Today was a very bipolar day...
DOWN: I started crying during lunch... No real reason, just overwelmed, I guess. I had absolutely no clue what was going, even less than usual. Lunch was chicken and ham and cheese in breadcrumbs, and it was delicious, but of course, Sebastian and Domingo had to get into a fight about whether or not there was cheese in it, and proceeded to not only punch each other numerous times, but also to pick apart their food in order to prove their respective points, until it looked like a disgusting mess, and I was so confused and tired and annoyed that I actually started crying. Which you would think would've made them stop fighting, but no. Welcome to the life of an exchange student.
UP: I can now have basic conversations in Spanish (well, Spanglish, really, but more Spanish than English, which is the important point, and, still, it's something). Yesterday I had a full on Spanish conversation with Franco, and even though he had to repeat most of what he said at least three times for me, I actually comprehended it. I found out that he applied to go on exchange next year and is waiting to find out if he got excepted, and wants to go to the U.S., Germany or Italy. And I told him that he absolutely HAS to come to Arcata, because it is the best place in the entire world. (Although Talca comes in pretty close). I wonder if I have string-pulling capabilities? Hahaha.
DOWN: I can now say things in Spanish! Yay! But every time I say anything, the response is "Aww, she's so cute when she speaks Spanish!" This isn't exactly confidence boosting, but, oh well, at least it's better than everyone laughing at me, which is what I sometimes do when Franco speaks English. :)
UP: I bought a candy bar from a convience store pretty much all by myself, with very little help from Domingo, who was standing RIGHT there the whole time and could've been a real help, but whatever, the little twerp. I managed to convey to the saleswoman that I was from the U.S. And didn't speak much Spanish and had only been in Chile a month, and she understood me(!) and was really nice about it, and wow, I felt awesome! :)
DOWN: I was home alone and decided that I wanted to go off on an adventure, but when I asked Anita, she made Alvaro accompany me. I don't need a guardian! Especially because Alvaro is younger than me..
UP: My adventure was not exactly what I wanted it to be, but I had a lot of fun with Alvaro anyway.
And, the rest of my day... Well, mas o menos, fue loco. Muy, muy, loco.
Nobody was home, except Domi, Seba, Alvaro, and myself, and the three of them decided that I needed to become 'accustomed' to the country. As if I'm not already--I barely even notice the smell of horse shit anymore. Alvaro's goal for my exchange is that, by the time I leave, I will love the carucho (this is what that crazy roller coaster horse-cart is called). Which means that I was pretty much forced to do this multiple times today.
Believe me, I put up a lot of resistance: "NOO! TU LOCO! Y TU LOCO, Y TU LOCO!!!"
I was assured that this time, Alvaro would NOT drive the horse crazily, which he didn't, but, just my luck, the horse went mental and started running all over the place, and into things, etc. Domingo and I jumped off, Sebastian managed to stay on but was jostled all over the place (although extremely proud of himself) and Alvaro was thrown off and dragged behind the horse, which, of course, I found extremely funny. Karma!!
After much, much protesting, they convinced me to ride it again, because if I didn't ride it, or a bike (I can't ride the bikes here, the gears are different and it messes with me) I would be left out. So I gave in.
And Alvaro and Domingo went insane. The horse is already at a gallop and here they are, going "YAH, YAH, RAPIDO, MUY RAPIDO!""
and here I am, going
"OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA DIE!!! AHHHH!!! YOU GUYS ARE FREAKING INSANE!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!! I'M GOING TO DIE!!"
Actually. Those were my exact words. And after that, I grew some brains and refused to do it again, and screamed at them a whole bunch more, because really, they are all crazy (but all in good fun, of course) and laughed a lot when the horse went loco again and they fell off.
Oh, and also, I am sure you will be very interested to know that my neighbor's pedophile beagle tried to rape my puppy, Tonka, right in frnot of me, and it was very scary. She is really, really, scary, and she is really little and only three months old (and yes, she is mine, I stole her from Alvaro and she follows me everywhere, and I am gonna smuggle her back to Humboldt with me in my suitcase, just so you know). And here is Domingo, encouraging this vile act ("Grace, they're in love!"). No, Domingo, obviously this is dog rape, she's only a puppy and doesn't know what she wants. But, seriously (en serio) what is with all this animal sex?! I never saw this in Humboldt, and now, it's like a daily occurrence. Like, have you seen your animal sex yet today?
Anyway, I'm gonna take a shower and wash off all this horse poo and mud, so Chao! Grace
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
This is why I like physics:
Best thing ever:
Today six boys from my class came in late to physics class... The teacher made them run around the classroom on piggy back and try to knock each other over as a punishment: the classroom version of chicken. Then another boy came in late and the teacher made him sing in front of everyone. Both events were hilarious! I just about died laughing. My physics teacher may look like a goat and have completely unlegible handwriting, but I think I may come to like this man. Hahahahaha.
Then, my history teacher showed us caricutures that he drew of all the other teachers... I barely know most of the teachers, but they were extremely accurate and extremely hilarious.
It totally made up for having three classes of math yesterday (yes, three!! Can you believe it?!) Four and a half hours of trigonometry in one day is completely wretched, in any language.
Chao for now (that rhymes!!) --Grace
Today six boys from my class came in late to physics class... The teacher made them run around the classroom on piggy back and try to knock each other over as a punishment: the classroom version of chicken. Then another boy came in late and the teacher made him sing in front of everyone. Both events were hilarious! I just about died laughing. My physics teacher may look like a goat and have completely unlegible handwriting, but I think I may come to like this man. Hahahahaha.
Then, my history teacher showed us caricutures that he drew of all the other teachers... I barely know most of the teachers, but they were extremely accurate and extremely hilarious.
It totally made up for having three classes of math yesterday (yes, three!! Can you believe it?!) Four and a half hours of trigonometry in one day is completely wretched, in any language.
Chao for now (that rhymes!!) --Grace
Love Vegetables
For once, I went home during lunch (yes! Internet at lunchtime!) and food is on my mind....
Can I just start by saying how much I love carrots? I even have a list of reasons why:
Carrots are orange
Carrots are a vegetable
Carrots are not a starch
Carrots are not covered in salt
Carrots in espanol is zanahorias, and, c'mon, is that not fun to say?
Wow, I think I have some poem writing material right here.
I am beginning to grow a major sweet tooth. Not that I didn't have one before, but now it's a Chileanified sweet tooth. Which means I can now eat bananas covered in manjar or honey and actually enjoy it. It makes me wonder, when I come back home, will I be totally addicted to meat and potatoes, too, or will I never want to see another potato again? These are te questions that keep me up late at night... Not really.
I have been here three weeks already, and only this past weekend did I learn that in Chilean eating etiquette, you must keep both hands on the table. I am horrible at this. Pretty much at every meal, Claudia goes "Grace! Manos!" Thankfully, I am not the only one in the family who has trouble remembering this piece of etiquette, otherwise I would be really embarrassed.
Mmm.... That's about it for now...
Love, Grace
Can I just start by saying how much I love carrots? I even have a list of reasons why:
Carrots are orange
Carrots are a vegetable
Carrots are not a starch
Carrots are not covered in salt
Carrots in espanol is zanahorias, and, c'mon, is that not fun to say?
Wow, I think I have some poem writing material right here.
I am beginning to grow a major sweet tooth. Not that I didn't have one before, but now it's a Chileanified sweet tooth. Which means I can now eat bananas covered in manjar or honey and actually enjoy it. It makes me wonder, when I come back home, will I be totally addicted to meat and potatoes, too, or will I never want to see another potato again? These are te questions that keep me up late at night... Not really.
I have been here three weeks already, and only this past weekend did I learn that in Chilean eating etiquette, you must keep both hands on the table. I am horrible at this. Pretty much at every meal, Claudia goes "Grace! Manos!" Thankfully, I am not the only one in the family who has trouble remembering this piece of etiquette, otherwise I would be really embarrassed.
Mmm.... That's about it for now...
Love, Grace
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Chilean Education Stinks
Those are not my words, unfortunately. A classmate said that, but I have to agree with him. We go to school for such a long time, and learn absolutely nothing (I mean, not that I would learn anything anyway, but, nobody learns anything. We do no work). Today, I taught my classmates how to correctly pronounce the words to 'I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz and 'Dynamite' by Taio Cruz. I went to school for 8 hours today, and that is absolutely the only thing I accomplished. No, I didn't even really accomplish that: only one of my friends can sing either of hose songs without making me crack up from their horrible pronunciation.
