Hola todos!
Just stopping by to wish you all a Happy New Year.....¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
I'm not sure what's up with my host family esta noche. Balloons are being blown in the kitchen, and I heard Ignacio with a noise maker....and knowing my family, it'll be fun and interesting. Apparently the tradition is.....a big dinner, going to see fireworks, and then me, Mauricio, and his friends going out to dance or something of the sort.
I'm hoping Freja will be able to tag along too....but an old exchange student from Vermont is visiting her family, so I'm not sure.
Nothing of much interest going on around here. Went out the other night with Freja, Nata, and Frank....met a guy from the Bronx in the disco. That was fun and unexpected....I love meeting gringos, haha!
anyhoo.
chao!
Happy New Year!!!!
31 diciembre 2006
27 diciembre 2006
¡Hola!
Aiiight. I've returned.
Christmas was good. It didn't feel at all like Christmas, because obviously, the weather was nice enough to go to the beach(didn't do that though). On the 24th, I went to Jumbo, huge erm...store? supermarket? with Mauricio to buy things to make cinamon buns for my host family. Then we walked to a Japanese Park...it was gooorgeous. We just walked around....but there was a bridge, and fish and waterfalls...gah. Def. my fave spot in La Serena now.
Went back home and wrapped my remaining two presents and put them under the tree, then made the cinnamon buns. Parents, I had to make the dough and such all on my own! It was crazy, but fun.
We had dinner at around 10:30ish(yes, at night)...my host mom made a waaaay nice toast that kind of made me cry. But not because I was sad....I just was happy I guesss. I would say why, but I can't without sounding corny, so there. After dinner(Grammy....they used your napkins! They LOVE them!) we cleaned up and at midnight everyone hugged and drank colo de mono(it means Monkey's Tail...it's milk, coffee, and Pisco) and then my host dad handed out the
presents to everyone. It was great. I got a waaaay sweet card from my host parents and some shirts from them and such, but the presents really don't even matter to me. After we opened presents, we stayed up until about 4 am just talking. And I took part in the conversation....it was great. We laughed about what I thought was way weird in the beginning and language misunderstandings and such, it was a good time.My host family loved their presents too, which I'm glad for.
Basically...I had a great Christmas. It wasn't a huuuge deal, it just kind of....happened. But it was good. And now.
Pictures hurrah!
Ignacio and his box of presents.
Papá wearing his Red Sox hat and shirt.I'd put more. But...i'm lazy, and don't want to stretch out the page....?
chaooo
24 diciembre 2006
Just Stopping By.
Just stopping by to say: ¡Feliz Navidad!
or here it's ¡Feliz Pascua! which actually means Happy Easter. Mauricio told me something about Chileans getting confused and saying that.
I'm not actually sure.
Pictures soon!
I promise.
But...I actually have a life here now.
soooo...it's kind of hectic and busy.
and such.
chao chao.
or here it's ¡Feliz Pascua! which actually means Happy Easter. Mauricio told me something about Chileans getting confused and saying that.
I'm not actually sure.
Pictures soon!
I promise.
But...I actually have a life here now.
soooo...it's kind of hectic and busy.
and such.
chao chao.
22 diciembre 2006
So This Is What I've Been Up To:
Sorry I've been away quite awhile.
Last week...I don't recall which day. Wednesday, maybe? Went to Ovalle con Freja y Maureen....twas fun. We got the urge to get pierced during the day, but were to lazy to see if there was a good place in Ovalle, so when we got back to La Serena, we went to El Centro, where we knew there were two tattoo/piercing places. We checked them both out and asked about prices. One place was $10.000 each ear, the other was $8.000. We were leaning towards the cheaper place, but I didn't like it. I checked them both out thouroughly, parents, saw the autoclave and such, asked questions. The paco were in the cheap place, one of them offered to pierce my ear with his gun, holding out a bullet to my ear, haha. But...I declined. He showed me the tattoo on his arm though. They were nice. Both places had someone who spoke English, but we ended up going to the more expensive place. It just was nicer. The guy continually asked if we had questions, and made sure we knew what was going on and such, and it just looked cleaner. Plus, the name is Monkys. How could we not? haha....I went first since Freja and Maureen dubbed me "the brave one" because I was way excited to get a hole poked in me again, haha.
This place was awesome. Better than where I got my cartilage done in the US....cleaner and more professional, and a lot friendlier. The girl who pierced me is named Natalia...way nice with loads of tattoos and piercings herself. She understood most English, but couldn't speak it, but the other guy was right there if we needed him, so it was all good. I saw her clean down the place and disinfect everything(plus, we watched two tongue piercings and one bellybutton beforehand so we saw how they worked). She opened the needle in front of me, so I could see it was new....told me what was going on and what to do(the place in the US didn't at all...I really had no idea what was going on). It was a prick, and that was all. I talked with the guy afterwards and asked(out of curiousity about my freakish slightly tied tongue) if it was physically possible to pierce it, and turns out it is! Hurrah! He suggested I get that and not my ears, since all piercings there cost the same($10.000 pesos, about $20 US) but I didn't. Oh well. haha And now I have my second holes! Hurrah!
We went back the other day with Maureen to get her ears pierced too(the first hole) for the third time. I def. love this place....so much for that stereotype that South America's way dirty, right?
Mauricio came home. I went out with him two nights ago..him and two of his guy friends. It wasn't awkward at all though....I can actually take part in their conversations and I feel more at their level maturity wise. Chilean boys my age just like to light things on fire. haha
Freja slept over last night and hung out in Mauricio's room(Gabi's room) and watched TV, played cards, and listened to him play guitar. The cable in my room is mysteriously not working, so we had to watch TV in there. Except DVDs....we watched Hide And Seek in my room...gahhh scary! haha Freja and I finished up some Christmas shopping today...but I've run out of paper so I have two presents left and I'm set for Christmas!
No new pictures(Maureen has a pic of me getting my ears pierced though) yet, but Christmas is coming, so there should be some then! Hurrah!
Last week...I don't recall which day. Wednesday, maybe? Went to Ovalle con Freja y Maureen....twas fun. We got the urge to get pierced during the day, but were to lazy to see if there was a good place in Ovalle, so when we got back to La Serena, we went to El Centro, where we knew there were two tattoo/piercing places. We checked them both out and asked about prices. One place was $10.000 each ear, the other was $8.000. We were leaning towards the cheaper place, but I didn't like it. I checked them both out thouroughly, parents, saw the autoclave and such, asked questions. The paco were in the cheap place, one of them offered to pierce my ear with his gun, holding out a bullet to my ear, haha. But...I declined. He showed me the tattoo on his arm though. They were nice. Both places had someone who spoke English, but we ended up going to the more expensive place. It just was nicer. The guy continually asked if we had questions, and made sure we knew what was going on and such, and it just looked cleaner. Plus, the name is Monkys. How could we not? haha....I went first since Freja and Maureen dubbed me "the brave one" because I was way excited to get a hole poked in me again, haha.
This place was awesome. Better than where I got my cartilage done in the US....cleaner and more professional, and a lot friendlier. The girl who pierced me is named Natalia...way nice with loads of tattoos and piercings herself. She understood most English, but couldn't speak it, but the other guy was right there if we needed him, so it was all good. I saw her clean down the place and disinfect everything(plus, we watched two tongue piercings and one bellybutton beforehand so we saw how they worked). She opened the needle in front of me, so I could see it was new....told me what was going on and what to do(the place in the US didn't at all...I really had no idea what was going on). It was a prick, and that was all. I talked with the guy afterwards and asked(out of curiousity about my freakish slightly tied tongue) if it was physically possible to pierce it, and turns out it is! Hurrah! He suggested I get that and not my ears, since all piercings there cost the same($10.000 pesos, about $20 US) but I didn't. Oh well. haha And now I have my second holes! Hurrah!
We went back the other day with Maureen to get her ears pierced too(the first hole) for the third time. I def. love this place....so much for that stereotype that South America's way dirty, right?
Mauricio came home. I went out with him two nights ago..him and two of his guy friends. It wasn't awkward at all though....I can actually take part in their conversations and I feel more at their level maturity wise. Chilean boys my age just like to light things on fire. haha
Freja slept over last night and hung out in Mauricio's room(Gabi's room) and watched TV, played cards, and listened to him play guitar. The cable in my room is mysteriously not working, so we had to watch TV in there. Except DVDs....we watched Hide And Seek in my room...gahhh scary! haha Freja and I finished up some Christmas shopping today...but I've run out of paper so I have two presents left and I'm set for Christmas!
No new pictures(Maureen has a pic of me getting my ears pierced though) yet, but Christmas is coming, so there should be some then! Hurrah!
12 diciembre 2006
Cookie Day!
So yesterday.
Freja and I met up at the mall and wandered a bit, before heading over to Jumbo to buy materials for our Christmas Co
okie Making Extravaganza! We didn't know the words for cookie cutter or sprinkles, so we had to ask for help by pointing to pictures on the cookie mix box we were buying. BUT. During our cookie cutter confusion crisis, an American woman stepped in and helped! She was from Las Vegas originally, but had been living in Chile for six years! Craziness! anyhoo, she helped us find some cookie cutters, and we were off. Came home, took tea....and played cards.
We played a lot of cards. We weren't tired at all, so we continued to play cards. We had a bit of an outside dance party when the sun started coming up, and sat and played solitaire in the kitchen until my host dad came in to get his lunch box and head off to work. We said hello, and then wandered zombie-like to my bed room where we promptly collapsed.
Slept till 3 today....had some food and went online to read our palms. My life line says I have a lot of health problems. Hurrah! Then....the cookie making began.
It was quite fun, and only took about an hour and a half-two hours. It was exciting. We
ate some while we were decorating, but the ones that survived totalled 98. Not bad.
And tomorrow is...Gringa Meetup! Aka all the La Serena girls are getting together. Hurrah!
Piccccs
besitosss
Freja and I met up at the mall and wandered a bit, before heading over to Jumbo to buy materials for our Christmas Co
okie Making Extravaganza! We didn't know the words for cookie cutter or sprinkles, so we had to ask for help by pointing to pictures on the cookie mix box we were buying. BUT. During our cookie cutter confusion crisis, an American woman stepped in and helped! She was from Las Vegas originally, but had been living in Chile for six years! Craziness! anyhoo, she helped us find some cookie cutters, and we were off. Came home, took tea....and played cards.We played a lot of cards. We weren't tired at all, so we continued to play cards. We had a bit of an outside dance party when the sun started coming up, and sat and played solitaire in the kitchen until my host dad came in to get his lunch box and head off to work. We said hello, and then wandered zombie-like to my bed room where we promptly collapsed.
Slept till 3 today....had some food and went online to read our palms. My life line says I have a lot of health problems. Hurrah! Then....the cookie making began.
It was quite fun, and only took about an hour and a half-two hours. It was exciting. We
ate some while we were decorating, but the ones that survived totalled 98. Not bad.And tomorrow is...Gringa Meetup! Aka all the La Serena girls are getting together. Hurrah!
Piccccs
besitosss
10 diciembre 2006
"Estamos libre"
So....for those of you who don't tune into the news, or incase this didn't even make the news.....former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet died today. I got an email from...someone who's email address is at the state.gov site(leading me to believe I got an email from the government itself....p.s. how do they know I'm here again?) warning me about demonstrations in the Santiago area. People have been drinking wine and champagne and dancing to celebrate saying things like "Estamos libre!" which means "We're free!". My host parents are kind of eh about it. I mean, they talked about what happened when he was president and how crazy people were getting over his death(and the Colo-Colo fútbol game) but said no matter how horrible he was, his death shouldn't be celebrated.
I knew I liked them for a reason.
So...otherwise, nothing new. I only regret that I wasn't placed closer to Santiago or in the city itself so I could see it first hand(now there's an experience!) and bring you some exciting pictures. Oh well. For now, I rely on news reports, because I can actually understand them(hurrah!)
An exchanger from Los Andes came up to La Serena for the weekend. We saw a movie together. It was really nice...just the two of us though, but I got to know her better than I did at the orientation. My host parents tonight suggested contacting an exchange student in another town...they could come here for a week, I could go there for a week, together. I didn't know that was possible, but now that they've suggested it, I guess I'll look into it. I guess they can see I'm getting slightly bored here. But I'm so tired lately it's all I can do to wander zombie-like around the house. I don't really have the motivation to go out lately, even though I'm sleeping something like 12 hours a night. Ah, well.
Was reading my Exchange Student Handbook today, and realized that I've barely had any of the....things(don't know the word any more haha) they say all exchange students should have. No culture shock, no real homesickness, I'm actually really excited for the holidays, not depressed. Huh. I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. i suppose good, seeing as it means I've settled here really well, but still. The only thing that's bothered me since day one is the fact that I'm now introverted and have a hard time initiating or keeping up a conversation. Gar.
Anyhoo. besitossss
I knew I liked them for a reason.
So...otherwise, nothing new. I only regret that I wasn't placed closer to Santiago or in the city itself so I could see it first hand(now there's an experience!) and bring you some exciting pictures. Oh well. For now, I rely on news reports, because I can actually understand them(hurrah!)
An exchanger from Los Andes came up to La Serena for the weekend. We saw a movie together. It was really nice...just the two of us though, but I got to know her better than I did at the orientation. My host parents tonight suggested contacting an exchange student in another town...they could come here for a week, I could go there for a week, together. I didn't know that was possible, but now that they've suggested it, I guess I'll look into it. I guess they can see I'm getting slightly bored here. But I'm so tired lately it's all I can do to wander zombie-like around the house. I don't really have the motivation to go out lately, even though I'm sleeping something like 12 hours a night. Ah, well.
Was reading my Exchange Student Handbook today, and realized that I've barely had any of the....things(don't know the word any more haha) they say all exchange students should have. No culture shock, no real homesickness, I'm actually really excited for the holidays, not depressed. Huh. I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. i suppose good, seeing as it means I've settled here really well, but still. The only thing that's bothered me since day one is the fact that I'm now introverted and have a hard time initiating or keeping up a conversation. Gar.
Anyhoo. besitossss
07 diciembre 2006
I Hate Water.
So today. Was fun.
Minus getting up ridiculousl
y early, aka about 9 am.
Anyhoo. Counselor picked me up, we went to Happy Land, which is this arcade type place where Alyssa and I were given cards(instead of coins) by the Rotarians and told to go off and play with the kids from the poor school Rotary was hanging out with all day. It was quite fun and I learned that I absolutely suck at driving and should never be given the license to anything. Atleast.....I suck at video game driving(those poor, poor onlookers....)
Then, Alyssa and I went with the club president to Coquimbo to go on a boat tour(the kids were on the bus). It was cool....and he talked to me. But only me, and I felt kind of bad for Alyssa....but at the same time, I think maybe she has a hard time understanding people....? I don't know. Anyhoo. Boat tour. 'Twas fun, even though a kid behind us threw up and the guy giving the tour decided he would speak to us ONLY in English(us being me and Alyssa)....which made me want to die. Because I'm not here to speak English. Thank you for assuming that I don't even understand your language while I was clearly listening to you talk about Coquimbo's first prison or that new school on the rocks or those stinky sea lions.
We saw sea lions, by the way.
Then....lunch at the club. Alyssa and I rode on the bus with the kids and spoke English since they laughed at us in a cruel-ish way when we spoke Spanish, and seem oddly intrigued by our English, and all leaned in closely to listen. They seemed amazed by my hair too(one girl later caught me off guard by randomly touching it. Yes....this color hair really does exist outside of Hollywood....)
After lunch we went to HomeCenter....which is this big store. We went to the pet part and got to see some pretty cool critters....and I held a tarantula! Yes, I, Kelsey Edwards, the girl who will not sleep in the room if there's a spider present and runs screaming at the sight of a Daddy Long Legs, held a tarantula. In my hand. Crazy. Sure, I was kind of shaky, but it wasn't all that scary. And I'm quite proud of myself for doing it too! I think my subconscious was telling me I was ready to....I had a weird dream last night involving giant bugs taking over the yard, haha.
Anyhoo. A good time was had by all and I got some great pics, some new friends and some awesome videos. Hurrah! Now, on to the goodies:
Fotos: Alyssa holding the spider(LOVE her face in this one) and me holding the spider. Then video of my counselor...doing something....(I think he was trying to say "How was the boat tour?" without words) and some random fun on the boat tour(during some rocky waves. And also, a message in French for dad from Alyssa). Chaoito! besitos a todos!
Minus getting up ridiculousl
y early, aka about 9 am.Anyhoo. Counselor picked me up, we went to Happy Land, which is this arcade type place where Alyssa and I were given cards(instead of coins) by the Rotarians and told to go off and play with the kids from the poor school Rotary was hanging out with all day. It was quite fun and I learned that I absolutely suck at driving and should never be given the license to anything. Atleast.....I suck at video game driving(those poor, poor onlookers....)
Then, Alyssa and I went with the club president to Coquimbo to go on a boat tour(the kids were on the bus). It was cool....and he talked to me. But only me, and I felt kind of bad for Alyssa....but at the same time, I think maybe she has a hard time understanding people....? I don't know. Anyhoo. Boat tour. 'Twas fun, even though a kid behind us threw up and the guy giving the tour decided he would speak to us ONLY in English(us being me and Alyssa)....which made me want to die. Because I'm not here to speak English. Thank you for assuming that I don't even understand your language while I was clearly listening to you talk about Coquimbo's first prison or that new school on the rocks or those stinky sea lions.
We saw sea lions, by the way.
Then....lunch at the club. Alyssa and I rode on the bus with the kids and spoke English since they laughed at us in a cruel-ish way when we spoke Spanish, and seem oddly intrigued by our English, and all leaned in closely to listen. They seemed amazed by my hair too(one girl later caught me off guard by randomly touching it. Yes....this color hair really does exist outside of Hollywood....)
