They're Almost Here!!!

My parents are on their way! In fact, they should arrive at my apartment in four to five hours. I'm so excited to see them and hug them and also to see my niece, P! She's six-years-old and on her way out to Wyoming for the very first time. I have to say that I'm very thankful for all the sacrifices my family is making for me. They weren't able to leave the house in Minnesota until much later than expected yesterday and they didn't get to their hotel in South Dakota until 8am- that's right, 8AM!!! They basically drove straight through the night. And let me tell you, I did that a few months ago and I thought I was too old to be doing that at only 25 years-old! It seems like P is a trooper though and is doing well with them.

Everything seems to be coming together on my end. The man replacing me arrived at work this Monday and training has been going very well. I've gotten to know his wife and kids a little bit and I have to say it feels like a missed opportunity to get to know a really nice family- I wish they had arrived months sooner! On Sunday the parish had an ice cream social to say goodbye and I also had a BBQ with RCIA members of the past on Tuesday and I've been meeting up with friends whenever I get the chance. Saying goodbye is really hard! Especially since I don't know when I'll see a lot of these people again. I'm going to miss my parish community and Wyoming friends so much. Over the past week or two I've been packing up my apartment, and while it is tedious work it seems to be coming along. I really only have my kitchen and food items left to go through. I've been having to sort things into four piles: things to go in the garage sale, things to go to Chile, things to store in MN and things to bring to MN and give back to the family members they belong to. By the way, if any of you readers are in WY and know me, stop by my yard sale on Saturday!

I probably won't be posting anything for about a week or so because of all of the moving plans. Tomorrow my dad is going to work on car stuff, I'll be finishing things up at work (I can't believe it's my last day!), and I'm not sure what my mom and niece will do. Friday night we have dinner with a wonderful woman here who has been like a grandmother to me and we'll make preparations for the yard sale. Saturday morning/early afternoon will be the yard sale and then we'll go to 5:30pm Mass (my last Mass in the parish, sad) followed by a BBQ with the parish staff so I can say all of my goodbyes to them. Sunday morning we'll load up the truck and make our way to Jackson, WY. We get to spend a night in a nice-looking hotel and then all day Monday we're going to explore Yellowstone! None of us have ever been before. Monday night and Tuesday morning will be spent in Cody, WY and then we'll start driving and make it home to Minnesota (pray all goes well) by Wednesday night. Ufda! To all of you MN peeps, know that I'm looking forward to spending lots of quality time with you before leaving for Chile on the 19th. Only 21 days to Andres and Chile!!!

P.S. To anyone who has supported me in this transition through words, acts of kindness or gifts, I want you to know that I GREATLY APPRECIATE it. I don't think I could have made this big decision and followed through with it without you. I especially want to thank Andres, my family and my fellow parishioners. I love you all.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

I'm realizing that in this time leading up to the move to MN on July 31st and to Chile on August 19th(!), I might not have as much time to blog as I thought I would. Things have been busy! So I thought I'd give you a little update on what's happening in my life.

• I just talked to my mom and she said that my notarized degree finally arrived, and that the Chilean consulate signed off on it! Yippee! It actually took my university about 7 weeks to do their part and the Chilean consulate only a few days to do theirs. Who would have thought?...
• We had Totus Tuus/Vacation Bible School at my parish this past week and after spending five straight days with 4-12 year-olds I am pooped! Those kids wore me out! I came home on Friday night, ate dinner and fell asleep at 7:30pm. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am officially a vieja (old lady). It was a great week and the kids had fun and learned lots, but I'm def looking forward to catching up on my rest.
• Speaking of work, the man taking over my position should arrive sometime this week! I'm looking forward to meeting him and his family. This also means that I should have a good amount of time to train him in- but not so much time to clean-up my office before he arrives!
• Cars hate me. My car broke down a few weeks ago, it got fixed and I drove it for a couple of weeks and now it broke down AGAIN! The first time it happened, a man from the parish kindly patched up the brake line and instead of me paying him cash we traded labor for labor and I fixed up some stuff around their house. This time, there is probably no repairing it (most likely something is seriously wrong with the tranny). So that same man and his wife let me borrow their car for the weekend so I could get to work at the golf course. I came out of work yesterday and the tire on their car was flat! Cars hate me. And it sucks for something to happen in somebody else's car. A spare was put on and all is fine, but I'm glad that I probably won't need a car for the next two weeks since I can walk to my job at the parish and...
• Today was my last day working at the golf course! I'm officially a one job woman! And in two weeks I'll be a no job woman. :( I look forward to the 3+ weeks of vacation but please pray that I find a job in Chile quickly.
• I visited one of the specialists that I had to see that I mentioned here and it all checked out-  everything is fine! :) The only thing is that it turned out to be a waste of time and money. The other specialist I have to see isn't that big of a deal (just a little painful), I'll be going to the dermatologist this week to have a number of moles removed (I'm a very mole-y person).
• It's starting to get very hard thinking about having to say goodbye to all the people here at the parish and in Wyoming. I'm going to miss them all so much! This has truly become my home and it feels way different leaving here than it did MN to go to college or college to come here. 
• With that said, only 33 days, 6 hours, 46 minutes and 19 seconds until I'm with Andres in Chile!!!

