. . . is getting their HOST FAMILY!!!
I suppose the most most exciting moment would be arriving.
I have:
Parents
18 year old brother
16 year old sister
13 year old sister
I got an email from AFS two days ago, a few minutes after I had been worrying about not having a host family. And I went on to check my emails and BAM! It sure put a smile on my dial.
I'm a going to email them today, in Spanish (which should be interesting as it is a long time since I have practiced my spanish, and hopefully should get some more information about them.
The city where I'll be living is in region III (Chile is divided into regions, with region I right at the top) which puts me at the edge of the Atacama desert. It's called Copiapó, and has a population on 129,000 people (about 2 1/2 times the size of New Plymouth). I'm SO glad that I'll be living somewhere, which by the looks of the pictures, is beautiful, different landscape from NZ, and HOT! And of course I'm grateful to my host family, who I can't wait to meet!
(there's a map of Chile with Copiapó on it on my blogger blog - http://anita-oversea.blogger.com )
Posts (page 2)
This is just a quick post to say I leave today. My bags are packed, everything is ready, and I leave for the airport in 3 and a half hours.
Farewell, New Zealand!
Listening to: the ads on The Edge . . . . guess the song my title came from, someone :) !
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Farewell Party
On Saturday I had my farewell party. It was a FANTABULOUS night. We did everything from toasting marshamallows and making s'mores, to playing volleyball, bouncing on the trampoline, having glow sticks, the inevitable - EATING and I can honestly say I left with a bang - we had fireworks as well!
When it came time to have the cake I had iced - as a Chilean flag, I said a little speech that was completely off-the-cuff and it was so embarrassing because I cried. But luckily my attempt at a funny speech worked and I managed some laughs as well.
Host family gifts
Yesterday I went into town with Mum and bought a whole lot of stuff I'd need - like jeans (in a biggish size in case I put on weight X.X ) extra makeup and most importantly, gifts for my host family. We got tee-shirts, jewellery, key rings, pins and a cushion cover and a tea-towel. Mum also bought me some NZ playing cards and a patch to sew onto my backpack.
Visa and visa issues
Finally I have my student visa, and passport so I am legally able to stay in Chile for a year! My passport photo is horrible though. I think if I actually look as shifty as I do in my passport, that I wouldn't be allowed to board the plane!
The Visa issues are with the Visa card we ordered last Tuesday. The bank told us it would take 2-3 working days for it to arrive, then I would go to the bank and get a PIN number put on it. But it still hasn't arrived, one week later. Mum phoned the bank, was put on hold for ages, and finally discovered that the bank hadn't put a digit on the card, so they weren't going to send it to us. They also hadn't told us, and for all we knew, it (an unsigned card) could have been lost in the mail and someone could have been using it). We don't know if they would have told us or not, so luckily Mum rang! The bank is going to courier the card up tomorrow, so I will now have money to use in Chile. I'm just a bit shocked at the slackness of the bank. If we'd been able to get a card from nice, friendly, welcoming TSB bank I'm sure this wouldn't have happened and I would have a card by now.
Kittens
This has absolutely nothing to do with my exchange, but also on Saturday we went to the SPCA to get one ginger kitten. But two stole our hearts and now we are the adoring owners of Smokey and Max, a grey tabby and a ginger tabby, who are brothers. They have the exact same stripes and markings, just in different colours.
Packing
Haven't really started yet . . .
Info on exchanges, Chile and Copiapó
I have been asked some very similar questions by a lot of people, so here are the answers to the sorts of questions that I get asked:
Will your family speak English?
They can all speak English, but I want to learn Spanish, and they are encouraging me to speak Spanish
Do you go to an English school?
I have been advised that I am going to a music school. The point of exchange is to become 'part of the culture' so exchangers will integrate as much as they can. They are not special guests or visitors.
Will you miss your family?
Yes, of course, but I still have to do this. We'll keep in touch
Is your family coming to visit?
No, AFS discourages families to visit, plus my family isn't too flash after 8 hours in a plane, so I hate to think what 11 and a half hours will do.
Is anyone from your school/from your town going as well?
No, but there are 4 other students from around NZ.
Why are you going on exchange?
I want to do something different, experience another culture, learn a new language, and become a better and more worldly person, and use that to help others.
They speak Japanese in Chile, right?
Spanish.
So you're taking lots of warm clothes, because it's really cold there, isn't it?