After lunch we went to HomeCenter....which is this big store. We went to the pet part and got to see some pretty cool critters....and I held a tarantula! Yes, I, Kelsey Edwards, the girl who will not sleep in the room if there's a spider present and runs screaming at the sight of a Daddy Long Legs, held a tarantula. In my hand. Crazy. Sure, I was kind of shaky, but it wasn't all that scary. And I'm quite proud of myself for doing it too! I think my subconscious was telling me I was ready to....I had a weird dream last night involving giant bugs taking over the yard, haha.
Anyhoo. A good time was had by all and I got some great pics, some new friends and some awesome videos. Hurrah! Now, on to the goodies:
Fotos: Alyssa holding the spider(LOVE her face in this one) and me holding the spider. Then video of my counselor...doing something....(I think he was trying to say "How was the boat tour?" without words) and some random fun on the boat tour(during some rocky waves. And also, a message in French for dad from Alyssa). Chaoito! besitos a todos!
05 diciembre 2006
Oh Rotaryyy, Oh Rotaryyyyy
....that title should be sung to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree", by the way.
So last night I went to my first Rotary meeting in my entire life.
Hurrah!
My counselor and his wife came and picked me up and we drove to the club in Coquimbo. It's a real nice place...they rent it out for weddings and baptisms and such and use the money they get to fix it up(I heard the kitchen was a disaster at one time). I was complimented on my Spanish....when the president of the club asked if I spoke Spanish and I said, "Más o menos" which is pretty much a little bit, my counselor's wife(can't remember her name) said "No, arto!" Which is, "No, a lot!" yaaaaay! She said my Spanish is a lot better than before and I speak a lot more now. Hurrah!
Alyssa, from Canada came too. She's the other exchanger with the club. It was her 18th birthday yesterday too. We sat down at these three tables, that are connected in a U shape, for dinner. I sat on the side of the president of the club, and Alyssa sat on the other side of me. They had a cake and a present(some chocolates) for Alyssa, and we sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish.
I'm really really happy with this club, actually. I've heard stories of kids in different countries whose clubs don't really notice that they exist, but I highly doubt that will happen here. There's a total of 18 members in the Rotary Coquimbo Club, only 11 showed up last night(and that's typical, apparently). They invited us to a thing on Thursday....we're going on a boat tour and a few other places with a poor school in Coquimbo. And I think I'm going to go on a four day retreat type thing for Interact(they invited us to that too! Even though we're not members) in January. And I like the size of the club too, because I'll actually get to know the members, and they'll get to know me. So yeah....I'm excited.
Gave them my banner too. Hurrah! But I didn't get to wear my blazer. Oh well. Maybe later in the year.
Pictures! The first one is of Alyssa and her cake. The second is of me and Alyssa with the club president.
So last night I went to my first Rotary meeting in my entire life.
Hurrah!
My counselor and his wife came and picked me up and we drove to the club in Coquimbo. It's a real nice place...they rent it out for weddings and baptisms and such and use the money they get to fix it up(I heard the kitchen was a disaster at one time). I was complimented on my Spanish....when the president of the club asked if I spoke Spanish and I said, "Más o menos" which is pretty much a little bit, my counselor's wife(can't remember her name) said "No, arto!" Which is, "No, a lot!" yaaaaay! She said my Spanish is a lot better than before and I speak a lot more now. Hurrah!
Alyssa, from Canada came too. She's the other exchanger with the club. It was her 18th birthday yesterday too. We sat down at these three tables, that are connected in a U shape, for dinner. I sat on the side of the president of the club, and Alyssa sat on the other side of me. They had a cake and a present(some chocolates) for Alyssa, and we sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish.
I'm really really happy with this club, actually. I've heard stories of kids in different countries whose clubs don't really notice that they exist, but I highly doubt that will happen here. There's a total of 18 members in the Rotary Coquimbo Club, only 11 showed up last night(and that's typical, apparently). They invited us to a thing on Thursday....we're going on a boat tour and a few other places with a poor school in Coquimbo. And I think I'm going to go on a four day retreat type thing for Interact(they invited us to that too! Even though we're not members) in January. And I like the size of the club too, because I'll actually get to know the members, and they'll get to know me. So yeah....I'm excited.
Gave them my banner too. Hurrah! But I didn't get to wear my blazer. Oh well. Maybe later in the year.
Pictures! The first one is of Alyssa and her cake. The second is of me and Alyssa with the club president.
03 diciembre 2006
¡Deck the Halls!
So...today. I am real exhau
sted lately...I'm not sure why. But...I slept until just after 2, which is slightly late for me(usually it's one. woohoo!) Anyhoo. Woke up, and went to take a shower, and see that my host family is getting the Christmas tree out and ready. Hurrah! So I hurried up and got ready, and was fairly excited, despite the fact that "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" was stuck in my head, which reminded me of Christmas back home. *le sigh*
Anyhoo.
Decorated the tree......it was quite fun. And I took pictures! Hurrah! They'll be up on my Yahoo site today(http://photos.yahoo.com/ksitter9). And some video!
It's different here....real different. A fake tree for one thing, but I'm excited n
onetheless. I have a stocking hanging on my door, and I'm going to put up the Christmas lights you sent me, madre, later. I'm pumped. And I was able to share what it's like back at home(aka, we all fight. And one year John filled his room with multi-colored lights and played surf music. hahaha). Anyhoo, onto the goodies:
sted lately...I'm not sure why. But...I slept until just after 2, which is slightly late for me(usually it's one. woohoo!) Anyhoo. Woke up, and went to take a shower, and see that my host family is getting the Christmas tree out and ready. Hurrah! So I hurried up and got ready, and was fairly excited, despite the fact that "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" was stuck in my head, which reminded me of Christmas back home. *le sigh*Anyhoo.
Decorated the tree......it was quite fun. And I took pictures! Hurrah! They'll be up on my Yahoo site today(http://photos.yahoo.com/ksitter9). And some video!
It's different here....real different. A fake tree for one thing, but I'm excited n
onetheless. I have a stocking hanging on my door, and I'm going to put up the Christmas lights you sent me, madre, later. I'm pumped. And I was able to share what it's like back at home(aka, we all fight. And one year John filled his room with multi-colored lights and played surf music. hahaha). Anyhoo, onto the goodies:
02 diciembre 2006
This is short. Eff why eye.
Just stopping by to show you my new fave piece of clothing(next to that hawt Rotary blazer, of course). Bought it with Freja the other day. Nothing new here....chilling at home...still no Christmas decorating as of yet(holy chipmunks it's December now, isn't it??!!). Saw a movie, The Guardian, in English....not bad. I recommend it, if it's still showing at a theater near you, that is. Anyhoo, onto the scandyy pic.
Found this shirt in Ripley, and it was pretty much the only non-sexual one there. Oh, Chileans. They have this weird thing about buying shirts in English even though none of them know what it means. I saw one that said this(and yes, the spelling mistake is on purpose) "The world is pretty ammazing ago." yeah, I don't get it either.
Chao!
<3
p.s. Parents! Can we arrange a chat soon? It's been awhile.
and others! Yes, that means you! Wanna leave me some lovin' in the form of a comment? ¿por fa? I feel like I'm talking(er, posting) to a brick wall...
Found this shirt in Ripley, and it was pretty much the only non-sexual one there. Oh, Chileans. They have this weird thing about buying shirts in English even though none of them know what it means. I saw one that said this(and yes, the spelling mistake is on purpose) "The world is pretty ammazing ago." yeah, I don't get it either.
Chao!
<3
p.s. Parents! Can we arrange a chat soon? It's been awhile.
and others! Yes, that means you! Wanna leave me some lovin' in the form of a comment? ¿por fa? I feel like I'm talking(er, posting) to a brick wall...
28 noviembre 2006
Are these better, padre?
Today, Freja, yo, y el papá de Freja we went to a town called Ovalle...about an hour away. It was quite exciting. Freja and I wandered around while her dad worked....I bought a tank top and a skirt and took pictures and videos. We went to a giant lake thing. It was windy. We were semi-attacked by a man with a red eye who kept telling us we were princesses and pretty and asking if we had money, and he was really close, and then I said we had to go, and we ran away. jaja....Oh, Chile. Anyhoo. Pictures and videos. Woohoo!
We saw GRINGAS!!! REAL LIVE GRINGAS! But they were pesada and didn't say hi. They were probably Germans, we decided....haha.
This is on the bridge/damn/somethingorother. As you can see, we are very educated(I think I ask where we are in all of these videos...)
We saw GRINGAS!!! REAL LIVE GRINGAS! But they were pesada and didn't say hi. They were probably Germans, we decided....haha.
This is on the bridge/damn/somethingorother. As you can see, we are very educated(I think I ask where we are in all of these videos...)
27 noviembre 2006
Que fome.
So. I'm in school. ha. big surprise, eh? Why on Earth would I have nothing to do? haha
Turns out that end of the year testing starts today, so I'm done with school. But there's these presentacions in the 5th grade class I teach....they're doing recipes in English....with FOOD. and what kind of exchange student would I be to turn down food, right? So Freja and I came for that...and then we'll try and get out of here. I'll update a bit later...I'm taking pictures todayyy haha It's been awhile since I've done that.
Also, from now on, please excuse any nonsensical spellings I may...spell? Or ridiculous things I say that make no sense. My English is disappearing before my eyes, which is slightly terrifying and utterly hilarious at once. ¿How can someone forget their mother tongue?
Ah, well.
chao pescado
*Edit*
so. We escaped from school. I'm not entirely sure if we were supposed to, but what little of our class was leaving...so we left too. Haha, oops.
anyhoo.
Piccasss....me and Freja....the fifth grade class we teach...and us again, showing love to Alcide de Gasperi. Also: VIDEO!!!
25 noviembre 2006
A Continuación: weirdness.
Last night followed the trend of weirdness. Got to Freja's house at around 10:30. The plan was to spend the night. We went to Barrio Ingles. Went to one disco called Mr.X....there was some thing there for the university and a lot of people were dressed up for whoknowswhy. Freja and I made friends with the people at the table next to ours and hung out with them all night. Turns out one of the girls is my neighbor of sorts.
Hung out today, before leaving to go back to my house. It's my host dad's birthday, but by the time I got home, I had missed lunch. oops. I meant to take a colectivo home, but I there weren't any of my number, so I just started....walking. I really had no idea where I was and only a general idea of where I was going(which was straight haha), but I ended up safely at home about 45 minutes later. I'm guessing Freja lives the same distance from my house as the distance from school to my house, 2.5 miles. Good exercise, I say.
I think Freja and I pretty much decided not to go out tonight. we were going to, but we're tired. So we're chilling at home instead.. And that. Was my Chilean weekend.
besitos!
Hung out today, before leaving to go back to my house. It's my host dad's birthday, but by the time I got home, I had missed lunch. oops. I meant to take a colectivo home, but I there weren't any of my number, so I just started....walking. I really had no idea where I was and only a general idea of where I was going(which was straight haha), but I ended up safely at home about 45 minutes later. I'm guessing Freja lives the same distance from my house as the distance from school to my house, 2.5 miles. Good exercise, I say.
I think Freja and I pretty much decided not to go out tonight. we were going to, but we're tired. So we're chilling at home instead.. And that. Was my Chilean weekend.
besitos!
24 noviembre 2006
A Nature Attack!
So...it turns out that today is actually the last day of classes....? No estoy segura. Bueno. Nothing happened for the first four classes or so. Then.....Freja and I were standing outside talking during one of the breaks, when I see a group of people coming, wearing trashbags....and I think, Dub tee eff....is this a fisica experiment? And then....this red....smoke starts coming at us....so apparently I grabbed Freja's arm and we both went screaming and running into the nearest classroom with a few other people, thinking we'd be safe. I ran in, all the way to the back, and thought. Damn. There's a wall here with nothing to protect me. Well, there was a cabinet, but I didn't have the key, or the time, so I figured if I could just....stand there? I looked to the door and saw more people running, and then....people in the doorway with the red smoke and then two girls appeared on either side of me, one had a jacket that we hid under until we figured it was safe to reappear. It was horrible....I felt like sneezing, was afraid to have my eyes open, and was having not such an easy time breathing. So I kind of booked it out of that classroom, which was now pretty much completely red. EVERYTHING was red. Got outside....everyone was reemerging and crowded looking at the wall that leads to the farm next door, where cuarto, the grade above us, who are graduating tonight, was gathered, jumping over the wall, making their escape. I found Freja, who wasn't all that red, just in some spots. We checked our stuff, which was thankfully in the back of my classroom, which wasn't sprayed too badly, and none of it was red(minus a bit at the bottom). Went back outside....cuarto was coming back at us with water balloons, but were thankfully stopped by the head honchos of Scuola Italiana. Then they disappeared over the wall, warning us that this was only the beginning.
Well. Some beginning. They ruined people's things. Clothes, backpacks, anything cloth is ruined. I think it was a fire extinguisher, but with red dye in it....but it doesn't come out of clothes. And is really bad to breathe in. They punched a girl in the other class too, just because they don't like her. They don't like us. I don't know why. I thinkthinkthink the police came today and just....stood guard, but I don't know. Rumor has it they'll be there next week too. No one really feels safe anymore(in tercero anyway). I've lost all respect for everyone involved. How stupid can you be? The stuff was toxic(? toxico...?). They're just.....stupid. And pardon my French, but utter assholes. And absolutely crazy. Ah well. I am slightly pissed off though. Even though I somehow survived the attack with nothing but (most likely) slightly red lungs. My clothes ended up fine.
Watched Poseidon instead of going to art class.....and drank some tea with Freja. And then Freja broke the tea glass(it was the music teachers), but school was over so we just picked up the pieces and left, haha.
Now.....I'm home. Going out in a teensy bit to buy my host dad a present(his birthday is tomorrow) and then to bellydancing. I think I'm mailing my package mañana. Por fin. i haven't had any time lately. Anyhoo. So that was my day, being attacked by the pyschotic cuarto medios. Stupidheads.
Chao
Well. Some beginning. They ruined people's things. Clothes, backpacks, anything cloth is ruined. I think it was a fire extinguisher, but with red dye in it....but it doesn't come out of clothes. And is really bad to breathe in. They punched a girl in the other class too, just because they don't like her. They don't like us. I don't know why. I thinkthinkthink the police came today and just....stood guard, but I don't know. Rumor has it they'll be there next week too. No one really feels safe anymore(in tercero anyway). I've lost all respect for everyone involved. How stupid can you be? The stuff was toxic(? toxico...?). They're just.....stupid. And pardon my French, but utter assholes. And absolutely crazy. Ah well. I am slightly pissed off though. Even though I somehow survived the attack with nothing but (most likely) slightly red lungs. My clothes ended up fine.
Watched Poseidon instead of going to art class.....and drank some tea with Freja. And then Freja broke the tea glass(it was the music teachers), but school was over so we just picked up the pieces and left, haha.
Now.....I'm home. Going out in a teensy bit to buy my host dad a present(his birthday is tomorrow) and then to bellydancing. I think I'm mailing my package mañana. Por fin. i haven't had any time lately. Anyhoo. So that was my day, being attacked by the pyschotic cuarto medios. Stupidheads.
Chao
22 noviembre 2006
This entry contains three languages.
Hoy día yo aprendi como se dice "Hola, me llamo Kelsey, soy de Estados Unidos" en Italiano. Mira. "Ciao. Io sono Kelsey. Io sono di Estados Unidos." Que bueno, ¿no? Bueno. Hoy día yo no hago nada....que fome. Yo desperti muy tarde otra vez...que malo. Pero no importa...tenia biologia primero, y fue una prueba que yo no tenia que hacer. Freja y yo hablabamos sobre español...tenemos miedo sobre la orientación y nuestra español. Entonces....mañana vamos a hablar solamente en español y todos los días despues. Pero, si tú puedes entender eso, entonces sabes como está mi español...¡mal! jaja No importa. Es solo que yo no hablo tanto. Hablo demasiado ingles. Bueno....desde hoy no más. Al menos de estamos hablando sobre una persona que está circa de nosotras....jaja por supuesto. Nada importante paso hoy día menos la clase de italiano con el director, por fin! También él me dió dos libros de aleman. Yo quiero aprender un otro idioma, menos español y poquito italiano. jaja, pienso que la Freja piensa que estoy loca, pero no me importa. Yo quiero conocer todo el mundo y hablar cinco idiomas. Tengo que comenzar ahora, ¿cachai? Bueno, la Freja me dijo que ella quiere tener clases de danés. Eso es muy bueno porque quiero aprender danés también. Bueno, danés o aleman. Pero no los dos. No sé.
anyhoo. In English....my day was not exciting either. Went to Jumbo, a giant grocery store. Was stared at creepily by a couple of men. Had a good laugh with Freja about having to lock up our bags(because we're really going to steal by using our lunchboxes. Por fa). Decided today that we're going to make Christmas cookies and tacos. I'm not gonna lie. I'm excited. School is almost almost ALMOST over, and I'm so freaking excited. SUMMMERRRRR. Lots of pictures to come, methinks. I think tomorrow voy a caminar y sacar fotos. um...walk and take pictures? jaja Español came into my head first. Which is a good sign because lately I've felt like I've lost my Espanich a bit. Jaja. Anyhoo. chao
besitosss
anyhoo. In English....my day was not exciting either. Went to Jumbo, a giant grocery store. Was stared at creepily by a couple of men. Had a good laugh with Freja about having to lock up our bags(because we're really going to steal by using our lunchboxes. Por fa). Decided today that we're going to make Christmas cookies and tacos. I'm not gonna lie. I'm excited. School is almost almost ALMOST over, and I'm so freaking excited. SUMMMERRRRR. Lots of pictures to come, methinks. I think tomorrow voy a caminar y sacar fotos. um...walk and take pictures? jaja Español came into my head first. Which is a good sign because lately I've felt like I've lost my Espanich a bit. Jaja. Anyhoo. chao
besitosss
21 noviembre 2006
Gringo Meetup
Okay. So....Sunday. Freja and I went to the movies, to see El Gran Truco...the Great Trick maybe? It was good. Anyway...we were going to walk through the mall when it got out, to go catch colectivos when I saw Maureen, the other American, standing by a stall outside. So we go over to say hi and discover that Alyssa, the Canadian, is there too. We're talking, and all of a sudden, this group of light haired people, who i had seen out of the corner of my eye but chosen to ignore, comes over and this girl says, "Are you guys with Rotary?" They were from Talca, four Americans and a German, on the North Tour with tons of exchangers in the Santiago district....all of whom were inside the mall. Maureen and Alyssa had to go since their ride was there, but Freja and I went inside the mall to say hi to the other gringos. It was crazy...there were so many of them....and there were so many countries! Germany, US, Canada, Holland, Brazil, Bolivia, Hungary, and more! We only have US, Finland, Canada, Denmark, and Belgium. Que fome. So anyhoo....got some cards, exchanged some numbers...it was a good time. Crazy random. Like, what are the chances? If I hadn't seen Maureen, who hadn't been standing by the stall of those five random gringos, it never would have happened. Crazy how things work like that.
