Here's what's up
Feelings about Chile so far
How am I feeling right now?
Right now, when I'm writing this, very frustrated. I had written a lot to this but somehow I managed to delete it all and here I am, writing all of this again but you know it's fine it's not like I don't have time for it or anything. I probably also would've rephrased the whole thing again which I did not do in my previous text and I think it was kinda stiff to read. Aiming for this to be better than that lol. Enjoy
Culture shock? Don't know her.
If I am to believe what my afs books tell me, the fact that I am so tired all the time is because of the cultural shock we're supposed to be having. But I would probably say that for me, the cultural shock stops there. I mean yes, Chilean culture is very different to the Finnish culture and I haven't been used to saying hello with a kiss on the cheek, being stared at just because I'm blonde, being transferred everywhere by car and even having shoes inside is very distant to me, but I think it's quite easy to adapt to. I'm actually more worried about the culture shock of the Chileans and everyone else that are going to Finland. That's gonna be bad. Sorry in advance.
Who What When FUN?
There are also two other afs exchange students living here in San Fernando, both of them from Nordic countries as well (Denmark & Norway) and this Saturday we had a "welcome party" for all of our families. There was also the family of a German exchange student who's a couple of years older than us (19 to be exact), he will arrive to San Fernando on 20-something of August, so pretty soon.
Every Wednesday we have a Spanish class together, organised by volunteer students at San Fernando College. So we had our first class on Wednesday, and what we were learning there, was how to answer questions like what's your name, where do you come from and we also went through what's the difference between the verbs ser & estar, and just other basic stuff like that. The class was fun and the volunteers were super nice, the only "problem" for me is that I have studied A2 Spanish back in Finland so I have studied those things about 6 years ago. I told Eva Maria (some afs coordinator) that I'm a bit more advanced than Lars & Oskar and that the course was pretty easy for me, to which she responded that my next class will be more challenging. I'll see that in a couple of days but even if it isn't, it's alright because it was really fun to just dive back to basics for a while and obviously to see the boys again :D (vertaistuki paras tuki amirite)
What else was up this week?
This weeks Thursday was some kind of national holiday or something (still haven't figured out what but I mean I guess / hope it doesn't really matter that I don't know) so we didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. My host mom & sister found out that I'm not actually blonde (if someone didn't know already here you have it) and on Friday I went to dye my roots because the growth started to look kinda terrifying already. The color that the hairdresser dyed it to is not exactly the same as the rest of my hair, but it is pretty much the perfect transition color to my natural haircolor. Who knows maybe I'll grow back my natural color again, which I - tbh - have never liked. (Eihän kukaan nyt voi tykätä maantienharmaista hiuksista hyi) FRIDAY was also the day of my first earthquake here. It was super small so I could barely feel it but it happened. On Saturday after the afs gathering I also was at my first carrete, which was fun, but different - like everything else here.
How's Spanish going?
Yeah I mean it's going, not pretty well but it is. I can understand some Spanish but I still have a lot of trouble speaking and forming sentences especially in past and future tenses. (täs vaihees pitää varmaan kiittää OP:ta, Riinaa ja Tarua. mut kaikist eniten kyl Jennyä :D) My family is actively trying to get me to speak more in Spanish, more than just sí y no, which I think is really great but suuuper hard. Right now I have maybe five different language-learning apps on my phone and I've been reading some children's books to understand even more. It's hard and frustrating right now but I know I'll get there someday and I'll be able to speak almost perfectly. Just watch me.
Everyone keeps saying that having multiple languages is very useful and it will be an advantage in the future blablabla and I know that, I really do, but right now knowing Swedish and Russian just makes learning Spanish even more difficult. For example if I have to think of a super easy sentence in Spanish I automatically think of it in Swedish, or when I'm bored at class, not understanding anything, instead of trying to learn more Spanish I try to see if I remember the Cyrillic alphabet, like having all of my thoughts in some kind of mix of Finnish, English and Spanish wasn't enough.
How do I generally feel?