Actually, Chile spans from nearly touching Antarctica, to nearly touching the Equator. The climate varies greatly, from Punta Arenas, the world's southernmost city, to Arica, the world's driest city. Between that, there are many different climate areas - meditterranean to just plain cold.
How big is Chile?
The population is around 16 million. Four times the population of NZ
And Copiapó?
Approximately 130,000 people. So around 2 and a half times the size of where I live now.
Is it hot?
Yup. They only get about one day of rain a year, and it's in the driest desert in the world, the Atacama.
And now it's time for some photos! These are from my farewell party.
Don't forget to comment!
Listening to: Fix You - ColdplayIt's less than two weeks now until I step onto the airplane that will take me away from my town, into the international airport, and then to Chile.I'm amazed at how busy I am becoming. Babysitting, my scrapbook, planning my sister's party, my own farewell party, sorting out how I will get money when I'm in Chile, packing and emailing my host family are things that I definitely don't mind doing, but do keep my on my toes. The scariest thought is that, if I don't get something sorted out before I go, it will be 10x harder to do in Chile, if not impossible.Excitement alternates with nervousness. It was easy to be excited 4 months ago, when I had so much to look forward to, but not much of the reality. An exchange is definetely not going to be a cruisy holiday. I'm expecting it to be hard, tiring, frustrating, confusing, sad, lonely, but also an incredible once-in-a-lifetime oppurtuntiy, which I will be forever grateful for.However, when I mention to my mummy 'less than two weeks now' I can't help but notice it makes her sadder to think that, and there's a little bit of guilt associated with leaving my beloved family for a year. She'll have to make my little brother's school lunch, someone else will have to clear the table after dinner, do weekend baking, babysit and hang out the washing, but nobody will be able to take the place of me (that sounds really self-(can't think of the word) but when I'm away, no-one will be able to take the place of my family either. I won't be able to groan and laugh with Mum and my little sister when an Abba song comes on shuffle, or have remark-competitions with my brother, or give my little brother hugs (although he does say he wants me to go because he won't have to listen to music all the time), I won't be able to go for car rides with my dad when he runs errands. That's the family, now for my friends. I love all of you so much! You never fail to make me laugh or cheer me up when I'm down. Those crazy sleepovers . . . Talking on the phone, texting. I came to school last Tuesday to see everyone and give out invites to my farewell party. It's weird being so out-of-the-loop, not being up to date on all the goss, and that sort of thing. And that's just for the 1 week school had been back! But leaving what I have here, for an exchange, is definitely worth it. No doubt about that.Exactly 2 weeks before I went, I decided some time ago, I would do a test-pack. Can you imagine packing your life into a suitcase?Luckily, I was 5kgs below the weight limit, according to our old crumby scales. I'm going to take my flute in my hand luggage (I'm going to a music school) and leave behind by beloved MacBook. Why? Aside from the worry of it getting broken, I think that being part of a family means sharing. Next post I'll put up some facts about Copiapó, and AFS exchange, and some FAQ's.11 days!The pictures are of my packing, the NZ sticker on the back of my suitcase
To add a bit of creativity to my bland blog, I've decided that the title of each blog is going to be a line from a song. I'm not going to say which song though. Just to be cool. And the song I'm listening to is not the same song as the title.
Listening to: Love Story - Taylor Swift (iTunes on shuffle)The last post I wrote, I had a host family. Well, I've been emailing them a fair bit. The first email I sent was really awkward and I wrote it in Spanish and English, because after 2 months of no Spanish I wasn't sure I could trust it!The very next day I got a reply, from my host sister (16yrs) and it was really nice, expecially the PS, which said 'my mom said to tell your mom not to worry because I'm going to take care of her'. I read that and it made my day.Now, not only did Ade email me, but so did Valeria and Pablo, my 13yr old sister and 18yr old brother. They both sounded really nice and now I emailed Valeria and Ade about every second day (they're on holiday at the moment, and are emailing me! It's wicked!) Ade and I do similar sorts of things (go to movies, etc) with our friends, and Valeria is younger and really likes Japan.Now I'd had my family for just over a week when I got a packed from AFS about them, complete with photos! They look so fun! I really can't wait to meet them. I wasn't expecting to get a family so soon, and I'm so happy. I also found out I'm going to Liceo Músico de Copiapó. A MUSIC school!! That's SOOO me. Surrounded by musos 5 days a week - beats Concert Band once every week for half an hour. The only issue now is whether I bring my flute or not . . .Since the school year has only just started, there's no point in me going to school for 15 days, so currently I stay at home with nothing to do. And by 'nothing' I mean watch The OC, go on Facebook and Cultures-Shocked, email, and the occasional cooking. Incredibly lame. And at night I like to go for a bike ride.Luckily for me, that is only during the week! I'm having friends around on Friday night and then on Saturday night I'm going to see Gran Torino with another friend. And I'm planning on going into school to see everyone next week and give out my farewell party invites, so I'm not some kind of antisocial moth.I mentioned Facebook before. Facebook is like, perfection. I've 'talked' to some of the other exchangers to Chile and it will be a great way to keep in touch. 22 sleeps!
