the looting that was prevalent in many affected regions. That night, after I got back to my house, I heard some of what had happened to my family in Concepción, and felt my first earthquake/tremor/aftershock ever. Actually, my first three within 35 minutes, measurinng 5.7, 5.2, and 4.9, respectively. Replicas (Aftershocks) are still quite frequent here. Although I don't think any of them have been strong enough to be destructive--none have been over 7 and very few have been over 6.

The next day, when I went into the centro, I brought my camera as I went around taking in all of the damage.
I've spent the last couple of days helping out-- one day I helped put together a house's foundation using the rubble from a house that had collapsed with a side-trip to see the damage around the little town that we went toand yesterday and today I helped unload, sort, and package donated food that came through Chilean Red Cross.
There are a lot of people helping, and while there remains a lot of disorganization, some things are pretty incredible given that only a week has passed. For instance, a star-studded, entertaining, and heart-felt, 24 hour telethon was put together, broadcast on every channel, and raised over 60 million US dollar, doubling its goal. Money and manpower are the things that the various organizations helping out need most, and as I figure most of you reading aren't close enough to offer your time, below are a few ways that you can help out monetarilly. Also, keep your eyes and ears open because I'm working with some other exchange students here and Rotary to start our own relief fund.

By Text Message
For anyone in the US, send a message to 90999 to donate $10 US to the Red Cross (I believe it will be charged to your cell phone bill)

Online
Click here to easily donate to Un Techo para Chile (A Roof for Chile), the organization that's already very active and evident on the ground building houses for those who have lost their own, and distributing the necessities to those in need.

Bank Transfer (I feel like this is the option that will be less used, but just in case)
Here is the bank information for donations to Un Techo para Chile (described above) from the US:

FUNDACION UN TECHO PARA CHILE
Cuenta 0-051-000-8500-5
Banco Santander Chile
RUT: 65.533.130-1
SWIFT: BSCHCLRM
Dirección: Bandera 140
Santiago, Chile

Información Banco Intermediario
Cuenta: 2000192290409
WACHOVIA BANK N.A. (N. YORK)
SWIFT: PNBPUS3NNYC
ABA: 026005092

And to wrap things up, here's the photo that all of Chile has been rallying around

FUERZA CHILE!

Verano es Re Filete

Sorry no pictures-- my camera is lost and I want to get this post up before I leave tomorrow and I don't really have time to hunt down pictures from facebook and most of them aren't even uploaded yet and maybe I'll put them on later and you get the idea.

Since the last post I have had a lot of fun. New Year's eve, I went with my friend kuko to his families new year's eve dinner which was laid back and fun, then went to a huge new years eve party. New year's eve is the biggest party night in Chile, and the party that I went to lived up to it. There were 2,000 people there, and it was quite a blast.

A couple of days later, I got a call from my Brazilian friend Breno inviting me to go to Pichilemu, a surf-town about 3.5 hours away. The next morning at 6 AM, Breno, two of his Chilean friends, and I hit the road. The plan was to camp, but by luck we came across a room with beds, better location, private bathrooms, and a very laid-back owner for a cheaper price. ~$20 USD for the room, which we had from 10 AM until 7 PM the next day. We basically just hung out, spending just about all of our time in the four block stretch of road that included our house, empanada shops, street vendors, and the beach.

After a day of rest when I got back, I headed up to Santiago with most of the exchange students from Curicó to go to the goodbye parties of the southern-hemisphere rotary kids who head home in early January. The first day's party was in a park, but when the park closed, we moved the party by bus and by subway to a mcdonalds, then to a little disco. The next day, I hung out with Andrew, whose house I stayed at, then walked around Santiago for a while with the Curicanos and a couple of Santiaguinos. By my request, we hunted down and Indian restaurant for dinner. Ethnic food is one of the things I really miss here, and eating Indian food put me in such a good mood. That night was despedida part 2 in an exchange students house, and there were good times to be had by all. The next morning, we were all more than a bit exhausted, so we said our final goodbyes, grabbed a bite at McDonalds, and headed home.

When I got home on Thursday, everyone in my host family except for the dad was in Viña del Mar, at their beach apartment. Friday after lunch, I headed up with my dad. We stayed until Friday, just hanging out. It had potential to be boring because I didn't manage to meet up with any friends there, but I made the most of the opportunity to just wander around the town and get some people-watching in.

