Life As I Know It

Oh, by the way.... Mission Address!

2010-02-27T00:42:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I never posted that I got my mission call...

Yeah so I've had my mission call for about 4 months now... I'm going to Concepcion, Chile! Woohoo and now I leave in 4 days!

BUT if you want to write me, this is where you can send me mail! Mail is super expensive to Chile unless you send it by pouch, so just send the letter without the envelop to the address in Salt Lake. But you need to send stuff to the MTC address until May 3 or around that time.

MTC Address:
Sister Tiffany Enders
Chile Concepcion Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

Pouch Service:
Hermana Tiffany Enders
Chile Concepcion Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Some Things Never Change

2010-01-25T12:20:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday Peninsula had an alumni game, meaning any girl who has graduated from Penn in the last 10 years and was a water polo player was invited to play against the current team. About 12-15 alumni came to play. We played about 5 quarters of continuos game time.

Mostly I went to play against Rachel. But I had a really good time. I remembered why I missed water polo, however I also remembered why I was glad it was over.

While in the old pool I thought I would check to see if 'my mark' was still there or not.... it was...

During pratice in high school everyone would stick there gum in the pool's gutter, and some of us wrote out our names. I had spelled Tiff in gum, and apparently Rachel had recently helped out and added the -y. It was nice to see I had left a mark on Penn. Even if it is a little unconventional.

Life at Home

2010-01-25T12:18:00.001-08:00

This picture basically sums it up....

Rachel: tall, and wearing crazy clothes

Dad: asleep

Me: sticking out my tongue

Colonial Day!

2010-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

Recently my youngest sister Samantha had colonial day at her school. Every year the fifth graders dress up and research colonial time and put on a little colonial day fair for the younger kids. This year Samantha is in fifth grade and she was assigned to be a shoe maker.

She did a great job with her partner. They explained how to make the shoes and had pictures of how it was really done. The whole gym was filled with kids and their tables here are some of them.

Going to school in Utah I don't have a chance to see my sister's project very often so this was a great opportunity to be there for Samantha.

The Rose Parade 2010

2010-01-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

If you are avid readers of my blog, you know that every year my family goes to the Rose Parade. This year we decided to spice things up since I won't be able to go to the Rose Parade next year (since I'll be on a mission).

A few days before the parade Rachel's girl scout troop was invited to help build a float. They took me along because they knew how much I wanted to come!

We volunteered for the Fiesta float company and worked on the New Mexico float. I worked on the side sign and one of the baskets of one hot air balloon.

We had a little fun checking out the other floats too while we were there too.

When we were leaving so one asked us if we would be willing to guard one of the floats the night before the parade. We accepted hesitantly. Our job was to guard the float from 12am to 3am. Not best hours for a job; but we accepted and decided to camp out the rest of the night to see the parade in the morning.

By the time we got there at 11pm the night before the parade route was already covered by people. We decided to camp just before the parade, where we would see all the floats still but would be missing the bands. The bands are one of my favorite parts but we still had a great time watching the parade. Here's MY favorite float.

Safe Walk

2009-11-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

In our ward the Elders Quorum put together a safe walk.

The girls liked to give them a hard time about it.... like me who was always trying to catch them while they weren't there....

and this time I have proof.

Just ignore the fact that Jeff from our ward is sitting there in the corner studying. :D

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Fall Fest!

2009-10-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

So I threw my first party at my apartment this semester!

Halloween is favorite holiday... I don't know why. There is just something about getting to dress up and people giving you free candy. YET no one ever feels pressured on halloween to do anything extra... just have a great holiday.

So my room mate and I decided to throw a party... but not just a halloween party... a Fall party where we could do all the fun stuff you do during fall! We made caramel popcorn, carved pumpkins, had a bon fire and watched a movie after wards.

I did learn that the host of a party really doesn't have as much fun at the people at the party, and not everything turned out the way we planned... but all in all I think it turned out good.

Things I've never done...

2009-10-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well I can't say that I haven't won a game of scrabble in my entire life anymore...

CUZ I WON ONE TONIGHT!!!!

Oh Jenelise and Eric thought they had me taken... see how I was only at 93 and they were already past 100...

THEN I pulled out "jigs"

OH SNAP TRIPLE LETTER POINTS AND DOUBLE WORD POINTS

60 points right there....

and I took the game!

I really should take national headlines... "worst spelling in the world takes scrabble game"

DONE AND DONE

2009-09-27T16:34:00.001-07:00

I finally did it!

I submitted my mission papers! Woo Hoo! (now the Bishop and Stake Pres. just have to do their thing)

This is the face of the soon to be Sister Enders! (this is the actual photo I submitted with my papers)

True Blue...

2009-09-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

SO this past fall I realized that I have never been to True Blue... and for those of you that don't know what 'true blue' is then let me enlighten you...

Every fall BYU pumps tons of blue foam for people to play in at the Helman Halls field. It's basically a really fun mess. There is an area where the foam is spraying and you and jump around in it, there's another place you can slide down the hill in it, and another place you can 'foam wrestle" in it.... basically just a good time in the foam. Everyone comes out completely blue and sometimes the blue can even stain your skin for a day or two.... This is the aftermath of my 'blue experience.'

So if you ever go to BYU, you HAVE to go to True Blue at least once!

Oh look...

2009-09-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Utah can be pretty when it wants to be....

Let's Be Friends

2009-09-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

So back in 2002 PVPH reopened. However, this also reopened a long rivalry.

Penn. is known for impeccable academics...

while PV is known for its top game sports.

Polar opposites.

But why can't we be friends and share the hill?

Impossbile.

But in another state...

PALOS VERDES POWER UNITE!

Random #2

2009-09-08T22:24:00.000-07:00

So sometimes we did "out of the ordinary" things at EFY.

Like having the kids pretend they were bacon.

Turned out to be quite entertaining for the rest of us.

EFY: Las Vegas

2009-08-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

It has taken me quite a while to put up my Las Vegas EFY pictures, but I thought my blog wouldn't be complete with out them. Las Vegas was a really good experience for me. These two weeks of EFY were the first ones I was accepted to and so I really felt like I was suppose to be there and there was a reason why I was these particular girl's councilor. My first week was hard because one of my girls was inactive and the only reason why she came was because her stake paid for the trip. She also had a lip ring that I had make sure she didn't try to wear. This week I also had the most health problems with my kids. One of them got dehydrated, another cut her stomach open while playing games, and another cut up her leg by shaving (like the worst shaving accident I've ever seen!). But I started praying with the room mates each night and even sang to some of my girls so they would go to bed, and I felt like I got to connect with them better.

My second week I had the greatest girls ever. They were a lot like my second week of girls in Santa Barbara (which I hadn't written about yet so I'm gonna talk about both of them here). They were just really good girls. They were from all over, but in both groups, the room mates came together. This made it really nice because they already had a friend they were comfortable, yet I was really impressed how they still tried to branch out.

EFY was hard but it was still a really good experience that made me grow.

EFY: Santa Barbara, CA 02

2009-07-14T00:36:00.002-07:00

If last week was a hard week. This week was a breeze. The week actually flew by for me. I mean it was hard having the hottest male councilor as my co.

It was pretty much impossible to win the love of my girls, though I tried for a while. But my girls were SO good. They were the older group and about half of them weren't even from California.

I loved them. I was sitting in their testimony meeting and I was just overcome with the feeling of how much I love each one of them. They really were special girls.

We had some pretty great guys too. Derrik and Shane were my favorite though. :D

I was really sad to see the end of the Santa Barabara EFYs for this year.

EFY: Santa Barbara, CA 01

2009-07-14T00:36:00.001-07:00

This was probably the hardest week of my life- okay okay lets go with summer instead. I'd like to think I've survived worst things than a bad week of EFY.

First off I had to work really hard to even get to EFY in Santa Barbara. I was originally suppose to do EFY in Thatcher, like a past blog shows, but I switched with someone who was from Arizona. My reasoning was two fold. One, this allowed me to go home and visit my family, which was something I wasn't gonna turn down. And second of all teaching the youth of California was the reason I even applied to be an EFY councilor in the first place. I wanted to teach the kids that were like me when I was younger. I was once in there shoes and EFY had a great effect on my life. I wanted to part of the greatness that is EFY. So when I saw the opportunity to go to California I took it.

The week started off pretty good. My group this week was actually a group of two girl councilors and one boy. So that meant there were 2X as many girls for each guy.

The kids were also 14-15 year olds. I was really excited about this at first because I thought, oh it'll be like teach my little sister who is also 14. Uhh, it was and that was one of the reasons it was so hard. 14-15 year olds are very different. They have much more energy and are really just all over the place. I had a hard time controlling my group. Many of my girls were super chatty. It was so hard to get them quite to talk about spiritual stuff. On top of that one of girls had special needs. She was super independent and did great, but I was always worried about her and how she was getting along. I also had a girl that was not a member in my group. She would always ask random simple questions about the gospel during lessons. I worried about her and didn't quite know how to handle her questions. She needed them answered but the rest of the girls really were just annoyed and had different needs. Eventually I got to talk with her, and I learned that she has a very hard family life as well. I really didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to relate at all. I hope I helped her in some way.

During this hard week it also hit me that I might not suppose to be there. I was suppose to be in Thatcher until I switched. That was also hard to handle. It is such a boost to know your suppose to be there with the particular kids (they always tell you that when they give you the list of who is in your group. They remind you that you have been picked for a specific reason)... but I didn't have that, and I second guessed everything. Giving my all was harder after that. ((Which made me think about my mission... If I go, I have to KNOW without a doubt that I'm suppose to be where ever I go; or I will falter I think.))

The week wasn't all bad though. I learned a lot about my self. I learned how to be a better councilor. I learned that I need more than 5 hours of sleep a day and crying when you normally wouldn't can happen when you have lack of sleep.

I still loved my group. Even though sometimes they made me crazy I still loved them and enjoyed being their councilor.

