Music that you won't understand the words to

Okay, so, concert the other night, good news and bad news.

Bad news: Somebody (cough, cough, KELLY) gave me bad information and the Wachiturros were not there.

Good news: Instead, a Chilean rock band who I absolutely love way more than I like the Wachiturros was there, and I was a very very happy little Gringa.

So that you can enjoy them too: Ven Aqui... Santiago de Chile... Llueve Sobre La Ciudad...okaaay, I'll stop at three if I must...

Anyway..
More good news: When Los Bunkers came on, Kelly and I managed to fight our way into the very second row, and WE WERE RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF THE STAGE. In the mosh pit, and the camera guy kinda got in the way of some of my pictures, but still, CAN YOU SAY AWESOMENESS??!


And: When Eyci and Cody (who are also very famous--impressive, Talca) played Te Amo Con Locura, I got up on a friends shoulders and screamed like the crazy fangirl that I'm totally not (pssssshhh) until my lungs pretty much fell off, and Cody and I definitely made some deep eye-contact there. Hahahaha. You would've been pretty proud of my pipes, Dad.

The whole thing was for Talca's Independence Week, and they had really big-name bands (I was really impressed, if I haven't already conveyed that) playing at the river all week, although I only went on Saturday night. And there was a crazy amount of people there.

The next day, I posted a facebook status about Los Bunkers, and a schoolmate who I'm not sure I even know responded "Oh, yeah, I saw you there! Second row, right?"
..I suppose I should be really used to that, since it happens all the time in the life of an exchange student, but mouth still drops to my knees every time somebody random happens to know every little detail of my life.
Oh, I don't know if I mentioned, but Kelly and I did make it onto National TV(!!!) that one time. And I didn't even get to see how stupid I probably looked, but I still have random people recognizing me. "Oh, you're that foreign girl who likes mote con huesillo?" or "GRACE, GRACE, OMG, I SAW YOU ON THE TELLY!!"

In other news, I have been doing absolutely nothing except watching a large amount of movies. And cooking really really creative meals because there's no food in the house at the moment. All of my friends (ALL OF THEM--exchange students and classmates) are on vacation.... and it's too, too hot to leave the house without the prospect of friends to meet.

And, yes, they celebrate Valentine's day normally here. But I spent it cuddling with my telly. Haha.

Love, Gracie

P.S.
Happy happy happy birthday to the BEST man in the whole world. Love you, Daddy.

P.P.S
There is a un-proportionally large amount of views to the post where I mentioned horse [you know what] and it's a little disturbing. I suppose I should've forseen that. Also, people google search some really really disturbing things and I find it quite hilarious that they ended up reading this instead. Not exactly what you where looking for, was it? Now, get your mind out of the gutter! 


P.P.P.S
To whoever google searched "Does Chile have nutella?" why, yes, yes it does. And it costs, like, five dollars a tiny little jar. But, all the labeling comes in German, so it's totally worth it.

No Hay Nadie Como Tu

This is one of my favorite Spanish songs. It has been since before I came to Chile, and I listened to it ALL THE TIME. And now, my Spanish is sooooo awesome, that I actually understand all the words. ALL OF THEM. YAYYYY ME! So I just thought I'd share my accomplishment with you.

And, tonight, at a free concert on the river, I am going to see another very important Latino band, the one and only Wachiturros. I cannot even express how psyched I am. THE WACHITURROS!!!! 

They are, like, THE South American Icon. And, for your pleasure, here they are.  

(The first Spanish I learned after coming to Chile was how to say "Do you wanna punch in the face, you BLEEEP BLEEP BLEEEEEEEP??!!" The second thing was how to sing the lyrics to "Tirate un paso." Priorities, right?)

-Gracie 

I swear I haven't forgotten about you all...

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

I blame it on not much going on.

The summer heat is driving me crazy--yes, I'm complaining about being on summer break. Sorry, guys. I'm ready for the school year to start up again. I'm not ready for real American school, though.

Wednesday I went to Santiago, just for the day. It was nice--I got to see the American Embassy (although they wouldnt let us in!!), visit an exchange friend, and, the best part, eat at both subway AND taco bell.

Santiago was fun, but it made me love Talca so much. I really do love Talca a lot.

I also spent a week with my family in the south of Chile, (Temuco, Licanray) and that was okay, but it also made me miss Talca.

Otherwise, I've just been hanging out, avoiding the heat. My Spanish is getting to a nearly-fluentish stage. I think. Most of my friends can only speak Spanish, which is great. And a Chilean friend who speaks fluent English heard me have a conversation in Spanish for the first time the other day, and he told me he was really surprised and impressed. So I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

-Gracie

Story Time.

