Remembering 2014

It's crazy to think about how different my life was at the beginning of this whirlwind of a year. I had a broken arm (thanks to a snowboarding accident), a broken heart (the kind every teenager experiences after their first real break-up), and not the slightest idea of what country I would be living in for my year abroad. A couple months, two Rotary orientations, one surgery, and a school dance later, all of that had changed. My arm had healed, my heart had begun to move on, and Rotary had assigned me to the country of my dreams... Chile. As Winter started to melt into Spring, life was feeling pretty good. I surrounded myself with a big group of friends and kept my grades up in school.

As the summer approached, I could feel exchange beginning to take over my life, but I didn't mind one bit. Text conversations between my friends were exchanged for facebook conversations between my future host siblings, and all my alternative indie songs on my phone were replaced with Spanish music. My idea of a "good read" was a travel guide to Chile or a book on how to be a successful exchange student. Instead of going out shopping or taking day trips to the beach like a normal high school student would do in the summer, I stayed home to fill out forms for my student visa. And yet, for some reason, all of my friends stuck by me through this period of craziness and withdrawl. And when August finally rolled around, every last one of them came to say goodbye and good luck.

It's weird how something can seem so far in the future, but then when it finally arrives, you feel like you had only been waiting for a matter of minutes. Time is funny like that. When the big day came for me to board the plane to Chile, my head was spinning with thoughts and emotions. I was joyful, nervous, ecstatic, and sad all at the same time. But over everything, I was excited. My dream was actually coming true.

Upon landing in Chile, my life had completely changed. Everything was new. My family, friends, school, language, and culture, all at once had disappeared. For the last almost-5 months, I have been challenged and pushed so far out of my comfort zone, to limits that I didn't even know existed. I have made some of the most incredible memories and met some of the most amazing people of my life.

This year has been the craziest one yet. I've gone from heartbroken to living on cloud-9. I have been homesick, lonely, and confused more times than I can count, but I have also experienced some of the happiest moments of my life. I am a completely different person than I was when 2014 started, and I just hope that I can continue this trend throughout the next year.

Happy New Years Eve to all.

Feliz Navidad

When I originally created this blog, I intended for it to be a bit of a play-by-play on what I have been up to in Chile. The idea was that I would be able to look back on it and remember all of the good times I had while on exchange, and at the same time it would serve as a way to let my friends and family back home know what my life is like here, While it is undeniable that I am doing many exciting, "blog-worthy" things with my time here (for example, a trip to Brazil with my school), I find it much more enjoyable and important to write about my thoughts and feelings about exchange. Yes, I am writing this blog for my family, friends, other exchange students, and anyone else interested in what it is like to live in Chile, but I am also writing it for myself. We have social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where I can upload photos and share anecdotes of my crazy life, but for now I would like to keep my blog on the more "profound" side of exchange.

My last two posts are a good example of what you can expect to see from me in the future. I am aspiring to be a journalist, and I think this blog is a good place for me to practice my writing skills. Hopefully I will find time to blog more frequently, although it seems unlikely because I will be traveling for most of the summer. To keep up with my life, you can find me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kira.mcneil.1), Instagram (@kiramcneil) and I have also made a few Vlogs on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrOd8kISoz-shMbn6R9U2rg). 

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

The Sure-Cure for Homesickness

There comes a time in every exchange student's year when their days start to feel longer, their friends back home start to feel like more of a memory, and they begin to question that perhaps they are doing something wrong. I've had my fair share of these days, especially recently, as the original "pizzazz" of exchange has worn off. Through talking to my other exchange friends, I have discovered that a lot of us are in a similar position. We (of course) are very content in Chile, and have no intention of going home, but at the same time we can't help but wonder what we are missing. Sometimes, it is easy to get so caught up in thinking about what we are missing at home, that we start to become blind to all the beauty right in front of us.

Thus, I have discovered the absolute cure (or at least an effective way to suppress) homesickness or sadness. Drumrole please... Photography! And no, that doesn't mean you need to go out and buy an incredibly expensive camera, download editing programs, or rent out a darkroom. All you need is a camera on your cell phone or disposable camera, and you are ready to go! In the end, it doesn't matter how beautiful the photo turns out. Going around your neighborhood or town with the intention of taking photos will encourage you to pay much closer attention to the small and unique details that you would've otherwise missed. I find photography extremely therapeutic and it always cheers me up to just get out of the house and walk around.

