Stepping off the plane with excitement and exhaustion at two in the morning into the humidness of Brazil was overwhelming and dream-like. It is already hard to wrap my head around the fact that I have been living in Chile for almost five months. And to think that I was actually traveling around more of South America is just so exciting to me.

When we got off the plane we drove two hours to get to Camboriu, Brazil, which is where our hotel was. The hotel was full of students like us on the trip to Brazil with their class. Everyone was yelling and running off to the beach. The hotel was a typical cheap one that was two blocks from the beach.

Of course the first night we were there we went night swimming and stayed out on the beach until the sun came up. Not exactly the best idea for the first night because that is what all of the following nights consisted of. I was exhausted from day one.

It was so nice to feel the ocean and sand beneath my feet again. It had been four months since I have been swimming in the ocean and I missed it so much. I just kept saying to my friends, “I am home!”

The days consisted of sleep and going to the beach and the nights consisted of going to clubs and then after going to the beach. The whole trip I probably got about 10 or 12 hours of sleep. Definitely not ideal.

But I am paying for it now; I am stuck in the house with Bronchitis.

The second to last day we went to the jungle. This was the day that we got to do an obstacle course in the mud.

There was another school from Paraguay there and we had competitions with them where we had to get very dirty and muddy. My class did not do so well.

After we had the “friendly” competitions we went to the mud pit. We had to slide down slides into pits of mud, crawl through muddy tubes, go across mud pits on rope swings and much more. It was very dirty and dangerous. There were many sharp rocks in the mud and I left the place with bloody feet and knees, but that’s pretty typical for me.{sidebar id=65}

When we got cleaned off, a young Argentine man who owned the place gathered us around and told jokes and stories. He had us sit down for one specific story because he knew we were going to get emotional. He talked about how we were all here in this moment together only once. And when the next year is over we would never see some of these people again. He got more into detail and it was a very touching moment. I was trying my very best not to break down but when he was done all of my friends rushed over to me and hugged me sobbing.

The day that I only had 6 months left in Chile was a really emotional moment for all of us. We are all so close to each other and I feel like I have been here for so much longer, the thought of leaving was and still is unbearable. We then began to realize that we need to make the best of the moments we have left.

One thing that was interesting about going to Brazil is I got to meet people from all of South America. It is a South American tradition to take a trip to Brazil or Argentina or even Chile with your class. I got to hear all of the different accents. I found Paraguay accents the most difficult to understand for some reason. It was funny because my friends were telling me all of the sterotypes of South Americans.

Learning bits of Portuguese was very cool as well. It is a really hard language and it is so fun to listen to even though I understand nothing. It sounds like gibberish.

When I returned from Brazil there was about two days until Christmas. Christmas is very different here. Chileans open their presents at midnight on Christmas Eve. I spent my Christmas with my host mom and my “inspectora” (like a principal) and her family. It was sort of strange because my inspectora doesn’t like me very much. She is much nicer outside of the school environment. It was strange because she was offering me champagne and I felt like that was sort of inappropriate. I guess it is just the culture here though.

A few days after Christmas I had to switch host families. I am living about 15 minutes away from the city, which is a strange adjustment because I used to live in the city. It is gorgeous up here in the mountains but it is difficult to get rides into town when I want to see my friends.

New Year’s is a very big deal here. The whole family gets together and you eat a lot of food and dance and dress up. Then at about two in the morning the teenagers are released to go to parties with their friends.

I went to a huge party in Talca that pretty much all of Talca went too. It was so difficult to find friends. I ended up not having that great of a time because I was sick and lost and I didn’t have a phone. Luckily, I found my older host sister and went home with her at about seven in the morning. It was such a long night. I spent the next couple days hibernating in my room.

One good thing about living isolated in the mountains is I am getting a chance to complete my online homework, which I have procrastinated tremendously on. My goal is to get it done before my parents come in February.

I am really excited for my parents to come because during the holidays I was very homesick and it is sort of sticking with me.

It will be cool to show them where I have been living and what I do in Chile.

We will also travel around to other cities. They used to live in Chile and I am anxious to see where they lived and what they did here.