Thursday, December 26, 2013

Friday, December 20

Today we had to wake up early to get on the road to Vina del Mar, where Katie’s family had invited me to spend the weekend with them. We packed up and ate a quick breakfast, then got on the road for a 3 hour car ride. Katie and I decided to speak Spanish together during the trip, so we talked the whole time on the road in Spanish. When we got to Vina in the afternoon, the whole family was starving, so we threw our stuff in the hotel (Katie and I had our own room), and then went to eat lunch in this restaurant on the water in a nearby town called Renaca. We ordered a bunch of plates of seafood for us all to share. I was really proud of my bravery because I tried octopus, mussels, crab, and all the things I usually get grossed out by when my dad orders them in Mexico. After lunch, we drove around through ConCon, another nearby beach town, and we rolled down the windows and sang Spanish songs all together in loud voices. It was a great time. Then we parked the car and walked along the beach in Renaca and drank smoothies. Then we went over to a park called the Quinta Vergara, where they have this giant concert stadium for the Vina music festival. We walked around the park and the stadium for a while then went to the famous Vina flower clock to take the obligatory tourist picture. Later, we went to an artisan fair and looked at the crafts for a while. We met a woman selling her woodwork there who was from California and had been living in Chile for 25 years. It was really interesting to think about how much her life had changed from CA to Chile, and interesting to think of how my life has kind of changed in the same way. After, we went into the center of town (after the obligatory stop at Starbucks obviously) and Katie, me, and her 2 brothers rode around the city and alongside the ocean in one of those horse drawn carriages called Victorias. It was a very cool experience. By that time it was dark outside, and we went to an outdoor fair along the boardwalk where we ate churros filled with manjar and bought Vina souvenirs and Katie and I got these cute braids in our hair with shells. We were wearing shorts and freezing cold, so we booked it over to this Mexican restaurant nearby to eat dinner (first guacamole I’ve had in almost 5 months). Then we all went back to our rooms in the hotel to sleep because we had a big day tomorrow. Katie and I looked out our window and found that there was like this roof thing and so obviously we had to climb out and sit with our feet dangling over the edge of the hotel and look at the people walking on the sidewalk below. We talked about how much we love to travel and how much we want to travel all through Chile, and we made a pact to plan a trip together. I hope it actually works out and our parents let us backpack alone for a little while in the summer. We were so excited about planning our future trips that we didn’t get to bed until like 1. 

Thursday, December 19

Today I woke up early again, this time to go to Maxi’s premiacion. This one was a lot more important because Maxi is super studious, and he won a lot of awards. I understand how great it is to finally be recognized for every day hard work that usually goes unnoticed, so I made sure to make a big deal of all the awards he won. During the day, Maxi and I stayed home to take care of Monse, who was sick and throwing up. We actually had a lot of fun together making jugo de durazno from scratch and telling dirty jokes. Another thing I’ve noticed here in Chile is that women here do not make sexual jokes around men. I know that among guys they are super dirty, but when women are there, they just don’t do them. In contrast, my friends and I can be all together, guys and girls, and we will tell jokes regardless of the company. I complained to Maxi about how much I miss stupid dirty jokes, and so he agreed to start including me. I feel like that means we’ve reached a new level of friendship and trust hahaha. Anyway, I also finished all my college applications today, and sent them in to the universities. So I’m finally done with that and I feel like I’ve had a weight lifted off my shoulders. Now I’ll have more time to spend with my family and less time to spend worrying and stressing and procrastinating on college apps. After I finished, Katie H’s mom came to pick me up and we went together to the office of Techo Para Chile to turn in raffle tickets that we were supposed to sell for the community service trip we’re doing in January. Then we went to Katie’s house, where there were a bunch of her brother’s friends over. We sat talking to them for a few hours (nothing is ever a short conversation in Chile), and then we went up to Katie’s room, each of us took a shower, and then we sat talking for a while with her little brother Julian. Julian is hilarious and absolutely hyperactive crazy, and I can see how he could get annoying as a brother, but I had the best time ever with him. He’s so funny and not ashamed to do really weird and funny things. We stayed up till like 2 and then we were so tired that we all fell asleep on Katie’s twin bed together.

Wednesday, December 18

Today I got up early and got ready to go to Monse’s premiacion (it’s like the end of the year awards ceremony). The class meets up in their classroom and they get medals for things like “most athletic”, “teacher’s choice”, “best classmate (chosen by students)”, and “overall GPA”. Monse won some good awards, and it was really adorable to see how happy she was. Then Nancy and I dropped Monse off at home and we went to the feria (farmers’ market) to buy fresh fruit and veggies. We spent like an hour there and by the time we had everything we needed my hands were about to fall off from carrying around all the bags of heavy fruit. Then we went home and ate lunch and I walked over to the Jumbo to meet Cata and go Christmas gift shopping. I was really happy to see Cata again because she is definitely one of my best friends here and one of the people I missed most. I had left my purse with all my money in it at Katie’s house, so I told her all about Patagonia while we took a micro over to Katie’s. When we got to her house, I realized that although she had told me her parents would be there, there was no one home. I decided to try the gate and surprisingly enough the lock was open, so I went it. Then I got to the front door and it was locked, so I went around the back to the sliding glass door that had been left completely open. I went up to Katie’s room and grabbed my stuff and then left like nothing had happened. Basically, I broke into Katie’s house. Then, Cata and I waited for a micro to take us back to the Jumbo. When we got on the micro we were the only ones there, and while we paid the guy, he took one look at me and asked me if I was a gringa. I told him yes and he said he had met another gringa on the micro not too long ago. I was totally shocked because just yesterday Katie had told me about a micro driver friend that she had made. He asked Cata and I if it would be ok for him to stop the micro and the depot and go to the bathroom really wick and we said sure. He left us alone on the micro and so obviously the first thing I did as give Cata my camera and go sit in the driver’s seat and pretend to drive the micro. Then the driver came back and saw me “driving” and laughed and asked if I wanted to drive for real. I said yes of course, and he told me to go sit in the seat up front with him (where usually no one is sitting), and although I didn’t actually get to drive because another passenger wanted to get on, the driver talked to me the whole way back to the Jumbo and ended up giving me his number and inviting me to his house in the country. He even pulled the micro over to take a picture with me before Cata and I got off. When we left the micro I confessed to her that I hadn’t understood a single word he had said to me and we laughed a lot. Being an exchange student is so fun because something weird and crazy and awesome always happens to me. Then, we walked over to Cata’s brother’s pastry shop and I got to see the back room where they do all the cooking. Then we went to the Jumbo and I bought a cookbook of chicken recipes for my mom (a joke since I don’t eat beef), a pillow and slippers for my dad (because he always works and doesn’t sleep enough), a puzzle game for Maxi, and some Violetta (Monse’s favorite actress) pencils for Monse. Then I said goodbye to Cata and went back home. Directly after going home, I walked over to the restaurant where Chichi works and waited for Thomas and Ale to arrive. We surprised Chichi by eating at her restaurant. It was nice to sit and talk with them and I really felt comfortable like they were just as much my friends as they were each others’. Around 9, we were still sitting outside at the restaurant, talking to Chichi when she came by and talking amongst ourselves, but it was absolutely freezing, so Thomas called his sister to take us home. She dropped me off at my house, and I had just gotten out some cherries and was planning on relaxing a little with Monse, when Marianna called me and invited me to her house. She lives on the other side of the Jumbo, so like a 10 minute walk, but it was dark and I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. I went anyway, and she, Vicente, Augustin, and Stefano were having an asado on the patio of her apartment. They are really hilarious people and I need to spend more time with them because there is absolutely never a dull moment. We sat around and talked and played never have I ever and other games until like 12:30. It was really late by then, so Vicente walked me home. I told him he didn’t have to but it was really nice of him to do it and I appreciated it a lot. I was really tired by the time I got home so after talking to my parents a little while, I went to sleep.