Until today, the only class I was expected to actually work in was math, but, we have moved on from logarithms to sine and cosine, and now I don't even understand math (despite the fact that I took Precalculus last year; sorry, Mrs. Walsh, I remember absolutely nothing). Even my English teacher won't let me take the English tests, because she is afraid everyone will copy off of me (which they would have). Every once in awhile I take notes, but most of my teachers have a horrible habit of giving notes orally, and it's impossible to understand. I an quickly acquiring a large collection of doodles. And in most of my classes, no one does anything anyway, so I just talk to my friends.
My Spanish is slowly and painfully getting better.
Chao, Grace
P.S. I found out that that place I went to over the weekend was actually a bakery. I'm not exactly sure what made it a bakery, but the woman who owns it speaks some English, and was telling me something about baking and selling cakes (?). I guess there were some cakes there, among everything else. I'm still a bit confused, but, whatever.
Until today, the only class I was expected to actually work in was math, but, we have moved on from logarithms to sine and cosine, and now I don't even understand math (despite the fact that I took Precalculus last year; sorry, Mrs. Walsh, I remember absolutely nothing). Even my English teacher won't let me take the English tests, because she is afraid everyone will copy off of me (which they would have). Every once in awhile I take notes, but most of my teachers have a horrible habit of giving notes orally, and it's impossible to understand. I an quickly acquiring a large collection of doodles. And in most of my classes, no one does anything anyway, so I just talk to my friends.
My Spanish is slowly and painfully getting better.
Chao, Grace
P.S. I found out that that place I went to over the weekend was actually a bakery. I'm not exactly sure what made it a bakery, but the woman who owns it speaks some English, and was telling me something about baking and selling cakes (?). I guess there were some cakes there, among everything else. I'm still a bit confused, but, whatever.
Monday, September 26, 2011
[Creative title goes here]
Okay... It's been a couple days since I wrote anything and soooo much has happened since I last updated you all. It's been a crazy weekend!! So, I will now try really hard to remember everything that happened, and summarize it. Because I don't feel like writing a book today.
Friday night I went to a sleepover at a friends house with about six other girls from my class. And some of the guys from my class came over for a couple hours too. It was really really fun and it was super nice to get to know everybody more outside of school. And even though I still can't understand/talk much, I had a really good time. It was also really strange, because it was the first time I saw everybody in street clothes and not in school uniforms.
Claudia picked me up in the morning and the two of us went shopping together. It was really fun, and I got a pair of jeans (which I was in desperate need of), a shirt, and a couple pairs of tights for school. Afterwards we picked up Franco from his friend's house and then did some errands... And let me just say, I do not understand Chilean shops. The clothing store was weird enough, but I could figure it out because it was just clothes. But one of the places we went on Saturday... We were there for about an hour, and I spent the whole time trying to figure out what kin of place it was. It seemed to be a mix of a high-end boutique, a cafe, a coffee shop, somebody's house, an office, and a kinko's. And yet, not really any of those things. I don't know. It was confusing. That was the worst, but noneof the shops we went to that day really made complete sense to me. I suppose eventually I will figure it out.
After running errands, we came home and ate lunch, and then I slept for five hours, and probably would have slept until Sunday, had Claudia not waken me up around 7. After waking, I was immediately herded to a friends house for a BBQ, and as usual, I was not properly dressed because I had no clue where we were actually going.
The BBQ was pretty fun. Our friend, Diego, cooked a whole bunch of chorizo and beef and flatbread on the grill, and whenever a piece was done cooking he would cut it in to bite-sized pieces and we would all eat a few. We snacked like that pretty much all night, and it was delicious. Around 8 o'clock, the power went out through out all of Chile for about two hours. It was really scary, and I had no idea what was going on the whole time, although I don't think anyone really knew much anyway. So.. That was an adventure, to say the least.
Then the next morning I woke up incredibly early to get on the bus with the five other exchangers from Talca, to go to Santiago for our district orientation. I was not looking forward to it, because I was running on three hours of sleep, but it was sooo much fun. There are 69 other exchangers in my district, so it was kinda crazy. Unfortunately, instead of getting a whole weekend to get to know eachother, we had about 7 hours, and most of it was just going over the rules and stuff. But still, it was good. And it was really nice to be wih other kids who speak the same language as me, for once, but, also, it was really nice because when they (the kids who ctually were semi-fluent in spanish) were speaking in spanish, i could understand them way better than when Chileans speak spanish. And I discovered that I could actually understand a lot more than I thought I could! And, on the three hour by ride back to Talca, I had a lot of fun with the other kids from my club, and we are planning to meet up again soon, maybe this weekend.
So, yeah. That was my weekend. :)
Chao, Grace
Friday night I went to a sleepover at a friends house with about six other girls from my class. And some of the guys from my class came over for a couple hours too. It was really really fun and it was super nice to get to know everybody more outside of school. And even though I still can't understand/talk much, I had a really good time. It was also really strange, because it was the first time I saw everybody in street clothes and not in school uniforms.
Claudia picked me up in the morning and the two of us went shopping together. It was really fun, and I got a pair of jeans (which I was in desperate need of), a shirt, and a couple pairs of tights for school. Afterwards we picked up Franco from his friend's house and then did some errands... And let me just say, I do not understand Chilean shops. The clothing store was weird enough, but I could figure it out because it was just clothes. But one of the places we went on Saturday... We were there for about an hour, and I spent the whole time trying to figure out what kin of place it was. It seemed to be a mix of a high-end boutique, a cafe, a coffee shop, somebody's house, an office, and a kinko's. And yet, not really any of those things. I don't know. It was confusing. That was the worst, but noneof the shops we went to that day really made complete sense to me. I suppose eventually I will figure it out.
After running errands, we came home and ate lunch, and then I slept for five hours, and probably would have slept until Sunday, had Claudia not waken me up around 7. After waking, I was immediately herded to a friends house for a BBQ, and as usual, I was not properly dressed because I had no clue where we were actually going.
The BBQ was pretty fun. Our friend, Diego, cooked a whole bunch of chorizo and beef and flatbread on the grill, and whenever a piece was done cooking he would cut it in to bite-sized pieces and we would all eat a few. We snacked like that pretty much all night, and it was delicious. Around 8 o'clock, the power went out through out all of Chile for about two hours. It was really scary, and I had no idea what was going on the whole time, although I don't think anyone really knew much anyway. So.. That was an adventure, to say the least.
Then the next morning I woke up incredibly early to get on the bus with the five other exchangers from Talca, to go to Santiago for our district orientation. I was not looking forward to it, because I was running on three hours of sleep, but it was sooo much fun. There are 69 other exchangers in my district, so it was kinda crazy. Unfortunately, instead of getting a whole weekend to get to know eachother, we had about 7 hours, and most of it was just going over the rules and stuff. But still, it was good. And it was really nice to be wih other kids who speak the same language as me, for once, but, also, it was really nice because when they (the kids who ctually were semi-fluent in spanish) were speaking in spanish, i could understand them way better than when Chileans speak spanish. And I discovered that I could actually understand a lot more than I thought I could! And, on the three hour by ride back to Talca, I had a lot of fun with the other kids from my club, and we are planning to meet up again soon, maybe this weekend.
So, yeah. That was my weekend. :)
Chao, Grace
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Strikes and slumber parties
Today I actually saw evidence of the education strike... So far it hasn't really affected me, because only the public schools are closed, which I am thankful for, because as boring as school sometimes is, without it my Spanish would suffer. And I would not have any friends.
Anyway, today, as I was walking to lunch with my friends, the college students were marching around the plaza. And there were soldiers everywhere watching everything, it was a little intense. Vincente asked me if I was scared, and I was like "No, should I be?" and he gave me a really non-committal answer that freaked me out a little bit.
Also, I saw somebody get hit by a car today (non-related to the education stike, though) which was actually really scary. I think he was alive, because an ambulance came and took him away, but he was definitely unconscious. I witnessed the entire thing from the apartment window, and it was pretty intense.
On a happier note, tomorrow night I am attending a slumber party at a friends house and am really excited. And on Sunday I am going to Santiago for inbound orientation. And, at some point, I am going shopping with Claudia. So it should be a pretty good weekend.
Chao! Grace
Anyway, today, as I was walking to lunch with my friends, the college students were marching around the plaza. And there were soldiers everywhere watching everything, it was a little intense. Vincente asked me if I was scared, and I was like "No, should I be?" and he gave me a really non-committal answer that freaked me out a little bit.
Also, I saw somebody get hit by a car today (non-related to the education stike, though) which was actually really scary. I think he was alive, because an ambulance came and took him away, but he was definitely unconscious. I witnessed the entire thing from the apartment window, and it was pretty intense.
On a happier note, tomorrow night I am attending a slumber party at a friends house and am really excited. And on Sunday I am going to Santiago for inbound orientation. And, at some point, I am going shopping with Claudia. So it should be a pretty good weekend.