Because apparently I'm in a blog post-writing mood today..

Today my beautiful amazing friend Elaine emailed me, and I was telling her how bad my English is getting: "it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to spell the word "happyness" yesterday, and i figured it out by looking up the movie "pursuit of happyness" ...looking back i shouldve just used a dictionary..."

Elaine, being the smart cookie that she is, gave me this reply: "HAHAHAHAHAHA.... hmmm... how to tell you this.  have you seen "the pursuit of happyness"?  because the big thing about the title is that "happyness" is written on the wall of his (will smith's) son's preschool, and it's spelled INCORRECTLY.  it should be "happiness".  if i were you, gracie, i would stick to the dictionary."

Oopsie.

I think the Chilean summer heat is melting my brain. But I'm having the experience of a lifetime.

P.S. I HAVE seen the Pursuit of Happyness. Just so ya know.

And, also, here's this.

As promised, transportation:

Micros are buses. They are similar to buses in the United States, but they don't have 'bus stops' persay. If you want to take a bus, you do have to go to the bus stop, but the bus won't actually stop unless you wave it down. And when you are on the bus, you have to either ask the driver to stop or press the stop button. Each bus line (A, B, B3, 8... they are randomly named...) has its own terminal, in different parts of town, and most bus lines stop in the center. It costs $.80; $.25 for students during the school year. If you don't live in Talca (you live in Pelarco like I used to or in one of the other farm towns) you take a bus from the main terminal in the center of town, the same terminal you'd go to if you wanted to take a bus to Santiago or somewhere else. My bus to Pelarco costed $.80 if you got off at the first stop,  $1.30 to go all the way to the city of Pelarco. My stop, Santa Rita, was $1.10. Talca does have taxis, but they aren't so common. Instead of paying for miles/kilometers, you pay by minute, which stinks if you get stuck in traffic. The good thing is that all Chilean drivers drive crazy and fast so you don't have to worry about them gypping you
by driving slow and extending the minutes... but still, you only take a taxi if you have no other choice, like, if it's late at night and the collectivos aren't running. Something interesting though, is that, instead of calling a taxi service and having them send you a cab, you can call a driver that you like, and drivers will give you their cards. Lastly, collectivos. Collectivos are like taxis, but they have a set route, and you just get in/out of it wherever along the route you need to, and you're not the only person in it, like a taxi; other people are getting in and out, too, like a bus. It costs $.80, except at night, it's $1.40.  Collectivos are awesome, and they should have them in the United States. And that's what I know.

Chileans are silly.

and they must say hi and ask you how you are doing. ALWAYS.

Phone conversation with a friend:
Me: "Hello, Pedro Pablo?"
Him: "Yeah, who's this?"
Me: "It's Grace. So, what time are we meeting, and where?"
Him: "Hi, Grace."
Me: "Umm, hi."
Him: "How are you?"
Me: "I'm, uhh, good, you know, the same as I was when I saw you two hours ago.. And you?"
Him: "I'm good, too."
Me: "Okay, great. So, what time are we meeting?"

Chat conversation with a friend:
Him: "It was a JOKE!!"
Me: "Uhh, what?"
Him: "What I told you yesterday."
Me: "Yeah, I know."
Him: "Oh, thank goodness, I was scared."
Me: "It's alright. No worries."
Him: "Hello, how are you?"
Me: Confused.

Taylor laughs at me whenever I have a phone conversation. Because Chileans will never let me talk until they have established that we are both doing okay.

They also think that all Americans are alcoholics. Or maybe it's just my host mom who thinks that. This is a normal phone conversation with her:
Her: "Talk to me, Grace."
Me: "Can I go to McDonald's with my friends?"
Her: "You want to go to a bar?"
Me: "No, McDonald's."
Her: "Grace, I think it's too early in the day to be going to bars."
Me: "No, not a bar, a restaurant! McDonald's."
Her: "What? A restaurant? Why didn't you just say so?"
Me: "I did. So can I go?"
Her: "Okay. But absolutely NO drinking okay?"
Me: "I promise you, I will not be drinking at McDonald's." (They don't even serve alcohol, in case you were wondering. It's the same menu as American McDonald's, only they have empanadas)
Her: "I mean it, Grace. No drinking."
Me: "I don't drink!"
Her: "You are way too young to drink, and I just don't want anyone taking advantage of you. I know what the men of my country are like."
Me: "I don't drink, I won't drink, and there won't even be boys there!"
FACEPALM.


