Wednesday, September 4

Today was another average day at school. Today at school in PE (I have algebra); we received our grades from the test we took the week before. I received a 6.9 out of 7. It was the highest grade in the class by far. Everyone was really shocked that I got such a good grade, and now they all think I’m a crazy math genius. It makes me feel good to remember that I’m not always completely lost and stupid (which is basically how I appear when I try to speak and understand Spanish…), and although I was embarrassed that literally everyone in the school was talking about my good grade, I was also kind of proud. After school, we had art class from 3-4:30. Katie came to the class for the first time. Chilean independence day is September 18, and next Friday, September 13, the whole school has to come dressed in typical Chilean clothes and we are going to have a Chilean fiesta where we eat traditional Chilean food (empanadas) and dance a traditional Chilean dance (Cueca). Obviously, I have no idea how to dance Cueca, so my friends put on some Cueca music and tried to teach me during art. Needless to say it didn’t go well, but we laughed a lot and had a lot of fun. I feel like I’m finally actually making friends here.

 I don’t have to think up awkward questions that I really don’t even want to know the answers to just to have something to talk to people about anymore, and I don’t have to ask everyone to repeat what they said like 5 times. After school, I went home and went for a run. Then Monse and I made tea and set out cookies and had a tea party while we watched a movie and talked. After we finished, Nancy got home and I went into the kitchen to talk to her while she ate dinner. Maxi came in too. I don’t remember how this came up, but we started talking about how many continents there are in the world. I said there were 7. Maxi looked at me like I was crazy and said there were 5. We discovered that schools in Chile teach that North and South America are one continent, while schools in the US teach that they are two separate continents. I think it’s like the weirdest thing that something we take for granted to be obviously true can change from country to country. We’re so similar, but there are definitely differences, and learning those is the most interesting thing ever. I just hope that Maxi or whoever else I talk to about the differences between our countries is willing to keep an open mind and remember that neither is right or wrong, just different. Maxi was adamant that there were 5 countries and that the US was being ignorant and arrogant by saying that North and South America were separate. I guess he was partly right, but it still kind of hurt me that he wasn’t willing to see things from anyone’s point of view but his own. But I guess I have to remember that just because I came here to learn about another culture and open my mind doesn’t mean that everyone here wants to do the same. Either way it was a very interesting discovery and I can’t wait to find more differences like that.