Frustration and tiredness are present all the time, but I'm coping. All the people from school and family and afs and just like generally everyone has made me feel very welcomed here, so thank you for that, it really means a lot. Altogether I feel like everything is actually pretty good.
STILL GOING STRONG I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT WTF
Culture shock? Don't know her.
If I am to believe what my afs books tell me, the fact that I am so tired all the time is because of the cultural shock we're supposed to be having. But I would probably say that for me, the cultural shock stops there. I mean yes, Chilean culture is very different to the Finnish culture and I haven't been used to saying hello with a kiss on the cheek, being stared at just because I'm blonde, being transferred everywhere by car and even having shoes inside is very distant to me, but I think it's quite easy to adapt to. I'm actually more worried about the culture shock of the Chileans and everyone else that are going to Finland. That's gonna be bad. Sorry in advance.
Who What When FUN?
There are also two other afs exchange students living here in San Fernando, both of them from Nordic countries as well (Denmark & Norway) and this Saturday we had a "welcome party" for all of our families. There was also the family of a German exchange student who's a couple of years older than us (19 to be exact), he will arrive to San Fernando on 20-something of August, so pretty soon.
Every Wednesday we have a Spanish class together, organised by volunteer students at San Fernando College. So we had our first class on Wednesday, and what we were learning there, was how to answer questions like what's your name, where do you come from and we also went through what's the difference between the verbs ser & estar, and just other basic stuff like that. The class was fun and the volunteers were super nice, the only "problem" for me is that I have studied A2 Spanish back in Finland so I have studied those things about 6 years ago. I told Eva Maria (some afs coordinator) that I'm a bit more advanced than Lars & Oskar and that the course was pretty easy for me, to which she responded that my next class will be more challenging. I'll see that in a couple of days but even if it isn't, it's alright because it was really fun to just dive back to basics for a while and obviously to see the boys again :D (vertaistuki paras tuki amirite)
What else was up this week?
This weeks Thursday was some kind of national holiday or something (still haven't figured out what but I mean I guess / hope it doesn't really matter that I don't know) so we didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. My host mom & sister found out that I'm not actually blonde (if someone didn't know already here you have it) and on Friday I went to dye my roots because the growth started to look kinda terrifying already. The color that the hairdresser dyed it to is not exactly the same as the rest of my hair, but it is pretty much the perfect transition color to my natural haircolor. Who knows maybe I'll grow back my natural color again, which I - tbh - have never liked. (Eihän kukaan nyt voi tykätä maantienharmaista hiuksista hyi) FRIDAY was also the day of my first earthquake here. It was super small so I could barely feel it but it happened. On Saturday after the afs gathering I also was at my first carrete, which was fun, but different - like everything else here.
How's Spanish going?
Yeah I mean it's going, not pretty well but it is. I can understand some Spanish but I still have a lot of trouble speaking and forming sentences especially in past and future tenses. (täs vaihees pitää varmaan kiittää OP:ta, Riinaa ja Tarua. mut kaikist eniten kyl Jennyä :D) My family is actively trying to get me to speak more in Spanish, more than just sí y no, which I think is really great but suuuper hard. Right now I have maybe five different language-learning apps on my phone and I've been reading some children's books to understand even more. It's hard and frustrating right now but I know I'll get there someday and I'll be able to speak almost perfectly. Just watch me.
Everyone keeps saying that having multiple languages is very useful and it will be an advantage in the future blablabla and I know that, I really do, but right now knowing Swedish and Russian just makes learning Spanish even more difficult. For example if I have to think of a super easy sentence in Spanish I automatically think of it in Swedish, or when I'm bored at class, not understanding anything, instead of trying to learn more Spanish I try to see if I remember the Cyrillic alphabet, like having all of my thoughts in some kind of mix of Finnish, English and Spanish wasn't enough.
How do I generally feel?
Frustration and tiredness are present all the time, but I'm coping. All the people from school and family and afs and just like generally everyone has made me feel very welcomed here, so thank you for that, it really means a lot. Altogether I feel like everything is actually pretty good.
STILL GOING STRONG I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT WTF
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