Friday, July 4

Today Sally and I were supposed to wake up at 8 to be able to get to her school by 9:30 (we were missing he first class because they had an English test). Her alarm didn’t go off until 9, and we had to rush out the door.

We arrived at Colegio Quimahue at like 10:30, and entered in her classroom in the middle of history. Her school is about 1/5 the size of Instituto Ingles, and it is completely red (the floors, the doors, the walls, the railings, all red).

Her classroom was about half the size of mine and there were only 20 people in her class. There are only 40 people in her whole generation (in mine there are 110). I met all of her friends during the breaks, and they were really nice and made me feel very welcome. The guys, as all Chileans are, were very flirty, and whenever any of them would talk to me all of their friends would stare and whistle, but it was still fun. After school, Sally and I went with her friends Paula and Elena to eat sushi. We laughed a lot, and they were amazingly sweet with me and included me in their conversation. I think if I had been in Quimahue they would have been really good friends.

Sally told me that one of the main differences between her new school (which has a reputation for being for a poorer class of people) and her old school is that in her old school, her friends would buy everything for her, and in this school, her friends can’t even eat out at restaurants that often because they don’t have the money. I didn’t really notice any differences in the way the people behaved. My Instituto Ingles friends told me that at Quimahue I would be so afraid of the low class people who talked with bad words (like my friends don’t do that) and were reckless, but I actually found Quimahue’s kids just as welcoming and sweet as Ingles’ kids. But it’s true that the two schools wouldn’t have been friends. They are different types of people. I took a collectivo home after sushi, packed up a bag, and then Manuel took me into the center in the hunt of sparklers for the “4^th of July” party I was having tonight. We went to 3 different stores, but apparently they’re illegal here in Chile, so I had to show up to Pablo’s house with only my USA sunglasses, “American cut” potato chips, ingredients to make s’mores, goldfish that my mom sent me months ago and are now stale, and American flag key chains as presents for people. Nico, Dani, Fernanda, and Vicente arrived later, and we all sat around and talked and laughed and watched funny YouTube videos. I had an amazing time with them and laughed until my stomach hurt like I always do, but in my mind the whole time was the fact that this was probably our last get together. Manuel came to pick me up around 9:30, and I left, wishing them all a Happy 4^th of July (although it was without fireworks this year, at least we had s’mores and good company). I went home, talked with Manuel and Lilian for a while, and went to sleep early.

Thursday, July 3

Today was an interesting day at school. Sally and I decided that it would be fun to see each others’ schools, and today she came to mine. It was a little awkward at first, but I just introduced her to all my friends during breaks and she sat with me during classes and it was fun. The only thing I don’t like about having my exchange student friends meet my Chilean friends is that the Chileans always end up comparing us. Who is prettier, who speaks better Spanish, who is nicer, stuff like that, and it is really annoying and unfair especially when they have only met the other person for like 2 seconds. It happens when I meet other people’s friends and when they meet mine and none of us like it, so we basically avoid introducing each other, but sometimes it is fun, like it was today with Sally. After school, we didn’t want to sit through language, so we decided to try to leave early. The guy at the front desk saw me coming, said that if I didn’t have a note there was absolutely no way he would let me leave, and turned us away immediately. We went out the front and decided to search the perimeter of the school (which is completely walled in) for a place where we could escape. We found a couple interesting spots, but I was pretty chicken about it because I was imagining how embarrassed I would be if we were caught. We went to the back of the school behind the track (we had to pass by Maxi running on the track and all the teachers eating lunch in the cafeteria) to a hidden spot with a low wall that came to a little above our heads. Sally looked over and said it was a lot, so she threw my bags over the wall and boosted me over. I looked and saw that in fact it was a person’s house and that their front gate was locked, so we would have no way out once we jumped the fence, but my bags were already there, so we had to try out luck. We jumped over, and as we landed in the person’s backyard, we realized that there was a big dog there. Sally started yelling for the person in the house. A startled and confused woman came out, we explained that we were exchange students escaping from school and had had no idea that this was a house, and she opened the lock on the gate for us and let us out. We ran down the street, filled with the adrenalin and terror of what we had just done. We went over to Louis’s house, where the exchange students from Rancagua were going to have a “last get together”. We made chicken burgers and sat around Louis’s table and talked about life for like 4 hours. I gave them each (Louis, Sally, Katie H, and Nigel) photos that I had printed of us with letters on the back, and flags from the rotary club of Laguna Niguel. We said goodbye around 7 and Sally and I went back to the San Martin house. We cooked brownies, talked to Monse, and watched Back to the Future with Maxi. Around 11, we went to sleep in Sally’s room.