Tuesday, December 17

I woke up early today because my friends and I were planning to meet at my friend Lila’s house to bake and then have a sleepover. My friend Camila was going to pick me up, but she never told me when. I send her a text asking and all she responded with was “I’ll let you know when we’re almost to your house”. So I made myself busy in the house washing the dishes and doing some chores (our nana Sra Adela had a surgery and isn’t going to come back to work for a month, so now we have to clean everything and it’s actually more work than I thought because they’re used to everything always being so perfect. I’m in charge of washing dishes, keeping my room clean, vacuuming, polishing the furniture and floor, and keeping the living and dining rooms organized). Around 12, I sent her another message asking what was up, and she told me she had gotten hung up doing something with her mom in the center of town and actually wouldn’t be able to go to Lila’s or give me a ride. I was kind of bummed because I really wanted to see my friends again after such a long time, but I just sat back and resigned myself to a boring day at home. Then Katie Ward called me and told me she was at the Jumbo looking for Christmas presents for her family and that I should come help out. I went over and we looked in the Jumbo for a while then took a collectivo to the center to keep looking. I bought nail polish and a hairbrush for Monse because she always steals my hairbrush and I always steal her nail polish. I also bought a snapback for Maxi because he always wears this knit hat and I thought he needed something a little more summery. Then Katie’s cousin Mery called and invited us over to Katie’s grandma’s house to go swimming. We took a micro to Katie’s house, I borrowed one of her bathing suits, and we went over to Katie’s grandma’s. Mery and Pitu were there baking cookies. It was so fun to see them again after such a long time away. We told them all about our trip to Patagonia and they told us what they’d been up to. Just as the cookies were done baking, Rosario came over too and we all sat at the table and ate cookies and then went outside and put our feet in the pool and talked for a while longer. Then we went upstairs and laid on the bed in one of the many rooms in her grandma’s fricken mansion and watched YouTube videos from Katie’s and my towns and high schools in the US (I showed them the marching band show from last year hahaha). Pitu’s sister drove me home around 11 and I was dead tired so I talked to my family for a little while and then went to sleep around midnight.

Monday, December 16

Today I woke up late and went for a run, then got dressed and ready for the day. Nancy’s friend from Santiago came down to visit for the day and brought her daughter Eva and her two friends Caro and Gianna. They were the girls I hung out with when we went to that birthday party in the country in Mellipilla, so it was really fun seeing them and hanging out. I told them all about my trip to Patagonia, and spent a while showing them pictures and telling them funny stories. Then I went to help Maxi make homemade juice for lunch. We put a bunch of raspberries and blueberries in the blender, and then put the mix in a big bowl. Maxi took this bottle of liquid sweetener (I honestly don’t know if it exists in the US because I’ve never seen it, but I feel like it must because it’s so common here) and squeezed it really hard instead of waiting for it to come out in drops like it’s supposed to. The bottle exploded and ALL the sweetener fell into the juice and the juice splashed all over our clothes and the kitchen and it was a hilarious experience. We ended up making like 3 times as much juice as we should have just to dilute the intense sweetness. We were drinking that juice for like 4 days after. Anyway, then we all ate lunch together and talked. After lunch, we were all feeling super tired and lazy, so Monse painted my nails for me, and then we watched 2 movies and basically just did nothing. After the second movie, we ate a light dinner together and then they all had to leave to go back on the bus to Santiago. After they left, I went for another run because I was feeling guilty after such an incredibly lazy day, and then I asked Nancy and Monse if they wanted to watch a movie with me. I popped some microwave popcorn that I had bought and had been saving for a while (it was their first time ever trying microwave popcorn and they were really impressed) and then we laid on the couches and watched my favorite movie—It’s Kind of a Funny Story. The movie is a comedy about a dude who goes to a mental hospital after thinking about committing suicide, but it’s actually really funny and has a great message. I was surprised when neither of them laughed at all. I knew before that the US and Chilean senses of humor were different, but it became blatantly obvious when they didn’t laugh at any of the awkward sarcasm that is my favorite kind of humor. I’m not sure they enjoyed my favorite movie too much, but I sure had fun watching it in Spanish. After the movie I was really tired, so I headed off to sleep.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Sunday, December 15


