I have been here for 15 days and I still love it. Riding the bus or the subway is not near as a big deal as it was the first few days nor is wearing my school uniform everyday. I have met some great people here and I have only been here a short amount of time. The language is still difficult, especially at school because the students use a lot of slang and speak sooo fast! I am learning how to say phrases instead of just words so i feel like that is a step. I went last wednesday to visit Camilo ( the exchange student from San Bernardo, Chile who stayed in my home in Texas for a few months) so that was good to see a familiar face and spend time with my hermano. His house is only 15 minutes driving from my house.
I went to a Rotary meeting on Saturday where they fed me empenadas, which is one of the traditional Chilean foods and is soooo delicious. They served me this huge empenada which has onions and meat in it and I thought this was the meal, haha no after I ate the empenada they brought a plate full of meat!! I hardly ate any of it as I was already full from the HUGE empenada. The "dieciocho(18) de Septiembre" is coming up and it a huge Chilean fiesta. where they celebrate independence from Spain. They start the festivities days before the 18th and days after the 18th. There is apparently parades, food, dancing, beverages and music. That is all that everyone is talking about here. We get a week off of school next week because of it! At the Rotary meeting they danced the national dance of Chile- the Cueca because it is getting so close to the "dieciocho". They also made me put on my Rotary jacket, the hat the men wear to dance the cueca, and the poncho thingy ( I don't know the official name) but they made me wear it and take a picture with some Rotarians and the club president. My host sister just laughed and all these Rotarians took pictures. They also said that would they would have to look out for me because I am a "pretty blonde girl." they are so nice and said that they are throwing my official welcome party on the 22nd of September so I am really excited about that. The building they held the Rotary meetings was really neat and I would have taken pictures if I had remembered to bring my camera to the meeting. The building was only for Rotary events. It had the Rotary wheel on the front of the building and inside there was a big Rotary wheel in tile with all the colors in the middle of the room. They had framed pictures of past Presidents and it was just really neat to see another club and how they operated and how they had a building just for Rotary and community events.
I just got done eating a really good lunch with my family. It was rice, a mixture of meat( cut up hot dogs and beef) with this sauce. It was very tasty, I had salad and boiled eggs too. I am getting used to eating salad with lemon and olive oil instead of salad dressing (which they don't like here by the way). I then ate pineapple ice cream, except it was like pinapple ice....it didn't have milk in it, but is officially my favorite dessert. I also offered to make devied eggs for them one day, and my tasty spaghetti another day, there are few things I know how to cook but I wan't to share the few with my family.
I went to the movie theater with Camila and Renato ( my host sister and older brother) to see Monte Carlo and usually the movies are in english with spanish subtitles, Even Camila thought it was going to be in english so when the movie started and it was spanish with no subtitles, they just laughed really hard. I have never had to think so hard while watching a movie before. It was especially hard because the setting in the movie was in Monte Carlo so the script had some french thrown in there, so to say I was a confused would be an understatement. Luckily I had watched the trailer (in english) so I knew somewhat what the plot was. I could understand some of the dialogue but honestly for the most part I was just confused. As soon as I would translate what they said, there was 10 more things I had to translate( like most of my days), so I would translate the funny lines, then laugh later than everyone else. It was interesting and I was exhausted when the movie was over. Also fun fact: sweet popcorn is commonly served, they don't like salty popcorn in fact, they looked at me weird when I asked for it.. Renato tried it and didn't like it.
I watched the Cowboys game with my brothers on Sunday and they were just laughing at me. That game was embarrassing ( Romo has got to go..:/)- My host brother Renato, even wrote on my facebook wall "cowboys suck" it was funny because I couldn't even argue with him, partially because I couldn't argue in spanish and because I didn't have much to back up my argument. It was especially funny because he was sitting right next to me on his laptop and then he logged of facebook and asked me if I wanted to get on and I said yes (not knowing what he wrote on my wall) so I get on and just start laughing and I look at him and he just says-in english- "its true" (he was right) it meant a lot to me that he spoke in english to me because he understands english but I know it is difficult for him to speak it as it is difficult for me to speak spanish. So it was cool how my brother was messing me, I actually felt like his sister instead of just a girl living in his house. I also played pool with him. We have newly remodeled game/family room, it was under construction when I arrived, I am not very good, so that gave him more reasons to laugh at me but towards the end of the game, he was helping and letting me go again when I made a terrible shot. I feel like I am
settling in, the "honeymoon" stage is over. I've seen the grafitti, the malls, and all the buildings, I have rode the subway and the buses. I now know where the cereal and food is, I know where the cupsand bowls are. I know how to turn on the shower, and where to put my towels when I get done with them. I am finally settling and I know I will be here for a while. I feel like I am going to be just fine.
