Day -1

I leave in less than 24 hours. It kinda makes me nervous thinking that I'll be leaving the US for six weeks, but then I take a step back and look at the US and chuckle. I am nervous about the whole speaking Spanish again for the first time in over a month. Boy I wish Spanish class never ended...ha!

Today is my last day of working at the pool until August, and the pool doesn't even open until tomorrow. I worked quite a few hours already which is nice, but it's a little upsetting to go because I was just promoted to being a head guard by my bosses. I wonder if they'll give me keys before I go...I like keys. They give you so much power. Unless you don't have them, then you're powerless. I still have a key to my old job from over a year ago. I probably should give those back sometime...I also have keys for a house I was housesitting at, but they moved.

Well I'm sure you're all extremely anxious to hear how my new goals turned out. If not, I could care less. They are:
1. Clean up my room by unpacking and organizing stuff I don't need until next fall, and getting rid of anything I don't want any more (Ehh...who needs clean anyways?)
2. Ride my bike 22 miles round trip (Ok this was great. I decided to do a gentle 38 mile bike ride up Clodfelter road and all the way out through the fields and back through Badger Canyon to my house, but someone failed to mention that 5 miles of the ride was gravel road...stupid stupid construction. Well road bikes do not bode well with gravel, and after finally getting past the construction and down to Badger, I was too tired to finish and had to have my sister come pick me up before I got too exhausted, ha. Lame. Still managed to ride 28 miles though, success!)
3. Learn to play a new song on the piano (I'll leave this one to someone who can)
4. Cook a meal including the dessert (Well I made some great tasting ribs for the first time, but I couldn't find any good berries to make a pie so I skipped the dessert part)
5. Draw Alyssa a picture =) (I managed to finish this one, luckily I didn't specify it being a good picture...)

Well I'm off to work now. One more day of saving co-workers while trying to ignore my hunger since I never allow myself time to eat before I leave. I hope you have a great weekend, and next time you hear from me I'll be in Chile!!!

Day -5

Well I finally found out my host family information today. I'm living with Lissette Hurtado Mondaca and her esposo (husband) Enzo Valle. They live right next to her madre (mother) Alicia Hurtado, and they also have their 24 year old hijo (son) Daniel living with them. They have two perros (dogs) that live on the patio, they are Catholics who attend Sunday mass, and they have Wi-Fi in their house, which means I will be able to update this on a regular basis.

I also found out that they live in Viña del Mar rather than Valparaíso, so I'll be taking the bus everyday to school. It shall definitely be an exciting adventure everyday since the drivers are crazy and traffic laws aren't enforced. Sounds like high school all over again...

Only five days left before I flee this desolate wasteland that is the Tri Cities...oh how I miss when friends were actually home for the summer. I am definitely stoked out of my mind for this wonderful experience, and I still have a crapload to do before I leave.

Oh yeah, my sister graduated on Saturday. After receiving her diploma on stage, she purposefully tripped and fell as the entire Toyota Center gasped "Oh...." Priceless. I think the best part was how shocked my mom was. Hasn't she learned yet after her other three kids? I will hand it to Amy though, she definitely topped anything we ever did. Way to be Amy, way to be.

I leave you today with one of my favorite jokes:
Why is a stove? Because the more you shine it, it gets.

Day -11

I realized my last list of things to get done weren't all that great at keeping me busy, so I had Alyssa come up with a new list of five goals for me to accomplish.

They are as follows:
1. Clean up my room by unpacking and organizing stuff I don't need until next fall, and getting rid of anything I don't want any more (I've unpacked what needed to be unpacked and I got rid of a lot of crap I don't need any more, but it's still not looking very clean...)
2. Ride my bike 22 miles round trip (I only made it 19, but I should do this in the next couple days)
3. Learn to play a new song on the piano
4. Cook a meal including the dessert (I'm thinking about cooking ribs and making a pie from scratch, it shall be wonderful)
5. Draw Alyssa a picture =)

I still have a ways to go on these, but at least I've got something to accomplish.

As far as my other goals go, here's how they turned out:
1) Clean my room (Not quite clean, but it's getting there)
2) Clean/vacuum my car
3) Secure my job for when I get back (I did find out I get to work a preseason pool rental on the 8th, and I've been helping train new lifeguards the past couple days and we had our first preseason meeting tonight, things are going great)
4) Email Sue Jackson
5) Fix my laptop screen (I was planning on just buying a new screen, but my parents found a really nice laptop on sale and convinced me that it would be better to just get a new one rather than try fixing a three year old one, sweet)
6) Ride my bike
7) Get a haircut (Just got it done today, it's the shortest I've had it in sooo long)
8) Read up on Chile
9) Talk to past students about studying in Chile (Thank goodness for this one)
10) Be productive (More or less..)

I also went camping for the first time since the summer after my freshman year of high school this past weekend. My dad and I went to Clear Lake near White Pass. It was very pretty, and nice to have time to relax and not feel bad about not doing anything all day. I'll probably post pictures on facebook soon.

I suppose I should start watching Spanish TV or reading the Chilean newspaper online since I'm leaving in less than two weeks...it's funny how fast you can forget something after having just taken an entire semester's worth of it. The closer I get to leaving, the more excited and nervous I get at the same time. And I know I shouldn't already be looking forward to coming home, but it means being with Alyssa again =) Boy do I miss that girl...

Well I feel like I sincerely wasted my time updating this. I don't know why I do since I'm not even gone yet, and more importantly, since I haven't even shared the link with anyone. Oh well, I guess I just wanted to see how I actually did with my last set of goals. 8.5/10 (.5 for getting my room unpacked, just not cleaned) not too shabby.

Enjoy the wind.

Day -23

Twenty three days until I depart for Valparaiso, Chile. I still have countless things to get done before I'm ready to go, but I should be able to finish them all.

Here's my list, in no important order:
1) Clean my room
2) Clean/vacuum my car
3) Secure my job for when I get back (I did find out I get to work a preseason pool rental on the 8th, so things are pretty much taken care of here I assume)
4) Email Sue Jackson
5) Fix my laptop screen (I tried tonight; I've almost all but determined I need to buy a new screen. Darn...I suppose $100 is better than $450 though)
6) Ride my bike
7) Get a haircut
8) Read up on Chile
9) Talk to past students about studying in Chile
10) Be productive

Seeing as how I already started this blog as early as I did, I feel number ten will be a hard one to keep...

I really have nothing to say, I just wanted to get this blog made ahead of time so it would be one less item on my list.

Until next time.