Monday, September 23

Today I woke up around 10 to find everyone already awake. Nacho arrived from Talca, and Seyla and my aunt were still here too. We all ate breakfast, and then I got ready. We all went out to the Jumbo to look at shoes for Seyla, since they are a lot cheaper here than in Argentina. Nacho, Maxi, and I got bored, so we walked around the mall area and looked in the stores. We had fun pretending that I couldn’t speak Spanish and having me try to ask workers in the stores things in English. After a few hours of looking, Seyla didn’t find anything, so we drove over to another mall in the center of town. She found shoes like right away, and then we went home to have lunch because we were all starving. Then, we sat around and talked for a while before Nacho, Seyla, and my aunt left for the bus station to take them to Santiago and then to take Seyla and my aunt back to Argentina.

At the same time they were leaving, Katie and her host brother came to pick me up and take me over to her house. Katie and I hung out in her room for a while, talked, and looked at her pictures on Facebook. It’s really fun to talk to Katie because I can actually talk as much as I want. In Spanish I’m usually pretty quiet because I have nothing to say. It was a nice break after speaking nothing but Spanish all week. Then, her parents called us downstairs to eat dinner with them. We talked for like an hour, and they were really nice to me. I think they were pretty impressed with my Spanish because I do speak more than Katie does. Going to Katie’s house was nice, but also a little awkward because supposedly Katie and I are supposed to switch families in the middle of the year (Rotary says that this is a better way to get a more well-rounded perspective of the culture). We don’t want to switch (because it would just be awkward and a hassle and we’re both happy) and we’re going to ask Rotary if we can stay, but still it was kind of like meeting my soon-to-be family for the first time, and it was weird. But if I had to switch, I think I would be happy there too because they seem very nice and welcoming and happy to have an exchange student in the house. When I got home, I showered, got ready for school the next day, and went to sleep.