Christmas, bad water, backpacking, leaving

Well lets start this one off with talking about Christmas. Christmas was full of nostalgia for me. I don't think we realize how blessed we are until we leave home and I was missing those old family christmas mornings. However, through the home sickness, I was blessed to have a great host family here. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner and everybody stays up until midnight to hugs and wish everybody else a merry christmas. From there, they give the presents. No Santa coming in through the chimney and waiting till christmas morning.

We had a family gift exchange and I got a nice bottle of wine and some cologne, which is the classic chilean gift it seems as just about everyone in the family got the same thing. It was a fun night and finished it off with talking to my wonderful brother and dad via the powers of facetime for a bit. All they while, all my friends were out partying at the bars on christmas eve till 8 in the morning! that is just really strange to me.

Christmas day we headed out to a ranch and there we had a family "Asado" where we cooked up a nice lamb and played soccer and had a really nice time. Unfortunately for me, I drank the water on this ranch, which lead me to yesterday, a terrible stomach ache, lots of things coming out of me, and a small town hospital with one doctor. Well it wasn't exactly fun but I could't come to south america whiteout my bad water experience!

My bad water experience was also countered by a delicious water experience. Last week I went to Torres del Paine to backpack the park a little bit and see what all the rave was about. Well it was truly beautiful and super fun to head out alone and without a plan and little money to find adventure. There, I drank "mate" with the park rangers, watched the sun rise over these towering peaks, drank the best water I have ever had from various mountain streams, and heard a surprising amount of english and even more than that, talk about Colorado. We Coloradans rep the end the world pretty well it seems as I met like 7 people from the state while in this national park 8,000 miles away.

After all of the experiences down here, I am also prepping my things to go. That is a weird feeling. I feel like I just got here but also that I have been here for a very long time. This family here, the friends, have really excepted me and I am super thankful for all they have done. I think I am ready to head out as this adventure has given me what it had to offer and it's time to see what's next. There is something strange about traveling, everything about home gets a whole new perspective. I met a girl from Holland in a hostal one day who said she had spent so many years traveling that she doesn't even know where home is anymore. That struck a chord with me. Home is where the people we care most about are, and while we all have to leave a some point and find our way, the people we care about will be there, waiting for us to get home.  Well, in a little over 2 weeks, I'm coming home!

Torres del Paine in the background

When I went to mark cows

Delicious dinner

La familia! 

Prepping the lamb.

 Gaucho at work on Christmas day.

La esquila

Well last week, I headed out with my host uncle to the esquila (shearing). What does this mean you might ask?
About 12 guys head out, six of them the shearers and the other 6 work processing the wool into bails that are ready fro shipment. This is a dirty, hard and long job but it was extraordinary. I spent 4 days working with these guys as the backdrop of the 8th wonder of the world accompanied our time (Torres de Paine was actually voted the 8th wonder...) It was hard work, there is no doubt about it, but man was it cool. I am not just here going to the tourist spots, I get to work and live with the people. Working long days, eating lots of really good meet, and learning the life of the sheep ranch was all just a great experience. Fishing and herding sheep, drinking wine and eating lots of bread.... am I living in bible times?

I have a little over a month left in Chile. I am left with a weird feeling of excitement to be home and sadness to leave this place. It hasn't been the easiest but it sure has been an amazing learning experience. I am at peace knowing that maybe I didn't have the classic, party too much and take touristy picture exchange, but what I did have was the opportunity to meet lots of great people and make connections that will last a lifetime as well as learning bounds about this thing called life. The Holidays are rolling around soon and the days are 19 hours long and the weather is warm, boy o boy is that weird.

That's all I got. Here are some pictures.

Lambs, crab, thanks, and Id Cards.

Well I am done with school here. I officially finished last week (though we haven't had grades for quite some time now). It feels like I have spent a semester without classes, as I wasn't really challenged ever in class, except for the language, which is hard me for. I like to be challenged and see what I am made of, but school wasn't that for me here. I have my first of my two senior year graduations tomorrow!

Now to the title. Last friday I walked up to my host aunts host to hang out and what did I find, a lamb in the backyard. That is pretty normal here but what made me super excited was when they said we gonna eat it! Now that was just pure joy. That night, my host uncle and I spent a couple hours killing, skinning, gutting and prepping the lamb for the asado al palo (barbecue of sorts where they cool the whole lamb together).  We also drank Nachi (lambs blood with cilantro and garlic) which was pretty cool. I had 7 or 8 big ol spoons of that stuff... yummmmm. We ate the lamb as a family with wine, potatoes, laughter and messy fingers. It was my thanksgiving of sorts. I have also spent the week trying to save the lambskin and use it to make something cool but to my demise, it's not working very well.

