pictures of my house and viña del mar

my home (64 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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a time of reflection

now that I am back in los estados unidos, it has been kind of weird.

i thought that it would be weird coming home, that I would feel drastically different, that I would send off different vibes...something. I was greeted at the airport lovingly by my mommy, daddy, Rebekah, and Karlie (she was a surprise!!!) and then headed off to go see Hannah in Athens. we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at Mama's Boy in Athens (I highly recommend it to everyone!), saw her dorm room, etc and then headed home.

upon reaching perry,driving in off the highway, taking a right onto macon road.......nothing felt weird or different....it felt normal as if i had done it everyday these past five months. and then i figured out that that is what home is. Home is the place that makes you feel as if you had never left. Immediate comfort. Love. Hugs. Lots of hugs.

English came back without any problems. at all. I can see now, only after 10 days of being home, how easy it would be to completely lose Spanish.

I had a yearning for people to ask me "How was Chile?" or "What did you do in Chile?", but no one did. I asked Hannah and Karlie in the car - "Aren't you going to ask me about my trip?" - and they responded "Well, we read your blog and talked to you quite a bit so we feel as if we know everything already." I even got to be in our Christmas card photo. I was sort of hoping that a picture of me while i was in Chile would make it in the Christmas card, but they waited instead.

Have I changed? really, have I changed?

I really hope so. I hope that I continue to be relaxed - all the time. maybe not relaxed relaxed, but relaxed enough so that I can keep my eyes open to the big picture and remember that God is ALWAYS in control, so in the end what are all of these silly things going to matter? Relaxed enough that I can appreciate the sun set, or the sunrise, or my friends when I am with them, or my health, or the coffee that I am now drinking.

Relaxed enought to appreciate the little and subtle things in life that used to go unnoticed. I hope that I can travel within the United States some more. That I can see what my own country is about and appreciate my liberty within it. America is an awesome place that we all take for granted. our streets our clean, along with our water, we all have cars (no more micros!!! YES!!), I go to a great university that I got to choose, we are encouraged to be entrepreneurs and have the ability to be successful in anything we set our hands to do; the men respect the women - i haven't yet been whistled at since I have been home :)

I have been getting frustrated with the little things since I have been home. things that now appear little to me since i have just experienced and taken in so much. my eyes have been widened. i have a new perspective. so don't be offended if i say something different than what you wanted to hear, but maybe wonder why does she think that now. the world is so big. and my sphere of influence at home is so small. when you live in a small world there are still big things right? should there be? or should we be searching for bigger things?

if you walk in late to church is it really rude? should I judge that person? No. i don't know why that person is late first of all, and second of all, if that person came because he had a desire in his heart to come. and he might be sitting there in that pew REALLY there, unlike his neighbor next to him was there on time.

I have learned not to judged. which is kind of ironic because while i was in Chile Colleen and I would always joke around by saying "stop judging me" or "dont judge me". I have heard some stories about people. You can never really understand a person until you know there history, ¿me cachai? Why am I the way that I am? well, there are 20 years of stuff that has shaped me into the person I am today. and everyday will continue to shape me. God is so good. and He is the one forming me into the woman that He wants me to become.

i feel different on the inside. but at the same time, i feel like i haven't changed. it is bizarre.

¡recap!

places i've been:

1) Santiago de Chile

2) Omlúe

3) Viña del Mar

4) Valparaíso

5) Reñaca (las dunas)

6) Concón

7) Rabuco

8) Calama

9) San Pedro de Atacama

10) Toconoa

11) Mendoza, Argentina

12) La Serena

13) Vicuña

14) Monte Grande (Valle de Elqui)

15) Coquimbo

16) Puerto Natales

17) Torres del Paine

18) Punta Arenas

19) Fuerte Bulnes

20) Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego

21) La Isla Negra

22) Quilpue

23) Pucón

24) San Felipe

25)Los Andes

las termas

on Sunday, our last day in Pucón, our program took us to las termas or hot springs. due to all the volcanic activity there are lots of these in this region. we went from 11:30-2:45 and so enjoyed ourselves. it was nice to relax after yesterday - climbing the volcano. the hot springs were actually man-made pools, but were all natural - rock bottoms and sides and everything and they just transported the hot water in. there was a river running right by the springs too. relaxing afternoon.

