So Long South America

I know I haven’t posted a blog in a long time, but to my defense my computer crashed, so I have been without my computer the last two months. A lot has happened since then, so this post is going to be a little long, but I’ll try and be short. Since I am not writing on my computer I can’t put up pictures…sorry!

It was my birthday May 13^th and we had a really fun celebration. My awesome roommates made some really yummy treats and we had everyone over to our apartment and played my favorite game, La Olla. And of course we drank white Russians all night long J. It’s always hard being away from home (and Jason) when it’s my birthday, but it was so great to be surround by my friends down here in Chile. I could not have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday. I think from now on all my birthdays shall be celebrated with white Russians and La Olla!

Sadly, right after my birthday I found out that my uncle had passed away. He was the dad of my cousin who had passed away a few months before. It was really shocking news, and I was so sad that I couldn’t go home. Hopefully his soul can rest now that he has been reunited with his wife and his daughter.

Work has been quite crazy the last two months. For about a month every single day at work was really really difficult. The girls got out of control (three of them were taken away by the police and one of them never came back to the hogar). Work was really taxing physically and emotionally. The hogar was not a safe or healthy place for the girls to live anymore. It was really frustrating to watch the system failing my girls. Unfortunately, we found out that the directors of the hogar decided to close down the hogar, due to lack of funding. We knew the hogar was going to close for about two weeks before they told the girls that their home and family were being taken away from them, again. The morning they told the girls the hogar was closing was so sad. Everyone cried, all the girls, the tias, and the three of us volunteers (Allison, Isabelle, and I). We had to try our best to be strong for the girls, and that was really difficult for me. As some of you know, it doesn’t take much for me to cry. Sad and even happy moments in movies make me cry and if I see someone else crying there is no hope for me, my eyes always water. So I tried my best to hold myself together in front of the girls because it wasn’t about me, but nonetheless I still let a few tears escape. It was so sad watching the girls’ reactions. I cannot even begin to imagine what it felt like for them. For the last two weeks the girls have been slowly trickling out of the hogar, being placed in different hogars. On my last day of work there were only 8 girls left, 4 young ones and the 4 oldest ones. It was really hard saying goodbye to the girls. I hope they do well in their new homes, make new friends who will be their sisters, and have good, responsible tias taking care of them. Isabelle and Allison still have some time left here in Chile and I hope they are able to visit the girls each week. I’m looking forward to hearing updates about the 17 girls I have grown to love over these past 6 months.

A few weeks ago we had another VE Palooza…a little goodbye party for everyone leaving soon. It was soooo much fun! Ben, Eric, and I sang a song for Isabelle – we made up lyrics to the song BINGO, and Allison made a video slide show of all the girls for Isabelle. It was so cute! I also made a Chile dog collage for Isabelle (who is obsessed with doggies!). Isabelle also made me a slide slow of the girls and was so great! I’m so happy I’ll have both of those slide shows, along with TONS of pictures, to remember the girls by. Eric and Ben rewrote the lyrics to Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’ for me, and it was absolutely hilarious. For Ben and Eric I wrote a silly speech making fun of them, ha it was fun.

The other weekend we had another VE Jornada. It was so much fun! I was on the cooking team this time, which was a lot of fun. This Jornada was really small, and I liked having less people there. It allowed us all to hang out together and still be able to talk to everyone. We played fun games and ate delicious food all weekend. It was so nice to get out of the noisy city and to relax with everyone.

I’m so excited to go home! I have really missed my family, friends, and Jason. It’s going to be so great seeing everyone and being able to eat and cook delicious foods again J. I’ll be home for a week and then I’m off to Colorado for two weeks. I can’t wait! Then it’s off to graduate school. UGA here I come!

I’m really going to miss my time down here in Chile. I can’t believe I am going home in just a few short days. I’ve been away from home since October. These 9 and ½ months have flown by so fast! I have met some really amazing people, learned so much about working with kids and about myself. My South American experience has changed me in so many ways, and I am very grateful for that. I’ve seen so many beautiful places and learned how to speak a second language. I can’t wait to take the many things I have learned back with me. Coming down to South America has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and I will never forget this experience. On to the next chapter in my life!

