And We're Off!

I am leaving tomorrow at 9 AM for my 3-week trip across the continent.I should be packing up my room right now, but you all know how I love to procrastinate!
I just got back from saying goodbye to all of my friends.  It is crazy to think that this amazing experience we all shared is coming to an end...I became really close to many of the people in my program and I feel so luckythat I had the opportunity to get to know such amazing people. I am sad that we are all going back to our old lives, but I also know that the friendships we made are not ending any time soon. I can't wait to see everyone again, at home. We'll probably be at In N Out, Chipotle, or Sprinkles, if you're wondering. 
This week felt like it passed by at 100 MPH. My last final (a presentation) was on Thursday, and with the end of that final also came the end of the semester, the end of my exchange program, and the end of college.That is a lot to take in! This week I also went to my internship at the daycare for the last time.




The teacher asked them if they had anything to say to me. So, one by one, the students walked to the front of the class and gave me a personal goodbye.Here are some highlights:
"Quiero decir que... que... te quiero"I want to say that... that... I love you
"Te quiero tanto"I love you a lot
"Te quiero hasta las estrellas"I love you to the stars
"Te quiero hasta la luna"I love you to the moon
"Te quiero hasta el sol"I love you to the sun
"Te quiero hasta el cielo"I love you to the heavens
"Eres muy linda"You are very beautiful
"Su ropa es linda"Your clothes are beautiful
"Me gusta su pelo... es muy linda"I like your hair... it is very beautiful
Yeah, I just about died. It was very likely the sweetest thing that I've ever witnessed.Saying goodbye to them was different than saying goodbye to my friends becauseI know that I will never see them again. I wonder what will become of them? Who will teach them the ending to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star???
But I guess that is life. So many people come into our lives but some stay and some go. And some, we just talk to on Facebook. HAHAHA.
Okay, sorry, its late and I'm getting delirious haha.I'll try to keep the world updated on my whereabouts during the next three weeks but I am not quite sure how easy Internet-access will be.
Talk to you soon :)And, for those of you at home in Cali, see you soon :) :) :)

♥
 

Photo Contest: Vote Again!!!

I don't know if you remember but, about a month ago, I asked for you to help me choose which pictures I should enter in a photo contest. 
First of all, the deadline to enter the contest wasn't May 1st -- it is May 31st! So I accidentally sent in my photos a month early! Secondly, at the time, I was only eligible to enter my photos in category #1 and category #3. Now that I have a new internship, however, I am eligible for category #2: 
2. Photos in the field (shows work activities on 
internships/research/volunteer projects)
Which photo do you like the best?Which photo do you like second best?
♥ ♥ ♥

I work as an intern at the Ichauc Kindergarten, which belongs to the Kairos Corporation for Education and Social Promotion. The kindergarten provides educational services, food, and healthcare to 107 children in need, whom range in age from three months to 5 years.

Which picture is the best?
	boy with red turtleneck
	boy lying on bricks
	close-up of a little girl
	girl climbing jungle gym
pollcode.com free polls

Which picture is the second best?
	boy with red turtleneck
	boy lying on bricks
	close-up of little girl
	girl climbing jungle gym
pollcode.com free polls

THANK YOU!

All My Children

Here we are, at weekend 2 of 6. CRAYZAY! Here's a recap:

On Thursday, the internet shut off in my neighborhood. You know those nights when the power goesout and you and your family/friends kind of camp out together and light candles and it feels kind oflike "the olden dayz"?? That is what it felt like! Rachel & I had minor panic attacks and then camped out in my room, chatting, eating candy, and watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on TV. Isn't it crazy how dependent upon the Internet our generation is? In our defense, our Internet addictions have spiraled out of control since we've been studying abroad. YOU try being on a different hemisphere from your family and friends and everything you have ever known with only a cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone on which you can't even make international calls! It's a hard knock life!Come Friday morning the connection was fixed and our lives went back to normal :)


Oh guess what?! I brought my camera to my internship on Friday!! The kids were sooo excited and kept demanding that I take pictures of them. They had a dance performance that day, so, if you were wondering, NO they don't dress in these kinds of clothes/wear hooker makeup on a daily basis haha














Look at this child and tell me you do not love him. His name is Alonso. I love his huge eyes and chubby cheeks but my favorite thing about him is his voice. I don't know if I can describe it... it is like a baby munchkin robot voice HAHAH. Love <3


This is Fabian.  I juusst may be in love with him. Such a sweetheart. Maybe I feel attached to him because he kind of looks like one of my nephews. Or maybe it has something to do with that smile. 