when we got back we packed up and then went to our Goodbye Dinner, our last asado chileno. we then loaded up on the bus and headed out at 7pm for our long 12 hour drive home. there are also pictures of my cabaña in the album. it was sooo nice. 2 bedroom, 2 bath, living, kitchen, and every evening the maids came and dropped off our breakfast for the next morning. so spoiled.

las termas y mi cabaña (102 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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climbing el volcán villarica!

soooo....first of all i would like to say that my outfit that i climbed the volcano in was pretty awesome - leggings with running shorts and knee high socks that i bought the night before (a 2 pack shared with natalie). anways, i woke up at 5:45 to be ready to go at 6:30. we went and got our rental equiment and headed to the volcano!!!

we hiked about 15 minutes to get to the ski lift and then took the ski lift the first 1400 meters. then we hiked to the top! it took about 4 hours to get to the top and about halfway through our hiking our guides (there were 3 guides and 11 hikers) put on our "crampons" so that we wouldn't slide on the icy snow....hahaaha

pretty cool huh??? we made it to the top and had about 25 minutes to explore. the inside of the volcano was black and i didn't see any lava...

going down was the BEST part because we slide down on our bottoms!!!!!! we buckled on a tarp type thing on our bottoms so that we would slide better and not get as wet and then we used our ice axes beside us as our brake. it was sooooo fun!!!! and i would totally recommend it.

it only took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to get all the way down.... slightly less than the 4 hours to get up.

the rest of the afternoon I got to explore the city of pucón, buy lots of goodies, and then we had a nice dinner for the whole program that evening. we played cards and enjoyed our cabaña during the evening too. good times all around.

pucon! - VOLCANO (81 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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la ciudad de Pucon (59 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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last trip to Pucón

this is my last trip in chile. i was hoping that it would never come because i knew that it meant the beginning of the end - but it came igual. this trip was really sweet because our program paid for everything :)

we headed out at 9pm on Thursday night for about a 12 hour bus ride to Pucón. we arrived to our cabañas just before 9am, unloaded and ate breakfast. we then headed to a Mapuche Museum just outside of Pucón to spend the afternoon. we were given tours of the museo and also did "talleres" or workshops of the language mapudungun, tejer en tela (loom knitting??), and dancing/music. and we ate Mapuche food for lunch.

we then headed back and picked out our tours for saturday. i signed up to climb the volcano - Volcán Villarica :) sooo pumped. especially because on the way down you just slide down on your bottom in the snow. ahhh

Pucon! (66 photos), by Sarah Moredock

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trip to Villa Alemana

so Sunday November 29 was my last Sunday at the church that I have been attending, CEMIPRE. it is amazing to feel like another chapter in my life is ending. my time at this church has been so sweet and I have been so blessed by attending.

after the service one of my friends, Lia, invited me over to her house on Tuesday. Lia, 30 yrs old, is one of 9 kids - Juan, one of her brothers, is a co-pastor at the church, Betsy, younger sister, plays the piano and sings, Gonzalo and her parents also attend the church. So i knew a good portion of the fam.

so tuesday comes around and i take the train/metro about 30 mins inland to Villa Alemana and Betsy picked me up. we then take a collectivo to their house. What i didn't realize is that they own a little supermercado, so we entered the supermercado and Gonzalo was behind the counter (that is when i realized it was their store), then we went through the mercado and out the back, and then i saw the dad making bread! he makes the bread (2x a day) that they sell in the supermercado. their house was attached as well and they have a huge backyard, swimming pool, and animals. Lia is an event planner and she hosts them in her backyard because she got a grant from the government (attempt to support entrepreneurship) to build a big pavillion thing and buy sound equipment, etc.

i was at the house from 2pm-11:15pm. a long day, but it didn't feel that way at all! i got to help bake bread in the afternoon, ate lunch, and helped babysit one of their granddaughters (daughter of the oldest son). The baby was 9 months old and a doll!!! i loved getting to play with her all day!! it was the first time that i had interacted with a baby in spanish! my spanish definitely improved this day because they did not understand any english nor words pronounced with a heavy gringa accento....

it was wonderful to share and get to know what "life in the country"is like here in chile and get to know a wonderful Christian family. they asked me "so are you going to come back and be a missionary too like John (the pastor of my church)?" and "are you going to come back and visit?" ah! it is weird too to think that i may never see them again. but who knows!

villa alemana, by Sarah Moredock

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