Liz

My Trip to the Desert

The other weekend I traveled to the Northern tip of Chile to San Pedro, home of the driest desert in the world. I traveled with two other volunteers, Amy and Katie, two French girls, Julie and Lucy, and a German girl, Anna. We were quite the diverse group. To save money we rented a car, which was the best decision we made! Naturally, the car was a stick shift so of course none of us Americans could drive it ha. The car we rented was a four-door truck. There were 6 of us, so to say the least, it was a tight squeeze in the back of the truck…but it was worth it for sure!

The things I saw that long weekend were incredible. None of the pictures I took captured the true beauty that I was surrounded by. But nonetheless, I still took a million pictures to try and capture some of God’s best work.

The town San Pedro itself is pretty small. Every store in the town was an adventure/tour company, a restaurant, or a convenient store. To say the least, the small town was flooded with backpackers and foreigners. The town had a nice little market place, where I bought some mittens, and there was a quaint white church in the town.

Our first stop of the weekend was to try and find Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). We were unsuccessful in finding the park, but instead found a beautiful lookout and watched the sunset. It was incredibly windy though, so we only stayed long enough to take pictures (the theme of our exploring).

The next day we traveled to La Reserva Nacional Los Flamencos. It’s kind of hard to describe what this place was, but it was really pretty. The ground was made of rocky, salt formations.

We actually tried the salt and it was pretty tasty! The view of the entire place was beautiful though. (Sorry the panoramic picture is really small...hopefully you can still get a good idea of how beautiful it really was!)

The next day we went to Las Lagunas Altiplanicas. Absolutely breathe taking!

So cold!!!! 

Normally, you can swim in these lagunas, but it was way too cold that day and was super windy. We were all bundled up, and again only stayed long enough to take pictures.

After the cold mountains, we went to another laguna called Laguna Cejar. Since we went down in altitude, it was a lot warmer outside and we were able to go swimming in this laguna. The water was FREEZING, but totally worth swimming in because there was a lot of salt in the water, so floating was effortless. That was a really neat feeling. I was able to sit like I was in a chair and still float. I have never experienced something like that, so I enjoyed it for sure.

The next day we drove around a lot and ended up seeing some really cool things. We came across a herd of lamas.

There was a guy with the lamas who said it was one luka ($2) per photo. I couldn’t tell if he was joking around or not so I took a few pictures real quick and ran back to the car. Later on, a few of us needed to pee so we pulled off to the side of the road for a pit stop and this was our view:

Not bad eh? We later discovered that we drove too far and found ourselves accidentally crossing over into Argentina…so that was unexpected.

After that, we crossed over into Bolivia!

The boarder was very sketchy looking. There was an abandoned bus and a shack. Very official...

Amy and Katie were taking pictures when a guy came out of the shack and started yelling at them. So they ran back to the car and we returned to Chile. During our drive back into town, we went off the road for a bit to check out these HUGE boulders on the side of the road. They kind of resembled the face statues on Easter Island (use your imagination!).

              Look how tiny the man in the background is compared to that rock!

Later in the day we went to El Valle de la Luna. I had thought our first stop of the trip was the Valle de la Luna, but where we went that day was way better and much prettier. I saw sand dunes for the first time; that was pretty neat! We also saw a bunch of other salt and rock formations too.

We hiked up one side of the mountain to watch the sun set and the 360 view was amazing (this picture does absolutely no justice to what I actually saw, but kind of gives you an idea...again sorry it's so small!).

Sand Dune! 

On our last morning we visited El Tatio Geysers. These are the highest geysers in the world - at an altitude of 4200 meters. We woke up at 3 in the morning and drove for about 2 hours to make it to the geysers just in time for the sun to rise (apparently the best time of day to see them). It was hard to get a good picture of the geysers with my camera, but I got one with us standing in front of one of them.

The geysers themselves were pretty neat to see - smoke rising out of the ground, with the lovely smell of sulfur. There were small pools of water boiling on the ground, and a few of the geysers were spewing water. Over all it was a pretty interesting morning. The drive to the geysers was a little scary. We were driving on an unpaved road, with zero lights, not knowing if to our left and/or right was a field or a cliff. The four of us crammed in the backseat, wearing no seatbelts, were a little on edge the entire drive, but we made it! So all was good. The drive back was actually very pretty, and there were a lot less cliffs than we had originally thought earlier in the morning.

