Isla de Pascua

The final rotary trip has been one the most memorable expiernces of my life. On May 15th, 26 exchange students boarded Lan Airlines for a 5 hour plane ride to Isla de Pascua or Easter Island in English. Of course, there were issues that caused us to wait on the plane for 2 hours and also made the seatback TVs in my row, and only in my row, not work for the entire ride, but I was just happy we arrived safely and the adventure could begin. We disembarked the plane and were greeted with flower necklaces and ukalele playing Rapa Nui's, the islands indigous people.

We moved straight on to the hotel, got room assignments and were granted the blessing of free time. Hot and sticky from the plane, the group made out way down to the shore to find one of the rocky shores and start the photo taking. I was the first in the water, diving into a rocky cove with a man made rock wall to provide slight protection from the crashing waves. I was alone in the water for some times as the fellow exchange students looked on, saying it was "too cold" to get in. I made friends with the local boys that were also swimming there and they showed me how to dive off the rocks when the waves broke over the rocks for the biggest splash and the safest way to climb out of the water on to the black volcanic rocks. Lennart, Alex, and Peik joined me later and hung in the water with out new friends for a while. At this point all of the other students had left and the three friends invited us to play a pick up soccer game with them at the near by school turf field. We jumped out the water dried off and walked over to field with the boys, running into Joey on the way who decided to come with us. I sat on the bleachers and chatted with a guy who I cannot remember the name of about what it was like to live on the island. At 6, we dragged ourselves away from the coastline and soccer game back to the hotel for dinner and a walk down to the Moai statues at Ahu Tahai that sat along the coast for a beautiful sunset. And that included the first wonderful day on Isla de Pascua.

Day two, all of us were up at the bright and early hour of 8:30 to begin our first full day on the island. After comsuming coupious amounts of avocado and fresh fruit for breakfast we headed out on the first day of touring. We stopped first at the rockly coastline to watch powerful waves break over the rocks creating a massive spray of salty water. Next we bussed over to Rano Raraku the biggest collection of Moai and is thought to be their place of construction.

We then moved on to one of the most famous sites on the island Ahu Tongariki. These 15 Moai are thought to be the sententials of the island. Many a photos were taken, however their grand size and beauty couldn't be properly captured on film.

The final hurrah of the day was to head over to Aankena beach, a luscious while sand heaven perfect for swimming and jumping off a near by ledge for maximum fun. The night closed down with tired exchange stundents collapsing into bed early to prepare ourselves for the 5:30 am wake up the next morning to see the sunrise over Ahu Tongariki.

Somehow and someway, I was able to drag myself out of bed at an ungodly hour in the morning to see the sunrise in the bitter cold. But as Chileans put it "vale la pena" which kinda translates to worth the pain. It was beautiful with a sky full of purples, pinks and oranges.

We clambered back to the hotel, consumed another yummy breakfast and headed out for another day full of wonders. We headed over to the largest lava caves on the islands and hiked around inside and on the rock cliffs that meet the ocean. Inside the cave, at one point, we all turned off our flashlights and stood in complete silence and darkness for a few minutes. Our tour guide then started to sing in a rasping voice in the Rapa Nui language filling the cave with the haunting melody.

After the lava cave, we moved on to more Moai viewing sights, which let me tell you, there were many, I think we probably saw every Moai that was on the island. We ended the day with free time to head into town and shop and swim at the beach if we wanted. I ended up doing both. The one drawback of the beautiful island is that everything was extremely expensive which makes sense seeing that it is isolated.

That night we went to our first Sau Sau show, Sau Sau being the dance of Rapa Nui. We went to the spectaculo Kari Kari one of the longest running and most famous on the island. At first, let me just say that it is quite a shock to see men come out on to the stage in only a thong made of feathers or shells and some body paint. The show was very beautiful with the women in elaborate feather headdresses and skirts. It just started to go down hill for me when the dancer in front of me with the crazy eyes and the long tounge stared at me though an entire song so intently that the president of Rotary exchange sitting behind me grabs my shoulder and says " that is a little spooky", of course, it couldn't just end there for me. Once the next song start up , the leader of the group says that they need audience members to come up and dance with them. I, of course start sinking into my seat, but that alas doesn't help me at all when crazy eyes points directy at me and pulls me on stage, in front of roughly 200 people. And away we go, dancing Sau Sau, which I luckly had a bit of practice in because I danced it in front of my school with my classmates for the Chilean indepence day, but that was interrupted by an earthquake, so I was a bit rusty. After being thoughly embarrassed, but hiroucly cheered on by my friends, I sat back down and tried to calm down my flaming cheeks. After the show we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep after a few rounds of cards.

