Tuesday, April 29

Today we were allowed to come to school in normal clothes because we have an important ceremony tomorrow, so we had to wash our uniforms and make them look perfect. We had a lab in chemistry, and so I got to go see the laboratory, which I had never been in before.

Then after lunch we had a rehearsal for the ceremony. We were supposed to line up in the back of the gym and march in to the song Pomp and Circumstance, and then sit in our seats in the first rows. I liked the fact that we would enter to that song because it made me feel like I would have a little bit of the experience of a graduation, something I will miss in the US. After the rehearsal, we had art until 4:30. I rarely stay for art, and when I do stay I definitely don’t work. Today, I hung out with Rocio and Cote outside chatting about boys and parties and stuff like that. Then at 4:30, Cata, Pablo, and I walked over to Instituto O’Higgins to wait for Louis to go into the center. Pablo and I had been planning to go, and then I decided I want to set up Cata and Louis, so I invited them both to come too. He showed up eventually and we walked into the center to fix my phone (it’s a prepaid number, and after I put $20 in it still is telling me that I don’t have any money on it) and to buy Louis a phone case. We talked for a while, but it was a little awkward because Cata doesn’t speak English that much and Louis doesn’t speak Spanish hardly at all and Pablo and I were stuck speaking a mix of the two to help everyone understand. We wandered around the center talking and laughing until like 6:30 when we parted ways and I got into a collectivo to go home. I arrived home and Sally was already at my house drying her hair because she needed to borrow my straightener for an event she had at school the next day. I took a shower while she blew dry her hair, and then while I was drying my hair she straightened her and then I touched it up. Then she straightened mine for the ceremony I have tomorrow. I love Sally so much. We have the best conversations and she gives great advice and always makes me look at the bright side of things. I think she is probably the person here who is most like how I was before I went on exchange. We would have been friends even if we’d met in California (where we’re both from) and never gone to Chile together. She stayed over to eat once with the family and then went home in collectivo. From there, I talked to my parents for a little bit while Manuel cooked papayas, and then I went to sleep.