These four days were so amazing. I had so much fun exploring the desert with old and new friends. Everyone there spoke really good Spanish so we decided to speak Spanish the entire trip. It was so much fun (I was in Spanish heaven ha)! And I learned a lot too. It made me realize that I need to step up my Spanish game though, so I’ll be working on that my last two months here in Chile. I cannot believe I only have two more months before I come back home…where has the time gone?!?!


(If you want to see my panoramic pictures better and bigger go to this site: 
http://goodbellows.photoshelter.com/gallery/Decorative-Prints/G0000QUVc2XCHlQM/
This is Jason's new photography business...so feel free to explore the site!)

Until Next Time,

Liz

Not Always Sunshine and Rainbows

The other week was the toughest week of work I have had since being here in Santiago. However, Monday was by far the worst day.

Normally, Mondays are a little crazier than the other days of the week because it’s the day the Tias change shifts for the week (so the kids act a little crazier). Also, all the Tias and the professionals all go to the boys’ house for their weekly meeting. When everyone leaves the girls’ house, another woman comes and helps Allison and I out with watching over the girls. However, this Monday the woman left maybe ten minutes after everyone else left…leaving us alone with the girls. The woman had approached me and said she needed to go find something to fix the broken window, but would be right back, so I said ok. Not like I was going to say no to her. She never came back, and Allison and I were left alone with the girls for 3 hours. I know three hours doesn’t sound like a lot of time to be left in charge, but it’s an eternity when left alone with girls who have behavioral problems and you are not 100% fluent in the language. During these few hours, the girls did not listen to us once. They stole food to eat before snack time, even though we had given everyone some fruit to eat before official snack time, played with matches, two girls destroyed one of the rooms by throwing almost everything on the floor, and climbed on the roof. Everything was very frustrating, but the girls climbing on the roof made us really worried because if one of them had gotten hurt, there was nothing we could do to have helped them. When one of the girls came home, her hand was pretty hurt and she needed to go to the doctor. So Allison called the Tias, and it took over an hour for one of them to come get her (the boys’ house is only a five minute drive away). Thankfully it wasn’t a true emergency, but nonetheless it was still pretty frustrating. After that very stressful day, I thought surely the rest of the week would be ok…I could not have been more wrong.

The rest of the week all the girls were horrible. They were horrible to each other, to me, and all the other Tias. One girl was bullying another girl and would not stop, no matter what I said to her she just wanted to hurt the other girl. The other girl ran up to the third floor with the bully chasing after her so I followed trying my best to get her to stop. Once we got to the third floor I told the other girl to run downstairs and then I blocked the stairwell so the other girl couldn’t run after her. Oooohh she was not happy with me. She was kicking me, punching me, and trying to shove me out of the way. She’s 8 years old, so she didn’t have a chance against me, but she was furious. Once she finally figured out that she couldn’t get me to move she started yelling really nasty things to me. To be honest, I have absolutely no clue what she yelled at me, but I know none of it was nice. I just sat there smiling at her while she was yelling at me saying, “Oh that’s so nice of you to say that to me,” and “Thank you,” and things like that. Not going to lie though, it felt good to frustrate her with my smile. I probably didn’t react in the most mature way, but at the time I didn’t really know what else to do. I just wanted to get her to stop being awful to the other girl.

Another day, one of the younger girls kept pulling the two year old’s hair and pushing her around. I couldn’t get her to stop so I used my body as a blockade to protect the two year old. Because the younger girl couldn’t get to the two year old she started kick and punching me. It was so strange though because she wasn’t acting out in an angry way, she was kind of smiling the entire time. She had soooo much energy in her and I think the way she chose to release it was through fighting, and was enjoying it. The other girl, who was the bully, was filled with rage. I can understand that kind of meanness, but when the 5 year old was fighting with a smile on her face, I didn’t and still cannot understand it.

That week was really hard; however it was tough in a different way than I thought it would be. I didn’t mind the hitting, kicking, being yelled at, or being completely disregarded as an adult (ha); it was just physically tiring. Everything the girls did to me, I didn’t take personally at all. I could have cared less if they hated me. I knew that what I was doing was in their best interest, and that their “hatred” wasn’t really directed at me and would eventually pass. I think it was a good thing that I couldn’t understand what the 8 year old was yelling at me. It made me realize that in reality it really doesn’t matter what was coming out of her mouth. I’d like to think that she really doesn’t feel that way about me, but if she does, again, it really doesn’t matter. I’m the adult, and the reason why I am here is in her best interest. I’m only trying to help out the best I can and be a positive role model in her life, in all of these girls’ lives.