There was the triples in group, who were really shy at first but eventually opened up and great. There was Lori, my favorite girl. She was so strong and confident in herself, yet not in puffed up way, but in a way that brought other people up. I wish I would have been as strong as her as a 14 year old. And there was David. My favorite boy.

He just always made us laugh. He had a good sense of humor but he could get down to the gospel stuff when the time came too. There was also Justin, who like to hit as many girls as he could, and then a couple of them fell for him, which of course freaked him out and he avoided them like the plague. Then there was my girl who found a boy who liked her back. But that plan was frustrated because he lived two hours away and they were only 14. (I silently laugh to myself when ever I think of the two of them). I also got to know a lot of the councilors this week when we had extra duties to do. The california team was pretty awesome... minus one... but we won't go in to that.

The week was still awesome, with the ever-so-creative EFY games, banner making, lanyard escorting, eating in the DLG (which was the best cafiteria yet and is actually in a Jack Johnson song: Bubbly Toes), and overall fun!

EFY: Flagstaff, AZ

2009-07-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

Flagstaff Arizona was my very firs week of EFY this summer, and what a week it was. I don't know if I could ever love a group like this one again. They were my first group, and they all know they hold a special place in my heart.

At first I was scared and nervous. I had an older group and I was really worried because I'm actually only a few years older than them. I wanted them to like me so much, and I was super nervous because I didn't know exactly what I was suppose to be doing every moment of the day. The all the other councilors were from Arizona too and they all seemed to know each other either from past weeks or other places- which made it hard to break into their group. The week ended up being great though!

Our session director ended up being this amazing man, Brother Rose. He is originally from Idaho but now lives in Utah. He used to be a cop and a seminary teacher (at the local juvi facility) but now he just teaches seminary. He actually also served his mission where I'm from! His stories were great and captivating but always tied into the gospel. I learned so from Brother Rose. He also touched me on a personal level. One day when I was having a hard time just walking along minding my own business he caught up with and started talking with me. If I have a mission president I hope he's like Brother Rose.

I also had an amazing room mate. Her name was Lanae. She was less than 5 feet tall, but she was a great room mate. Around 1 am she was the funniest person alive... jumping on the bed asking to play with her... that is until the RA from down stairs showed up at our door and asked us if anyone was throwing a bowling ball around... oops!

Then there were my girls. Samantha, Libby, Makyla, Meagan, Sara, Sara, and Aubrey.

Our boys were pretty great too.

I loved getting to know each one of them and the different lives they led.

We had some good EFY fun as well...

Every morning we started out with some scripture reading:

We had game night and banner making:

And maybe, us councilors got a little to into it...

We also had a cheer we pulled together at the last moment:

We had a great musical program: (which about 3 of my kids participated in! I was so proud!)

And last but not least we had an AMAZING pizza night!

Summer

2009-06-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

June 20-27: Flagstaff, Arizona

June 28- July 4: Thatcher, Arizona

July 5-18: Palos Verdes, California

July 19- Aug 1: Las Vegas, Nevada

Aug 2-15: Provo, Utah

Manti Pageant

2009-06-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

So kind-of spur-of-the-moment Emily and I thought we would go to the Manti Pageant. So we hopped in the car and drove to middle-of-no-where Utah. Yeah, turns out there's a temple AND a pageant.

Once we got of the car we realized it was cold. So I put on my sweatshirt. Then a bunch of people walked by with blankets. Then we realized we were gonna freeze to death. So being the resourceful person I am, I took off the seat covers in my car and we used them as our "blankets." They didn't help much, and we were both wearing flip flops (being true to the Southern California in us) so we froze.

We also had some time before the pageant, so we pulled out our cameras and took some amazing pictures.

Finally the pageant did start and we watched it huddled there close together (for warmth). The pageant covered Joseph Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon, the move out west (and settling the Manti area), and several stories of the Book of Mormon. They did it all in an hour and a half.

Though we enjoyed the pageant as soon as it ended we jumped in the car and headed home with the heater full blast.

Reunion

2009-06-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

On my last night in Provo, Nicole and I though we would have a Chile reunion and eat out at the one Chilean restaurant in town, Pantrucas!

However when we got there there was a note on the door...

Basically it said they had taken the week off. Nicole and I got a good laugh out of that one... typical Chileans.

So instead we went to Nicole's place where we taught Jamie the art of making the perfect completo.

Goolging

2009-06-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

Earlier today Emily and I were talking about something on TV that we were unsure of. So being the research savvy person I am I googled it. I had not typed in three words when google thought it would guess what I wanted... and this is what it supposed:

I mean these are all very interesting questions that my heart is dying to know, but it didn't have what I was looking for... is there a new season of Glimore Girls coming up?!

Looks like google doesn't know me that well...

Life

2009-05-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

Stuff I'm doing:

painting shirts to commemorate my trip to Chile.

Manti Temple Trip

2009-05-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

This past week end my ward went to the Manti Temple. Yeah, there is a temple in the middle of nowhere Manti! I love seeing different temples and this one's baptismal font was different than the ones I'm use to. It was so colorful! Over all it was a good experience. :D

Extracting DNA

2009-05-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

I know my life has gone back to it's boring ol' routine since I got back to Provo, but the one thing I got to hold on to is my crabs. As you probably have read previously I did successful sneak my crabs past three different countries custom agents.

Now that I have my crabs here I now have the joy of doing DNA work on them. THE PLAN is to get the DNA work and the geometric morphometric work done this summer so I can write a paper with the results this fall.

To map the DNA from the crabs I am extracting DNA from their gills. This actually took way longer than I thought. First you need to break open the carpace and then take the gills out and put them in ethanol, and then package them. Sounds easy enough right? Well try doing that for 80 crabs. ... yeah, I was a little bored... SO HERE ARE PICTURES!

Blake's Graduation!

2009-05-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

My friend Blake graduated this last week... I'm super jealous. I still have at least another grueling year to go through...

BDA #26

2009-05-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well I have been Provo for about two weeks and I we ALMOST have all the boxes gone. It's a slow process for us.

Anyways, here's a virtual tour of my new place! BDA #26!!! (BDA stands for Benedict Arms)

Here's my bedroom... nicely decorated with fake flowers so they never die, and disney pillow cases. At least I have a cool "surfer" bedcover.

This is the closet. The colorful half is Emily's and the dark side is mine. I really need to start lightening up.

The best part about our new place is that we have a washer and dryer. Now I don't have to carry my clothes up and down three flights of stairs in the snow to get to the washer and driers. It's just right out side my room!!! Okay, so they are really old machines, but I'm not complaining!

This is our bathroom. I bought some fake flowers, popery, and a vase and wa-la! Cute bathroom!

This is our "music room." Okay it's just part of our living room, but it's the music "area" at least.

This is our living room... and as you can see, well lived in already! And then over there the kitchen is connected. The microwave is a little old, but it still works!

So I'm also trying to grown plants... again. I know in the past my efforts haven't been that successful, but I'm trying again.

And look I'm already making progress!!!:D

We also have a new addition to our apartment.... Peeve! Yup, he's our pet peeve! :D He's the only male allowed after 12 in our apartment! And today we bought him some fake flowers. He's still scared of them, but in the mean time it's fun watching him avoid them.

As you can see our place is pretty ghetto, but it already feels like home.

Luggage

2009-04-20T14:17:00.001-07:00

... I defiantly over packed then...

Back in the US

2009-04-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Everyone who reads my blog,

I have successfully made it back to the US. There are a few more blog posts I will put up about the end of my trip because we didn't have internet at the end, but I don't know if I will keep my blog as updated. I think I will try and blog once a week once I have made it back to Utah. However, I can not make any promises that my blog will be interesting any more.

Thank you for reading!

Love Always,

Tenders

Airport Day

2009-04-08T23:00:00.001-07:00

Today Nicole and I arrived in Peru at around 9 am. We successfully made it off the plane and into the country. However upon arriving we learned that it would cost us 50 dollars (in US dollars!) just to get to our hostel that we made reservations for. Yes, it would cost 50 dollars to get to our 12 dollar hostel. We also knew that our next flight to Cusco would be leaving at 5 am the next morning and we would need to be at the airport again in less than 24 hours. Costing us of course another 50 dollar. So what did we decided to do?

We decided to spend the entire day in the airport. That's right. Were in Peru, but I haven't actually walked outside. It's kind of like that movie "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks. Except no airport personnel is falling in love with us. Sleeping is just as uncomfortable though.

Panoramic of Santiago

2009-04-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

On our very last day in Chile we spent the day just chillin' and walking around Santiago. One good last look at everything.

All In One Day

2009-04-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

Nicole and I knew that we couldn't leave Chile without visiting Vina del Mar or Valpariso. Everyone always raves about Valpariso and Vina del Mar. However we planned our final week of travel pretty tight and so we thought we would just visit Valpariso. Well it turns out that Vina del Mar and Valpariso are squished together, like Provo and Orem. Where one starts and another one end no one really knows! So we got to visit both! It was an action packed day fitting both in though! We stayed with one of our friends, Sergio, from Valdivia who is going to school in Vina del Mar. He also took us on a tour of the city.

First we started with Vina del Mar. Vina del Mar is the newer city and has the better beaches.

While walking along we spotted a city tour in a horse and carriage. It was expensive, but we figured we only live once! So we hopped in and saw Vina del Mar in style.

We got to see more catholic churches.... as usual. But this Sunday was Palm Sunday so everyone was out and about! It was cool to see everyone in the streets. Many people had palms or palms shaped into objects.

On the way we also got to see a Easter Island Museum. Where we took an awesome picture with the giant rock that looks like a head. Famous of Easter Island.

After our horse ride we decided to visit the FREE museum. It really was a house own by this very rich man that they have turned into an art museum. It was still pretty cool!

Then we all went back to Sergio's place and had lunch. It was a good lazy summer day type lunch. We made Chilean pizza, and had Te-Tere (which is just mate with sprite instead of hot water). After being replenished we continued on with Valpariso! Valpariso is the older city. It is famous for it's colorful houses on the hills. Everyone says (over and over again) Valpariso is "antique", which is really code word for "old lookin'." It was beautiful though. It is probably my favorite place we went to in Chile. We started off the same way as Vina del Mar, we just started walking...