That Tuesday, I headed back to Pichilemu with a different group of people. We rented a house for the 8 of us ($25 USD a piece for 3 nights, 2 blocks from the beach), and had a smashing time. A lot of chilling, walking around the town, plus two half-days of surfing. I was pleasantly surprised that I still remembered most of what I'd learned in my 3 or 4 surfing lessons I've had in the last 8 years, and even though it was too windy for the waves to be good, I managed to catch a good few waves, and I'm hoping to head back and do it again before summer break ends.

Tomorrow, I leave for Pucón (a vacaction town on a lake) for two weeks with my family, which should be good times, then as soon as I come back, I'll be changing families. Shortly after, my dearest mother is coming to visit. I don't want summer to end.

Almost 5 months in, I feel like I've just recently reached a new level of comfort/integration/acclimation. Boredom, which had been one of my major worries, has vanished for the time being, and that suits me very well. I think I've probably already changed more than I realize, because thinking back on the beginning of the exchange, my thoughts and worries and opinions on things here seem so strange and foreign. The most tangible change I think is my adjustment to independence. My family here basically lets me do whatever I want, as long as I can do it for myself. I remember how exciting it was the first time I walked to the colectivo and took it to the centro for the first time, and how exciting it was the first time I headed of by bus, just me and some friends on a trip we planned ourselves. To me these almost seem routine now. I think this is something that varies a lot between exchange students, and has a lot to do with the families-- there are some people who do everything with their families, and feel like they have less dependence here than back home. It's weird to think how different my experience could have been.

3 things that are different here

1. Telephone poles are all concrete. I looked into this one a little bit, and couldn't find any definite reason why they should be different, but they are.

2. Fanny packs don't have the same stigma that they do in the US, and are pretty commonly used. I bought myself one. It's useful as heck.

3. There's definitely something different about how old people look. Most of the time I guess 2 years older than people actually are, but there are also people who look younger than they are. I can't think of a good explanation.

El Sur y Más

My trip to the south with Rotary was incredible. Really incredible. On top of seeing some of the most amazing places in the world, I spent the week with a whole bunch of other exchange students which was really cool. It's hard to have a bad time with a busload of kids with whom you have something significant in common.

Day 1- After a sleepless night on the plane from Santiago to Punto Arenas (the 2nd southernmost city in the world), our first day was pretty laid back. We took a tour of Punto Arenas, which unto itself isn't that remarkable of a city, then went off to see PENGUINS! Real live wild penguins! It wasn't a huge colony or anything, but still there were a good many of them and it was cool to see them so close just doing their thing. It was kinda weird seeing them just chilling on the dirt and grass-- there was no snow. That night, a group of us went running then swam in the Straights of Magellan. It was cold, but it was totally worthwhile.

Day 2- Took a bus to an old old fort, then to some little beaches with nice scenery, then off to Puerto Natales, the city closest to Torres del Paine National Park.

Day 3- We went into Torres del Paine. Words can't do it justice. We ate lunch in Hostería Pehoe, an absolutely gorgeous restaurant/hotel on an island in the middle of a lake surrounded by mountains (check the link for photos), then took an excessively brief hike before heading off to our hotel. The hotel was luxurious to the max-- the dinner there was incredible and the view from every room was to die for. If we were bored, we could just go outside, take a little walk, and enjoy the vista.

Day 4-We had a free morning, so most of us took the opportunity to go horseback riding. It was a definite highlight of the week. In the afternoon, we went out on a boat on Lake Gray to Gray Glacier. I somehow ended up in a pact with a couple of other kids to stay out on the front of the boat until we reached the glacier, which made for good memories and bonding, but also a very wet and cold Benny. That night, we went for another run/dip, this time into a glacial river.

Day 5- Another free morning, then to a tourist-trap cave where the body of a milodon (extinct giant sloth the size of a bear) was found, then back to Puerto Natales, where we just walked around town and did our souvenier/present shopping.

Day 6- Slight digression: I woke up in the morning and couldn't find my camera. It's still missing, and all of these pictures are stolen from facebook. I guess I should buy a new camera soon, but you know, I still have a tiny bit of hope, and it's hard to make myself spend the money...

Anyway, The day started with a boat ride on a fjord to a different glacier, then back to Punta Arenas where we got to see the palace/mansion built there by the super-rich lady who must have basically run the city back when it began. After that, it was off to the airport, arriving in Santiago at 6 AM thoroughly exhausted.