Until Next Time,

Liz

A Tribute to my Wonderful Cousin Wendy

Right before the weekend I traveled to Mendoza, I found out that my cousin Wendy was submitted to the ICU in the hospital. She had had a seizure, which caused other complications. She had multiple doctors looking after her and was using oxygen to help her breathe. Over the next week and a half, she was steadily getting better. She was able to breathe on her own, her heart was getting stronger, and the doctors weren’t finding anything significant. However, while I was traveling in Northern Chile, she had had a major stroke. Unfortunately, this stroke had caused a lack of oxygen to her brain for a significant amount of time causing her to go brain dead. My cousin Wendy died on Thursday, March 29th.

The Monday after I came back from my weekend trip, I skyped with my mom and she gave me the update of Wendy’s health. I had read my cousin Alison’s email (about the stroke) Sunday night while up North, but because Wendy had been improving the last week and a half, I didn’t think she was in bad shape. However, after talking to my mom I realized things were not looking good (at that point no one knew if my cousin was brain dead or not). Tuesday night I skyped with my sister and she told me that they discovered that my cousin was brain dead, and that they decided to have her funeral that Friday.

That Tuesday was a really rough day for me. The only place I wanted to be was back home with my family. Two of my roommates, Ben and Eric, were traveling so they weren’t around. I was a little bummed about that because they are my family down here and they weren’t here. Thankfully, I was able to skype with Jason, and we talked until I fell asleep. He did a great job making me feel a little better. My sister looked up how much tickets would cost for me to come home and they were RIDICULOUSLY high. There was no way I would have been able to go home at that price. Luckily, we have a relative that works for Delta, and I was able to use her buddy pass. So I was put on the stand-by list for the flight Wednesday night. I was able to catch the flight! So I had an unexpected trip home.

The whole time I was on the plane and while I was at home, it felt like everything that was happening was a dream. It felt so strange to be home (being surrounded by English), but was so great at the same time. I loved seeing my family and two of my friends, I loved having my dog around and being woken up by him every morning with kisses and a wagging tail, I loved sleeping in my bed with my 6 pillows (compared to just the one that I have here), I loved eating at all of my favorite restaurants (I left for Santiago Sunday night and I only ate at home once…yeah it was amazing!), I loved being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet (rather than throwing it in a trashcan), I loved riding in a car and not fearing for my life, I loved watching my movies and having fast internet. It was a bittersweet trip home for sure.

The funeral was Friday morning. It was so great to see my whole family and be surrounded by people who knew Wendy. The service was beautiful, and it was so great to hear classic Wendy stories. Wendy’s favorite color was purple, so a lot of us in the family tried to wear purple in her memory. For those of you who do not know my cousin, she was 28 years old, had Spina Bifada, and an Arnold-Chiari malformation. She was paralyzed waist down and was mentally challenged. Her life expectancy was not for very long (it was expected that she wouldn’t make it pass 3 years old); however, due to amazing care Wendy received from her family while growing up, she beat a lot of odds. Wendy had a very special place in everyone’s hearts. Her nickname was Goose Worm, but my favorite thing to call her was Silly Goose. She loved watching little kids, loved listening to her iPod with her headphones on while singing out loud, had a silly, contagious laugh, when ever she wanted to talk to you she would always say, “Come Here,” and then hold your hand while ya’ll talked, she could drink a glass of wine in one sip as if it were water, we (the whole family) would always play UNO while we were at the beach and she would always win (despite my grandmother trying not to let her win ha), loved her big ol’float for when she would get in the pool at the beach house in Hilton Head, loved tickling you, hated doing arts and crafts, gave the best announcements/toasts (I’m so sad that I will never get to hear her toast to me at my wedding and never get to hear her say what she’s thankful for on Thanksgiving), she had an awesome bossy side to her that always made me smile, she always spoke her mind about anything and everything, and would shamelessly flirt with every single male in the room (this was one of my favorite things about Wendy. She always had a special place in her heart for two of her favorite men in her life, Kyle – her brother-in-law and my sister’s husband, Brian – her favorite cousin). Whenever we had family get-togethers (which was often because everyone lives in Atlanta), Wendy was always my favorite person to talk to. The conversations would always be silly. I loved seeing her Christmas morning and seeing her wear the presents she had gotten and having her tell me what else she had gotten. I loved all her outfits, always having lots of purple in them. Her loyalty to her family was unbelievable. The way she talked about her two sisters and her dad always made me so happy because they were always sweet comments like “I love my dad, he’s the best dad in the whole world,” or “I have the greatest sisters in the whole world.” She would say that about her cousins and grandma as well, and she meant it for every person she said it about. It’s indescribable the sadness I feel for losing her. I’m going to miss everything about her. I wish she could be around for my future husband to get to know, I wish I had more pictures with her, I wish I had known that last summer was going to be last family picture I would have gotten to be in with her, I wish I could have visited her one last time in the hospital, I wish I could have one last UNO game with her.