Chao! Grace
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
3 Things That Made Me Say ´OH MY GOD´
1. I FOUND BROCCOLI!!! Yessssss!!!!!! I didn´t get to eat any... but now I have hope that broccoli does exist in Chile. There is an unspoken rule here in Chile, that if you don´t eat everything on your plate (or at least make it look like you ate everything on your plate), the host will be incredibly offended and think that you don´t like the food. At home, my family has learned by now that Grace has a small U.S.A. stomach, and I do not have to eat everything, thankfully. But, when I´m not with mi familia, I must eat everything on my plate before I can help myself to the not as important other foods, aka, broccoli. But I tend to get full before then! Hahaha. Oh well.
2. MY GRANDPA OWNS A SHOE STORE!!!!!!!!!! And he lives right above it!!! And I go to his house at least once every week for lunch! Ahhhh, this could get bad. But, mostly, this is freaking amazing. It's shoe heaven. Hahahaha.
3. This one is so confusing, even to me, that I cannot even capitalize it. There´s this English film festival thing for school, I really don´t know how to explain it... long story short: I get to be Sandy from Grease and dance "You´re the one that I want" during the halftime show. Please, please tell me that you are imagining me dancing this in leather and stilettos and rolling on the floor laughing. Because then somebody will be happy. Hahaha.
The funny thing is, Javier, who is going to be Danny, was picked because he has hair that looks sort of like John Travolta´s. I was picked because I have hair that looks abosolutely nothing like Olivia Newton-John´s, but is blonde. Being Sandy is one of the many, ummm, perks, that have come from being blonde in Latin America. I don´t even want to go into the others....
...I still have two days to say no to being Sandy...but I think I should say yes, because I´m a rotary exchanger, and we say yes to everything. Hahaha. This should be an adventure. Hopefullly someone films it!
I said 'hahaha' way too many times in this post... I must be really tired...
Time for dormir,
Chao, Gracie
2. MY GRANDPA OWNS A SHOE STORE!!!!!!!!!! And he lives right above it!!! And I go to his house at least once every week for lunch! Ahhhh, this could get bad. But, mostly, this is freaking amazing. It's shoe heaven. Hahahaha.
3. This one is so confusing, even to me, that I cannot even capitalize it. There´s this English film festival thing for school, I really don´t know how to explain it... long story short: I get to be Sandy from Grease and dance "You´re the one that I want" during the halftime show. Please, please tell me that you are imagining me dancing this in leather and stilettos and rolling on the floor laughing. Because then somebody will be happy. Hahaha.
The funny thing is, Javier, who is going to be Danny, was picked because he has hair that looks sort of like John Travolta´s. I was picked because I have hair that looks abosolutely nothing like Olivia Newton-John´s, but is blonde. Being Sandy is one of the many, ummm, perks, that have come from being blonde in Latin America. I don´t even want to go into the others....
...I still have two days to say no to being Sandy...but I think I should say yes, because I´m a rotary exchanger, and we say yes to everything. Hahaha. This should be an adventure. Hopefullly someone films it!
I said 'hahaha' way too many times in this post... I must be really tired...
Time for dormir,
Chao, Gracie
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Thoughts...
--Rice is the best thing in the whole entire world. Rice, thank you for being so bland and unsalty. I really appreciate it.
--"Hombres Trabajando" sounds so much better than "Men Working"
--I'm afraid that my math teacher might disappear in the middle of a math lesson... I think he is slowly fading away, and that might be a good thing.. For some reason he hates me because I finished my math homework even though I can't speak Spanish...
--Precalculus is just as terrible and boring in Chile, and I'm so thankful that we are studying logarithms right now, because that is the only thing I remember from last year.
--Does anyone else find the fact that I had tuna noodle casserole for lunch hilarious?! Because I do. Tuna noodle casserole, in Chile! Yeah, that's weird.
--The Simpsons is not at all funny when you can't understand what is being said. However, the Chilean version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is hilarious.
--The Chilean version of meatloaf is something that I like to call 'fishloaf'. It's just as strange.
--I can tell that my brothers think that I am part of the family now, because they progressively getting more obnoxious. On the other hand though, today Seba picked a bunch of flowers for me, and it was the cutest thing. By the way, the twins are 9, Max is 13, Franco is 15, and Alvaro (an honorary brother) is also 15.
--I could definitely get used to having desert twice a day... Haha.
--Inside jokes are bad enough when you understand what's being said but not why it's funny. They are worse when you don't even understand what is being said... They could be talking about you, and you wouldn't even know...
--Franco and Max both have girlfriends which they didn't tell me about (Max even went so far as to deny the existence of his girlfriend). It seems like everyone is dating somebody here or looking to date somebody, a fact which I cannot get used to. And I'm a little worried that Seba and Domi have girlfriends that they are not telling me about... I mean, where does it stop?!!
--I need some more chocolate, pronto!!
--- Chao! --Grace
--"Hombres Trabajando" sounds so much better than "Men Working"
--I'm afraid that my math teacher might disappear in the middle of a math lesson... I think he is slowly fading away, and that might be a good thing.. For some reason he hates me because I finished my math homework even though I can't speak Spanish...
--Precalculus is just as terrible and boring in Chile, and I'm so thankful that we are studying logarithms right now, because that is the only thing I remember from last year.
--Does anyone else find the fact that I had tuna noodle casserole for lunch hilarious?! Because I do. Tuna noodle casserole, in Chile! Yeah, that's weird.
--The Simpsons is not at all funny when you can't understand what is being said. However, the Chilean version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is hilarious.
--The Chilean version of meatloaf is something that I like to call 'fishloaf'. It's just as strange.
--I can tell that my brothers think that I am part of the family now, because they progressively getting more obnoxious. On the other hand though, today Seba picked a bunch of flowers for me, and it was the cutest thing. By the way, the twins are 9, Max is 13, Franco is 15, and Alvaro (an honorary brother) is also 15.
--I could definitely get used to having desert twice a day... Haha.
--Inside jokes are bad enough when you understand what's being said but not why it's funny. They are worse when you don't even understand what is being said... They could be talking about you, and you wouldn't even know...
--Franco and Max both have girlfriends which they didn't tell me about (Max even went so far as to deny the existence of his girlfriend). It seems like everyone is dating somebody here or looking to date somebody, a fact which I cannot get used to. And I'm a little worried that Seba and Domi have girlfriends that they are not telling me about... I mean, where does it stop?!!
--I need some more chocolate, pronto!!
--- Chao! --Grace
Monday, September 19, 2011
Brothers, the bane of my existence (not really, though, most of the time they're adorable)
Wow. Living with boys is exhausting. Today we played hide and go seek in the yard. Then I got really fed up with boys cheating and being mean to each other and just being boys in general, so I spent an hour throwing dirt clods at Franco and Alvaro, and, wow. It was extremely satifying.
As I write this, I'm playing go fish in the grass with Alvaro and Franco and the twins, it's really sunny and the birds are singing, and except for the fact that I'm playing go fish with Alvaro and Franco and the twins, it's extremely relaxing.
Ahhhh, my hoard of chocolate is quickly disappearing.
As I write this, I'm playing go fish in the grass with Alvaro and Franco and the twins, it's really sunny and the birds are singing, and except for the fact that I'm playing go fish with Alvaro and Franco and the twins, it's extremely relaxing.
Ahhhh, my hoard of chocolate is quickly disappearing.
Yep, I'm an exchange student
"You know you're an exchange student when you have a supply of some food that you are hoarding because you can't get it wherever you are"
In an ideal world, I would be hoarding broccoli and carrots... I miss vegetables so much! Because I stopped considering potatoes a vegetable long ago, the only veggies we eat here are tomatoes and salad. And both are covered in salt. Mealtimes, on the rare days when Anita isn't here to cook for us, go something like this:
--Are you hungry, Grace?
--Yes
--Do you want some carne y papas?
(Nooooo! I'll eat anything, but not more meat and potatoes!!!)
--Umm, sure.
So, instead, I have a hoard of chocolate in my room, as an incentive to finish all of my meat and potatoes, and I'll just have to hope that some broccoli and carrots find their way to me soon.
"You know you are an exchange student when... you begin to think like you're 4 again, because you have no language...You begin to feel like you're 4 again, because everyone just leads you from place to place and you never know what's going on."
So true.
Chao for now, Gracie
Oh! Oh!
P.S. I saw some horses having sex again today! And I would really like to say that I was totally unfazed by it, like, 'yeah, I see horse sex all the time, whatever' but I found it totally hilarious and started laughing so hard I almost fell off the horse that I was riding at the time, which would have been terrible, because Alvaro and Domi would've laughed at me and my horse probably would've trampled me to death because he was a really mean horse. But, yeah, in the country, horse sex happens.