When I go out, I like to focus on one thing that I wouldn't be able to find in my home town. For example, as it is Spring here in Chile right now, I like to take photos of all the bright and tropical flowers. It is also incredible to just go to a heavily-populated part of the city and take photos of the locals as they go throughout their day. It is eye-opening, entertaining, and a great way to spend a few hours.

Whether you're an exchange student, a college student, or just someone who is feeling a little blue, photography can be a great pick-me-up. You can go out shooting with your friends, or alone with your thoughts. Either way, you are guarenteed to feel a little bit better after taking some time to slow down and enjoy the little beauties of the enchanting life that surrounds you.

Enjoy some of my photos from my most recent walk around my neighborhood!

The thing about being an exchange student...

"Exchange is not a year in a life. It is a life in a year." I find myself thinking about this quote a lot. An international exchange is so much more than just a year-long vacation. I've heard that one of the most common questions that students are asked after returning home is "how was your trip?". On exchange, you go a year without your family. A year without your best friends. A year without your native language. A year without your bed. A year without everything that you have known as normal for your whole life. Calling it a "trip" could not be more inaccurate. This is not a vacation; it is life. And every life has its ups and downs.

Let's face it. EVERY exchange student carefully selects which photos to put online and which stories to tell their friends and family back home. We have mastered the art of illusion. We make it look like every day we have on exchange is a spectacular adventure. But that is just unrealistic. Yes, we are living in a foreign country, but we are still students. We go to school. We live with families. Sometimes life on exchange is flat-out boring. And sometimes it's sad, frustrating, or difficult. But that is just part of life, no matter what country you are in! The bad days are what help us remember and charish the good ones. And let me tell you, there are SO many good (and GREAT) days. 

Although not every day is outstanding, every single day of exchange is a day in which I grow and I learn. Every time I mess up my Spanish and have to be corrected, I know I am one step closer to fluency. Every time I miss something from the United States, I learn the importance of something that I had always just taken for granted. Every time I talk to a classmate or another exchange student, I am building a closer friendship that could potentially last a lifetime. 

Exchange is such an incredible opportunity. I feel so lucky to be here in Chile. Every day, my eyes are opened to something new and I am sure that when I return home in July I will not be the same person I was when I left. Yes, it is hard. But it is hard in the best kind of way. As the saying goes, good things don't come easily. 

It's been a while...

Okay, admittedly, I have not been updating my blog as religiously as I (and everyone back home) had hoped. But that's because I've just been so busy! (And perhaps slightly lazy...). Anyways, so much has been going on that I don't know how I am going to pack it all into this blog post... but I will try!

In this past (almost) month since my last update, I have travelled to Santiago twice (which is about a 7-hour ride on the bus). The first time was to go to the Miley Cyrus concert with some other exchange student friends! We just spent one night in Santiago, but we had a blast. Although I don't really listen to her music, she is a great performer and I loved spending time with some other girls on exchange. The second time I travelled to Santiago was for a 2-day electronic music festival called Ultra. I went with my host brother and his friends, and we stayed in the apartment of his friend, who is currently in university in Santiago. Once I was at the festival, I spent most of the time with other exchange student friends (specifically, a few German boys, a German girl, and two other girls from the USA). I had a blast dancing all day and all night, and a highlight was actually getting to the front row with two of the German boys to watch the final DJ perform. It was so incredible and I will never forget that weekend.

I just want to take a few sentences to talk about how awesome and inexpensive it is to travel in Chile. For a round trip bus trip from La Serena to Santiago and back (about 14 hours in total), it only costs about $20 US. And the buses are very clean, comfortable, and reliable. I wish we had the same system in the United States! Thanks to such low fares, I am planning on doing lots of travelling this summer to visit my exchange student friends who are living in other parts of Chile.

I have also gotten much closer with my classmates, as well as the students in the classes directly below and above me. I joined a contemporary dance class at my school that meets once a week, and it is mostly just girls in the class below me. This is a really fun experience because it has given me the opportunity to meet people beyond just the people in my curso (grade). I actually should be in the grade below the one I am in because my 16th birthday was in July, which is the middle of the school year here (darn Southern Hemisphere), but because my host sister is older than me I just took her place in 3° Medio (the third year in high school) when she left on exchange rather than going to 2° Medio. Anyways, it is a lot of fun getting to know the students in other classes!