Today Sally and I woke up around 10 and then went downstairs to eat breakfast super slowly while chatting with Sally’s mom about the Rotary meeting the day before. Then we went back upstairs and got dressed and ready, and then did a little ab workout. Then Sally’s parents called us down and told us we had lunch reservations at this restaurant that they go to a lot. We all piled into the car and drove over there. It was absolutely packed and soon I figured out why—the portions are huge and the food is really good. We spent like 2 hours sitting there eating and talking, and I realized how much I miss being an only child. It’s so nice to be able to talk to you parents without other kids being there, and it’s nice to have a small family and the freedom to go out to lunch when you want and not have to plan around so many people or worry about young children. Sally’s parents are so nice, and they really treat Sally like a daughter. Its super sweet and it actually makes me a little jealous. Anyway, after we got back, I worked on college essays for a little while (I’m supposed to be finished this week), and then Sally and I went to Sally’s friend Dani’s birthday party. It was a little awkward meeting all of Sally’s friends since I didn’t know anyone, but they were all really nice and I had a good time talking to them. It was also fun to finally meet all the people Sally has gossiped to me so much about.
We stayed at the birthday for a long time (5 hours) just sitting outside and talking, but it was a little uncomfortable, so Sally called her mom and she picked us up around 9. We went to Sally’s and ate dinner and then just kind of lay up in her room not even talking because we were both so exhausted. My parents came to pick me up around 11. I was really happy to see them after like 2 weeks apart and happy to go back to my house after more than 2 weeks away from it. I unpacked and Skyped with my mom for a little while to tell her about Patagonia. We all sat down and ate dinner together at midnight (well they ate and I watched) and I told them about the Rotary meeting and getting letters from my parents and they told me about what I missed in Talca and at the wedding my parents went to. After dinner, my brother showed us this funny video about a Chilean in the US and his reaction to how small the hot dogs are. We all laughed, but then he got this super smug look on his face and started bragging about how much better everything is in Chile and I started to explain to him that it is only a difference in customs and what people are used to and some people from the US actually think their hot dogs are better (even though obviously we weren’t talking about hot dogs anymore), and he got really sassy and mean and so I just ended up leaving. Later, I went to his room and apologized to him and told him why his words had hurt me. We ended up getting into this huge discussion about how he felt that I wasn’t respecting the family because I ask to go out so much and how I felt that they weren’t respecting me or trying to understand my culture and meet in the middle instead of expecting me to just change into a perfect Chilean in 4 months. I was crying a lot and told him how much I wanted to leave their family with a good impression not only of me but of my country. He told me he was sorry that he had made me feel unwelcome in the house. We decided to start over with a clean slate and try to understand each other better and meet in the middle. I’m really excited because I think that talk was a major breakthrough. The worst thing about living here was always the awkward relationship with Maxi, but now I think that’s going to get a lot better.

Saturday, December 14


This morning was an early morning for us because we had to leave the house by 8 to be up in Santiago at a Rotary meeting at 9:30. Katie Ward went up with Nigel, and Katie H, Sally, and I rode with Sally’s parents. We decided that we felt really guilty speaking in English to each other all the time, so we made a pact to try to speak Spanish together whenever possible. On the way up to Santiago we stopped at a little café to get some coffee and chill. When we got up there it was like a huge family reunion. It was so nice to see all of the exchange students again, even though we had only been apart a week. The parents and kids split up and went to separate rooms. We listened to like a 2 hour presentation about the rules of Rotary (a lot of people said the meeting was called because rotary knows that a lot of the exchange students have been breaking the rules) and about the necessity of changing families (apparently we’re supposed to be changing between Christmas and New Years). After the meeting, we went into a big dining room with the parents and sat down to eat lunch.
Before lunch, a magician came and performed, and it was literally the lamest show on the planet. Then, at the end, he made this envelope appear, and he said “Sally Rohan please come get this” and she went and got it and it turned out to be a letter from her parents in the US. Soon everyone was being called up to get letters, and everyone was reading them and crying. I opened mine and literally just saw my parents and friends’ handwriting and burst into tears. I don’t even miss you guys that much (no offense hahaha I didn’t say I didn’t love you) but it was just so unexpected and it made me realize how long I’ve been gone and holy crap. Then, the counselors started taking down the big papers that were covering parts of the walls and the walls underneath were covered with pictures of our families. I found one of my dogs, one of my parents, and one of my friends holding a poster that said “miss you Alex”. Needless to say that made me cry all over again. We all sat down to eat lunch and talk and laugh about how we were all such cry babies. Then, after the meeting, Katie Ward and I went up to the chairperson of the Santiago club (the person in charge of everyone else), and complained about our club. Monchito, our counselor, is completely useless. He owes me lots of money, he never calls me to check on how I am or even returns my calls when I call him, he didn’t show up to the meeting like he was supposed to, and when I asked him on Monday when I was changing host families, he just said he had no idea because he hadn’t worked on it yet. I also had asked him on Monday if the exchange students in Rancagua Rotary could become a bigger part of the club, like going to meetings and activities and stuff (since we’ve only been invited to one meeting in 4 months and I’m feeling pretty abandoned by them), and he told me that my request would be difficult to complete because Rancagua Rotary doesn’t want exchange students. My only question is if they didn’t want us in the first place, why did they accept us at all? I told Monchito to give me the phone number of the president of the club, and I am going to call him and have a talk with him because I feel downright insulted and abandoned. Anyway, I told all this to the chairperson at the meeting, and she was horrified as well and told me that she would work as hard as she could to fix it. She also confirmed for Katie and me that we would be switching families. When she told Katie that, Katie burst out crying, which prompted the chairperson to ask me what was wrong with my family that Katie was afraid to go there. I honestly would rather have not talked about it because my family is absolutely wonderful. Yes it hurts me when they refuse to be understanding of my culture or when they compare me to Cristobal and find me lacking, but overall they are great and I love them. Katie however is less patient and willing to work hard to win over the family (because I really do have to work) and she doesn’t want them to tell her that she can’t do things because she doesn’t want to miss out on parts of exchange. I just told them a little about the problems with cultural tolerance, and she said that Katie would have no choice but to at least try with my family and if things didn’t work out she would try to find a volunteer family. After a huge debrief with Katie H and Sally in the car about the whole discussion, we all ended up sad about the fact that we were changing families so soon. It was kind of a huge wake-up call that we are really far into our exchange. After Katie H went to her house, Sally and I went back to Sally’s and changed out of our ugly blue Rotary polos and into normal clothes, and then took a collectivo and a micro to the movie theater. Sally was really nervous because neither of us had done it before, but I am super confident about public transportation. I just call the first collectivo I see, tell the driver where I want to go, and he’ll tell me how I need to get there. I know I’ll always find my way. We went to the grocery store nearby and bought apple sauce to eat during the movie.
We were seeing Kramer, which is a Chilean movie about a dude who imitates famous Chilean people. Although we didn’t recognize all the people he was imitating, we understood the dialogue and the plotline, and so we were both really proud of ourselves. Then we took a micro part of the way home and walked the rest. When we got to Sally’s house, we made ourselves dinner, and then went up to her room and danced to YouTube zumba videos for exercise. Then I showered, we talked for a while longer, and I went to sleep. I’d like to mention that the entire time I was with Sally today we spoke in Spanish to each other. It was really cool to realize that speaking in Spanish doesn’t take anything away from the conversations we can have, and it’s actually really good practice. We decided from now on we are going to speak Spanish as much as we can.