Of course we saw some more catholic churches. These churches really do make the neighborhood beautiful. This spice up the street with fine art and history.

There are also just beautiful buildings for practical use, like this clock tower for instance. The main point is Valpariso is just filled with beautiful old buildings. History is just leaking out everywhere. Valpariso is also the home of many artists. It's an inspirational city.

Valpariso is also where you can find the Chilean congress. Santiago has the president, but Valpariso has congress. On the front of the building are two men how had a major influence on Chile becoming an independent nation. O'Higgins was the first President. The other man (whom I can't remember his name right now... ) was a great general and helped in freeing the Chile from Spain.

Valpariso is also the home of the famous Chilean music festival. This is suppose to be the stage, but it looks kind of small so we're not exactly sure.

Art Thoughts

2009-04-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

While in Vina del Mar, Nicole, Sergio and I went to this house of this really old rich guy they have turned into an art museum. There we saw some pretty cool art. While walking through one of the rooms I stopped at this picture.

I stood there thinking, that picture is just so un-natural. I mean what girls just sit around half naked with sheets over only the lower half of their bodies? I mean Nicole and I are pretty comfortable with each other and ourselves but we would never do something like that. Then I looked at the picture next to it.

I thought, that's more like it. Nicole and I can be found more naturally like this. Nicole would be the one on the right with the fruit. Mainly because she's always eating fruit and trying to get me to eat some. I would be the one of the left with the water jug because I'm always the one drinking water and trying to get Nicole to drink more.

Roaring 60's

2009-04-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well Nicole and I finally made it to Patagonia! Even though our program is the "Patagonia Fields Study Program," Nicole and I have not actually been in Patagonia. Patagonia has many different definitions, but if you go with the strictest one, only the VERY southern tip of South America is considered Patagonia.

We did finally get experience Patagonia before leaving though because Bariloche IS considered Patagonia. Patagonia is known for being very windy.... here's proof.

Bariloche, Argentina

2009-04-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

Nicole and I were not planning to go to Argentina while we were down here. Nothing really tempted us to go there. Some how we did ended up making plans to met the guys, Casey, David, and Richard, in Bariloche for a few days. So we did get to go Argentina and get another stamp in our passport!

We all stayed in the same hostel, but of course by BYU standards, so the boys got one room and Nicole and I got another one.

The whole time it was raining so it was hard to do stuff. Mostly we ate. Argentina is known for it's meat, and we defiantly experienced it. In fact... I wish I hadn't. After each pile of meat we ate I felt sick.

On Thursday we lucked out though and did get one day without rain. We took advantage of it and explored town, the cathedral, and the lake.

Bariloche is known for it's outdoor activities, so we went on a cave-hike. (And as many of you know, I love caves, so I was super excited!) Our tour guide was pretty funny, and he made an effort to help us understand. However, Argentina has its own dialect and was way hard to understand after listening to Chilean Spanish for the past three months.

The cave wasn't that big but it was still fun. There were several small spots we had to get through, and in the cave there was a lake-pond-thing. The view from the top of the mountain was incredible though! Argentina is very brown, but we have just been spoiled in Chile.

After the caves we had more food and then we rented a movie to watch at the hostel. Since no one was decisive so we ended up watching the lame new Indian Jones movie. It was a good day though and even though the movie has a weird alien plot it was a nice way to end the day.

Another Stamp in My Passport!

2009-04-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

So today Nicole and I left Valdivia early in the morning for Bariloche, Argentina! The bus ride was long and a surreal experience. The bus was full of people from the US! We could ease-drop and completely understand!

However, the cool feeling of being the special "las gringas" was gone. We were just more American tourists on a bus. I also stopped feeling tall, blond and white. It was nice while it lasted I guess.

We did make it safe across the boarder with out getting busted by immigration for the crabs I brought, so all was good. Crossing the Andes was also AMAZING! Sometimes you just need a huge mountain next to you to put the earth in perspective.

Argentina is cool, but I miss Chile! Good thing we'll be back in 2 more days! :D

Packing...

2009-04-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

So today Nicole and I packed up 3 months of our lives.

It was hard work let me tell you.

From now on we will be living out of our suitcases. Here's our schedule until we get back to Provo and actually get to unpack!

-April 1-3: Bariloche, Argentina

-April 4-6: Valpariso, Chile

-April 6-8: Santiago, Chile

-April 9: Lima, Peru

-April 10-13: Cusco, Peru

-April 14-15: Lima, Peru

-April 15-28(ish): Palos Verdes, California

Last Sunday

2009-03-29T19:38:00.002-07:00

This Sunday Nicole and I had our going away party. We aren't actually leaving Valdivia until Wednesday morning, but Monday is FHE, and Tuesday is institute, so we went with Sunday. At first we were going to plan it ourselves... but then somehow it went out of our hands and the Chileans took care of it for us.

This morning I woke up sick, so it didn't start off as a good day. Nicole and I went to church, but I went home early because I wasn't feeling very well. As I was saying good-bye, I broke down and started crying. It was my last Sunday here in Valdivia.

At home Edna, made me soup and tea to eat in bed. Then I slept. For like the whole day. At one point the missionaries came and gave me a blessing, which was really nice of them. Then I went back to sleep.

Around 6pm I woke up because we were having our good-bye party at 6:30pm. Nicole and I made our last walk to the church building. At the church they were decorating the building for us! They strung up some balloons and had a big poster up for us.

Because it was Sunday and we were in the chapel we began with a prayer, spiritual thought and a song- we had to make it a FHE too. Rodrigo gave the lesson, which was more like a game. We were put into two teams and then we rolled a giant dice and based on the number we had to answer a question. Some of the questions were fun, like first team to get all their shoelaces up to the front wins a point!, and some were litigate church questions. Needless to say we had the coolest team and we won!

After the lesson the food was brought out. Rossio had made us a special treat which she called "monkey crap." We had a good laugh at that one. They really were just no bakes but they were so much better when we called them monkey crap. They also had some poster paper for everyone to write us a note on. I am really happy they did that, because now I have a little something from all of them that I will probably put up in my room somewhere.

Nicole and I had taught Rossio and Nadia how to play spoons one FHE, and so Nadia brought cards and we all played.

After spoons we took a TON of pictures. Pictures with the poster, pictures with everyone, funny pictures, photo shoot pictures.

Eventually everything started rapping up and everyone said their good-bye (we'll see everyone for the last time at institute) and we made our way back home. On the way out everyone gave Nicole and me the string of balloons. When we were walking home we waved them around and a bus driver honks and waved at us.

I will miss this place.

Best Day Ever!

2009-03-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today Nicole and I had one of the best days we've had here in Chile.

Our professors were feeling a little guilty that they haven't been taking us to places in Chile, so today they took us out. It kind of felt like a "play date"- like Dr. Jara and Dr. Nunez got together were like: Hey we both have a PIRE project students, you know what we should do is take them on a trip, wouldn't that be fun?

It was fun.

First the day started off rainy, and not looking good. We drove east towards the Andes for a few hours and arrived at the Eureka volcano. It was poring rain, but the park ranger said that there were still tours of the volcano's cave. Me, being a sucker for caves asked if we could go on the tour. From the moment I got out of the car I was drenched from my knees down, since that is where the oversized jacket I borrowed stopped. We rushed into this cabin and stayed by the fire until everyone for the tour was there. Then we put on some hard hats and made a run for the cave.

The tour started off with the park ranger explaining how volcanos are formed and specifics about the Eureka volcano. It was all in spanish, but Dr. Jara translated for us. Then we went into the cave.

Caves=Cool so I don't know what else to say. I think the pictures say enough for themselves. Basically this cave was AWESOME!!!! And it's actually the only tour-able lava cave in South America!

After the cave (it was still raining), we went into Pucon and had lunch. Pucon is a fancy tourist town for the rich. Dr. Jara says that anyone who is anyone goes to Pucon, so that makes Nicole and me pretty cool too right? In Pucon we had a really good lunch at this really fancy place. The meal cost about $70,000 pesos, which is $121 US dollars. Thank goodness PIRE paid, which really means the US government paid.

After lunch we went to the "hot springs." Nicole and I have been to the hot springs in Utah, and so we thought these would be similar. In Utah you just drive up in your car, pop out and get into the hot spring. That's not what we did.... Dr. Jara took us to a SPA!

There was a pool with water pumped in from a hot spring, but it was most defiantly a spa. A very nice spa. We were way surprised, but welcomed the nice warm water. It seemed like Dr. Jara really was enjoying the spa. Nicole hypothesized that we were probably just his excuse to come to the spa, and I would have to agree.

While at the spa everyone was wearing little blue caps. Being "too cool" for the caps we just went into the water without them. However we were busted by the "cap police" who asked us to go put them on.

After the hot springs we had some coke. During our drink the lights went out though because of the rain storm and we had a candle light drink. I always imagined Nicole and I would have a candle light scene of some kind since we have basically done everything else together for the last three months.

Then we took the three hour drive home. It was just another great day in Chile.

Stake Dances

2009-03-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

If Stake dances were this cool in the States I think people would actually go to them.

This Friday our stake had a "welcome back dance" since school has just restarted here. The dance started at 8pm, so knowing that church dances start late, Nicole and I showed up half an hour late. We, however, forgot to calculate Chilean-LDS time and the dance didn't actually start until about 9:15pm.

Nicole and I have to thank Nadia and Rocio for the good time we had at the dance. Honestly with out them it wouldn't have been as fun! When the music did finally start, the four of us just went out there and had a blast dancing. Crazy dancing actually. It was great!

A little while later, a karaoke game started up. This wasn't too much fun for Nicole and I since it was just spanish music. Karaoke is actually much more popular in Chile than I would have expected, and we have to sit through several weird karaoke games. This time everyone tried to get us to play with them, but we escaped having to go up.

After the game we danced some more. Then everyone brought out the chias, because it's not a Chilean party with out chias!