To keep myself busy (and from gaining excessive amounts of weight), I have been running a lot as well as surfing almost every weekend. I LOVE SURFING. I think I have found my passion. It is one of the most incredible and undescribable feelings in the world. It took me three times of going before I was able to even stand for a second, but I just went surfing today and was able to ride the wave for a good 5 seconds, which I am pretty proud of!

Spanish is getting easier by the day. In fact, last night I realized while talking to my mom over Whastapp that I was actually translating in my head from Spanish to English. And I find myself thinking in Spanish more often than not. Although I still make TONS of mistakes and I have a long way to go, I am extremely happy with my ability to talk and understand the language.

Well, because I don't want this update to turn into a novel, I will finish this update off with a few photos from this past month. Enjoy!

The Miley Cyrus concert!

Pre-Miley!

With my lovely exchange student friends at Ultra.

Ultra!

Kayaking (in a pool) with some classmates!

Happy first day of Spring!

It´s been almost a month since my last update (much to my mother´s dismay), so I thought now would be a good time to fill everyone in on what I have been up to and how things are going. I am settled in to life here in Chile, and things are actually starting to feel (relatively) normal. I have a pretty typical routine with school, friends, and family. September has been a great month because it is all about celebrating Chile´s Independence (Fiestas Patrias is the name of the actual holiday, on September 18th). I did so many cultural things, from dancing a traditional Chilean dance with my class in front of the whole school, to going to festivals, to eating empanadas and asado (barbecue) almost every day. Two weekends ago, I travelled to Viña del Mar for a Rotary weekend. It was so great seeing all of the other exchange students and sharing each others´ experiences. This past week, I had a week off from school which was really nice (but unfortunately I will return to class tomorrow...). In this week, I spent a lot of time with my family as well as with my friends. I spent Wednesday night camping in an incredible place called Valle de Elqui (I strongly encourage you to look up pictures on google images) with my host brother and his friends. It was so cold at night time, but it was still a lot of fun. The night was so clear, I could see every star in the sky. On Friday morning I went surfing with my cousin, in the afternoon I went to an asado at my grandmother´s house, and in the evening I went to Pampilla, which is Chile´s largest Fiestas Patrias festival. That was lots of fun as well! Today, I went to a small beach town called Guanaqueros with my family (because they own a house there) for lunch. I had the best empanada of my life!! It was stuffed with fresh seafood and I think if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be this empanada.

My spanish is improving every day, although it´s still far from perfect. I am proud of the progress I am making, and I am sure that soon I will be fluent. School seems to be getting easier, and I´ve made lots of friends which is great. Speaking of school, I have it tomorrow, which means I have to wake up early so it is time for me to wrap up this post. I hope this gave some insight about what I have been doing down here in Chile!

Happy first day of Spring (or Fall, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!).

The Rotary weekend in Viña! (There I am, in the middle!)

Asado with the familia on Friday!

One week later...

Here I am again on a Sunday night updated my blog. Maybe this will become a sort of ritual, because, lets face it, I have nothing else to do on my Sunday nights. I don´t have to do any last minute homework, which is pretty nice! Anyways, about my week...

School is pretty boring (I know you´re shocked by this profound statement). For the most part, I only understand what´s going on when the teacher directly is talking to me. After the first minute of class, I just begin to tune everything out (so I guess Chilean school isn´t too different after all!). I understand more and more every day, but it is much harder than I expected to pick up the language. Then again, I´ve only been here for two weeks. I´ll get it eventually!

This weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday night I went over to a classmate´s house along with some other kids from my curso. On Saturday morning I visited La Cruz de Coquimbo (see pictures below) with my family, and then later that evening I went to the birthday party of another exchange student in La Serena from Czech Republic. After the birthday party, I experienced my first "discoteca" with my host brother and some of his friends. Today (Sunday), I slept in and then just hung out with my host family until around 4pm, when I went out with my cousin to learn how to surf!! Although I never quite got the hang of it, I had a lot of fun and I´m sure that in a year I´ll be much better if I stick with it (although sticking with things has never been my strong suit).

Anyways, I´m off to bed. I am having a great time here in Chile. Please enjoy the following photos! :)

A family photo before saying goodbye to Anto last weekend!

(The view of La Serena/Coquimbo from La Cruz)

La Cruz was built in 2000 to celebrate the 2000th birthday of Christ. It´s really REALLY tall.

First day of school!

Surfing!