Friday, December 13


Katie and I woke up around 3 in the afternoon and went downstairs and had breakfast/lunch of pasta. Berni, Katie’s sister ate with us and we told her all about the Patagonia trip and everything. She is really nice and I would be excited to live in Katie’s house and get to hang out with someone basically my age. After lunch we went upstairs and basically did nothing for 3 hours. Katie was still really tired, so she was in a bad mood. We watched some videos on YouTube (Hola Soy German which is the Spanish version of Jenna Marbles), and I did some exercises because I was really bored and looking for ways to entertain myself. Then around 7 Katie’s mom came home and was able to take us over to Sally’s house. We sat around in Sally’s room for a while and laughed and played the ukulele and looked at the pictures of the Patagonia trip that were on Facebook. Then we went down and ate dinner. A while after dinner, Katie Hagemeier came over and we all chilled up the Sally’s room showing each other pictures of our friends and lives from the US. We went to bed around 1 because Katie and I were still super tired and we all had to get up early the next morning.

Thursday, December 12


Today I woke up around 10, showered, packed up all my stuff to leave Talca, ate a quick breakfast with the family, and then my grandma, Laurie, and Monse took a micro with me to the bus station. I bought a bus ticket with their help (even though I didn’t really need it, it was nice to be completely sure I was doing things right since this was my first time taking the bus alone and taking the bus from Talca to Rancagua). We loaded my suitcase onto the bus and I thanked my grandma for everything and said goodbye. I got on the bus and made a few calls to schedule plans with my friends until I realized that I was the only one talking loudly in English on the bus and that I should probably stop. Then a little while later, one of the attendants on the bus came over and started talking to me. He was a very socially awkward person, but I kind of like talking to that kind of people because I get to practice my Spanish more and take more chances because I don’t feel embarrassed if I make mistakes. He literally didn’t leave me alone the whole two hour bus ride, and then when I got off in Rancagua he gave me his number. That was not the end of the awkward flirting for the day though because the bus dropped me off along the highway outside Rancagua and my mom couldn’t come pick me up, so I had to walk to the house dragging my suitcase and wearing my short shorts. It was literally comical how many honks I got along the highway, and I was just cracking up laughing the whole way home. When I got back to my house I was surprised to find my mom there because I thought she would be in Santiago with Eric. She let me in and I unpacked my suitcase and then repacked it with the clothes I would need for the next 3 days. Then Katie Ward came over and we went in collectivo over to the Techo Para Chile office in the middle of town so that I could pay for the community service trip I am going on in January. Then we went to the Jumbo to buy supplies to bake cookies, and back to my house to get my suitcase. We went back to the Jumbo and ate ice cream at this super yummy and fancy ice cream shop.
Then we caught a micro over to Katie’s house (super awkward carrying a suitcase in a micro) and chilled in her house for a little while. I took a shower, did my hair, and got ready for the party we were going to that night. Then we went downstairs and talked to her mom for a while. I really like her mom and her whole family, but it’s always a little weird with them because I will probably be moving into their house sometime during my exchange. After a while, her mom took us over to our friend and Katie’s cousin Mery’s house. With Mery, we baked sugar cookies topped with manjar and we told her all about our trip to Patagonia.
Then we changed clothes and Mery’s brother drove us over to the school. From the school, we were all (most of the people from Katie’s class, and a few from B and A (A is mine)) planning on taking the bus to the party because it was in Donihuae, which is about 40 minutes away and in the countryside. We packed about 20 people into this tiny white van, and traveled the 40 minute singing and screaming in Spanish and it was downright insane. We actually stopped at a supermarket along the way so my underage friends could buy alcohol. Then we finally got to the party, and to get the drinking started everyone played never have I ever. Then we got bored of that, and Katie and I sat with a few girls who absolutely love speaking English (and even more when they’re drunk), and played a game where every time they spoke in Spanish or we spoke in English they had to take a drink. The night was really fun—we danced a lot, I talked to a lot of people from my school that I’d never talked to before, and watching the drunken people stumble around (and fall in the nearby pool) was really hilarious. I met some of Katie’s friends from another school, and we had this huge joke that one of them wanted to marry me. He even got down on one knee and gave me a ring made out of a bent stick. They kept yelling at me to kiss him, but I don’t even want to think about the awkwardness that would follow me around forever if I kissed someone in front of my classmates. Speaking of awkwardness, Juandi, that dude whom I went to the movies with like 3 months ago, was at the party. After we went to the movies, people bugged us so much that we kind of stopped talking to each other and he was actually sort of mean to me. Then a few days before the party he sent me a message saying he was sorry and he wanted to be friends again before he leaves for his 3 month exchange in the US. He was the one who invited me to this party. Anyway, he was super drunk, and came up to me (with backup from his friends in his class) and asked me (in English because drunk people basically only talk to me in English) to give him a kiss. It was so awkward because I thought we were already passed all this. I laughed and played it off like he was joking. Anyway, the party was fun until about 5 am, but when the bus didn’t come until 7, I was definitely ready to go home and sleep a while.
We all got back on the bus at 7 and basically all slept on top of each other the whole 40 minute ride back to school. Then Katie and I had to walk over to catch a micro that would take us to her house.
We got home around 8, explained to her mom why were home so late, and then went up to her room and crashed.  

Wednesday, December 11


Today I woke up really late after being so tired the day before, and it was way too hot outside to run, so I just got dressed and ate a late breakfast with the family before sitting outside and reading my book for about 2 hours. By the time I realized I was getting sunburned it was too late. Both my arms are absolutely bright red. The hole in the atmosphere is in the southern hemisphere, so I guess the sun is a whole lot stronger here than back home. Anyway I was bright red and peeling for the next week. I went back inside when they called me for lunch, and we ate all together. Then, Monse and Laurie asked me to help them fill up water balloons. I didn’t think it was going to work out, but filling up a few water balloons turned into this huge water war that lasted about 3 hours. Joaquin and Maxi joined in and we all put on our bathing suits and used water balloons, the hose, and kitchen pots filled with water to absolutely drench each other in the tiny front yard of my grandparents’ house. It was super awkward because Maxi’s friends from Talca whom I met months ago and hadn’t seen since passed by the house and I had to greet them with kisses on the cheek while I was in nothing but my bathing suit. Anyway, after we got tired, I changed into running clothes and went for a run. Then Maxi made pizza for dinner and we all ate together. Later, I helped my grandma make a Kuchen de Manzana. She made it one time when she was at our house in Rancagua and I absolutely fell in love with the thing, so she wanted to teach me the recipe. While it was cooking, we all walked over to the plaza nearby and played on the equipment for a little while. Then we went back and I was so tired that I couldn’t even stay awake for the nightly game of hide and go seek. I think I’m so tired lately because I didn’t sleep at all in Patagonia and now I’m recovering.

