I walked to my room feeling an uncomfortable unsteadiness. As I came to the doorway I noticed there was something eerily different- even in the dead of night my room had never been so dark.
I quickly flipped the light switch up and down, up and down. Right as it dawned on me that the electricity was out, the shaking began.
Thinking about it now, it's impossible to say how much time passed. It's one of those moments in life that posses the ability to take hours as the feelings pass through your body, but in reality occur in a matter of minutes. All I know is I felt the first tremors that then quickly erupted into the shaking and moving of my home and all things inside.
I distinctly remember the darkness shifting into a weird mix of light and movement and noise. SO MUCH NOISE. Everything in the house was clanging together creating a sound that was felt impossible to think through.
However, all that drilling in grade school and as I tried to process what was happening as well as what I needed to do, one thing came to mind- go to the basement.
Well, 2 things.
1. there was no basement
2. The basement thing was meant for tornadoes which had been the majority of the drills we had during school because anything else was pretty unlikely in the midwest.
Anyway, I went along with this plan the best that I could and through the shaking crawled down the stairs all the while covering my head, not trusting anything to stay on the walls.
Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, like so many times thus far, my brilliant Spanish consistently failed me and all I could think to yell was HOLA. Again HOLA.
To my surprise it worked and suddenly my host brother was there, grabbed my hand and pulled me into the main doorway of the house.
Kind of weird to say, but it was an incredible moment. One foot in the house, one outside into the street, and holding onto the doorway watching our world shake.
Everything changed that night. In that night and the hours that followed we became family, we became friends, and Chile became a different country.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Me Talk Pretty One Day
My Family!
I met my mom in the lobby and was so nervous and excited the first words that came out of my mouth were "sorry my Spanish is terrible, but I'm Katy!"
I was met with a hug and the traditional Chilean kiss and as we walked to the car and squeezed my oversized luggage into her two door we began the somewhat complicated process of getting to know one another.
So some facts about my Chilean Family:
Mother- Paula
Sister- Karina (Kari) 21 years
Brother- Max 20 years
Dog- Don Gino (or Dino as I call him) 10 years
Since moving in with my family I can't imagine a study abroad experience any other way. Through them I have met people such as my sister's ex-fiance (yet best friend- yep it really works for them) Fernando, who has become like an older brother to me.
Also, from taking long walks with Dino I have gotten to know my little area in Providencia really well so no more getting lost! I hope...
Also, they are the people that I continue to embarrass myself in front of with my attempts to converse in Spanish. My family is so patient with me! The first two weeks I would end my nights with Karina going over things in Spanish that I never learned or had never understood before.
It's frustrating because I so desperately want to communicate more about myself with them and to deepen our relationships, but my mouth opens and nothing comes out...
However, on those rare days where I'm thinking in Spanish amazing conversations will happen such as over the education system in Chile or the political makeup of my brother's university.
Although many days I feel like giving up and go into default gesture mode, with their patience I hope that one day I will speak effectively and eloquently in Spanish.
Chile- let's start at the beginning
3 weeks in Chile. Never thought so much could happen in 3 weeks and still feel like so little time here.
Well this study abroad experience was bound to be interesting right from the start with my crazy flight delays that had me going from Chicago to Toronto to Dallas and finally Santiago.
I think i would have been more nervous to finally arrive in Santiago if I hadn't been so relieved to be finally done with planes and airports for a while.
On my cab ride to the hotel where we were having orientation I felt like a lab with it's face glued to the window unable to get enough of the new sights and smells- Chile definitely has its own special smell.
As I tried to make small talk with the cab driver I realized two things
1. they weren't joking about Chilean Spanish
2. And my Spanish was in fact a joke.
As the car sped towards the hotel the juxtaposition of mountain and city was like nothing I had ever seen before. Finally we arrived at the hotel which was this beautiful mix of an old building and modern decor.
Orientation turned out to be a great mix of getting to know the other students, information about Chile, and Spanish-- lots of Spanish class and already Spanish homework.
Before I knew it, orientation was coming to an end and we were going to get our host families!!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Peppermint Pizza
Over the years I have been carried along on the journey by my mom in a search for good health.
It started simple.
1. food with natural ingredients
2. organic foods
3. juicing green things and other vegetables that you never thought you would consume
4. growing flax seeds and many other things
5. Herbal concoctions to deal with illnesses
6. Homeopathic remedies
7. Energy massage therapy...
And that just about brings me to today's adventure. After going to a 2 hour informational meeting the other week, my mom decided to make me the test subject for this thing called RAINDROP THERAPY...
