Monday, September 2

Today I was super tired at school because I got basically no sleep the whole weekend. But still it was a good day because we had math. Math is the only class here that I understand, and because it is material that I learned a while ago, it’s pretty easy for me. Everyone thinks I’m some sort of genius and always asks me for help. It’s a little challenging to explain math in Spanish, so I usually just show them my work, but either way it’s better than biology where I’m so completely lost it’s not funny. Before school, Nancy told me that she was going to Santiago and wouldn’t be able to pick me up after school. I told her it was no problem and I could take the city bus home. Maxi didn’t go to school today because he was sick, and Monse had to stay until 4:30, so I was on my own. When I walked out of school, I realized that it was raining. So I walked 10 minutes alone in the rain to the public bus stop. I was fully prepared to take the bus alone, but when I got there I found my friends Marianna and Stefano also waiting for the bus.

We got on together, and rode to the Jumbo. Then we parted ways, because they live on the other side of the Jumbo. I walked home (another 5 minutes) in the rain. When I got home I was soaking wet, but happy to have had such an adventure. When I got home, I wrote in my blog a little (sorry I’ve been really behind lately), and then Skyped for the first time with Melanie. After I talked to Mel, I Skyped with Ana and Emily. It was so nice to talk to them all again. Since I’ve been keeping everyone so well updated on what I’m doing through my blog, they basically just filled me in on all the drama that’s happened since I left. There’s been a lot! Talking to my friends was amazing, but it didn’t make me homesick or regret my choice to come here. On the contrary it made me remember that my friends and I are close enough to withstand a year apart. I know that when I come back we’ll be just as close as we were when I left. After we finished, I ate dinner with Monse and Maxi, and then Maxi and I watched Ted. Then I took a shower and Skyped with Cristobal while he and his host mom tried to cook Nancy’s recipe for raspberry pie. I helped them translate the ingredients from Spanish to English (polvos de hornear=baking powder in case you were wondering). Then I Skyped with my parents for a while. It was the first time I had talked to my dad, and we spoke in Spanish for a while. He seemed really impressed with how much I’d improved in a month, and I felt really proud of my progress. After we hung up, it was really late and I went immediately to sleep.