 

Just a check in (to ease my family´s fear)

Tomorrow evening will mark one week since I´ve been here in my home in La Serena. I have had a great time this past week meeting so many new people. Last Tuesday, I visited my school (Colegio Santo Tomas) for the first time and met all of my classmates. There are 25 students in my class. Luckily, because I have a host sister (who is now on her own exchange in Illinois, USA) I got to meet her friends and now I am able to call them my friends as well. Everyone here is so nice and excited to meet me. On Friday morning, we left La Serena to drive for about 5 hours to Viña del Mar. There, we stayed at my host mom´s mother´s house so I got to meet my abuelos (grandparents), my tios (aunt and uncle), and my primo (cousin). I also got to spend more time with my host sister before we brought her to the Santiago airport on Saturday night so that she could begin her exchange. We spent most of today driving back to La Serena, and then this evening I went out to dinner with my host brother and a few of his friends. So far, the food here is not that different than what I eat back home. Lots of sushi, beef, chicken, and potatoes. I am definitely going to come home a little heavier! I am having so much fun here and I am excited to start school tomorrow so I can really start living life like a Chilena. The language barrier is definitely difficult, but my friends and family are all patient with me and I know enough to get by. I am learning LOTS of slang, which is a very big part of what makes Chilean one of the hardest dialects of Spanish.

Well, I should be going to bed right about now. I have a big day tomorrow! (Luckily, my first class is English.)

Adios!

Finally here!

The adventure has begun! I left Portland on Friday afternoon after saying goodbye to friends and family, and sat next to Amanda on a 4 hour flight toDallas, Texas. We had a very short (a little too short for comfort, perhaps) layover in Dallas before taking off just a few minutes past 9PM for an 11 hour flight to Santiago. The flight went very smoothly. I was seated next to a 20-something-year-old Chilean man who told me about all the best places to visit while I'm here. We arrived in Santiago around 8AM (5AM Portland time) and waiting in a long line for immigration and then customs (which all went smoothly aside from the confiscation of some beef jerky that I brought for my family). We were greeted by the Rotarians of District 4320 with hugs and kisses! We waited a few hours for the rest of the students to arrive (we were among the first few) and got a small snack (my first food in Chile: an 'ave con palta' or chicken and avocado sandwich. Eventually we left on a bu
s and drove to Viña del Mar, about 2 hours away. We arrived and after getting our room placements (I'm staying with a girl from Germany and another from Minnesota, USA) we began an orientation, which was all in English. Almost all of the students here are European, with the exception of 5 Americans. Everyone speaks English, but I am one of the few who speaks a little Spanish. There are about 25 of us, but apparently there are 10 more that will join later. We had a nice lunch and dinner and now I'm just laying in bed, extremely tired, waiting to take a shower. So far, Chile is great but I can't help but be anxious and excited for this weekend to be over so that I can go start my new life in La Serena!

The Final Supper

Wow!! I have not posted in WAY TOO LONG. If I can't even remember to post while I'm still here, how on earth am I going to remember while I'm down in Chile? (Actually, I'm guessing my mom will be sending me constant reminders...). SO much has happened since my last update! I have been receiving lots of emails from my host club in La Serena as well as my host district in Chile, 4320. Yesterday, I traveled to the Chilean consulate in San Francisco and received my student visa. Today I packed and tied up loose ends. And guess what... Tomorrow I leave!! (Yeah, I told you a lot has been happening.)

I guess since so much has happened, I'll just give a brief overview of everything important. In mid-June my family hosted a couple of exchange students (a girl from Chile and a girl from Argentina) for a weekend. It was a great experience, and I highly reccommend it to anyone going on exchange. A week later, I left for a family trip to Italy, and while I was there I was emailed for the first time by my district in Chile. They sent me my forms with my home address in La Serena (I promptly looked up the address on Google Earth, of course...) as well as all of the information about my future school and club. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to receive this email because it told me what day I had to arrive in Santiago. At last, I had an official departure date (August 8th)! After I arrived home from Italy, I finished all of the necessary documents for my student visa (which, believe me, was NOT a small task). I waited for an appointment to be set with the Chilean consulate in San Francisco. During this time, I received multiple emails from different people in La Serena (my host club's counselor, my "godfather", etc..) and they all told me that they were excited to meet me. Things started to feel pretty real when I made an appointment to fly to San Francisco on August 6th to be issued my visa. I flew down with Amanda (the other outbound to Chile) and we met up with a travel agent. We both were issued our visas with no problems and we flew back that evening. Although it was last minute (only 2 days away from departure), it was surprisingly calm. Today is my final night here in Portland, and I fly out tomorrow at 2:20 PM. I have a fairly short layover in Dallas before my (11 hour!) flight to Santiago.

