vacation!!!

school's officially out for the summer! friday was my last day of school, although i didnt actually go... on accident. i spent thursday night at taylor's house and accidentally slept in way too late... i ended up arriving at school two minutes before it was over. oops.

after saying goodbye to all my classmates, i went home for lunch, and then i took the bus into talca for the first time by myself which was a pretty big deal. when i go with franco, he always switches buses halfway there. being a broke exchange student, i decided not to do that, because the second bus would cost me another dollar, and the bus i was on said it was going to talca too, so eventually i'd get there, right? the bus started going to the industrial part of town, and i started second guessing myself. i was afraid the bus would go farther into the country and awayfrom the center, where i needed to go. so i got off the bus, even though i didnt know where exactly i was. and immediately after i got off the bus, it turned and started going to the center. shoot. so i was stuck in the industrial part of town, (aka the sketchy, ghetto part of town) not knowing where i was. i started walking towards the center, and all the construction workers and car repair men were whistling and catcalling at me and at one point one followed me for a few blocks, and it was absolutely terrifying. but i wasnt as far away as i had originally thought, and after awhile i recognized where i was, so it was alright in the end.

then i met up with taylor, and we took the bus to johanna's house in the country for her 18th birthday party. her dad picked us and kelly up from the bus terminal, but there were four of us and only two seats in the front of the car, so taylor and i had to sit in the back/trunk of the truck, which had no windows and was pitch black and it felt like we were being willingly kidnapped. so that was an adventure.

at johanna's birthday party, she wanted to go swimming because her birthday is in december, and normally its freezing.

so all four of us exchange students immediately stripped to our swimsuits and jumped in, even though it wasnt that hot that day and kinda foggy.

and then we laughed because all of the exchange students were swimming in the cold pool with just our bikinis on and our extra exchange-student-fat (its not a myth, everyone gains weight on exchange), while meanwhile all the chileans were sitting fully clothed at the tables with their perfect chilean bodies (all chileans are absurdly skinny).  it was ironic. but we had fun.

after the party ended, taylor and kelly and i were going to taylors house to bake for a bakesale we were gonna have the next day. we were on the bus from johannas house, and right as we decided that we should go to the distribution center to get cheaper desert ingridients, i go "oh this is the stop" and kelly and taylor were like "are you positive?" but we got off and i led them the three blocks straight to the distribution center, even though i had only been there once before, coming from the opposite direction. it was completely awesome and totally made up for getting lost the day before.

and then we spent the rest of the night cooking and skyping with friends from home, and ended up not going to bed until 5 in the morning.

and then we had our lemonade stand/bakesale, but it was kind of a failure, especially since all of our american deserts had pretty much.. well, lets just say every one of them tasted horrible.

we did, however get to talk to a lot of people, including one man who paid two dollars for a cup of water to dump on his head, took a picture with us, and then asked us to watch porn with him. and then when we declined, he took away the two dollars, gave us 25 cents, and left. all to the extreme amusement of the thirty thirteen-year-old girls holding a justin beiber fan club meeting on the other side of the fountain.

taylor and i even went around holding brownies and a sign that said gringas while shouting "comida de los estados unidos; 500 pesos" which got the whole plaza laughing at us, but didnt really get anyone to buy anything. 

we did discover, however, that next time we could have a lemonade stand with no deserts or a camera and a sign that said "take a photo with a gringa!" and we could probably make money from that.

after that, i took the bus from talca to pelarco for the first time, which was super scary because its a little more difficult than taking the bus the other way: instead of just waiting at the bus stop in front of my house i actually had to go to te bus terminal and ask somebody which bus to get on, and i kept worrying that i was on the wrong bus. but everything went okay, and i sucessfully told the bus driver to stop where i needed him to (the buses here dont have 'stops' they have 'routes'. they wont stop at a bus stop unless someone on the bus asks to get off/pushes the button or someone on the street waves them down. so you have to be kinda assertive. the other difference about buses here is that if you are on a long trip, the buses will provide you with food, and if you are on a short trip, there might be people selling food or playing music for tips.)

then, yesterday, claudia and i went to have lunch at the paseo of max's class, which is like an end of the year pool party, and the class spent the weekend camping at a villa in the country (which actually was close to my house) and all the parents and siblings went to have lunch on the last day. its funny, because i went and all of max's classmates were like "hi grace! how have you been?" and i was like "umm, i actually dont know any of you". but i hung out with the girls from max's class and it was nice because they were really sweet and they reminded me of nora and her friends because they were the same age. so it was good. 

and.. thats how my summer break began! 

theres one week left until christmas, which is weird... 
my family is doing a gift exchange with all the cousins, and so i just have to buy one gift for either a girl or a boy, and after stressing out about what to get, i decided to buy a pan and cook brownies in it the night before. or chocolate chip cookies maybe. i think it will go over well.

and then, three days after christmas, i switch host families! and my new family is taking me to valapariso right away to visit my new host sister who's in unibersity there. so i'm excited!

well, thats all for now! chaoo