We left at a little bit past 10....saw a guy being arrested in the parking lot, some kid was being dragged off by security while the guy was being pinned down by three guys yelling "Suelteme! ¡Conchatumadre!" Slightly amusing, but still kind of blegh. Welcome to La Serena, huh? Actually....I think Chile as a whole is really safe. I really don't think there's a whole lot of crime as far as rapes and murders. Lots of robbings though, which is why everyone has these giant walls and fences around their houses. It'll be weird to go back to the US and not see that, since when I see a house without it now I always think something along the lines of "What? Are they stupid?"
Gave a presentation in Spanish yesterday. It went...okay. I kept tripping over my own words though. Even though I'm dreaming more in Spanish, these past couple of days my thoughts have been hardcore English and it's harder to speak than normal.
Overslept today, so I didn't go to school. Mamá overslept too though, haha oops. Went back to the clinic to get the insurance thing filled out. In otherwords, I had an exciting day.
Oh. But I found out yesterday about the end of the year exams. Starting next Wednesday, every day is just testing, but Freja and I don't have to do it....which means that I'm officially DONE with school next Wednesday! Yessss I'm pumped like you would not believe. I can't wait for summer!!!!!
anyhoo.
besitos
We left at a little bit past 10....saw a guy being arrested in the parking lot, some kid was being dragged off by security while the guy was being pinned down by three guys yelling "Suelteme! ¡Conchatumadre!" Slightly amusing, but still kind of blegh. Welcome to La Serena, huh? Actually....I think Chile as a whole is really safe. I really don't think there's a whole lot of crime as far as rapes and murders. Lots of robbings though, which is why everyone has these giant walls and fences around their houses. It'll be weird to go back to the US and not see that, since when I see a house without it now I always think something along the lines of "What? Are they stupid?"
Gave a presentation in Spanish yesterday. It went...okay. I kept tripping over my own words though. Even though I'm dreaming more in Spanish, these past couple of days my thoughts have been hardcore English and it's harder to speak than normal.
Overslept today, so I didn't go to school. Mamá overslept too though, haha oops. Went back to the clinic to get the insurance thing filled out. In otherwords, I had an exciting day.
Oh. But I found out yesterday about the end of the year exams. Starting next Wednesday, every day is just testing, but Freja and I don't have to do it....which means that I'm officially DONE with school next Wednesday! Yessss I'm pumped like you would not believe. I can't wait for summer!!!!!
anyhoo.
besitos
19 noviembre 2006
I'm fairly hardcore.
So yesterday.
Went to get my haircut at the mall with Freja. Just over $6.000.....that's around $12/$13 US!!!! Craziness! I was utterly terrified....but I managed to explain what I wanted pretty much....and I really like my new hair! Yay! Afterwards Freja came to my house where we showed off our new hair....mamá was slightly upset(maybe?) that we went to the mall....she said it's expensive and that next time, we should go to her hairdresser....which costs $4.000. Yup, that's right....$8.00 US.
Went and picked up my allowance with Freja y mamá, so I am no longer slightly poor. Afterwards, Maggie, mamá, Freja y yo went to el centro to buy fabric and such for the belly dancing outfit. WELL. That was interesting. Freja and I were both in skirts....which may have been a slight mistake. We def. got a lot of stares and comments from pretty every man who walked by. I think mamá was slightly surprised at how bad it can actually be. One guy walked by and said, "Hola cositas." which she said meant something along the lines of "Hola bonitas" but it must have been rude because she stopped walking and just stared at him. Evilly. The guy with him asked if she wanted to buy something from him and she just....stared and said NO and kept walking. It was pretty funny. Some street vendor said that we were princesses and then he said "mira, mira mira!" which means look. Psh. Stupid men.
La Maggie is leaving today :( She's going to have her friend help her with the bellydancing outfit in Calama, since she bellydances and makes outfits too. It's fairly exciting.
Went to Sundance last night at about 12. Met up with some friends and hung outside for a bit. They didn't want to enter, but Freja and I had bought entradas already, so we went by ourselves and danced until about 3:25, when we went outside and mamá picked us up. It was fun....we danced on the stage and such. And all my classmates really liked my hair. yay!
Today Freja and I were going to take sun, but we didn't have time since we slept till 3. Oops. Oh well. We will soon. SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!!11!exclamationpoint!!1one!!1!!
anyhoo.
today....movies maybe? No sé.
besitos!
P.S This is me....giving besitos.....in my $12 hair cut. Hurrah!
Went to get my haircut at the mall with Freja. Just over $6.000.....that's around $12/$13 US!!!! Craziness! I was utterly terrified....but I managed to explain what I wanted pretty much....and I really like my new hair! Yay! Afterwards Freja came to my house where we showed off our new hair....mamá was slightly upset(maybe?) that we went to the mall....she said it's expensive and that next time, we should go to her hairdresser....which costs $4.000. Yup, that's right....$8.00 US.
Went and picked up my allowance with Freja y mamá, so I am no longer slightly poor. Afterwards, Maggie, mamá, Freja y yo went to el centro to buy fabric and such for the belly dancing outfit. WELL. That was interesting. Freja and I were both in skirts....which may have been a slight mistake. We def. got a lot of stares and comments from pretty every man who walked by. I think mamá was slightly surprised at how bad it can actually be. One guy walked by and said, "Hola cositas." which she said meant something along the lines of "Hola bonitas" but it must have been rude because she stopped walking and just stared at him. Evilly. The guy with him asked if she wanted to buy something from him and she just....stared and said NO and kept walking. It was pretty funny. Some street vendor said that we were princesses and then he said "mira, mira mira!" which means look. Psh. Stupid men.
La Maggie is leaving today :( She's going to have her friend help her with the bellydancing outfit in Calama, since she bellydances and makes outfits too. It's fairly exciting.
Went to Sundance last night at about 12. Met up with some friends and hung outside for a bit. They didn't want to enter, but Freja and I had bought entradas already, so we went by ourselves and danced until about 3:25, when we went outside and mamá picked us up. It was fun....we danced on the stage and such. And all my classmates really liked my hair. yay!
Today Freja and I were going to take sun, but we didn't have time since we slept till 3. Oops. Oh well. We will soon. SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!!11!exclamationpoint!!1one!!1!!
anyhoo.
today....movies maybe? No sé.
besitos!
P.S This is me....giving besitos.....in my $12 hair cut. Hurrah!
18 noviembre 2006
Bailandooo
Oh, hoy día.
Woke up ridiculously early(10 of 9) and got ready in about 30 minutes(padres, can you believe that???!!!) then went to school to dance. It was pretty cool....but there was a big gap in front of Freja and I so everyone could see us. Woohoo.
Afterwards I found out that I have to go the photo studio to buy my school picture. The last time he came to sell them at school, I was sick, so he didn't have any more copies. Oh well. Walked home. In normal clothes. Oh boy. Some guy decided to yell to us, proclaiming his love for blondes and me. I swore at him in English, but he kept saying how he liked me so I finally said, "Callate huevon!" which is Spanish for shut up...asshole? maybe. Oh well. Sometimes the men here just get to me. oops. I would say that today was the worst it has been. I was waved at, kissed at, yelled at, stared at, and clapped at. All in the 2.5 miles from my school to my house. Urgh. I was also followed home by a German Shepard. He was cute. Oh well. It's actually gotten worse for me as time has gone by, as far as having attention drawn to me. I hate being a blonde. Gar.
Yesterday Freja and I went to el centro and el mall. When we were getting out of the colectivo at the Recova, we saw GRINGOS! With giant backpacks...could they be more obvious? We saw another couple later on that must have been gringos....you can just tell. It's amazing. We just have a look to us, I suppose. Met two German girls in the mall, from Munich, studying at the U. of La Serena for 6 months. Our Gringo-Hunting game isn't going so well. It's kind of awkward approaching people. We usually see them, then follow close behind, listening to see what language they speak. Haha, we're so creepy. But...it keeps us occupied.
In school the cuarto kids graduated and it was sad. Everyone was crying, and Freja and I got sad because it made us think of home and they were also our first friends, so it's sad to see them leave. But....we couldn't be sad for long. We had a prueba en lenguaje. I think I did pretty welll...maybe? We had to write a fable. Mine was about a beaver named Alfonso, haha.
I bought a belly dancing scarf thing. yay! And when I came home and showed it to mamá(who tried it on and shook her hips, haha), Maggie said she'd make Freja and I the rest of an outfit for orientation. Yay! It'll be amazzzzing. I'm excited.
Belly dancing was fun like woah. I understand more, and last night all the girls were just...nicer. I think it's better now that we all know each other, so we're friendlier. It's a great class. I like it.
And today. I'm meeting Freja at the mall at 2:30 to get our haircut at 3. I'm excited! But terrified....I hope I can say how I want it....*gulp* Afterwards, we're going to el centro to pick up material for Maggie to make the outfit, and then to our school's event at Sundance(a disco). We'll take sun tomorrow I think. yay! I'm excited. Summer is almostalmost here....it's sunny almost every day!
andddd that's all I spose. Oh! I had a dream in another language last night....I had absolutely no idea what happened....I think it was spanish, but with a little bit of Portuguese thrown in? Dont' ask...the only Portuguese I hear is in songs and a movie my class watched the other day(and I knew what was going on! By reading subtitles!). Weird. Extraño.
Anyhoo.
besitos!
Woke up ridiculously early(10 of 9) and got ready in about 30 minutes(padres, can you believe that???!!!) then went to school to dance. It was pretty cool....but there was a big gap in front of Freja and I so everyone could see us. Woohoo.
Afterwards I found out that I have to go the photo studio to buy my school picture. The last time he came to sell them at school, I was sick, so he didn't have any more copies. Oh well. Walked home. In normal clothes. Oh boy. Some guy decided to yell to us, proclaiming his love for blondes and me. I swore at him in English, but he kept saying how he liked me so I finally said, "Callate huevon!" which is Spanish for shut up...asshole? maybe. Oh well. Sometimes the men here just get to me. oops. I would say that today was the worst it has been. I was waved at, kissed at, yelled at, stared at, and clapped at. All in the 2.5 miles from my school to my house. Urgh. I was also followed home by a German Shepard. He was cute. Oh well. It's actually gotten worse for me as time has gone by, as far as having attention drawn to me. I hate being a blonde. Gar.
Yesterday Freja and I went to el centro and el mall. When we were getting out of the colectivo at the Recova, we saw GRINGOS! With giant backpacks...could they be more obvious? We saw another couple later on that must have been gringos....you can just tell. It's amazing. We just have a look to us, I suppose. Met two German girls in the mall, from Munich, studying at the U. of La Serena for 6 months. Our Gringo-Hunting game isn't going so well. It's kind of awkward approaching people. We usually see them, then follow close behind, listening to see what language they speak. Haha, we're so creepy. But...it keeps us occupied.
In school the cuarto kids graduated and it was sad. Everyone was crying, and Freja and I got sad because it made us think of home and they were also our first friends, so it's sad to see them leave. But....we couldn't be sad for long. We had a prueba en lenguaje. I think I did pretty welll...maybe? We had to write a fable. Mine was about a beaver named Alfonso, haha.
I bought a belly dancing scarf thing. yay! And when I came home and showed it to mamá(who tried it on and shook her hips, haha), Maggie said she'd make Freja and I the rest of an outfit for orientation. Yay! It'll be amazzzzing. I'm excited.
Belly dancing was fun like woah. I understand more, and last night all the girls were just...nicer. I think it's better now that we all know each other, so we're friendlier. It's a great class. I like it.
And today. I'm meeting Freja at the mall at 2:30 to get our haircut at 3. I'm excited! But terrified....I hope I can say how I want it....*gulp* Afterwards, we're going to el centro to pick up material for Maggie to make the outfit, and then to our school's event at Sundance(a disco). We'll take sun tomorrow I think. yay! I'm excited. Summer is almostalmost here....it's sunny almost every day!
andddd that's all I spose. Oh! I had a dream in another language last night....I had absolutely no idea what happened....I think it was spanish, but with a little bit of Portuguese thrown in? Dont' ask...the only Portuguese I hear is in songs and a movie my class watched the other day(and I knew what was going on! By reading subtitles!). Weird. Extraño.
Anyhoo.
besitos!
16 noviembre 2006
Filo.
Oh, today.
Got my grades for lenguaje thus far. 6.1, 6.0, and 5.0. Out of 7. Not bad! Did lots of nothing in school. Slept in the shade with Freja. That was nice.
Solved a crisis of massive proportions last night at about 1:30 am here. But....everything's settled now, so it's all good.
FINALLY heard from Rotary about the south tour. Supposedly..there's a problem with the travel agency, so orientation and south tour are postponed until January-ish. I'm kind of wicked bummed...but trying to look on the brightside. I have more time to tan, practice Spanish, buy things I need for meeting penguins, and work on my talent and presentation.
Today in gym Freja and I learned how to dance the cueca. Again, I direct you to youtube.com if you haven't yet seen this amazingly cool traditional Chilean dance. Freja was the man because she wants to wear a hat if we use it as our talent. It was fun....we used toilet paper as peñuelas, the napkin things they use. I love the music....I'm def. making myself a Cueca playlist on my iPod. Oh, Chile. I heart you oh so much.
Tomorrow....school(lenguaje prueba!!!I'm scared), mall/el centro, bellydancing, sleep. Saturday there's some school thing and my class is dancing hip hop for the whole school. That'll be...interesting. Afterwards I'm getting my haircut at last! And then Freja and I are going to take sun in the patio of my house. I'm quite excited. We're very determined to be nice and tan by the time orientation rolls around. Seeing as we'll be representing La Serena, the city with nice beaches, we feel we should be tan. And so...we will. If only I wasn't nearly transparent in my paleness.
I apologize if this post didn't make sense. Today was a bad language day. Every time I opened my mouth, it was a mixture of Spanish and English. I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating this is. Anyhoo. I'm off to update my iPod and then sleeeep! Por fin!
besitos a todos!
Got my grades for lenguaje thus far. 6.1, 6.0, and 5.0. Out of 7. Not bad! Did lots of nothing in school. Slept in the shade with Freja. That was nice.
Solved a crisis of massive proportions last night at about 1:30 am here. But....everything's settled now, so it's all good.
FINALLY heard from Rotary about the south tour. Supposedly..there's a problem with the travel agency, so orientation and south tour are postponed until January-ish. I'm kind of wicked bummed...but trying to look on the brightside. I have more time to tan, practice Spanish, buy things I need for meeting penguins, and work on my talent and presentation.
Today in gym Freja and I learned how to dance the cueca. Again, I direct you to youtube.com if you haven't yet seen this amazingly cool traditional Chilean dance. Freja was the man because she wants to wear a hat if we use it as our talent. It was fun....we used toilet paper as peñuelas, the napkin things they use. I love the music....I'm def. making myself a Cueca playlist on my iPod. Oh, Chile. I heart you oh so much.
Tomorrow....school(lenguaje prueba!!!I'm scared), mall/el centro, bellydancing, sleep. Saturday there's some school thing and my class is dancing hip hop for the whole school. That'll be...interesting. Afterwards I'm getting my haircut at last! And then Freja and I are going to take sun in the patio of my house. I'm quite excited. We're very determined to be nice and tan by the time orientation rolls around. Seeing as we'll be representing La Serena, the city with nice beaches, we feel we should be tan. And so...we will. If only I wasn't nearly transparent in my paleness.
I apologize if this post didn't make sense. Today was a bad language day. Every time I opened my mouth, it was a mixture of Spanish and English. I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating this is. Anyhoo. I'm off to update my iPod and then sleeeep! Por fin!
besitos a todos!
15 noviembre 2006
It's the little things.....
Today. I did nothing productive. But, yesterday I took a test en lenguaje, and I think I did okay on it! yaaay! And it was my classes class, so it was a higher level. Today....nada en biologia. Italiano, didn't happen. The tutoring Freja and I have was the best I think. We had té and pan and talked about a bunch of stuff....like health and education here, en EEUU, and dinamarca. Then Freja and I didn't go to filosofia electivo, so we stayed and had some more tea and talked about random thoughts. We managed to escape early today too! woot!
Came home and worked on the lenguaje proyecto....que fome. But...I think we're done, so that's good. Had té and got to talk a lot with mamá and la Maggie, mamá's friend from Calama.
I realized today that while big things like travelling and the south tour are going to be great memories, it's the little things I think I'll remember and miss the most. Like planning to escape out the window in our skirts with Freja, or learning to dance merengue and salsa in Gabi's room after té. Or just the little jokes that are starting to form with my host family. I was afraid it would never happen, but since I'm able to express myself better, I'm finally starting to get my sense of humor back. Not the sarcasm since they don't understand that, but I'm not so dull anymore. I would say I now understand somewhere near 90% or more of what's said. It's actually like people are speaking English to me at times, I forget that it's Spanish because I just...understand. I don't have to translate, I just know.