A lot of you all probably know what essential oils are. You can find them at the health food store they are popular with yoga studios and sometimes the source of that "hippy smell".
I bet you didn't know that there are people who swear by these little potent bottles as the source of their good health.
Essential oils were defined to me as the life and blood of a plant. Sounds serious.
The people using them are serious... they have these complex ways of procuring and refining the essential oils because after all that is some life and blood you will be consuming-
So speaking of consuming them, yes it is recommended that not only you rub them in your skin, but that you mix them with water and drink, drop some in your mouth, and in extreme cases get IVs of them. As crazy as it may sound essential oils are believed to sanitize, heal burns, mend broken bones, and in some cases they have been shown to "cure" cancer. Not to mention all the mental and emotional benefits. These are more than just fragrances people!
Now, what I experienced today wasn't quite as extreme as getting an IV of essential oils, but it wasn't as basic as a massage. Actually, it was something more spiritual.
A Raindrop therapy is basically the layering of 9 essential oils on your body.
She started with my feet dropping an oil on the bottoms of my feet and then doing a specific massage with each oil. They start with the feet because it is one of the places where your skin is the most porous. Also, something was mention about your foot skeleton being important. It is always a funny feeling having someone else touch your feet. In our society people are expected to be grossed out by your feet- its a given. I think that's weird. It's still a part of the body. I mean if anything people should be grossed out by hands since those are what go around touching the most. Anyway, as she finished the foot part I noticed at the end that she held my feet in her hands, but she held them with her hands crossed at the wrists. I thought that was interesting. I asked her afterward and she said it is the way to sink energy and as a healer she knows when that give and take moment has been reached just by holding my feet that way. wow.
After the feet comes the spine. It was similar in that she layered each essential oil on at a time and each had a corresponding massage, but before the massage each time she did a technique called feathering. The feathering technique of spreading the oil across the back is meant to create goosebumps which increases the surface area for the oil to absorb in. She said I was good at getting goosebumps. First, I didn't know that someone could be "good" at getting goosebumps. Second, I'm not sure that is the best thing to be good at...
The therapy took about an hour and had a lot of intricate details for each step. After we talked about the process and what each of us had experienced. It was so interesting to know what I had felt and to hear her say what she had seen in my body at its reaction during that same time. It was really informative and I feel like I learned about myself and my body. OH and just with this light "massage/touching" she evened out my shoulders (they were slanted) and I grew about a half an inch!
I highly suggest that anyone who has the resources and an open mind to alternative medicine look into Raindrop Therapy. It is a healing and detoxing experience. And who doesn't need that with this intense, beautiful, and sometimes scary world.
One deterrent- the oils used are basil thyme organo margerum and some others... ending with peppermint. Some of them and such a warming effect (to the point of stinging) and some a cooling effect. I left with chills!
Oh and yes, I left smelling like a peppermint pizza. delicioso.
It started simple.
1. food with natural ingredients
2. organic foods
3. juicing green things and other vegetables that you never thought you would consume
4. growing flax seeds and many other things
5. Herbal concoctions to deal with illnesses
6. Homeopathic remedies
7. Energy massage therapy...
And that just about brings me to today's adventure. After going to a 2 hour informational meeting the other week, my mom decided to make me the test subject for this thing called RAINDROP THERAPY...
A lot of you all probably know what essential oils are. You can find them at the health food store they are popular with yoga studios and sometimes the source of that "hippy smell".
I bet you didn't know that there are people who swear by these little potent bottles as the source of their good health.
Essential oils were defined to me as the life and blood of a plant. Sounds serious.
The people using them are serious... they have these complex ways of procuring and refining the essential oils because after all that is some life and blood you will be consuming-
So speaking of consuming them, yes it is recommended that not only you rub them in your skin, but that you mix them with water and drink, drop some in your mouth, and in extreme cases get IVs of them. As crazy as it may sound essential oils are believed to sanitize, heal burns, mend broken bones, and in some cases they have been shown to "cure" cancer. Not to mention all the mental and emotional benefits. These are more than just fragrances people!
Now, what I experienced today wasn't quite as extreme as getting an IV of essential oils, but it wasn't as basic as a massage. Actually, it was something more spiritual.
A Raindrop therapy is basically the layering of 9 essential oils on your body.
