Yes, this is my Oscar moment.

It's hard to believe that I have only been in Chile for 10 days. My Spanish is 800 times better than it was when I first got here. I can actually hold a conversation with my family, whom I couldn't even understand before. Even though I am nowhere near fluent, I feel confident that I could survive completely on my own in a foreign country. Granted, I still can't understand a lot of what people are saying and I need to learn a lot of vocabulary but I am beginning to speak well enough to function.

I have also visited 3 amazing places in 10 days. This weekend, all of the Otterbein gringos travelled to Pucon, Chile (pictured right). Pucon is gorgeous. It has the feeling of a cozy ski town but is also located on the beach. It really has everything. Our first day there, we drove up a rocky dirt path (known here as a road) to a volcano. From that spot, you could see the volcano, water, and mountains. This view wasn't enough for us, though. We parked our trucks and decided to start hiking the volcano. Every so often, I would stop to take a break because the high altitude made it hard to breathe. After deciding that that was as high as I was going to climb, I would change my mind and hike up higher. The climb was addicting. The view only got better the higher up I climbed. Eventually, I climbed high enough to see over the surrounding mountains to the snow-capped Andes mountains in the distance. I could try to describe the view from the place I stopped but I don't know the words that could do it justice. In fact, I don't think they exist.

On Sunday, we went white water rafting. I'm pretty sure that is going to be my new obsession. The juxtaposition of the idyllic landscape to the raging water was incredible. Flowering trees lined the river against a backdrop of mountains, blue skies, and the volcano. At the same time the river raged over rocks, around curves, and under bridges. At one moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of tranquility and at the next, an exhilarating surge of adrenaline. If you have not experienced white water rafting, you need to add it to your bucket list.

This week, we will be visiting various schools in Valdivia to help them learn English and give them an opportunity to meet someone from another country. Last week we went to the Escuela Alemania and today we went to the Escuela Chile. We will visit two other schools on Tuesday and Wednesday. These visits are interesting because we never know what to expect. On Friday, we split up into two groups of 6 people and went into 2 different sixth grade classrooms. After shoving us into the classroom, the teachers just left and told us to teach the class. We were completely taken by surprise. We taught the kids a few different songs in English and played some games with them. Luckily, we were able to think quickly on our feet.

Today, they separated all of us and shoved us into classrooms with kids anywhere from preschool to eighth grade. I, of course, was chosen to go into the 8th grade, all boys class. I just want to know who thought that was a good idea. Obviously they weren't going to be interested in learning about another culture when there is a blonde girl in the room. Speaking of being blonde, this country is ridiculous. If I walk down the street through a crowd of men, literally every single head will turn to look at me. Also, they think I don't understand all the things they whisper to each other in Spanish about me. I miss being in the United States where I am not constantly the center of attention.

Finally, I would like to give a shout out to my mom, my dad, and everyone else who has supported me in the past 21 years (yes, this is my Oscar moment). Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am so incredibly blessed to be here right now. There are so many people who never leave their hometown and yet, I get to spend a month in Chile. I wish everyone else in America would realize how blessed we are. Instead of complaining about what we don't have, we need to sit back and focus on what we do have. For, no matter how much you acquire, money will never equal happiness.