But...the price of learning a new language is that I'm losing my own. My spelling is horrible and I'm forgetting more and more words each day. Also, I use Spanish grammar now(house white, I have hunger, etc.). I can't wait to speak more Spanish this summer though. Freja and I speak too much English, and we know that. But at the same time, it's so hard to speak Spanish in front of our classmates. We didn't get placed in the best school to make friends, they kind of don't care, and a lot of times giggle at us when we speak or mimic us.
Oh well. Because I got a 4 on a test, while a boy in my class got a 2. So there. I don't even speak Spanish. Stupidheads.
We'll see. When we're not around our classmates, Freja and I speak more Spanish, so it's all good.
16 days till orientation/south tour!!!! I'm excited! I bought a sweater and hat yesterday at Recova made from alpaca wool(maybe? is that what it's called) for when I meet the penguins. I'm pumped!
besitos a todos!
y familia en EEUU....buena suerte mañana! Cuidense en irlanda!!! Les quiero mucho!
Came home and worked on the lenguaje proyecto....que fome. But...I think we're done, so that's good. Had té and got to talk a lot with mamá and la Maggie, mamá's friend from Calama.
I realized today that while big things like travelling and the south tour are going to be great memories, it's the little things I think I'll remember and miss the most. Like planning to escape out the window in our skirts with Freja, or learning to dance merengue and salsa in Gabi's room after té. Or just the little jokes that are starting to form with my host family. I was afraid it would never happen, but since I'm able to express myself better, I'm finally starting to get my sense of humor back. Not the sarcasm since they don't understand that, but I'm not so dull anymore. I would say I now understand somewhere near 90% or more of what's said. It's actually like people are speaking English to me at times, I forget that it's Spanish because I just...understand. I don't have to translate, I just know.
But...the price of learning a new language is that I'm losing my own. My spelling is horrible and I'm forgetting more and more words each day. Also, I use Spanish grammar now(house white, I have hunger, etc.). I can't wait to speak more Spanish this summer though. Freja and I speak too much English, and we know that. But at the same time, it's so hard to speak Spanish in front of our classmates. We didn't get placed in the best school to make friends, they kind of don't care, and a lot of times giggle at us when we speak or mimic us.
Oh well. Because I got a 4 on a test, while a boy in my class got a 2. So there. I don't even speak Spanish. Stupidheads.
We'll see. When we're not around our classmates, Freja and I speak more Spanish, so it's all good.
16 days till orientation/south tour!!!! I'm excited! I bought a sweater and hat yesterday at Recova made from alpaca wool(maybe? is that what it's called) for when I meet the penguins. I'm pumped!
besitos a todos!
y familia en EEUU....buena suerte mañana! Cuidense en irlanda!!! Les quiero mucho!
13 noviembre 2006
Southieee!!!
So.
Saturday....went out with Freja, Natalia(her host sister), and Nata's friends Moreno, Niko, y Richard. We went to some party first, where Freja and I had a good time being stared at and speaking Spanish. and then to Barrio Ingles. Went to a disco. Was stared at some more. Always a good time.
Nothing of much interest...just....disco-ness. Some guy was bleeding pretty badly when we left.
Nata ended up in her ex boyfriend's car, so Freja, me , and Richard were waiting on some deserted road for her and Freja and I got out and walked around. Well....i thought where I was walking was just dirt. But no.
It was a mud puddle.
A deep one.
My sneakers are ruined and my pants have mud up their knees. Thankfully I was sleeping over Freja's, so my stuff was in the back and I was able to change my pants. Ha. I felt like such a dork.
Sunday.....Freja and I went on a walk. Ate lunch. Went to the movie theater. We saw The Jacket with Adrian Brody. GOOD movie, for serious, watch it. Took a colectivo home. Most awkward colectivo ride of my life. The guy in the passenger seat, I think he was in cahoots with the driver...they both looked at me creepily when I got in, but the passenger guy would turn around and STARE at me for minutes at a time, while I would just...awkwardly look out the window and pretend it wasn't happening. GRR Chilean men.
Today...school. Nothing. Took sun with Freja. Slightly burned my face because I fell asleep. Oh well. I WILL BE SO TAN. Just you wait. Found out that in March a boy from New Zealand's coming, to La Serena and Scuola Italiana! Woohooo! That's exciting.
And....nothing more. Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm, but I'm highly. Tengo sueño. Lo siento.
besitos!
Saturday....went out with Freja, Natalia(her host sister), and Nata's friends Moreno, Niko, y Richard. We went to some party first, where Freja and I had a good time being stared at and speaking Spanish. and then to Barrio Ingles. Went to a disco. Was stared at some more. Always a good time.
Nothing of much interest...just....disco-ness. Some guy was bleeding pretty badly when we left.
Nata ended up in her ex boyfriend's car, so Freja, me , and Richard were waiting on some deserted road for her and Freja and I got out and walked around. Well....i thought where I was walking was just dirt. But no.
It was a mud puddle.
A deep one.
My sneakers are ruined and my pants have mud up their knees. Thankfully I was sleeping over Freja's, so my stuff was in the back and I was able to change my pants. Ha. I felt like such a dork.
Sunday.....Freja and I went on a walk. Ate lunch. Went to the movie theater. We saw The Jacket with Adrian Brody. GOOD movie, for serious, watch it. Took a colectivo home. Most awkward colectivo ride of my life. The guy in the passenger seat, I think he was in cahoots with the driver...they both looked at me creepily when I got in, but the passenger guy would turn around and STARE at me for minutes at a time, while I would just...awkwardly look out the window and pretend it wasn't happening. GRR Chilean men.
Today...school. Nothing. Took sun with Freja. Slightly burned my face because I fell asleep. Oh well. I WILL BE SO TAN. Just you wait. Found out that in March a boy from New Zealand's coming, to La Serena and Scuola Italiana! Woohooo! That's exciting.
And....nothing more. Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm, but I'm highly. Tengo sueño. Lo siento.
besitos!
11 noviembre 2006
Just stopping by.
To show you a pretty picture of me and my braid thing.
Well kind of.
No mucho hoy día...fue fome. No sé que voy a hacer este noche, tal vez voy a salir con la Freja, pero no estoy segura. Espero que sí.
that was nothing important, btw.
besitos a todos.
Well kind of.
No mucho hoy día...fue fome. No sé que voy a hacer este noche, tal vez voy a salir con la Freja, pero no estoy segura. Espero que sí.
that was nothing important, btw.
besitos a todos.
10 noviembre 2006
El Fin de Semana
Hoy día. Que...fome. But...not so much. didn't really do much. I got my grade back on my language test from a while ago....a 6.1!!! Out of a scale of 7, that's reallyyy good. Especially for me!! yay!
There was a bit of a water balloon fight in school. Freja and I tried to take part, but kind of missed our chance. At the end of the day though, she threw the water balloon at someone's back....but it didn't break, and everyone went, "FREJA!" and then....the principal was there, so we just left. haha, oops.
We were walking on the street, and this....bulldozer? somethingorother for construction pulls up with this guy in it, handing us a yellow rose. I just rolled my eyes and kept walking, because that's how I treat men now, but Freja took it. So we walked away, discussing what we would do with it.
We took a colectivo to el centro, and decided that our colectivo driver needed some company and that he was very nice(he really was!) so we gave him the rose. He was very nice....especially when we were stopped at a red light and some piggish men started clapping and whistling at us. Ew. The rose incident has inspired me to be nice to others. One day I'm going to buy flowers and walk around, giving them to random people. Chileans don't smile enough.
We met some gringos at el centro! We saw them getting a drawing of them done(the ones where everything's exaggerated, can't remember the name) and....they just looked like gringos. So Freja and I played our newest game, Gringo Hunting. They were from...Texas and South or North Carolina. They said 'yall. good times were had.
Found a ....somethingorother for belly dancing at the mall....I'll be going back to buy one. Yay! Por fin! Went to belly dancing...I need a massage. My shoulders are killing me.
Took a colectivo home. We were just driving along, when the driver turned to me and asked if I was German. "No." Australian? "No". Oh. Estados Unidos. People tend to ask me if I'm German first, actually. At least lately anyway. Huh.
Anyway. I missed té and I'm starrrrving, so I'm off to eat some food. Nothing tonight because I'm pooped, but mañana.....partyyy. Just me and Freja I think, out to dance, because Jenny seems to have what I had last weekend. Ouch.
besitos!
There was a bit of a water balloon fight in school. Freja and I tried to take part, but kind of missed our chance. At the end of the day though, she threw the water balloon at someone's back....but it didn't break, and everyone went, "FREJA!" and then....the principal was there, so we just left. haha, oops.
We were walking on the street, and this....bulldozer? somethingorother for construction pulls up with this guy in it, handing us a yellow rose. I just rolled my eyes and kept walking, because that's how I treat men now, but Freja took it. So we walked away, discussing what we would do with it.
We took a colectivo to el centro, and decided that our colectivo driver needed some company and that he was very nice(he really was!) so we gave him the rose. He was very nice....especially when we were stopped at a red light and some piggish men started clapping and whistling at us. Ew. The rose incident has inspired me to be nice to others. One day I'm going to buy flowers and walk around, giving them to random people. Chileans don't smile enough.
We met some gringos at el centro! We saw them getting a drawing of them done(the ones where everything's exaggerated, can't remember the name) and....they just looked like gringos. So Freja and I played our newest game, Gringo Hunting. They were from...Texas and South or North Carolina. They said 'yall. good times were had.
Found a ....somethingorother for belly dancing at the mall....I'll be going back to buy one. Yay! Por fin! Went to belly dancing...I need a massage. My shoulders are killing me.
Took a colectivo home. We were just driving along, when the driver turned to me and asked if I was German. "No." Australian? "No". Oh. Estados Unidos. People tend to ask me if I'm German first, actually. At least lately anyway. Huh.
Anyway. I missed té and I'm starrrrving, so I'm off to eat some food. Nothing tonight because I'm pooped, but mañana.....partyyy. Just me and Freja I think, out to dance, because Jenny seems to have what I had last weekend. Ouch.
besitos!
07 noviembre 2006
I'm cured!
Just stopping by to let you all know that I have been magically healed through the modern day magic known as prescribed antibiotics.
Woot!
Also that I am slightly bored out of my mind. How bored are you, Kelsey? you might ask. Well, I'll tell you.
As of yesterday, I had 440 words written on my NaNo which I am slightly attempting this year. Right now I have....10.451 words.
Yes. That, my friends, is boredom.
One more day! woot!
Also...I woke up today to discover that mamá's friend, Maggie has magically appeared at our house for an unknown(to me anyway) amount of time. I love that I'm told these things. I wish they would tell me when people show up, because it's slightly disorienting to wake up and find a woman you haven't seen since you first arrived standing in your kitchen talking really fast and asking if you understand.
Ah well. I'm listening to reggaeton, so it's all good now. Also, teaching myself the guitar. I figured I'd do something useful while I'm home. Yay learning!
Also, here's an absolutely horrible picture of Freja and I being vampires in my kitchen with candy corn sent from home. And no, I'm not drugged, despite how I may appear. haha. Sorry it's so bad, but it's the most recent picture I have, actually. I don't take my camera to parties.
chao.
Woot!
Also that I am slightly bored out of my mind. How bored are you, Kelsey? you might ask. Well, I'll tell you.
As of yesterday, I had 440 words written on my NaNo which I am slightly attempting this year. Right now I have....10.451 words.
Yes. That, my friends, is boredom.
One more day! woot!
Also...I woke up today to discover that mamá's friend, Maggie has magically appeared at our house for an unknown(to me anyway) amount of time. I love that I'm told these things. I wish they would tell me when people show up, because it's slightly disorienting to wake up and find a woman you haven't seen since you first arrived standing in your kitchen talking really fast and asking if you understand.
Ah well. I'm listening to reggaeton, so it's all good now. Also, teaching myself the guitar. I figured I'd do something useful while I'm home. Yay learning!
Also, here's an absolutely horrible picture of Freja and I being vampires in my kitchen with candy corn sent from home. And no, I'm not drugged, despite how I may appear. haha. Sorry it's so bad, but it's the most recent picture I have, actually. I don't take my camera to parties.
chao.
05 noviembre 2006
My Chilean Doctor Experience
So....change of plans. I was listening to music, attempting to make myself fall asleep when my host mom came into my room, said she was worried about me, and was taking me to a clinic because waiting until tomorrow was not a good idea(and since it's Sunday, the doctor's isn't opened). Okay, then.
I pulled out my insurance stuff and the packet you gave me, mom. But everything was in English, and it was hard to explain. Mamá tried calling my counselor, who didn't answer(which pissed her off) and Freja's host dad since he knows a lot of doctors, but he didn't answer either. So we just went to the clinic. I wasn't allowed to shower though, because if I did, then I would catch pneumonia, apparently.
Mamá y Elle, my host grandmother went with me. They made me wear a winter coat, even though I was already really hot(apparently fevers do that to you...?). I told them I was hot, but they said that was because I was sick, had a fever, and if I took the coat off, I would catch pneumonia. So I just sat in the car, in my coat, wicked hot, to the clinic.
You have to take a number, like a deli or something. Taking numbers is very popular here in Chile. At the doctors, at the pharmacy, at the deli, etc. Everywhere you go, you have to take a number. Anyway. I was finally called and the nurse somewhat butchered my name, but that's okay because everyone does. Mamá was really helpful in telling her what was going on because my Spanish isn't too good to begin with, but with my throat swollen to the size of Texas, I'm even harder to understand. It's also kind of hard to breathe. Oh well.
The doctor came in, felt my neck(I have a weird lump on the back of my neck that appeared Friday or yesterday, I'm not sure). Looked at my throat and diagnosed me as being infected by bacteria! dun dun dunnn! I was kind of let down actually, like, that's it? You're not going to do anything more? Just look at my throat? How can you be sure that's what it is? You didn't even do a strep test when I have all the symptoms of strep! And my throat's the size of Texas!!!!! Oh well.....
He wrote a prescription and we went to the pharmacy to pick it up. I have to take some pill thing once a day for like, 6 days, and 400 mgs of Ibuprofen every 8 hours for my fever...? I don't know. I'm not contagious though, so that's good. But in lots of pain. It kind of feels like I'm swallowing daggers every time I swallow. And also....I can't go back to school until Thursday. Do you realize how boring that's going to be?? I have nothing to do here. I'm going to die of boredom. URGH. I can only sleep for so long, and it's not like I can eat anything. I'm on a liquid diet of water and apple juice, and if I drink any more apple juice...asdflkañsdf. Just the smell makes me want to puke right now. It's all I've had for the past three days. Well, I had some mashed potatoes, but even that hurt, so no food for me. Wahoo.
So there's my story. I'm a bit disappointed that the doctor only noticed my throat, and not my head, stomach, or vomitting. But...I guess we'll see if these antibiotics cure me first. Which they better, because I can't afford to be sick right now. I have a talent to work on for the orientation in December, not to mention a presentation I have yet to start. GAR.
and that's all for today.
Chao!
I pulled out my insurance stuff and the packet you gave me, mom. But everything was in English, and it was hard to explain. Mamá tried calling my counselor, who didn't answer(which pissed her off) and Freja's host dad since he knows a lot of doctors, but he didn't answer either. So we just went to the clinic. I wasn't allowed to shower though, because if I did, then I would catch pneumonia, apparently.
Mamá y Elle, my host grandmother went with me. They made me wear a winter coat, even though I was already really hot(apparently fevers do that to you...?). I told them I was hot, but they said that was because I was sick, had a fever, and if I took the coat off, I would catch pneumonia. So I just sat in the car, in my coat, wicked hot, to the clinic.
You have to take a number, like a deli or something. Taking numbers is very popular here in Chile. At the doctors, at the pharmacy, at the deli, etc. Everywhere you go, you have to take a number. Anyway. I was finally called and the nurse somewhat butchered my name, but that's okay because everyone does. Mamá was really helpful in telling her what was going on because my Spanish isn't too good to begin with, but with my throat swollen to the size of Texas, I'm even harder to understand. It's also kind of hard to breathe. Oh well.
The doctor came in, felt my neck(I have a weird lump on the back of my neck that appeared Friday or yesterday, I'm not sure). Looked at my throat and diagnosed me as being infected by bacteria! dun dun dunnn! I was kind of let down actually, like, that's it? You're not going to do anything more? Just look at my throat? How can you be sure that's what it is? You didn't even do a strep test when I have all the symptoms of strep! And my throat's the size of Texas!!!!! Oh well.....
He wrote a prescription and we went to the pharmacy to pick it up. I have to take some pill thing once a day for like, 6 days, and 400 mgs of Ibuprofen every 8 hours for my fever...? I don't know. I'm not contagious though, so that's good. But in lots of pain. It kind of feels like I'm swallowing daggers every time I swallow. And also....I can't go back to school until Thursday. Do you realize how boring that's going to be?? I have nothing to do here. I'm going to die of boredom. URGH. I can only sleep for so long, and it's not like I can eat anything. I'm on a liquid diet of water and apple juice, and if I drink any more apple juice...asdflkañsdf. Just the smell makes me want to puke right now. It's all I've had for the past three days. Well, I had some mashed potatoes, but even that hurt, so no food for me. Wahoo.
So there's my story. I'm a bit disappointed that the doctor only noticed my throat, and not my head, stomach, or vomitting. But...I guess we'll see if these antibiotics cure me first. Which they better, because I can't afford to be sick right now. I have a talent to work on for the orientation in December, not to mention a presentation I have yet to start. GAR.
and that's all for today.
Chao!
02 noviembre 2006
Ay, me duele tanto!
Today....school. Fome, of course. I did absolutely nada. Nada. NADA. Well, I took a nap in gym. That was productive. What can I say? My head was pounding and I was exhausted, and that mat looked oh-so-comfortable. Oh well.
After school Freja and I took a colectivo to el centro and went Christmas shopping. Yes! I got everything, I think. Minus one thing, which I don't know what it is yet, but I know I need one more thing for someone. How sketchy....
