The half way point.

Tomorrow mark 3 months since I left the US! I can't believe that it's already been that long and I am more than half way through this experience! It's so strange that I haven't seen any of the most important people in my life for 3 months. Thank god for skype, but it's so not the same.

After the times when it felt like time was moving so slowly, now all of the sudden the time is FLYING by! It's crazy to think about how much I've learned, adapted, and have yet to do and learn in the less than 3 months I have left here. It's also crazy to think back on what I've already done. I've made some incredible friends, gotten used to life in Santiago, adapted to the food, traveled some very cool places, improved at Spanish, gotten over some pretty severe homesickness, passed the 5th largest earthquake in history, started classes entirely in Spanish and am able to stay afloat and even excel, and so much more. At the same time, there is SO much more for me to learn and experience and do here. Every single day is a learning experience living in an entirely new culture. A day never passes that something new doesn't catch my eye or surprise me. At the same time though, it's surprising how much I've adapted. For instance, waiting for the bus or metro, taking public transportation everywhere, eating bread a avocado with butter and jam for dinner with tea, and so much more just seem like everyday occurrences now. The times when these weren't part of my everyday routine feel distant. While I've adapted to a lot of things, there are some things I will never get used to but have learned to live with a little better such as the ridiculous behavior of some men, the metro at rush hour, and some others. I've grown to appreciate SO MANY THINGS about California, the US, UCLA, my family, and my friends through this experience and love and appreciate all of the above even more.

I've learned a lot while down here, but I really and truly think the most cherished thing I have thus far gotten out of this experience is an entirely new view on the word "home". "Home" is pretty much the highest pedastal in my life these days and the way I look at it will never be the same. It's not so much that I've learned things about how I feel about home as much as the things I knew but didn't take the time of appreciate enough or take note of have been exaggerated. I live here, I have a house here, I have very good friends here, and for all practical purposes this is my home for these 6 months. However, regardless of how much I am enjoying and learning and so much more down here, I have a hard time allowing myself to say "I'm going home" at the end of a trip or a day of school. It may be cheesy, but "Home is where the heart is" is irrevocably true. I am growing to love Chile and the life I have created for myself down here, but my heart is in California. Even now, when I am not and have not felt homesick for several weeks now, I get teary eyed thinking about how much love I have for every single member of my family and my incredible friends back home. Chile can try its hardest, but that aspect of home is one thing it doesn't stand a chance at rivaling. This feeling and love, though undoubtedly present before, has only grown with distance. For the relationships and friendships that truly matter to me, these 3 months apart have not resulted in a feeling of distance but rather of a closer, stronger relationship that is simply accompanied by a feeling of missing them and certainly not losing them.

If nothing else, I know now that I will be glad I did this. I don't only learn something new about Chile and life down here everyday, but often times something about myself or a friend as well. There are many people I miss more than I could possibly express, but the half way mark is encouraging and time is flying by at this point. And one of these people arrives in just 2 weeks!

So, I'd like to make a list of goals for the time I have left:
-Find out where to do my laundry! Tomorrow! hahaha
-Continue working on finding ways to speak more Spanish; Soccer and my language partner have really helped this but I still have a long way to go
-Study, read, and do well in classes
-Build up the guts to do the oral exposition of the text I have to do in front of my Population Geography class in which I am the only exchange student
-Ask questions to the professors when I have them
-Go out a little more; yes going out until all hours of the night is not really my thing as I have learned, but it is part of the experience of Chile and I do enjoy it occasionally and should partake more often
-Travel Goals: Uruguay, BA, Pucón, San Pedro de Atacama, Bolivia
-this list will grow



As far as my first soccer game tonight, it wasn't quite as fun as I was anticipating seeing as we lost 5-0, but let's hope it was just rustiness and things only get better from here on out. I think I've been 100% converted to a runner over the past 5 or 6 years and now very much prefer sports that have no winners and losers and where I do not have the potential of letting down a team. Let's face it, I was never that good at soccer to begin with but tonight was a particularly off evening that peaked when a corner kick bounced off of my thigh and into our own goal. Go me. Not. Now I remember why I switched to running and one of the many forgotten reasons as to why I love running so much! That being said, all of the ladies on our team are very nice and it's fun to talk to them. They kept playing me in positions where I don't play! At the end, I started to get more in the swing of things again and asked to move to a side rather than the middle. The second half was definitely better than the first. Hopefully things keep moving that direction.

Besides sucking however, it was definitely fun to kick the ball again. I need to move away from my LB Poly aggressive soccer playing roots very quickly though, or I am clearly going to pay with calls! I was raised to play aggressive and things wouldn't be called and that got me a few calls tonight, oops! The main component of my skills it seems came from said aggressiveness so we'll see how things go. Anyhow, here's to next week! Hopefully we improve, because that would certainly make my $60 investment more enjoyable!

What else have I been up to? Well let me start by saying Gina and I ate a delicious dinner of sauté-ed eggplant, zucchini, and onion tonight! mmmm! I've also discovered I LOVE asian pears! We also went through a family sized box of cereal in less than a week! My culture class started and is definitely not going to be the most riveting class, seeing as tuesday she somehow managed to talk for 2 hours saying copious amounts of things that ultimately simply could have been said as "Chile is a country of mixed-race people and is Catholic." I think it will get more interesting though because the professor changes almost everyday!

Besides soccer, this week has been pretty busy just with school, my language partner, my internship, and various errands. I finally replaced my school ID that was lost when my wallet was stolen and I also went and picked up some lovely letters from my loving family and friends today! Thank you and I love you all! School is very much in swing these days and I realized this week that 4 day weekends means 3 very very busy days of work! It's definitely worth it though for the traveling abilities and the slow pace of the weekend when it finally comes! I have lots of work to do this weekend, but 4 days to do it in since we'll be staying in Santiago and thus I can combine work with fun each day!

Summary: School is busy and in full swing, having the first time I touch a soccer ball in 5 years be an official game is a bad idea, I am thrilled it is the weekend and have some fun plans and plenty of reading and studying to keep me busy, and I am officially more than half way through.