Today....was nothing extremely exciting. A fairly boring day during school, actually. But tomorrow we're going to Coquimbo to see the Catholic University campus or something like that....exciting!
Today....I got in a bit of an argument though with a boy named Felipe who's quite rude, and in my opinion, somewhat narrow minded. He enjoys pissing me off, I think, and will flat out call me a bitch or an idiot to get a reaction, but moments later be chatting with me like nothing ever happened. Not to mention his making fun of mentally retarded people("Oh look at me! I am so Downs Syndrome!") which reallyreallyreally bothers me, and he can't seem to understand why. Well anyway. Today he proclaimed that he hates America. Then said that he doesn't hate the people, just the government, so I asked why and he said, "Because of the inequality between the US and third world countries". Um, okay...but how can you blame the US for that? I know of plenty other countries who are just as well off as the United States, but I don't see them being blamed for the existence of poverty. It was just ridiculous, and ended in us both pissed off at each other, but in the end apologizing and being fine.
I was wondering when I would be faced with something like that....I mean, I want to know people's opinions, but I don't want to feel like I'm under attack(like I did today). To be honest, there are times here when I can't stand the fact that I'm from the US. A lot, actually. People just...don't seem to care about taking the time to educate themselves on anything but the crap they hear on the news. And Felipe today said that I'm "a typical American girl". Oh yay, stereotypes. It just....agh. Pissed me off. First off, you've never even been to the States, and the only "American girls" you've ever seen are on TV. I'm willing to bet that he's met maybe maybe maybe less than 3 people from the US his whole life. So how can he possibly know if I'm "typical"?
Anyway. After school I went to the mall with Freja. Which was quite fun. We always have trouble ordering things or paying or something because of the stupid language thing, jaja. And the stares, ohhh the stares. People just...walk with their heads turned, looking at you. It's like they've never seen blonde before. It's not that amazing, honestly. Then....we were in a pharmacy, and I was buying shampoo and conditioner. And of course, it's in Spanish. I had seen the same thing in the US, but I couldn't remember what type of hair it was for, so we went to see if someone who worked there could like, mime it or something for us. Well, Freja asked "¿Habla ingles?" and before we could explain, they went off to another guy there who did. And we were brought to him, and let's just say it was quite embarrassing...everyone knew that the two gringas had no idea what they were doing. But we figured out what the bottle said, and managed to find everything else we needed on our own.
And I was able to talk with Mamá on the way home more...about stupid stuff, like how I wish I could speak better Spanish, and how I took the bus to school in the US(Gabi is now too and hates it haha). Nothing of much interest, but better than awkward silence, and I feel like I'm improving. Yay!
And mañana is my one month anniversary of being in La Serena!
Love and miss you all!
kelsey