FAIL

---

Well THIS is a fail! No WONDER everyone thought I haven't blogged for so long! I just was looking through my entries and I realized that this blog was marked as "Saved" instead of "Published" so you guys never got to see it, even though I finished it way back in the beginning of January! I have no idea how that happened, but sorry!

A Few Minor Events (months late (oops (sorry)))





Well hello everybody!

Soo….it’s kind of been absolute AGES since my last blog. Sorry about that… :S Honestly, I've either been way too busy or too lazy to write blogs :S Due to my writing style (extremely detailed and overworded, though accurate) it usually takes me a good 5 or 6 hours to write a full, proper blog. So aaaaaanyway….let’s get on with this blog, because there finally IS one, shall we? ^)^

Okay, so, reading over the last blog, I’ve missed filling you guys in on a TON of things. Like, oh, I dunno…two months’ worth of events? Sheesh! Alright so let’s start. First up, a list of minor events! (Though I’m going to cut it short for brevity’s sake)


THE LIST (for this blog, anyway):
Placilla Procession—October 10th
5to Encuentro de Jovenes Misionarios—October 29th-31st
“Rotary Day”—November 11th

Sooo…Yeah, that should cover the minor events of the past three months. So let’s get started! C’mon! (Yes, I AM trying to sound like a cheesy TV show host)

Placilla Processional

The Placilla processional was a religious procession for “La Virgen del Carmen.” It seems to me that each greater religious community up and down Chile has it’s own “Virgin.” Really, they’re all the same virgin, Mary the mother of Jesus, but they celebrate different apparations of her (not sure what the differences are, I haven’t been able to figure it out), and have a large celebration and procession for her once a year. I’ve gone to two: one in Valle Hermoso (a commune of La Ligua), and another, larger one in Placilla (a small area just outside of La Ligua). They both followed the same ritual: A display with a statue of the Virgin Mary was prepared and carried from a church to a spot several kilometers away. But not just carried. It was a procession. The statue of the virgin was preceded by a long, long line of various church congregations. Each congregation performed very very old, traditional dances and music. The music consisted mainly of drums, but also included flutes, pipes, and trumpets. Dancers dressed up in traditional ceremonial outfits. Many of the outfits include brightly colored capes, tights, boots. There were also a couple of dances that portrayed a story, or at least characters from a story—many times a devil or other monster. It was, I think, the MOST “cultural” experience I have had so far—I felt like I was in a “National Geographic” article!
One part of the processions that really distinguish them is are “los bailes Chino,” which literally means “Chinese dances.” However, that’s QUITE a misnomer, because they have absolutely NOTHING to do with China! They are the most ancient bit of culture I have seen here in Chile. In the dance, each dancer carries a single hand carved wooden flute that plays a single note, and the only other instrument is a small drum that keeps time. It’s an interesting display, albeit horribly out of tune (at least, to my ear).
All of the dancers dance the entire distance to and from the prayer service, a process that can take up to 4 hours. Not going to lie…doing the same four or five dance steps to the same, repetitive music for hours at a time seems…taxing, to say the least. But it was cool to watch! :D


