Ball, Brine, and Bugs

Thanks to Thesaurus.com for helping me with that catchy, alliteration-filled title. Brine? I did not come up with that on my own...

I apologize for my blogging hiatus, as many things have been happening and changing in my life. However, I'm extremely thankful to be able to keep myself busy in a new country and learn new things every day. It's amazing how much physical distance between people can change entire relationships. Whether it was best friends who never said goodbye before my five month absence or those who aren't the slightest bit interested in what/how I'm doing here, it's been nice to see what true relationships I have back home and know that those people will be in my life forever. This trip has given me a new outlook on how I plan to live my life in the future, and I can't thank everyone who made this possible enough (my parents!, DU, Cherrington, Capital One... haha). Also - here's a little shout-out to the people at Cassidy Orthodontics who I hope follow my blog as much as they followed the Casey Anthony trial all summer. I miss you guys so much!

Over the past two weeks I've been doing things I never imagined I'd be doing. These adventures include:

1). Attending the 193rd Chilean Naval Ball


2). Hiking up/boarding down sand dunes overlooking the Pacific Ocean


3). Getting a taste of the Chilean healthcare system


To start off, I was invited to the Naval Ball by an old friend, Alvaro, who studied abroad for a year in Kansas as a junior. He and his twin brother Pablo, also an exchange student, started their friendship with me by claiming they "needed a picture with a blonde girl from the US to show to all their friends back home" (that should give you a little taste of how much us rubias stand out in this country). Since then, we've kept in touch and I learned that Alvaro is now attending the Navy school in Valparaíso. Alvaro has been extremely helpful since we've been here, telling us how to get around and which places to go at night. But the most exciting thing he's done for us was invite my friends and me to the Naval Ball along with his friends who also didn't have dates. I must say, it felt like we were going to a Chilean prom - we went dress and shoe shopping, got ready together, and took lots of pictures at Kristin's house beforehand. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to borrow an old dress from my host sister, who had also been in the past and was jealous of the amazing food and drinks we'd be served. After a night of sushi, piscolas, dancing to music so loud it makes your chest pound, and the naval after-party with the best kabobs I've ever had, we got home at 7:00 am and were made fun of for leaving too early. These Chileans are crazy, I swear...

This past Monday was a holiday and thus gave us an opportunity to go out Sunday night and turn our 3-day weekends of sleeping-in and watching entire seasons of American sitcoms into a 4-day one. On the fourth day, we were so restless that we decided to check out the sand dunes that everyone who has studied here highly recommends, requiring a long and confusing bus ride through Viña, the expensive beach/surf town of Reñaca, and Con Con. Little did we know that walking up these sand dunes felt like walking up a hill of melting cream cheese, and that any way of getting down required getting sand in your mouth, hair, eyes, pants, socks, shoes, you get the idea... But for the view it offers, it was definitely worth it! These pictures speak for themselves:

Of course, for all the fun I've had partying with marines and sliding down Pacific sand dunes, it must be balanced out by something not so fun- or, at least, I don't consider being covered in allergic and infected bug bites that ooze an odd-colored liquid a walk in the park. Leave it to me to come down with some illness or health issue when moving to a new place (remember when I got mono and swine flu my first week of college?). I began waking up every morning with an increasing number of bug bites, first on my hands, then my arms, and then my face. They started out small, red, hard, and itchy, and turned into large, unbearable, and infected (gross, I know, but bear with me - hearing about it is better than having them). After the largest bug bite had about a four-inch radius and a strange, orange-colored liquid coming out of it - oh yeah, it was on the entire left side of my FACE - it was time to speak up and ask to be taken to a doctor. Somehow my mother's boyfriend got me into an amazing dermatologist who looked them over and gave me five different prescriptions for free. While the process was fairly simple thanks to my family's help, the process of taking care of a $50 bill between two healthcare insurance providers has been anything but easy. Especially because I've either lost my health insurance card or never brought it with me in the first place. NOT my smartest move when traveling to a different country. PLESE don't kill me, mom and dad... or cut me off?

I've decided to start doing a "Things Chileans and Americans Will Never Understand about Each Other" segment in every blog to give my American and Chilean readers alike a better understanding of the other's culture. It's been quite entertaining seeing things here I know would never fly in the US of A and refraining from saying and doing things out of respect in my Chilean household. Here we go, for Part 1:


Americans don't understand:
PATIENCE. We are so spoiled in the way that we get every thing the second we want it in the United States. I never realized how I took my car rides to Walgreens, my central heating, and the warm water in my shower for granted. There have been countless times where I've longed for my Honda Civic when going to a friend's house or dreaded going to the ATM every time I needed cash (especially because it costs me $6.00 US every time I take money out). We live in a "microwave society," as my favorite band teacher Steve Holloman likes to call it, in which we want every whim of ours fulfilled at the drop of a hat. Well, get out of Toe-pee-kee, Kansas, people, cause it's not that easy in other countries! When I want to take a hot shower - okay, I won't lie, they're hot-cold-hot-okay-ohmygod cold-showers - it requires walking outside and turning on the gas and lighting a calefont, or a gas-powered water heater, to do so. Because I've never lit a match and fire scares me, I usually make our nana (maid) turn it on after 5 attempts of throwing the match into the machine and hoping it lights (it never does). And, just so the gas doesn't escape and kill my entire Chilean family, I have to walk outside after my shower in my sopping wet hair and head-to-toe Gamma Phi Beta apparel. Despite this "dreadful life" I live, have you ever taken the time to realize how you got the hot water in your shower or sink? I sure didn't until I began washing my face with ice-cold water every night, cupping the water in my hands and hoping my body heat would transfer to the water and make it a tad less painful. Being here has made me realize just how easy we have it back home.

Chileans don't understand:
The concept of Greek life. While a lot of Americans also don't understand why some people would "pay for their friends" or "live in a house full of 100 girls" - my mom used the latter to try and talk me out of rushing - we still know what they are and what they do. The concept of joining a huge club of the same sex, living together, being represented as a whole with 2-3 Greek letters, and raising money and partying together makes no sense here, or in the rest of the world, for that matter. With no literal translation for "fraternity" or "sorority" in the ways we use them, I have had some of my most difficult times explaining what kind of house I lived in this past year or why half of my clothes have the greek letters Γ,Φ, and Β on them. I've accepted that this is a lost cause and now just refer to it as my "women's club," like a juvenile Junior League. Doesn't sound very fun, does it?

I will try and keep this updated more. Thanks for reading! The next blog will feature Deborah and Peter (also known as my parents), who will be arriving on Tuesday!