This time there were 7 balloons hung on the ceiling that had candy and chias in them. People took turns trying to pop the balloons with darts. Nicole even had a go at it....

When we first walked into the dance Rodrigo gave everyone numbers. At first Nicole and I thought it might be for a cake walk... at this point we found out it was a dance contest and we WISHED it was a cake walk! In any case Nicole and I were ushered on to the dance floor and required to take part. Nicole and Jamie were partners, while Pablo was my partner. The crazy thing is that Pablo and I kept winning! I don't think I have danced like that ever in my life, nor do I ever want to again. I did the craziest dance moves I could think of, just letting everything loose. Some how every one thought it was cool though and wanted me to show them how to do it! Man, sometimes being from another country really does have it's advantages, like people think whatever you do is cool! Pablo and I made it to the final round, but we were eventually beat by our friend Sergio!

After the dance contest we did something I have never seen done on a mass scale... or with boys. They put on a music video and we tried dancing along with the moves. But these were no ordinary songs, oh no, they were old Backstreet Boys-Brittany Spears songs. First the guys went and they sang and danced to the Backstreet boys. After the boys went the girls had their turn. We danced along to Brittany Spear's "Oops I Did It Again", and "Hit Me Baby One More Time"- classics of course! Sergio told me I looked like Brittany Spears, I think it was mostly because I was the only one there with blond-ish hair.

The dance did eventually end, you know, around 2am like any good Chilean party.

Hazing

2009-03-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows about the great American tradition of "Hazing." Apparently it's not just a North American tradition but also a South American tradition!

At the University level, the beginning of each new year starts with the older kids plastering the first years with food, paint or whatever they want. Then they force the kids to beg for money from random people to buy clean clothes from them! I'm thinking we should start this up in the United States... especially since I'm junior already. :D

Live Music

2009-03-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Do you get live music on your bus ride home?

I think not.

Card Masters

2009-03-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Through out our time here in Chile we've played cards quite a few times.

I think it might be a Mormon thing?

In any case I ALWAYS have a pack of cards in my backpack, and they've come in handy. Usually we play several games of Spoons, or Nervous and then the action dies down and CARD HOUSES starts!

Last night we went to a party after institute, and this time we played Uno. And as usual as that died down card houses went up!

Jorge is the master. He is teaching me his ways of greatness though.

As you can see I'm pretty good too now!

And Juanez?

I would say he's pretty pro too! :D

"Los Gringos"

2009-03-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday our ward had a talent show. We didn't think that we would have time to do an act since we had to go to our presentation first. However, we did make it, and decided to help the missionaries out! You know, share some "gringo-ness" with Chile. We sang pop corn popping. As you can see we didn't practice at all, and some of us didn't even know the motions!

Poster

2009-03-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

This past Friday Nicole's professor gave a speech on what he is working on. As part of his students we made a poster for the meeting. It was a simple poster with just our names, the basis of the PIRE project, our individual projects and pictures of what we've been doing here; but I was proud of it. It was the first time I've seen my name on a Biology report. I felt like this was my small contribution to the world. OKay, so crabs might not be the coolest or most important contribution, but it's MY contribution!

And just look! People are actually reading our poster! YAY!

Homesick

2009-03-20T12:40:00.001-07:00

These are the places I miss:

Redondo Beach, CA

Palos Verdes, CA

Manhattan Beach, CA

Brigham Young University

The WIDSTOE

These are the people I miss:

Natan, Michelle, Bre, and... uhhh me in America

Danielle :D (who is leaving me to go on a Mission!)

Abs!

Madeleine

Emily!

My Family

My "utah" Family, or the Entrekins

Sponge-Bob-Square-Pants

2009-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows about Spongebob Square Pants. I still remember the first time I saw an episode. I was just too old to tell anyone that I liked it, but still young enough to like it. So I told everyone I watched it with my sisters.

Well this past Monday, I learned a shocking truth.

SPONGEBOB IS FROM CHILE.

At first I thought my friend Surgio was joking around. You know, showing some Chilean pride. In the end I had to accept the truth.

Easter Island is part of Chile....

... and just look at Squidward's house!

The resemblance is pretty clear. Spongebob is chillin' somewhere here in Chile!!! I knew this place was AWESOME!

I Party with Ph D's

2009-03-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

Why I Came to Chile: LAKE CRABS

2009-03-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well this Wednesday I went to Pangipulle to collect my lake sample of crabs. (For river crabs click here) Collecting the crabs probably took all of 30 minutes. I love how collecting crabs takes like no time at all. When Nicole goes hunting for frogs it's several hours to days. I don't know how she does it.

Dr. Jara, Erwin and I drove to Pangipulle. We got there and there was a professor there who had already put the traps in earlier and pulled some out and put the traps in again. So when we got there we just hopped into the boat and checked the traps again.

At this point we have 20 males and 16 females (I needed 30 of each). Since we needed more we left the traps down there over night. It is believed that the crabs are more active during the night so we expected to get more in the morning.

While there we met up a Ph D class that was also being held in the area by Dr. Jara and his associates. We had dinner with the students and the other professors. I basically felt small and inadequate the whole time. There was no one there with less than a Ph D, besides me. Someone asked me what I was working on, my graduate thesis or Ph D thesis. I looked gobsmacked. I quietly answered I was still an undergraduate. What I really wanted to say was: Man, I just want a degree of some sort! and Do I look that old?

That night we stayed in a Cabana near the lake.

The next morning we got into the boat again and checked the traps. We just got close to the traps, pulled them up and took out the crabs! Wa-la!

We had enough crabs that we needed!

The rest of the day Dr. Jara showed us around to some of cool things to see in the area. He likes to call it "doing some tourism." This is where I got my cool volcano picture. I also got to see the Andes for the first time while here in Chile.

Then when we were getting ready to leave, and while I was thinking thank goodness I survived this trip!, someone invited us to come back the next day for the big ending BBQ for the class. Great. Looks like I have another chance to be awkward.

Volcanos

2009-03-12T13:29:00.001-07:00

Nicole and I found out that the volcano we were close to in Chiloe started erupting and causing trouble. So I wrote a letter to my dad about it:

Hey Dad

Guess what? A volcano exploded in Chile! It's not close to where we are right now, but it's close to where we were a few weeks ago! I thought you would enjoy this. But don't tell Mom. I think she'll freak.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7900775.stm

Love,

Tiffany

A day or so later I get this responce:

Wow Tiffany! Mom did freak! I didn't read the part about not telling mom until it was too late. She was looking over my shoulder.

I exaggerated the story in the BBC article telling her 150 people were dead.

She's ordering you a plane ticket.

Thanks Dad.

((Above is an actual picture that I took of a volcano erupting-ish. It is however a different volcano than the one in Chiloe. This one is from Pangepulle, where I went yesterday. Apparently there are a lot volcanos here in Chile))

Chileans

2009-03-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

I love Chile.

I love babies.

So me loving Flora didn't take anytime at all.

A Day without Nicole

2009-03-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

This morning Nicole left to go on her collecting trip to Chiloe. She left before I got up so I think I mumbled a good bye, and went back to sleep. So when I finally became coherent, I rolled over and looked over at Nicole's bed, like I do every morning because she's AWAYS up before me, and this is what I saw:

Gone.

Her backpacking bag that was on our floor for a week was gone too. She had really left. After a week of her Professor putting off the trip it was a shock to see her actually gone!

Solemnly I got up and read my blogs. I went to lunch. It was a great meal, but there was no one urging me to try the weird Chilean fruit like Nicole does everyday.

I went to catch the bus. As I walked down the isle I picked Nicole's favorite seat on the bus. The seat right above the left side wheel. Why she likes this spot I have no idea. There are just somethings I don't question. This is in memory of where Nicole would sit:

I always sit to the right of her. This is something we noticed the first few weeks that I just do habitually. We thought it was weird.

Since I didn't have anything to do in lab, and today no Nicole to visit, I was really bored. There was just a lot of spanish today.

Some girls passed me on my way to the church and realized I miss MI companero de Chile...

Good Times...

2009-03-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

Nicole and I have had some great times in our room. We sometimes like to call it our "cave." Okay, I like to call it our cave. Mostly because I don't like natural light when I'm inside. It's one of those things you would include a facebook "25 things" note. I also don't like having the door to my room open when I'm studying.

ANYWAYS- Lately our cave was filled with little joys, and it's the little things that count right?

First off we Nicole and I finally have matching sheets. Our "one-ness" has reached a new level.

Second, I stole the cookie jar. I mean I didn't just steal ONE cookie from the cookie jar. I went for the JAR. Go big or go home right? And by big, I mean fat.

Third, we found a movie on TV in English. THAT WE WANTED TO SEE. Eragon. Nicole hadn't seen it and so she actually stayed awake for it too! Wooo!

The reasons for joy in the cave are three fold, and therefore worthy of a blog.

May you find joys in your own cave wherever you are.

New Hair

2009-03-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

So everyone once in a while I get this urge to have change in my life. Usually that means I get a hair cut. My hair grows really slowly, so when I do cut or do something to it, it's a big deal. I also haven't gotten a cut or anything since last October so I thought it was time.

I really wanted to darken my hair color. However, being from California I have been brain washed into thinking that if you do dye your hair, you go lighter. Last time I went to the hair dresser and told him I wanted it darker he talked me out of it and somehow I ended up with highlights. I have been fighting this eternal struggle and decided that I would take the jump today and go dark! WOO!

So today Nicole and I went to a salon today.

I told the girl that I wanted my hair cut and colored and she gave us colors to choose from. I picked a color that I thought wouldn't be too dark, and she went to work. After waiting for the color she washed it out of my hair....

... where I got a good laugh because this is what I saw on the ceiling:

...hahahaha... Nicole and I got a good laugh out of that one. Then she proceeded to cut my hair.

And then I ended up like this:

As you can see my hair style slightly looks like it came from the 70's. And yes, the color I picked turned out to be the same color my hair was already. I guess the conspirators against me having dark hair win again.... At least I got a cut right?