The next day was the final organized tour of the trip. We bussed over to Volcan Rano Kau, now extinct and its crater servies as a fertile wild crop land full of native fruits and vegetable. We hiked around the gaping crater is it was serenely beautiful. Walking through lush green bushes with bright yellow flowers and the blue ocean surrounding us in every directions. I could see the curve of the world. The rest of the day was spent at Anakena beach swimming in the pouring down rain and exploring the town.

The final day on the island was by far the most incredible for me. SCUBA DIVING!!!!!!! The final hurrah and since weather was permitting, I was able to pull on a take and explore the underwater world. Of course it was more organized than that, we all went in group of 4 and each had our own personal guide. My guide, Alfredo, was awesome because most of the guides hovered over their charges holding onto their tanks and directing then to where to go. Alfredo and I practiced breathing with the tank and changed water depth for roughly 5 minutes in the bay before bringing me to the surface saying that I was good to go. We then took off and left the group behind swimming out into the ocean. I saw an arry of fish, crabs, huge crawling sea urchins, and starfish. When the beautiful session ended, Alfredo asked me I had swam competitively before and I told him for roughly 10 years, his only response was, "well, that makes sense, you're a natural.".

That even we had the final Sau Sau showed at another club, this one being a more modern take with a blend of traditional music and a live rock band. I luckily was not pulled up on stage for that one, although it was attempted, I just threw the girl sitting next to me out of her chain and into the isle.

That concluded my amazing trip to Isla de Pascua seeing as we left in the morning on Friday. I was so sad to go because I wanted more time to explore and swim. It was one of the best weeks of my entire exchange and life. I do not know if I will ever make it back to Isla de Pascua ever again in my life, but I am so grateful for the time that I had there.

LOLLAPALOOZIN!!!!!

I love music. Ever type. I have gone through my middle school metal phase, Broadway show tunes in 4th grade, and can even find it in my self to absolutely love country. When I heard about Lollapalooza, an international music festival that has played in Santiago, Chile for the past few years, I knew I had to go. And, I must say that the outrageous bracelet price was worth every penny.


The weekend of March 19th and 20th, 15 exchange students rented two apartments in downtown Santiago to have the weekends of our lives. We all rolled into town Friday afternoon to prep for the days ahead. The first stop was the Constanera Center to pick up our bracelets for the festival and grocery shop for the weekend because food was going to be outrageously priced inside of the festival. Of course, my Chilean cell phone had to be stolen on the subway ride back home but what happens, happens. Now my biggest concern was not to get lost that weekend because no one would be able to reach me.  After claiming beds and chowing down on some mac and cheese because none of us could really cook, we headed out to a disco to dance the night away.

The next morning, morning after a healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs, jam, and bread, us girls dolled up with metallic tattoos and sunscreen headed out for the first day at the festival without the boys who were to lazy to get up early. We entered the festival with relative ease by passing through the empty families only line by 'accident' and "oops, we don't speak spanish". It was roughly 1 in the afternoon and already boiling hot. The first major band we were all dying to see was Walk The Moon, who went on stage later in the afternoon. As we walked through the festival, I, for the first time, took in the size and scale of the show going on around me. With 4 different massive stages, multiple interactive art and game areas, there was no way to get bored. We went over to the Samsung Stage where Walk the Moon would be playing and waited for the next two hours and managed to get front row for the other performances from Candlebox and The Formidable Joy that played before them. The crowd by that time had grown considerably and I was being slammed into the fence so hard that the next day I had bruises along my ribcage. Then Walk the Moon came out and everyone went wild. The set was amazing and so full of energy and happiness. I can say that I touched Nicholas Petricca. One thing that made me love Walk the Moon even more after the weekend was over, is that he was one of the only artists that I saw address the crowd in Spanish. Most of the artists and bands at Lollapalooza were from the US and almost all of them only addressed the crowd in English, but I greatly admired Walk the Moon for reaching out and trying their best to speak in Spanish to their fans.