In an ideal world, I would be hoarding broccoli and carrots... I miss vegetables so much! Because I stopped considering potatoes a vegetable long ago, the only veggies we eat here are tomatoes and salad. And both are covered in salt. Mealtimes, on the rare days when Anita isn't here to cook for us, go something like this:
--Are you hungry, Grace?
--Yes
--Do you want some carne y papas?
(Nooooo! I'll eat anything, but not more meat and potatoes!!!)
--Umm, sure.
So, instead, I have a hoard of chocolate in my room, as an incentive to finish all of my meat and potatoes, and I'll just have to hope that some broccoli and carrots find their way to me soon.
"You know you are an exchange student when... you begin to think like you're 4 again, because you have no language...You begin to feel like you're 4 again, because everyone just leads you from place to place and you never know what's going on."
So true.
Chao for now, Gracie
Oh! Oh!
P.S. I saw some horses having sex again today! And I would really like to say that I was totally unfazed by it, like, 'yeah, I see horse sex all the time, whatever' but I found it totally hilarious and started laughing so hard I almost fell off the horse that I was riding at the time, which would have been terrible, because Alvaro and Domi would've laughed at me and my horse probably would've trampled me to death because he was a really mean horse. But, yeah, in the country, horse sex happens.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
RAWR
I am really upset. I just wrote the LONGEST BLOG POST EVER about how Chile's independence day, AKA today, the 18th of September is pretty much jus like the 4th of July without fireworks and how I tried lots of different scary types of meat and how I'm really sad because possibly a lamb was killed and how adorable Domingo and Sebastian were at church, and some other stuff, and it was really awesome and funny and looooong, and I hit the publish button 7 times, and the save button twice, and yet, the post did not publish, nor did it save, and so here I am, about to cry, because I have no post,
and I'M SOOO TIRED.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe, if I feel better, I'll attempt to rewrite it tomorrow. But maybe I won't.
CURSE YOU, BLOGGER! Please go die. Please. Por favor.
Or at least find me my post?
Please?
Ah, dammit. It took me three tries, to get this post published. And now my stomach is hurting, (probably from all that darn meat, I'm pretty sure some of it was raw) and I have a runny nose, and I am actually tearing up here...
I have to go before I do start crying...
and I'M SOOO TIRED.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe, if I feel better, I'll attempt to rewrite it tomorrow. But maybe I won't.
CURSE YOU, BLOGGER! Please go die. Please. Por favor.
Or at least find me my post?
Please?
Ah, dammit. It took me three tries, to get this post published. And now my stomach is hurting, (probably from all that darn meat, I'm pretty sure some of it was raw) and I have a runny nose, and I am actually tearing up here...
I have to go before I do start crying...
Friday, September 16, 2011
Roller coasters, go fish and horse sex
First of all, yes, that last one did happen. And awesomely enough, I actually happened to have my camera out and ready, so, yes, there are pictures that I will happily share as soon as my camera cord arrives in the mail. I don't think the moment was right though, because as soon as I got a picture they stopped. Probably it was the fact that five people were watching them. I think that would kind of dampen the mood.
In Chile, the word for 'country' is el campo. Campo is so much more accurate for the place that I live. Today, I went on the campo equivalent of a roller coaster ride. I like roller coasters okay, but I refuse to go on any of the huge ones, or the ones that go upside or anything like that. This was scarier than any of those roller coasters. Times a bajillion.
The whole point of the ride was to collect tree branches and bring them back to the house for the stoves (the outside cooking stove and the inside heating stove). To accomplish this, a wooden sled is attached to a very strong horse. The horse is picked for it's size and it's muscles, not for it's friendliness. This was a very big horse and a very mean horse. The sled: the most un-sturdy thing I have ever set foot in. There is a floor and two sides that are barely attached to the floor, and nothing to hold on to. The trees: on the other side of a cornfield. Chilean cornfields are not flat. They are the opposite of flat. The corn grows on rows of dirt that are raised up about a foot. Let me remind you that in Chile, it's winter. The cornfield has no corn, but it does have mud. Lots of mud. Right now I am covered in mud. Put all that together and add in the fact that the sled was driven by three boys, and you have the scariest thing in the whole wide world. Twice we rode accross the cornfield to get the branches, and then we'd all walk back through the mud (I fell once, at which Seba and Domi cracked up, but Alvaro fell too, so I felt better). It was mortifyingly scary, but fun. Then the three of them made me ride it again, and this time, they took me through the cornfield, through the swamp, through a patch a blackberry bushes (from which I now have scars) and then RAN the horse all the way back to the house. Never ever ever trust three boys with a horse and a sled, or it might possibly be the last thing you ever do. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Lastly, I just want to say that I have three new words committed to memory: ganador, perdedor, and tramposo. Three very important words. In English: winner, loser, and cheater. I live in a house with four tramposos, and a neighbor who is also a tramposo, and all of whom I regularly beat at go fish. And other games too.
Now I have to go change out of my muddy clothes, and tackle Domingo, who has been taunting me the whole time I have been writing this, so I will say Chao.
-Gracie
In Chile, the word for 'country' is el campo. Campo is so much more accurate for the place that I live. Today, I went on the campo equivalent of a roller coaster ride. I like roller coasters okay, but I refuse to go on any of the huge ones, or the ones that go upside or anything like that. This was scarier than any of those roller coasters. Times a bajillion.
The whole point of the ride was to collect tree branches and bring them back to the house for the stoves (the outside cooking stove and the inside heating stove). To accomplish this, a wooden sled is attached to a very strong horse. The horse is picked for it's size and it's muscles, not for it's friendliness. This was a very big horse and a very mean horse. The sled: the most un-sturdy thing I have ever set foot in. There is a floor and two sides that are barely attached to the floor, and nothing to hold on to. The trees: on the other side of a cornfield. Chilean cornfields are not flat. They are the opposite of flat. The corn grows on rows of dirt that are raised up about a foot. Let me remind you that in Chile, it's winter. The cornfield has no corn, but it does have mud. Lots of mud. Right now I am covered in mud. Put all that together and add in the fact that the sled was driven by three boys, and you have the scariest thing in the whole wide world. Twice we rode accross the cornfield to get the branches, and then we'd all walk back through the mud (I fell once, at which Seba and Domi cracked up, but Alvaro fell too, so I felt better). It was mortifyingly scary, but fun. Then the three of them made me ride it again, and this time, they took me through the cornfield, through the swamp, through a patch a blackberry bushes (from which I now have scars) and then RAN the horse all the way back to the house. Never ever ever trust three boys with a horse and a sled, or it might possibly be the last thing you ever do. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Lastly, I just want to say that I have three new words committed to memory: ganador, perdedor, and tramposo. Three very important words. In English: winner, loser, and cheater. I live in a house with four tramposos, and a neighbor who is also a tramposo, and all of whom I regularly beat at go fish. And other games too.
Now I have to go change out of my muddy clothes, and tackle Domingo, who has been taunting me the whole time I have been writing this, so I will say Chao.
-Gracie
Thursday, September 15, 2011
School fair
This Sunday is September 18th, Chile's independence day, and today, school was one big celebration. There was a fair with food booths, and a dance competition where a bunch of he elementary school kids dressed in the traditional outfits and danced the cueca, the official dance of Chile. Domi came in second which was really exciting, but the competition was totally rigged because the judges just picked the cutest kids. I made a ton of fun of Domingo, because while he was twirling his handkerchief over his head, it fell and landed on top of his sombrero, and he couldn't figure out where it went. It was really funny.
And then I came home and napped for three hours. And it felt really good.
By the way, I actually really liked Mass. Of course I didn't understand what was being said or anything, but the music was really cheerful and nice, and I got to hang out with my friends afterward. So it was all good.
-Gracie
And then I came home and napped for three hours. And it felt really good.
By the way, I actually really liked Mass. Of course I didn't understand what was being said or anything, but the music was really cheerful and nice, and I got to hang out with my friends afterward. So it was all good.
-Gracie
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Mass! (Ahhhh!)
Finally got a real school uniform and things feel so much better!! I was wearing Max and Emilio's old sweatpants and they didn't fit, weren't comfortable, and looked horrible on me (haha). But now everything's okay!! :)
It's Wednesday night, and I'm about to go to Mass at the school with the family. We are all wearing our uniforms, an Anita made us all take showers, so I'm a little nervous. Every morning in the car all the boys say prayers and the first 10 minutes of school is dedicated to religion, and I just kinda sit there quietly and try to be respectful, but this is The Real Deal. If you don't hear from me again soon, it's probably because either God smote (smited?) me dead, or the congregation stoned me.... I'm just kidding. But I am a tiny bit afraid that I might embarrass myself. Hopefully everything goes okay!