Wednesday, July 2

Today was a very busy day. I arrived to school at 11:20 because I didn’t want to go to either English (because it is boring) or Calculus (because we had a big test). I arrived, and my friend Gonzalo immediately called me, yelled “Alex come to the auditorium there are gringos there” and hung up. I went and found a group of like 15 gringos with all the kids from the English elective at my school. They all cheered when I showed up and the gringos told me they had told them all about me. They were from a school in Missouri and had come to Chile for a month long exchange. They were super sweet and excited to meet me and talk to me, although I had to say goodbye really fast because break was over. After school, we stayed rehearsing barras until 6. I usually am bored at barras practice because everyone is very disorganized and we never get anything done, but today we accomplished a lot and they taught us 3 new dances. I went home in collectivo at 6 as it was getting dark. When I arrived, I Skyped Ana, and we talked for 2 hours while I hot glued pens to a trash bag to make a suit jacket for the recycled things fashion show at the alianzas next week. Around 8, we hung up, I ate once with my family, showered, and watched Dead Poets’ Society before going to sleep.

Tuesday, July 1

Today was a little less cold that yesterday (maybe because I put on like 10 layers today), but I was still freezing. During physical education, we had free time to work on things for the alianza, so we sat in the classroom painting posters. After school there was no barras practice because they had a mock PSU test, so I got to go home early. I sat and talked to Manuel for a while, then went for a run, showered, and ate once with the family. We went out to Monchito (my counselor)’s office to get my $400 security deposit. I said goodbye to Monchito and was so happy to finally not have to see that careless, lazy man again. I’m just happy I ended up getting everything that Rotary owed me before I left the country (and it wasn’t easy—I definitely had to fight for it). 

Monday, June 30

Today was the coldest day I have experienced yet in Chile. It was horrible and all I wanted was to be next to the stove in the classroom and not move or think or talk to anyone. During English, I went to the library to sit by the stove. A bunch of guys from the class below mine were there, and the all talked to me and were super nice. We had a great conversation and laughed a lot. I love how being an exchange student allows you to talk to anyone and always gives you something to talk about. After school we rehearsed barras until 4:30. Then I went home and went for a run (in tights, sweatpants, a shirt, and a sweatshirt because it was so cold out). I got home, showered, ate once with the family, and then went to bed early. 

Sunday, June 29

I woke up at Cata’s house around 10, we ate breakfast together, and then she walked with my over to the Jumbo so I could get a collectivo back to my house. I arrived home, chilled in my room for a little while watching the Mexico world cup game (they also lost), and then we all went out to get lunch at this Chinese restaurant.

The food was good, and it was nice to just be calm and happy with my parents for a while. Then we started talking about my last day in Chile. I had been planning to go up to Santiago like at noon to have lunch with the San Martin family and all their various relatives who would be in Santiago that day to pick up Cristobal (who arrives July 13 in the morning). I told them that and they got a little offended because they thought I was saying that I didn’t want to be with them. I hadn’t thought that I would have to choose one family on my last day. I was almost in tears while they were getting all offended at me because it’s going to be hard enough to leave and I don’t want drama between the families to complicate it any more. We went home and I went up to my room to relax for a while. Later I went for a run, and by the time we sat down to eat once, I was relaxed again and had accepted that what will be will be. We ate once, talked for a while by the fire, and then I went upstairs and went to sleep.

Saturday, June 28

Today I woke up in Chichi’s house at like 7 to be ready for her mom to drop her off and preu (and drop me off where I could get a collectivo to my house) at 8. I got ready, and then Chichi came into my room and told me her mom had decided to let her skip preu and that we could sleep longer. We went back to sleep for a few more hours, and then around 9:30 we woke up, got ready again, ate breakfast, and Chichi’s mom drove us into town. I took a collectivo back to my house. When I got home, I showered, and then got ready to watch the Chile vs. Brazil game with my family. We all laid down together on Manuel and Lilian’s bed to watch on their giant TV. The game was amazing, went into overtime, and then finally penalty shoot outs, where Chile ended up losing by 1. It was a nerve wracking, intense, and really good game. Everyone was pretty depressed afterward, but I was proud that Chile had gone out fighting hard against such a good (and controversial) team. After the game, I took a collectivo over to the Jumbo to meet up with Lila and Angulo. Lila was driving when they picked me up. We drove all the way out to Lila’s country house.

Lila and I painted all the sets for the alianza (we’re doing Snow white, so we had to make a castle and a lot of things), and then went in to sing while Lila’s sister and Angulo practiced the song they were playing for the alianza (I’m playing the flute in the song too).

Around 9:30, Angulo’s dad came to pick us up, and he drove me back into Rancagua to Louis’s house. Pablo, Cata, Louis, and Louis’s friend Vicho were there. We were planning on doing another “bar crawl” tonight. We walked around through the center of Rancagua stopping in at various bars so the boys could drink beer and Cata and I could drink Diet Coke because beer is gross. We went to a new bar that had opened up called Voodoo, where there was dancing and music, and we stayed there for a while. We met a South Korean guy and his friend from Sweden who had been in Chile for 3 months and had come to open up a restaurant. I didn’t like them too much because they spoke horrible English and didn’t speak Spanish at all and basically spent the whole time we were talking with them bashing Chile and saying that they didn’t like the country because it was dirty and the people were too touchy. I felt weirdly defensive of what I have come to think of as “my country”. Anyway, we left around 2 and walked back to Louis’s house so Cata’s dad could come pick us up. Cata and I went back to her house to have a long talk about boys and problems and the fact that I’m leaving soon, and we didn’t go to sleep until around 4.