Hello to everyone! 

I had a really nice weekend and am enjoying a sunshiny day today. 

Interesting weekend events that confirm I am definitely not in Lewistown, MT:

1.  Saw a homeless man chasing down another homeless man who apparently stole something from him.  The man chasing him down had a massive stick that he was going to hit him with (if only he were faster).  I have only seen something like this in the movies.  It was slightly humorous to watch.  When it was obvious that the thief was not going to get caught, he turned around, smiled, and waved.  With a look like, “haha you can’t catch me now.” 

2.  I watched a man get arrested by two policemen who were on horseback.  I have no idea what he did, but they weren’t exactly being gentle with the man.  It was quite a scene. 

3.  I was chased by a stray dog while I was running, but rather than biting me on the leg, he went for my shoe, thank goodness.  I think it was the intimidating look that I gave him that made him change his mind about actual flesh.  I am not particularly fond of dogs, and here in Antofagasta I think that there are more stray dogs than there are citizens.  The dogs have never bothered me, but it must have been a bad Saturday morning for this one. 

My other fear that exists in large quantities here…the pigeons!  I really don’t like birds and I really, really don’t like pigeons.  They are everywhere (this includes buildings)!!  I make extremely large loops around them, and always check the lampposts before I walk under them in order to avoid getting pooped on my head.  I have lucked out so far! 

The university’s anniversary is next week, which will result in many class cancellations I am sure.  The exchange students have to prepare a traditional dish from their country for the event.  Molly (the other student from the U.S.) and I will be preparing no-bake cookies (we are trying to keep it simple), but we are really struggling with what else to make because food such as hamburgers and hotdogs are very common in Antofagasta.  The international coordinator suggested Jambalaya, but are unable to find a boxed mix, so who knows what we will end up creating!  I think PB&Js would be a reasonable option J.  It should be fun, and with students from Spain, Peru, Bolivia and Mexico, I am really looking forward to doing a little tasting of the different foods!  So if anyone has any suggestions for something easy and U.S.A.ish for us to make, please let me know!

I am absolutely loving all of the walking and reading that I get to do because I have the time!  Life is good!

Love to all!! 

 

 

Enjoying the sunsets

The first order of business is my basketball test.  I hate to brag, but I did not receive 0/7... no, I scored a 3.5/7!  This means that I did not make a single shot, BUT every single one of my shots hit the rim (no air balls!).  This is the reason I run instead of play basketball.

I have had the joy of two beautiful sunsets in a row.  I really wish I had my camera on last night's walk, but  I did catch the tail end of tonight's sunset.

This was the point in which I decided I needed a picture of the sunset tonight.  I took this from the balcony outside my room before running across the street, but the bright colors were already gone by that time.   

The 21st of May is a holiday in Chile to celebrate the Chilean Navy.  On May 21, 1897 there was a naval battle between the naval forces of Chile and Peru during the War of the Pacific.  After this battle, Chile was able to claim more land, which is the northern most part of Chile today.  Therefore, it is now a Chilean holiday.  I went to the parade here and thanks to my height, I was able to capture a lot of the tops of heads in my pictures.

Dancers

Performing the national dance of Chile

People EVERYWHERE!

This is at the port of Antofagasta.

Dancing drummers after the parade.  They were quite talented!

A protest over something after the parade ended.

The police arrived at the scene on horseback.

And check out the completion of the demolition...

I miss you all!! xoxo

 

Wintertime

Everything continues to go well here in Antofagasta. 

Winter is approaching and the cold weather is difficult to endure.  The temperatures are dropping into the low 60’s during the days… I should have brought more winter clothes J. 

It’s my last week of basketball in my sports class (whoohoo!!) and then we will start going to the city center for the swimming unit.  Thankfully basketball isn’t a real popular sport here, so none of the other students are real stars!  My only concern is that this week is “testing week” over our basketball skills.  I opted to take the layup portion of the test last week and made 6 out of my 7 baskets, and the one I didn’t make hit the rim, so I received half of a point.  I was quite excited to start out with a 6.5/7 because tomorrow I have to complete the free throw portion.  It’s not looking too good for me because during my 30-minute free throw practice last week, I made a total of two baskets.  Seeing as I have seven chances, I am expecting to receive a 0/7.  Maybe I will be having an off day and make at least one shot!