Okay, Random

2009-03-06T10:15:00.001-08:00

So today I was walking from lab to Dr. Jara's office. To get to his office I have to cross this small grass field. And guess what was in that field...

... yeah a horse? Where did it come from? Who knows... Why is it still here and no one taking care of it? OH yeah I'm in Chile.

It's okay guys... it's just a horse in the middle campus.

I Think My Head Might Explode

2009-03-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Since I have my river crab specimens now, this past week I've been working on them in the lab.

First I am required to take pictures of them. The picture taking process needs to be standardized and so I use a stand and the same back drop for all of the specimen. It looks like a small scale photo shoot.... which is kind of what it is, just for crabs.

After I have taken all the photos, I put the pictures on the computer and get to start the analysis part. I use a program called TPS that you can just down load from the internet. The first step is to put "landmarks" on the crabs. The landmarks help me look at the shape of the crabs individually and put the shape in mathematical terms. That's what I've been doing for the last 2 days... land-marking 104 crabs with 33 landmarks each.

Today I finished land-marking and was ready to use another part of the TPS for my research! Dr. Jara's Ph D student, that is helping me, started explaining what all the graphs produced from my land-marking mean. And I thought my head would explode. I mean I have taken Statistics in high school and Genetics which is also like statistics, but this was over my head. He started off talking about "principal component analysis"- yeah, I have no idea what that is. Then he continued and started explaining partial warps and relative warps. Every once and a while I would understand principles like "least square regression line" and I would think okay I know what that is but I have no idea how I'm getting that from my data or how it even helps me come up with a conclusion! He could tell I wasn't get it so he gave me 3 manuals, 1 text book and 3 research articles to read so I can understand. Basically I have to self teach myself multivariate analyses.

Great.

Your Not in California Anymore Tiffany...

2009-03-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

So this past Sunday Nicole had another collection trip for her frogs. This time it was just a day trip to places near Valdivia.

We woke up early Sunday morning to find it poring outside. Oh a little rain never hurt anyone... RiGhT?

Since we didn't really know what was happening we got into the car and started driving. Soon enough we came to a half paved half dirt road. Then that ended and we went off road-ing! WOO! The road was a complete mess of dirt, sand, mud and water.

I felt like I was in the movie Jarasic Park... I was just waiting for the dinosaurs to pop out at any moment! As we continued and every once and a while we would stop and check out the surrounding areas for frogs. It was still poring rain and the only clothes Nicole and I had were water RESISTANT, not waterproof... which are really two different things. Needless to say we were soaked very quickly. Frog hunting got boring very quickly.

When ever we were outside hunting all I could think about was

1) when are we going back to the car

2) man, this makes me such a hard-core biologist, no one can dispute that

3) this is going to make a great blog post

Then the car stopped working. Right in "the middle of no where, Chile." Luckily it was just the battery and we had some man power start it. However we had to leave the car running for the rest of the trip even when we were out hunting.

The places we went to really were beautiful though. It was so foggy and we felt like we were in the middle of a cloud. The nature was so untamed. But it still turned out to be a good experience.

And of course we caught a lot of frogs....

or tried too. Hehehe

Why I Came to Chile: RIVER CRABS

2009-03-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

I know so far the posts on my blog have made it seem like Nicole and I are just partyin' it up here in Chile. That is true- but the REAL reason I came to Chile was to collect data for two species of Aegla crabs. One species is only found in rivers and the other species is only found in lakes. In the Patagonia region (where I am right now), there have been several series of glacier melts and freezes. This caused the crabs to have to move back and forth in refuge areas; because of these moves it is speculated that these crabs come from the same origin but have specialized for the niche they eventually stayed in. What I plan on doing is collecting 60 or so crabs (30-males, 30-females) from a river and a lake location. From there I will take pictures of them and use systematics to determine the degree of physical changes!

Yay!

OKay so now that all the biology stuff is explained....

Here's my first collecting trip!

We went the river named Quepe (38 degrees south, 72 degrees west) to collect my river crabs!

In this particular river two species of Aegla can be found, A. pewenchae (smooth carpace) and A. chol-chol (spiny carpace). My research only involves the A. chol-chol with another lake crab, so we threw all the A. pewenchae back.

To catch the crabs we used a fine net with two sticks. The sticks are used so you can keep the net open and let the current pass through. Then with your feet you just move the rocks around in front of the net's opening. This dislodges the crabs from under the rocks and they current takes them into the net. Then you just open the net and take them out!

Aegla are pretty small and even thought they try and pinch you when you take them out, it doesn't really hurt.

We got all the crabs we needed and for the rest of the afternoon we visited Temuco since it was close by. Yet another great day in Chile!

Sometimes I'm a Geek...

2009-02-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

I have gotten into the habit of waking up and reading the blogs that I follow. It's like when my dad gets up and reads the news, except blogs make me laugh and don't get me down like the news does. Today on someone's blog I found this link to make your own superhero. So I went to it... AND HERE'S MINE!

As you can see she's wearing my two favorite colors, purple and green. Green is her main color though because she's nature conscious, obviously. Her hair is short and brown, because that is how my hair is and I'm trying to make this style cool. I don't really like whips, but this was the only weapon that looked good. And of course she has a "T" on her chest because she's the TENDER-NATOR. (uhhh couldn't think of anything better....)

If you want to make one too here's the link.

http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

I won't judge you.

Noche de Orgar

2009-02-24T07:15:00.000-08:00

Since Nicole and I are desperate for words of the gospel in English, we had an FHE in English last night with some of our LDS friends here!

Afterwards we thought we share a US favorite treat: Rice Crispy Treats! Little did we know that most of the supplies we need are quite hard to find. So we improvised. We ended up getting colored marshmallows because the white ones were way expensive. They also didn't have plain rice crispys. About 2/3 of the cereal isle was actually just chocolate cereal. Which I though was AWESOME because they obviously know how to do cereal here, but sad because they didn't have what we wanted. So we settled on chocolate rice crispys.

At first when we melted the marshmallows they were all pretty colors, but they soon turned to brown, and didn't look very appetizing. Then we added the rice crispys and it was just one massive brown mess. Good thing it tasted good! In the end I think everyone enjoyed them, and it was fun to share some thing with our friends when they do so much for us here!

Pollolas

2009-02-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

While being here in Chile Nicole and I have learned some Chilean slang. We try to use them as much as possible because it makes us feel more assimilated. Here are a few we've learned:

lindo=pretty

carretear= to party

peola= fine

quichi= you know

We have also learned that there are like three different words for "boyfriend."

Amigo= boy that is just a friend

Pollola= boy that's something more ;P

Novio= we're together and serious!

Everyone here has asked us our "status." And some have been nudging us towards boys... thank goodness we have that BYU rule we can't date and that whole language barrier thing. However the other night Nicole was talking with Rodrigo about his pollola, and suggested we get some of our own. So we took him up on his suggestion.

Nicole: Hey Jared want to be my pollola?

Jared: Sure!

Tiffany: Oh man! I want a Pollola too!

Jared: Why not Guillermo?

Tiffany: Okay. Hey Guillermo want to be my pollola?

Guillermo: Okay.

Tiffany: Great!

If your intrested you can have a Chilean pollola of your own... Pablo's brother is still available!

(Disclaimer {mostly for my mom}: I do not really have a Chilean lover, and I still want to return to the States.)

Noche de Valdivia

2009-02-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

Because pictures are worth a thousand words. Here's 11 thousand words in pixel form and then some.

Noche de Valdivia is the last big party Valdivia has before school starts. It's like a big party ending summer. Everyone is sad to start school next week. There are thousands of people who line the coast of the big river waiting for the boat parade to start when it gets dark. Boats go by all jazzed up with lights and performers. After the parade there is a firework show. Also amazing! Then everyone has a big chia fight! Chias are little circles of paper everyone throws everywhere and at everyone! It gets pretty crazy. You need to protect your eyes and mouth.

Over all it's just one big party for the city!

you mean i've been eating CAT this whole time?!

2009-02-22T08:53:00.001-08:00

This past week Nicole and I were told that there was a service activity to clean the church. At 10 am on Saturday morning our cell phone goes off while I'm still in bed and I throw it to Nicole. (Pia should just know now that when Nicole answers the phone it really means we're still in bed and not ready.) She had called to tell us that once again there was an activity going on RIGHT NOW that we weren't at. So of course we throw on some clothes and run out the door lookin' horrible! (I mean really bad, note how there are no pictures of me in this blog!) And took our 8 min walk to the church to show up and not see anyone.

As we got closer we did see one missionary.... and his companion in a tree.

Oh missionaries.

Then all the other missionaries showed up, about 6 or 7 sets. One other sister from our ward did eventually show up and open the building for us. So Nicole, the other Sister, me and like 15 guys started cleaning the church building. I felt just a little out numbered, and awkward. While Nicole, the Sister and I tackled the bathrooms the boys took care of the outside. Then we played with the little girl of the Sister there. Her name is Angelica and she is full of fire! After that we helped some more and talked with some of the guys. It was great to talk to them about our experiences and hear about theirs. We also talked a lot about school and girls too.

I started talking with one of the missionaries who was from Bolivia. The missionaries were starting to cook for a bbq and I told him how much I like the meat here. He mentioned that it was cat. Cat? I said, like "meow, meow?" Yeah he said, that or horse usually.

I'VE BEEN EATING CAT AND HORSE WITH OUT KNOWING THE WHOLE TIME!

AND I LIKE IT!!!

Nicole and I then joined the missionaries for lunch. Some of the meat wasn't completely cooked... so now I've also eaten raw meat in Chile. Why not just add it to the list. I'm facing my fear of Semolina. Lunch was fun. But it was weird because we were two girls with a bunch of missionaries. We felt weird mutually weird about the situation.

Overall it was another great experience. I always have a good time when I'm serving.