It was a good time. I got my hair braided....kind of. It's not really a braid, well, it starts off as a braid, but there's lke, string around it, and some beads. It's very Chilean. And very cool. Me gusta.
Also got a purse. Yay purses!
I left with almost all of my Rotary allowance, and came back with just over $8.000 of it. Not bad, I suppose.
Tomorrow....belly dancing!!! and then Saturday morning, I think Freja and I are going to take a bus to Guanaqueros for our class paseo. Yay! It starts Friday, but we already paid for the belly dancing class.....unless there's a bus that leaves at like, 10 to Guanaqueros. Oh well.
Not sure if I'm going to school tomorrow. I hope...no. But that I'll still be able to go to class. My throat is all red and ultra sore, and my head won't stop pounding. And I'm tired. And....my shoulders hurt! ¡Me duele el cuerpo! Urgh. I swear, I have never been as sick as often as I have been in Chile. And annoyed too! Freja's the same way...sometimes we just get randomly angry at people, over stupid things. Most often it's, "Stop speaking Spanish!!!!!!" but, alas, they can't. Oh well.
anyhoo. gotta go sleep and such.
chao pescado
After school Freja and I took a colectivo to el centro and went Christmas shopping. Yes! I got everything, I think. Minus one thing, which I don't know what it is yet, but I know I need one more thing for someone. How sketchy....
It was a good time. I got my hair braided....kind of. It's not really a braid, well, it starts off as a braid, but there's lke, string around it, and some beads. It's very Chilean. And very cool. Me gusta.
Also got a purse. Yay purses!
I left with almost all of my Rotary allowance, and came back with just over $8.000 of it. Not bad, I suppose.
Tomorrow....belly dancing!!! and then Saturday morning, I think Freja and I are going to take a bus to Guanaqueros for our class paseo. Yay! It starts Friday, but we already paid for the belly dancing class.....unless there's a bus that leaves at like, 10 to Guanaqueros. Oh well.
Not sure if I'm going to school tomorrow. I hope...no. But that I'll still be able to go to class. My throat is all red and ultra sore, and my head won't stop pounding. And I'm tired. And....my shoulders hurt! ¡Me duele el cuerpo! Urgh. I swear, I have never been as sick as often as I have been in Chile. And annoyed too! Freja's the same way...sometimes we just get randomly angry at people, over stupid things. Most often it's, "Stop speaking Spanish!!!!!!" but, alas, they can't. Oh well.
anyhoo. gotta go sleep and such.
chao pescado
31 octubre 2006
Too much candy corn hurts my stomach.
Oh, today.
Is Halloween.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
School fue fome. Freja's still sick, so it looks like she won't be going out tonight, and our movie fest has been postponed until....no sé cuando. We'll find a day though.
We taught the fifth grade again today...I got to talk about Halloween in the US, which, surprisingly made me really happy, not sad like I expected it would. It sounds stupid but I felt really cool and kind of proud of my country for once. I honestly really didn't realize that I had a culture until I came here and saw all the differences. For me, it had always seemed like the US was just a blend of cultures(which it is) but that I didn't really have one. But...I do.
There was a dog in school today, the cutest little puppy I have ever seen. I named him Snoop Dogg, but by the end of the day his name was Chipi. He followed Freja and I up to the store where we stopped and bought ice cream(we were celebrating Halloween, obviously). We gave him the left over food from lunch, and he came when we called him. He's a good dog. I wish I could have brought him home. :(
Came home and was chilling on the computer, checking email and such when my mamá was just like, "I'm going to get Ignacio, by the way there's a package for you."(but in Spanish, of course).
Oh. Em. Gee. I was so excited!!!! I was afraid the package wouldn't come for today...but it did!! And now I'm eating candy corn....I think I went over the top....candy corn is only good in moderation, haha, oops. Oh well. I'm still extremely excited to have gotten my package and plan on reading the magazines while listening to the CDs and eating candy after hanging the pictures on my wall.
Hurrah!
Día de Solamente Español kind of crashed and burned, but we did speak a lot more Spanish(well, I did anyway). And I am speaking a lot faster...I don't have to think as much, I can just speak and actually say the right things. It's exciting! Plus, Freja and I realize how close December/orientation/South Tour is, so we're really working hard on our Spanish now. ¡Por fin!
Anyhoo. I'm off to enjoy my presents....I don't know what the plan is tonight. NOT going to Sundance because....well, it's fome. I might ask Jenny if we can go out to Barrio Ingles, or I might go to a classmates party. No sé.
Vamos a ver.
¡HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
besitos!
Is Halloween.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
School fue fome. Freja's still sick, so it looks like she won't be going out tonight, and our movie fest has been postponed until....no sé cuando. We'll find a day though.
We taught the fifth grade again today...I got to talk about Halloween in the US, which, surprisingly made me really happy, not sad like I expected it would. It sounds stupid but I felt really cool and kind of proud of my country for once. I honestly really didn't realize that I had a culture until I came here and saw all the differences. For me, it had always seemed like the US was just a blend of cultures(which it is) but that I didn't really have one. But...I do.
There was a dog in school today, the cutest little puppy I have ever seen. I named him Snoop Dogg, but by the end of the day his name was Chipi. He followed Freja and I up to the store where we stopped and bought ice cream(we were celebrating Halloween, obviously). We gave him the left over food from lunch, and he came when we called him. He's a good dog. I wish I could have brought him home. :(
Came home and was chilling on the computer, checking email and such when my mamá was just like, "I'm going to get Ignacio, by the way there's a package for you."(but in Spanish, of course).
Oh. Em. Gee. I was so excited!!!! I was afraid the package wouldn't come for today...but it did!! And now I'm eating candy corn....I think I went over the top....candy corn is only good in moderation, haha, oops. Oh well. I'm still extremely excited to have gotten my package and plan on reading the magazines while listening to the CDs and eating candy after hanging the pictures on my wall.
Hurrah!
Día de Solamente Español kind of crashed and burned, but we did speak a lot more Spanish(well, I did anyway). And I am speaking a lot faster...I don't have to think as much, I can just speak and actually say the right things. It's exciting! Plus, Freja and I realize how close December/orientation/South Tour is, so we're really working hard on our Spanish now. ¡Por fin!
Anyhoo. I'm off to enjoy my presents....I don't know what the plan is tonight. NOT going to Sundance because....well, it's fome. I might ask Jenny if we can go out to Barrio Ingles, or I might go to a classmates party. No sé.
Vamos a ver.
¡HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
besitos!
30 octubre 2006
Día de Solamente Español
Hoy día debe ser "Día de Solamente Español" con yo y la Freja, pero ella no estaba en colegio. ¡Que fome!
Today....was supposed to be Only Spanish Day, but Freja wasn't in school. So..it wasn't. Tomorrow is! yay!
School was ultra fome today.
Got an assignment I absolutely DO NOT understand one eensy teensy weensy little bit in linguaje. Oh boy! Something about a story I've never read. And I have to write a science fiction short story. Which, you know, wouldn't be a problem if only I knew how to write science fiction and a short story. I can't write short stories. It's just not my thing. My story plots are far too complex for short stories. Blegh. haha, I love how I'm not at all concerned about the Spanish part(for serious, it's way easy to write in Spanish), but the short story part. Oh, Kelsey.....
I got my money today!!!!!! Finally...because I was down to $650 pesos....and just for reference, one US dollar is worth roughly $536 Chilean pesos. ¡Que malo! Ya po, yo sé..... But now I have my $35.000 and I'm ready to party mañana. And send some letters. ¡Por fin!
Apparently...my host mom called up my counselor last night and fought with him about how I didn't have my money. Which would explain why he came today as opposed to tomorrow or Wednesday or whenever he said he'd come. Oh well. No importa. As long as I'm not poor anymore.
Tomorrow is Halloween!! I'm not sure how I feel about this....my first holiday away from home....ayyy. Mamá bought some candy. Woot! Paula from bellydancing called today about tomorrow night...and we talked...IN SPANISH! I'm so excited. I have real Chilean friends now. My classmates are cool....but they're really hard to make friends with. And Paula and Paloma, I've known for two bellydancing classes, and talked to for maybe 20 minutes total, and we're already doing stuff together. I love them. hehe. Mamá's excited too. I think she was worried that I had the social plague or something. Sorry mamá.....
anyhoo. All is well here. I've decided to teach myself the guitar because it will give me something productive to do, besides practice the piano and belly dance in my room. Which, while they're fun activities, just aren't doing it for me.
Oh, had music today. ALONE. I was scared, but it turned out fine. He kept like, leaning over me though, when I was trying to play, telling me to play Fur Elise. I told him I don't like to play for people, but he just stood there. I played once he moved away though. And Gymnopedie #1 too, he likes that song. I don't think he got it though....even though when he'd come back and tower over me, I'd stop, but start once he moved away. I don't play the piano for people, I play the piano for ME. Thankyouverymuch creepy music teacher.
Ah, well.
P.S. Rhode Islanders: You are now two hours behind me. Just thought I'd let you know.
Chao for now, pescado!
Today....was supposed to be Only Spanish Day, but Freja wasn't in school. So..it wasn't. Tomorrow is! yay!
School was ultra fome today.
Got an assignment I absolutely DO NOT understand one eensy teensy weensy little bit in linguaje. Oh boy! Something about a story I've never read. And I have to write a science fiction short story. Which, you know, wouldn't be a problem if only I knew how to write science fiction and a short story. I can't write short stories. It's just not my thing. My story plots are far too complex for short stories. Blegh. haha, I love how I'm not at all concerned about the Spanish part(for serious, it's way easy to write in Spanish), but the short story part. Oh, Kelsey.....
I got my money today!!!!!! Finally...because I was down to $650 pesos....and just for reference, one US dollar is worth roughly $536 Chilean pesos. ¡Que malo! Ya po, yo sé..... But now I have my $35.000 and I'm ready to party mañana. And send some letters. ¡Por fin!
Apparently...my host mom called up my counselor last night and fought with him about how I didn't have my money. Which would explain why he came today as opposed to tomorrow or Wednesday or whenever he said he'd come. Oh well. No importa. As long as I'm not poor anymore.
Tomorrow is Halloween!! I'm not sure how I feel about this....my first holiday away from home....ayyy. Mamá bought some candy. Woot! Paula from bellydancing called today about tomorrow night...and we talked...IN SPANISH! I'm so excited. I have real Chilean friends now. My classmates are cool....but they're really hard to make friends with. And Paula and Paloma, I've known for two bellydancing classes, and talked to for maybe 20 minutes total, and we're already doing stuff together. I love them. hehe. Mamá's excited too. I think she was worried that I had the social plague or something. Sorry mamá.....
anyhoo. All is well here. I've decided to teach myself the guitar because it will give me something productive to do, besides practice the piano and belly dance in my room. Which, while they're fun activities, just aren't doing it for me.
Oh, had music today. ALONE. I was scared, but it turned out fine. He kept like, leaning over me though, when I was trying to play, telling me to play Fur Elise. I told him I don't like to play for people, but he just stood there. I played once he moved away though. And Gymnopedie #1 too, he likes that song. I don't think he got it though....even though when he'd come back and tower over me, I'd stop, but start once he moved away. I don't play the piano for people, I play the piano for ME. Thankyouverymuch creepy music teacher.
Ah, well.
P.S. Rhode Islanders: You are now two hours behind me. Just thought I'd let you know.
Chao for now, pescado!
29 octubre 2006
Anoche
So. Last night. We made plans at about....10. Yay Chilean lifestyle!
The plan was....go to Brooke's house for the night, the 6 of us, after going to Barrio Ingles. And...something about a German. I don't really know.
Got to Jenny's house to wait for Brooke. Turns out, her boyfriend was in a car accident awhile back...something about 1% chance of living, bones from his head in his leg...? well, his leg started bleeding badly, so they were bringing him to the hospital, and she wouldn't be able to make it. So we changed the plans to....crash at Freja's house instead.
Two guys showed up to take us out. I'm not sure how any of us knew them, I asked who they were, but no one could answer me. I think Jenny knew them though, because her parents were fine with them and such. Anyway. The Chilean guy's name was Roberto, and the German guy's name was Philipe. O algo así. Anyway. We went out to Barrio Ingles to attempt to get into a disco. There were seven of us all together, 4 of us were under the age of 18. Oops. We were followed by a homeless man for a bit, who saw that we were foreigners and used the only English he knew: "Give me money" and "Where from?", which he would use while pointing at us. We ignored him, and kept our hands in our pockets to avoid getting robbed. Yay Barrio Ingles!
We went to a place called Camelot, and got in without showing our I.D. Score! Made plans to meet up again at 3:30 and off we went. It was a good time. Jenny danced on the stage with the DJ(he spotted her, she's hardcore blonde, and pulled her up. Apparently it happens a lot). I had a good time, and we got back to Freja's house exactly at four. Yay making curfew!
We hung out and ate cereal, and yogurt with cereal, and talked and such before we all passed out in the beds. Woke up at like...10 ish? And now...I'm here.
And oh. so. tired. Oh well. I'll sleep after lunch.
Still don't have my allowance, but talked to my counselor and will get it Wed. afternoon. I just have to get to an ATM sometime tomorrow....because right nowI have somewhere around $750 pesos to my name. oops.
Tomorrow...school. Tuesday....school then party at a disco. I might be going to the event that's 16+, or I might be trying to get in another disco in Barrio Ingles with Jenny. We'll see. Then...Wednesday, no school. Freja and I will be eating Halloween candy and watching scary movies. yes! And then school, and then, I don't know.Apparently....class trip this weekend? I don't really know. We'll see.
Also. I thinkthinkthink I'm going to build up the courage to try and get my hair cut soon. Ahhh! Scary!
Vamos a ver....
chao!
The plan was....go to Brooke's house for the night, the 6 of us, after going to Barrio Ingles. And...something about a German. I don't really know.
Got to Jenny's house to wait for Brooke. Turns out, her boyfriend was in a car accident awhile back...something about 1% chance of living, bones from his head in his leg...? well, his leg started bleeding badly, so they were bringing him to the hospital, and she wouldn't be able to make it. So we changed the plans to....crash at Freja's house instead.
Two guys showed up to take us out. I'm not sure how any of us knew them, I asked who they were, but no one could answer me. I think Jenny knew them though, because her parents were fine with them and such. Anyway. The Chilean guy's name was Roberto, and the German guy's name was Philipe. O algo así. Anyway. We went out to Barrio Ingles to attempt to get into a disco. There were seven of us all together, 4 of us were under the age of 18. Oops. We were followed by a homeless man for a bit, who saw that we were foreigners and used the only English he knew: "Give me money" and "Where from?", which he would use while pointing at us. We ignored him, and kept our hands in our pockets to avoid getting robbed. Yay Barrio Ingles!
We went to a place called Camelot, and got in without showing our I.D. Score! Made plans to meet up again at 3:30 and off we went. It was a good time. Jenny danced on the stage with the DJ(he spotted her, she's hardcore blonde, and pulled her up. Apparently it happens a lot). I had a good time, and we got back to Freja's house exactly at four. Yay making curfew!
We hung out and ate cereal, and yogurt with cereal, and talked and such before we all passed out in the beds. Woke up at like...10 ish? And now...I'm here.
And oh. so. tired. Oh well. I'll sleep after lunch.
Still don't have my allowance, but talked to my counselor and will get it Wed. afternoon. I just have to get to an ATM sometime tomorrow....because right nowI have somewhere around $750 pesos to my name. oops.
Tomorrow...school. Tuesday....school then party at a disco. I might be going to the event that's 16+, or I might be trying to get in another disco in Barrio Ingles with Jenny. We'll see. Then...Wednesday, no school. Freja and I will be eating Halloween candy and watching scary movies. yes! And then school, and then, I don't know.Apparently....class trip this weekend? I don't really know. We'll see.
Also. I thinkthinkthink I'm going to build up the courage to try and get my hair cut soon. Ahhh! Scary!
Vamos a ver....
chao!
28 octubre 2006
My Hips Don't Lie.
So....it's the weekend. Rejoice!
Yesterday, Jenny, the girl from Finland, came to school with Freja because, well, she felt like it. It was exciting. Kind of weird with the three of us, and at times I felt kind of awkward, but at times so did Jenny, because Freja and I have our own jokes. And also, she didn't really understand why we were so excited about the song "I'm Too Sexy"(it's like, our theme song. We have our own version. It's exciting!). Anyhoo. School was okay. Band practice afterwards, I have a ridiculously easy part on the keyboard, it's a bit disappointing. For anyone who's interested, we're playing "Sálvame" by RBD, it's a good song.
After school, came home, ate a sandwich(cheese and ketchup. YUM), changed and was off to belly dancing. Took a colectivo, and attempted to find Freja, but apparently, the colectivos drop us off in different places, so our plan to meet up "where the colectivos drop you off" was foiled a bit. But we found each other and got to class about 30 minutes late. Oops. They were still stretching though, so it was all good.
Class was fun, better than last time. We learned a little routine thing, it was exciting. And after class, we exchanged numbers with two girls in the class, Paula and Paloma. Yay friends! Paloma walked with us to where we were taking a colectivo afterwards too. She went to Ireland for a semester, so she speaks pretty good English. And has a Claddagh ring, yes! No one here understands what mine means, jaja. And Paula is selling tickets to a party at Sundance(a disco) this Tuesday....so that means Freja and I are def. going. yay party!
Took a colectivo home with Freja. Her entire host family was gone, so she was spending the night at my house. It was a good time. And, turns out my family made pesto!!! yaaaay pesto!
We started watching Stomp but passed out. Somehow my lights and TV got turned off, and I ended up in my bed, but I'm not sure how. Ohhh well.
And now....I'm sitting here. Doing nada. Hopefullyhopefully going out later with Freja, Jenny, Alyssa(Canada), Maureen(US), and Brooke(US, with AFS) later tonight. wooohoo!
and....that's all.
chao pescado!