She started with my feet dropping an oil on the bottoms of my feet and then doing a specific massage with each oil. They start with the feet because it is one of the places where your skin is the most porous. Also, something was mention about your foot skeleton being important. It is always a funny feeling having someone else touch your feet. In our society people are expected to be grossed out by your feet- its a given. I think that's weird. It's still a part of the body. I mean if anything people should be grossed out by hands since those are what go around touching the most. Anyway, as she finished the foot part I noticed at the end that she held my feet in her hands, but she held them with her hands crossed at the wrists. I thought that was interesting. I asked her afterward and she said it is the way to sink energy and as a healer she knows when that give and take moment has been reached just by holding my feet that way. wow.
After the feet comes the spine. It was similar in that she layered each essential oil on at a time and each had a corresponding massage, but before the massage each time she did a technique called feathering. The feathering technique of spreading the oil across the back is meant to create goosebumps which increases the surface area for the oil to absorb in. She said I was good at getting goosebumps. First, I didn't know that someone could be "good" at getting goosebumps. Second, I'm not sure that is the best thing to be good at...
The therapy took about an hour and had a lot of intricate details for each step. After we talked about the process and what each of us had experienced. It was so interesting to know what I had felt and to hear her say what she had seen in my body at its reaction during that same time. It was really informative and I feel like I learned about myself and my body. OH and just with this light "massage/touching" she evened out my shoulders (they were slanted) and I grew about a half an inch!
I highly suggest that anyone who has the resources and an open mind to alternative medicine look into Raindrop Therapy. It is a healing and detoxing experience. And who doesn't need that with this intense, beautiful, and sometimes scary world.
One deterrent- the oils used are basil thyme organo margerum and some others... ending with peppermint. Some of them and such a warming effect (to the point of stinging) and some a cooling effect. I left with chills!
Oh and yes, I left smelling like a peppermint pizza. delicioso.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wishing for...
Ever believed in luck?
Well, until this year I was a firm believer. It seemed that I was just one of those people who were extremely lucky. I felt this way because often-- on none of my own merit-- I was handed exactly what I wanted. It was as if deadlines always seemed to bend. Hours stretched past those 60 minutes that so easily escape.
Pick a topic. I can tell you that throughout my life I got what I wanted in that moment. When I look back on all those things I once wanted I now with new perspective see, that if I had known what was good for me I wouldn't have wished for half of what I got.
Anyway, I have continued making wishes throughout my life. I still make a wish every time I blow out a candle, find an eyelash, throw a penny in a fountain, or see that it is 11:11.
Somehow this way of wishing through life has gotten me pretty far. My luck has gotten me through the things I procrastinated on and just didn't do thoroughly. Well, that is until this year.
This year my streak of luck-- my answered wishes-- has inevitably come to an end. To prove it, I have had two of the worst phone calls that have put an end to my wishing.
I have finally encountered situations I can't just "wish" myself through.
One of these phone class just happened Wednesday. After weeks of hoping for my FBI background check to come in the mail it seemed that I should finally take a proactive approach. I decided to call them. You see, I had been using my usual approach-- you know, just wishing it would all go through and come any day now so I would manage to get everything in for my Visa in time. Not the most take- charge attitude, but it's usually what works for me.
My inquiry led me to the worst possible news. The FBI was backlogged and wouldn't be able to run my measly little background check (I mean to my knowledge all that should be on there is some parking tickets) for another 10 WEEKS. As I quickly calculated how close this would come to the departure date it, I quickly saw that it was weeks pass my departure dates.
How could this be possible-- couldn't they sympathize with my need to extradite this process...
As I sat there allowing the news to settle into my body, I could barely wrap my mind around it.
I mean things are supposed to work out for me. And as the thought that I would not be going to Chile settled down into me, I began to try to imagine this year without me going to Chile.
I couldn't see anything. Nothing that I could visualize. Blank. Blank. Blank future.
A future not worth having. I was COUNTING on going abroad. The hope of going abroad was what made college seem worth it in the beginning. I realized I had been counting on Chile.
That was where I saw possibilities-- where I saw a new life and a new me.
It made me realize that for the majority of my life I have been a person who waits for transformation. I see opportunities, be it traveling, education, a job, or even another person, and that is what I look to for growth.
How much do I know about daily transformation? I don't realize it when it's happening and I am not sure that it is happening that frequently. Am I capable of producing significant changes within myself without the external influences of a program abroad or a conference.