Wendy taught me so much about life. She taught me that just because a person is physically and/or mentally different from you doesn’t mean they are not an incredible person. She taught me a different kind of patience and how to appreciate the small things in life.

I feel so thankful that I was able to go home for the funeral. I definitely think that that helped with the healing process. At home, I was very sad about Wendy, but being surrounded by my family really eased the pain. When I returned to Santiago, I was hit with a new wave of sadness that was pretty constant and wouldn’t go away. After a few days of really stressful work, I started to feel like my normal self again. Every now and then I suddenly get hit with the sadness of missing my cousin and realizing that I won’t get to see her again. I’m always going to miss Wendy, and family gatherings will never be the same without her there, but I feel so fortunate to have had someone like Wendy in my life. Wendy was an organ donor, and with her death she saved/changed the lives of 9 people. She was an incredible person, and I am a better person today because of her.

Until Next Time,
Liz

Unexpected Trip to Northern Chile

Easter weekend I went on a last minute trip up North to La Serana, Vicuna, and El Valle de Elqui (The Elqui Valley) with Amy and Hillary. We booked our tickets last minute, and since it was a holiday weekend, the only buses we could get on were one that was in the middle of the day (heading out of Chile) and the other one was super early in the morning (heading back to Chile). However, in the end it didn’t really mess with our weekend. We still ended up having an awesome time! We arrived in La Serana around 8:00ish at night, and when we got to our hostel there was no reservation. We were a little worried because of the holiday weekend (with everyone traveling), but thankfully we were able to find another hostel to stay at. The new hostel ended up being really great! It was family owned, and had a really pretty courtyard.

That night we walked around the town looking for a restaurant to eat dinner at. Unfortunately, almost every place was closed because it was Good Friday (apparently an even bigger holiday than Easter itself), but we were able to find a place to eat. After dinner we went back to the hostel and planned the rest of our weekend. Saturday morning we went out to breakfast and walked around the town for a little bit before we caught a bus to Valle de Elqui. La Serana is a cute town, I wouldn’t mind going back there and exploring it some more.

In Elqui we took a tour of the pisco factory (which was pretty small).

Pisco is made the same way that wine is made, except the grapes are boiled rather than cooled, and that makes it into a brandy-like liquor.

There was a woman on our tour who brought her dog with her…only in Chile.

The tour was ok, but the best part was the dinner we ate afterwards! We got a complimentary piscosour, which was the best picosour I have had so far in Chile (and the only one I have actually liked). And for dinner we all split a salad that had a yogurt dressing (I was really nervous about the dressing because I’ve never had that before, but it was actually really yummy!), really tasty, fried empanadas, and baby goat meat. I have never had goat meat before, and this meat was sooooooo delicious!