After Walk the Moon's set finished, we all forced our way out of the mosh pit and over to the fence line, where I spotted a security guard who I had waved at during the performance leaning on the railing. He turned out to be from the US and went on tours with his company and the bands during all of Lollapalooza's international tour. We begged him to see if there was any way that we could meet the band, but all he had was bad news for us saying that they had just left to for the VIP area. However, he was kind enough to let us write them a note that he would pass along and hand out greatly appreciated free water. The next performer to come on stage was Halsey, who killed it, but we were all to tired to stand and jump around, so we enjoyed her vocals from sitting in the grass under the trees.

The sun had set and the big names were coming out. We left Halsey a bit early to catch, what I would now say the best act of all of Lollapalooza, Jack U. Jack U is a DJ set combined of Diplo and Skrillex some of the best artists in the electronic music industry. They had us all jumping and screaming along. While us girls were pushing through the crowd, we ran into Alex, Lennart, Peik, and Mathilde. Joining up with them, we climbed shoulders and threw our hand in the sky to Jack U's madness.
Before Jack U wrapped up, we made out way out of the crowd and over to Itau stage where the legend Eminem would be closing down the night. Having a few minutes to spare before he came on, we all sat down on the pavement and rested out tired feet.

When he finally came out, we went crazy. He opened with the classics and from there moved into his more recent songs off his latest album. I must also say, I don't every think I have heard more f-words said in such a short period of time. Another funny occurrence that I began to notice more is that, while we are all gringos in Chile and used to being stared at, at the festival staring at us for the first time proved to be helpful. Because the artists, for the most part, only speak in English, when they would say "put your hands in the air" or "I want to hear you scream" there would be a couple second of lag time between when the artist would yell and the crowd would react. Of course, me and my friends would get it from the first seconds because we speak English, so the Chileans seemed to play a little looking game. First look at stage, look at the gringos, look back at stage, and then do exactly what we do. We called it the "Gringo Gawk". Once Eminem finished with "I'm Not Afraid" and a resounding firework show, we made our way home and ate for the first time in 12 hours a healthy meal of mac and cheese and bread. We then all then collapsed into bed and crashed.

Day two commenced similar to day one with breakfast and heading to the festival at around 1. We started off the day by screaming along to lyrics to "Stressed Out" with Twenty One Pilots, who killed their performance. When they wrapped up, the girl group headed over to the merch stand to see if there was anything of over priced value to pick up, but they had sold out of literally every the first day. From there we head over to the Samsung Stage again to see ODEZSA, another awesome DJ. I had known a few of their songs prior, but afterward I was a much bigger fan. Next Marina and the Diamonds came on and sang like an angel. I was surprised by how well known she is here in Chile because her crowd was packed. When Marina finished, I caught another glace of the security guard from yesterday, so we made our way over to say hello. After the free water was dolled out, he told us he had a surprise for us. Walk the Moon had got out note and had given him the set list to give to us!!!  We thanked him profusely and chatted for a bit longer and that is when the hunger hit. It had already been a long day and from how exhausted I was from yesterday, I caved, along side Amanda, and we bought ridiculously over priced sandwiches, which I must say, were rather delicious.

We then left the Samsung section and headed over to the VTR Stage to take a seat in the grass and chill for a bit before Mumford and Sons came out. During this time, the group of all 15 exchange students managed to reform and move as a cohesive unit for the rest of the night. After resting our poor tired legs for as long as possible, we grudgingly got up and made out way into the crowd. While pushing though people I ran into to couple from school which was super cool. Mumford and Sons was spectacular and had a completely different energy than any other performances that I had seen in the past two days. From there, we moved stages over to Itau to watch the final act of weekend, Florence and the Machine. Florence came out on to the stage like the real free spirit she is makeup free, hair flowing, and shoeless. She danced around belting out her big hits and closed down the night with an amazing fire works show.

The weekend came to a close and we all headed home and packed up on Monday morning. That was the last big summer shebang for me as school had started and the free days to travel had come to a close. Spending time with friends, listening to great music, and making memories definitely put the Lolla Weekend as one of the most memorable times here in Chile. Now, the only goal is to see Lollapalooza in the 5 other countries it tours!