Besos y abrazos,
Grace
It's Wednesday night, and I'm about to go to Mass at the school with the family. We are all wearing our uniforms, an Anita made us all take showers, so I'm a little nervous. Every morning in the car all the boys say prayers and the first 10 minutes of school is dedicated to religion, and I just kinda sit there quietly and try to be respectful, but this is The Real Deal. If you don't hear from me again soon, it's probably because either God smote (smited?) me dead, or the congregation stoned me.... I'm just kidding. But I am a tiny bit afraid that I might embarrass myself. Hopefully everything goes okay!
Besos y abrazos,
Grace
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Escuela!!
I bet some of you are a little disappointed that I didn't update you on my first day of school yesterday. Well, I have a really good excuse: the wifi was down. It was extra wretched (that ones for you, Mommy) because I really needed to use google translate to ask Claudia something, but instead I had to look up all 26 (yes, I counted) words in my pocket dictionary.
So that's the main reason. But also, I didn't really feel like blogging about it. I still don't, actually, but I will. It's not that it was bad or anything--it wasn't--just EXTREMELY exhausting. And long and stressful and overwhelming.
School works like this: I have one classroom and one class, and all the teachers switch around. I have no idea what the schedule is, but all my classmates seem to know who the next teacher is, so there must be one. Each class lasts a really long time, and after every class there's a break that lasts at least 10 minutes. School starts at 8:15, from 1 to 3 there is a break for lunch (lunch is super important here: usually everyone goes home to eat with their family--although we go to Abuela's house 'cause we live out in the country, and Abuela has an apartment within walking distance of the school--but sometimes you eat with your friends, and today I went to lunch with some girls from my class)and then more school until 6:15. Everyhinh seems really disorganized to me: there's no assigned seats but because there are no lockers, people leave things in the desks. In the last two days we haven't really had any work, which I was surprised by, because I had been warned multiple times how boring, tedious and hard Chilean school is. I found out that we've been takin it easy, because this weekend is the 18th, independence day, which is a BIG DEAL in Chile. September is the month of celebration, that's how important it is. So I'm not exactly sure how school will be once it gets back to normal.
Everybody in my class is really nice and friendly. There's about 3 or 4 kids who speak really good English, and the rest of them speak about as much english as I speak spanish. Since it's the first week and I'm new and foreign and blonde, I am extremely interesting, and it's really difficult because everyone wants me to do something different and I can't please everybody. So that's really tough.
The teachers are okay, I guess. The main teacher of my class is the English teacher, and she is super nice and speaks really good english, so that's really lucky. There's a couple of other nice teachers, but we can't really communicate, so. Most of them don't really acknowledge my existence, which is weird, but whatever.
At home, I still don't have much clue what's going on, but it's getting better, especially as I'm figuring out the daily routine. At school, I have absolutely no idea what's going on. It'll get better though.
Okay, well that's mostly it I think. Buenos noches!
-Grace
So that's the main reason. But also, I didn't really feel like blogging about it. I still don't, actually, but I will. It's not that it was bad or anything--it wasn't--just EXTREMELY exhausting. And long and stressful and overwhelming.
School works like this: I have one classroom and one class, and all the teachers switch around. I have no idea what the schedule is, but all my classmates seem to know who the next teacher is, so there must be one. Each class lasts a really long time, and after every class there's a break that lasts at least 10 minutes. School starts at 8:15, from 1 to 3 there is a break for lunch (lunch is super important here: usually everyone goes home to eat with their family--although we go to Abuela's house 'cause we live out in the country, and Abuela has an apartment within walking distance of the school--but sometimes you eat with your friends, and today I went to lunch with some girls from my class)and then more school until 6:15. Everyhinh seems really disorganized to me: there's no assigned seats but because there are no lockers, people leave things in the desks. In the last two days we haven't really had any work, which I was surprised by, because I had been warned multiple times how boring, tedious and hard Chilean school is. I found out that we've been takin it easy, because this weekend is the 18th, independence day, which is a BIG DEAL in Chile. September is the month of celebration, that's how important it is. So I'm not exactly sure how school will be once it gets back to normal.
Everybody in my class is really nice and friendly. There's about 3 or 4 kids who speak really good English, and the rest of them speak about as much english as I speak spanish. Since it's the first week and I'm new and foreign and blonde, I am extremely interesting, and it's really difficult because everyone wants me to do something different and I can't please everybody. So that's really tough.
The teachers are okay, I guess. The main teacher of my class is the English teacher, and she is super nice and speaks really good english, so that's really lucky. There's a couple of other nice teachers, but we can't really communicate, so. Most of them don't really acknowledge my existence, which is weird, but whatever.
At home, I still don't have much clue what's going on, but it's getting better, especially as I'm figuring out the daily routine. At school, I have absolutely no idea what's going on. It'll get better though.
Okay, well that's mostly it I think. Buenos noches!
-Grace
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Hey, all.
I'm gonna keep this one shortish, 'cause even though it's only 8:30 here, I am extremely tired, and it's my first day of school tomorrow (Ahhh!!) so I gotta be prepared! Haha.
Anyway, this is what I did today: climbed a volcano and threw snowballs at Franco, Max, Seba and Domi somewhere deep in the Andes. How crazy is that?!! Only four hours ago, I was hanging out in the freaking Andes Mountains!!! I still find it hard to believe, and I was there! Wow. I'm a little scared that I'm gonna wake up one morning and this will all be a dream.
Anyway, I had a really fun, exhausting, long, adventure-filled day, and, eventually, there will be pictures, but of course, me being the spacecase that I am, I forgot the cord that plugs the camera into the computer at home. So once that arrives in the mail, pictures will be posted! Everybody thank my wonderful family for finding that and mailing it to me!
Love you guys! Chao, Gracie
I'm gonna keep this one shortish, 'cause even though it's only 8:30 here, I am extremely tired, and it's my first day of school tomorrow (Ahhh!!) so I gotta be prepared! Haha.
Anyway, this is what I did today: climbed a volcano and threw snowballs at Franco, Max, Seba and Domi somewhere deep in the Andes. How crazy is that?!! Only four hours ago, I was hanging out in the freaking Andes Mountains!!! I still find it hard to believe, and I was there! Wow. I'm a little scared that I'm gonna wake up one morning and this will all be a dream.
Anyway, I had a really fun, exhausting, long, adventure-filled day, and, eventually, there will be pictures, but of course, me being the spacecase that I am, I forgot the cord that plugs the camera into the computer at home. So once that arrives in the mail, pictures will be posted! Everybody thank my wonderful family for finding that and mailing it to me!
Love you guys! Chao, Gracie
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Pizza, pizza
This probably interests no one, but I just have to brag for a second here, I JUST ASKED FOR SECONDS ON MY DINNER!!!
Chileans eat a lot. Double that, because my family is full of boys. After every meal I have to spend at least five minutes convincing everyone that really, I'm not hungry anymore, and I really did like the food. Finally they realized that I have a smaller stomach and eased up on me a bit. But still, I've been trying really hard to eat everything served to me.
And tonight, I ate my *whole* mini pizza ad then ate another!! And Claudia was sooo proud of me.
So I really just had to share that moment.
Muchas amor, Gracie
P.S. Shea, I really hope this makes you think of a certain moment involving lasagna.
Chileans eat a lot. Double that, because my family is full of boys. After every meal I have to spend at least five minutes convincing everyone that really, I'm not hungry anymore, and I really did like the food. Finally they realized that I have a smaller stomach and eased up on me a bit. But still, I've been trying really hard to eat everything served to me.
And tonight, I ate my *whole* mini pizza ad then ate another!! And Claudia was sooo proud of me.
So I really just had to share that moment.
Muchas amor, Gracie
P.S. Shea, I really hope this makes you think of a certain moment involving lasagna.
Mud, swamps, soccer and happy birthdays
Wow. Yesterday was long and crazy. Three of franco's friends came over to and the five of us, plus Max, Seba, Domi and our neighbor Alvaro, decided to go on a walk. While, they decided to go on a walk, I had no clue what we were doing until we were actually doing it, as usual. But first the 9 of us ran around the house trying to find a pair of rainboots that were small enough that they wouldn't fall off my feet everytime I took a step. My first few days I thought that I had seen the most mud that anyone could possibly see at one time, but then it rained. You couldn't walk outside without rainboots on, it was sooo muddy. Anyway, we all got rainboots on (and plastic bags around our socks for extra protection) and went for a walk. The dirt roads were filled with mud, and when you took a step, if you were lucky, your boot would only sink down to your ankle, and often I was not so lucky. The countryside was beautiful, on the way back to the house, I was offered a choice: I could take a shortcut through the swamp with all the boys, or take the road back with Seba and Domi who were on bikes. Up for anything, I decided to brave the swamp. Plus, Chile is still a little masochinistic, and o wanted to prove to everyone that I could do it on my own. I couldn't. Do it on my own, that is. If you stepped on the plants, you'd only sink down a little, and you'd be okay. But the swamp was full of little canals, invisible on the surface, and if you stepped in them, plants or no, your whole boot would sink down. Being about half the size of everybody else, if my boot got caught in a canal, I wasn't strong enough to pull it out by myself. So, lucky me, I got to play damsel in distress about three times, with half a dozen boys fussing over me. It was an adventure, though.
