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!

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!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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

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!

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 Chile 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

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

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

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