Now to the crab. Monday at 4:40 am a friend of mine here in town picked me up and we headed to the docks. We were heading out on his 13m boat to fish crab with him and 3 other fisherman. We were the only boat to head out, everyone else was scared of the wind and waves. Well, they were right to be scared. I spent the entire morning throwing up and trying to sleep off the sea sickness with intervals of watching the guys works and trying to help where I could. By the afternoon I was feeling much better and was helping and chatting it up as we stripped the crab from the nets and pulled up more nets. The day ended as I navigated us back home with a leather sack filled with wine in one hand and the wheel of the boat in the other. Toninas (patagonian dolphins) accompanied the ride home, playing the wake. It was pure good. Unfortunately my camera broke last week so I don't have any pictures but I thinking I am going to head out again and i'll borrow a camera.

Thanks. Its thanksgiving and I am very thankful. To my family here who have taken me in and treated me well. Thankful that I made tomato soup and grilled cheese last night to celebrate America and thanksgiving (a bit easier than the whole turkey thing). Thankful my family is healthy and safe. Thankful for all the prayers and thoughts during this challenging month.

Lastly I have to spend a couple lines talking about my Chilean ID card. I got here 4 months ago and within my first two weeks went to go get my ID card like we all have to. Well through a series of problems with paperwork, strikes, changing of ID card system, and island life, I now finally have my ID card in hand, 4 months later. It expires in 2 months, so that's a bummer, but at least I finally have this stupid piece of plastic!

Cheers y Salud.

1 week later

Well here we are. One week later.

This week has been crazy. Sunday we had all the processions and afterwards, it was a really good time of family. Really all this week has been wholesomely full of family. Lots of big meals with lots of people. Lots of team efforts and family pitching in to help out. This week, we took on the project of cleaning this house.

Years of laziness and disorganization have left this house in horrible condition. The was a continuous drip of water in the kitchen for months. The back yard wasn't enterable as it was full of wood scraps, trash, and whatever other thing you can think of. There was trash and stacks of random things in every corner and a living room full of it upstairs. I wanted so badly to fix it all when I got here but I just couldn't do it alone. I asked for us to do it as a family but with my host dad as he was and my host mom working with mayor stuff, we never did it. Well this week, we are doing it. We are restoring the greenhouse in the backyard, fixing things around the house, cleaning all the junk out and leaving the house in a good state. After 6 full truckloads of trash to the dump, I found a door to a patio upstairs I never knew existed. Tomorrow we have about 4 trucks full of wood to take from the backyard. It's truly incredible how much stuff there is. I am continuously thinking in how much better off I am living simply than with all the junk that the consumerism of today pushes us to buy. We have thrown out bags and bags of clothes, and toys and just random crap that is unnecessary.

I repeat, its been crazy. But I also must say, it feels nice working a good hard 8 hour days. At least, I am working. These chilean guys stop every 45 minutes to drink wine or beer or eat. Every time I raise my head my compadres are drinking something else!

All in all, well it has been a good way to help. However, its definitely still hard. I never would have thought this would be my exchange. If I know one thing about God, its that he likes to break plans and show us we really aren't in control.

Well its time to go eat some more and rest my body. Everything hurts.

Thanks everyone for all your support.

Alder

As I sit by this iron stove listening in peace to crackle of the flame, I am overwhelmed. This last 24 hours has been well... awful.

Late last night a bang thundered through the house. Seconds later, screams followed. My host dad has fallen down the stairs and my host mom was screaming for me to come. I jumped out of bed to see what had happened. I see the staircase, and there, his body. Sprawled facedown at the bottom of the stairs. "What do we do" was the only thought my host mom and I had.

We called the ambulance, my host aunt, and the police immediately. I was trying so desperately to turn him over, to see some source of life. My host mom as well. The silence of her cries flooded the house "don't leave me! Stay here for our daughter! for Tania"

The medics arrived within minutes but with their help we still couldn't move him. At almost 300lbs, it took 6 of us to get him to the Ambulance. They tried to revive him but to no avail. He had suffered a heart attack. I just stood there, praying.

We brought him to the hospital but we all new he was already gone. They pronounced my host dad dead at 3:45 a.m November 8th.