Around Town

2009-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

Kayaking

Crazy Shopping

Las Gringas= Nicole and Tiffany

Good Chilean Food

Ghetto Chic

Hunting for Lobos del Mar

2009-02-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Nicole and I went kayaking. It was so cheep we decided to go for a whole hour! Yeah... let's just say after going from one end of the small enclosed area to the other there wasn't really that much to do. So we pretended to race the other people in kayaks. They didn't know, and we always won. We were pretty much pro. We timed ourselves and we went across in 3 min and 25 sec. I know, I know we're good.

Valdivia is know for its "lobos del mar" which translate to "wolves of the sea." They are HUGE sea lions. At least I think their sea lions in English.... Anyways, three or four of the lobos del mar decided to enchant us in our little circle. It was great! Everyone from the sidewalk was watching them too.

They looked even bigger closer to them. So we decided to get a little bit closer and try our luck for an awesome photo. They started slashing around though and we chickened out and backed away. We did still get pretty close, we could have touched it with our paddle.

But we were out done by some other "boat time lovers." They got so close I think they could have touched it with their hands! That's one thing that we have noticed here too. More things slide. Chileans go for it!

Our hour of kayaking eventually ended, and we continued on with our day having full filled our adventure quota for the day.

Fashion Show At Lunch!

2009-02-19T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Nicole and I had our big SOUVENIRS SHOPPING DAY! It was crazy. We've been here in Valdivia for over a month now and we've been looking around for stuff that we think you guys would actually like. After much consideration we went out and went completely crazy and pretty much bought souvenirs for everyone. Remember to appreciate your gift because we had to sort through all of this junk to find stuff we thought you all would actually like! (and yet still was "chilean")

Nicole and I did get a little a little side tracked though... with PANTS.

Since coming to Chile Nicole and I have seen everyone wear these genie type pants. They can be found in every color. I mean every color. Nicole finally broke down and got a pair.

But she had a hard time picking a color. She finally decided on the purple! (which were way better than the yellow ones I talked her out of!)

I was not immune to the pants-crazy yesterday either. Last year my friend Natania went to China and came back with these "rappy" pants. They are pants that are made of just one piece of material and you rap them in a particular way to make them pants! When Natania first got them I thought they were crazy looking (sorry Natania). But I've become enchanted with them here!

At one store I found these nice brown ones that are nice for everyday. As you can see I need to be careful when I'm in them. I think a big gust of wind will blow me over.

But then I saw these green fancy ones. I just couldn't say no.

The hippy child in me won.

Party Like It's A Mission Homecoming!

2009-02-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

Last night Nicole and I were invited to a missionary home coming! A missionary we didn't know. I think most everyone here has realized that we're bored out of our minds, either that or we're the "american freaks" that everyone likes inviting to things. Either way I'll take the invites.

There was a TON of food. And talking in Spanish.

But the real party didn't begin until the SILLY STRING came out!

Adventures with Pia!

2009-02-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

Today Nicole and I were just sitting around in our room thinking- Man we really should leave our room sometime because we've been in here for like 14 hours straight. So we decided that we should go run some errands, which never actually happened because we got distracted with our computers (you know falling for the facebook, e-mail, movie making additions we have). My computer is really just a growth on my lap these days.

BUT thankfully we were saved from our cave of english-ness by PIA!!!!

She just showed up at our house to take us for a walk to the park!

On the way she nudged us some more about the guys that we might like here. Oh Pia!

We then continued walking and Pia showed us where we could eat some blackberries.

I kindly declined because I thought I didn't like blackberries. Nicole and Pia just went at it.

Eventually I gave in and tried one. I LOVED THEM. So then the three of us went crazy eating blackberries.

I got so into it I climbed a tree to pull a branch down so Nicole (5 foot) could get us some more! Maybe she shouldn't have been the one reaching for them.....

Then we hopped a few fences to see some pretty places.

We stopped in some field so Nicole could share her flower child talents with Pia and teach her how to make a flower crown.

Eventually we did end up at Jorge's house, were we enjoyed an evening of karaoke, pizza, family home evening, and a chick flick. What a great night!

THANK-GOODNESS FOR PIA!

JAS Conference 2009!

2009-02-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

This week I think I've had the highest highs and lowest lows since being here in Chile. Nicole and I went to Punta Varras for the JAS (Young Single Adult) Conference!

TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS!

Nicole and I woke up by our cell phone going off. It was our friend here Nattie, asking us where we where? The bus was there and leaving in 5 mins! Let's just say we freaked out. We jumped out of bed and started packing, because you know why would anyone pack the day before you actually need to leave. Nicole just shoved like everything she owned into her backpack, which really isn't that much to beginning with I guess. I, on the other hand, grabbed my bathroom bag, 2ish pairs of pants and a few shirts. Oh, and my sleeping bag. Then we ran out the door. We made it to the bus station and apparently some of the other kids had also missed the bus so we got on another one with them. I fell asleep to be woke up and told to get off the bus to get off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I had my grumpy pants off. Then it started to rain. We did eventually find another small bus to take us into town were we met up with everyone.

Miss took the boys bathroom for the girls when I went to take a shower... no boys came in luckily, until I was walking out!

Later that night we went to our first Chilean dance. They don't dance in circles like they do in the US. Instead they do it in lines! We danced until like 1 am. And they don't take breaks like in the US, it's continuous dancing. There is like no way to get out of dancing with some. Your pretty much dancing with them for the next half hour weather you like it or not. All the music sounded the same to us too. It was all just different versions of Salsa music.

WEDNESDAY HIGHLIGHTS!

Woke up at 6 am. Why? Because apparently Chilean girls wake up at 6 to look pretty for the men here. HA. I went back to sleep. We did have fun with Pia and Nattie in the morning though. Nicole and Pia dog-piled on me, so we were all laughing. Pia and Nattie also taught us a song with hand motions that we kept messing up and everyone laughed when we did. (we kept saying water shoes instead of water frogs! :D)

I fell asleep during devotional and apparently Pia tried to wake me up but I swatted her with my hand. Oops.

Then we all crammed into a small bus and went to a nice soccer field. On the spur of the moment I decided that I would join the girls team. It was great. I mean I was wearing these nice shoes that were horrible to play with, but it was fun! I was even good! I shot a goal and everyone in the stands started chanting "GRINGA, GRINGA."

It was pretty much the most thrilling moment of my life. We won our first game and the championship too! I ended up scoring 2 goals actually. Oh, Yeah- I'm a JAS Conference Champ! Then we came back and played Basketball in the gym. I don't think I've actually played basketball since middle school. Little need to say then that I was horrible, and we only ended up scoring 2 points in the whole game. I did make those 2 points though. ::proud smile:: After basketball we then played Volleyball. Which is like my least favorite sport. We won because everyone else on my team was amazing, but somehow my name was the only name that ended up on the newsletter about Volleyball.

Nicole and I taught people to say "holy cow" and "winner" because their funny to hear with a Chilean accent. ::hehe:: They taught us to say "paralelepipedo"which they in turn got a good laugh at.

At night they had a big karaoke thing that we snuck out of because it was crazy. We didn't know any of the songs and people were going crazy cheering and everything. Closest thing I think I've ever been in to a riot. We went out and played cards with Jorge and Anival. They taught us a new game called nervous.

THURSDAY HIGHLIGHTS!

Woke up early again. Went to "classes" on various things. Not that we understood anything. Devotional.

Pretty boring day. Practiced our Italian dance. Had lunch.

We preformed our dancing once in the gym and then once for the public community in the area at an open talent show. Did a lot of sitting around and talking with people... we found some English speakers. ::hehe:: Got to know the people in our stake really well though.

FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS!

Devotional given by the one of the seventy. There are actually quite a few of seventy here. We've met 3 already.

Went to clean a cemetery for a service project. We pulled weeds and cleaned up trash. Pablo gave me a ride in a wheel barrow he called the "Chilean ride." We found a statue that is like the one in SLC and took picture with it. Then we got a little carried away and took some joke pictures in the cemetery. I probably the best time in a cemetery I have ever had or ever will. The whole time Rodrigo called me "Hermana" too. Which means "Sister" and the title they give to sister missionaries. I liked it.

After the service project we came back and went to the beach (beach of the large lake there) with a bunch of the boys. They all went swimming and I didn't have my bathing suit so I jumped in with my clothes. Then we walked around the town. It's even more touristy than Valdivia! Had a great completo as well. You got to love the hot dogs with mayo, tomatoes, and avocados here. RiGhT?

Had the last formal dance. It was less enjoyable than the first. First of all it was "love" themed... not a good sign -ever. Actually after/during the dance I have never felt so homesick.

Nicole and I didn't know any of the songs or the dances. I also realized that they people were moving on with their lives. After another 2 months I would never see these people again. I felt like my life was on hold. I imagine missionaries must feel this way sometimes.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS!

Today we had a testimony meeting on the beach of the lake at 6 am. It was pretty but also cold. I got up to bear my testimony, but in English. One of the girls offered to translate for me so everyone understood.

We cleaned up camp and took naps in the afternoon. Then we went to the beach for a while and in evening we caught a bus back to Valdivia. The bus ride was the best bus ride ever. I taught Pablo the rhyme "Lose, Double Loser" which in turn he taught us one:

Las manitos, las manitos

donde estan

aqui estan!!!

Ellas se saludan

y se van

It was hard to say good bye to everyone.

JaJaJaJaJaJaJaJaJaJaJa

2009-02-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

Jajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja.....

So after the amazing YSA Conference this week Nicole and I came straight home unpacked and then automatically added as many Chilean friends as we could possibly find on facebook. We took our facebook stalking skills that we have honed and found pretty much all our friends. Props to those of them that were hidden enough to escape us.

Now we are super cool because we have amazing cool posts in other languages. I mean not that we can understand them, but that's why they made free online translators right?

We have notice though that there is no "haha" business. If your going to laugh through the internet you do it with style. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA-style. The "J" is pronounced like a "H" here, just in case you were wondering. But basically you put "J" and "A" until your fingers get confused and then you realize, OH I'm done now! And not just a few "ja's," you know you HAVE to get the point across that your LAUGHING.

EVERYONE DOES IT.

You are not Chilean if you don't do it with JAJAJAJAJAJAJA-style.