It's been a while!
The weekend before last I had another AFS chapter meeting. It consisted of the four inbounds talking about their countries.
We had:
Iceland
Switzerland
Spain
Finland
The talks were all very interesting, but the best part of the meeting is, as usual, THE FOOD!
That weekend I had the Spanish inbound stay at my house because she lives out of town and needed to get to the meeting. We made chocolate brownies-YUM!
After the meeting I talked with the Italy outbound
We have outbounds heading for:
Italy
Chile - me!
France (methinks)
USA
Japan
School has finished now. It was kind of weird the last day at school - my two best friends didn't come, and I had Concert Band rehersal at lunchtime (it was good to see the Concert Band again, as we are from my school and the boy's high school). During the prizegiving, the Head Girl gave an excellent speech. She started crying though, and lots of the Year 13's were crying as well. It must be hard, leaving a school you have spent five years at.
I've looked back at this year, and discovered that I've probably changed the most. Many of my values have changed, as has my personality, my goals, and my hair.
Last year I was what you might call a 'hard-out' at school - I always strived to be the top. I had my group of friends, we had the occasional spat and I didn't have much of a social life.
But this year, I have changed groups of friends, I've had a boyfriend (for 6 days haha) but we are good friends now. I have about 13 friends, 11 of which I spend lunchtimes with, and my best friends who are in my old group of friends. I have my class friends, I'm a lot less hard-out, I've got no braces, I'm happy with myself, I seriously look back at how far I've come and how much I've changed. Some of the changes are more subtle, and I definitely learn from my mistakes.
And truth be told, I'm positive I'll change even more next year, on exchange! It's hard saying goodbye to everything here, all the people I won't see again, but I'll do it, and that's life. I have regretted things I've done, oppurtunities I've missed, but I realise there's you can't change your past, but the future is in your hands.
I wonder what the future will bring . . .
On Monday, I was heading out home to my Speech and Drama exam with Mum and I spotted a brown A4 envelope in the mailbox with the AFS logo on it! So for the next hour I forgot about it but when we came back home again I made Mum stop on the driveway so I could get the mail. While she went into the house to get the stuff for the bank (to get the deposit to send to AFS) I tore open the envelope. At first I thought they sent the same stuff again because the folder was the same, but I opened it up and it had a ton of paper - brochure "AFS Chile Welcomes You", a Passport to Healthy Travel, Chile Bulletin, um... a sheet of paper on AIDS, travel stuff, and VISA STUFF. And Mum has already booked two appoitments - one for the medical check and one for the Notary Public which Mum, Dad and I have to visit on Tuesday.But, more importantly still. . .A DEPARTURE DATE!!!26 February (Thursday). Depart Auckland Airport at 1725 (5.25pm) and arrive Santiago Airport at 1245 (12.45am) I'm guessing in Chile time.I was so stunned I actually knew when I was going . . . School starts for the year around the 2nd February, so I might go back to school for a bit or work. Four months left. That's like a 3rd of the time I am in Chile, so I don't want it to go too fast because I don't want my year overseas to whizz by.That's all for now.
And I thought you might like to see my school uniform . . .
'They' refers to the group from school that went to Santiago, Chile, over the last 4 weeks. The group returned yesterday. I didn't go.
If was funny though, because the reason I took Spanish was to go on this school trip to Chile. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I became interested in going on a student exchange. I went to an AFS meeting at the start of the year and was asked by the outbounds where I wanted to go, and my answer was Spain or Chile. They all told me to go to Chile! At that time I was unaware that my Spanish class wouldn't be given the oppurtunity to go to Chile - there was a Spanish class above us, and they were given priority, fair enough too. Because I get to go for (almost) a year!