A day full of trying to support my host family and stay strong as left me utterly lost. This family accepted me so graciously into their home and now the man of the house is gone. My sister got in from Santiago at 4 this afternoon and we have spent the whole day at the Wake in the house. Here, they spend 2 days in the house with the body and then go to the funeral and burial. This town has united to support our family and that is something beautiful to see. The future is completely unwritten from here.

Last night I was preparing to head off to my 90km bike race through Patagonia. Now, I am thinking of the man who spent countless meals with me, taught me Truco (a latin card game), talked philosophy with me, and was constantly teaching me patience.

Alder Milla Vasquez, gracias para el tiempo que tuve contigo... y para todo que me enseñaste.

When I first arrived and my room's heating was broken, he sat next to this stove late into the evening feeding the flame so I wouldn't be cold... Alder, now its my turn. God bless.

Please pray for all the Andrade and Milla family.

Kings, penguins, and french people.

Tuesday, a good friend and I made plans to ditch class and head out to the Emperor Penguin Park that is about two hours south of Porvenir. Unhealthy snacks and cameras in hand, we embarked. After snatching some photos and watching those crazy animals be all penguin-like, we then head further south to a tiny little town call Cameron.

This town optimizes small. The school has about 20 kids from 1st to 12th grade and has one street. We were walking around, talking life and being watched the people who are clearly not used to foreigners (me, he is chilean). After walking up the one road for a bit, we ran into something strange. A group of tall French and Argentines speaking a slur of Spanish and French loading up horses with camera and trekking equipment. This, my friends, is not something that happens every day in Cameron. After talking to them a bit we figured out they were doing a reality adventure type contest t.v. program right here in Tierra del Fuego. It was pretty neat to talk to them. In midst of it, a slight jealousy of their adventure started to creep over my shoulders when I realized something wholesomely beautiful. They came to this country for 2 weeks to be guided through it by natives and to snap pictures of the scenery. They will never get to know the people, the food, the dances, the lifestyle, or the truly remote and beautiful spots. This is why I came here, I am perfectly content in that decision.

Now you are all wondering what in the world the "king" part of the title is. Well let me take a minute, just sit right, and i'll tell you how I became the King of a town called Porvenir. (just dropping some Will smith beats) 

This week was my schools spirit week and my team elected me to be their King! Well, I was all for it. Well turns out, as part of king, I had to dance a lot (not a problem), cheer a lot (eh), eat some gross food in the name of competition (ok), and take off my shirt so my queen could give me more lipstick kisses than the other team (heck ya). Its been 5 days and I still cant get the lipstick of my back. Their competitions here are super funny. They have a Mr. and Mrs. competition and for example, there was a Mrs. Curves and they actually measured the girls from both teams to see how curvy they are. I couldn't believe it. Last night was the dance and well, my team won. Team blue for life.

Thats all I got. Below are some pictures. Viva Chile.

This is when I went to a farm and rode for a couple hours and this beautiful steed. Look at the good looking Chilean. 

some pics of Santiago

Cuidate en Santiago.

Last wednesday, this small town boy headed out to the big city. As I told my classmates and friends I was heading out to Santiago, they all gave me some big city advice. Translated to english it read a little like this:

*Dont drink the water there, its terrible and will make you sick.
*If you walk the streets past dark somebody will most likely jump you and steal all your money
*its really dirty there
*people aren't nice

That was most of the advice I received for my 3 day journey north. Now lets take some time to analyze it. The water, while not quite as good as patagonian water, did not kill me, make me throw up, or spend days pooping. So that was cool. I could even order a tap water in a restaurant, which when I do in Porvenir, they just look at me funny. Secondly, I was out till approximately 3 in the morning two of the nights with friends walking around and to my demise, am still here and nobody robbed me. Shucks.
Now to address the dirt. Yes, Santiago is super smoggy but it wasn't terrible when I was there and they streets were cleaner than in Porvenir! Them southerners really like to litter. And finally, I asked a variety of people for advice and where to eat or go out and they were super friendly and willing to answer.

Now, I am sure there are exceptions to my experience and dangerous, dirty, silly places, but all in all, had a very pleasant experience in Santiago. I must say however, its wreaked of America. I stepped off the plane to a starbuck and cinnabon and there was english at every turn. Viva Patagonia!

Shoot! I'm almost an adult

In 5 days, I will turn 18. To me, that is something extraordinarily peculiar. I have thought I was an adult  since about the age of 10 and now its really happening. What my life looks like in my life right now:

Not doing my own laundry (gotta love Chile- I hate laundry)

Only cooking about once a week

Listening to/making sex jokes or gringo jokes all the time

Learning the cello (life long dream, and turns out my school has cellos to lend) 

learning spanish 

learning bad words in spanish

using bad words in spanish 

not driving 

walking to school everyday and loving every second of it

living in freaken Patagonia Chile! 