San Pedro de Atacama

In late February, I traveled with three friends to San Pedro de Atacama for a week long stint in the driest desert in the world.
The plans started off long before for the trip, with the debate of who should go, how big the group should be, and so on an so forth. When it came down to it, Alex Odermatt from Switzerland, Peik Rastenberg from Finland, and Johannas Urbez from Germany and I jumped on a bus at 10 in the morning to start the 27 hour trek to San Pedro. Saying that I regret not paying for a plane ticket is a huge understatement. 27 hours in anything is too long, but 27 hours in a bus with the only complementary food being a juice box and two wafers really puts a damper on the beautiful ocean views that were rolling past my window. When we finally stepped of the bus the next afternoon in San Pedro the most important things on the list were food, shower, and sleep. Coincidentally, Ellie Thomas, another exchange student, and one from Oregon no less, was in San Pedro with her mom showing here around Chile. I was able to snag a few hours with them over a completo before they boarded the bus back to Santiago. After the basic needs of hunger, cleanliness, and exhaustion were met, the crew of Switzerland, Germany, Finland, and the USA ventured back out in the sweltering heat of San Pedro.

Now, San Pedro, the town is built for tourism. Every other shop is a trinket store, a tourism agency or a restaurant trying to pull you in to eat their special. As a collective, we were roped into over 10 tour agencies until finally settling of on one owned by a guy from Brooklyn, New York and Ecuador. He gave us a stellar deal after I played the poor Exchange student card for our four days four tours schedule. The four tours we decided on were Laguna Cejar, Piedras Rojas, Valle de la Luna, and Geysers del Tatio. After shelling out the cash that definitely put a dent in all of our wallets, we wandered over to a restaurant to grab some grub and then fell dead asleep ready for the adventure the next day.

By 1 o clock in the afternoon, I had managed to pester the boys out of bed at our hostel and corralled them into doing some shopping with me. We all picked up a few touristy items before heading to lunch then back to our hostel to grab a swim suit and a towel for our Laguna Cejar tour. We met in font of the agency at 4 and then waited another half an hour for the guide to show up, because you know, this is Chile. The tour had roughly 14 people in it and we were the only gringos surprisingly seeing that most of the population we had seen in San Pedro had been white tourists. The guide first tried speaking in his broken english, but once he realized that we were all fluent, that went by the way side and only spanish was spoken. The bus ride out was around 30 minutes, and when we arrived at the lakes, I couldn't have been happier because the bus had no air-conditioning. We pushed out the bus and made out way over to one of the two lakes that made up Laguna Cejar Park. The first lake that we headed to was the salt lake. This was one of the those super cool and really rare places where the salt to water ratio was so high that it was only possible to float on your back or stomach, and hopefully not get it in your eyes, which of course I did. It burned for a solid 15 minutes. When we finally left the water with salt incrusted skin and lazed around in sun was one one of the most relaxing experiences I have ever had. We walked over to the other lakes to snap some photos. We all hopped back in the van and then headed over to a sink hole where the boys did impressive swan dives while I took a video. From there, we progressed on to a salt flat named Salar de Carmen. By this time the sun was setting and I got to witness a beautiful sun set over the salt flat. Our tour then returned back to San Pedro at roughly 10 o clock. We all grabbed some food then hopped into bed for the night.

The next day was our longest tour called Peidras Rojas. We were picked up from our hostel at 7 am and headed out for a 2 hour drive into the desert to reach out first destination. It was suprising cold with  the temperature bing in the mid 40's and on the way there we passed Volcán Lascar and saw many vicuñas, lama like animals. Our first stop was at Salar de Tara for breakfast and pictures. The boys and I hiked up a small hill to get the best view. It was really rather amazing with dry mountains and green grasses boarding the salt flat. Next was another salt flat, there seemed to be a lot of those in San Pedro. From there we moved on to the Atiplano Lakes and saw Lake Miscanti, Lake Tuyaito, Lake Chaxa and Lake Miñiques. The lakes were stunning with a rich blue hue in contrast to the brown and reds of the desert. from there we moved on to the famous Peidras Rojas, the namesake of the tour. The bright red rocks surrounded the plane lake that reflected the rocks and mountains on its surface. On the drive back into town, the guide pulled off to the side an took us on a quick hike that turned up to be longer than any of us expected due to getting lost and stuck in multiple bramble bushes. That is when the all out war broke loose when Alex threw a dead bramble flower head at me that was full of spines that stuck on my clothes, hair, and shoes. Piek, Johannas, Alex and I all got into the war, much to the humor of  our companions. The final stop on the tour was at the Salar de Tara where we saw flamingos catching shrimp in their natural habitat. We arrived back in San Pedro around 7 o clock dead tired. We ate, played cards and fell into bed.