This post is in honor of our new Chilean friend who will probably never read this blog.

Sunday Walks

2009-02-08T17:32:00.000-08:00

Tiffany: Hey Nicole what do you want to do today?

Nicole: I don't know we could go for a walk in a direction we haven't been in yet.

Tiffany: Haven't we been every direction now?

Nicole: Yeah...

Tiffany: Hey we could walk to that church.

Nicole: It's far though. It's like all the way to town.

Tiffany: We don't have anything better to do.

Nicole: Your right. Let's go.

La Semana Pasada

2009-02-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

MONDAY Feb. 2, 2009

-Bum day

-Went to buy some glass bottles of soda from here. The lady at the store shut us down and we had to drink the soda there and giver her back the bottles. On the second try we got to take the bottles with us! Victory was mine!

-Went to a "Bigger" store for the first time, and bought some empanadas... getting kind of sick of empanadas now.

TUESDAY Feb. 3, 2009

-Went to the University library... yeah actually closed until March

-Found great artisan mall tucked in this building for all my tourists needs!

-Bought the PERFECT MATE cup!

-Played volleyball with members

WEDNESDAY Feb. 4, 2009

-Learned how to cook traditional Chilean soup!

-Watched pirated movies off of YouTube... basically we are desperate for English entertainment

-Went to the movies with Pia, Nattie, and Nicole. We watched the movie, "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas." I have never been so ashamed of mankind after that movie.

THURSDAY Feb. 5, 2009

-Went to go deposit money for the YSA conference next week

-Watched some people dressed/dancing traditional Chilean stuff

-Saw someone else we knew in town- we are getting very popular here

-Took boat ride to an island close by. We saw some of the black-necked swans that are known for being in this area. We learned that they are now protected because the paper company was populating the water and killing them.

-Had the best meat KABOB I have ever had!

-Told jokes to each other in Spanish... it's harder to make them funny in Spanish

-Got interviewed by Valdivian News crew about visiting the place.

-Started learning the traditional Italian dance we are going to preform at the YSA conference

-Felt like the whitest, tallest, blondest girl part of the dance

FRIDAY Feb. 6, 2009

-Rushed to town to go to a Catholic mass (part of our cultural class)

-Found some really great shops with cheep pretty clothes and went shopping! I was a big deal because Nicole never buys clothes and today we bought a lot!

-Went to the stake center to practice our Italian dance some more

SATURDAY Feb. 7, 2009

-Went to the stake center to meet the missionaries. Got stood up by the missionaries.

-Went to practice Volleyball

-Showed up for a "meeting" at the stake center that turned out to be stake conference and we were dressed in pants. Yeah, had to play the tourist/we don't understand anything card again.

-Left the meeting early because Nicole wasn't feeling well

SUNDAY Feb. 8, 2009

-SUCH A GOOD DAY!

-Went to stake conference and got to have a broadcast from Salt Lake City. Elder Richard G. Scott spoke in Spanish to us! He also spoke at a normal speed (not super fast like the Chileans here), and we actually understood! It was great! Then President Erying spoke in English! He would say a sentence and then someone else would translate for him. Nicole and I really needed to hear some spiritual words we could understand. During Elder Scott's talk he addressed the questions weather one should get their studies done first and then on a mission or vice versa. Elder Scott replied that on your mission you learn a lot too, like how to learn and have the spirit guide you. You learn to become the person you want to be.

-Talked to almost all the missionaries in the stake... apparently word about the two American girls from BYU has spread around.

Shake It

2009-02-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is the slideshow I made from our trip to Chiloe!

Conception, Chile

2009-02-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

My Birthday!

2009-02-01T09:20:00.000-08:00

Today Nicole and I walked our 8 min walk to church at 9:52 thinking 'oh! we're going to be late'. Not so. Church in Chile doesn't never starts on time... I think we start at least 15 min after the hour. Then we take our seats (the same seats we sit in every Sunday for the last three weeks) next to the window and in the sun. Then people proceed to stop by and speak some very rapid spanish, and kiss us. At least we understand the kissing part. Everyone kisses each other on one cheek when they met- "Hola:: KISS-KISS." That's how it goes. By observation I have noticed that guys don't greet guys this way. Girls greet girls and guys with kisses, but guys only kiss girls. Nicole and I have hypothesized that a man who really wanted to kiss a lot of girls must have started this tradition and the female population went wild with it. Then we sit and try and sing along with the spanish songs. Sometimes when we don't have a hymn book we try to sing them in english but sometimes we can't even remember the words in english... the spanish words over power them in our minds it seems. I like it the best when we sing though. You can really feel the spirit. Plus when everyone sings they speak slower and I can understand more. Then Sacrament meeting ends and we get another rush of people saying hi and kissing us. During Sunday school I try to work on the D&C with the english study guide that I have.

Today since it was my birthday everyone sang to me! They made me stand up in the front and they all sang in Spanish to me! It was really great! I loved it. Seeing everyone singing really made me feel cared about by these people, or at least feel their kindness. Then we have RS, where we don't understand much but the crying. After wards we usually have a YSA meeting, were we don't get much either besides the fact that they want the kids getting married here too. Well that's an international problem....

Riding the Bus

2009-01-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

This is actually from a while ago when Nicole and I went to the beach with Pia and Nattie. These are the buses that we ride to the beach, town, and to the University. They are different than the cross country buses that we have taken as well. Busing seems to be the most popular transportation in town and across the country. It is also really cheep to ride the buses. It's only about $10 for a six hour bus ride. To ride the bus to the beach is 400 pesos (about 65 cents), and to town or the University it costs 350 pesos (56 cents).

This one time the bus we were on was super packed and we took this awesome video of us!

Hmm... What do I need to survive today?

2009-01-31T06:49:00.001-08:00

THIS WEEK:

Monday 01/26/09

- Caught 6 hour long bus ride to Castro (the capital of Chiloe island)

-Met with Dr. Nunez and associates for scientific run down of collecting trip

-Several scientists are getting together to write a book about the Chiloe islands: their people, plants and animals. So we needed collecting for the PIRE project and this book project.

-Slept in another really gross hostel with our sleeping bags over the sheets

Tuesday 01/27/09

-Went to scientific meeting about the book project that was presented to the major of Castro

-Went out to lunch with scientists for some really amazing food

-Caught a bus to Lemuy island where we were to collect this trip (Lemuy island has just over a population of 4,000 people)

-We set up camp at a three room elementary school that was closed for the summer

-Talked with scientists about being "mormons," music, watched them play soccer, and other things

-Played poker and blackjack with Chilean scientists

Wednesday 01/28/09

-Woke up at 6 to go collecting for frogs

-Went hiking in a beautiful forrest for frog, we would flip over logs and try and find the frogs

-Came back and dissected frog's liver for mitocrondral DNA analysis (Nicole's PIRE project)

-Had dinner and went to bed way early

Thursday 01/29/09

-Woke up at 5 to go collecting

-Went on 6 hour hike for frogs!

-Bonded with Dr. Nunez and Nicole (made flower crowns), saw the coast of the island, and a lot of rural country side

-Came back and played a ton of ping pong

-Dissected more frogs

-Talked with scientists

-Made dinner! and ate it

Friday 01/30/09

-Came back to Castro

-Watched "Old Boy" in Korean with Spanish subtitles

-Went to handcraft market (bought stuff for family) and LOST NICOLE! but found her and made it to our bus on time still!

-Had 6 hour bus ride back to Valdivia (aka "Chilean Homebase")

-Missed our Chilean protectors (aka the scientists)

Saturday 01/31/09

-Last day as 20 year old

-Work on proofs/homework

-Do needed things in town

It's Been One Week...

2009-01-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

WELL guys I haven't be as faithful to this blog as I intended to be. It's been a week since I last wrote. Our internet is not fast enough in the place we're staying to actually load photos, so sorry it's just boring writing. We've been here chillin' in Valdivia all week... you know be coming locals. We even tanned, got burned, and some one actually pulled us over today to ask for directions. Yes we have gone Chilean and have one again embraced our flower child sense of style.

This is the overview of our week! :

MONDAY 01/19/09

-Went to town and got a cell phone (our number: 62149752 llamame!)

-Tried taking the bus in a continuous loop... which it doesn't do, got stuck at the bus terminal in the sticks (luckily caught another bus back)

-Went running!

TUESDAY 01/20/09

-Went to the beach with 2 girls from local single adult group, Pia and Nattie

-Bought a bunch of stuff from little handcraft booths

-Went to a "high school chill party" with Pia and Nattie (we met the Princess of Valdivia there)

WEDNESDAY 01/21/09

-Went to beach by ourselves

-Visited old spanish fort, complete with cannons, a lighthouse, and a guard that told me I couldn't take pictures in the Museum

-Went to the beach when everyone was on siesta to tan

-Had no money for food just enough for ice cream, so we got these amazing cones called the "black and white"

-Played Volleyball with local single adult group, which really turned out to be this pretty intense training day for this competition they are having in a couple weeks

-Came back and had the worst sunburn I've had since high school water polo.... AHHH!

THURSDAY 01/22/09

-Hurting very much from sunburns still

-Met with Nicole's professor here, and got invited to go camping in Chiloe next week

-Bought more Chile things

-Worked on homework for Cultural Class we're taking as well

-Pia came by with another friend and brought us Chile like doughnuts

-Went out to cool cafe/bar/hang out place with Pia and friend for this great food that I have no idea what it is called

FRIDAY 01/23/09

-Went local outdoor market and bought dried mussels and raspberries (found out later that the dried mussels are actually used for a Chilean soup)

-Went to the University Botanic Gardens for our cultural class, felt like an Easter egg hunt trying to find the trees with plaques

-Came home and had a very boring evening

SATURDAY 01/24/09

-Went to park for missionary bbq, never found missionaries or said fiesta

-Instead found a handcraft booth that I bought mittens at

-Also found a rodeo at the park, we watch "cowboys" chase a bull around and turn him at different spots for points

-Had lunch in town

-Looked for pants for Nicole, never bought anything....