Danae is my secret favorite. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age. First of all, we had the same haircut hahaha. And despite the fact that her mother always dresses her up really pretty and girly, come recess time she is always out playing with the boys. Just like I used to! 


Okay and Francisca is just adorable. She pretends she is a cat at ALL times. 


When I got home from the internship, I collapsed in bed and nearly didn't make it out to go to the Mexican Food potluck that my friend was hosting. Ummm hello I said nearly!! I was NOT going to miss the opportunity to eat REAL LIVE mexican food! I ended up making jalapeño popper dip (which did not turn out as good as it did the first time I made it...but it was a strange cooking situation haha).By the end of the night, however, I noticed that the pan was scraped clean. Great success.My friends and I sat around a table for most of the night (blame it on our food comas) debatingabout: politics, religion, western medicine, the food industry, animal rights, and more!Call me crazy but I live for nights like those. You could tell that some people felt uncomfortableby all of the differences in opinions we had, but I honestly enjoy hearing other peoples' points ofview, whether I agree with them or not. I think it is quite amazing that we live in a world where it is possible to disagree with someone while still having complete respect for them and where having different perspectives/values/choices doesn't have to affect your friendship in any way.
Saturday was homework day for me. I hung out at Starbucks with my friend Jade and wrote a pretty darn good paper en español about Mapuche religion. We'll see what my Chilean group members think about it hahaha... Today will be spent doing more homework, applying to jobs (help meeee), and baking oatmeal raisin cookies :)
Cheers to another successful weekend!
♥

The Black Island

I am currently sitting in bed, listening to Jack Johnson, and painting my nails a lovely shade of purple.

Life has been quite a whirlwind recently and I need moments like these to regain my sanity. Would you like a recap? If so, continue reading. If not, scroll to bottom of page to view pictures :)


School hasn't been quite so painful. It is a little depressing to see that friends of mine in CA are already graduating while I still have seven more weeks of school before I am officially done with college. I just found out, however, that I have no final exams at the end of the semester! That makes the comingweeks seem not as daunting. The majority of the work I do in my classes are group projects and, so far, I have had a really great experience working with the Chilean students. They are so smart!Sometimes I forget that I am attending the most prestigious university in the country, but when I showup to class and one of my group members has taken it upon himself to plan our entire project andtype it all out in a Word document, complete with the school crest, I am quickly reminded.



I wish I could say that it has been smooth-sailing with my internship, but that would be a fat lie!If you don't remember, I have been working for Wedding Planner Chile, a Santiago-based, spanish-speaking event planning company. If you are friends with me on Facebook or Twitter,you have probably seen the blogs I have been writing for them. Well, today I quit the job. My boss has been treating me very badly... she has been condescending, unappreciative, rude, and recently, quite vicious. I am not the kind of person to take ill-treatment sitting down, so I wrote to my program director, found a new internship, and quit the old one. To put it simply, my boss was PISSED. I just don't understand how some people in positions of authority think it is okay to treat other people badly. My new internship sounds amazing though -- I will be working in a daycare for underprivileged children. BABIES!!!!!! I love babies.
  
Other than that, life has been good. I haven't been doing much... last weekend I stayed bundled upin my bed/the Starbucks next door reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossieni. What a beautiful, moving story. I love falling into a book like that. The book is on my TO READ list, which reminds me that I really need to start working on my Day Zero Project!!The reason I haven't been doing much lately is that I have been trying to save money for my HUGE trip in July. Speaking of which, my partner in crime & I have just bought our flight tickets! Our plan is to travel through Montevideo, Uruguay to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Buenos Aires, Argentina (with a few possible stops in Iguazu Falls, Tigre, and Colonia).I am so excited! Taking this trip, however, means I literally cannot spend a dime until July.The other day I bought a burrito from taco bell (which was super gross), a generic face wash, and bobby pins. Do you know how much that cost me? TWENTY DOLLARS. Ughh Santiagois such an expensive city to live in. I can't believe I ever thought it would be cheap to come here!When I return home, according to my very tight budget, I will have a negative bank account.Looks like I'll be spending my summer working off all my debts...


Without further ado, here are some pictures I totally forgot about.I went on a field trip with my program a couple of weekends ago, but you know how I feel about tours.We visited the houses of many Chilean artists/poets. It was pretty enough, I suppose, because we spent the majority of the day by the beach. The reason I went was I have been itching to get to Isla Negra, the third and most important of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's houses, and this wasa free way of getting there (it is two hours outside of Santiago). Vale la pena. (It was so worth it!)




























the end ♥