The third day we went to Valle de la Luna in the afternoon. Valle de la Luna is one of the most famous sights in the Atacama. The dramatic sand dunes and craggy rocks gives off the illusion of another planet. We left with our tour and arrived at the first sight, the Great Dune and a looming rock structure called the Amphitheater because of it shape at around 4 in the afternoon. While walking on the ridge line of the Great Dune, the most amazing thing happened in the driest desert in the world, it started to rain, and then pour. Our tour guide, equally amazed as all of us, called it the Bolivian Winter and said it is an extremely rare phenomenon that only happens with the right conditions and air depression. After the dune, we moved on to Los Tres Marias or The Three Mary's. Los Tres Marias were rock formation that maybe when first discovered looked like the Virgin Mary with Jesus in various poses, but now the use of imagination is necessary. The next stop we made vast to an underground cave system in the valle. This was super cool. Partially crawling on hands and knees and hunched over though the cave, I was thankful my height topped out at 5 feet 2 inches while my poor European friends, minus one, were well over 6 foot. For the final shebang we headed over to the ridgeline of the entire valley and watch the sunset over the red rocks and dry desert. The tour ended and we headed back into town with some of the best photos from the trip so far and straight to bed for an early night because the next day would be an early one.

Our final tour in San Pedro would be one of our most memorable. We all roused with sleep filled eyes at 4 am in the morning to head out to see the Geysers of Tatio that were best viewed at dawn. The boys and I stumbled onto the bus and promptly fell asleep. As we climbed in altitude, the guide warned us of altitude sickness because at the height at which we were at, our bodies would not be used to the surroundings. The geysers sat at roughly 4,500 meters above sea level. After a 2 hour drive, we hopped out the van and froze. It was extremely cold at the geysers and in this moment Peik and I noticed that the Alex and Johannes didn't have pants or a coat on. They had worn their swimsuits in the van for the hot springs and had not brought a change of clothes. It was currently below freezing and they were in shorts. But being the boys that they are they refused to admit they felt the chill. We ran over the first geyser right as it exploded. From then on, we were moved around like atoms, bouncing back and forth between the other geysers. When we completed the small walk between the geysers, the tour guide was waiting for us with a breakfast of avocado, bread, jam, and tea. The first hot spring pool was along side of the parked tour vans and so the boys and I hopped in. Sadly, it was not as hot as I would wish it had been and quickly got out before I froze to death. We then piled back into the van and that when the guide let us in on the secret hot spring he was taking us to. There was a natural running creek that had the hottest water while being surrounded by the most beautiful green foliage. After the final dip in the spring we headed back down to town and that concluded the final outing in San Pedro. We all collapsed back into bed and fell asleep till dinner.













San Pedro will always hold a special place in my heart. I spent a week with some of my best friends and found a new sense of independence. We were by far the youngest travelers in San Pedro without parents and were often of the receiving side of the crazy side glances screaming "what are these kids doing here by themselves?". From the early mornings and late nights and every second in-between, I loved it and my love and appreciation for my friends and new country, Chile, grew and grew. I hope someday I will return to San Pedro de Atacama and experience its beauty once more.

Family Vacations

This summer I was able to travel to Iquique, Chile for two weeks vacation with my host family. Iquique is a beach city built on the base of massive san dunes on the cusp of the Atacama Desert. My days were spent lazing on the beach and exploring the city at night, either with my host family or fellow Rotary Exchange students that live there. My family stayed with my aunt and uncle in a amazing high rise right behind of the most popular beach, Playa Cavancha.

