---> Punta Arenas

Friday, December 4, 2009

---> Punta Arenas

Sorry, this blog will be another blog without photos as my computer has become incredibly slow at uploading!

Last week I went to visit the city of Punta Arenas, which is the southernmost city in the world. It is so far south that it got dark at about 10pm at night and stayed dark until 5am. A very different landscape from Copiapó as well - more green than I had seen in a long time, with snowy mountains in the background and lots of beautiful clouds.

I discovered the reason why connections you make with other people are so important. A few years ago, a Chilean family lived in my town in NZ for just under a year, and I got to know them a little bit. I was a naughty girl and didn't get back in touch with them until after I was in Chile, which was a great surprise because they had no idea I would be doing a year long exchange. Since I couldn't go on the south tour with AFS, they helped me organise a short term exchange, and where to go? Punta Arenas. I got in touch with the family again and they said they would be delighted to have me. So when I arrived in Punta Arenas, there was Teresa and Victoria (Mother and daughter) waiting for me in the airport. During my stay there the whole family was more than welcoming and I had a great time with them.

I had the opportunity to visit Torres del Paine - which any Google Image search will bring up amazing pictures of an incredibly beautiful place on this earth. (Which is why my computer won't let me upload the photos!) I also went on a mountain hike (cellphone stayed on the mountain) and saw a penguin colony, as well as catch up with my exchanger friend who lives there, and another AFSer.

Back to school, and I had two days left before I finished at school - today was my last day at school, although I havn't really felt it sink in.

Anyway, better go, as I am heading into town to eat sushi with the other exchangers!

Chau,

Anita

Time's a loaded gun

Seven months into my Chilean exchange and I think the only thing that still hasn't met the (very few) expectations I had before I came is that my hair has not grown nearly quite long enough just yet! (Chilean girls have long hair in general - my hair was chin level when I arrived!)
I think a good analogy for an exchange is that it's like a show in the theatre. The first part of a show is always the rehearsing - learning the lines, where to go on stage, what else will be happening while you're performing and those kind of things. The second part is knowing what to expect and performing, everything in synch. Which means, the first half of the exchange is learning the language (or getting a good mastery of it), becoming accustomed to the culture and day to day life and making friends. Then comes the second half, which is easier than the first half because most of the hard work is done, and you now know what to exepect, understand what is happening and can communicate well to other people what you want.
It's also the best half of the exchange, but that is bittersweet because time goes by fast when you're having fun.

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Cumpleaños Eileen

There's getting to be quite a big list of things I haven't done before coming to Chile, and one of those things is going to a birthday party on a weeknight until very late at night . . .
On Monday was the celebration of my friend Eileen's 18th birthday, and to celebrate was a dinner with family and close friends. It was different from other birthday celebrations I have been to, on Saturday I went to one that was exactly the opposite - a huge party with lots of people in a rented out location. This was a family kind of celebration, with a huge table full of yummy food like barbecued meat, salads and most surprisinly of all these onions that had been bathed in water and marinated in cumin. Food was eaten, speeches were made, then birthday cake and dancing!

Andrea, Eileen, Cony and I

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Aniversario

Have you ever passed an onion on to another person using only your mouth? Heard of competitions 'Mr Legs', 'Miss Butt' or 'Sexy Dance?' Seen a game of soccer being played on dirt in a dry river bed? I can proudly say that I have!

Over the past week was the school anniversary. Every school in Chile has an anniversary, and it's a week full of activities for the students. In the mornings we has classes, and in the afternoons are the activities. It was a competition between 4 aliances, the 60's (green), 70's (red), 80's (black) and the 90's (white). My class, plus two more classes, made up the aliance of the 90's.

On Monday we had the 'show'. Each aliance had to present, well, a show, using music from the decade, and it had to be 10 minutes long. Each dance was really really good. The 70's won, but I thought our 90's show with the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys was pretty cool. After the shows, they had competitions for things like Gala Couple, Beach Couple, Miss and Mr Cake (Butt), Miss and Mr Legs, Strange Couple, and impersonations. The competitions were really interesting to watch, although I was a bit shocked by the promiscuity of some of the dances, especially with the teachers watching.

One of the dances

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Sand, snow and sun

Interesting weather we had here in the holidays. On Tuesday it rained tonnes - well tonnes for the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world. But because it rained in Copiapó, and the further inland and the higher altitude one goes, the colder it gets, about 100kms inland from us it snowed!

Road, desert, snow



This wasn't just a light dusting of snow, this was brown desert that had been replaced by white - it stretched on for kilometres with the small mountains of the desert in the background. There were a lot of other people there who had come to see the snow. It was something I never expected to see during my time in Chile - snow, and in the desert!

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Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows

Another seven months or so, and I will be home in New Zealand. Today (or yesterday, as I am writing this at 9 minutes past midnight), I have been in Chile for four months. One month from now, the semester students will be returning to their home countries.

How does one feel after spending four months in a foreign country?
Well I must say it's a strange feeling. Chile has felt like, for quite some time, like my 2nd home, like my second life. As I gradually adapt to become more and more Chilean in my ways, I become more in sync with the Chilean culture and become in essence Chilean, perhaps not in the blood, but a part of my heart will always be Chile.
It's not like every day I wake up with a bounce to my step and think, man oh man, look at me, I'm in a foreign country, a 12 hour plane ride from my parents, I can do whatever I like. I can eat cake for breakfast (well, actually, if there IS cake, breakfast is normally when it is eaten), I can party all night and sleep all day.

No, it's not like that. I have my responsibilities here too. For example, to be ready at the time we leave the house to go to school (7.40am). To inform my host mum of anything, if I'm going to be going out after school, if I have a party in the weekend, if I need to take lunch to school. As and AFS student, I have a responsibility to go to school and try to do what I can, also to stay in class and not bunk school, even if the teacher is one hour late, but normally some of my classmates stay too, so I'm not the lonely one.

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Shannon in Denmark

Some photos from Shannon's AFS exchange in Denmark...




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