The Chilean Way

Hello everyone! I apologize for not writing sooner.

This past month has flown by. Time seems to go  by faster when you understand what people are saying, it also goes by faster now that I am actually speaking more spanish. When i first came to Chile I was in "cuarto medio" which is like senior year, but they get out a month earlier than everybody else in order to prepare and study for the PSU, which is sort of the the SAT but way harder and without calculators, and they only have one chance to take it and get a good score. I guess you could say its kinda a big deal. My host sister ,Camila, has been studying non-stop for this test. Anyways, I was in cuarto medio but when they finished I switched to tercero medio (junior year). When I switched, at first it was hard. I was like my first day of school all over again. i didnt know anyone, everyone asked the same questions like "where are you from?" " do you like Chile?  do you have brothers and sisters?  do you like the school? do you have a boyfriend? what is your family like here? how do chileans treat you?" and the list goes on and on and on... except only this time i couldnt say " no entiendo" which is I don`t understand, because I did understand. I have been here for 3 months. I understood everything. So i patiently answered thier questions. They were all super nice to me and they said I speak good for only being here 3 months. They all want to practice thier english, which is cool. The teachers are really nice too. The cool thing is I will be here in march when I have to start school again, and I will be with the same students so it is a good thing I meet them now.

This past week I went to Reñaca. Reñaca is in Viña del Mar which is one of the most touristed areas in Chile. It is absolutly beautiful. God created such a beautiful earth for us to live in. The beach was so pretty but the water was reallllllyyyyyyyy cold!! It kind of reminded me of the California coast, because after all it still the pacific ocean, except on the other side of the equator. The city of Reñaca was sort of built into the hill side, everything was so steep. I got a tan, it felt wierd tanning in November. I just sort of went, tanned, chilled, if we wanted to do something we just went, no plans ahead of time ( the chilean way). I had an amazing time.
The day after I got back My host sister had her high school graduation, then later that night i stayed up until 4:00 in the morning do a last minute presentation  that I had to present in spanish today. Of course I didnt find out about it until thursday night because my host siter forgot to tell me. whoops. So I was doing it the chilean way, drinking coffee and finishing at 4 am. But I presented today and I think it went well. I went to an event today with my family and other exchanges and thier families and it was really fun. We had an asado or BBQ and I got to talk to other exchange students, and laugh about expierences or stupid things we have done or said.

Also my family put up the christmas tree today. It looks AWESOME, with all it ornaments and blinking lights! When i leaarn how to put pictures on my blog I will post lots of pictures. I am sort of challenged when it comes to things like that. Welp i think thats all for now. Sorry for the grammer and probably bad english, but hey i am learning another language, i am exchange student. That is my life right now, doing things the Chilean way.