P.S. GUESS WHAT? IT TOOK ME, LIKE, AN HOUR OR SOME REALLY LARGE AMOUNT OF TIME TO WRITE ALL THAT. GUESS WHY? BECAUSE IT ALL HAPPENED IN SPANISH AND I HAD TROUBLE TRANSLATING IT INTO ENGLISH!!! YEE-HAWWWW :)

I'd give a nice title, but I can't remember what I wrote about

I wrote this post a few days ago, when I was feeling sort of unsocialable (we all have those days, right?), but I totally forgot
to actually post it. I honestly don't remember what it says. I hope it makes sense.

It's been awhile since I last wrote anything here... I'm a terrible journalist. I'm lazy and I don't really have an excuse or a reason for not writing. I just haven't felt like it. And there's a part of me feels like nothing's happened, and part of me feels like a lot has happened, so this blog post might be a little.. off.

Okay. Well. New Year's was awesome. Of course. We spent New Year's Eve at a cousin's house with lots of family, and toasted with pisco (haha, typical Chile) at midnight. Then, at around 2, all the kids went off to party. Everybody who's anybody was there, and I didn't get home until 7:30 am, when the party ended. And then I slept until 4 pm. And it was nice.

Last night, I went to the discotheque with Kelly, Taylor, Fran, Fran, and Paola (no, that wasn't a mistake, Chileans really do all have the same names as each other--"Let's call up Claudio" "My Claudio or your Claudio?" "No, the one from Colegio de la Salle" "Ohhh ...wait, the tall one or the short one?" Really.).
Anyway, it was exciting because we hadn't tried to go before--everyone told us we wouldnt get in without fake I.D.s, and of course none of us have them (but EVERY Chilean teenager has one), but yesterday we tried, and guess what? Pulling the "I'm Blonde And Only Speak English" thing really works. So that was fun. 

I'm pretty sure today I convinced my Chilean friends (and Taylor's host mom, too, but on a different occasion) that all Americans are certifiably insane. But, the good thing about that is, is that my craziness translated into Spanish. So apparently I'm getting better at communicating! On a related note, the host parents of Robin(now Mayella) visited my host family the other day, and the dad, Manuel, told a story about when he lived in Canada, he lived in a hotel on the edge of an Indian reservation, and I wont explain the whole story, but the important thing is that I UMDERSTOOD the whole story. And not just that I knew basically what he was talking about, which is usual for me, but I understood everything! And when I laughed at the funny parts, I knew why I was laughing! ....And then my mom replied, and... I understood nothing she said. Moment successfully ruined. But it was still really exciting, and some people are just way easier to understand than others. 

Now that I live in the city (basically) I can ride my mom's bike around. And I've been doing that a lot lately, because then I save two dollars on the micro/collectivo* and I'm a cheap exchange student. And I need the exercise. I can now truthfully boast that I came to Chile and learned how to properly ride a bike. Yes, I rode my cruiser all the time back home, but once you add gears and I am amazingly terrible. I've fallen twice now, and my legs are covered in bruises and cuts (me: "I look terrible!" Taylor: "No, you look badass. Like a roller derby girl." me: "Wow. I'd really really appreciate that comment if it wasn't for the fact that I CAN'T FEEL MY LEFT LEG!!!!"). 

