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!