Yesterday, Jenny, the girl from Finland, came to school with Freja because, well, she felt like it. It was exciting. Kind of weird with the three of us, and at times I felt kind of awkward, but at times so did Jenny, because Freja and I have our own jokes. And also, she didn't really understand why we were so excited about the song "I'm Too Sexy"(it's like, our theme song. We have our own version. It's exciting!). Anyhoo. School was okay. Band practice afterwards, I have a ridiculously easy part on the keyboard, it's a bit disappointing. For anyone who's interested, we're playing "Sálvame" by RBD, it's a good song.
After school, came home, ate a sandwich(cheese and ketchup. YUM), changed and was off to belly dancing. Took a colectivo, and attempted to find Freja, but apparently, the colectivos drop us off in different places, so our plan to meet up "where the colectivos drop you off" was foiled a bit. But we found each other and got to class about 30 minutes late. Oops. They were still stretching though, so it was all good.
Class was fun, better than last time. We learned a little routine thing, it was exciting. And after class, we exchanged numbers with two girls in the class, Paula and Paloma. Yay friends! Paloma walked with us to where we were taking a colectivo afterwards too. She went to Ireland for a semester, so she speaks pretty good English. And has a Claddagh ring, yes! No one here understands what mine means, jaja. And Paula is selling tickets to a party at Sundance(a disco) this Tuesday....so that means Freja and I are def. going. yay party!
Took a colectivo home with Freja. Her entire host family was gone, so she was spending the night at my house. It was a good time. And, turns out my family made pesto!!! yaaaay pesto!
We started watching Stomp but passed out. Somehow my lights and TV got turned off, and I ended up in my bed, but I'm not sure how. Ohhh well.
And now....I'm sitting here. Doing nada. Hopefullyhopefully going out later with Freja, Jenny, Alyssa(Canada), Maureen(US), and Brooke(US, with AFS) later tonight. wooohoo!
and....that's all.
chao pescado!
25 octubre 2006
Picture Day!
Oh, today. Woke up about an hour late, that's always fun. Buttt...I managed to make it to school only slightly late. And because I'm me and ultra special, instead of having some book signed to tell my parents that I was late, the inspector general just told me to be on time tomorrow. Score!
Today was picture day! Oh joy! I don't have the weird blazer, shirt, or tie I needed...but I borrowed the blazer and tie, and you couldn't tell I didn't have the right shirt on. It was a good time. I was watching Freja's class have their picture taken, anddd while they were getting ready for their goofy picture, the photographer, of course, was drawn to me and came over to talk.
I hate. Chilean men. Well, the creepy ones. Which are far too....I can't remember the word. But....they're everywhere. This one decided that he would practice his English on me. Oh well.
I had my class picture taken too....I got to sit in front, woot! (and I totally popped my collar on the goofy pic. Represent.)Afterwards.....well, my class kind of drifted off to the volleyball tournament that seems to be taking place in my school(teams from like,Curico and what not! it's pretty hardcore), so Freja and I asked the photographer if he could take a picture of us, because, we're exchange students, and best friends, and he did it for some other girls in cuarto.
Yeah, uh, big mistake.
This guy was creepy. He wanted us to like, smile at the sky? jaja, and it was just....weird. And he asked us if we had Chilean lovers???!! He meant boyfriends, but his english was horrible and Freja and I just kind of "........" and awkwardly tried to escape. But we survived. And realized that we need to stop getting ourselves into ridiculous situations. Like getting into strangers cars(okay, so it was a teacher, but I didn't know that and Freja didn't tell me. oops) or answering a guy who was trying to sell us his puppy on the street.
But. We're good. We're okay. We're making memories!
The rest of the school day was a complete waste of time. My entire class decided to try and skip Linguaje, so I tagged along. We ran away from the classroom and into the gym. And it worked for about 15 minutes or so until one of the school's head honcho guys came and told us to go back. Oops. Didn't go to Italian(she said I could leave). So Freja and I sat around and came up with 50 reasons why Ecuador sucks. We're a bit bummed about her exchange friends who have summer weather and three houses and cell phones. so to make ourselves feel better, we came up with 50 reasons why our country choice is better than there's, our number one reason being that they eat hamsters or guinea pigs, or whatever. And also we have manjar.
Couldn't leave school early because apparently we're not *that* special anymore, which sucks a lot, but we'll figure out a way to escape somehow. We have Italian lessons with the principal, but he's somewhat unreliable in actually showing up, which leaves us wandering around the school aimlessly for the last hour and a half. Que fome.
And now. I'm watching Dane Cook. Woot!
This weekend....it would appear that I am going out with 5 other exchangers in the La Serena/Coquimbo area(including one girl with AFS who's been here for a looong time) to party. yay partying! Then....for Halloween....there's a carrete that night since there's no school the next day, so Freja and I will go to that, then chill the next day, eating candy and watching scary movies. Yes!
And....that's my update for today.
¿Wasn't that exciting?
Today was picture day! Oh joy! I don't have the weird blazer, shirt, or tie I needed...but I borrowed the blazer and tie, and you couldn't tell I didn't have the right shirt on. It was a good time. I was watching Freja's class have their picture taken, anddd while they were getting ready for their goofy picture, the photographer, of course, was drawn to me and came over to talk.
I hate. Chilean men. Well, the creepy ones. Which are far too....I can't remember the word. But....they're everywhere. This one decided that he would practice his English on me. Oh well.
I had my class picture taken too....I got to sit in front, woot! (and I totally popped my collar on the goofy pic. Represent.)Afterwards.....well, my class kind of drifted off to the volleyball tournament that seems to be taking place in my school(teams from like,Curico and what not! it's pretty hardcore), so Freja and I asked the photographer if he could take a picture of us, because, we're exchange students, and best friends, and he did it for some other girls in cuarto.
Yeah, uh, big mistake.
This guy was creepy. He wanted us to like, smile at the sky? jaja, and it was just....weird. And he asked us if we had Chilean lovers???!! He meant boyfriends, but his english was horrible and Freja and I just kind of "........" and awkwardly tried to escape. But we survived. And realized that we need to stop getting ourselves into ridiculous situations. Like getting into strangers cars(okay, so it was a teacher, but I didn't know that and Freja didn't tell me. oops) or answering a guy who was trying to sell us his puppy on the street.
But. We're good. We're okay. We're making memories!
The rest of the school day was a complete waste of time. My entire class decided to try and skip Linguaje, so I tagged along. We ran away from the classroom and into the gym. And it worked for about 15 minutes or so until one of the school's head honcho guys came and told us to go back. Oops. Didn't go to Italian(she said I could leave). So Freja and I sat around and came up with 50 reasons why Ecuador sucks. We're a bit bummed about her exchange friends who have summer weather and three houses and cell phones. so to make ourselves feel better, we came up with 50 reasons why our country choice is better than there's, our number one reason being that they eat hamsters or guinea pigs, or whatever. And also we have manjar.
Couldn't leave school early because apparently we're not *that* special anymore, which sucks a lot, but we'll figure out a way to escape somehow. We have Italian lessons with the principal, but he's somewhat unreliable in actually showing up, which leaves us wandering around the school aimlessly for the last hour and a half. Que fome.
And now. I'm watching Dane Cook. Woot!
This weekend....it would appear that I am going out with 5 other exchangers in the La Serena/Coquimbo area(including one girl with AFS who's been here for a looong time) to party. yay partying! Then....for Halloween....there's a carrete that night since there's no school the next day, so Freja and I will go to that, then chill the next day, eating candy and watching scary movies. Yes!
And....that's my update for today.
¿Wasn't that exciting?
23 octubre 2006
Don't worry, I'm still alive
So....I've been gone for a bit. BUT! I'm still alive! woot!
So...update?
Well....Friday was Día del Profesor, which is basically teachers' day. Thursday there was some ceremony thing for it....i think Chilean's will find any excuse to eat cake(but I'm not complaining!). Everyone brought in food, and my class and the head teacher and the inspector general ate it all. yummm. Freja and I felt it was useless to stay in school, but of course, it was the one day that they were cracking down on skipping school, so we stayed and taught an English class. I wasn't hit on this time, jaja(oh, did I mention that last time I was hit on by a ten year old? Um, awkward). So we taught and then left when we had gym, because a group of younger kids were leaving so we blend in, jaja. Ohhh well. I don't think anyone at all stayed for gym anyway. Thursday night I went out with Mauricio and some of his friends, we went to Barrio Ingles, but didn't stay for too long, so we went to some person's house for a party. 'Twas fun. I didn't even feel awkward being wicked young, and talked to some girl.
Friday...slept in. Did...pretty much nothing. Went to my first belly dancing class...which was somewhat frustrating, with all these crazy hippy Latin girls who had taken a class before. But...whatevvvv..I'll be the next Shakira in no time. Stayed home and watched TV with Mauricio and Ignacio Friday night while my host parents went out.
Saturday.....I don't think I did anything during the day....slept maybe? Went out that night with Mauricio and his friends again. We went to el centro, to a pub. I thought they wouldn't let me in at first, but they only glanced at my ID, and I look older, so I was fine. It was a good time. Everyone thought I was 20, haha. I spotted a group of gringos(I have a gringo radar) and talked to two of them. All but one were from Minnesota(the other was from Wisconsin), and the girl from Wisconsin went to Bolivia with Rotary, so we talked about that, and Chilean slang...it was a good time, minus being slightly hit on by waiters, but....that happens. It got the guys at my table another beer after they stopped selling them, so whatever.
Sunday....fome. Stayed home...slept. I didn't get to bed until 7 am, so I guess that's why.
Monday....hoy día! Was pretty fome, I'd say. Had my first real test...not too sure how it went. Found out that I've been recruited as the keyboard player for a band type thing and will be playing in front of the entire school in late November. Freja's on drums, which is funny because she didn't start playing until today. jaja, exchange students....we just do what we want. Oh well.
and now..I'm here. Mauricio's leaving tonight, which kind of sucks cuz he's nice and what not, and I like having someone to talk to(not that I can't talk to my host parents, but..you know what I mean). And tomorrow...my host grandparents will arrive from Calama! Rejoice! I'm not sure for how long though.
and...that's all.
I'm sorry this was a slightly boring update...but...it's been awhile...so I just kind of said what I did. oops.
Oh! and on Wednesday...I went on a trip to the university of La Serena and Freja and I talked to an Australian! It was amazing! And his accent....gahhh jaja
and that.
is all.
besitos!
So...update?
Well....Friday was Día del Profesor, which is basically teachers' day. Thursday there was some ceremony thing for it....i think Chilean's will find any excuse to eat cake(but I'm not complaining!). Everyone brought in food, and my class and the head teacher and the inspector general ate it all. yummm. Freja and I felt it was useless to stay in school, but of course, it was the one day that they were cracking down on skipping school, so we stayed and taught an English class. I wasn't hit on this time, jaja(oh, did I mention that last time I was hit on by a ten year old? Um, awkward). So we taught and then left when we had gym, because a group of younger kids were leaving so we blend in, jaja. Ohhh well. I don't think anyone at all stayed for gym anyway. Thursday night I went out with Mauricio and some of his friends, we went to Barrio Ingles, but didn't stay for too long, so we went to some person's house for a party. 'Twas fun. I didn't even feel awkward being wicked young, and talked to some girl.
Friday...slept in. Did...pretty much nothing. Went to my first belly dancing class...which was somewhat frustrating, with all these crazy hippy Latin girls who had taken a class before. But...whatevvvv..I'll be the next Shakira in no time. Stayed home and watched TV with Mauricio and Ignacio Friday night while my host parents went out.
Saturday.....I don't think I did anything during the day....slept maybe? Went out that night with Mauricio and his friends again. We went to el centro, to a pub. I thought they wouldn't let me in at first, but they only glanced at my ID, and I look older, so I was fine. It was a good time. Everyone thought I was 20, haha. I spotted a group of gringos(I have a gringo radar) and talked to two of them. All but one were from Minnesota(the other was from Wisconsin), and the girl from Wisconsin went to Bolivia with Rotary, so we talked about that, and Chilean slang...it was a good time, minus being slightly hit on by waiters, but....that happens. It got the guys at my table another beer after they stopped selling them, so whatever.
Sunday....fome. Stayed home...slept. I didn't get to bed until 7 am, so I guess that's why.
Monday....hoy día! Was pretty fome, I'd say. Had my first real test...not too sure how it went. Found out that I've been recruited as the keyboard player for a band type thing and will be playing in front of the entire school in late November. Freja's on drums, which is funny because she didn't start playing until today. jaja, exchange students....we just do what we want. Oh well.
and now..I'm here. Mauricio's leaving tonight, which kind of sucks cuz he's nice and what not, and I like having someone to talk to(not that I can't talk to my host parents, but..you know what I mean). And tomorrow...my host grandparents will arrive from Calama! Rejoice! I'm not sure for how long though.
and...that's all.
I'm sorry this was a slightly boring update...but...it's been awhile...so I just kind of said what I did. oops.
Oh! and on Wednesday...I went on a trip to the university of La Serena and Freja and I talked to an Australian! It was amazing! And his accent....gahhh jaja
and that.
is all.
besitos!
15 octubre 2006
GIANT Temblooooorrrr!!!
Oh, today.
Went to lunch with my counselor at his house. His wife is part Arabic, so we had Arabian food. I'm fairly certain that one of the meat things was NOT cooked....that's what I was getting from the description and how it looked, but I figured if they could eat it and not get sick, then so could I. So i did. It was quite good. I also tried some weird plant thing....not so good. Oh well.
Talked with his son. It was slightly awkward due to language gaps and me being generally shy when I speak Spanish. Def. have to work on that....
Then we went to the mall to get a card for someone who just gave birth to a baby. While in the mall though....I don't know. I didn't feel quite so foreign. And I don't think i got so many stares, although, maybe I just didn't notice as much.
Then, we went to the woman's house, which is a street down from me, and the same exact layout as my house....which was kind of weird for me, seeing everything the same, minus the things in the house. The baby was adorable, and way tiny! Afterwards, they asked if I wanted to go to a funeral with them, which I said no to. They were dressed in jeans, which I guess is the norm here....don't think I'll ever get used to that....
Came home to find it was only Ignacio, Janet(she comes every Friday, and I guess babysits too...?) and me. So...I was on the computer, just chilling. And like, 10 minutes ago, I hear this GIANT rumbling sound, and all of a sudden, everything's shaking....I was talking with Freja on MSN, so I just said, TEMBLOR!!! And ran out of the room to where Janet and Ignacio were....omg, so freaky to feel the entire house moving as you run...I get to the room, and can see the walls moving, and a picture on the wall shaking back and forth, omgggg it was hardcore weird, and slightly scary but only for a minute. Whatevvvv I still love it here, crazy frequent earthquakes and all. Every time I feel like something might be shaking, I stop what I'm doing and think, "Temblor?"...jaja. Someone said there's an earthquake(or three?) every day, but you can't usually feel them. I wonder how long it'll be before Chile becomes an island.....?
Anyhoo. My weekend's been good. Went out Friday with Freja, Diego, and Alejandro. We went out to a disco, which was a good time. Took a radio taxi home at like, 3 am. Def. some good times, haha. And then Saturday....I SLEPT. Mucho. But....the clocks have been moved forward an hour...so that kind of sucks. Also...not sure my phone will change, so I should have an interesting time mañana, trying to get up. Anyhoo.
besitos!
kelsey
Went to lunch with my counselor at his house. His wife is part Arabic, so we had Arabian food. I'm fairly certain that one of the meat things was NOT cooked....that's what I was getting from the description and how it looked, but I figured if they could eat it and not get sick, then so could I. So i did. It was quite good. I also tried some weird plant thing....not so good. Oh well.
Talked with his son. It was slightly awkward due to language gaps and me being generally shy when I speak Spanish. Def. have to work on that....
Then we went to the mall to get a card for someone who just gave birth to a baby. While in the mall though....I don't know. I didn't feel quite so foreign. And I don't think i got so many stares, although, maybe I just didn't notice as much.
Then, we went to the woman's house, which is a street down from me, and the same exact layout as my house....which was kind of weird for me, seeing everything the same, minus the things in the house. The baby was adorable, and way tiny! Afterwards, they asked if I wanted to go to a funeral with them, which I said no to. They were dressed in jeans, which I guess is the norm here....don't think I'll ever get used to that....
Came home to find it was only Ignacio, Janet(she comes every Friday, and I guess babysits too...?) and me. So...I was on the computer, just chilling. And like, 10 minutes ago, I hear this GIANT rumbling sound, and all of a sudden, everything's shaking....I was talking with Freja on MSN, so I just said, TEMBLOR!!! And ran out of the room to where Janet and Ignacio were....omg, so freaky to feel the entire house moving as you run...I get to the room, and can see the walls moving, and a picture on the wall shaking back and forth, omgggg it was hardcore weird, and slightly scary but only for a minute. Whatevvvv I still love it here, crazy frequent earthquakes and all. Every time I feel like something might be shaking, I stop what I'm doing and think, "Temblor?"...jaja. Someone said there's an earthquake(or three?) every day, but you can't usually feel them. I wonder how long it'll be before Chile becomes an island.....?
Anyhoo. My weekend's been good. Went out Friday with Freja, Diego, and Alejandro. We went out to a disco, which was a good time. Took a radio taxi home at like, 3 am. Def. some good times, haha. And then Saturday....I SLEPT. Mucho. But....the clocks have been moved forward an hour...so that kind of sucks. Also...not sure my phone will change, so I should have an interesting time mañana, trying to get up. Anyhoo.
besitos!
kelsey
12 octubre 2006
Temblor!!
So today.....was a somewhat useful day. Actually, I dont' think that's the word, butttt I can't remember the word, so that will have to do. First class was the class that Freja and I switched to, Spanish with 7th grade. Oh boy! We felt kind of really awkward at first, but...for the first time, I actually learned something in school here. Which was exciting.