When we finally came home, all smelly and muddy, the boys decided to play a pickup game of soccer. I declined, because I was worried that if i tried to run or kick a ball, my rain boots would fly off and hit someone in the head and kill them (I know there are a few if you out there who are like "yeah, right. She just didn't want to play" but for your information, I'm telling the absolute truth. I happened to have participated in half a dozen games of soccer since I've been here. So there.). I tried to take pictures of the game, and I really really wanted to get an awesome action shot of the ball flying through te air or something, but it was really dark and the photos did not turn out so well. Too bad.
The last thing that I did yesterday was go to my host cousin's 11th birthday. It was just like any other birthday (a family party, not a friends party) except it lasted until 1:30 in the morning and the cake was filled with manjar. The highlights: watching American concerts on tv with a family friend who spoke really good English:
On Florence and the Machine:
"Wow. She sings really bad. People actually listen to this"
On P!nk (who's wearing a skirt that barely covers her butt)
"Do you know her?"
"Yes, she's really popular in the U.S."
*pink shakes her butt*
"Ahhh, I know why she's popular, she shows everything"
On Paul McCartney, who's singing 'Imagine':
"This guy stinks. Where did they find him? The original band did it better."
I just about died laughing.
Well that's about all the happened yesterday. Today was mostly a lazy day. Although I did get to skype with my family, and I enjoyed kicking Max's butt at go fish and spit. He took it pretty hard and programmed Emilio's phone to say "you are a loser. I am the real winner." in English, and has been playing that for me for the last 10 minutes. Ahh, little brothers are sooo much fun. :)
Chao, Gracie
(no one in Chile actually says adios. It's 'chao'. And they say 'Hola' when they greet you, but they answer their phones by saying 'Hello'. Its kinda funny)
P.S. I've been in Chile for a full week now!!!! Crazy.
P.P.S. While the brothers have been teaching me espanol, I've been teaching them English. It's hilarious. I suppose they must think it's funny when I speak Spanish, too. They have a good laugh when I can't roll my 'r's at least. But if you ever meet someone who's native language is Spanish and doesn't know much English, make them say 'fish' 'bread' and any other words with sh or th sounds. IT'S FUNNY :)
When we finally came home, all smelly and muddy, the boys decided to play a pickup game of soccer. I declined, because I was worried that if i tried to run or kick a ball, my rain boots would fly off and hit someone in the head and kill them (I know there are a few if you out there who are like "yeah, right. She just didn't want to play" but for your information, I'm telling the absolute truth. I happened to have participated in half a dozen games of soccer since I've been here. So there.). I tried to take pictures of the game, and I really really wanted to get an awesome action shot of the ball flying through te air or something, but it was really dark and the photos did not turn out so well. Too bad.
The last thing that I did yesterday was go to my host cousin's 11th birthday. It was just like any other birthday (a family party, not a friends party) except it lasted until 1:30 in the morning and the cake was filled with manjar. The highlights: watching American concerts on tv with a family friend who spoke really good English:
On Florence and the Machine:
"Wow. She sings really bad. People actually listen to this"
On P!nk (who's wearing a skirt that barely covers her butt)
"Do you know her?"
"Yes, she's really popular in the U.S."
*pink shakes her butt*
"Ahhh, I know why she's popular, she shows everything"
On Paul McCartney, who's singing 'Imagine':
"This guy stinks. Where did they find him? The original band did it better."
I just about died laughing.
Well that's about all the happened yesterday. Today was mostly a lazy day. Although I did get to skype with my family, and I enjoyed kicking Max's butt at go fish and spit. He took it pretty hard and programmed Emilio's phone to say "you are a loser. I am the real winner." in English, and has been playing that for me for the last 10 minutes. Ahh, little brothers are sooo much fun. :)
Chao, Gracie
(no one in Chile actually says adios. It's 'chao'. And they say 'Hola' when they greet you, but they answer their phones by saying 'Hello'. Its kinda funny)
P.S. I've been in Chile for a full week now!!!! Crazy.
P.P.S. While the brothers have been teaching me espanol, I've been teaching them English. It's hilarious. I suppose they must think it's funny when I speak Spanish, too. They have a good laugh when I can't roll my 'r's at least. But if you ever meet someone who's native language is Spanish and doesn't know much English, make them say 'fish' 'bread' and any other words with sh or th sounds. IT'S FUNNY :)
Friday, September 9, 2011
The birds are singing....
Really, they are. All of them. That includes the chickens, roosters, and crows. Mostly it's kind of nice, but the stupid rooster cock-a-doodle-doos every 5 minutes, and it drives me crazy. But at least I'm able to sleep through it now. I'm adjusting to everything else, too. I'm finally able to eat all of my meals (a real feat, let me tell you) I know which shoes to wear when (pssshhh, only a complete idiot would try to wear something other than work boots or tennis shoes outside :P ), I'm not caught off guard when someone tries to kiss me on the cheek anymore, and I've got the daily routine down pat. So I think I'm doing pretty good... Good enough to start school on Monday? Mmmm... Possibly. Most of me is incredibly excited to get out of the house, and meet people, and leave these long lonely days in the dust, but there's also those first day of school jitters, multiplied by a thousand, because I don't speak the language and with my blonde hair, I might as well be an alien. But I've toured the school, met a few of my classmates, and borrowed an old uniform of Max's, so I suppose I'm as ready as I'll ever be...(although I can't tell you how happy I will be to get my own uniform--a girl's uniform--Max's does not do me justice. Haha)
Wish me luck!
--Grace
Wish me luck!
--Grace
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Spot the difference!
The first thing that my parents asked me when we skyped for the first time was "What's different in Chile?" and I suppose I should've been more prepared to answer that question, it being an obvious question, but for whatever reason, I was completely caught off guard. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that I had only been in chile for a few days, but probably I was more foccused on the fact that my rotary counselor had just come in the door and was waiting for me in the next room.
Anyhow, as I'm waiting for everyone else to come home from school, I'm prepared to make it up to you all now:
I suppose that's the first big thing: school doesn't end until 6 o'clock here. Most days Franco and Max don't get home until 7 or 8. Although they do get a longer break for lunch, and everyone goes home to eat.
Which leads me into the next big difference: lunch is the most important meal of the day. And I mean that; it's huge. Only in the last two days have I been able to eat my whole meal, and for that I am incredibly proud of myself. There's a first course, usually salad and bread, and then a main course. Breakfast here is normal sized, usually two halves of an English-muffin type thing with butter or honey. And then dinner is small, if there is any dinner served at all. So that took a ton of getting used to.
I was really worried that food here would be really spicy, but it isn't really. Well, a little spicy, but not bad at all. That's not to say it's bland though--here, everything is either super salty or super sweet. Salad: salty. Nuts: salty! Ice cream: I can barely eat it, it's so sweet. then there's this thing called manjar, which is like peanut butter or caramel, and is made from sugar and milk. And it's the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. It's alright on an apple or banana, but my brothers will eat it on everything, or just a huge plateful of it plain. I think that if you brought manjar to the U.S., you could probably use it to torture people. "Tell me what you know or I'll force feed you straight manjar." And then there's the drinks--I haven't had water or regular milk since I got here: with lunch and dinner it's juice, and for breakfast you have chocolate milk (hot or cold) or coffee. If you ask for milk, you'll get chocolate milk. It's all either sweet or salty!
Then there's the heating. The main source of heat in the house is a stove--estufa--that is used expressly for that purpose. The main stove for cooking is out in the yard. In the morning, it's nearly impossible to get out of bed, it's so cold. All the floors in the house are wood or tiled, so you have to wear shoes or slippers, or freeze, because the floors are the coldest.
Nannies are really common. Ours is named Anita and she's super nice although I don't undersand a word she says. It's weird to have someone cooking and serving all of your food, and doing all of your laundry, though. Also, I wonder if it's like an international rule that nannies and maids must watch soap operas. Because I always imagined nannies watching soap operas, and here, all the nannies and maids actually do.