Since I got back things have been pretty relaxed. Some kids from Santiago came down for a night to check out Curicó and visit, which was fun. Other than that, just hanging out around the house and with friends in other parts.

I had my first Christmas here, but the Chilean Christmas seems to be less of a big-- not that it's not important but it's not a huge gathering and it's not the center of life for weeks. Christmas eve, I went to mass with my family(which was very cool to see), then came home, ate a midnight Christmas dinner, then gave presents, helped my brother set-up the Wii that was the family gift, then passed out well-exhausted. Christmas day was just relaxing, then that night we went to Talca to be with the extended family.

I celebrated Channukah too-- the first night I lit candles along with the Beckers and Goldwassers through Skype, then most of the rest of the nights I lit candles with the exchange students I was travelling with in Patagonia. Most of them (if not all of them) had never seen Channukah or any type of Jewish ceremony before, so I felt good being able to share that.

Monday, I went in to town to hang out with Liz and Emily (exchange students) and a few of their friends. When I got there, it turned out that they were heading to take part in the Curicó leg of The World March for Peace and Nonviolence. A photographer from the news paper was there, and we made the front page as well as another another photo in which I'm more featured. We were a small march, but it was fun nonetheless.

I'm looking forward to the next week right now as it includes New Year's Eve (tonight) which should be very sweet and the goodbye parties of two friends. After that, I don't really know what's on the horizon, but with time I suppose I'll find out.

3 things that are different here

1. Road lines are all white. There is yellow for parking and such, but there's no yellow to indicate that the road is two way. This is especially confusing to me on straight stretches of roads with one lane each way because theres just a single dotted white line.

2. Beverages-- there are no free refills, there is no free glass of ice water, and people don't drink a whole lot of water in general. They drink a ton of soda, which comes in a variety of sizes and containers : 350 cc can, or 350 cc glass bottle, 1000 cc plastic bottle, 1 liter plastic bottle, liter plastic bottle, 2 liter returnable (hard) plastic bottle, 2 liter normal/non-returnable plastic bottle, 2.5 liter plastic bottle, and 3 liter plastic bottle.

3. Counting works differently when you get to the high numbers. In Spanish it doesnt go millón, billón, trillón. Instead, they go million, thousand million, billion, thousand billion; or rather; millón, mil millones, billón, mil billones.

Vacaciones Empiezan

So I'm now on summer vacation and on a small break in the middle of a travelling binge. It's been a little while since I blogged, so I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, but maybe that's not so bad since it keeps me from writing about lots of tedious little things.

The last week of school was fairly unremarkable, but there was a really nice ceremony when the Seniors left. Each senior got a gift from each class, and every student in the school wrote a note to a Senior. Everyone lined the hallways so the Seniors walked past and said goodbye to everyone on their way out. There was also a random costume fashion show of little kids, but I have no idea what that was for....

As for me and my class, I came to school less because there were a lot of tests, and when I did come, mostly kids were just chilling and studying. I played a good bit of ping-pong on the miniature table a classmate made for an art project a few weeks back.

I just got back from a 5 day trip to Chillán with my counselor, Ernesto. The first day we travelled to the city Chillán, which is a good bit bigger than Curicó, bought food, then took an hour long bus to Valle las Trancas, where Ernesto has a cabaña (cabin).

The second day, Ernesto and I took a good long walk up to a lava hill named Shangri La.

When we got back, he took a nap and I went on a solo adventure trying to find a way to the base of the huge waterfall.

Day 3 and day 4 the real adventure took place. The reason for the whole trip was to climb Volcán Chillán, a very tall volcano which has skiing in the winter. Ernesto has a friend who, if I understood correctly, had a son loved climbing and recently passed away, and this trip was for the family and the son's college friends, who were all climbing enthusiasts. We were just lucky to be invited and tagging along. On the first day, we climbed for 3 or 4 hours, through rocks and sand and snow drifts, before making camp on a little island of rocks in the middle of all of the iced-over snow.

The second day, we put on our ice spikes and climbed to the new and old peaks of the volcano--(3,122 meters/10,243 feet) and (3,089 meters/10,135 feet), respectively.

Going up was difficult and slow, but gratifying, Going down however, was easy and a lot of fun. I did a lot of the descent boot-skiing and butt-sledding. After the descent, we had a nice asado (BBQ), then Ernesto and I headed back to his cabaña, quite exhausted. We'd had plans to stay two more nights, but we were both too worn out to want to do another walk, so we decided to head home the next day.

