Teleton

So I said goodbye to my host family last week and have now moved into the apartment where Favi lived. Its nice, and still in the same neighborhood where I used to live which I like because I've become comfortable here. My room is extremely small and everything barely fits, but it works. I won't be here much during the summer so that doesn't matter anyways. It was strange packing up my old room though. I had lived there for 5 months, which is a pretty long time, I got comfortable there in my room with my little routine. It was also nice always having my host mom and brother around. Also my host mom did EVERYTHING for me, which I got very used to... but it is nice now to have responsibilities again. I had somewhat forgotten what that was like, but I like it. When I was packing up my room and putting all my stuff in the living room as I waited for the taxi to come get me, I was a lot sadder then I thought I would be. I don't think I've ever been so sad moving out except maybe from my family's "old house" on 6030 E. Heaton. When I moved to college I was so excited and ready to go and then when I moved out of the dorms, I was like "alright, get me outta here!" and then when I moved out of my apartment sophomore year I was sad, but excited for the summer and all that was in store for me moving to South America. But from my home with my host family, I was just plain sad. The location was so perfect right by a cute string of restaurants and the municipal building and main plaza, also with the new gym that just opened, I had a great little room, bed, closet, and my own bathroom, when I was bored I watched movies with my host brother or went upstairs to bother Mia, and every day around 2:30pm there was a hot lunch on the table for me. But I guess in life things are always changing, and you can't just hold onto the past but you've got to keep moving forward with your head up ready for the next exciting adventure. So thats what I'm doing.

SO, in about a week, or less then a week, when I'm all done with school and the paper that I am delaying writing right now as I am updating my blog instead, I will be heading down to Patagonia for about a month. For those of you who don't know, Patagonia is the name for the whole most southern part of Chile where it is known for many beautiful landscapes and not a lot of people. There are glaciers, penguins, whales, fishing, horseback riding, hiking, greenery (because it rains the majority of the year), really nice, slow moving, mountain people and much more. I can't wait to see it for myself. Next week I will be meeting up with a family I got in contact with to go to their EcoLodge in the Aysen region to help them out on their property and with guests. I'm not exactly sure what's in store for me, but I'm going to go and find out!!

Yesterday Dec. 3 was the Teleton here in Chile. The past few weeks I had  been seeing signs about it, but was never really sure what it was all about, who they were raising money for, and how many people actually participate. Turns out it is a nationwide thing and people get really involved. I got an email about a 10k for the teleton because of the 10k I had ran before and I decided at the last minute to go and do it. I think the extra push was the fact that we got a free shirt for participating... so I went there and they had a total of about 7,500 participate. It was so cool! We ran down the main street in the town in our red shirts while traffic was blocked off. People all up and down the street honking, waving and smiling at us. Then when I got home and turned on the tv, every channel was synced covering the teleton where they told different stories and had entertainment and encouraged people to go down to the bank or online to donate money to reach their goal of 18,000,000 pesos. Which i believe is just shy of 40 million dollars. (i think...) The goal of the teleton is to raise money for people, children in particular with disabilites. The stories shown on the tv were of some of these kids and their lives. Then starting at 10:00pm everyone headed to the "Estadio Nacional" which is their biggest soccer stadium for a free concert which a bunch of different artists. The tv channels were still synced and they would update about every 20 min to see how close to the goal they were. I watched the whole concert which went to about 1:30am and ended with them making their goal. It was just really cool to watch because they kept empasizing "solidarity" and they would sing their song over and over "Vamossss, Vamos Chilenos...." It was amazing to see a country so dedicated and together on reaching this goal and the national pride that they had. It seemed like everyone was so united on this goal and it was really cool to be a part of it during the 10k. I think after experiencing the teleton, I came to like Chile a little bit more then I already do, it was just a really special thing. Well that's about it for now, I better get back to my essay...:/ but here's some pictures in the mean time.

P.S. I forgot to mention also that since I've moved I have a new address!

Lauren Grazier

Jose Manuel Infante 2520 Depto #203

7750000 Nunoa,

Region Metropolitana, Chile

South America

Me and my host brother at Chinese food

Me and my host mom at Chinese food (she took us out for lunch the day I moved out)

The start of the race in front of the presidential palace. Everyone with their red shirts.