Thank you notes

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Yes, I know Thanksgiving was last week, but I was too behind on homework to write a long blog entry.

I wrote a few thank you notes to various people in the past week and a half, and it felt right to share them. I’m also writing thank-you’s to a few others who never got formal notes but nonetheless deserve to be thanked. So, for those of you who are hardy enough to read a post that doesn’t involve travel or speed-dating, here we go:

1. To my extended family: Thank you so much for skyping with me, emailing me, and taking the time to read about my (mis)adventures here in Chile. I missed you all at Thanksgiving (although I enjoyed our skype date!) and can’t wait to see you in person. Love you all!

2. To my awesome cousin Patrick, who I’ve just (re)connected with over email. He writes a pretty cool blog and recently sent a bunch of his readers here to learn about his interesting cousin. I feel famous as a result. Check out his blog here.

And here are some notes I wrote with actual paper and pen…

3. To my Chilean host mother at her birthday:

Querida Gabriela,

¡Feliz cumpleaños a Usted! Espero que tenga un día excelente y pasará un fin de semana bien con toda su familia.

Despúes de todo que Usted ha hecho para mí en todo mi tiempo en Chile, lo siento que no puedo estar acá para esta celebración. Imagino que no sería fácil tener una estudiante extranjera en casa, y agradezco todo su paciencia y amabilidad. ¡Muchísimas gracias!

Recuerdo que tuvimos una conversación sobre novelas favoritas y hablé de una en inglés que se llama Pride and Prejudice. Descubrí que está traducido al español, y decidí comprarla para Usted. Espero que le gustará, y de nuevo, ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

Annie

4. To the couple who fund Stanford Overseas Studies:

Dear Helen and Peter Bing,

Thank you so much for everything you have given to the students in Stanford in Santiago, and thank you especially for our trip to Isla Negra.

Seeing Pablo Neruda’s beautiful boat-shaped house on the coast and his quirky collections of art and memorabilia had a strong effect on me. I’m not completely sure why- the house just had an incredibly artistic atmosphere.

After our tour of Isla Negra, we had lunch at a great restaurant and read poetry to each other. A couple of people read Neruda. One read T.S. Eliot. A few read their own work. This group is so talented- I wish you could have seen it.

Although I didn’t read anything out loud, someone showed me a copy of Neruda’s self portrait poem , “Autorretrato.” I liked it so much that I bought a printed copy and read it about 25 times. This change in attitude toward poetry was a pretty big step for me. I resented every creative writing class I ever took and never enjoyed analyzing poems either. Beyond “The Night Before Christmas,” poetry just didn’t appeal to me.

Thanks for helping me get a new perspective on poetry and supporting our trip to Isla Negra. I sincerely appreciate everything you’ve done for us this quarter. I’ve loved being here and it has changed my experience at Stanford.

Sincerely,
Annie

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