School, the Beach, and Things!

I'm sitting in school "working on" yet another impossible test. Physics (física!) Because I have't taken physics yet in the U.S., it's like the questions are in Spanish, but the material is in Swedish. I'm feelin' a bit frustrated.

Okay. Time to get you guys up to speed on what has been happening! There's so much I have to write about, but I never have time to sit down and type out a post until 12 or 1 at night...

On Wednesday in lenguaje (language!) class it was my turn to present my love song! (canción de amor!!) The teacher asked me if I had done anything and she was surprised when I said yes. hahahaha. I picked "Solo Para Ti" by Camila because it was easy to analyze. My friend Jorge helped me write what I needed to say. I talked about what type of love was found in it (idealizado and another kind that I can't remember...). I studied the pronunciation and did the best I could. After class, someone said that I sounded like the voice on Google translate. :( Sad day. Espero que un día voy a tener menos de un acento americano patética. (I hope that someday I'll have less of a pathetic American accent!)

One day last week during(durante!) recreo someone wanted take a picture of all the exchange students in the school. Charlotte, me, and a girl from another organization from Italy.

They had me stand in the middle, because I'm the tallest. :)

I didn't do much in school on Friday. I had english class and lenguaje. In english, I was attacked by my classmates asking how to pronounce words for their oral quiz. In lenguaje, we corrected that long test I took the other day for university. (Whenever I talk about college now, I find myself saying university instead of college. I think it's because colegio (school) is too similar...) I got mine back and had 17 right out of 80. huh. I'm starting to forget what it feels like to be smart... hahahaha. After school, I had basketball practice and then finally went home to eat lunch and relax.

I thought that I finally could have a nice, relaxing Saturday and be able to sleep in. But that dream was crushed when I found out that I had an activity for Rotary that started at 9:30. My councilor said something about us helping at a football tournament for little kids. I knew where I needed to go and it was only five minutes from my house. I left at 9:20 and my "lovely" little adventure began. I got to the fútbol field (canchas de fútbol!) and there wasn't anyone there. I called my mom (on my phone that was nearly dead, mind you) and she told me that I had gone to the wrong fields. I needed the big stadium. Duh. I knew what it looked like but I had forgotten how to get there. So I talked to her for 20-some minutes and tried my best to figure out what in the world sh was saying. I walked around with a few tears sliding down my face and thinking to myself "why am I so dumb!?" I felt unbelievably frustrated. I knew exactly WHERE (DONDE) I was, but I didn't know how to get to where I needed to be. My slightly annoyed dad came and picked me up and yelled at me for not knowing where to go. :( So as he dropped me off an entire hour late at the stadium that was literally two blocks from where I was, I was feeling pretty terrible. Boo for first time getting confused with directions to the point of tears (lágrimas)! Anyways. I got to there and found Charlotte and Vivian and I vented to them. :) Charlotte keeps me from going español-ing crazy. The three of us walked to a kiosk and bought some cookies. We like cookies. haha. We watched some of the tournament in the sun and then for lunch we finally did something productive. After the kids went through the pasta line, we gave them juices.

Charlottle laughed at me when I asked her to take  a picture with juice. She said that in 20 I'll be really glad I took it. Heck yeah I will! hahahaha.

 Charlotte and I eating our pasta:

For the closing ceremony, Charlotte and I held this Rotary banner.

One of the guys said, "oh, Christy! let me take a picture of you working!"

 On Sunday my family planned for a trip to the beach! We planned to leave at 8:30 and I woke up at 8 and rushed to get ready. I left my room at 9 lista (ready!) for the day only to find that my family was not even awake. I waited around until 10:30 and then we were finally off. We went to my grandma's house and picked up her and my cousin (prima!) Francisca (3). My brother sat on my mom's lap in the front and Francisca on my grandma's in the back seat. I don't think I've talked about it, but the amount of people that fit in cars here is incredible. And on bikes. It's not strange to see 2 or 3 people on one bike. We drove for less than a minute and Francisca said "I have to go to the bathroom!" oh boy. haha. Well anyways. We were off to Bucalemu! A city in a 6th (6°! (° means st and th) district in Chile. I always think of the Hunger Games when people talk about districts...

After (después!) the 2 hour drive, we walked around a plaza first:

My sweet (tierna!) grandma and I:
Here they use tierno/-a which literally means tender for sweet. I thought it was weird at first, because in English, we don't really use tender that much. Besides for meat... haha.

 I'm loving these palm trees! (palmeras!)

We went out to lunch and I had a fish fry! I thought it was pretty good, but my family didn't like the restaurant very much.

After lunch, we walked around the town a little.

Then, we got in the car and drove to Pichilemu! It's a town 20 miles away and home to the beach of Punta de Lobos. If you are a surfer you'll probably know it. It's known as one of the best surfing beaches in the world. We stayed there for the afternoon relaxing on the beach. ahhhh.

 I played some tennis with Vicente :) :

We bought some food from a vendor. I can't remember the name of these...

Love.

I took a bunch of pictures of me on the beach and saw when I got home that I had a spot of sunscreen on my forehead. haha.

