August 16, 2011
2:56 AM
Hey everyone! Sorry for the abrupt ending - I was going to post a last blog update sometime en route home, but unfortunately had a somewhat eventful trip back due to what I suspect must have been food poisoning from a restaurant the day I left... I was throwing up for the first 7 hours of my 9 1/2 hour flight from Santiago to Dallas, and didn't feel 100% again until a day or two after I finally got back home. A flight delay on my last flight from Denver to Bozeman was the icing on the cake of my worst trip ever! It could have been much worse, I am aware, but I was still not the happiest of campers. I'll spare any more detail because I've read about bodily functions gone awry in blogs before and was NOT appreciative of the descriptions. Suffice it to say that that is why I did not post initially.
Later, my lack of a final post was due to a large reluctance on my part to go anywhere near my laptop. I kept up with email and (to some extent) Facebook on my phone, but really didn't feel like wasting my all too short SUMMER vacation time online. I finally decided tonight that I needed to get online at least for a while to catch up a little, so writing the overdue blog post now :)
Now for an update on the state of the student strikes in Chile. I just read a really good blog post written yesterday summarizing the whole state of affairs currently. As far as what is going on RIGHT NOW, I'm actually a little out of the loop myself. As far as I can tell from reading online newspapers from Santiago, the strikes and protests continue, much the same as a little over a week ago when I left. I'll have to get some updates from my students and coworkers, but as far as I can tell, there is still no clear end in sight.
But although I will continue to follow Chilean current events and TV, my attention is now being directed towards another, more all-consuming focus: school. I leave for Boston 10 days from today.. SO HARD TO BELIEVE! I have been trying to soak in as much summer as I can - tennis, hiking, reading, climbing, and hanging out with Montana friends - but I'm not sure I'll be quite ready to go back to school when the time comes. But I have felt some small pangs of excitement, so all may not be lost.
I'm also looking forward to having my brother Spencer join me in my city this fall. He is leaving with my dad on Friday to drive all the way to Boston (they're crazy) in time for Tufts orientation. He's starting to freak out a little bit about the whole thing, making me relive my own pre-college experience (so glad I don't have to relive the beginning of Freshman year! so stressful!). I'm excited for him though, although I think my parents will be a little lost without either of their little ducklings at home.
But anyway, I diverge from the topic of this blog, Chile. A sign that I must bid adieu to my summer in Chile, and move on to other things. Thank you all who have followed my time abroad this summer, and I will keep you posted on my adventures to come!
Besitos, Brianna
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Ciaoooo Chile...
August 6, 2011
I leave tomorrow. How the last few weeks flew by! I am excited to get back to Montana though. Can’t wait to see my family, distribute presents, go hiking, enjoy SUMMER FINALLY, and get ready to go back to school.
Very glad I brought the extra empty duffel bag – it’s full, my suitcase is full, my carry-on is full… I definitely made the most of my time here :P Now to hope that everything is under the weight limit. It should be… I find it hard to imagine that I bought more than 50 lbs worth of stuff. But if not, this will be the first flight in a while where I haven’t had to do some rearranging and begging to avoid overweight fees.
My last couple weeks here went really well. My host family and some family friends hosted an “asado” (barbecue) for me a couple days ago, where I also put my pisco sour-making skills to the test. I was a little too dizzy for a work night, and didn’t get to bed until much later than I would have liked, but it was very nice and I highly enjoyed myself.
The next day was my last day at work, and I had been requested to come in earlier than normal to fill out an evaluation. I was reminded about the evaluation so many times though that I had the suspicion that it might not be an evaluation after all… and I was right ☺ Waking up super early after my late night was worth it, as I came in to a farewell party for me. It was so sweet of them, and I didn’t even know what to say. (to make matters worse, I had very little to give my supervisor as a goodbye present, as two of my favorite dulcerÃas were out of my favorite candies and chocolates, and so I was forced to settle for only one small treat for her). I will miss everyone though – my students and coworkers were all so so nice, and I learned so much from all of them. All of them signed a huge card for me, and some of my students came in to give me presents. One of my students left school early to travel for an hour to the office to give me a box of chocolates, and another gave me a video of him dancing traditional Chilean dances and sent me about 5 messages on Facebook thanking me for teaching him. All very unexpected, and VERY nice! Although I am still very sure that I do not want to be a teacher, the experience ended up being much more rewarding than I imagined, and leaving all my students here is hard.
August 7, 2011
Flight leaves in 10-ish hours! I hate night flights, the day is just so wasted and anticipatory.
Ciaooo Chile.
Brianna
My host family :)
Romi, me, Rocky III, Eli, Elias
I'll miss them!
I leave tomorrow. How the last few weeks flew by! I am excited to get back to Montana though. Can’t wait to see my family, distribute presents, go hiking, enjoy SUMMER FINALLY, and get ready to go back to school.
Very glad I brought the extra empty duffel bag – it’s full, my suitcase is full, my carry-on is full… I definitely made the most of my time here :P Now to hope that everything is under the weight limit. It should be… I find it hard to imagine that I bought more than 50 lbs worth of stuff. But if not, this will be the first flight in a while where I haven’t had to do some rearranging and begging to avoid overweight fees.
My last couple weeks here went really well. My host family and some family friends hosted an “asado” (barbecue) for me a couple days ago, where I also put my pisco sour-making skills to the test. I was a little too dizzy for a work night, and didn’t get to bed until much later than I would have liked, but it was very nice and I highly enjoyed myself.
The next day was my last day at work, and I had been requested to come in earlier than normal to fill out an evaluation. I was reminded about the evaluation so many times though that I had the suspicion that it might not be an evaluation after all… and I was right ☺ Waking up super early after my late night was worth it, as I came in to a farewell party for me. It was so sweet of them, and I didn’t even know what to say. (to make matters worse, I had very little to give my supervisor as a goodbye present, as two of my favorite dulcerÃas were out of my favorite candies and chocolates, and so I was forced to settle for only one small treat for her). I will miss everyone though – my students and coworkers were all so so nice, and I learned so much from all of them. All of them signed a huge card for me, and some of my students came in to give me presents. One of my students left school early to travel for an hour to the office to give me a box of chocolates, and another gave me a video of him dancing traditional Chilean dances and sent me about 5 messages on Facebook thanking me for teaching him. All very unexpected, and VERY nice! Although I am still very sure that I do not want to be a teacher, the experience ended up being much more rewarding than I imagined, and leaving all my students here is hard.
August 7, 2011
Flight leaves in 10-ish hours! I hate night flights, the day is just so wasted and anticipatory.
Ciaooo Chile.
Brianna
My host family :)
Romi, me, Rocky III, Eli, Elias
I'll miss them!
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