-Played Speed and Egyptian Rat Slap at night

SUNDAY 01/25/09

-Went to Church

-Ate lunch and took three hour nap

-Went on walk to cemetery

-Packed for camping trip

-Freaked out about not having a guide for when we go to Cusco

That's all for now... we're leaving tomorrow morning for Chiloe so it'll be another week before I post anything! And this time its for a legit reason!

Valdivia, Chile

2009-01-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

Well we are now in Valdivia. Things here aren't what we thought they would be. First of all when we were in the US they told us that we would be staying with a family and that it would be close to the University. It's not either of those. We are like a 45 min walk to the University one way. It costs 350 pesos one way, so I don't know if we want to pay everyday. We are staying with a family, but it's more of a Pension set up. Right now it's just the family living here but there are 2 more empty rooms. Today we walked to the church, and there is like no one that speaks english; when we were in Santiago there were some people we could talk with. I think it's actually a branch we are part of, and there are very few single adults. But we have made friends. We went to a fireside tonight that was a CES broadcast at BYU. Seeing BYU made me really miss it. Plus it was in english and I'm like desperate to hear english, or words that I understand. I feel for missionaries now! This really is a good "pre-mission" test. We have plans to hang out with some of the single adults on Tuesday and Wednesday. I also saw a missionary here that was from my ward freshman year at BYU! It was crazy! He must be going home soon. I think we really to just get use to being here. Santiago and Conception were a lot of fun, but this is where we need to get to work and do the things we need to do.

Conception, Chile

2009-01-17T15:27:00.000-08:00

Nicole and I finally made it to Valdivia! We arrived at 6 am on a bus from Conception. We were pretty tired from our over night bus, but we are happy to have made it to Valdivia.

We have now been in Chile for a week. We have already had some wonderful experiences with the people here already. The first night we stayed in a hostel that was pretty nice (but also expensive) in Santiago. We didn't really know where to go, but we got a map and walked around the city ourselves for a couple hours. The next day was Sunday and we called the mission office and found the local building. It was actually right next to the temple! You could see the temple through the windows in Sacrament! Plus there were 2 members of the seventy in this particular ward! One of them gave a talk, but we didn't understand of course. One of the sister missionaries would translate for us everyone once and a while, and it sounded like a really amazing talk, just wish I understood it. Then we asked if any members could help us out, and these 2 ladies that live together and were in charge of the young adults let us stay the next 2 nights in their house. Then Monday some of the young adults that spoke english took us on a tour of Santiago. The next day we took a 9 hour bus trip to Conception. Here we stayed in a really cheep hostel the first night. It was horrible! There was mold everywhere. We were so grossed out we slept on our sleeping bags on top of the sheets. So we called the mission home in Conception and the missionaries helped us find someone we could stay with. We stayed with this older couple, named Fernando and Patrica. They were so kind to us. We stayed with them 2 1/2 days. In the mornings we would go exploring the city on our own with a map, and in the afternoon when Fernando came home from work they took us to places father away that were fun to see. We saw 2 beaches, and they introduced us to a lot of new food. I love duche de leche now! We have been practicing spanish when ever we can. Not many people speak english, but we have survival spanish that keeps us afloat. We were very sad to leave both places (Santiago, and Conception) because we grew close to the people there in such a short time.

Now we are in Valdivia. I'm not exactly sure how everything is working here. We were met by Dr. Jara and his wife at the bus station and they took us to Carmen's house. (Dr. Jara is going to leave on Monday to go somewhere with another BYU student apparently. I don't really know anything about it.) I think Carmen's house is actually a pension. We have met Carmen, her granddaughter, grandson, her mother, her husband, her ex-husband, and I think her bother. There are a lot family here! The church is only a couple blocks away but the University is not close. We're going to have to learn how to use the bus system here.

My mom has been worried several times already, like days I don't have internet and can't e-mail her.

Made It Alive!

2009-01-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

Well today I woke up in Chile! I left LAX around 3 and arrived in Dallas, Texas around 8. Then we left Dallas around 9 pm and arrived in Chile around 10 am. The latter of the two flights was miserable. I didn't sleep very well. Well does anyone sleep well on an airplane? We arrived in the morning which was really good because we were able to get our selves situated. We bought bus tickets to go to our next destination: Concception, Chile. We leave on Tuesday, and it's a 10 hour bus ride. Not to excited about that. At least we'll be able to see the country side as we drive by. Then we our hostel that we had made reservations at. It's a nice place and feels safe. Then we looked our room and went exploring downtown Santiago. Some places were "shadier" than others, but we got to see a lot of the cities. We saw so many cool buildings and people. There are actually quite a few parks in the city too. A lot people were in them too. And we did notice that people are more open with their affections with their people the opposite sex. We walked for 5 hours today. It was quite intense. It's also really hot here. As soon as we got off the plane we had to change out of our pants and into shorts. After walking for so long we stopped in a Catholic church to get out of the sun. I know I'm not Catholic or anything, but I've stopped in their Churches for rest more than once. They are at least places of refuge. Later we called the mission home in the area and learned that our hostel is only a couple blocks from the Temple in the other direction that we went! We were going to go see it but when we got back from our forever walk, the walking and lack of sleep kicked in and I crashed for several hours. And now I am awake. Should have waited to go to be later. OH! And I bought 2 things in a market today. I got a thick headband, and a motorcycle license plate. I love license plates- for those that don't know I have a collection of many of the California license plates. For a full sized license plate it was too expensive so I got the motorcycle one!

The Rose Parade

2009-01-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

OH! I also forgot to put up pictures of the Rose Parade! New Year's day my dad and I always to go to the Rose Parade. I look forward to it every year! We started the tradition a few years back when we learned that we can wake up at 8 and get to Pasadena (about an hour away) and still get there in time for the beginning of the parade! The trick is that you go to the end of the parade route. It's five miles long. and it takes a long time for it to go all the way to the end. I think it's the best way to celebrate the new year! Happy New Year Everyone!

San Juan Capistrano

2009-01-02T22:46:00.000-08:00

Today my family and I went to San Juan Capistrano. San Juan is one of the 21 missions there are in California. These missions were built in the 1800's to convert the Native Americans in the area to Catholicism. I'm especially partial to San Juan because in 5th grade I had to make a model of it, and I'm not trying to brag or anything... but my mission was AWESOME! It even had real concrete on it. Anyways my sister Rachel had to visit one for her Spanish class so we went. It was a pretty cold day though, and that really made the experience less fun than San Juan usually is.

Natania and Brady's Wedding!

2009-01-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures of my adventure in Seattle this past week. My friends Natania and Brady got married! And I got to be a Brides Maid for the second time. Only 2X a Brides Maids so I may still have a chance! (J/K) I have fallen in love with Seattle and "Natania's Island". It's so beautiful there. We stayed at Natania's house for a few nights and then went into Seattle. The Hotel we stayed at was amazing, and the Wedding (and everything) was wonderful too! It was very much "Natania." Congrats again to Brady and Natan!

Christmas

2009-01-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

I know Christmas was a while ago... but I thought I would still post some of this stuff up. Before Christmas we took a family picture (which really just means it was of my sisters and I) by the beach. You can probably tell by the pictures, but it was an extremely windy day.

Day Two of Finals

2008-12-16T22:12:00.000-08:00

I have been studying Genetics for like 6 hours. I never want to see another punt square again in my life. I also have run out of food at home because either everything has gone bad or I actually ate it recently. I feel like I live in a cave where I must go out and "hunt" (try and desperately find some food in the cupboard), and then return and do more Genetics. I am a new type of homeo sapien- the "hunter and learner." Tomorrow is the big day, when I take Genetics and determine weather this semester was a huge waist of time or not.

Day One of Finals!

2008-12-15T10:32:00.001-08:00

Well today is the first day of finals, which means I only have 6 more days in Utah! For 4 months that is. I only have three finals to take by Friday so I'm not really stressed. I probably should be though to motivate me to study. I also got all my flight tickets that I'll need for the next 6 months. One one-way flight to LA for Christmas. One round-trip ticket from LA to Seattle for Natania's Wedding. One one-way ticket from LA to Santiago. One one-way ticket from Santiago to Lima. One round-trip ticket from Lima to Cuzco. One one-way ticket from Lima to LA. I think after this I'll never want to fly again.

-Tenders

Christmas with the Entrikins

2008-12-12T23:27:00.001-08:00

Today is day two of reading days, another whole day with nothing scheduled. I don't know how many more unplanned days I can deal with, so today I least planned a few things. MUST DOS: sell back text books, volunteer, get free boxes (and maybe check out the really cute shoes in the bookstore-you know while I'm there), and STUDY. Today looks pretty normal, but I'm way excited about Sunday! So the Entrikins (close family friends) like to have Christmas on a different day than actual Christmas (family tradition). And this year they've decided to do it while I'm still in Utah! I'm actually really excited to have Christmas with them. I've gotten to know them so well this semester since I go over there every Sunday night. Their like my "peeps." Everyone visits someone on Sunday it feels like at BYU (well to me it does at least). And when the week is over Sunday night I go to the Entrikins. I went shopping for them this past Tuesday and got them all something! I got teddy bears for the boys, a tie for Blake and a ladle for Sister Entrikin. The ladle is the funniest! It totally just looks like a ladle with rapping paper on it. I can't wait to give them their gifts. Then we're going to have a nice dinner and go to a Christmas fireside in their Ward.

Until next time...

Tenders

My First Blog

2008-12-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

Well here's my first blog! I don't know how much contact I'll be able to have when I go to Chile, so I thought I would get a blog so all my family and friends can still see what I'm up to. I don't leave for another 28 days (not that I'm counting or anything :D) but I though I would get a head start.

Today is day one of reading days, which really means day one of the most boring part of the semester, and one of the most air headed days of my life. Somehow I wrote in my assignment notebook that my IAS final was at 11:30... yeah it was at 11. Showing up half an hour late was awesome. And I found out I get a free backpack for just paying tuition before I leave for Chile! That just makes leaving the country totally worth it right? :D

Until next time....

tenders