FAQs

I often get asked a lot of the same questions so I figured I would take this opportunity to answer them in a public forum in case any of you faithful readers are curious as well. Let me know in the  comments if you have any other questions you want me to answer.


When do you leave? Will you go directly from Wyoming?
I bought my plane ticket last week (yippee! but ouch on the wallet) and I leave from Minneapolis on August 19th and arrive in Santiago on August 20th!!! I leave Wyoming on the very last day of July and will get about three weeks in MN with my family. It's going to be crazy having that much vacation time! And on my way to Chile I have an 11 hour layover in Miami.... so if anyone there wants to come hang out with me or take me on a little day excursion in the area while I wait, just let me know! :)


Will you be in Chile indefinitely?
Kind of. My plane ticket says I will be in Chile for nine months but I'm hoping that I will be able to extend it for three more months. Then I will come back to the United States (MN) for 4-6 months probably and then I will go back to Chile to live indefinitely. And by indefinitely I mean 3-5 years and then we (BOTH Andres and I) will probably come to live and work in the U.S. until all student loans are paid off.


Are you getting married there?
Probably not. We are planning on getting married, although we are not officially engaged yet, but are hoping and planning for the wedding to be in Minnesota in the winter of 2012/2013. That will be the period when I'll be living in the states for 4-6 months and the hope is that Andres can also come for a good amount of that time and that is when we'll have the wedding. When we return to Chile we also want to have a second wedding/vow renewal/reception with his family and friends. However, sometimes I wonder if I can last that much longer without marrying him! If I weren't Catholic and know I have to wait a certain amount of time for wedding preparation, I think I would try to convince him to elope ;)

Where will you live?

I'm going to be staying with Andres' family. I'm looking forward to getting to know my future in-laws better and also I'm excited for when they will get to know the real me. And what I mean by that is that I feel my second-grade level Spanish doesn't always get my points across and so when my Spanish improves I think they'll be able to understand me and who I am a lot better.


Are you nervous?
Surprisingly, I'm not. But with how frequently I'm asked this question I feel like I should be. Honestly, I'm just so excited to be with the one I love and to be back in Chile. I don't know if I could do it if I was never going to be coming back to the States, but I know that I am so this is just a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons and get a little break from full-time parish ministry. And did I mention that I'll get to be with the one I love? So excited! The only things that I get a little nervous about is when I think about living with Andres' family. I think they're great and we get along really well, but I wonder how it'll be different now that I'll actually be living there and not a guest. I don't want to be treated like a visitor but like a family member, and I want to help out with household things. Some people have also warned me about the Suegra (mother-in-law) and how they are really protective of their sons and how they can seem to be really overbearing to gringas. Honestly, I can't imagine Andres' mother being like that and even if she is you'll never know because while I want to be honest, I also don't plan to write mean or degrading things about people on this blog- especially about my Suegra!


What will you do there?
Good question. I first plan to find a job teaching English at an institute. I don't and won't have one lined up before I get there, but I really hope that I can find one within the first few weeks. Please pray for me! After awhile, like maybe when I'm back in Chile the second time, maybe I can find a job teaching Religion in a Catholic school since that is what my degree is in. There's also a possibility that in the far off future (3 years or so) I might go back to school to get a degree that I can actually use there. We'll see I guess... 