Tuesday, December 10


Today I woke up late again, but I was still really tired all day like I never actually woke up. I put on my makeup and got ready to go to the center of town like they had said we would, but then while we were eating breakfast they told me we wouldn’t actually be going for a while longer, so I changed clothes again and went for a run although it was really hot outside. Then I showered and redid my makeup. Then after lunch, Monse, Laurie, Vicente, and I went back to that little park nearby and played some stupid games that didn’t involve running because my hip was absolutely killing me and I have no idea why. After a few hours we got tired of the hot sun and decided to go back to the house to rest. As soon as we walked through the door, our grandpa told us to get ready to walk into the center of town. We were already pretty tired and it was like boiling hot outside, but we got ready and walked the 15 minutes through neighborhoods to get to the town center (our grandparents don’t own a car, so they get everywhere either by walking or by public transportation). We walked around for a while and it was fun to see all the people and all the shops on either side of the main street, but everyone was really too hot to have a very good time, so after a while, we turned into a little ice cream store and had big cones of ice cream to relax and escape the heat.
After we finished, we walked home while Maxi and I listened to the O’Higgins vs. Catolica (they are regional soccer teams in Chile who were competing in the championship) game over the radio. O’Higgins, the team from Rancagua, ended up winning the whole championship, and my Facebook feed was absolutely blown up with celebratory statuses. When we got home everyone was exhausted from the heat, so we all went off to do solitary activities and rest. I read my book (Allegiant—the third book in a series called Divergent that I was absolutely obsessed with and had completely forgotten about since coming to Chile) for a long time before we all ate a light dinner. Us kids waited until the grandparents had gone to sleep, and then we played a super intense game of hide and go seek in the dark house. It was really fun and we probably spent like an hour playing before we got tired. Maxi and I stayed up a little longer to watch the final presidential debate (there was a first election with 9 different candidates, and now there is a second election with only the two candidate who received the highest number of votes—Michelle Bachelet from the left and Evelyn Matthei from the right).

Monday, December 9


Today we woke up late again. Nancy and Eric left for Rancagua, and Maxi, Monse, me, and our cousins Joaquin, Laurie, and Vicente stayed with our grandparents. I went for a run for the first time in way too long, and then showered and got ready. We ate breakfast around 12 and then Laurie, Monse, and I went outside to jump rope for a while.
I was pleasantly surprised that I remembered all my tricks for elementary school, and we spent about 2 hours outside while I taught them all the cool things I knew. Then we were called in for lunch, and after lunch Monse, Laurie, Vicente, and our grandpa walked over to a little park nearby. We played dodge ball, hide and seek, and hunted for rollie pollies.
Then when we walked home, there was company in the house—our cousin Pedro was playing video games with Maxi and Joaquin in the living room. I was tired from playing with little kids for so long, so I sat with them for a while and caught up on all the blog entries that I had missed during the Rotary trip. Then Monse, Laurie, Vicente and I went outside to jump rope for a while longer and play hide and seek in the dark. By then it was actually pretty late, so we ate dinner and I read my book for a little while before going to sleep.

Sunday, December 8


We all woke up super late this morning and ate breakfast together. It was a pretty lazy day—we ate a late lunch and basically just played games with the kids until the late afternoon. Then we all piled into the car and went to this fair next to the big river in Talca.
We walked around for a while, ate churros, and toured the aisles of different vendors. We tried a bunch of really weird foods, and laughed a lot.
Then, on the way home, we stopped at this hot dog restaurant called Donde Alex, which is apparently like the most famous restaurant in all of Talca. They all freaked out that I had the same name, and we took a bunch of pictures of me with the sign.
Then we got hot dogs (a chicken one for me) and honestly they were really good. Then we went home and all watched Despicable Me 2 together before going to sleep.

Saturday, December 7


Today I woke up around 10 and took a shower, and then spent a super long time unpacking all my suitcases and organizing my new souvenirs and things. As I was finishing up, Eric came home and informed me that we were leaving in half an hour to go stay in Talca for a week with my grandparents and that  I should pack my bag. I had literally been home for less than 12 hours, and I was not too happy with the last minute notice or the possibility of not being able to see my friends for another week. I was pretty angry, but I packed up and we got in the car (our family plus my 3 cousins Vicente (13), Joaquin (9), and Laura (8)) and drove the two hours to our grandparent’s house in Talca. When we arrived, there were already about 20 people in the house getting ready to go to the baptism of one of our cousins, Augustin (1). We ate a quick lunch and then changed into formal clothes and got ready to leave. We all piled on this big bus that they had rented to go to the church. We ended up arriving like 20 minutes late, so when we walked in the baptism was almost over. This was the first Catholic baptism I had ever seen, but I don’t think it really counts because I only saw the last 5 minutes of it. After it finished, we went outside and I greeted a bunch of people that I hadn’t seen since we went to the country for the week of September 18.
It was nice finally meeting family members for the second time instead of always having to be introduced and meeting only new people all the time. Now at least they were somewhat familiar. We went in the bus over to a big house nearby that they had rented out as a party room. We sat at big tables and ate a long dinner.
I sat with Maxi, Pedro, and Javi (cousins). Then after dinner, we went and talked to the other young people whom I had met in the country—Nacho, Miguel Esteban, George, Matias, Octavio, Marinka. Later, I was super tired and Javi and I were feeling antisocial, so we went upstairs and talked for a while. I really like her and I feel like she and I think the same way and have had a lot of the same experiences in our lives (she told me about how she used to be bullied). I would feel comfortable telling her anything and I would trust her advice no matter what. After a while, Nacho and Octavio came upstairs to tell us to stop being lame and come dance.
We went downstairs and danced with them for a while, and then we went over to the bar with all the other young people and talked for a while. They are always so nice to me and seem genuinely interested in getting to know me (and it’s sad but true that the drunker they get the more they talk to me). After a while Nacho and I went back and danced some more, and then around 4:30, Eric came to find me and tell me that we were leaving. I went around and said goodbye to everyone, and I genuinely hope that I’ll get to hang out with all the cousins again this summer in the country. We rode back to our grandparents house in the trunk of the car because there wasn’t enough space for everyone, and then as soon as we got home I got into bed (the bed I was sharing with Monse and Laura) and went right to sleep.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Friday, December 6