If I can't find transformation and growth in the day to day what makes me so sure the mediocrity in which I allow myself to live will evacuate me when I find that adventure which I am constantly seeking?
How do you transform daily?
P.S.
Don't worry-- I'm still going to Chile. I don't think I have lost all my luck...
Pick a topic. I can tell you that throughout my life I got what I wanted in that moment. When I look back on all those things I once wanted I now with new perspective see, that if I had known what was good for me I wouldn't have wished for half of what I got.
Anyway, I have continued making wishes throughout my life. I still make a wish every time I blow out a candle, find an eyelash, throw a penny in a fountain, or see that it is 11:11.
Somehow this way of wishing through life has gotten me pretty far. My luck has gotten me through the things I procrastinated on and just didn't do thoroughly. Well, that is until this year.
This year my streak of luck-- my answered wishes-- has inevitably come to an end. To prove it, I have had two of the worst phone calls that have put an end to my wishing.
I have finally encountered situations I can't just "wish" myself through.
One of these phone class just happened Wednesday. After weeks of hoping for my FBI background check to come in the mail it seemed that I should finally take a proactive approach. I decided to call them. You see, I had been using my usual approach-- you know, just wishing it would all go through and come any day now so I would manage to get everything in for my Visa in time. Not the most take- charge attitude, but it's usually what works for me.
My inquiry led me to the worst possible news. The FBI was backlogged and wouldn't be able to run my measly little background check (I mean to my knowledge all that should be on there is some parking tickets) for another 10 WEEKS. As I quickly calculated how close this would come to the departure date it, I quickly saw that it was weeks pass my departure dates.
How could this be possible-- couldn't they sympathize with my need to extradite this process...
As I sat there allowing the news to settle into my body, I could barely wrap my mind around it.
I mean things are supposed to work out for me. And as the thought that I would not be going to Chile settled down into me, I began to try to imagine this year without me going to Chile.
I couldn't see anything. Nothing that I could visualize. Blank. Blank. Blank future.
A future not worth having. I was COUNTING on going abroad. The hope of going abroad was what made college seem worth it in the beginning. I realized I had been counting on Chile.
That was where I saw possibilities-- where I saw a new life and a new me.
It made me realize that for the majority of my life I have been a person who waits for transformation. I see opportunities, be it traveling, education, a job, or even another person, and that is what I look to for growth.
How much do I know about daily transformation? I don't realize it when it's happening and I am not sure that it is happening that frequently. Am I capable of producing significant changes within myself without the external influences of a program abroad or a conference.
If I can't find transformation and growth in the day to day what makes me so sure the mediocrity in which I allow myself to live will evacuate me when I find that adventure which I am constantly seeking?
How do you transform daily?
P.S.
Don't worry-- I'm still going to Chile. I don't think I have lost all my luck...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
A little explanation is in order
So it seems my blogging days are starting a little earlier than expected. Now to be honest, I have always been a little skeptical about blogging. I mean what is its purpose? If it is to record your thoughts hopes and dreams blah blah blah... That seems to me suited for a journal or your closest friends in a conversation with coffee. If it is to impart knowledge and information on the world- well count me out of that as well. I have nothing to give someone that they can't give themselves...
So what then is this about for me and what is with that blog name?
I knew my days as an anti-blogger were numbered when studying abroad took over my life. You see I leave in a little over 3 weeks and here I am going to Santiago, Chile virtually by myself. I have never been good at keeping in touch over long periods of time and since I don't really have anyone else going who I can rely on to give little check ins for those curious friends and family... The time has come to keep a blog and make use of the most efficient way to keep my friends and family connected.
Now, I have started a little earlier than intended and this can be blamed on my recent viewing of Julie & Julia. Strange I know, but that movie just made me want to blog! Well, not exactly- it made me want to do something and be accountable! I have been lazing away my time before leaving and I can't do that any more! My life exists here just as much as it will in Chile.
And so my blog name was born- Set Fire (you know in a command form- like YOU! Set fire!)
It comes from one of my favorite bands: Stars. One of their songs starts by saying
"When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire."
And for me that has more or less been a mantra of motivation and it basically says get off your ass and begin your life now!
So before I leave for Chile (which has enormous expectations...) It's time to start setting fire to my life now, daily.
So I am hoping this blog helps me to search for excitement and creativity instead of feeling content in the sameness of every day.
I'm thinking being content is actually disguising boredom and an inability to ACT.
So, how should I set fire?
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