La Campana

I distinctly remember the first time I really perked up at church. I believe it was my second Sunday in my ward and I was in an interview with the Ward's First Counselor, Esteban Gonzalez. He asked me if I liked hiking. He might as well have asked me if I liked hard-blue skies or chocolate. YES. In fact, I love hiking. He told me that he would organize a group to climb el cerro (hill) La Campana at the end of the year. I told him to count me in. And so, the hike I've been looking forward to my entire time in Chile finally happened today.

Here's a couple things I learned about La Campana. It's called a hill, but I must tell you that that beast is not a hill, it's a mountain. Also, hikes can be hard! Multiple people told me multiple times that La Campana was a difficult, all day hike. Strangely enough I would get more and more excited when they told me these things. That thrill left me about 15 minutes into the hike. Yao! It was HARD! Really hard, straight up the entire 4 hours...but I loved it. As Megan O'Brian would say, "it hurt so good."

Our group of six met up at 6:30 this morning (6:50 Latin Time) to take a Micro a La Campana. Pictured above: yo, la Giselle, y el Esteban.

My first time wearing Chacos on a real hike. I can't remember the last time my feet and legs have been so dirty. They Chileans thought I was crazy, and I had to give up trying to explain how cool the shoes are when I started to get some hot spots (which of course I didn't mention because I wanted them think Chacos are flawless).

Por fin, la cima (summit)!

Sights from the top. Check out the snow-covered mountains in the background.

The crew (left to right): Niko, Esteban, Kevin, Yerko, y la Giselle

La Campana. We went all the way to the top. WHO-RAH!

Finished the day with completos (Chilean hot dog with all the good stuff). Have I mentioned lately how much I love my life?

Dia del Cine

Chile has a National Movie Day where every movie at the theater costs only 1 mil (which is about $2). Brilliant. I saw Tinkerbell (this MUST be said in a Spanish accent!) with my family. It was hilarious to walk into the theater and see it full of little girls, mothers, and only three fathers. I understood a lot of the movie--more than General Conference, visuals make a huge difference--and to be honest, I liked it. (To answer your questions, Tink did travel safely to the far North, she learned to admit that sometimes she's the one at fault, she made a new friends and patched up her friendship with Terence, and she managed to created the most beautiful Moon-Stone Septor for the Fall Festival. Whew, what an amazing fairy!) Afterward we all got ice-cream cones at McDonald's and I was reminded of how special the trips to the Movie Theater were in my early years.

But I'd like to give some background on the event. In my Grammer class we started watching a movie that I discovered was rated "R," so I emailed my teacher asking to be excused from watching it. She responded saying she was surprised by my "petition" and she even lightly reprimanded me by saying it was in the syllabus I received in August. I think she believes I'm sheltering myself and that I don't understand real life. I've had this discussion with lots of people about why I don't watch movies that don't agree with my standards, and I was thinking about how difficult it would be to explain this in Spanish. But it turns out that I didn't even get the chance. I ditched class to go to the movies--Tinkerbell of all movies--with mi familia. So now I just have to laugh thinking about tomorrow. My professor will ask me why I missed class. She will tell me that the movie from class isn't that bad and it has good themes to discuss and she may try to get me to watch it. This will be the part when I tell her that I'm not sheltered, and that I missed class yesterday to go see Tinkerbell. Oh boy, too funny. Can't hardly wait...

Dia de Independencia

I got to celebrate two Independence Days this year; the 4th of July, and September 18th. This morning mi familia sang Chile's National Anthem followed by Feliz Cumpleanos and cake. It was thrilling to see the red, white and blue Chilean flags all over the town and houses (it's a law that you must have a flag on your house on Sep 18). We celebrated with about five other families at the house of a family friend. There were lots of little kids running around and some kind adults that were willing to humor me and listen to my feeble Spanish. I learned that the occupation of the man of the house we went to is President of the Family History work for the Church in Chile. Whoa. Sounds like the real McCoy to me. He travels to Salt Lake City about every year for conferences and training and he thinks the "This Is the Place" Monument is really neat.

Chileans eat SO much. They kept handing me all kinds of sausages, hot dogs, and chicken, which I learned the hard way were only appetizers. My favorite quote of the day is when a man offered me more meat and I said "no tengo hambre," to which he replied "ah, no importa." It made me laugh because that's such a Chilean attitude regarding food; just keep going.

Here is Alina with all things Chilean: torta (cake), festive napkins, flag, and of course, empanadas.

El Dia del Ninos

Earlier this week mi padre told me (in his broken English) that Sunday was "the day of boys." What the? Boys get a holiday here? After seeing my confusion he clarified by saying it was Children's Day. I told him (in my very broken Spanish) that we don't have a Children's Day in the States. I told him that when I was younger I asked my Mom why there was a Fathers' Day and a Mothers' Day, but no Children's Day, to which she responded, "Abby, Christmas is Children's Day." My padre chuckled when I said this, and I was so pleased to see mi padre laugh. Finally, I had told a successful story in Spanish!
Children's Day is actually a low-key holiday. I had completely forgotten about it, but after breakfast mi madre y padre had all the girls come into the "Living" (aka Living room) where they gave each of us a present. I was so excited, I didn't expect anything, but they gave me slippers! YEA!!! It is so freezing here, and everyday I just kick myself for not bringing my slippers. I just love my family here, they are very sweet and far too good to me.

Alina and Dania waiting in anticipation to receive and open their gifts.

The children with our gifts: Alina's bathrobe, Dania's umbrella, Giselle's pillow, and a super-excited me with my slippers. You know, these girls (especailly Alina and Dania) are usually really loud and smiley, but the never look like it in their pictures...

Alina and Dania under the Umbrella of Love of their mother.

Dania loves to play with my camera. Every time I get it out she takes it and takes pictures of everything and anything.