Chilean vacation life is very interesting. I come from a family that full every minute of vacation with activities or outings. My family in Chile is the exact opposite. The day to day schedule would be similar to this. Wake up at 9:30, eat breakfast, go to the beach at 11, come back to the house at 1:30 and eat lunch till three. Take a nap till 6 or 7 pm, go out to dinner or eat once and sometimes  go to the zofre, a huge shopping mall without import taxes. 

After a day of this I was already going crazy with house fever, side note, the house didn't have WIFI. So I spent most afternoons after lunch at the beach by my self or with other exchange kids to occupy my time. Which, I must say I loved, and by the time I left, I am pretty sure that all the lifeguards knew who I was, because I mean english speaking gringas are pretty rare here in Chile. 

One of the most amazing experience I had Iquique was being able to go paragliding off the high dunes that rose behind the city. It was an amazing experience recommended by my host uncle here who has gone 7x. It was oddly tranquil and super relaxing even though you are floating thousands of feet off the ground. I was accompanied by a guide who was harnessed in behind me. I had almost 20 minutes of airtime and they are probably the best minutes of the entire vacation. When I finally landed I just wanted to go back up and do it again. There was an extreme silence when in the air, all I could hear was the wind rushing past and it was a sensation like no other. I guess next on the list is skydiving.

Iquique words a great experience and definitely good bonding time with my host family. It's also one of the times that makes exchange even more real. Because laughing with my host dad as Maximo thros sand at us is an experience I'll probably never have the pleasure of enjoying another time in my life. Sure, I can come back and visit in a few years and they could come to the US and visit me but it will never be the same as me living in their house with me and having the daily rituals of a normal life that a family has. It is just taught me to enjoy it while it lasts because it has flown so fast. I have hit the sixth month mark so now if it now longer, "wow, I've been here for 3 months" but, "shoot, I leave in 5". 

Sparkles and Stitches

December 5th was a busy day for me. After witnessing a car accident in the morning and continuing on to Fantasilandia, an amusement park, I then went to my school's gala for cuartos, Chile's version of seniors, a dance and dinner for the kids graduating for my school, Institute Chacabucco.
My best friend Francisco, Pancho for short, and my date for the night picked me up with his parents at 6. The week prior I went shopping with Amanda in Santiago for a dress and shoes. His mom was super cute and started crying when she saw us together.

The gala was held at my school under huge white tents with more flowers I had seen in my entire life. It was in a sense similar to prom in the US, except that it was a lot more fancy and more family orientated. There was a 4 course sit down meal with the family then followed by the dance floor opening up.

Another thing about different is that parties in Chile don't wrap up at the same time parties do in the US. They go all night, and I mean all night, till 5am, but my night, or should I say, morning didn't end that way. At around 4am, I was on the dance floor, without shoes, like all the other girls at this hour, when a kind fellow behind me shattered a glass on the ground. Now when that glass shattered, a piece flew off and cut the heel of my foot, badly. He stumbled behind me, grabbed my shoulder saying "todo bein" which means "all is good" and when I looked down at my foot, all was not good. There was a ton of blood! I was dancing with my friend Joaquin, and when he saw what happened he quickly picked me up and carried me outside to a bench, with Pancho close behind him. Lying down on the bench, people huddled around trying to figure out what happened. I am honestly not a super big fan of blood, so when I saw how much was pouring out, I couldn't keep looking. Javier, another friend of mine in cuarto, who is awesome, ran over and held my head in his lap and kept me distracted. I was once again picked up, this time by Pancho, who then carried me over to the hospital, which was luckily across the street from my school(benefits of a small town).

I was taken into a room where Pancho and I sat waiting for a doctor. The doctor came in and took one look at my heel, and said stitches. Now, I should mention, I like needles even less than I like blood. I reallyyyyyy hate needles, like a hyperventilating, "excuse me miss, but you need to calm down" type of hate. So, I was not excited for this. The doctor sits down to start, when all of a sudden his named is called and he looks to me and says, "Sorry, you are going to have to wait a little longer a patient just came in with an allergic reaction and I need to see to her". Fine with me, more time without a needle entering my skin. The girl with the allergic reaction rolls past in one of those hospital beds, but wait, I know her. It's Claudia! My Chilean friend that went to on exchange to Hood River, Oregon last year that lives in Los Andes also. We have hung out a lot and she was also at the gala. I throw up a peace sign and we share a moment of "well this sucks" and then she rolls away.

