Sunday, December 22

Today I woke up at Katie’s house around 11, and everyone else was still asleep, so when the shower water came out cold I had no one to ask for help and I ended up taking a cold shower and then just waiting around for Katie to wake up. I had plans to go to church with her family, but then my dad called me and told me my family was on their way to pick me up and take me on their annual Christmas tradition, which is a trip to a famous mall in Santiago, called Alto Las Condes. It was really nice to be in the car with them and have a nice long talk. I feel like I’ve been away from them way too much lately, and I kind of miss them. We drove to Santiago and then stopped at their favorite restaurant, called El Pollo Caballo to eat a huge lunch of chicken and French fries. Then we drove to the mall and started the incredibly long shopping trip. I helped Nancy find a few nice shirts as a Christmas present for her mom, and then Maxi and I went off and walked around the mall and looked around.

We spent a really long time in the bookstore reading books on how to learn a language quickly. I actually had a really great time with him and I finally feel like he wants to be my brother and we are getting along well. Before, I really didn’t like him because I could only see his bad qualities, but now I can easily look past those and see how awesome he really is. After a while we got tired and went to find Nancy, Eric, and Monse. Then, as a family, we walked to the food court and they had their first self serve ice cream.

It was the weirdest thing because they had all told me that I had never been to this mall before, but when we walked into the food court I realized that we came there on my first day in Chile after going to look at la Moneda (even before I saw Rancagua). It was such a weird feeling sitting in the same food court with the same family (minus Cristobal) 5 months later and thinking about how much has changed. I understand them when they talk now, I feel comfortable with them, I feel comfortable in Chile, and who I am as a person has changed a lot too. It was a pretty cool reminder that even though sometimes I feel lost and stupid and new, I really have accomplished a lot in these past 5 months. After the ice cream break, everyone except Nancy and I were tired, so we kept shopping around while they went to a store that sells massage chairs and lay around for a while. Around 9, we all left the mall and went home. The parents had bought the necessary Christmas presents for the kids (which they kept hidden in bags so we didn’t know what they were) and the annual tradition was accomplished. I was really tired and slept in the car on the way home. Then we stayed up for a while longer and watched TV together before I actually went to sleep.