Earlier today Veronica informed me that Lulú’s (the niece that lives with us for the semester because college students here tend to live with their direct family or extended family) mom has breast cancer.  She is going to have an operation tomorrow in Santiago, and they will know more after this.  Lulú and her brother don’t know about the cancer yet, but I think the plan is to tell them tomorrow after the operation.  I feel absolutely terrible and am praying for the best.

My final blog topic for the week is the university system.  I find it extremely interesting!  I may not have this all exactly correct, but my understanding is that there is an entrance exam for all students who want to continue on to college.  The score that the person receives on the test determines what “carrera” or major they can choose.  The more money that the particular career path earns in the working world results in a more expensive carrera.  This means that as an elementary education major, I would pay way less to attend college than a pre-med major.  Secondly, there are parallels, and each student is placed in a parallel their freshman year of college.  The parallel consists of about 20 students that have a set schedule of classes together for the entire time they are at the university.  There is no such thing as choosing classes (that is why I had such a difficult time getting a schedule because I did it U.S. style and picked my individual classes).  There are also parallels in grades K-12.  Students attend the exact same classes with the exact same students for this entire time of schooling!  The students aren’t able to choose their classes even in high school… which means I wouldn’t have been able to take culinary arts, band, etc.  However, at the university there are a few elective classes that the students can take on top of their set schedule, for example my sports class.  I am absolutely fascinated with this system and also very thankful for the freedoms that I am blessed with in our education system.      

These are pictures of the demolition/my morning alarm clock/great source of dust that is occurring outside of my bedroom.

Love to everyone!   

Good times!

Lulú preparing her omelets.

Family photo on omelet night.

My exchange program included a free one month Spanish course, and for our last day of the course the professor invited Molly (the other exchange student) and I to her house for teatime.  (Molly and I were the only two in the course).  The other girl in the photo is the professor's daughter.

My professor with her two daughters.

She was all bundled up to head out into the cold 60 degree winter weather :)

The table all prepared for our special Mother's Day teatime... brownies, apple tort, Swedish pancakes, fresh squeezed apple juice.... YUM!

Veronica and her mom

Both Jorge's mom and Veronica's mom joined us for Mother's Day.

We love the self-timer!

My Chilean mom and I.

My bike was found =)

My exciting news is that I just received an email from the University of Wyoming Police Department, and they found my bike today!!  ... It was stolen in November.  I am slightly excited!!!

Anyhow, Chile is great.  I still am not sure how I did on my first test... Hopefully I will know by the end of the semester, but we'll see! I also gave a presentation in my translation class, which went well as far as I know.  I don't know if I will ever get to see my grade for that one.  The grading scale is 0-7 here, so I will try not to have a heart attack when I see such a low score.  It's actually nice to have a tiny bit of school work to focus on.

Last weekend was nice.  I spent a lot of time at beaches, as I showed in my pictures.  I loved it!  It was a nice mix of people that I enjoyed my Easter weekend with, including a skype with my parents, Greg, and his dad.

This Saturday night was great! Veronica asked her niece, Lulú, and I if we would make something just for fun one night.  So Lulú made omelets Saturday (Veronica ended up taking over because the kitchen is her kingdom), but they were great.  Jorge made us drinks (strawberry, coconut, and pisco-a Chilean rum), which were wonderful!  We spent about three hours just talking (I mainly just listened), but it was really nice for me to have that time with my host family.  I am going to make a simple dessert on Saturday in honor of Mother's Day because Veronica LOVES sweets... and I really don't want to attempt to make a difficult meal for several reasons... it is hard to find the same ingredients here, the oven doesn't have different temperature settings, and there are very few measuring devices in this house. I am going to have enough trouble with a simple dessert.  

I skipped out on volunteering yesterday because after church service I was invited back for a lunch with the "foreigners." I am very glad I went!  This time it was at a different house, but also incredibly beautiful!  Of course, lunch was beyond delicious, I can't even begin to describe the desserts, and the conversation and company was spectacular!

Life is good! xoxo