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