Pancho and I waited for a few more moments and a man came into the room and said, "well, lets get started". This man did not look anything like a doctor, no white jacket, but you know what, it was 5am, I rolled with it. And then the doctor and the nurse dove in. Numbing shots, I found out hurt real bad, and have a very very long needle. Pancho was great and supplied me with hands to strangle. Proud to say that I did not cry, but a few "Jesus Christ and Oh my God" slipped out and a certain point the doctor mocked me with a Chilean accented "Jesus Christ". I mean, come on, really, you are sewing into my skin and now your are going to make fun of me, ...thanks.

In the end, I received 7 stitches. When I rolled out of the room and into the lobby, my friend Joaquin and his date were sitting waiting. They came over and said hi and checked in on me, but I was confused as why they were still there, it was 5:30 in the morning! My doctor came up behind me and then say goodbye and my friends walked out, following him. Poncho later told me that my doctor was Joaquin's father and that he stitched me up pro bono. Poncho and I took a taxi back to my house and watched the sun rise over the Andes mountains. I arrived home promptly at 6 am and fell asleep till noon.

The past weeks have been multiple doctors visits, again to Joaquin's dad, then to one doctor in Rotary ( my counselor Denis), and then on from there to Waldo Rodriguez, a plastic surgeon, a friend of Rotary and as I found out while talking to him the cousin of Joaquin's dad ( another benefit of living in a small town). There was a slight scare about a week in because the skin on the lower half of the wound was dying and it was looking like that I was going to need to have surgery and get a skin graft. The doctor decided to give it another week and see if the healing progressed, but if not, again under the needle I would go. Luckily, I did start to heal, but sadly very slowly. This caused me to miss the school trip with my entire grade to Bariloche, Argentina for a week, but seeing as I couldn't walk, there wasn't much I could do.

I must say that this whole stitches situation has been a learning experience in independence. First of all, I went to all of the doctor appointments alone, got lost once, and fumbled my way around in spanish trying to explain exactly what happened. I has also been a lot of alone and down time where I watched more movies and TV shows than I have in all of my life. But, life is still great. Christmas is right around the corner and so is the New Year. I head on vacation with my host family to Iquique, a beach town in the far north of Chile. I hope who ever reads this that your Christmas is lovely and filled with joy, and hopefully a little colder than my high 90 degree weather that has been killing me. Merry Christmas!

Love Every Moment

People say that when something traumatic happens that it is good to talk about it. It hurts people to hold it in.

So, this is me talking.

On December 5th at 7:50 am I saw a man die.

I was sitting down on the sidewalk next to Liam and Amanda, two other exchange students, waiting for a bus, full of my host mom's coworkers to pick all of us up and take us to Fantaslandia, an amusement park in Santiago. My host mom, Alia had told me earlier in the week that around this time of year the park closes down and lets companies rent it out for events. Each year my host mom's bank rents the park for a day. She had 3 free tickets that she generously gifted to me. I happily invited Amanda and Liam to join me.

As were we sitting there, taking goofy selfies to post on Snapchat and complaining about how early it was, a man on a bike pedaled out in front of us. This was normal. I live on one of the busiest streets in my town. What wasn't normal was a black Dodge Ram flying down my street at unprecedented speeds and swerving. Swerving, and hitting a man 10 feet in front of me. The sound was scarring. The high pitched squeal of breaks being slammed on. The sound of metal crunching but also metal crunching into a man.

Everything slowed down. I do not know how, but I just know that it did. I remember the small things, the shiny silver of the car's grill as it came closer and closer and the bright purple of the driver's shirt. I kept thinking, why isn't it stopping? And then I realized, we had to move, because, if we didn't we were the next to be hit. I raced away, tearing down the sidewalk. I didn't look back. I didn't want to see if the truck was still coming, if it was still right behind me.

When I finally stopped running, I was halfway down the block. Amanda and Liam parallel to me. Looking over at Amanda, she had blood dripping down her face, from her forehead and into her eye socket. Three cuts ran across her forehead caused by, we later learned, the glass from the car's headlights. We were all in shock, I ran over to Amanda and grabbed her face, seeing that cuts weren't too deep, I then checked in with Liam to see if he was also okay. He and Amanda both had scratches scattered over there legs from running through the bushes to get away.