It's so weird saying goodbye to people. Like, no matter how many times I've said "see you in a year!", it still hasn't sunk in that I really won't see my friends and family for that long. You'd think it would at least sort of feel real by now, but it's all just surreal. From what I've heard, it doesn't hit you until you're on the plane. I guess we'll see if that's what happens with me.

I will try to keep the blog updated more once I arrive to my home in La Serena on the 11th (after my 3 day Rotary orientation in Santiago). 

Wish me luck! My life is about to change drastically.

The Starlight Parade

I'll make this brief, because I really should be studying for my government final tomorrow, but I need to catch this blog up! (Wow, if I can't even keep it up to date in the US, I think we're in trouble for next year...). Anyways, two weekends ago was the annual Starlight Parade held in downtown Portland! We were invited as Rotary Exchange Students to march in it. It wasn't a required event like the District Conference, but almost everyone made it! It was so much fun high five-ing everyone as we marched along the parade route. We all had our flags and everyone was cheering for us and all and all it was just a great night that I will always remember. It's getting closer to the time when all of the inbounds are leaving and going back home, which is making me really sad. For most of them, the last time we will see each other is on Saturday at the final Inbound orientation. It's when we all officially say goodbye to each other. I have made so many international friends in the past few months and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to all of them. I guess it gives me an excuse to travel all over the world!

That's all to report! Brief, as promised. Enjoy a this lovely photo from the evening:

The District Conference

Wow, this is extremely late. I have been meaning to post for a while now but I've been so caught up in school, drivers ed, SAT studying, and general laziness. Luckily, school ends in 2 days, I finished drivers ed, I took my SAT last weekend, and I'm beginning to feel a little less lazy. A few weeks ago (May 14-17) was the District Conference in Salem, where all of the important Rotarians gather to talk about the year. As for us exchange students, it was just another training. The students all set up camp in the Willamette University dorm rooms. I didn't do much on this trip because I decided not to participate in the talent show that is held on Friday night at dinner for hundreds Rotarians. Most of the trip for me involved sitting around and doing nothing with the other slackers that didn't want to participate. It was still a lot of fun despite this, though! I was finally able to just hang out with other kids rather than constantly worrying about impressing the country officers in an effort to get the country I wanted. I made a lot of friends on this trip that I had barely even talked to on the Eastern Oregon Excursion and the Country Fair. The first two days we were there (Wednesday and Thursday) was just a bunch of talking and doing nothing. Friday was the day of the actual conference, so we spent most of the day at the convention center. The students not participating set up a country fair of their own, where they taught Rotarians attending the conference about their countries. I was alone at the Chile booth because Amanda and Pauli were both in the talent show and were busy rehearsing. That night, we had a great dinner. I sat at a table with about 8 Rotarians and told them about Chile and listened politely as they told me this and that about how lucky I am and what I should do while I'm down there. The talent show happened during dinner and it was really amazing to see my peers perform. I was blown away by all the talent! We went to bed late that night because everyone stayed up in the lounge of the dorm building talking and playing games. We woke up early the next morning (as is always the case when Rotary is involved) and greeted our parents. The country officers spoke to them for a while before we were allowed to go home. I said goodbye to all my friends, knowing that I'd see most of them again soon at the Starlight Parade!

Here is the entire group of Outbounds. There's me, near the middle!

Just a few of my life long friends! (Left to right: Min (South Korea), Juho (Finland), Matthieu (France), Amanda (going to Chile), Meko (going to Brazil), me, and Luis (Mexico) ).

La Serena, Chile!

I finally found out my host city, family, and school!! I will be living in...drum roll please... La Serena! It is a gorgeous city of about 200,000 people and it is right on the beach. I have an 18 year old host brother, a 16 year old host sister, and my host parents! They are so nice and are (hopefully) as excited to meet me as I am to meet them. I'll be attending a small Catholic school with about 30 kids in each grade. That will definitely be different than what I'm used to here in Portland (where each grade has 450 kids - the same size of the whole Pre-K through 12th grade school I will be attending!) but it will be an interesting experience to say the least. I am so happy that I was assigned La Serena. It was the city that I really wanted, because the girl that went to Chile last year (the one that convinced me to pick Chile as my first choice at the country fair!) lived in La Serena and had such an incredible experience. I really can't wait to go. I've been hard at work preparing to leave; getting fingerprinted for my Visa, studying for the SAT, learning as much conversational Spanish as possible! I know that all of the preparation will soon pay off though. 3 and a half more months!!

