Wednesday, September 11

Today was the English accumulative test at school. When I walked into class, I suddenly felt really popular. Everyone wanted me to answer questions about English grammar, and everyone wanted to sit near me during the test. I let them, and during the test I did my best to let everyone around me see my paper (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but here literally everyone cheats. They are horrible! They have little papers with all the answers, they take pictures of the tests, they write on the desks or on their hands, all kinds of creative methods. I always find it hilarious to watch them preparing before a test). The English test was super weird. Like I understood most of it, but there were some where two of the answers sounded equally correct in the context and others where the sentences were actually grammatically wrong. But in my first Rotary orientation, they advised us never to correct the teachers on their English, so I kept my mouth shut and took the test. I never actually got my grade back, so I don’t know how well I speak English hahaha. After school, we have art until 4:30. Katie and I decided to go to choir today instead of art because they were reviewing how to dance Cueca, and we wanted to learn. It was incredibly awkward because the teacher invited me up in front of the whole class to teach me how to dance. I had to dance with him alone while everyone watched. To make things worse, the zipper on my skirt is broken and it was down the whole time! So fricken embarrassing!!! But I just smiled and laughed at myself and made the best of the awkward situation. After that, the teacher put on some music and said that anyone who wanted to could dance. My friend Fernanda’s boyfriend Vicente invited me to dance so I could practice. I don’t think the practice helped because after the class I was still pretty terrible, but at least I had a little fun making a fool of myself. After school, Lila, Angulo, a few of their friends, and I walked over to the music store nearby. They all had music lessons, and I went with them to ask about how I could join the orchestra. They told me I just had to show up for the next rehearsal on September 28. My mom picked me up from there, and when I got home I ate a quick dinner and then went for a run. After I got back, I showered and then Nancy tried to teach me how to dance Cueca. We danced a few times and looked at some videos on YouTube, and I got a little better, but not much. I think it’s time for me to accept the fact that I am simply not a dancer. I drank some tea, and then went to sleep. Oh I almost forgot to mention that today was September 11. Obviously today is a very important day in the US, but it was also an important day in Chile. It was the 40 year anniversary of the military coup that killed communist president Allende and started the military dictatorship of Pinochet.