5to Encuentro de Jovenes Misionarios

The minor event I have attended and participated in was called the---well, there it is, in the line above. In English it means the “5th Encounter of Youth Missionaries,” which was an event for young Catholics from all over Chile who attend classes at an institution that is part of a certain group of schools (like the Jesuit schools in the US). My school isn’t actually a part of this, but the school that my host mom works at is, and one of the nuns who work there invited me to go along so…I did. It was an absolutely incredible experience! It was a trip that lasted three days (two nights), and I absolutely loved it!
The first day was a Friday, and the girls and I left early in the morning to drive to Santiago. I had been expecting Santiago to be swelteringly hot, but…it turned out that the night before we left there was a freak plummet in temperature and it SNOWED in parts of the city. Great. SO, we arrived cold and shivering to the seminary that would be our home for the next three days. We dropped our bags and tents (oh, did I mention that we would be camping???) off in the main dining area and walked over to the big stage set up in the yard/field outside. There were already a ton of people there—around two hundred and fifty peope I’d guess. It was cool, there was a DJ and music and a stage with the animators already trying to get people hyped up for the weekend. There were people from ALL over Chile, from Puerta Varas in the south to Iquique in the north (spanning something like 3,500 kilometers)! The main animator, Sebastian, invited people from each group to come up on stage and perform on the spot—dance, sing, whatever. My immediate reaction was to think “Well, THAT’S a failed idea. No one’s going to do that!” Buuut I’d forgotten that I’m in Latin America, where people know no embarrassment for performing. There was actually a line of people waiting to go up on stage! It was fun! A lot of people weren’t very good, but it was fun anyway because everyone was cheering anyway. I thought to myself “okay, I’m on Exchange—I might be uncomfortable but I have GOT to do this!!!” Sooo…I got in line. When it was my turn Sebastian invited me up on stage and said “Alright! What’s your name?” “Alex” “Where are you from?” “The United States” “The—what? Oh, wow, hey everyone we have Alex here from the United States who’s here with us this weekend! Alright so, here you go, the mic’s all yours!” I’d been preparing a song called “No Puedo Dejarte de Amar” for my school’s anniversary, so sang that. I’d only gotten it mostly memorized the day before, and was nervous, but…it was amazing. When I started singing the whole crowd fell silent, and then little by little started singing with me. I kind of sort of really felt like a rock star, haha. I messed up on the words at one point, but the crowd just grinned and helped me out with the words. When I finished everyone cheered, and I turned to hand the microphone back to Sebastian who took took it from me. I started to go offstage but he stopped me and said into the microphone “Wow, thank you for that! Very well done for a foreigner.” Then to the crowd “Don’t you think so?” They cheered. “Would you like to hear another one from him?” They cheered louder. “Well Alex?” “Umm..oookay? I don’t know anything else in Spanish…” “Ah, don’t worry about it. Sing something in English then.” So I did! I sang a bit of “Magic Tree” by the Sweet Signatures (though originally by Kirsten Price) and then left. It was a great experience.
Anyway, later that night we had church and eventually set up our sleeping bags and tents. That night it was absolutely frigid—I didn’t have a thermometer, but I would guess that the temperature was hovering around 40 degrees (okay, so not TERRIBLY cold, but considering that during the day it was in the 80s it felt like the south pole). And I had been expecting Santiago to be scorching hot like it usually is, so had brought only a pair of jeans and a sweater which, in retrospect, was a bad idea. Anyway, after sleeping very little due to the cold we got up bright and early the next day. We ate a small breakfast in the cafeteria before heading back to the main event area in front of the stage. We were then told to group up according to the numbers that had randomly assigned to us via our nametags. From there we were assigned a counselor for our group, or “community,” and did various teambuilding activities to get to know each other. Afterwards we had lunch, where I was introduced to the variety of meal prayers the Chilean youth groups have—everything from singing to dancing to synchronized hand motions! After lunch we went with our communities and had a couple of workshops. One about the discrimination of the Mapuche (native tribe that still makes up a fairly large percentage of the population and is strong discriminated against), and the other about being a missionary. We shared a lot of very touching and powerful stories. It was a very moving experience. After dinner we were informed that there would be a talent show the next day in which teams of two communities would have to arrange a performance of some sort. Then we had mass again. It was a very cozy place to have mass—very old wood and stone, and small.
The next day passed in a blur, with frantic preparations for the talent show, more workshops, and generally having a good time. After dinner we had mass, and then the talent show, which lasted until late in the night. The last day of the Encounter was a half day. We woke up, went to a normal church service, packed our tents and bags, and left. However, the packing process was…interesting, to say the least. A large group of boys staged a massive assault on the campsite. The following article (written by me shortly after witnessing the event) describes the attack in detail.

“NINJA RAID EYEWITNESS
Today I saw a100% legit ninja raiding party attack. With water balloons. It was EPIC. Let me share with you the account as I saw it with mine own eyes...


I was at a Catholic youth retreat, and there were abut one hundred tents set up in a field/yard at a seminary in Santiago, Chile. The tents were arranged by sex, wth males sleeping on one side of a path, and females on the other. A light breeze was blowing, and a series of snowcapped mountains formed the (rather close) horizon across the field. I was standing outside of my tent, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight and tranquility of the scene, when I spotted movement.
My eyes flashed to the end of the path, an suddenly about two dozeon shirtless young men in shorts (most of which were black (the shorts, not the guys)) and with their shirts wrapped around their head ninja-style sprinted up the path in a surprisingly organized column. As the column hit the tents it split, streaming betwee the tents like water. What an omen that was. Still running at full speed, the ninjas pelted the tent's (female) inhabitants with a furious barrage of water balloons before sprinting back up the path and vanishing, all without saying a word and hardly making a sound (minus the dull *popfwwwisshhhh* water balloons make upon detonation. And a lot of surprised and indignant screaming from the victims). About seventy water balloons, with a combined volume of nearly one hundred liters, were thrown and detonated in less than twelve seconds.
It was both a horrifying and a beautiful thing to see: a multitude of glimmering multihued globules of liquid death arcing gracefully over a rainbow sea of tents to explode in a catastrophic expulsion of water in the midst of a crowd of unsuspecting innocents. All without so much as a drop of collateral damage. The sheer efficiency and speed of the guerrilla's actions made me desperately wish I had joined them when invited.
But they weren't done. Just moments later the ninja party came back with a second batch of water balloons,laying waste to their hapless victims in an attack that lated only slightly longer than the first, and that also claimed the anhydrousness of three tents and a stuffed giraffe.
By now the girls were completely bewildered and more than a little damp, and my stomach was hurting from laughing so hard. However, some of the feistier ladeis refused to be used as a target. These rebels decided to take action, quickly emptying a small weapons cache they apparently had hidden for just such an occasion, as several water bottles appeared in the hands of the girls--some as deadly as the formidable 2.3L version.
Alas for the ladies, their rebellion was destined to be short-lived. Thanks to years of intense training--though most of the female population often refers to it by the misnomer "immaturity"--the ninjas were ready for just such a counterattack. Just as the girs were preparing their water bottles, the guerrilla ninjas reappeared with water bottles of their own--many of them were even performing the previously-uheard of: dual-wieldin 2.3Ls.
Arc after glimmering arc of H2O slashed through the air as water bottles were emptied in record time, safeties long since forgotten. The air over the battlefield was rent with squeals of delighted laughter and surprise, as wel as the occasional cry of frustration. Occasionally a good-natured expletive flashed past as well. Needless to say, though the ninjas, too, suffered casualties, their losses were nothing compared to that of the rebels, nearly all of whom were entirely soaked.
Though minor skirmishes continued to flare up for over an hour after the main battles, in the end both guerrilla ninjas and rebels found peace and a common goal in the search for dry clothing. For the first time in over two hours, tranquility once again reigned in the clearing.”