Last couple of wednesdays "Curicó International Club", as I like to call the gatherings of all of the exchange students from all of the programs, met. We went once for Mexican food (quite different than Mexican food in the US but still good), and hot dogs, breaking our run of international foods. Their a lot of fun. There aren't any other Americans from other programs, but theres a healthy mix of English and Spanish because there are 4 South Africans and some Europeans who learned English in school. I speak more Spanish than English when I'm with them, and I don't feel like it holds me back. I think a big part of it is that we're on a similar level so no one is impatient, which makes me more comfortable. I've realized that my level of comfort with the (person/people) I'm talking to has a big impact on my ability to communicate.

The first couple of days of summer, I was bored, which was very scary since I knew that there were still 3 months to go... however, the rest of that first week I found myself with plenty of opportunities to be sociable. Hopefully that will stay the norm, though I won't really know for a couple of weeks because right now my classmates are all on their class trip to Cancún and most of my exchange student friends are in Barriloche, Argentina. I leave for Punta Arenas (2nd most southern city in the world) and Torres Del Paine (big national park way down south in Patagonia) the day before they get back, which will be immediately followed by a 3 day hiking trip (or "trekking" as they say here) with the other Curicó Rotary kids. Anyway, this week (is going to be/has been) be quite laid back. Mostly just chilling around the house, getting some exercise, catching some rays, swimming in the pool, and trying to track down all of the stuff I need for the upcoming trips.

things that are different here:

1. Instead of using the alphabet from A to G to name music notes, people here use Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti. Do is C, and you go on from there. It's confusing to have to convert as you go-- to figure out what it means to be playing in Ti bemol menor (B flat minor), or something like that.

2. Palta (Avocado) is an absolute staple here. I can't think what an American equivalent would be, but seriously, I've been eating a lot of it. The most common way to eat it is to mash it with a fork on a piece of bread (like an undoctored guacamole). That's actually really good with ketchup (speaking of ketchup I was wrong in my last post--Heinz is available here, if not as widely spread). Palta is also put on lots of other things, like...

3. Chilean hot dogs, or "completos", are something else. The hot dog itself isn't fundamentally that different, but it's less than a third of the sandwhich. Instead of being served in a bun, it is served in marraqueta, AKA French bread. What's more, on top of the hot dog, there's usually a huge amount of mayo (Chileans LOVE mayonnaise and put it on everything), a lot of palta, some and diced tomato. This combo is referred to as the Italiano, because it's the colors of the Italian flag. These hot dogs are freaking impossible to eat normally. You have to come in from all angles, which means you can rarely manage a bite that has all of the ingredients in it, and even taking great care, the gooey toppings tend to ooze their way out of the bun and disasterously splatter whatever lies below. Completos Gigantes are also common, and really are gigantic.

Pasando Bien

The last couple of weeks have gone quite smashingly. I've been busy, in a very good way. Lots of socializing and such.Most of the excitement has been with Exchange student folks. A couple of Wednesdays ago I finally met the bulk of the exchange students from other programs who are living in Curicó. We went to a hip sushi bar. At first the owner said we couldn't come in because a lot of us aren't 18 and it's technically bar, but then they said we could go upstairs which was actually better. We had a sweet lounge all to ourselves. The sushi actually wasn't that great, but everyone had a good time, and I think we're going out for Mexican next week.

Also, last week the Rotary kids in Curicó and Talca took a trip to Viña del Mar/Valparaíso. We were there for three days staying in Cabanas on the beach owned by the Chilean navy (which we got for a discounted rate because our counselor was in the army).

At the Cabanas we hung out, chased waves (I lost to the waves a few times and the water was freezing), ate, hung out, and climbed the big rocks at the water's edge (the rocks on the coast look a lot like the ones in Oregon and Northern California). The night we got there, we went to the movies which was exciting because the only movie theater in Curicó that shows new movies has been closed for renovations since before I got here. I saw Inglorious Bastards, which I would say was a quality film (as long as you're okay with Quentin Tarantino's over the top blood and gore). The next day, we went into Valparaíso to see the Chilean Congreso. Public school teachers here are on strike, so things were quite crazy, but Rotary got us in without even having to show IDs. The actual building was pretty ugly, and the chambers were nothing to write home about either (although I guess I am anyway). It was also crazy because of the strike. The room was full of teachers who did lots of cheering, some chanting, and even some singing-- while a vote was taking place!