After dinner we took a bus to Vicuna to check into our hostel. This hostel was AMAZING! Not only was it pretty nice, but the couple that ran it, in particular the woman, Lucia, treated us like we were her grandchildren. She was this awesome old woman who helped us out in so many ways! That night we had booked a tour of the observatory, and the only time they had available was at 2:30 in the morning. We were a little bummed about how late it was (because we are grandmas and like to go to bed early), but we were just excited that we were able to get in a tour. We had told Lucia that our tour was at 2:30, and she was just like, “That is way too late! I’ll be right back.” About 5 minutes later she came prancing/dancing into our room and told us she got us into an earlier tour at 10:30. We were so amazed and asked how she was able to do that, and she replied with, “I have friends everywhere.” Ha she was so funny. We were sooo thankful that we got an earlier tour! On our way out she gave each of us shawls to wear so we wouldn’t get too cold (how cute of her!). Vicuna apparently has the clearest/best view of the stars through telescopes in the world, so that’s why we went to the observatory. Unfortunately for us, it was the night after a full moon, so we weren’t able to see as many of the stars that you usually can see because the moon was so bright. We were still able to see some really neat things though! Here's what the telescope looked like (first telescope I have ever looked through).

We saw a group of stars that is called the jewelry box. It’s called this because it’s a cluster of stars that are different colors (red, blue, and bright ha). The different colors all indicate a rough age of the star (dying, new, middle aged). So I thought that that was really interesting to see. We also got to see Saturn! That was really cool! And the highlight of the night was getting this picture with my camera through the telescope:

How cool is that?!?! I LOVE the moon, so I’m really excited that I got a picture of it, so in the end it was totally worth going while the moon was full. The next morning we woke up to the best hostel breakfast I have ever had. There was a basket of fresh bread, with a plate of freshly sliced fruit (melon, kiwi, and huge grapes), and another plate with sliced cheese, delicious ham, and avocado. It sounds like a really simply breakfast, but usually at hostels they just have bread with jam and manjar (dulce de leche aka caramel) to spread on it. So this was just a nice little treat! Yet again, Lucia came through for us! After breakfast she called one of her friends and set up horseback riding for us. The drive up to where we were going to ride horses was beautiful.

We went horseback riding for about two hours, and it was soooo much fun (and really cheap…only $10)! The horses galloped while we were riding them! I’ve only just leisurely walked while on a horse, so this was my first time galloping. It was a little scary at first, but really great! This was my third time riding a horse, and it felt so natural! I was really comfortable with the horse and could control it pretty easily, so that was nice. I really want a horse now! Too bad I’m really allergic (I for sure paid for it after we finished riding – I was sneezing up a storm, my eyes were puffy and red and would not stop watering). Pero vale la pena por cierto (but it was worth it for sure!). I learned that phrase from Amy that weekend. Its literal translation is ‘it’s worth the pain,’ but is used just like how we use ‘it’s worth it.’ I’ll have to look into riding trips back home. Hopefully they won’t be too expensive, but if they are, maybe it will be something I will do only every now and then.

Me and my sweet cowboy hat!

The horse I rode. This weekend was sooo much fun! We did A LOT of really fun things. I can’t wait for the next adventure! Until Next Time, Liz

Weekend Trip to Mendoza

I went to Mendoza a few weekends ago with two of my roommates, Ben and Eric, and Tom. It was a lovely weekend. I really really love the city of Mendoza. It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be, but it still has the feel of a small town.

The drive to Mendoza, through the Andes Mountains, was absolutely beautiful! I took a TON of pictures

We also drove up a ridiculous road that ended up having 29 turns/curves.

Towards the end of the journey, we passed a beautiful lake.

The hostel we stayed at was pretty great. Because there were four of us, we ended up being able to have our room to ourselves, with our own patio too. We planned out our weekend that night and ate an asado at the hostel. I don’t know what it is about asados in hostels, but they are always the best! This asado was the first one for Ben, Eric, and Tom. We had grilled veggies, chicken, steak, and chorizos (my favorite!).

After dinner we all went back to the room, drank some wine on the patio, and stayed up for a bit and talked. One of us went to bed earlier than the rest (me of course).

On Saturday we walked around the city for a bit in the morning. There was a really pretty park near our hostel that had beautiful tiling and a fountain.

All the roads were lined with trees that hovered over the streets. Even though we don’t have these trees back home, it still reminded me of Atlanta. So pretty!

That afternoon we went on a wine tour. We saw two wineries and a factory where they make olive oil. The first winery was a family owned winery, so it was pretty small. It was very quaint though, and I enjoyed the wines.

This winery had the biggest barrels that I have ever seen.

The second winery we visited was a lot bigger than the first one. I also enjoyed the wine tasting there.