Not too horrible

The beach is a 10 minute drive from my home

SO GORGEOUS

My school - Colegio Santo Tomas La Serena. a 3-5 minute drive from my house!

Country Dinner!

Over the weekend, I got together with Amanda (the other future outbound to Chile), Pauli (the inbound from Chile), and Mariel (the inbound from Mexico) and we cooked some authentic Chilean cuisine. We were up until 3am on Friday night making cheese empanadas and pumpkin sopaipillas. On Saturday morning we all gathered in Canby for our first Rotary training since the Eastern Oregon trip in February. All of the future outbounds, current inbounds, rebounds, and country officers assosiated with Latin American countries (Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil) gathered around noon and everyone brought a prepared dish that was native to their certain country. Of course, Pauli, Amanda, and I brought our empanadas and sopaipillas. At the gathering, Amanda and I were introduced to a rebound that went to Chile named Becky and she told us lots of fun stories of her year abroad! At around 5:30pm, we had dinner with our parents. There was SO much food, and it was all so delicious!! I can already tell I'm going to gain a lot of weight while I'm abroad. Anyways, I passed on the option of the sleepover because I was so tired so I went home with my parents after dinner.

I still don't know where exactly I'll be living next year, or who my host family and host school will be, but I'm sure no matter what happens it will be great! I'm so excited, I just want it to hurry up and be August already. It's crazy that I'll be leaving in 4 months!

C-H-I-L-E!

GUESS WHO'S GOING TO CHILE?! Me! But I won't get ahead of myself. First, let me talk a little bit about the trip to Cove, Oregon (a tiny town east of La Grande).

Thursday: On Thursday morning, I got on the bus in Tualitin. In Troutdale (about an hour later), we split off into two different buses, separated by country officer. I was on the bus with all of the inbounds from and outbounds interested in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. I spent the majority of my bus ride sitting by Pauli, the inbound from Chile. We stopped for lunch and then went roller skating in Pendleton. We finally arrived to Cove around 6 pm, had dinner, talked for a while about the plan for the next few days, then went to bed.

Friday: We woke up early on Friday for breakfast and the outbound candidates spent the entirety of the morning doing a simulation that was meant to represent some challenges we might face on our exchange. We met back up with the inbounds (who had spent the morning at a low-income elementary school in La Grande talking to the kids about their countries) for lunch and then headed out to the Oregon Trail Interactive Museum. Afterwards, we had dinner and then went to a basketball game at Cove High School. It was funny seeing everyone's reaction when a group of 90 kids walked into a gym to watch a basketball game played by a team who's school only has 114 students. We had a lot of fun, but unfortunately our enthusiastic cheering did not result in a win for Cove. We went back to the camp around 9 and talked about the plan for the next day. At around 10, we were allowed to go to bed.

Saturday (selection day!): We were woken early again on Saturday. We got all of our snow gear ready, ate a quick breakfast, and then loaded the buses and headed up to the mountain. Once we got there, everyone went and rented their equipment and began their lessons while I stayed behind and filled out my final ballot for country choices. I chose Chile as my first choice, and my four alternates were Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil. Due to my arm injury, I was unable to participate in the skiing or snowboarding, but luckily Bill (country officer of Chile and Denmark) and Barbara (country officer of Austria and Czech) were snowshoeing so I joined them along with one other outbound candidate, Sophie. We got about a mile away from the lodge before Sophie and Bill managed to get stuck in a creek and buried up to their waists in snow. I snowshoed back to the lodge to get help and everything turned out fine. Bill was lucky that he avoided hypothermia. At around 3, everyone met back up at the lodge and we left. We packed up camp in Cove and traveled to La Grande where we spent the night at a community center, participating in things such as laser tag and a haunted house. The country officers came at around 11 pm and gathered all of us. They lined up all of the outbound candidates and then whispered to their inbounds which 2 outbounds would be assigned to their country. Once the inbounds were told, they came up to the line of outbounds one at a time, circled around us, and then eventually hugged the two people that were selected to go to their country. It was a very long and exciting process, filled with tears of joy and lots of cheering.As the people slowly got selected, I was still left standing. Amanda and I ended up being the last two! At that point, we knew we had both gotten our first choice of Chile! We were so happy, all we could do was hug each other and hug Pauli and thank Bill. We danced for the rest of the night and went to bed very late. It was one of the best days of my life.

