Last night....was fun. We went to Gabi´s friend´s house, Lina. And Freja is staying there. They talked to us in Spanish and English. We taught them English words, they taught us Spanish words. We ate pasteles(?) and had milk and whatnot. Then...we all piled into one bed, with Lina´s cousin and watched the endings of The Sixth Sense and The Girl Next Door, with subtitles. And they had chips! Like Lays! It was the first "American" thing I´ve seen so far, so it was cool. Freja´s host dad also said that her host mom was really surprised at my Spanish, like, it´s good. As long as people slow down, I know what they´re saying.
They kept asking though if we were hungry....which we weren´t. Chileans eat ALL THE TIME. It´s crazy....and they still can´t get over the fact that I´m really not hungry. I get so scared when they tell me I have to eat everything...because it´s a lot...very often. jaja

Today we went back to some place to try to get my Chilean ID, but we couldn´t. Mom, remember when we noticed that the consulate spelled Edwards like Edwads? But we thought it wouldn´t be a problem? Well, it is. We have to somehow fix my visa or something....so right now I´m technically an illegal immigrant I think, until this is somewhow fixed. Gabi told me that they can fix it, but I don´t understand what they were saying, so I´m not sure how this will happen.
We went to the mall today too with Jenny, Maureen, Freja, and their host siblings. It was a lot of fun....and the host siblings told me that I have the best Spanish out of all of them! So that was good....it made me feel better about actually learning the language. Oh! And we had this crazy cool ice cream...made from fruit! You tell them what fruit you want, and they make it into ice cream for you. SO GOOD. Very strange but cool.
I start school mañana though....and I´m a little nervous, but not really. I think I´ll be more nervous once I´m there, and people are speaking Spanish to me.
It´s strange being here....it´s starting to feel more familiar, and I´m starting to understand conversations, and recognize places in La Serena. But I still feel very different. Mostly when we´re walking around the city....people just take a second glance. There´s no one here with my skin tone, nevermind my eye color or hair color. The way I look, the way I dress, it gives me away as an American. I haven´t been talking much, mostly sí or qué, just to let people know I understand or need something repeated. I´ve been listening a lot though, and observing everything....noticing trends in the fashion(a little bit behind the U.S) and different words and conjugations. I have to concentrate a lot in order to get by every day. And if I space out for even a second, I´m lost completely.
My host mom took Gabi and me out to lunch today. I thought it´d be easy, considering I learned the whole food thing in school....but it was completely different. I had no idea what the menú said, or what to order. Gabi was so helpful though, helping to translate....and I finally decided on something that seemed pretty safe. And it turned out okay, considering we were at some place called Pilla de Vaca, or something like that.
I used an ATM today too! Which is good, because I was gettin worried about money, since I only had $15.000 left after paying for part of my uniform. But now I have about $35.000 again, which isn´t a lot in US$, but it´s okay I guess.
And....what else is different...well there´s stray dogs EVERYWHERE. Like, everywhere. I feel bad seeing them. And they have these weird metal box things on the sidewalks, I guess they´re for trash, since I always see trash in them. And when you park somewhere on the side of the street, and leave afterwards, you have to pay some person. I think that the person´s job is to watch your car, and make sure nothing happens, but I´m not sure. It´s almost like a live parking meter, but they walk up and down the street, so I don´t know.
Things here are very different....you don´t notice it at first, but then you slowly do. It´s kind of cool though. I´m starting to like the differences, but before they bothered me. I think it was just that I was overwhelmed...I wanted English, I wanted to understand, I wanted familiarity, but now things here are starting to feel familiar. And my host family is really nice. They repeat things for me and whatnot, although I´m starting to understand. It´s good.
Oh, and dad....last night...I still dreamt in English, but at the end of the dream, when people in my dreams said a word, they translated it into Spanish. It was really cool! Like, someone was sitting in a chair, and they said "silla". So yeah, my first Spanish-ish dream!
Anyhoo.
Hasta mañana, despues de la escuela

love you all
kelsey