 
 
Today we were allowed to wake up a little later, and we had to be down eating breakfast by 8. Around 8:30, we walked to a nearby supermarket and each of us had to buy a present for the people at the old folks home that we were going to visit. Then we went back to the hotel and changed into our blue rotary polo shirts and went to the home. We were supposed to make conversation with the old people, but there were only a few brave enough (and who spoke enough Spanish) to actually talk to them. I found a guy and sat down to talk to him, and a few of my German friends came and stood by me and listened to our conversation without really adding much except speaking German when I asked them to show him what it sounded like. He was really a pretty weird guy—he mumbled instead of speaking, which made it almost impossible for me to understand him, and although I was speaking clearly and loudly with as good of an accent as I could manage, he didn’t really seem to understand much of what I was saying either (I asked him what his favorite Christmas carol was and he responded with “September 18”). We left after about an hour, and went back to the hotel to load up our suitcases. We had about 45 minutes of free time before lunch, so Katie Hagemeier and I ran around the town looking for a post office to mail our Patagonia postcards and get them postmarked from there.
We were pretty proud of ourselves when we found it and got them mailed. We went to that same restaurant that we had been to the night before and ate our last lunch together. Then we got on the bus and began the 3 hour drive back to Punta Arenas and the airport. During the bus ride, each person had to get up and speak in the microphone a little about the trip (in Spanish). It was super sweet hearing everybody say how much fun they’d had and how we were now a family of exchange students and we’d never break apart. I realized how much I really love all these kids and how happy I am to be sharing this experience with them. It was also shocking to hear them speak in Spanish. We spoke English together all the time, and for many of them it was the first time I’d heard them speak. I was really surprised. None of them spoke very much at all and some of them spoke literally almost zero. I don’t want this to sound bad but it made me really happy with how my Spanish is coming along.
 
Anyway, we got to the airport and checked bags, ate the sack dinners they had provided us with, went through security, and got on the plane. During the first plane ride—2 hours to Puerto Montt—I talked to my friends sitting near me and then we got up and talked with everyone else. I felt bad for the other people on the plane who had to deal with a rowdy group of foreign teenagers. Then on the second plane—1.5 hours to Santiago—I was incredibly tired so I just slept. We got off the plane at around 1 am, and then we got our suitcases, hugged and said goodbye to all our friends, and the Rancagua kids got back on the bus that would take us to the terminal in Rancagua. Katie, Sally, and I all huddled up together and slept on the bus. When we got back to the terminal and I saw Nancy waiting I was actually really happy to be back with my family. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed them. Maxi was also in the car. We drove home and I was pleasantly surprised to find the house all decorated for Christmas. Although it was 3 am and I was super tired, we sat around the kitchen table for a little while and I told them about the trip. It was also really nice to be able to speak Spanish again after a week of almost nothing but English. Around 4, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I decided to call it a night.

Thursday, December 5


Today we woke up early and had breakfast in the hotel before getting on the bus. We were all waiting on the bus but we couldn’t leave until everyone was on it and there were 3 people missing. They were the same Germans that had been late the last time. The counselors went up to one of the dude’s rooms and knocked and yelled and finally busted in with the master key, but he wasn’t there. Turns out he had slept in the other two’s room because they had been up late drinking and smoking. When the counselors opened up the room they were literally still sleeping and the counselors gave them less than a minute to put on warm clothes and get to the bus. Once they were on the bus the counselors made an announcement that those three would not be allowed on any other rotary trips. I guess they were really serious about making it clear that we had to respect the rules. When we got to the pier, we got on another boat. This one was super nice with tables and booth seats and everything. While we drove the 3 hours out to Parque Nacional Bernardo O’Higgins, Katie Ward and I taught some friends how to play the card game Mao. It passed the time super fast. Then we got off the boat and went on a hike around a lake that was formed by a glacier and up to the actual glacier.
We took a ton of pictures, and then hiked back to the boat. While on the hike, this guy went down to the water and picked out a piece of ice and we all took turns licking it and getting excited about the taste of authentic glacier ice. Then when we got back on the boat they served us juice (the tradition is to serve whiskey but we’re under age so juice) with glacier ice.
It was way colder than normal ice would have made it, and the glacier ice refused to melt for a really long time. It was really cool. Then the boat docked on another little island where we all got off to eat lunch. We ate cordero (sheep) which is a typical delicacy in the south. I was brave enough to try a piece even though I’m a vegetarian, and that is more than can be said about a lot of my friends. They were total chickens and didn’t even try the typical food of the south while they were in the south! After lunch we went outside and took some group pictures, and then rode the boat back to the main dock again.
We got back to the hotel and most people went to take naps, but a few of us went out souvenir shopping. I bought t-shirts for me and my parents at home, souvenirs for everybody in my family here, and postcards with pictures of all the places we’d gone. Then we went back to the hotel and went to dinner at the same restaurant we had gone to before. This was our last night, so the counselors had put together this super cute PowerPoint of picture from the trip and gave a great speech. I really liked this one line that they said—“if everyone in the world had the chance to be an exchange student, there would be no more wars because now that you all have real life personal connections in all these countries, you will never want to drop bombs on them for fear of killing your friends.” That is totally true. Meeting people from all these countries and seeing how similar they are and how amazing they are has really opened my eyes to the rest of the world. After dinner, we were all going to go to a nightclub (rotary approved) to dance, but the nightclub said we couldn’t come in because we were under aged, so we ended up going back to the same restaurant where we always eat, pushing the tables to the side, plugging my iPod into the speakers, and dancing there. It was super obvious who had gotten drunk in the hotel before coming to the restaurant, and a surprising number of people had. They walked around unsteadily and danced way too sexually and two people even made out even though the counselors were all standing right there watching. I had a lot of fun dancing and watching the drunken people make fools of themselves. A couple of Germans did this amazingly fun looking spinning dance called Disco Fox or something in German that sounds like that and then I begged them to teach me. It was a lot harder than they made it look but I had fun trying. Around 2 we had to leave, so we went back to the hotel and sat in the hallway talking for about two seconds until the counselors came up and screamed at us for being awake and made us go to our rooms immediately. They obviously knew a lot of us had been drinking and I’m sure they were pretty pissed, but they never actually punished anyone for it.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Wednesday, December 4