Well thats not really going to change at all with adulthood except I must point out, the drinking age here is 18 and I have been told that Chilean wine is incredible...

The last week there was no school in celebration of Chilean independence and man did we celebrate! Whether it was dancing the national dance in front of the whole town, eating incredible traditional chilean food, or dancing until 6 in the morning! It was definitely a good week. 

Thats all I got for you all. Ill get you pictures at a later date. Stay classy. 

Mellow

Island life combined with small town combined with latin america results in one thing, mellow. There is a large culture of "tranquilo" and everything is just a little slow. I am still trying to get used to this. I like parts of it but a large part of me wants to head out and adventure but the people here work, eat, sleep, hang out, and watch television. I thought that was America but its appears it has permeated to the end of the world. So much inside of me wants to get out and run and explore this area and learn as much as possible and I feel as though I am learning in a much more mellow way and not nearly as much as I could be. Here are some photos of the last couple weeks.

 

Life

Well the month mark has come and passed and I feel like I have settled into a routine, or as much as I can. Last weekend I went hiking which was super cool and we could see the southernmost mountain range in the world from what we climbed. How neat is that? A moment that struck a cord with me was the opportunity to wash my face in a small chilean stream. Every since I started hiking and doing "outdoorsy" style stuff, I have washed my face in whatever mountain stream I found. It has served as way to "baptize" myself more or less and dedicate my time outside to God. And now, I have done that with my trip to Chile. I still would like to do more adventurous things but I am content in my cultural activities of which I am a part. Every day I have school, which is a blog post in itself, and after school I do a variety of things. I have dance class to learn the National dance of Chile (Cueca), Batucada which is a sort of drumline, basketball, and church- I have found a awesome little church here with a sweet small group and we are singing songs in spanish and english which is super fun. To say the least, my nights don't really include homework. Life is busy, fun, exciting, and confusing but through it all, I am content.

Now for a few funny anecdotes:

First- Miscommunication
A couple weeks ago I was talking to some girls at school and I liked the earrings of one of the girls so I innocently said that I liked her "globos" because that means balloons in spanish and they looked like balloons. Well all the girls started giggling and just stood there saying to myself what on earth is so funny? I asked why they were all hysteric and to my demise, a buddy of mine leaned over and told me that globos also means boobs... Boy o Boy did I feel uncomfortable. But a couple seconds later, we were all laughing about it. The life of the Gringo.

Second- What did I sign up for?
Well life here involves a large amount just saying yes because I dont always understand what is going on and the other day, turns out I said yes to something I really shouldn't have. A club that works to promote healthy living in youth was doing a demonstration on how to put on a condom. I showed up at the time they told me to and saw a wooden penis with a condom on it and well, we can just say I was shocked. They were telling me I had to teach the students around how to do it and let's just say health class was a while ago... I ended up just watching, learning, and encouraging others to learn. Again, I felt incredibly uncomfortable! Such is life.

Family

Well shoot, I have been down here at the end of the world for almost a month now! I am still loving every bit of my time and trying hard to not miss them northerners too much. Talked to my good bud Steve last night and to my sister the other day via skype and I am missing the family I had back there.

The good news, however, is that my family here is super awesome. We have been traveling, cooking, cleaning, and watching movies. My host dad is well... pretty obese so he kinda just sleeps all the time but my Mom and sister are awesome and super fun to hang out with. And of course, there is the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandkids etc of my family. Everybody is family in this small little town. Its super fun to get to hang out with them and meet all the different relatives. Let me tell ya, there is nothing better than homemade donuts made by your lovely host aunt- see picture below.

In other news, I am starting my college app stuff down here too. Isn't that fun. It cant be worse than applying for a visa but its still pretty bad. Well, Im off to Argentina to go watch a rally car race that runs from here (Porvenir) to Rio Grande Argentina. Super stoked. Here are a couple photos of my adventures with the family.

 My host sister and I! Look at that stud...

Ice skating!

WIND WIND WIND WIND WIND

The donuts! I ate like 10 I am pretty sure.

Miss you blair! you are just so precious. 

A couple of photos of my adventure!

My bags, the ride in the tiny plane between Porvenir and Punta Arenas, a picture of the huge building in Santiago, the Folk art Festival de Patagonia, and some shots in Punta Arenas and below is my host mom and me!