 Chile! <3

For dinner that night, we stopped in a town named Lolol. hahahahha. It made me laugh. I had a fajita and it was my first Mexican food thing since I've been here! I miss tacos.

Monday was a normal day in school... I took that physics test that I started writing this post during.

Tuesday wasn't the best day for me. Things are happening with another girl in my city and I almost had to pack up and switch host families. My family and I were planning to go to a city near Buenos Aires, Argentina for vacation this weekend but we're not going anymore because we didn't make a reservation in time. School was normal for the most part. I got home to an email from the Rotary district saying that I would not be going on the week long trip to the south of Chile because I had not saved my reservation correctly. No penguins for me. :( So I called Dad and cried. I'm so lucky to have him. He's always there for me for everything. But that was just one day. Don't think that I don't still love it here. Some days aren't the best, but that happens to everyone. Sometimes I miss little things from home, but I never actually want to go home. This is my year and there's no point in wishing I was somewhere where I'm not.

And now it's Wednesday morning before school and I'm going to have a better day! It started off 100% better with a couple emails from my brother and sister. Those meant more than you know, you two. So yeah, here's to a better day!

From math class yesterday: I feel so smart.

And yesterday I got my Chilean I.D. card! Notice the picture that i thought I wasn't allowed to smile in. ugh. haha.

Well I've got to get going now. Today's the last day of school for the week. We have a 4 day weekend! Whoo hoo!

Chao!

MAIL TIME!!!

I got my very first piece of mail today! I was so, so excited! And Jane (my 4 year-old adorable niece) is the winner!! It got sent on September 24th and I got it on the 23rd. So a month for a letter. Thanks Janey! You made my day! I love you!

Her fantastic coloring page of Cinderella:

 

Dia de la alimentación sana!!

So, it's 9:10 in the morning as I'm writing this in school. I just finished yet another long bubble-test. Since I'm in the grade equivalent to Junior year, there are a lot of tests to get ready for university. This one is for lenguaje y comunicación (language and communication... if you didn't figure it out). My favorite! (sarcasm!) I actually tried for the first 20 or so, until the questions started asking me to read and comprehend a lecture for each question. Yeaaaaahhhh, no. But now I have another 50 minutes to kill, so I'll catch up on my blog.

Last Wednesday my school had a day for healthy eating or dia de la alimentación sana. For the first two hours of the day, each class set up a stand and gave away fruit, yogurt, cereal, etc.. And so everyone was in charge of bring in 2 of each of these things. (Have I mentioned how organized and how well my classmates work together? It's incredible!) Anyways. The group that I was in was in charge of preparing the food. So I helped peel and chop a whole bunch of apples, pears, bananas, and oranges.

 Here's some pictures from the day!:

I was pretty excited!

Natalia, Fernanda, and Carolina

Natalia!:

 Miguel!:

 Fruit ninjas!

 All of the little kids! :)

On Wednesday night at 9, I had my monthly Rotary dinner. I was so exhausted just from the day and wasn't looking forward to it much... But I went and the food was really good. :) And there was accordion player that was incredible. I got home from that at 12:30. Ughhh. And got to bed around 1:00 or 1:30. So let's just say I was a bit extra tired the next day in school.

Umm. What else happened last week? On Friday, I had English class. That a relaxing class because I talk a bit of English with Ariel (my friend that sits next to me). In other classes, we try to talk in Spanish for the most part. One of the assignments was to be able to read an article out of the book out loud. So everyone was working on pronunciation. The teacher had me read it out loud to the class. I tried my best to read slowly, but after class some friends said that I read so fast! haha. The teacher asks me for synonyms for words or to explain somethings like "what is a propeller " "uhhhh. Something that propels?" Or "Christy, can you explain the difference between bored and boring?"

After school on Friday, Nico, Rodrigo, Carolina, and I walked to the mall and ate at Doggi's (another hot dog place :) ). But this time I didn't get a completo. I got a plate of fries with dollops of avocado and tomatoes and cut up pieces of hot dogs on top. Mmmm! I forgot to take a picture of it... next time!


We walked back to the school and I changed for basketball. But then I realized that practice was almost over... So I sat with Nico, Rodrigo, and Carolina and talked. We got some popsicles and then they recorded me reading the article for English. After that, I took a collectivo home.

Saturday: My 2 month mark in Chile!! I don't know how time is going by so fast here! 
I didn't do too much... Just a nice relaxing day. I got up early and went for a run. When I got back and showered I went with my mom to the feria, which is that fruit and vegetable market I wrote about before. When we got back we had lunch and some delicious, fresh strawberries with cream. Perfection.

 Selfie! I take a lot of selfies here...

Sunday! I took a colectivo to church instead of walking. The other three people in it turned and stared at me for the first few minutes, but I just ignored it because that's usual for me now. Then one of them asked me if I was going to church. I said yes and we had a colectivo full of Mormons! Haha. I got to Sacrament meeting fifteen minutes early and asked if I could play the piano. I haven't played a real piano in 2 months and I almost died! It was so great. And now I'm the back up pianist for the ward. :) I love singing the hymns in Spanish. The classes were great! I'm understanding a lot more, even if I can't answer a lot of questions. Young Women's class was fantastic. We had a lesson on being grateful for the things that make us happy in our lives. That's a pretty long list for me! And now every night I'm trying to write at least three things that made me smile during the day. It usually ends up being more than three. So church was fabulous!

