Saturday, May 17

Today I woke up late, and then chilled in my room for a little while before going down the street to catch a collectivo to Master Chef, a restaurant near the movie theater. I live really far away now, so I expected it to take about 45 minutes to get there in collectivo, and it only ended up taking 20, so I got to wait alone listening to music for a very long time before the rest of the exchange students showed up to eat lunch. Katie W, Katie H, Louis, Nigel, and Hugo (this super awesome French kid from Santiago) were there. We ate some nice American food, and started the ordeal of getting back to Louis’s house. First, we waited like half an hour for a micro to pass, then we accidentally got off of it too early, then we really didn’t know how to get where we wanted to go, so the boys and girls split up, and Katie, Katie, and I went one way and they went the other. We ended up losing the competition to get to Louis’s house first because we were cheap and decided to walk the whole way instead of taking the 2 collectivos we would have had to use, but at least we got some exercise. We got to Louis’s house and the guys were outside chilling in his backyard eating candy that Louis's mom had sent him from New Zealand.

We hung out there for a while just talking and laughing, and then we went inside to drink coffee because it had gotten pretty cold outside. The two Katies left around 7, and then the guys and I walked over to the Jumbo. I sat with them while they ate hot dogs, and then Thomas came to pick me up and take me to his house (he was going to take me to the big school party that was going on tonight). We went back to his house and had dinner with his family. They’re super sweet and welcoming with me, and every time his mom sees me, she tells me she’s going to send Thomas to my house in California so he will learn English. They even offered me a bed to sleep in tonight if I didn’t have a place to stay after the party. They’re literally the greatest family ever, and nothing is ever awkward with them. Anyway, around 10 we got dropped off at the party. I just kind of walked between groups talking to my friends, and laughing at Thomas while he got shit faced drunk, and then randomly, Cata showed up at the party with Nigel, Louis, and Hugo. They had planned on going to Bierfest, but decided they would rather come here and surprise me. It was really fun having them there and introducing them to my friends, even though I didn’t really spend the whole night with them. We all had a great time, and when Cata’s brother came to pick us up at 2:30, I still didn’t want to leave. We dropped the exchange students off at Louis’s house, and then Cata and I went to her house. We drank tea, and had a long, deep conversation about life and boys and saying goodbye, and it was really nice to have someone to talk to and just tell everything to. Around 4, we finally got tired and went up to her room to go to sleep.