Yes, a lot butter of the peanut pleases me.

It's a tough life here. I've been so busy lying on the beach and drinking mango leche,

that I barely have the time to tell you about all the lying on the beach and drinking mango leche.

Here I am with a spoon warding off stray dogs on the beach from eating birthday cheesecake. It's just a thing you do sometimes.

Here I am making an 'E' in La Campana National Park.

It spells CHILE, cachai?

Our new Chilean friends escorted us to the summit to witness the glory of the mountains.

They forgot to tell us that 7 hours of scaling up and down rocky walls. Most of the time we could think about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for us at the bottom. Who could blame us? But trust me when I say

BA! literally:

As a celebration for 3 whole weeks living in South America, I bought a ticket to the one and only, Patagonia. And for now that's all I'm going to say about that so don't touch that dial!

Especially if you are watching Mean Girls dubbed over in Spanish right now because your Chilean mama told you to improve your listening skills. Don't touch it. jajaja.

Keep it Real

Smo.

Tía Portabella

This morning I wake up to go to my first day of Chilean class. Cancelled. No prior notice. No big, it's only the first day. Why not cancel the next one too? Don't mention it. And while we're at it, let's cancel all of the classes in the department for funsies. We'll just take the week off. Nope, no worries. Instead I took the micro into Valpo and hung out out on the ISA balcony for a couple hours, chatting with some amigos and enjoying the pasta mamá chilena made me the night before. I really needed the break after my 4 day weekend after my 2 months of break. Phew.

They have a saying here. "Quien se apura pierde el tiempo." It means he who rushes, loses time. I'm pretty sure that all of Chile operates on this principle. Time seems to run in endless supplies here. Life moves a little slower. I'm pretty sure was supposed to be like that. At first, I didn't know how to handle it. In America, we are taught to keep ourselves busy. Free time is associated with boredom. Free time is "I should be doing something else" rather living in the now. American time is measured in productivity and tangible quantities whereas Chilean time is...pure. It took me but a few days to get into the rhythm.

Tonight one of the Chilean girls we met at church invited some girls to an all girl's orphanage that's right up the street from Bailey and I. We walked over their together and stayed and played with the niñas for a few hours or so. God, it was so powerful. In fact, I plan on going back every Wednesday. I didn't really know any of their stories or how they got there, but I could tell their had been a lot of hostility in their past. They needed so much love. During my time there, I kept how much more real and beautiful it is to be spending my days with moments such as these rather than cooped up in my room working on homework or going to meetings. No matter how you look at it, college life is a very "me-oriented" place. Oftentimes, I find myself stumbling through the semester just trying to catch up. How many times have I given myself a guilt trip for spending time on homework or a job when I could have been doing something so much greater with my time? The other stuff is just fillers, right? I find myself playing the cost benefit-analysis game with how I chose to spend my time. I wish I would quit it.

Here's my advice: Stop driving yourself insane. You are exactly where you are supposed to be so live that way. Live free. Live well. Live now, and quit trying to catch up. God gave us life with so much beauty and time to live so don't squander it on lavish entertainment or distractions, or worse compare it to someone else's. I know that wherever I am, there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

If you'll excuse me the sunset is calling my name again and I must go.

Keep it Real

Smo.

Falta la palta.

Sometimes no matter hard you fight it, things slip through the Spanish cracks. I can't tell you how many blank stares I have had the pleasure of receiving. If I had a nickel.

Like apparently the Chilean student that's been living in our house for the last two days.

Me: So where are you living for the next semester?

Nicholas: Here. In this house. In the room next to yours.

Or how I've been asked by three different family members and friends about the depression I apparently have. I still have no idea why.

Or: I've had too much sangría. I meant watermelon.

I usually resort to one of my go to's like talking about fútbol or laughing at the dog, who, let's be honest, is not all that funny.

My arms are so drug store. I meant sunburned.

ohhhhh boy.

Nos Vemos.

Keep it Real

Smo.

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