Seeing that they were fine, I went back. I went back to see if there was anything I could do for this man. But when I was roughly five feet away, I knew that there wasn't. He was under the front wheels of the car, his bike stuck in between. I couldn't go closer. I couldn't bring myself to look at his face. He was dead. There was no way that he could have survived.  

As I backed away, I saw that is was good that we all ran, and it was good that we all ran as fast as we did. Where that car and that man finally came to stop was on top of the sidewalk, partially in the bushes covering the exact spot I and my friends had sat two minutes prior.

Everything else happened pretty quickly from there. Police, firemen, and ambulances showed up. Neighbors from my condo's poured outside. Cars stopped to see the commotion. Amanda got cleaned up and bandaged. We did end up going to the amusement park. We all thought it could be a good distraction from what we had experienced. We came back from having a good time at the amusement park, to head over to the police station to give out statements to the police. There we found out that the man was driving extremely drunk and had taken full responsibility of all charges.

What we experienced, I will never forget. It lingers when I close my eyes and sometimes haunts me in my dreams. But at the same time, I know that I am blessed, that I have God watching out for me and keeping me safe. I am grateful that it was me and my friends sitting on that sidewalk, not a child or an elderly person that could not move as fast as us. I am grateful for the love and support shown to me by my family and friends here in Chile that made my day easier. I am also grateful for every moment I spend on this Earth, living the beautiful and wonderful like I have been given. I endeavor to love every moment.

Patagonia

On November 13th at 2 am, 32 exchange students boarded a flight from Santiago, Chile to Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile. From there, I spent one of the best weeks of my life with a group of kids who have become my family. I saw incredible natural wonders that pictures cannot capture in words and I also slept less in that week that I do normally in one night.
After landing in Punta Arenas Saturday at 6 am, we began the long bus trip to Calafate, Argentina, the first stop on our trip. Crossing the border proved uneventful and I am now I am proud to say that I have traveled to 2 foreign countries.  We arrived in Calafate Sunday at 1am. That is a lot of time in a bus, listening to the same music on repeat. However, I was just happy to havehad  a shower. I fell asleep instantly because in the past 2 days I had slept around 5 hours.
In Argentina, I  had the pleasure of being able to visit Parque Nacional de los Glaciares. This was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. The ice rose so high and had the most beautiful colors, ranging from sparkling white to crystalline blue. It was not as cold as I would thought it would be but when the wind picked up you could really feel the chill. The park has winding wooden bridges that served as a path throughout the park's forest. It has multiple view points where countless photos were taken. When we were all finished on the bridges, Rotary treated us to a boat ride to get even closer to the glacier.

After spending many hours at the glacier, we made the trip back on the bus to go back to the hotel in Calafate. In Calafate, I was able to have some free time to wonder around the town and pick up souvenirs.
The next day we hopped back on the bus and went to Parque Nacional de los Glaciares for a second time and went on a few short hikes in the park. One lead to a waterfall and the other to the top of a bluff for amazing mountain viewing.

After a day full of hiking, I slept like a rock and the bus ride back to Chile the next day passed quickly because I did was sleep. Before the hotel, we stopped at probably my favorite place I have been so far this year in Chile. Torres del Paine. At the park we ate lunch in a beautiful restaurant looking over a lake with he mountains in the sitting behind a lake of the bluest water I have ever seen. After lunch, we hiked up a hill to get an ever better view. I felt so blessed in this moment standing at the top of this hill looking at the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and a place that even my photos can not fully describe.

The trip soon wrapped up after this. Two more days of travel time with stops of the way to stretch our legs. One of those stops was a surprise and so much fun! All of crammed on to a boat and rode 45 minutes out the sea to end up on an island of penguins!!! There were so many of them and it was nesting season so I got to see some mated pairs with their egg.

When this trip ended I was more tired that I had ever been in my entire life but I am more grateful to everyone who made it possible. I know my exchange e family better thank ever a every single one of them. I owe big thanks to my family, I wish you could have seen all of this with me, and to rotary both here in Chile and back in Oregon.

Until next time.