los lobos marinos.

Okay, okay I'm not allowed to use my English normally, but I'll make an exception just for you.

One could say that life has been pretty rad here to say the least.

Since I last left you, we painted up Santiago some more and had some more life lessons on how not to be dumb Americans.

Some of the really memorable outings included touring an incredibly beautiful vineyard, Cousino Macul,

and trekking up to Saint Lucia and seeing incredible views of the city and touring one of the homes of Pablo Neruda.

I also got to experience some of the night life during my last night in Santiago. It's a pretty big deal here.

Oh, and I've really bonded with a lot of the kids from the program. I've met so many free spirited and adventurous individuals. For real, I want to be them when I grow up.

On Sunday, we drove the big bus down to Valparaíso to meet our new families for the next 5 months. The bus pulled up at Ponticifica Católica and. I can't emphasize enough that awkward moment when all the families were lined up outside the building, both of us staring at each other like fish in an aquarium.

Anyway, the family is pretty bacán-- two parents, and three kids and a puppy. We live about a block in a half from the beach in a city called Viña del mar. Our Chilean parents SO patient with our Spanish and general inaptitude.

Oh and thank God for this gem.

{my roommate, Bailey}

It's no surprise that the language was the biggest adjustment in living abroad. As in, throw out everything Señora Brown ever taught you because it won't work here. Chilean spanish is like a brand spankin' new idioma. However, I am absolutely blown away by how far I have come in less than a week. It's pretty liberating to have the Spanish earplugs ripped out of your ears.

Anyway, here's a taste of what you're missing:

mmm honey.

Some general scattered thoughts to leave you with:

1. Santiago makes up over 1/3 of the population of Chile even though it occupies less than 1/1100 of Chile. It's nice to be away from the city smog to say the least.

2. So many things here from food to homes to grocery stores to lifestyles just simpler than the US. It's an incredibly wonderful mindset.

3. Over 75% of Chile is considered to be Catholic although many many of the churches are inactive.

4. Chile is one of the most globalized and least corrupt countries in Latin America.

5. There is so very little diversity here. On the plus side, it is much attributed to the fact that Chile was one of the first nations in the world to abolish slavery. However, we do tend to draw a lot of attention to our non-Chilean selves in public.

7. While there isn't really much recycling, Chileans seem to be far less wasteful with energy and resources.

8. Meals tend to run a few hours behind the average US meals. We usually eat the Chilean version of dinner ("once") around 9:30 at night. And you can show up 15 minutes late to anything. ever.

9. sooooooo many carbs.

I think I might fall asleep before I think of number 10, however...

This doesn't nearly sum up the last 168 hour window in my life.

It's going to be a crazy exciting next couple of weeks in the life of Sara.

CHAO!

SMÓ

All the Purpose Swolos.

Chile is a real place.

I arrived in Santiago this morning and met the group at the airport. God bless

standby travel.

As far as it goes with my years of airport oppression, this one takes the cake.

Plus, I feel like I have been awake for a week straight right now.

Other than that, Santiago is pretty unreal.

There is so many beautiful mountains, yet they're smothered in pollution and smog.

We've been pa rousing the city via many packs o' toursits.

There's about 50 people in my study abroad group and I already feel like I've known them all my life.

hey what's your name? let's be friends! and get married! yaaaay!

I'm getting ahead of myself.

My journey all began with a trip to see the beautiful Emily Anderson in Boston.

{Emily and Sara reunited at last in front of Emily's fancy Tiffany mansion}

Special thanks to Emily's fancy Tiffany mansion for housing me.

Plus, now I have the gems to look at every night before I go to bed for the next five and a half months.

The internet in our hotel is slower than molasses. It takes waaaaay too long to get that sheep to upload. So go ahead and make that the background on your computer and I'll get back to you.

Keep it Real

Smo.

Someone ate the metaphorical mochi.

Yes, hello!
I just got my veese (visa) and all is right with the world.
The Chilean consulate is a very real place.

You really do have to go to L.A. to finish up business, even if you live in Arizona. Cool, right?

I only wish I got to see the whites of the eyes of the eyes of the woman we've been harassing over the phone with our stupid American questions like:
it says on the website that I don't need to get the student visa before I leave the US. Do I need to get the student visa before I leave the US?
So that was good.

Meanwhile, I just realized today that I may be saying goodbye to Arizona for, like, a long time. My parents might not live here when I get back. WHAT THE HECK, MOM?! See what I did there? I think more change has happened to me over the last year than in my whole life combined and the short version of the story is to let go, let God, live now. So that's what's up.

{Sara, packed, 3 days in advanced. boom}

Keep it Real
Smo

Busy Living or Busy Dying

"I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice."

-Red, Shawshank Redemption

For better or worse, here are my thoughts on freedom:

Last night I watched the movie of a man, convicted, imprisoned, and left to rot for the rest of his life for a crime he did not commit. While unfit to be living behind bars, he makes a lifelong friend who knows how to cope with the realities of prison life. Expecting a glorified-always male-protagonist-finds-himself kind of film that I usually find when I go looking for from my Dad's personal film collection, this one really struck me. As Morgan Freeman's dreamy voice narrates us through the twenty years of violence, corruption and beleaguerment, we watch the stages of despair unravel in the souls of every exiled prisoner of Shawshank.