Lastly, when you greet someone, you kiss them on the cheek. Pretty much you do this all the time, when you are saying hello, when you say good bye, before you go to bed, when you meet someone; all the time. Except for sometimes you don't, and I haven't quite figured it out yet. I am just glad that I'm not a guy, because then sometimes you kiss someone on the cheek, and sometimes you shake hands, and I have no idea which you do when. One less thing to think about.
Oh, actually, one last thing. Every school has uniforms here. I'm actually really enjoying this fact, because all the little kids look REALLY cute all dressed nicely, plus, it's one less thing to worry about in the morning.
Thats all for now. Chao!
-Gracie
Anyhow, as I'm waiting for everyone else to come home from school, I'm prepared to make it up to you all now:
I suppose that's the first big thing: school doesn't end until 6 o'clock here. Most days Franco and Max don't get home until 7 or 8. Although they do get a longer break for lunch, and everyone goes home to eat.
Which leads me into the next big difference: lunch is the most important meal of the day. And I mean that; it's huge. Only in the last two days have I been able to eat my whole meal, and for that I am incredibly proud of myself. There's a first course, usually salad and bread, and then a main course. Breakfast here is normal sized, usually two halves of an English-muffin type thing with butter or honey. And then dinner is small, if there is any dinner served at all. So that took a ton of getting used to.
I was really worried that food here would be really spicy, but it isn't really. Well, a little spicy, but not bad at all. That's not to say it's bland though--here, everything is either super salty or super sweet. Salad: salty. Nuts: salty! Ice cream: I can barely eat it, it's so sweet. then there's this thing called manjar, which is like peanut butter or caramel, and is made from sugar and milk. And it's the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. It's alright on an apple or banana, but my brothers will eat it on everything, or just a huge plateful of it plain. I think that if you brought manjar to the U.S., you could probably use it to torture people. "Tell me what you know or I'll force feed you straight manjar." And then there's the drinks--I haven't had water or regular milk since I got here: with lunch and dinner it's juice, and for breakfast you have chocolate milk (hot or cold) or coffee. If you ask for milk, you'll get chocolate milk. It's all either sweet or salty!
Then there's the heating. The main source of heat in the house is a stove--estufa--that is used expressly for that purpose. The main stove for cooking is out in the yard. In the morning, it's nearly impossible to get out of bed, it's so cold. All the floors in the house are wood or tiled, so you have to wear shoes or slippers, or freeze, because the floors are the coldest.
Nannies are really common. Ours is named Anita and she's super nice although I don't undersand a word she says. It's weird to have someone cooking and serving all of your food, and doing all of your laundry, though. Also, I wonder if it's like an international rule that nannies and maids must watch soap operas. Because I always imagined nannies watching soap operas, and here, all the nannies and maids actually do.
Lastly, when you greet someone, you kiss them on the cheek. Pretty much you do this all the time, when you are saying hello, when you say good bye, before you go to bed, when you meet someone; all the time. Except for sometimes you don't, and I haven't quite figured it out yet. I am just glad that I'm not a guy, because then sometimes you kiss someone on the cheek, and sometimes you shake hands, and I have no idea which you do when. One less thing to think about.
Oh, actually, one last thing. Every school has uniforms here. I'm actually really enjoying this fact, because all the little kids look REALLY cute all dressed nicely, plus, it's one less thing to worry about in the morning.
Thats all for now. Chao!
-Gracie
Now I'm a REAL cowgirl!
Speaking of...
Speaking of cows, guess what I did today, of all things? (I'll give you a hint, it has to do with cows) :)
Alvaro, the boy next door who takes care of all the animals (and possibly owns most of them, I'm not really sure) helped me saddle up the horse, and then, after numerous tries and many bad translations from Domingo, finally got it across to me that the cows needed to go back on the barn before I could ride, by which I assumed he meant that he would put the cows away. So when the cows were still there, I kinda assumed that I had misunderstood--not unusual; today Alvaro, Domi, Sebastian and I went on a walk, and the whole time I thought we were going to see a baby horse, but it turns out it was just a walk--and finally Alvaro says, in espanol, "Grace, please put the cows away!"
So today, I herded cows. All by myself. And I got all six of them safely in the barn on the first try. It was quite exciting, I'm still a little overwhemed, like "Oh my goodness, I can't believe I just did that! I'm kind of awesome! Whoa!"
Haha, not to be too modest or anything. :)
Speaking of cows, guess what I did today, of all things? (I'll give you a hint, it has to do with cows) :)
Alvaro, the boy next door who takes care of all the animals (and possibly owns most of them, I'm not really sure) helped me saddle up the horse, and then, after numerous tries and many bad translations from Domingo, finally got it across to me that the cows needed to go back on the barn before I could ride, by which I assumed he meant that he would put the cows away. So when the cows were still there, I kinda assumed that I had misunderstood--not unusual; today Alvaro, Domi, Sebastian and I went on a walk, and the whole time I thought we were going to see a baby horse, but it turns out it was just a walk--and finally Alvaro says, in espanol, "Grace, please put the cows away!"
So today, I herded cows. All by myself. And I got all six of them safely in the barn on the first try. It was quite exciting, I'm still a little overwhemed, like "Oh my goodness, I can't believe I just did that! I'm kind of awesome! Whoa!"
Haha, not to be too modest or anything. :)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Farm life....
The other day, Bri and I went on a walk around the neighborhood, exploring and stuff. Claudia warned us to stay on the dirt roads, cause in the main road cars go REALLY fast and there's no sidewalk and a ton of construction going on. (when we did go on the main road, we got a lot of attention; people on the street would either call us beautiful or gringas, or both. At least 15 cars honked and waved at us as they zoomed past, which scared us to death the first couple of times, but after awhile we got into it and were waving back.)
Bri and I were walkin down this beautiful dirt road, with the Andes in the distance to our left (it takes about an hour and a half by car to reach the mountains, but they are soooo huge and beautiful that it looks like you could walk there in 20 minutes. It's amazing. Hard to capture on camera, though) and a little creek to our right and open farm land all around us, with cows and horses and chickens everywhere. About halfway down the road, this man catches up to us on a bike, and we all say 'Hola' and he starts walking with us and talking in extremely rapid spanish, none of which I understood, and only about half of it Bri could understand.
DISCLAIMER: it's not really that bad, but, Shea, you might not wanna read this part...
Eventually we reached the end of the road, and of course, the only thing at the end was this man's farm. And he goes 'You like animals? I show you mine' and we were kinda freaked out, but neither if us knew Chilean etiquette, or how to politely decline in spanish, so we were kinda stuck. So he gave us a tour of his barn, where there was at least 100 cows, all muddy and pitiful looking, and of course, it happens to be a cattle farm. And the man goes around, explaining in detail to Bri his process of fattening the cows up to be killed and made in to beef. Thankfully neither of us understood much of it. And then he points out all the cows that are almost ready to slaughter..."y esto.. Y esto, y esto y esto.." "..and this one and this one". And we were right about to leave, and this other man comes in holding two extemely sharp sickle-spear things and Bri and I are both thinking, "oh god, they're either gonna kill us or kill a cow for us..." and we were like "okay, we are leaving now" and the men smiled at us, and were like "come back whenever you want"
Yeah, not gonna happen.
And then we nearly got lost walking home because on they way there we were both paying more attention to the animals then anything else, but EVERY house has chickens, and every other house has horses and cows and pigs, so it doesn't make for much of a landmark.
When we got home, Bri told Claudia about our adventure and she says in spanish, "you shouldn't have gone with him!" and then in English "danger, danger" and the two of us just about dies laughing...
Bri and I were walkin down this beautiful dirt road, with the Andes in the distance to our left (it takes about an hour and a half by car to reach the mountains, but they are soooo huge and beautiful that it looks like you could walk there in 20 minutes. It's amazing. Hard to capture on camera, though) and a little creek to our right and open farm land all around us, with cows and horses and chickens everywhere. About halfway down the road, this man catches up to us on a bike, and we all say 'Hola' and he starts walking with us and talking in extremely rapid spanish, none of which I understood, and only about half of it Bri could understand.
DISCLAIMER: it's not really that bad, but, Shea, you might not wanna read this part...
Eventually we reached the end of the road, and of course, the only thing at the end was this man's farm. And he goes 'You like animals? I show you mine' and we were kinda freaked out, but neither if us knew Chilean etiquette, or how to politely decline in spanish, so we were kinda stuck. So he gave us a tour of his barn, where there was at least 100 cows, all muddy and pitiful looking, and of course, it happens to be a cattle farm. And the man goes around, explaining in detail to Bri his process of fattening the cows up to be killed and made in to beef. Thankfully neither of us understood much of it. And then he points out all the cows that are almost ready to slaughter..."y esto.. Y esto, y esto y esto.." "..and this one and this one". And we were right about to leave, and this other man comes in holding two extemely sharp sickle-spear things and Bri and I are both thinking, "oh god, they're either gonna kill us or kill a cow for us..." and we were like "okay, we are leaving now" and the men smiled at us, and were like "come back whenever you want"
Yeah, not gonna happen.