That night we barbecued back at the Cabanas, then in the morning we took a boat tour of Valparaíso's harbor.

After that, we caught our bus to the train station in santiago and headed home.

My third exchange student adventure #3 was a jaunt up to Santo Domingo. Apparently, it's the town where the super rich people summer, and it was quite beautiful. There's an exchanger living there, and she invited a handful of Rotary kids to crash at her house. A bunch of her Chilean friends came too and we had a fun night. In the morning, we went to the beach. I got quite sunburned on my legs. Other people got burned pretty badly too-- I'm thinking it might have to do with being close to the hole in the Ozone layer over Antarctica, though but I don't know if that's significant in this part of Chile.

On the Chilean friendship front, I'm feeling more integrated. I haven't been hanging out with the seniors because they're now in super-study mode for the college entrance exam which is in a week or two, but I spent the night at a friend's house for the first time, went to another friends birthday party. It was nice that I didn't have to call and ask what was going on and if they could take me. It reassures me that I'm not just being a parasitic mooch.

In other news, my family got a new puppy. It sounds like a wolf on helium, still struggles to arrange its legs when it lies down, and is obnoxiously cute.

Also, the dollar has now fallen 10% against the Chilean peso since when I arrived. That, together with my travelling binge, is making life feel a bit expensive.

This week is probably going to be a bit slow-- there were plans to go to Talca for a day or two to help the exchange students there with a display on the US for an international fair, but our first visit to a Curicó Rotary meeting was (finally but unfortunately) scheduled the same day, so now I think it'll just be back to the routine. However, my host sister who's been in New Zealand comes home this weekend, there are just two weeks left till summer break, and just three weeks until my big Rotary trip to Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine Natl. Park in down south in Patagonia, so I think the increase in fun isn't just a flash in the pan.

3 things that are different here

1. There are a lot of brands of food that are different here, and I'm not going to talk about all of them, but I think Ketchup is noteworthy. I have a very strong attachment to Heinz ketchup which I inherited from my Mom's side of the family (they are from Pittsburgh after all). I always twinge when I go to a restaurant and find a bottle of Hunt's or some other inferior brand. Chile does not have Heinz (EDIT-- there is Heinz, although it's not very common), but it does have some good Ketchup. The good brand is called Malloa, and while it's definitely different than Heinz, I'm not sure that I can say it's worse. Also, though you can find them in bottles like we have in the US, lots of condiments (ketchup, jelly, mayo, salad dressing) come in bags.

2. Among my peers, the taste in music is fairly consistent. Most girls like Reggaeton, and while guys like Reggaeton and Electronica for parties, a strong majority are way into Classic Rock. Most of my friends' lists of favorite bands would include: Def Leppard, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, and the like. I like some Classic Rock now and again, but I can't say I love listening to it all of the time. Mostly, it amazes me how mainstream it is here, some 20-30 years later.

3. With every credit card transaction, you can choose to be break the charge into several payments (monthly or weekly or something like that). I once used my card to buy a single bag of cookies, and was offered to split the less than a dollar charge into 3. I'm yet to actually take anyone up on the offer though-- budgeting is confusing enough without triple the amount of payments.

Vida y Santiago

I feel like a broken record, but I feel like the best way to describe life here is to say it's life. Still doing soccer and the gym during the week, then parties Friday and/or Saturday nights. I am getting to feel more like a participant than an observer or an outsider-- especially in spending time with friends. If it's not too fast-paced of a conversation, I can generally join in which is quite awesome because on top of making life more interesting and giving me more opportunities to be using my Spanish, it makes me feel a lot better calling people up and mooching off their social plans. It give me some confidence that I can be an interesting friend (to some degree) instead of always being a needy awkward clinger. It also feels good to add some more legitimate conversation into the question and answer sessions that I fall back on--answering questions about myself and the US and English is probably the easiest type of conversation for me to have, and there are a lot of people who are interested.

