I Heart Chile

These are just a few things I love about living in Chile:

- I don't have to pay for gas or car insurance, I just hop in a car and someone takes me where I want to go.

- It is so easy to go to the doctor, much less waiting and you actually just see the doctor, no nurses to do their bidding.

- They changed to the summer time schedule in August so we are already getting more daylight.

- I like that question marks and exclamation points are at the beginning and end of the sentence so you know what you are getting into when you start reading.

- Once- the name of the Chilean dinner. They eat a big lunch and then basically just little sandwiches and tea for dinner. It is so simple and they all love it.

- Chileans like to stay up late and sleep late. Me too.

- Beautiful nature is everywhere. You should see the trees here. Gorgeous!

- You never feel like a Chilean doesn't want to spend time with you. If you go to their house and only stay 4 hours they will say "leaving so soon?"

- People here are passionate. They see a change that needs to be made and they will make that known to all and won't stop until they get what they want.

- Chileans enjoy being outside. Sometimes and rains and rains for days, but as soon as the sun comes out someone is always outside soaking it up. They love washing their cars, playing soccer and going to the parks just to be outside.

Living here is hard sometimes because of how different it is from my own culture, but it is not all bad. Chilean culture has a lot of great things to offer that I am loving taking a part of and learning about.

First Team Retreat

It is often noted that missionaries do not do a good job of taking care of themselves. They get so busy taking care of others personal and spiritual lives that they neglect their own. With this in mind our team has implemented team retreats where we get away for a few days for some peace and quiet, some escape, some spiritual renewal, some vision brainstorming, and some good team fun time. We just had our first one of these and it was a huge success. I know we are not overwhelmingly busy in work right now but we sure are overwhelmed so this was just what we needed. Here are a few pictures to share our time and so you can be jealous of the beautiful location we went to.

View from our cabin

We had some good team time

We had some good quiet time

And we had some good nature time

We laughed at ourselves and the silly things we have done since being here with team awards

We attempted to go hiking in a national park nearby but it was too snowy on the road to get there

So we just enjoyed the snow around us and went for a little walk in it until we got too cold to go on

And we still got to see some pretty gorgeous views anyways

Missing Out Part Two

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about missing out. Then I was mainly referring to people's lives that I was missing out on. Today I have been thinking about the silly, superficial things I have been missing lately while in the depths of culture shock. Here are just a few. Think about what your life would be like without them.

- Listening to the radio in the car (or having a car)
- Canned beans ( they make recipes so easy)
- Fast Food (the conveinence and yumminess of it)
- Cheddar cheese, oh it is so glorious you have no idea until you don't have it
- Paying bills online (as opposed to having to wait in a line at the grocery store)
- Watching TV shows on a TV rather than my computer
- Chips and salsa at a restaurant
- Free refills
- Being able to call my mom or BFF while walking or shopping
- American Football
- Double pained windows
- A heater
- Dry air
- Knowing how to get around

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer lately. I really am doing ok. Just missing stuff.

BBC Is Where It's At

I still remain opinionless on all the Chilean education protests but I thought this article from BBC was interesting and informative. Mainly what I am thinking is, that I sure am glad I don't live in Santiago anymore. My old apartment was almost directly on the protest march route and let's not forget the tear gas incident in the metro. That was nothing compared to what is happening now, so I've heard. I do not live close to downtown Conce or any of the universities so I usually don't even know they are happening anymore.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14487555