Thanks for reading, don't forget to ask any more questions in the comment box. 
P.S. 43 days, 4 hours, 53 minutes and 45 seconds until I'm in Chile!

It's All Coming Back to Me Now

People probably hear me say this all the time, but it's hard being an adult! I don't know if I'll ever get used to all of these adult responsibilities. Tomorrow I'm getting life insurance. Life insurance! It's for my dad in case I die, because then he would be stuck with paying my student loans since he co-signed on them. I hope I don't die anytime soon. I also went to the doctor today. I thought I was being all responsible going to make sure I was healthy before moving out of the country. Turns out I'm being punished for acting like a responsible adult. Now I have to fit in seeing two specialists in the next few weeks before I lose my insurance. It's nothing life-threatening or too serious, but it is something that needs to be done before I move. Welcome to adulthood, Tammy.


Okay, now that my pity party is over, it's time to move on to the real subject of this post. I've now known Andres for over two years! It was this time two years ago that I was in Chile learning Spanish and getting to know Andres, a few other Chileans and 15 gringos really well. I miss them all so much! And all these good memories keep coming back to me. I keep thinking to myself two years ago today I was... dancing until 4:30am at el Huevo (a five story dance club in Valparaiso)...getting my tattoo... celebrating this person's birthday... or meeting this person for the first time. Today is the feast of St. Maria Goretti, an Italian martyr for purity and an amazing example to all young people. Two years ago today I was visiting el Colegio Santa Maria Goretti, the local parochial school in Concon (and where Andres went to school!). We only had a half day of classes and then we went and visited the school and met the nuns and students. It was very interesting. I enjoyed it, but let's just say that Chilean Catholic school kids act quite a bit different than U.S. Catholic school kids.


Anyhow, if any of you who were in Chile with me the first time are reading this, know that I'm missing you and wishing we could all be together again. Son mis hermanos en Cristo y les extrano y estoy rezando por ustedes. Les quiero mucho!!! Let's go back ;)

Education Reform

Andres has not had school for four weeks. Not because he's on summer break like our schools are (it's winter in the southern hemisphere), but because the students are on strike. They are on strike to bring reform to the public university education system in Chile. They want the cost of education to be lowered (many are actually calling for it to be gratis or free, but I'm told they don't expect that really to happen) and the money for education that comes from the government to be distributed more equally among the different universities. I don't understand a lot of it because I really can't imagine something like this happening in the U.S.- I feel like our government would laugh at us and fail us all for the semester, all while keeping our tuition money. But I do support Andres and his classmates and I hope the Minister of Education meets some of their demands (yes, they have demands!). 


My observations on the student-led strike and protest marches (and please remember that these are my personal opinions and I realize that I am not expert by far on these matters, especially since I am not there):

• Most of the professors support the students being on strike
• It seems most everybody supports the students. I haven't heard one person speak out against them being on strike. If you look at the pictures on Eileen's blog you'll notice that family members, including grandparents!, come out and march with the students
• Students in Chile are taking on more debt than I realized. With the amount of student loans they're taking on and the lower cost of living there (which also means a lower salary than here), they will be paying off that debt for many, many years
• It amazes me the power these students have. They have shut down their universities. And it's not because they don't want to go to school or because they want to waste their education, but because they think it is extremely unjust the way their education system is run, especially the profit end of it. They are getting the attention of their government and the government (and the whole country) is listening, even if the Education Minister has not done anything yet
• From what I've seen and heard about, the youth in Chile seem to protest or have marches a lot. Way more than here. And sometimes those marches seem pointless to me and the violence and destruction that comes from them seem pointless. This is not one of those pointless protests or marches. This is important. And the pointless violence, harm and destruction seems to be coming from the government.
• I saw this youtube video (see below) today and the university students staged a flashmob dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller. They dressed up as zombies and had signs that said "I'm dying from debt". I think this was a very creative way for them to make their point and it seems very well organized with a high number of people participating. I'm impressed.

Okay, that's enough from me. I'll send you to recent posts from two bloggers who are actually in Chile. I really recommend that you read Abby's words and see her pictures here and here. And Eileen's here.