Then....we went to help teach English with the kindergarteners. We just ended up drawing with them(some computer thing wouldn't work) but that was fun. I got gifts from them....a frost flake and purple Fruit Loop, plus a drawing that a girl named Consuelo made. It was a good time. They were all so cute! And one girl hugged me. awww que lindo! There was one girl I especially like, Augustina. She seemed to understand that Freja and I didn't understand(they talk really fast!!), and would slow down and rephrase things for us. She seemed really smart.
Then we went and taught the 6th graders. Except, we mostly just sat and observed. The English teacher....eh. Her English isn't all that good. But the kids spoke and wrote pretty well for being in 5th grade. While we were sitting there, I felt my chair start moving, and I looked over at the wall and actually saw the room moving!! It was crazy! A crazy long temblor...the longest and strongest I've felt here so far. We all left the room and stood outside for a couple minutes before we were sure it was over, and then went back inside. It was crazy cool though, not scary at all. Bakan.
In gym we're practicing for a performance somewhere around November 18th, a dance. There's a salsa group and a hip hop group. I wanted to do salsa, but didn't have a partner, so I'm doing hip hop. And....my iPod saved the day when we needed a song, and guess who has some good hip hop dance music on her iPod(yeah that's right, gringa saves the day!).
And then....I walked home. I walked to school this morning too....which is amazingly good, because that means I walked atleast, most likely more than, two miles. I'm not sure how far away my school is, but it takes me a good 30-40 minutes to walk there...I'm guesstimating atleast a mile, but I'm not sure. And I think I walk pretty fast. Oh well. Tomorrow I think I'm going for a run in the morning, and walking to school since I think Ignacio's still sick(which is why mamá can't drive me), and then walking home. And then going outtt...yessss. There's an event at a disco, so it's 16 plus again. And I think I'm going out Saturday too. I'm doing something with a boy in cuarto, Alejandro, but I don't know what. People here are real last minute. Oh well.
besitos!
Then....we went to help teach English with the kindergarteners. We just ended up drawing with them(some computer thing wouldn't work) but that was fun. I got gifts from them....a frost flake and purple Fruit Loop, plus a drawing that a girl named Consuelo made. It was a good time. They were all so cute! And one girl hugged me. awww que lindo! There was one girl I especially like, Augustina. She seemed to understand that Freja and I didn't understand(they talk really fast!!), and would slow down and rephrase things for us. She seemed really smart.
Then we went and taught the 6th graders. Except, we mostly just sat and observed. The English teacher....eh. Her English isn't all that good. But the kids spoke and wrote pretty well for being in 5th grade. While we were sitting there, I felt my chair start moving, and I looked over at the wall and actually saw the room moving!! It was crazy! A crazy long temblor...the longest and strongest I've felt here so far. We all left the room and stood outside for a couple minutes before we were sure it was over, and then went back inside. It was crazy cool though, not scary at all. Bakan.
In gym we're practicing for a performance somewhere around November 18th, a dance. There's a salsa group and a hip hop group. I wanted to do salsa, but didn't have a partner, so I'm doing hip hop. And....my iPod saved the day when we needed a song, and guess who has some good hip hop dance music on her iPod(yeah that's right, gringa saves the day!).
And then....I walked home. I walked to school this morning too....which is amazingly good, because that means I walked atleast, most likely more than, two miles. I'm not sure how far away my school is, but it takes me a good 30-40 minutes to walk there...I'm guesstimating atleast a mile, but I'm not sure. And I think I walk pretty fast. Oh well. Tomorrow I think I'm going for a run in the morning, and walking to school since I think Ignacio's still sick(which is why mamá can't drive me), and then walking home. And then going outtt...yessss. There's an event at a disco, so it's 16 plus again. And I think I'm going out Saturday too. I'm doing something with a boy in cuarto, Alejandro, but I don't know what. People here are real last minute. Oh well.
besitos!
07 octubre 2006
Oh, emo emus...
Oh hoy. I had to be at Freja's house at 10am, which I think is ridiculously early, but.....filo. Got there anyhoo. Jenny came over at about 10:30, and Alyssa, the new girl from Canada, came a little bit after her. She's only been in C
hile for 3 days...I felt kind of bad. She looked so overwhelmed, and I could remember how I felt only 3 days in. Overwhelmed like woah. But she's really nice. Really tall, but she has dark hair and eyes, so she doesn't stick out as much, minus the height. She lives in Coquimbo and goes to school there, so I don't know how often I'll see her other than Rotary meetings. Oh well. We'll figure something out.
We went to the creepy guy's house again, the giant one with the pool and emus. 'Twas fun. The four of us had a really great time. We swam for a little bit, but the pool was freezing, so we didn't stay in for long. We saw the emus....they must have been hungry because they tried to eat us. First one pecked Freja in the back, and then I was standing there, minding my own business, taking a picture, when I see an EMU HEAD in the corner of my eye. Def. not something you want to see....they kept coming up behind us and trying to peck us in the back and feet....def. did not do that last time.....
Then we went on an adventure. We walked down the highway type thing(but it wasn't busy since it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere), some people whistled at us. That's always real polite. I called them pigs, but then remembered I said it in English. Oops.
We walked under some fence thing, kind of like barbed wire, but not really, and went exploring on a giant sand..hill thing. It was wicked hard to climb up. We saw bones on the way there, some leg bones and pelvic(?) bones, but they looked to big to be human. Eh...kind of really creepy. We hung out on the dunes for awhile and took pictures and such....we saw what looked like lizard prints, and decided that no matter how cool it was, we did not want to see the lizard(they were big footprints!) We were gone atleast an hour....but I don't think anyone noticed.
More hanging out was had. We played "Never Have I Ever" and talked with some boy. Well, mostly I talked to him since it was me and Alyssa, and she doesn't know much Spanish. So we were allowed to speak English today! yay! haha
It was a lot more exciting than I just made it sound, I swear. I have pictures too....but can't promise they'll be on my Yahoo! site soon....it takes forever to load pictures on this computer....don't know why, so I'm lazy a lot. Oh well.
Besitos!!!
*EDIT*
Photos are up from this weekend! For those of you who don't know/forgot/whatever, it's
http://photos.yahoo.com/ksitter9
hile for 3 days...I felt kind of bad. She looked so overwhelmed, and I could remember how I felt only 3 days in. Overwhelmed like woah. But she's really nice. Really tall, but she has dark hair and eyes, so she doesn't stick out as much, minus the height. She lives in Coquimbo and goes to school there, so I don't know how often I'll see her other than Rotary meetings. Oh well. We'll figure something out.We went to the creepy guy's house again, the giant one with the pool and emus. 'Twas fun. The four of us had a really great time. We swam for a little bit, but the pool was freezing, so we didn't stay in for long. We saw the emus....they must have been hungry because they tried to eat us. First one pecked Freja in the back, and then I was standing there, minding my own business, taking a picture, when I see an EMU HEAD in the corner of my eye. Def. not something you want to see....they kept coming up behind us and trying to peck us in the back and feet....def. did not do that last time.....
Then we went on an adventure. We walked down the highway type thing(but it wasn't busy since it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere), some people whistled at us. That's always real polite. I called them pigs, but then remembered I said it in English. Oops.
We walked under some fence thing, kind of like barbed wire, but not really, and went exploring on a giant sand..hill thing. It was wicked hard to climb up. We saw bones on the way there, some leg bones and pelvic(?) bones, but they looked to big to be human. Eh...kind of really creepy. We hung out on the dunes for awhile and took pictures and such....we saw what looked like lizard prints, and decided that no matter how cool it was, we did not want to see the lizard(they were big footprints!) We were gone atleast an hour....but I don't think anyone noticed.
More hanging out was had. We played "Never Have I Ever" and talked with some boy. Well, mostly I talked to him since it was me and Alyssa, and she doesn't know much Spanish. So we were allowed to speak English today! yay! haha
It was a lot more exciting than I just made it sound, I swear. I have pictures too....but can't promise they'll be on my Yahoo! site soon....it takes forever to load pictures on this computer....don't know why, so I'm lazy a lot. Oh well.
Besitos!!!
*EDIT*
Photos are up from this weekend! For those of you who don't know/forgot/whatever, it's
http://photos.yahoo.com/ksitter9
05 octubre 2006
Oh, today.
A nothing day. Much like every other day. In gym, I was practicing rolling my r's(my tongue's slightly physically challenged) and it worked! I'm getting better and can almostalmostalmost do it right! yessss! It was exciting.
Talked to my gym teacher too. Freja and I are going to play futbol. Er, soccer. yesss! Neither of us have played on a team, so we figured it'd be perfect. We both wanted to do something different. My school used to have a field hockey team(I was SO pumped to join!) but not anymore due to lack of interest. Grrr.
I learned some Danish today with Freja, which is exciting, just minus the pronunciations. Danish...is a pretty really hard language. But now I can say this:
Hej! Jeg hedder Kelsey. Jeg er 16 aar. Og kommer fra USA, eller naermere staten Rhode Island. For tiden er jeg her i Chile, some udvekslingsstudent. Which is essentially, hi, my name's Kelsey, I'm 16. I'm from the US, more specifically, RI. Right now I'm in Chile as an exchange student. Yes! And I can do the whole, How are you? thing too. Exciting. I'm pretty sure I'll be fluent soon, hahahaha
Oh well.
Other than that...nothing exciting. My crazy school principal again avoided the meeting with Freja and I. yay. That's the one thing I hate about Chile. If you say you're going to do something, do it, and when you said you would! ARGH. I also almost finished some linguaje work, which is fairly amazing considering it's wicked dificil. Freja and I were exhausted and collapsed on the table in the library by the time we finished. But...it happens.
Pictures. Of the emus. Are coming. Also, this weekend, I'm going back to the creepy guys house for asado part deux, but with Freja, Jenny, and Maureen. Yay!
Oh. And tomorrow is my two month anniversary of being in La Serena and with my host family. Rejoice!
besitossss
Kelsey
A nothing day. Much like every other day. In gym, I was practicing rolling my r's(my tongue's slightly physically challenged) and it worked! I'm getting better and can almostalmostalmost do it right! yessss! It was exciting.
Talked to my gym teacher too. Freja and I are going to play futbol. Er, soccer. yesss! Neither of us have played on a team, so we figured it'd be perfect. We both wanted to do something different. My school used to have a field hockey team(I was SO pumped to join!) but not anymore due to lack of interest. Grrr.
I learned some Danish today with Freja, which is exciting, just minus the pronunciations. Danish...is a pretty really hard language. But now I can say this:
Hej! Jeg hedder Kelsey. Jeg er 16 aar. Og kommer fra USA, eller naermere staten Rhode Island. For tiden er jeg her i Chile, some udvekslingsstudent. Which is essentially, hi, my name's Kelsey, I'm 16. I'm from the US, more specifically, RI. Right now I'm in Chile as an exchange student. Yes! And I can do the whole, How are you? thing too. Exciting. I'm pretty sure I'll be fluent soon, hahahaha
Oh well.
Other than that...nothing exciting. My crazy school principal again avoided the meeting with Freja and I. yay. That's the one thing I hate about Chile. If you say you're going to do something, do it, and when you said you would! ARGH. I also almost finished some linguaje work, which is fairly amazing considering it's wicked dificil. Freja and I were exhausted and collapsed on the table in the library by the time we finished. But...it happens.
Pictures. Of the emus. Are coming. Also, this weekend, I'm going back to the creepy guys house for asado part deux, but with Freja, Jenny, and Maureen. Yay!
Oh. And tomorrow is my two month anniversary of being in La Serena and with my host family. Rejoice!
besitossss
Kelsey
02 octubre 2006
I don't know, It's a mystery
So....this morning, my cell phone was mysteriously unplugged from the charger and turned off(and a picture on my wall was moved, um....dub tee eff), so mamá had to wake me up since I overslept a bit. Oops.
School. Grr. I was all pumped to take an English test, knowing I'd finally have a grade, and a good one at that, so I sat in my desk, pen all ready, and my teacher comes up to me and says, "The students are taking a test, so you should go to the library." Yay boredom....?
Math, I actually understood. It was the Pythagorean(m?) theorem, hooray for geometry last year! Had a meeting with Freja and the principal, entirely in Spanish. We're having our schedules rearranged. We'll be going to a lower level for Spanish and Italian, having one hour Spanish tutoring every week, and teaching English to younger kids(8/9 years old). woohoo!
After school, Freja and I walked down the scary highway(which still scares me when it comes time to cross it), and took a colectivo to el centro. We did some shopping. 'Twas fun. I bought a pair of jeans and a new wallet. I was soooo tempted to buy a shirt that said, "Are you looking at me?" because, well, it just seemed right, but it was kind of....gaudy? looking, so I didn't. We went to the place(forgot the name. Again) with traditionaly Chilean stuff. I got some more postcards for my wall. It's my newest collection/obsession. Postcards of everyplace I've been.
Tonight was a lot better as far as feeling like a foreigner. Wearing our uniform out helps, because Freja and I look more like we belong here, although we still got some stares. This one guy turned around and looked at us, then walked into someone. Haha
I tried a Chilean...thing. Cuchufly(fli?). It was really good...I'm not entirely sure what it was, but it included chocolate and manjar, and I liked it.
When I called mamá to pick us up, she was at the peluqueria(I forgot the English word) with Ignacio getting his hair cut, so she told me to take a colectivo home. Which shocked me, considering she's always said it's dangerous at night and doesn't really want me taking them. But....filo. I like taking colectivos....it makes me feel independent.
Freja's number came first(the colectivos are numbered according to where they drive) so I was alone for a few minutes, while I figured out which number I was. Some driver told me, even though I kind of already knew. Oh well. Never hurts to be positive. So I took a colectivo home all by myself!!! yaaaaay! It was exciting, I felt quite independent, which I liked!
And now.....nada. There's an aerobics thing tomorrow after school that Freja and I are gonig to do, yay? We'll see.....I'm not much of an aerobics person. I like running better, but I'm a bit scared to ask mamá if I can. I will soon though, because I miss being able to run, and I'm sure if I could, I'd actually wake up on Saturday mornings(as opposed to 3 pm....oops) Anyhoo.
Besitos!
Kelsey
School. Grr. I was all pumped to take an English test, knowing I'd finally have a grade, and a good one at that, so I sat in my desk, pen all ready, and my teacher comes up to me and says, "The students are taking a test, so you should go to the library." Yay boredom....?
Math, I actually understood. It was the Pythagorean(m?) theorem, hooray for geometry last year! Had a meeting with Freja and the principal, entirely in Spanish. We're having our schedules rearranged. We'll be going to a lower level for Spanish and Italian, having one hour Spanish tutoring every week, and teaching English to younger kids(8/9 years old). woohoo!
After school, Freja and I walked down the scary highway(which still scares me when it comes time to cross it), and took a colectivo to el centro. We did some shopping. 'Twas fun. I bought a pair of jeans and a new wallet. I was soooo tempted to buy a shirt that said, "Are you looking at me?" because, well, it just seemed right, but it was kind of....gaudy? looking, so I didn't. We went to the place(forgot the name. Again) with traditionaly Chilean stuff. I got some more postcards for my wall. It's my newest collection/obsession. Postcards of everyplace I've been.
Tonight was a lot better as far as feeling like a foreigner. Wearing our uniform out helps, because Freja and I look more like we belong here, although we still got some stares. This one guy turned around and looked at us, then walked into someone. Haha
I tried a Chilean...thing. Cuchufly(fli?). It was really good...I'm not entirely sure what it was, but it included chocolate and manjar, and I liked it.
When I called mamá to pick us up, she was at the peluqueria(I forgot the English word) with Ignacio getting his hair cut, so she told me to take a colectivo home. Which shocked me, considering she's always said it's dangerous at night and doesn't really want me taking them. But....filo. I like taking colectivos....it makes me feel independent.
Freja's number came first(the colectivos are numbered according to where they drive) so I was alone for a few minutes, while I figured out which number I was. Some driver told me, even though I kind of already knew. Oh well. Never hurts to be positive. So I took a colectivo home all by myself!!! yaaaaay! It was exciting, I felt quite independent, which I liked!
And now.....nada. There's an aerobics thing tomorrow after school that Freja and I are gonig to do, yay? We'll see.....I'm not much of an aerobics person. I like running better, but I'm a bit scared to ask mamá if I can. I will soon though, because I miss being able to run, and I'm sure if I could, I'd actually wake up on Saturday mornings(as opposed to 3 pm....oops) Anyhoo.
Besitos!
Kelsey
01 octubre 2006
Why yes, I do kiss emus
Oh, fin de semana....
Friday night I did nothing at all, only slept. Woohoo! Saturday....went to el centro con Freja. We did some shopping. I bought some little things like toothpaste, and Seventeen magazine....in Spanish! Go me! It was quite fun. We were with Freja's cousin, María Lucía, so we had to speak Spanish the whole time. Oh well. It's pretty much necessary, and my Spanish is somehow magically not horrible?
Freja slept over. We had tea and such con mi familia. Papá went out, and Freja, yo y mamá sat at the table and talked. Until midnight, apparently. It was really really nice. All in Spanish, of course, about a variety of things. It's strange how it's suddenly possible. I remember not too long ago, mamá, papá, y mis abuelos would sit and talk after dinner, and I could only sit and listen, and try to understand. And now I'm the one talking after dinner too. It's weird because I don't know when or how it happened. But...me gusta. It's weird to be able to think that I can actually understand and make myself understood in this language.
We had some helado and watched most of Seven, but passed out sometime early this morning. Freja said I talked in my sleep the whole night, mostly in English, but a little in Spanish too. Woohoo!!!
We woke up at around 10:30, when Freja's mamá called and said they were coming at 11. They were going to lunch at a friends house outside of La Serena, and I was invited. So we quickly got ready, and left to her house to get all the food and such ready. Lots of meat, vegetables, wine, and soda. Not to mention towels and such since there was a pool at the house. The house was giant. I mean....giant! I counted 5 bedrooms. There was a waterfountain inside too!! It'll be a bit of a shock for me to go back to the US, when now, big houses just seem so....unnecessary to me. I see them now and think, "Why on Earth would you need that much space?" It's like people in the US are trying to distance themselves from their families almost, by making more space between them, and filling their houses with unnecessary junk. A small house is just fine, there's def. enough space for everyone. Anyhoo. Enough blabbering.