The olive oil factory was a quick trip, but I really enjoyed it. The name of the company combined the first three letters of raisins in Spanish and English.

After seeing how they make their olive oil, we got to try different kinds. This was my favorite part! The olive oil was sooo yummy! My favorite was the olive oil that had basil in it. How genius is that?!? It never occurred to me that there could be different flavors of olive oil. I had always assumed it was just either regular olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. But adding basil or garlic makes a big difference. So that was just neat to try all the different kinds of olive oil that the company makes.

That night we just relaxed. We went out to dinner, and then I made everyone try the vanilla, dulce de leche swirl ice cream cone from McDonalds. Everyone loved it! I have really been missing that since I have left Argentina, so it was a nice treat to have it again.

Our bus back to Chile left around 2:00 on Sunday, so we just explored the city some more before we headed back to Santiago.

Only spending the weekend in Mendoza was definitely not enough time. I hope I'll be able to go back one day and be able to experience more of Mendoza. I didn’t realize how much I had missed Argentina since I had left in January. It had sort of felt like I was going back home when we arrived in Mendoza (even though I had never been to that part of Argentina before). It was so great being back! I missed the delicious food and the beautiful accent. I will always have a special place in my heart for Argentina, and will definitely have to go back to explore other parts of it.

Until Next Time,
Liz

Festival de Arte

Twice a year VE puts on a talent show (of sorts) for all of the institutions. Everyone submits a bunch of artwork and the kids have a chance to perform. They can dance, sing, or play an instrument. The artwork and the performances are all judged and some of the kids get prizes. It was such a fun night, and I’m so happy that I got to experience it!

Here is most of the artwork my girls did:

All the performances they did were great! My girls ended up performing the Miley Cyrus dance I taught them a few months ago, which made me so happy and excited to see them! They ended up asking me to join in the dance with them, so that was fun. It was funny though because when I taught them the dance they just mirrored my moves, so everything was backwards. When I danced with them, I looked a little lost because the moves were switched around, but that’s ok. I ruined the dance a little bit, ha, but it was so fun!

Other performances some of the girls did were two of them sang a duet to a Spanish song, two girls sang solo to two different Spanish songs, and then two girls did a duet to Naturally by Salina Gomez (an English song). I have never felt so proud of anyone else like I did with these girls. It was a new feeling for me. I felt like a proud mama bear. It was interesting for me to see how I reacted to everything; it gave me a small glance into the future on the type of mom I’m going to be. I will definitely be the mom taking a TON of pictures of EVERYTHING and recording EVERY performance. And I’m pretty sure I will most definitely embarrass my kids…all the time.

After all the girls did their performances, a group of us volunteers danced to a Spanish song. Oh man…that was soo much fun too, but was a little crazy. I was only able to make it to one of the practices. I was hoping to be able to stand in the back, but it seemed like almost everyone wanted to be in the back so I ended up being front and center ha (first mistake ha). Also, I seemed to have missed the memo to wear a dark shirt because everyone was wearing a dark t-shirt, but I wore a white long sleeve t-shirt (second mistake). So I stuck out like a sore thumb ha, and whenever I made a mistake it was a big, obvious one haha. Right before we started dancing, all my girls started a chant saying my name; it was sooo cute.

After the performances we all went outside to eat a snack while the judges deliberated about the prizes. I was hanging out with the older girls while they were listening to music. They were trying to teach me some new sexy dance moves. So naturally, I took their sexy dance moves and turned them into goofy, ridiculously dumb, white girl moves. Even though they were making fun of me, I know they enjoyed it ha. I hardly get to see the older girls because when they come home they go straight to their rooms to hang out (what 16 year olds normally do). So I really enjoyed hanging out with them, it also gave them a chance to get to know me better.

After snack time the judges gave out the prizes. My girls won a prize for the Miley Cyrus dance (despite me being in it ha)!!!!! Everyone loved it! It was to an English song, the lyrics and dance moves were age appropriate, and the girls did such a great job! I was so proud of them and they were very excited to win. Three of my girls won prizes for some of their artwork and another girl won a prize for a poem she wrote. It was so great to be able to experience Festival with my girls. I wish there could be more for me to attend; I really enjoyed seeing my girls be so proud of themselves.

Until Next Time,
Liz