Today, our Spanish lesson was just about Chile. We basically asked questions, and I asked about 75% of them - ranging from what the food was like there - "Pretty similar, but it depends on what family you live with" (the students were billeted out) - what the weather was like - "Hot" - what the students were like - "wore lots of makeup and were egotistical but really nice" (the exchange was with a wealthy private school) - and I asked what the boys were like - "very nice, they hold doors open for you and act like gentleman" - the toilets - "you have to put the toilet paper in a bin next to the toilet, and in the public toilets they have huge cracks in the doors."
The girl from my class who went also commented on how friendly and welcoming the Chileans are. Her billet family invited her back to them any time, and even told her that she should study at a Chilean university! The group (8 girls from my school ~approx and 4 boys (two years younger than the girls, because none of the seniors could go) said they got along really well, and became like a family - the younger boys were like little brothers (initially they were worried about the maturity gap.) The last five days they were there, the girl said, everyone was crying and the airport was like a huge 'cry fest'. Nobody wanted to go home! She also said that now she feels like her body is here, but everything else is in Chile - her heart and soul. And that's after spending 4 weeks there!
After talking about the trip, several girls in my class who had dropped Spanish in favour of other subjects next year, decided that they would like to learn Spanish again, to go on the trip in two years. In two years, I'll be back from Chile and probably aching to go again! Gosh it makes me sad to think of that - I'll be taking Spanish again when I return, and the girls will all be going to the country that I will have exchanged to. It's so nice, everyone here is so supportive of my exchange, and I have lots of "Anita, you have to write ok?" My two good friends have also said that they don't want to see any pictures of me, so they can see how I change when I get back. So I'm not allowed to put pictures in the monthly letters that I am apparently going to be writing to them.
Last night, I had a dream that I was already in Chile. . . I was in a little town in the south, called Copiapó (although that's in the north!) I was walking to school in the pitch black, and I also had to take a gondola (chairlift) to school for some reason. Then it skipped to when we were walking down this extraordinarily steep, but well-sealed road, with a steep drop on one side and a cliff on the other. It was raining, and I was stuck because it was too steep for me to walk down... So that was interesting. Once I pay the deposit, AFS will start looking for a host family. Getting a host family is like the most exciting thing for an outbound! I can't wait to find out where I'll be living.
So now I'd better go.
Cheerio!
I went on the computer to check my email this morning, only to recieve one from AFS NZ to say that I had been accepted by AFS Chile.
That means that my next payment is due, and once it has been paid they will begin to find me a host family. I don't want to get my hopes up, but it would be awesome to be able to answer the question of "Where in Chile will you be?" with an answer other than "I don't know yet."
I've also been looking at a Lonely Planet for Chile, I don't know why but I have an obsession for the population size of places, and ANY of the cities/towns/villages there look wonderful. Mum tried to discourage me from Wikipedia-ing places in Chile, because 'I might be disapointed if I don't end up in a place that I like' but that is so not me! I like all of Chile at the moment. Once I find out my host family I might become slightly biased . . . but who knows? I'm just happy to know that AFS hasn't forgotten me.
I'm going to Chile! Yay!
I've just returned from the medical centre with a very sore arm because I have had two injections. Yup, I've just had my travel vaccines done!
Because I'm going to Chile, I needed these vaccines:
- HepA
- HepB
- Typhoid
I have to visit the doctor's again in a month to see if I need a booster for HepB.
If you are traveling, it is important to book and appointment as soon as possible, because in the case of one of the Hepatitus shots (shots=vaccines), you are supposed to have two done, 6 months apart, for full immunity . . . and since I am leaving in 4 1/2 months, I left it a bit late. Luckily what I have now will protect me. Mum is a doctor so therefore I am a strong believer in vaccinations. I have had all the shots that are possible to get courtesy of the government (in NZ there is a free childhood vaccination scheme). By far the most painful were the three Menz B shots that everyone had a few years ago. I could barely lift my arm after them! But I would rather have a painful arm than catch any of the diseases.
And right now my arm IS a tad sore. The nurse said not to go for a run - I was actually planning to but oh well. If I do, then it will speed up my metabolism and cause the side-effects to be amplified. Which I don't want!
I'll say this again, that it is very important to see a doctor as soon as you know where you are going, for a travel appointment. Doctors don't like it when people book in at the last minute, and you might not get all the coverage you need. Blood tests and vaccines also cost money, so be prepared to pay. But I'd rather pay for a vaccine than suffer from illness while on exchange!
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