Today we woke up early and ate a big breakfast in the hotel. Then we took the bus over to this forest. We walked through the forest to a beach and we all got on a big boat.
We traveled on the boat for about an hour while I plugged my iPod into the speakers and we jammed out to super old music from our childhood like the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys. It was pretty cool to learn that the German and French kids watched the same kids TV shows and listened to the same music when they were little. I felt really connected with them when we were singing those old songs. After about an hour we all braved the freezing cold and wind to go outside and look around.
We were at Glacier Grey, a famous glacier. It was this amazing blue color that I can’t describe, and it was absolutely massive. We went around it a few times and took about a million pictures. Then on the way back, we were all hanging out on the top deck and people from each different country sang their national anthem and we had a competition to see who could sing theirs more loudly and proudly. The Germans won by a lot.
When we got back we hiked back through the forest and got back to the bus to go to a restaurant nearby for a pretty lunch surrounded by snowcapped mountains. Then we left the park and got back on the bus to return to Punto Natales. When we got back we left our stuff in the same hotel we were in before and then went to walk around the town some more. We stopped in this adorable little chocolate café and I drank a coffee and bought a chocolate bar for Nancy’s birthday (which was today). We went back to the hotel and some of us changed into shorts and sports bras (or boxers for the guys) and went down to the beach outside the hotel. We were all shivering in the cold and wind but we wanted to go swimming in the almost Antarctic waters just to say we had done it. We all met at the beach, left our towels on the shore, and ran together screaming into the water. We all dunked our heads before running back out. We did this three times until our whole bodies were red from the cold and there was a crowd of random people watching us. Then we went back to the hotel and Katie and I left our clothes on and jumped together into the arm shower just to stop shivering! Then after we showered and got dressed, the whole group walked to a local place to get dinner. When they served us dinner I was disappointed because it was steak and French fries. I asked them if there was another option for vegetarians, and after looking very put out, they agreed to make me spaghetti. I waited a long time and they finally brought out this spaghetti. After one bite I almost had to spit it out because it was so salty. I decided I would just eat cereal in the hotel later, but then the counselor walked by and asked me why I wasn’t eating after I’d caused such a stink about wanting something else (which I hadn’t I had only asked nicely). I told her it was salty and she looked angry with my pickiness until I told her to try it. She took one bite and apologized to me immediately and sent it back to the kitchen. Finally, after everyone else had already been done eating for a while, they brought me a salad and I ate gratefully. Then, a few of the exchange students got up on the stage (it was like a little mom and pop restaurant and we were the only ones there) and started dancing. One of them came over to my table and tried to get me to come up and dance. I said no and when he tried to drag me I held onto my chair. Then he and another guy literally picked up me and my chair and carried me to the stage and made me dance.
We danced the cha-cha slide, and cotton eyed Joe, and the Macarena in front of everyone. Then we went back to the hotel and got out our flags (I bought a Patagonia flag) and trading pins and everyone went around and traded pins for their blazers and signed people’s flags. We were down in the lobby till 1 singing and having a good time. I had so many great memories with these people that I could probably write each one a novel on their flag which is crazy considering how short of a time I’ve known them!

Tuesday, December 3


Today we had to wake up at 6:30 and eat breakfast and be packed and ready to leave by 7:30. We drove to Cueva del Milodon, which is a giant cave where they discovered the remains of a giant sloth.
It was pretty cool to walk around there. Then we got back on the bus and drove to this little tiny town to stop at the bathroom. It was super windy and there was a big field nearby, so we all got our flags out and started taking pictures with them. Running around in the strong wind was the coolest feeling ever. We climbed over this little meter high gate to get more into the flied and take better pictures. After a while the counselors came and got us and told us to get back on the bus. Then they told us that that little gate we had so carelessly climbed over was the border between Chile and Argentina and that we had just entered Argentina illegally!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We continued driving until we entered Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Then we went around and the bus stopped in front of different beautiful and breathtaking locations and we got out to take 981623487231985 pictures at each one.
Then we went to eat lunch on this little island surrounded by a beautiful deep turquoise colored lake and snowcapped mountains (and los Torres del Paine).
After lunch we got back on the bus, but a few of the German kids were missing. They showed up after about 20 minutes of waiting, but the counselors were incredibly pissed. They told us that as a punishment none of us would be able to leave the hotel that night. Immediately, the German kids in the back of the bus and the English speaking kids in the front formed two separate groups. The English kids were pissed at the Germans for getting them all punished, and the Germans just thought the punishment was stupid and unfair and were mad at the English kids for blaming it all on them. I spent half the time with the English kids and then I started feeling really weird about this whole divided thing and so I went over to the German kids to talk to them and let them know that I wasn’t choosing sides. There had always been a little tension because all the English speaking kids felt like the Germans had this clique where they got together and spoke German and excluded those who couldn’t speak it (which by the way has showed my exactly how people feel when Katie and I speak English together and I have learned not to do that anymore because it’s really not a good feeling). Now that tension boiled over and I was a little worried World War III was about to start (sorry that was an inappropriate joke but I had to). I think the counselors saw it too, and so when we got to the hotel they said that we wouldn’t be rooming with our normal roommates, and they would assign us partners. I was assigned with Cassidy, a girl from Idaho whom I get along with really well, so I was happy. We dumped our stuff in the room and then went back to the lobby. The counselors called us all together and said they had an announcement. They made the 3 German boys who had been late come up and apologize in front of everyone and then they said that we would be allowed to go out with the supervision of the counselors. It wasn’t like there was a whole lot to see since we were staying inside the national park, but some of us went out and watched the boys strip down to their boxers and go swimming in the freezing cold lake water. Then about 10 of us decided to go up into the mountains for a hike. It was raining and freezing cold and muddy, but it was a great bonding experience with them and an even greater view at the top of the hill.
We went back to the hotel and changed into dry clothes for dinner where I had a great conversation about American politics with a boy from Illinois and a girl from Alaska. After dinner, all the exchange students sat in a big circle on couches and on the floor in the lobby and played a big game of never have I ever. It was the funniest and craziest thing I’ve ever seen, and everyone was shockingly honest and graphic about their stories. (The nerdiest girl there shared the story of how she lost her virginity on a golf cart) We were all very shocked and we didn’t stop laughing until 1 in the morning. I would say this was the turning point in the trip where everyone changed from being acquaintances to being actual close friends who could laugh and joke about any subject. Cassidy and I sat in our room and had a long conversation about how pissed we were that we were gaining weight on exchange (and I really am I’ve probably gained like 5 pounds although I don’t have a scale to be sure) before going to sleep.

