December!

Las Peñas
So my host brother and mom thought it would be a good idea for me to go on this emm event (cant think of a good word) but they told me it was a 3 hour walk and so me and my host brother went at midnight to the bus station and rode for about 2 hours. At 2 we arrived and began the walk into the dessert. yes the desert in the middle of the night xP It´s ok though it was a special religious holiday so 100s of people were going. we joined in a group of others our age and walked. we arrived at 8am which right there should tell you it was way more than 3 hours. After looking around the pueblito surrounding the church we ate some breakfast and at around 10 we headed back. It took us four hours to get to the bus and then another 2 hours and we arrived home!! I drank a cup of coffee while Oscar showered and then I hopped in the shower myself and then went to bed at 6 and woke up at 11 the next morning!! haha

Pisagua
Some family friends came to visit and somehow the topic of pisagua came up. They had never been there and neither had I. So we decided it would be a good day trip for us to take. We left at 8am and drove out to the town. Its only about 4 blocks long. We got to tour this old theater. Then we went to this huge graveyard and just walked through it. there was this big stone that explained the history of pisagua which i´ll now summarize. -When someone didn´t agree with the government they were taken out to this area because nobody lived near there and they could do what they wanted with nobody coming to help. they would kill the person and throw it into the graveyard. This all stopped about 50 or 60 years ago. Now the graveyard is allot more organized and they have the names of allot of the people on the plaque.- After the graveyard we went back to the town and ate a lunch. It was kind of a dirty restaurant but that's what you get when you eat in a town of 100.

Navidad
Christmas time here is without snow, cold, eggnog, and spirit! I was the only one who made any Christmas cookies. the only decoration in the house was the tree. and I had to make eggnog homemade! (which I did an amazing job at) But anyway, Christmas here wasn't celebrated so different. the only real difference was that we had Christmas dinner at 10pm on Christmas eve, and we opened presents at midnight as soon as it was Christmas. And everyone just opened there presents instead of going one by one and taking turns which surprised me a bit. It was probably the worst day of the year for me because I really just wanted to be with my family, but i did get to go to the beach! haha

Año Nuevo
The News was almost a repeat of Christmas with the 10pm supper but at midnight everyone drank a glass of champaign and ate 12 grapes while watching the fireworks. then at around 2 I went to an all night party which was really awesome! And rotary i´ll have you know I didn´t break the no drinking rule, which made it like 10 times better because i could make fun of my friends :P But I got home at 7:30am that morning.


Ying
I don't know how well you guys keep up on this blog but in an earlier post i mentioned a student from Thailand. well her year is over on the 10th of January. We had a surprise going away party for her. Her Spanish dd get allot better but she needs like 3 more months for it to be good.