I have never really really known despair, neither in my own nor the life of anyone else I've really known. I don't mean temporary, fickle, I-go-to-Whitworth struggles of a first world country kind of despair, but real hopelessness. The kind I've only read about in books. African slaves, Holocaust victims, vying cancer patients, twelve year olds exploited for sex, child soldiers to name a few. It's the kind where every drop of hope and human dignity is squeezed from a soul and wrung out to dry--where life no longer has meaning. Rock bottom. It's the kind of pain that eats a person alive stripping him of all desire to even be free again. "I'm telling you, these walls are funny. First you hate them. Then you get used to them. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on them. That's institutionalized." Bondage becomes the new master.

The truth is in our own little ways, just like dreamy Morgan Freeman have forgotten that there is life outside of stone walls and metal bars; it's the reality we've come to accept. We know no different, or at least, pretend not to. The form-fitted boxes we have created for ourselves make us feel safe. We draw back at the face of what could be and sometimes even bury it in deep piles of distractions so that it might not disappoint. We cower in fear of the very thing we crave the most. I would know because I do it every day. BEAUTY is real and grand. It's the sweet song that every singer tries to sing, every artist tries to recreate. It's the deep peace of the wild. It's a new adventure, a real human triumph. It's a relationship that you are unafraid to give to God. It's selfless agape love. However, sometimes it's hidden, so we do the worst possible thing we possibly could: fill the empty spaces with things that are tangible and immediate. Essentially, we are going back to the rhythm and comfort of slavery. As we know, one does not have to fight for his own enslavement. Newness is scary and letting go is worse. We'd rather stay right where we are and grow only alongside our own culture. And God forbid we be still and listen. No, no God might have something to say. Instead, we act like there is never enough time to live.Rather than the creator, we consume ourselves with all things created. We trade the glory of God for an image, a cheap imitation even. It's just easier that way.

More than anything I want to really really live. GOD, I crave beauty. I think back to all the times in my life when I really felt alive, when I could hear my heart sing, none of which were a result of taking a passive, easy choice. Real living is in those times you experience something so beautiful you're heart aches. It's more than just learning to slow down. It's taking the time to be. It's feeding your soul rather than your emotions. Little tastes of heaven here on this earth whenever we experience something truly remarkable. However, life must begin at the end of our stone walls.

The worst thing that we can possibly do is believe that we are too far in.

You're not lost yet. Nope, no one is.

"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.

Romans 5: 2-4

Keep it Real

Smo

Save the Humpback Chub!

Hey, remember me?

It's been, what, 6 months?! That's like forever in puppy years!

Plus blogging is soooo 6 months ago. Until now.

I have had quite a few friends ask me if I was going to keep a travel blog when I went to Chile so I decided to dust off the old the Sara Morrill: the blog so that my friends and family can have a little taste of my life away. I figured it's been with me since my baby high school years, as much as it makes me laugh to go back and look with it. I won't be able to give you the whole enchilada of my next semester. Nope, no. It'll be more of the side of rice and Mexican potato patty kind of blog. I intend to live my life rather than record it. I'm not a writer or a photographer in any real sense. That's not my intent. I hope at the very least I can let the people I love in some small way feel a part of my experiences.

I've kept myself pretty busy since the school year began. Keeping in mind the potato patty thing again, I'll give you the cliff notes travel brochure version.

I started the year off roadtripping 1400 miles up to school and then rafting through the Montana alpine with some Whitworth buds:

I spent most of my semester with some beautiful new friends.

{not all pictured}

I got to co-lead a few Whitworth Outdoor Rec trips:

and go on some local-flavored adventures with some of my best good friends:

I debuted as pregnant Mary in a Spanish nativity play:

painted up San Francisco on my brother's new motorcycle:

{literally the most attractive photo either one of us have ever taken. ever.}

spent Christmas at the beach:

Jan term RA'd back in my beloved Duvall:

{Duvall RA team}

watched the sun rise over the Grand Canyon with wonderful company:

danced with K-dawg and the birds on Mission Beach:

well, you get the idea.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I have two more weeks of being a college drop-out. Chile has been this concept in the back of my mind for so long and it's finally almost here! It was on a whim, really, that I decided to drop all classes and enroll in an unknown program. I have no expectations. No agenda.

I have an overwhelming sense that big things are waiting for me. I was just telling my brother how I felt so compelled toward this new season in my life. There is a time to acquire knowledge, push your limits mentally and spiritually, and challenge your knowledge. But then, there is a far more important time where you apply all that knowledge and really really live. I thank God for the professors and mentors that completely blew my mind on a daily basis over the last semester. I hope the next 6 months in Chile will be a time that I can apply all that I have learned, live in a way that is authentic and deliberate--live in the now, rather than stumbling through a semester fixated in whats to come. I hope that I might refocus on things bigger than the next assignment I have to turn in--that I might just pray and journal and love and see beautiful things. And that's all I have to say about that. Stay tuned!

Adios.

NO YOU HANG UP FIRST!

Keep it Real

SMO