I didn't want to sit around the house for the rest of the day with nothing to do so I met up with Rodrigo outside the church. I was so happy from the lesson about appreciating things that make you happy that he asked me why I look so happy. Haha. :) We took a colectivo to the grocery store and bought some oreos, starbursts, and juice. Then we walked next door to the movie theater. We bought tickets for Gravity (Gravidad) and right outside the doors I said "hey! We need to take a picture of our American candy!" I forgot about smuggling the food in... And a worker saw us and confiscated it. :( Sad. 
We didn't want to buy more, so we watched the movie without food. Gravity was in English with Spanish subs. That was nice and easy. Haha. It was kind of a dull movie. I wouldn't recommend it. But it was the only non R-rated and not scary movie (the Conjuring. Ack.) there that we both didn't mind seeing. We sat down and a guy near us took out his phone and took pictures of me. I was kinda freaked out. He didn't even try to hide it... After the movie we walked to a park to eat our food. But then it started raining so we ran to the grocery store again and ate in the little restaurant area. When it stopped raining, we walked back to the park and talked for a bit. Then I took a colectivo home and spent the evening with my lovely family.

Well it's late, late, late on Wednesday night as I'm typing this up. Well actually Thursday morning. Today I have a history test, school until 5:15, and basketball practice after. I'm tired just thinking of it. So this is it for tonight!

La semana de los niños!

On Monday I skipped school again and went to a school in Sagrada Familia called Lo Valdivia. Charlotte, Vivian, Arturo, Ernesto, and I went there to celebrate the week of children! When we went there a few weeks ago, we gave all the students colored pencils. With these, they drew pictures involving Rotary for us.

 Here are some of the best:

 Yay for Rotary!

 Look! It's me and Charlotte!

When we picked the best, we gave the winners prizes during a presentation. After that, Vivian, Charlotte, and I were brutally attacked. It was ridiculous. The entire school wanted pictures, autographs (on their hands and paper), and to talk to us. A lot of kids declared me the winner since I had the most pins. Hahaha. Score! Then, they all declared their favorite pins and held onto them. Luckily it was then time for lunch and I got to hide in teacher's lounge and eat. After lunch, we left and headed back to Curicó. I was soooo exhausted.

On the drive home, I was informed that we needed to go back to the school that night. So I went home and took a greatly needed nap. That night at Lo Valdivia, there was a mother appreciation night. They talked about how important mothers are and picked five of the best ones and gave them prizes. I actually understood most of the presentation! Yay!

So The three blondies... (probably the only ones in all of Curicó. :) ) We went on a walk in the morning to a nearby store to buy some cookies and almost every car honked. Hahahaha.

With all these Rotary activities, I've been wearing my blazer a lot. I get double the stares with it... As if I needed help in that department!

I love being an exchange student!

Natalia's Confirmation!

On Saturday, Natalia (and some other classmates) had her confirmation! I went to the Catholic church nearby at 11 and watched the ceremony. After, we took some pictures and I met Natalia's family.

Me, Romina, Natalia, Carolina, Paula, and Fernanda

Pablo, Fransisco, me, Fernanda, Rodrigo, and Lobos

Rodrigo and I! Best friend.

Everyone!

Pablo and Fernanda!

Congratulations again Natalia! :)

After pictures, we all got onto a bus and went to Molina. (It's a small city 20-ish minutes away from Curicó.) We went to Natalia's house and sat around eating and talking. Then the group of us went on a walk to a park. And we took some more pictures!

Natalia and I trying to take a good picture: Thanks Carolina. :)

Followed by uncontrollable laughter:

Followed by a funny face picture:

And finally, a good picture!

Romina, Natalia, and I:

Happy!

All of the kids at the party. I love them!

Romina and Carolina

Natalia with her cake! A lot of them here are jello cakes! A little layer of angel food cake with cream and then a big layer of jello.

Natalia's family is so, so sweet! Her mom said that I need to come back and visit really soon and her grandma invited me to come to her house for lunch someday. :) awww. And her aunt and her family needed a picture before I left. I love Chileans. Do I ever say that?

So Saturday was a great day! I went home in the afternoon and relaxed at home.

And while I have time I mind as well write about Sunday too. On Sunday morning my dad was busy and couldn't give me a ride, so I walked to church. I understood a lot more of the meetings! It's pretty exciting! When I was walking there were a ton of extra people because there was a parade for a saint in the Catholic church. And more people, means a lot more car honks and stares than usual. Oh goodie. Haha. I was pretty tired when I got home from an hour and a half of walking plus church.

On Sunday afternoon, I chatted with Dad. He was at AnnaMarie's house and so I saw Katie, Jane, Jack, and Aiden too. I sure miss them! Of course I couldn't help but take a screen shot of the twinsies.

My grandma, aunt, and cousin came over for dinner. They are so great! My abuela is a third grandma for me and I love it! She is so sweet (tierna!). I had a good night visiting with them.

Such a fun weekend!