Monday, December 2


We had to wake up early in the morning and be down in the lobby eating breakfast by 6:30. We got on the bus around 7:15 and took a tour of Punta Arenas to see the famous sights.
We went to the famous statue of El Obejero and kissed the foot of the statue in the plaza (good luck tradition that means you will come back to Punta Arenas again in your life).
Then we went to this super cheap mall where there was no sales tax and they turned us loose for a few hours to buy things (although they only sold TVs and perfume and things like that, so I didn’t want to buy anything and just hung out and talked to people). I should probably mention now that throughout the whole trip we basically just talked and laughed amongst ourselves. There were 43 people on the trip, so there was always someone new to meet and talk to, and everyone got along really well with everyone else, so we all talked and had a great time together. There wasn’t a single group that I didn’t feel comfortable going up and talking to. After the mall we got back on the bus and started the 3 hour trip to Punto Natales, another city. I sat with a German girl named Lily on the bus, and she was so amazingly nice. We didn’t know each other before but we really hit it off and she became one of my very best friends on the trip. About halfway through the trip, we stopped the bus on the side of the road and they gave us giant sandwiches to eat for lunch. Then we were off again, but now we had more energy, so we invited people up to the front of the bus to sing songs into the microphone, and after a while we plugged my phone into the speakers and had a dance party in the aisles of the bus. When we finally got to the hotel, we dumped our stuff in the rooms and then went to walk around the town. We ended up running into a few AFS exchange students who were living there and they gave us a tour of the town.
I was coming out of a store and putting on my gloves when I dropped my camera and the lens started refusing to close. I was really sad not to have a camera for the rest of the trip but I just used other peoples’ and I’ll steal their memory cards later. After we got back to the hotel, we ate dinner there and talked for a while. The time flew by, and when I looked at the clock to see that it was 10:30, I was shocked that it was still light outside. That far south in the world the sun doesn’t set until like 11:30!! After dinner, I went up to Katie and my room, showered, chilled for a while, and then went to sleep.

Sunday, December 1


We got off the plane in Punta Arenas at 5 in the morning without having slept at all. When I turned on my phone after landing, I received a nasty message from my host mom saying that she felt as if I was “treating their family like they were nothing but a hotel to me”. I was really angry and super confused and sad because I make such a huge effort to be a part of their family and it’s me who feels like they don’t want me. I just tried to put it out of my head and enjoy the trip and figured that I would talk to them when I got home. Anyway, we got our luggage together and stepped out of the airport and experienced our first taste of Patagonia summer.
It is freezing cold with a wind so powerful it whips your hair around so you can’t see anything, steals your hat, and almost knocks you off your feet. We got into this big tour bus and drove for like 15 minutes before we stopped by the side of this road where there was only a tiny dock and two boats in sight. Our counselors asked us if we were hungry, which we were, and they passed out our “breakfast” of one tiny packet of cookies for each person. People were pretty pissed off because we had paid a lot for the trip and we didn’t want all the meals to be like that. After eating, we all wanted to change into warmer clothes before going on the boats, so we took the suitcases out from under the bus and changed clothes right there on the side of the highway. Then we got on the little zodiac boats (I got in the littler one with 9 other people) and began the 45 minute ride to Isla Magdalena, which is a wildlife preserve for penguins.
The Strait of Magellan was super strong and rough, so the boat was rocking back and forth a ton, but I had a great time. We walked around the island and took pictures with the penguins for about an hour, and then we got back on the boat and went to Isla Marta, which is a preserve for sea lions. We didn’t get off the boat there, we just navigated around it. Then we started the ride back, but by that time I really had to go to the bathroom. I ended up having to endure an hour ride back in a tiny boat bouncing up and down over huge waves. I almost died but I finally made it back to shore and to the bathroom on the other boat.
After that we got back on the bus and drove to the hotel. We chose roommates (I was with Katie Ward), and then we had some free time before lunch to explore the city. We went down to the little vendors that were outside the hotel and we stumbled upon a military parade walking past the town hall that they hold every Sunday apparently. While we were looking in the little stalls, this man came up and started talking to us. He was a little creepy, but a few people stayed and talked to him. While I was buying this amazingly soft lama sweater from a vendor, he warned me to tell my friends to stop talking to the guy because he was a known sexual predator. I was pretty freaked out and quickly got my friends away from him. Then we went back to the hotel and met up with the group to walk down to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. We spent about 3 hours waiting for the food and then eating. Then we went back to the hotel and formed groups of 10 to go walk around the city. I ended up with a bunch of German people that I didn’t really know but that were super nice. We walked to find a grocery store and buy cereal, and then we walked down to the beach to relax. We laughed a lot and I tried out my multitude of German phrases (I know about 2…) on them.
Then we went back to the hotel and the counselors told us we could chill in our rooms until dinner time. It was like 6, and Katie H, Sally, and I decided we wanted to take a quick nap, so I went up to their room and we went to sleep. I set an alarm for 6:30 but we didn’t end up waking up until 8! I hate naps because they always make me more tired than I was before, but at least we didn’t sleep through dinner. We went down to the lobby bad I sat down for dinner at a table with the French guys. It’s really weird because the Germans and everyone for English speaking countries (USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) speak English together, but with the French we have to speak Spanish. I was kind of OK with it though because I felt guilty for speaking so much English and also they’re super hilarious to be around. After dinner, a group of us went back out to walk around the city by night, and we dipped our hands in the freezing cold water in the Strait of Magellan. Then we went back to the hotel and I brought Sally the cake and candles that I had packed in my suitcase to celebrate her birthday.
She was really surprised and adorable and I'm glad she got to spend her birthday among the penguins in Patagonia. Then I called Nancy because I was still really freaked out by that message she sent me. I talked to her and told her how hard I was trying and that for her to flat out say to me that  I was treating the family like a hotel was rude and uncalled for and honestly I was kind of pissed. She apologized and said that we both probably needed to try harder, so I agreed and I guess the problem is more or less solved for now. After we hung up  I called Maxi and apologized to him for not making that big of an effort to be friends with him (we really don’t get along very well) and told him that although there is no way I can be how Cristobal was for him, I would try harder. He also apologized for being mean and snappy with me and said he would try too. I went to sleep feeling a little better about my whole family debacle.