Needless to say, what had already been an unforgettable weekend ended on a note that can only be described as epic.

“Rotary Day”


November 11th wasn’t officially anything particularly special, but I’ve dubbed it a “Rotary Day” because the girls and I (the other exchange students here in La Ligua: Kirsa (Denmark) and Olivia (Germany)) spent basically the entire day doing activities with Rotary. November 11th (a Thursday), the girls and I were in school for about an hour—from 8 until 9. Then my Rotary counselor, Jose Luis Osorio (who also happens to be the owner of our school), took us to a different school, Colegio Santa Maria (Sound a little familiar? That’s the school where my host mom works). There Jose Luis gave a presentation on the history of Rotary International, and specifically the youth exchange program. That’s where we came in. Each of us gave an on-the-spot mini presentation about ourselves and why we decided to go on exchange, and then there was a question-and-answer session where we were bombarded with questions. It was a good time. Then we went to another city, Cabildo, which isn’t terribly far away (maybe twenty minutes) and were shown around two other schools that are connected to Domingo Ortiz de Rozas, and did a similar presentation. Then we visited one more school, “Pichilemu.”
Pichilemu is a tiny primary school in the middle of an avocado-production community. A country school. And when I say tiny, I mean TINY: the total number of students (grades 1-6) is sixteen. We met the kids and hung out with them for a little while, practicing their English and geography and such, before leaving. It was AWESOME! Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed a terribly large amount of time, but Kirsa, Olivia and I plan to go back sometime to spend a full day with the kids (we have been back once, but it was really formal due to my Rotary counselor being there. We’d like to have some time to just hang out with the kids instead of the “the Foreigners” on display). In our mind, Pichilemu is sort of our “adopted” school—we’ll be back.
That night we went to our second Rotary meeting, and boy was it a big one. The District General was there, so it was a much longer meeting than usual (from 9 PM until about 1:30 AM). I gave a short impromptu speech thanking the General for hosting us exchange students and for all the support Rotary gives us (including you Rotarians at home!) and also sent greetings from the Rice Lake Rotary club. It was a great day!


Aaaand well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Actually that’s a complete lie. More accurate would be to say “that’s all I’ve got TIME FOR now.” I’ll hopefully get in some detailed accounts of the South Trip, Christmas and New Year sometime in the relatively near future. Until then…take care everyone! Alex, over and out.

---

Photos

Chinamen
The "Bailes Chinos" in the Valle Hermoso processional.

National Geographic
Picture of the street during the Valle Hermoso Processional. I felt like I was in a National Geographic magazine.

Long Lines of Dancers
Lines of traditional dancers at the Placilla Processional

Make Way
The statue of the Virgn Mary in a Placilla Processional

'Scuse Me, Pardon Me--Oy, Watch It!
The tightly packed corridors of the market just off the main course of the Placilla Processional

Mmm...yum.
Anticuchos at the Placilla Processional

Three Cheers For Jesus!
At the "Encuentro de Jovenes Misioneros" in Santiago

Camping With A View
Campsite at the Encuentro

General
From left to right: The president of the La Ligua Rotary Club, Kirsa, Olivia, the Rotary District General of district 4320 (mine), Ebony, and myself.

Whirly
A woman spins wool into yarn at a stand in the plaza.

Kids
Kirsa, Olivia and I with our adopted school, Pichilemu :) Love it!

This Is Just Wrong
No, this picture is NOT photoshopped. It's a huge christmas tree outside of the mall in Vina del Mar

Public Speaking
Talking a little about the Rotary Youth Exchange Program to some of the students of my mom's school.

Did Canada INVADE???
Mounted Policemen at the "Moneda" the head building of the Chilean Government. Or, well, the President at least.

All Saints' Day
The cemetary in La Ligua the day after Halloween

WHOO!!!
Yours truly beneath our Alliance's banner

Salsa!
The captains and king and queen candidates for the Red Alliance dancing for one of the competitions during the school anniversary. We won this competition ^)^

How NOT To Toast Bread
Don't ever get distracted while you have toast on the stove.