Halfway Mark...

I have been in Chile for 75.5 days. I have 75.5 more days to go. For those of you who aren't math wizards, that means I'm halfway done with my time here... so weird! And also bittersweet. As my friend Laura pointed out... that means that we're on the downhill, that every day that passes means one day we are closer to leaving.  I am absolutely loving my time here traveling, going to the beach, spending time with my host family, and just getting to know the Chilean culture. But at the same time, I really do miss so much from home! I think one of the best things that will come out of my time here (although there are sure to be SO many) is that I appreciate everything I have at home so much more. At the end of my sophomore year at DU, I can't say I was excited to go back.  Everything seemed so repetitive, and I just really felt burnt out there. But after having been here, I have realized what incredible people I'm surrounded by there, and how fortunate I am to have everything I do. I know that that must seem like the typical abroad student thing to say, but it really is true. It's not even so much that I miss the material things, like my car, mom's chocolate chip cookies, normal grocery stores, etc... I mean I miss those, but I really do know that I could live without them. What this experience has really showed me is that no matter where you are, the most important thing is the people you are surrounded by. I have so many incredible people in my life back in the US, and I really do appreciate and miss every single one of you!

Okay, I know I've been really bad about posting recently, so here's a quick update!

At the end of my week off of school, some of my friends from school invited me to go on a beach getaway weekend with them to a small town called Horcón! Horcón is about an hour and a half micro ride from Viña, so we left on Thursday, and were off! We spend the weekend in a cute little cabaña that was perfect for the six of us, and cooked, drank good wine, and spent a lot of time at the beach! One day we also went to a small town called Zapallar, which is another hour and a half from Horcón. The town here and beach was beautiful and clean, and really the only way I can explain it is that the people, homes, and cars led me to believe that this town is the Chilean equivalent of the Hamptons. Range Rovers, BMW's, huge white houses, the works! Definitely a change of pace, but I still prefer Horcón and Viña.

This past week of school was the hardest I've had yet here... and still when I'm saying that, it wasn't even that bad. I've had MUCH worse at DU! I had two presentations and three essays this week, two of those essays and one presentation in spanish. It was a lot, but I got it done (sometimes last minute... my Thursday essay was started on Wednesday night at 8:30pm, and finished 45 minutes before class... whoops!). Other news this week... my friends Laura and Lindsey came to my house after class on Thursday night, and we had plans to make cookies and watch a movie! We made the cookies in the form of cookie bars (just like Momma Swig!), and then when they came out, I asked the girls if they had ever heard of pazookie. They both looked at me with a look of, DUH, and so naturally we took the ice cream out of the freezer, and had a great time devouring an entire pan of cookies and ice cream. Oh yeah, we did that. Yum. Afterwards we watched Toy Story 3. While this definitely wasn't enhancing our Chilean culture experience, it was a pretty great time to just veg out with friends and relax :)

Then, my host sister, Leslie (23), and I went running/working out yesterday! She's been wanting to work out with me for awhile now, and yesterday worked for both of us! She wasn't quite used to the distances I run (which really isn't that much, but she hasn't ran that much in the past), so we had to walk/stop sometimes, but we had a lot of fun! When we got back we also did abs together... and then made a delicious pasta lunch with homemade sauce! It was really good bonding time! Then last night, I was having oncé with my host parents, and we were just having a great conversation. It's so nice to finally be able to feel like I really am a part of the family who can contribute to the conversations and express my own opinion! There are definitely words I still struggle saying, like... refrigerator and europeans (refrigerador and europeos), which led to a really funny incident last night. After my parents found out I couldn't say europeos, they spent some time trying to help me pronounce it. They broke it up into syllables... "eh-oo-ro-pe-os." This really helped me, and I said those parts very slowly, after getting it down better, I apparently said the last part, "pe-os" rather strongly in comparison to the other parts, and both of my parents started laughing at me! I had no idea what was going on, and asked, "¿Qué!? ¿Qué significa "peos"?" (What? What does "peos" mean?), and they continued to laugh. My host mom then went on to make noises and hand signals which led me to understand that she thought I was pronouncing it with a "d", and the word "pedos" is the equivalent of the english word, "fart". Yup. Fart. Then of course I had to teach the both of them the word fart, and how to say it in a sentence. My host sisters came home from being out of town for awhile, and the first thing my host mom said to them was, "Who farted?!" Hahaha. I'm such a good influence. We were dying laughing. This is the second time in two weeks that I have been in tears from laughing so hard at my dining table with my family. Definitely not something I'm upset about!

Overall a really great week, minus all the school work. Tomorrow I leave at 5am to go to Peru to see MACHU PICCHU with my dear friend Rachel. I have been looking forward to this trip for so long, it's hard to believe that it's actually here! Needless to say, you probably won't be hearing from me for awhile, but I promise to have some great things for you when I get back! Miss you all, chau for now!