Friday, April 11

Today at school was nothing incredibly interesting. The only thing I have to report is that driving to school with Manuel in the mornings is a really nice time. I like being in the car alone with a parent. I remember that conversations in the car were always the best with my mom, and they’re nice with Manuel too because we’re talking one on one, and so I can say whatever and not feel weird saying it in front of siblings. He’s really adorable because he always tries to impart little bits of life wisdom in the conversations, like a good daddy. Anyway, after school I got home and finally actually unpacked all the crap that was on my floor or still in my suitcases. This room is bigger but there is less space to put things, so I definitely had to be creative, but it all worked out anyway. I unpacked all this stuff while I was skyping with Kathryn. Then around 4:30, I went outside to the big street nearby to get a collectivo to the movie theater. It’s pretty far away and I had to change collectivos once but I made it there without any problems. Katie Ward met me there and we saw Rio 2 in 3D. It honestly was a pretty boring movie, so we sat on the side of the theater and talked during it. She was telling me about how it had been to say goodbye to her real parents for a second time. As we were leaving the theater after the movie, Nancy called me. She told me that one of her good friends (whom I had actually met at my cousin Laurie’s birthday party a few weeks ago) had been raped last night right down the street from Katie Ward’s house. There is a serial rapist loose in Machali (the town next to Rancagua where Katie lives), and she was just calling to let me know and to tell me to be careful. It actually scared me a lot thinking about that, but I was comforted in knowing that at least I don’t walk around alone at night and I have my pepper spray (which by the way is not sold in Chile). I walked across the street to Papa John’s, where I met up with Nice, Vicente (Fernanda’s boyfriend), Pablo, and their friend Dani. We all sat down and ordered a big pizza. It was the first time I’d hung out with their group of friends, and I had an absolutely fantastic time. I think I’ve mentioned before that the Chilean sense of humor is very different from ours, and that I don’t really like it. However, these guys definitely have the gringo sense of humor. We spent about 3 hours sitting there eating pizza and laughing until our stomachs hurt. I really want to spend more time with them. Around 11, I decided I need to go catch a collectivo back to my house. Lilian and Manuel were at a birthday party, and although they had offered to come get me, I didn’t want to be a burden on them and I wanted to let them know that they could trust me to do things on my own, so I offered to get myself home alone. It was a little sketchy waiting for a collectivo in the dark with the knowledge of the rapist, but my friends waited with me. I got home around 11:30, packed up my stuff for our Rotary trip to Valparaiso tomorrow, and went to sleep around 1.