Where was I going with that story..? Oh, yes. The other day Kelly and I rode our bikes down to  the river. Then we ate lunch at one of the divey restaurants down there (I've heard from a reliable source that one restaurant is actually a whorehouse. We were afraid we'd accidentally walk into that one. Didn't happen). We ate chancho y piedre, which is the name of a band, but is also a meal of bread and/or sopaipilla (fried dough) with salsa made out of tomato and chili peppers. It's the best. After lunch, we rented a rowboat, but neither Kelly nor I could successfully row it, so we enlisted the help of a fourteen yr old boy and an eleven yr old boy who had been laughing at us from the shore and made them row our boat for us. They took us out to the island in the middle of the river, and told us that the cables running across the river were from New Years, and that they had firework type things attached that lit up so it looked like the river was on fire. I don't really know how to explain, but the older boy, Ivan, had a video on his phone, and it was the coolest fireworky-type-thing I had ever seen. Afterward, the man who rented us the boat offered to give us rowing lessons whenever we wanted. Then the two of us went to one of the stands on the waterfront and bought mote con huesillo, a drink made of syrup, and water with corn and dried peaches in it. I've had motes I really liked, and ones I didn't. It's one of those things. While we were drinking that, we got asked if we could be interviewed by a man with this huuugggge, legit video camera, and then we discovered that he was from 24 hours, a station that broadcasts to all of Chile, not just a local station. But we turned out
to be terrible interviewees. First he just took video of us drinking our motes, and Kelly and I were trying super hard not to laugh which meant we just made odd faces. Then, he interviewed us:
him: "So, are you enjoying your mote?"
me: "Yes, I like it."
him: "Do you find it refreshing and enjoyable?"
me: "Yes."
him: "Do you like the river?"
me: "Yes."
him: "It's really hot today, no cierto?"
me: "yeah, it is!" 
I was laughing the whole time, and he got nothing usable, because obviously what he wanted was for me to take what e asked and say it in a sentence, like "Yes, my mote con huesillo is really refreshing and enjoyable." But I was wayy to overwhelmed for whole sentences! And, this was after the newscaster interviewed Kelly and she did the same thing, and then screamed "No! Interview her! She has better Spanish; I can't do this!" And then it was my turn, and.... I'm pretty sure we didn't make it onto the nightly news. Oh well.

And.. that's all the news I can think of at the moment.

*I've been asked to explain the transportation here in Chile. Next post, I promise.

ANYWAY, On A Less Weird Note,

Valparaiso:
ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CITIES I HAVE EVER BEEN TO.

You are right to love it, Mommy.

I was just telling my friend, Mayella, how I loved Chile and would love to visit again but couldnt ever really see myself living here.

Then I went to Valparaiso. I could see myself living there. Not forever. But for a year or two, maybe.

It reminded me a little of San Francisco, but probably that was just the bay, the crowdedness, and the hills (Valpo also has straight-upward streets and sidewalks that are really just stairs).

It's a super poverty-ridden town but, oh my goodness, it's beautiful.

I was only there for one night, and i spent a good amount of time apartment-shopping, apartment-cleaning, and in Viña del Mar (also beautiful. But wayyyy more upper-class. And touristy.) So I didn't get to see as much as I wanted to. But I know I will be going back at least two more times this year. So no worries.

love, Gracie

p.s. Mom, sorry I didn't get that picture you wanted of me on thw beach with all the houses rising above me. I didnt actually get to the beach, and all my pictures were taken from the car. See my excuse above^^ :D But i'll get it eventually.

In his defence, i'm pretty sure it wasn't my host grandpa's idea to put lingerie in the pinata. i

So. Tuesday night I switched families. My new family is really sweet. My favorite things are that I have a bathroom that I don't share with four boys and thus is not incredibly disgusting, I have wifi that is good enough that videos dont take four hours to load and it works all over the house, it doesn't take me an hour and a half to get into town AND my new family eats more vegetables. Nice!

Things I miss: having a yard; having brothers; The fact that the sink is always empty (if theres nothing in the sink it's easy to wash your own dishes! Who knew?); having a practically live-in nanny who washes my clothes so that, if someone else is washing my underwear, at least it's somebody I know...

That last one... Immediately after I moved into my new house, I went with my host mom to Valparaiso for one night to help my host sister move out of her apartment, leaving my half-unpacked suitcases on the floor and my (folded) clothes all over the place. When I came back, the maid (who I haven't met yet) had finished unpacking all of my things, which means she went through all of my stuff including the sexy lingerie I was forcibly given (by well-meaning host aunts) from the pinata at my host-grandpa's 80th birthday party and had since forgotten about...

...awkward...

... I'm still a little shocked that those words made that sentence.. and came out of my mouth...

obviously i have WAAAYYYYY too much time on my hands

This has absolutely nothing to do with being in Chile, at all, but if you'd like to read it anyway, you'd probably be better prepared for the end of the world. Just saying.

It's summer. Minus eating time, I've spent every waking hour of the last two weeks outside.

And now I'm covered in bug/spider bites. Way, way too many to count, and some of them are of the incredibly painful keep-you-up-at-night variety. The weird thing is, they are all symmetrical. For every single bug bite I have on my left side, there's one in the exact same spot on my right side.

Coincidence? I think not.

I have decided that this can be taken as none other than a warning from the insect/arachnid population...

TWO WORDS: INSECT. APOCALYPSE. 

And as if I wasnt already terrified of the approaching doom, I coincidentally happened upon this link today.

ITS NOT THE INSECTS WE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT. ITS THE ZOMBIES. 

Now I'm gonna go hide in a cave.