Yesterday, I opted to skip my soccer team's tournament in favor of Santiago with Rotary. Scheduling conflicts are lame, but I think

I made the right choice-- while I'm sure I'll get to go to Santiago again, I'll be with Chileans who aren't interested in seeing the touristy sites. Anyway, our group consisted of the 7 exchange students in Curicó, the 4 from Talca, plus 6 Curicanos Chilenos from Interact, which is basically Rotary club for teens. I was a bit exhausted because I went to a party the night before and my ride stayed quite late, which wouldn't have been bad except that I had to get up at 7:30 to make my way to the bus terminal. Actually, I should have woken up before 7, but my alarm didn't go off. By some miracle, I woke up of my own accord and managed to get out of the house in 6 minutes. I'm pretty proud of that.

Upon arriving in Santiago's Central Station, we took the metro to La Moneda, which is the Chilean equivalent of the White House. We checked out the gift shop, then went to see Catedral Metropolitana (a big famous cathedral), the market, Cerro Santa Lucía (a big famous beautiful hill/park with a sweet fountain and a sweet view of Santiago), and a souvenir market. Then we grabbed some lunch and headed back to La Moneda for a tour. La Moneda was cool, but had a lot less grandeur than I expected. I think my expectations were high because it's called a palace, but I found it a good bit less regal than the White House.

We took the train back because something about trains just seems fun. When I got home at 8:30 or so, I napped for about an hour, then went out with some friends to enjoy the Halloween festivities. Actually, the disco we went to had nothing Halloween themed other than the tickets. I know a couple of people who went to a costume party and all of the little kids were out trick-or-treating, but it's pretty apparent that Halloween is a lot less of a big deal here. Actually that segues nicely into...

3 things that are different here

1. Almost all of the backpacks here are Head brand. In the US, the only Head products I've ever seen are tennis related, but here, luggage and backpacks and such are their big thing. I actually bought myself one-- I hadn't brought a normal sized backpack because I was told that everyone here uses tiny backpacks here, and although some people do have tiny backpacks and backpacks in general are a bit smaller, I still needed a fairly normal sized backpack for school.

2. There is no confidentiality with grades. Sometimes, assignments are just handed back and some people won't want to share, but with tests (including the standardized tests for college admission), the grades are almost always read aloud in front of the class or posted on a bulletin board for everyone to see. The other day, the teacher even announced how many classes each person was failing (it seems like a lot more people fail here, and it's a lot easier to fail a grade). It doesn't seem to bother anyone though-- I guess you can't be too bothered by what you're used to and consider normal.

3. The soundtracks for Chilean TV shows and ads are fairly weak in my opinion. For one, they play almost exclusively the same songs that are on the radio. Also, they'll often play a song multiple times in a single episode, in places the song doesn't fit what's happening at all, and they generally use almost all of the same songs in each episode. Game shows, dramas, reality shows-- they all do it. They especially seem to love Katy Perry's Hot N Cold and I Kissed a Girl. To me, the worst offender is Corazon Rebelde, a teen drama. They play their theme song at least 5 time's an episode, always feature both of the above Katy Perry songs at least once, and fail completely at matching the song to the vibe. In an episode I saw the other day, two adults ran into each other at the park and were casually flirting. The music started out with Pink Pantheresque awkwardly-sneaking-around music, then suddenly shifted to someone-is-about-to-get-really-angry-hard-rock-guitar-shredding. No one was sneaking about(unless they were sneaking about so well that I couldn't see them), and no one got angry. A bit confusing, a bit annoying, and a bit hilarious.

Aniversario Etc.

The last week and half feels like it requires a play-by-play. Sorry if it comes off as tedious, but I'm just going to pick up where I left off. Last Thursday was the only routine day. Unfortunately, at some point during my trek home from the gym, my cell-phone either fell out of my pocket or was stolen. It was quite frustrating, especially since the only place I could go to get a new phone without changing my number was closed until Tuesday.

The next day (Friday) was the anniversary of Curicó, and the 7 of us who are here with Rotary were in the city's Parade. It was the kinda thing where we were told to meet-up at 10:15, the last person arrived around 10:45, we left the house around 11:15, the parade started at 1:45 (instead of 1), and we actually marched around 2:30. The time didn't bother me though, it was all very chill, and we passed the time talking to kids who were waiting with their schools. In the afternoon I had a soccer game, which was fortunate because I was in a bit of a bad mood from walking to and from my school (it's also my colectivo stop) twice in unseasonably warm mid-day heat on top of being peeved from losing my cell phone.