The guy who owned the house was a classmate of Freja's papá back in high school. They owned 20 full grown emus, and a lot more baby ones(which we got to see....que lindo!) Freja and I played cards for a bit, had a giant lunch, and then we got to go and see the emus. Up close. We got to actually go into the corral where they were. Lots of pictures were taken(I, of course, forgot my camera, but Freja's going to send them to me, don't worry). We got to pet emus!!! We also attempted to ride them, but they were kind of scared and would duck away, make a funny sound, and run off. Oh well.
Freja and I went on a walk for a bit and sat in a bus stop. Played more cards. Were oddly, hit on(maybe?) by her dad's friend. This guy was creepy. He kept telling us how beautiful we are, and how much he cared about us, that we're always welcome to go swimming there come summer, and he kept touching me. Putting his hands on my shoulders or back, and he grabbed my arm a couple of times. After he had a few drinks, when we left, he gave us hugs and kisses on the cheek. It was both oddly entertaining(porque él estaba curado) and creepy at the same time. We both agreed we'd rather not go back this summer, unless we were together and with an adult. At all times, haha.
And now....I'm home. Home sweet home, haha. P.S. Padres en Estados Unidos.....I have a webcam...por fa, email me so we can set up a time to talk? That goes for anyone, actualmente.
Anyhoo. Colegio mañana, and then Freja and I are taking a colectivo to the centro to shop and walk and such. We're also going to check out the gym this week, and we're checking another dance school about belly dancing lessons since one of the school's classes was full. We. Will. Dance. Like Shakira.
besitossss
Kelsey
Friday night I did nothing at all, only slept. Woohoo! Saturday....went to el centro con Freja. We did some shopping. I bought some little things like toothpaste, and Seventeen magazine....in Spanish! Go me! It was quite fun. We were with Freja's cousin, María Lucía, so we had to speak Spanish the whole time. Oh well. It's pretty much necessary, and my Spanish is somehow magically not horrible?
Freja slept over. We had tea and such con mi familia. Papá went out, and Freja, yo y mamá sat at the table and talked. Until midnight, apparently. It was really really nice. All in Spanish, of course, about a variety of things. It's strange how it's suddenly possible. I remember not too long ago, mamá, papá, y mis abuelos would sit and talk after dinner, and I could only sit and listen, and try to understand. And now I'm the one talking after dinner too. It's weird because I don't know when or how it happened. But...me gusta. It's weird to be able to think that I can actually understand and make myself understood in this language.
We had some helado and watched most of Seven, but passed out sometime early this morning. Freja said I talked in my sleep the whole night, mostly in English, but a little in Spanish too. Woohoo!!!
We woke up at around 10:30, when Freja's mamá called and said they were coming at 11. They were going to lunch at a friends house outside of La Serena, and I was invited. So we quickly got ready, and left to her house to get all the food and such ready. Lots of meat, vegetables, wine, and soda. Not to mention towels and such since there was a pool at the house. The house was giant. I mean....giant! I counted 5 bedrooms. There was a waterfountain inside too!! It'll be a bit of a shock for me to go back to the US, when now, big houses just seem so....unnecessary to me. I see them now and think, "Why on Earth would you need that much space?" It's like people in the US are trying to distance themselves from their families almost, by making more space between them, and filling their houses with unnecessary junk. A small house is just fine, there's def. enough space for everyone. Anyhoo. Enough blabbering.
The guy who owned the house was a classmate of Freja's papá back in high school. They owned 20 full grown emus, and a lot more baby ones(which we got to see....que lindo!) Freja and I played cards for a bit, had a giant lunch, and then we got to go and see the emus. Up close. We got to actually go into the corral where they were. Lots of pictures were taken(I, of course, forgot my camera, but Freja's going to send them to me, don't worry). We got to pet emus!!! We also attempted to ride them, but they were kind of scared and would duck away, make a funny sound, and run off. Oh well.
Freja and I went on a walk for a bit and sat in a bus stop. Played more cards. Were oddly, hit on(maybe?) by her dad's friend. This guy was creepy. He kept telling us how beautiful we are, and how much he cared about us, that we're always welcome to go swimming there come summer, and he kept touching me. Putting his hands on my shoulders or back, and he grabbed my arm a couple of times. After he had a few drinks, when we left, he gave us hugs and kisses on the cheek. It was both oddly entertaining(porque él estaba curado) and creepy at the same time. We both agreed we'd rather not go back this summer, unless we were together and with an adult. At all times, haha.
And now....I'm home. Home sweet home, haha. P.S. Padres en Estados Unidos.....I have a webcam...por fa, email me so we can set up a time to talk? That goes for anyone, actualmente.
Anyhoo. Colegio mañana, and then Freja and I are taking a colectivo to the centro to shop and walk and such. We're also going to check out the gym this week, and we're checking another dance school about belly dancing lessons since one of the school's classes was full. We. Will. Dance. Like Shakira.
besitossss
Kelsey
28 septiembre 2006
Oh, today.
School.....eh. You know how school is. I took a math test(although, I'm not sure if the teacher is counting it....hopefully...no?). I'm starting to almost grasp what he's talking about. One day, all his symbols just made sense. If only I understood his reasoning. Everything I've learned about math means nothing here, the order of solving problems that's been forever engraved in my brain is wrong here. It's utterly confusing. But! I'm starting to figure out his messed up way of solving problems that make little to no sense, so....I suppose that's a very good thing!
The gym teacher wasn't here today, so it was proclaimed that we had no gym class. Entonces....we got to leave school early. 90 minutes early. Mamá was out shopping, and had given me the key anyway, so I walked home, partially with Freja. We didn't get as many looks. That's why I like wearing my uniform in public. It's like saying Look at me! I belong here! Anyhoo. I crossed the street all by myself, which always terrifies me. It's four lanes of traffic, haha. Buttt...I waited for the red light, and made it safely across. Go me! Was home alone for about two hours. Answered the phone for the first time!!! yesss! Although....it still terrifies me. Thankfully today it was just Freja asking if I wanted to go to the movies. Phew.
We did go to the movies. We saw La Dama en El Agua...I forgot the translation....Lady of the Water? Something of the sort. It was okay....kind of....strange. But still good. We took a collectivo. Note to self, always sit in the front seat. Freja talked to the driver the whole time, while I was crammed against the window next to a strange bearded man. The driver was quite interested in the exchange student thing....which was pretty cool. I did get to talk to him a little, but not much.
In the line for popcorn(which has carmel type stuff on it, not butter. ¡Que extraño!), there were two blonde people in front of us. And my gringo radar went off. They spoke slow Spanish, that didn't sound like gringo Spanish. I leaned over to Freja and whispered "Foreignors!" as they always slightly amaze me, and the man turned around and smiled. I asked where they were from, in English. Germany. They were very nice. We talked about La Serena a bit, and what movies we were seeing(they were seeing Click). They came from Peru and Bolivia and are travelling down Chile. I told them to make sure to check out Valparaiso. All in all, it was slightly exciting. They even had blue eyes!!!!
The movie was subtitled. Thankfully. Freja and I both decided we would cry if it wasn't, haha. Afterwards we talked about what we would keep with us when we go back home. Saying "Chao!" instead of goodbye, eating french fries with a fork, saying "ya po!" "sí po" y "Que onda?". Eating ketchup with most things. Forgetting to wear seatbelts(they're not even in most cars!), using slang. That kind of thing. It's funny to think about how accustomed to things here we've gotten. Even speaking Chilean English. I've started directly translating things into English with Freja now("We have 16 years" "I have tired") It's funny.
The language has started seeping into my brain, and it's both confusing and entertaining. When i think, it's a mixture of English and Spanish. I can read and understand Spanish now. I sat down to write an email to a Rotarian here earlier, and at first I was slightly panicked at the idea of doing it in Spanish, but the words just came. I was actually able to do it with little difficulty. When I speak English, Spanish words just slip out. It happened with the Germans today(and afterwards, when they left, Freja and I just kept speaking Spanish to each other). And there are things that just make more sense in Spanish. Which Freja agreed with too....I'm sooo glad to have someone else understand! When I write home to people, I just can't help but use Spanish words and phrases because it just seems right. It just fits better than English. It's crazy.
Anyhoo. I think I've pretty much written a novel. So.....the end? El fin. Sí. Pero.....some comments would be nice! It's kind of a strange feeling to know that people read this, but have no idea who those people are(and yes, okay padres, you are exempt from the comments, if you email me, haha). Anyhoo. Un besito, chao.
Kelsey
School.....eh. You know how school is. I took a math test(although, I'm not sure if the teacher is counting it....hopefully...no?). I'm starting to almost grasp what he's talking about. One day, all his symbols just made sense. If only I understood his reasoning. Everything I've learned about math means nothing here, the order of solving problems that's been forever engraved in my brain is wrong here. It's utterly confusing. But! I'm starting to figure out his messed up way of solving problems that make little to no sense, so....I suppose that's a very good thing!
The gym teacher wasn't here today, so it was proclaimed that we had no gym class. Entonces....we got to leave school early. 90 minutes early. Mamá was out shopping, and had given me the key anyway, so I walked home, partially with Freja. We didn't get as many looks. That's why I like wearing my uniform in public. It's like saying Look at me! I belong here! Anyhoo. I crossed the street all by myself, which always terrifies me. It's four lanes of traffic, haha. Buttt...I waited for the red light, and made it safely across. Go me! Was home alone for about two hours. Answered the phone for the first time!!! yesss! Although....it still terrifies me. Thankfully today it was just Freja asking if I wanted to go to the movies. Phew.
We did go to the movies. We saw La Dama en El Agua...I forgot the translation....Lady of the Water? Something of the sort. It was okay....kind of....strange. But still good. We took a collectivo. Note to self, always sit in the front seat. Freja talked to the driver the whole time, while I was crammed against the window next to a strange bearded man. The driver was quite interested in the exchange student thing....which was pretty cool. I did get to talk to him a little, but not much.
In the line for popcorn(which has carmel type stuff on it, not butter. ¡Que extraño!), there were two blonde people in front of us. And my gringo radar went off. They spoke slow Spanish, that didn't sound like gringo Spanish. I leaned over to Freja and whispered "Foreignors!" as they always slightly amaze me, and the man turned around and smiled. I asked where they were from, in English. Germany. They were very nice. We talked about La Serena a bit, and what movies we were seeing(they were seeing Click). They came from Peru and Bolivia and are travelling down Chile. I told them to make sure to check out Valparaiso. All in all, it was slightly exciting. They even had blue eyes!!!!
The movie was subtitled. Thankfully. Freja and I both decided we would cry if it wasn't, haha. Afterwards we talked about what we would keep with us when we go back home. Saying "Chao!" instead of goodbye, eating french fries with a fork, saying "ya po!" "sí po" y "Que onda?". Eating ketchup with most things. Forgetting to wear seatbelts(they're not even in most cars!), using slang. That kind of thing. It's funny to think about how accustomed to things here we've gotten. Even speaking Chilean English. I've started directly translating things into English with Freja now("We have 16 years" "I have tired") It's funny.
The language has started seeping into my brain, and it's both confusing and entertaining. When i think, it's a mixture of English and Spanish. I can read and understand Spanish now. I sat down to write an email to a Rotarian here earlier, and at first I was slightly panicked at the idea of doing it in Spanish, but the words just came. I was actually able to do it with little difficulty. When I speak English, Spanish words just slip out. It happened with the Germans today(and afterwards, when they left, Freja and I just kept speaking Spanish to each other). And there are things that just make more sense in Spanish. Which Freja agreed with too....I'm sooo glad to have someone else understand! When I write home to people, I just can't help but use Spanish words and phrases because it just seems right. It just fits better than English. It's crazy.
Anyhoo. I think I've pretty much written a novel. So.....the end? El fin. Sí. Pero.....some comments would be nice! It's kind of a strange feeling to know that people read this, but have no idea who those people are(and yes, okay padres, you are exempt from the comments, if you email me, haha). Anyhoo. Un besito, chao.
Kelsey
24 septiembre 2006
P.S. I am almost officially not illegal anymore! yesss....went and applied for(maybe?) my carnet, my Chilean ID card the other day. I get to actually get it October 10th. woohooo legalness!
Didn't do much this week. Slept, mostly. I really enjoying sleeping until 3 am....oh, Chile. And vacation. Def. needed that.
Yesterday I was supposed to cook lunch for my family....we were going to go out and buy what I needed, but, I slept until 3 pm, and no one bothered to try and wake me, so we went out to lunch instead. I'm getting a better idea of what I'm ordering now, which is good. We went to the mall afterwards and got a webcam! So, family and friends, you can now see me via MSN. yaaaay
Freja called and told me about a birthday party for two girls, one in my class, and her cousin in cuarto. She said they'd be by at around 10 to pick me up. But, of course, 10 in Chilean time means just before 11. We went to one of the girls houses, which was giant. The party was a lot bigger than Freja and I expected too. There was a DJ there, and lots of people we didn't even know. But....we had a good time still. My host mom picked us up at 3:30, and Freja came back to my house to sleep over. We ate left over panqueques(they're thinner than US pancakes, and you put jam(?) on it, and ro
ll it up. Sooooo good) and talked for a long while. Then....passed out.
Today, after lunch, we went to the Valle. We drove through the mountains and saw some giant lake thing....pretty neat. Some guy there came over and asked Freja and I where we were from, then commented on how white I am, which is always fun for me. Then.....we drove farther into the Valle and saw little towns and such. We stopped in Vicuña for some helado, like always. People here eat sooo much helado. Ice cream should not be eatent this much, I swear. We were sitting in the plaze chilling and such, when some procession came out of the church across the street. A band was kind of playing, and they were carrying a giant Virgin Mary. I tried to get a picture, but only got one of the back of the procession. I'm not sure what was going on, and my host parents didn't know either. But I think it's pretty cool all the religious stuff that goes on here. My host dad said there's a huuuuuge religious festival(?) in Andacollo coming up with tons of people and dancing, and they're going to try and bring me and Freja.
Anyhoo. We left Vicuña and kept driving through little towns. We stopped in the town where Gabriel Mistral was born. It was......empty. Apparently it's full of young people during the summer, but today it was dead. I think I would go insane in a town that small. It was ridiculous.
The drive back was about an hour. We drove by mountains(como siempre) and vineyards(they're everywhere). We stopped at the airport in La Serena to go to the bathroom, and Freja and I had a good time remembering how utterly terrified we were when we first arrived here. We both just wanted to turn around and go home, haha. Oh well....
That's pretty much it. Trust me, it was a lot more exciting than it sounds though. My host parents today decided to play a trick on me and told me I had to change houses in January, some Rotary Club Coquimbo rule. Haha, real funny.
I've taken over 300 pictures here so far....haha, oops. I'm trying to upload them all onto my Yahoo site....but it takes forever to load. Hopefully they'll all be up there by the end of this week though.....so make sure to check it!
Kelsey
Didn't do much this week. Slept, mostly. I really enjoying sleeping until 3 am....oh, Chile. And vacation. Def. needed that.
Yesterday I was supposed to cook lunch for my family....we were going to go out and buy what I needed, but, I slept until 3 pm, and no one bothered to try and wake me, so we went out to lunch instead. I'm getting a better idea of what I'm ordering now, which is good. We went to the mall afterwards and got a webcam! So, family and friends, you can now see me via MSN. yaaaay
Freja called and told me about a birthday party for two girls, one in my class, and her cousin in cuarto. She said they'd be by at around 10 to pick me up. But, of course, 10 in Chilean time means just before 11. We went to one of the girls houses, which was giant. The party was a lot bigger than Freja and I expected too. There was a DJ there, and lots of people we didn't even know. But....we had a good time still. My host mom picked us up at 3:30, and Freja came back to my house to sleep over. We ate left over panqueques(they're thinner than US pancakes, and you put jam(?) on it, and ro
ll it up. Sooooo good) and talked for a long while. Then....passed out.Today, after lunch, we went to the Valle. We drove through the mountains and saw some giant lake thing....pretty neat. Some guy there came over and asked Freja and I where we were from, then commented on how white I am, which is always fun for me. Then.....we drove farther into the Valle and saw little towns and such. We stopped in Vicuña for some helado, like always. People here eat sooo much helado. Ice cream should not be eatent this much, I swear. We were sitting in the plaze chilling and such, when some procession came out of the church across the street. A band was kind of playing, and they were carrying a giant Virgin Mary. I tried to get a picture, but only got one of the back of the procession. I'm not sure what was going on, and my host parents didn't know either. But I think it's pretty cool all the religious stuff that goes on here. My host dad said there's a huuuuuge religious festival(?) in Andacollo coming up with tons of people and dancing, and they're going to try and bring me and Freja.
Anyhoo. We left Vicuña and kept driving through little towns. We stopped in the town where Gabriel Mistral was born. It was......empty. Apparently it's full of young people during the summer, but today it was dead. I think I would go insane in a town that small. It was ridiculous.
The drive back was about an hour. We drove by mountains(como siempre) and vineyards(they're everywhere). We stopped at the airport in La Serena to go to the bathroom, and Freja and I had a good time remembering how utterly terrified we were when we first arrived here. We both just wanted to turn around and go home, haha. Oh well....
That's pretty much it. Trust me, it was a lot more exciting than it sounds though. My host parents today decided to play a trick on me and told me I had to change houses in January, some Rotary Club Coquimbo rule. Haha, real funny.
I've taken over 300 pictures here so far....haha, oops. I'm trying to upload them all onto my Yahoo site....but it takes forever to load. Hopefully they'll all be up there by the end of this week though.....so make sure to check it!
Kelsey
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