Sunday: We were supposed to be going home on Sunday, but due to weather conditions we decided it would be safer to stay another night. We packed up and headed back to our camp in Cove, where I spent the day relaxing, learning some Spanish from Pauli (I already know the basics, as I've been taking Spanish in school for 4 years), and then we all went out to the movie theater and watched Monuments Men. Later, we went out to dinner and then back to the camp. We went to bed early, which nobody protested. We were all extremely tired.

Monday: We spent Monday traveling. Amanda and I took turns sitting next to Pauli and speaking to her in Spanglish. She introduced us to some good Spanish music and taught us a few slang words used only in Chile. We arrived back in Tualitin in the afternoon and I said goodbye to all my new friends, knowing that I wouldn't see most of them again until the district conference in May.

(Amanda, Pauli, and me! The Chileans)

(We were a big group!)

(Me and Sophie taking a break. Snowshoeing is hard!!)

The Night Before Eastern Oregon

February 6th seemed so far away back in September when I was selected to participate in this exchange. Well the big day has (almost!) finally come... The day I leave for Eastern Oregon to be assigned a country. Unfortunately, I won't be able to ski and snowboard with the rest of the inbounds/outbound candidates due to a recently broken arm (ironically, caused by a snowboard accident), but I will be snowshoeing instead.  I will leave Portland tomorrow morning at 7 am and I will return home on Sunday knowing which country I will be living in next year. I'm beyond excited. Every time someone finds out that I'm going to an exchange student, their first question is "where are you going?" Well, after this weekend I will be able to answer. At this point I'm really leaning towards Chile. I've been talking a lot to Gabi, the current outbound in Chile. She has made me fall in love with the country. South America definitely seems like the place for me.

Well it's getting late and I have an EARLY start tomorrow (5 am), so I will finish off this entry. I will be sure to write again on Sunday or Monday and explain the trip in detail.

The Country Fair!

Wow! Last weekend was a game-changer. I arrived to Salem around 5 pm with two other Lincoln kids and we were checked in and shown to our designated cabins. We completed our registration, got fitted for rotary blazers, and had our photos taken for our business cards. After some preliminary welcomes, we headed down to the dining hall for dinner. Later that night we had a chance to talk with different youth exchange officers, and I spent my time with South American YEOs. I learned a lot about South America and had pretty much decided it was where I wanted to spend my junior year. We were sent to bed around 11:30 and woken bright and early the next morning. We ate breakfast and then spent all day in different trainings. Finally around 7pm, the moment we had all been waiting for had arrived... The Country Fair! All of the current inbounds and rebounds had arrived to Salem earlier in the day and set up tables in the gym displaying photos, foods, flags, and other items that represented their country. We had about two hours to go around and talk to as many countries as we could. I immediately went over to talk to the rebound and inbound from Chile. I looked at photos and heard stories and in that moment I fell in love with the country. After spending over 20 minutes at the Chilean table, I decided to keep moving. Every Latin America country seemed perfect. I was dead set on going there... until I talked to some rebounds from India! It sounded like so much fun. I went to bed confused and conflicted. I woke up in the morning and had to select my #1 choice as well as 4 alternates. These choices didn't mean anything; they were just used so that the YEOs could get a feel for who wanted to go to their countries. I selected Chile as my #1 and then India, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru as  my alternates. I still don't know where I want to go, but I will find out in 3 weeks!!! I'll check in later.

Anticipation

In a week from today I will have to select my top 5 choices of countries I want to complete my exchange in. Now, this list ins't a very important list as I can always go back and change it in February. In five days my mom will pick me up from school at 3:20 and drive me to Salem (about an hour away) for the first official district meeting! I'm so looking forward to getting to know everyone as well as learning about all of the different countries. We will attend this event called the country fair, where all of the current inbounds talk about their home country and try to persuade us to go there. We also get to meet with all the country officers. At the moment I am definitely leaning towards a South American country (Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru...) or possibly Denmark, but as all of the current outbounds keep telling us on our facebook group: keep an open mind and push yourself to try exactly the opposite of what you think you want. Well, I don't really know where I'll end up, but for now I'll do as they say and keep my options open.

PS: 34 days until I'm assigned a country!!