Last Saturday I went to Molina by micro (bus) with a couple of exchange students for Día de la Familia at the colegio one girl's host-parents own/run. It was the best asado food I've had so far-- I've been disappointed a few times with the meat, but this was particularly good. I came back to Curicó and went straight to a friends house to watch the Chile vs. Colombia game and celebrate his birthday. Chile won 4-2, assuring them of a spot in the world cup, so everyone was in good spirits. I got to celebrate the Chilean triumph as well as the American triumph (we qualified that night also). People consider Chilean soccer better than North American and US soccer, but I can always pull out the fact that the US is still 6 places higher than Chile in the official FIFA rankings (It was 10 up until 2 days ago). Departing from chronological order for a moment, Chile played their final (albeit meaningless for them) game of World Cup Qualifying against Ecuador on Wednesday. I went to a friends house to watch, Chile won, and of course

people hung around for a few hours after partying and chilling and such.

Anyway, Sunday was the birthday of my host-grandmother (coincidentally the same day as my real grandma-- Happy Birthday Bubbie!), so we went to her big house/farm to meet up with the rest of the huge extended family. I forgot to bring my camera, but the place was really sweet. They had horses (which I rode), and peacocks, and something related to antelopes. Ate good food, played some soccer, and hung out for most of the day.

Monday was Columbus day, so there was no school, and if I remember correctly I did nothing notable. However, on Tuesday, my high-school's aniversario (anniversary celebrated for a week) began. We're divided by grade into two alianzas (alliances, more or less) to compete in all kinds of shenanigans between Tuesday and Thursday. I participated in limbo (made it pretty far, but not far enough to win my team points), metro cuadrado (seeing how many people you can fit in a square meter-- my team lost 20-19), soccer (my team of me and a buncha sophomores upset the team of a buncha seniors and a freshman 1-0), a musical TV-themed skit (no idea how it was scored), a dance competition (my partner and made it to the final 6, one step before the finals), a costume procession (I was gula[gluttony] as part of the 7 sins), an improvised dance that was supposed to have been choreographed, and a soccer game (7 sophomores and I upset the team of 7 seniors and 2 freshman), as well as serving as the mascot (Doris de Buscando Nemo/Dorie from Finding Nemo) for my alianza in a few dance/parade/general-performance type things. Thursday night it all wrapped up, and much to my surprise and excitement, our alianza had won. We went into the night with a 9,000 point lead, but the alianza headed by the seniors almost always wins (often with a bit of help from the judges), so I didn't think the fact that we'd won almost everything would actually make a difference.

Friday, I finally got my Chilean ID, hung out in the house, then went to hang out and wander the town with a friend and his friend and his friends. It wasn't that exciting unto itself, but I felt like I was finally getting a taste of the real content of a Chilean teenagers life-- hanging with friends trying (and not always succeeding) to find an interesting way to pass the time.

Saturday, I went to the cerro (big hill that's also the city's big park) to clean up trash with the other Rotary Exchange Students in town, as well as some local kids in Interact (basically teen Rotary), then have a little picnic, and some bonding activities. Afterward, we meandered through the centro for a bit, then I went with a few chilenos to one of their houses to play some video games and hangout.

Sunday (today) I went to another Curicó Unido game. They played Ñublense, who are one of Curicó's 2 big-time rivals. The crowd was significantly larger, louder, and rowdier than the last game I went to. Before the game started, the some fans from Curicó's barra (super-fan section) stole a banner from Ñublense's barra, then late in the second half, a flare was fired from Ñublense's barra into Curicó's and hit someone in the arm. I was safely seated far away, enjoying Curicós 3-0 victory.

3 things that are different here

1. Wild/ferile dogs are everywhere because there aren't many if any pounds, and neutering/spading are not common practices. Most of the wild dogs are german shepherds or unrecognizable mutts, but every once in a while you see an interesting dog. Today I saw one that had to have been half german shepherd and half dachsund. It was awesome. I want one.

2. Parking here is distinct. For paid street parking, instead of meters and meter-maids, they have guys standing there who help you park, then give you a slip with the time of arrival, and you pay them when you leave. They also have guys who help you park at a lot of stores, and they are among the few people you are supposed to tip. However, even though people are guiding them, in general a lot less attention is paid to parking within the lines.

3. The date is written DD/MM/YY instead of MM/DD/YY. It's more logical in that it goes from smallest to largest, but I've found at least one advantage of our system-- if you have a computer sort dates alphabetically, it does a much better job of achieving chronological order.