And then we nearly got lost walking home because on they way there we were both paying more attention to the animals then anything else, but EVERY house has chickens, and every other house has horses and cows and pigs, so it doesn't make for much of a landmark.
When we got home, Bri told Claudia about our adventure and she says in spanish, "you shouldn't have gone with him!" and then in English "danger, danger" and the two of us just about dies laughing...
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
More stuff that happened
Today was great.
Claudia, Bri and I went into Talca for the first time today, to get our Chilean identity cards (of course, the picture on mine turned out horrible). But Talca is wonderful. There's something about it that's so much prettier than any big city you've seen before. It doesn't even seem that big, except for all the people everywhere. And everybody is super friendly (especially if you're blonde).
After we got our identity cards dealt with (I am now legal, just so you know) we went for ice-cream. Let me just say that things are sweeter in Chile. I have a terrible sweet tooth, but chilean ice cream is too sweet for me. I didnt even know that was possible! And then there's manjar, which is sort of like a cross between peanut butter and chocolate and caramel that's made from milk and sugar, and that stuff is, wow. I like it on apples and bananas, but my brothers will eat a huge plate of it, all by itself, it's crazy. It's sooooo sweet! Just watching them eat it like that makes be crave broccoli. And at every meal, it's either juice to drink or chocolate milk. Or coke. Once I had tea in the afternoon, and that was the only non-sugary drink I've had the whole time I've been here. It's absurd.
While in Talca, the other thing we did was visit my school. I was super nervous, but once I got there, I felt like a movie star. I'm blonde enough myself, and Bri is white-blonde, and pretty much the whole school was staring at us and whispering (and trying to pretend that they weren't). It was kinda awesome. And I got to meet to of my teachers, my English teacher (who speaks perfect English) and my history teacher ( who speaks Spanish really slowly) and the were both super nice and friendly.
I think I'm gonna start school on Thursday, 'cause Bri leaves tomorrow morning and I'll be lonely at home myself. Although I think Anita the nanny is super excited that I'll be home with her. It's a little sad, my human translator is leaving me, and now I'll actually have to use my dictionary. Plus, she's the only one who understands my jokes... And I like her :) the whole family is kinda hoping she'll come back to live with us later in the year, and she might, cause she's gonna stay in Easter Island for three months and gem come live somewhere on the mainland.
Oh, the other exciting thing I did today (COUGH, COUGH, Rachel Perry): I rode a horse! All by myself! I even got on and off it myself too! It was exciting. I don't know it's name though, in case you might be wondering, because when I ask the name of animals, no one understands me. Although, I know that one of the dog's name is Bull, because that information was volunteered to me. Haha.
Well, I've got to wake up early to see Bri off (she's taking a train to santiago by herself, brave girl) so that's all for now. Adios,
Gracie
Claudia, Bri and I went into Talca for the first time today, to get our Chilean identity cards (of course, the picture on mine turned out horrible). But Talca is wonderful. There's something about it that's so much prettier than any big city you've seen before. It doesn't even seem that big, except for all the people everywhere. And everybody is super friendly (especially if you're blonde).
After we got our identity cards dealt with (I am now legal, just so you know) we went for ice-cream. Let me just say that things are sweeter in Chile. I have a terrible sweet tooth, but chilean ice cream is too sweet for me. I didnt even know that was possible! And then there's manjar, which is sort of like a cross between peanut butter and chocolate and caramel that's made from milk and sugar, and that stuff is, wow. I like it on apples and bananas, but my brothers will eat a huge plate of it, all by itself, it's crazy. It's sooooo sweet! Just watching them eat it like that makes be crave broccoli. And at every meal, it's either juice to drink or chocolate milk. Or coke. Once I had tea in the afternoon, and that was the only non-sugary drink I've had the whole time I've been here. It's absurd.
While in Talca, the other thing we did was visit my school. I was super nervous, but once I got there, I felt like a movie star. I'm blonde enough myself, and Bri is white-blonde, and pretty much the whole school was staring at us and whispering (and trying to pretend that they weren't). It was kinda awesome. And I got to meet to of my teachers, my English teacher (who speaks perfect English) and my history teacher ( who speaks Spanish really slowly) and the were both super nice and friendly.
I think I'm gonna start school on Thursday, 'cause Bri leaves tomorrow morning and I'll be lonely at home myself. Although I think Anita the nanny is super excited that I'll be home with her. It's a little sad, my human translator is leaving me, and now I'll actually have to use my dictionary. Plus, she's the only one who understands my jokes... And I like her :) the whole family is kinda hoping she'll come back to live with us later in the year, and she might, cause she's gonna stay in Easter Island for three months and gem come live somewhere on the mainland.
Oh, the other exciting thing I did today (COUGH, COUGH, Rachel Perry): I rode a horse! All by myself! I even got on and off it myself too! It was exciting. I don't know it's name though, in case you might be wondering, because when I ask the name of animals, no one understands me. Although, I know that one of the dog's name is Bull, because that information was volunteered to me. Haha.
Well, I've got to wake up early to see Bri off (she's taking a train to santiago by herself, brave girl) so that's all for now. Adios,
Gracie
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Beinvenido a chile!
Hola, mi amigos! Today marks the end of my first full day in Chile. Yesterday morning I was picked up at the airport by Claudia, Emilio and Franco. We discovered that we were adopting another exchanger, Brigid, from New Jersey. Claudia quickly decided to rename her 'Brie' because Brigitta means something like 'prostitute' in chile.She will be living on Easter island, but they are not ready for her so she is spending the week with us. It's a good thing really, because she's taken Spanish for 4 years and in my eyes, is fluent. She's been helping me a lot, because I understand almost nothing...
We ate breakfast in the airport and then drove the three hours to Talca. then we ate the biggest lunch you've ever seen! A humongous slab of beef, sausage, rice, salad, potato, salsa. Then I slept. For 9 hours. When I woke up, Brie and the family were in the living room, with the German exchange student Robin who will be in my class, and his host family. Later in the year we might switch families, so I might live with them. We talked and listened to music, and then we went to bed again. Brie and I slept until noon.
We ate breakfast, and then Claudia produced a deck of cards. Brie and I taught my brothers how to play egyptian solitaire, and go fish. Go fish was funny because Seba and Domi would pronounce it 'go fetch'. Brie taught Franco and I to play spit, and then we ate lunch: empanadas, muy rico. The boys showed us all the animals, the dogs and 2 month old puppies, the horse, and the baby sheep. Lets just say that animals are treated very different in chile. There haven't been much differences between Chile and the U.S. except that (and the fact that you kiss someone on the cheek when you say hola or adios).
Later Domi and I played soccer, he killed me. Then Seba joined my team, and we still lost, even though whenever the ball came near our goal, Seba sat on it. Then Brie joined Domi's team, and we lost again. For the last game, Domi and I against Brie and Seba it was more evenly matched. We won, and I scored four of the goals, including one kick right over Seba's head. I was very proud of myself.
Well, that's mostly what I've been up to. Adios para ahora. Muchas amor! -Gracie
We ate breakfast in the airport and then drove the three hours to Talca. then we ate the biggest lunch you've ever seen! A humongous slab of beef, sausage, rice, salad, potato, salsa. Then I slept. For 9 hours. When I woke up, Brie and the family were in the living room, with the German exchange student Robin who will be in my class, and his host family. Later in the year we might switch families, so I might live with them. We talked and listened to music, and then we went to bed again. Brie and I slept until noon.
We ate breakfast, and then Claudia produced a deck of cards. Brie and I taught my brothers how to play egyptian solitaire, and go fish. Go fish was funny because Seba and Domi would pronounce it 'go fetch'. Brie taught Franco and I to play spit, and then we ate lunch: empanadas, muy rico. The boys showed us all the animals, the dogs and 2 month old puppies, the horse, and the baby sheep. Lets just say that animals are treated very different in chile. There haven't been much differences between Chile and the U.S. except that (and the fact that you kiss someone on the cheek when you say hola or adios).
Later Domi and I played soccer, he killed me. Then Seba joined my team, and we still lost, even though whenever the ball came near our goal, Seba sat on it. Then Brie joined Domi's team, and we lost again. For the last game, Domi and I against Brie and Seba it was more evenly matched. We won, and I scored four of the goals, including one kick right over Seba's head. I was very proud of myself.
Well, that's mostly what I've been up to. Adios para ahora. Muchas amor! -Gracie
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