Week 12

Hola a todos!

Today is Friday, and I have no school so I´m taking this time to write instead of my usual Thursday. Yesterday was the 21st of May, which in Chile is Navy Day. A looong time ago, Chile, Bolivia and Peru had a war and in the Battle of Iquique Arturo Pratt and his men showed much courage and gave their lives for Chile and with their courage inspired Chileans to a victory over the other two countries. At least that´s what I´ve heard. Ever since then Peru hasn´t been so keen on Chile and vice versa. Anyways, the way Chileans celebrate this day is by marching. On Wednesday the entire school had a parade around the soccer field while a marching band from another school played. It was incredibly official and we all had to wear our full uniform, which for me is a white blouse (buttoned all the way to the neck, which is suffocating but looks formal), tie, jumper, green sweater, long grey socks and black shoes. We marched in quadrants and there was lots of standing and waiting. In the afternoon, about half my class went on a field trip to this marine labratory in Quintay, which is a costal town about an hour and a half away. It was fun and we got to go on a big bus and hold spiky sea things. One of the guys there looked exactly like that Francisco Garcia Flores from our Spanish video. I wanted to take a picture of him to show you guys. I swear, Francisco has left his Florida barrio and moved to Quintay! Weird. Yesterday we had no school and instead went into the center around 10:30am (in full uniform) and marched again, only this time down the main street. All the schools in Quillota, save the public schools, marched. The public school teachers are currently on strike right now, so there´s no school. Our nana´s son goes to one and she was telling me about it. It was more fun marching in the center because there were lots of people and it all felt quite official. We actually didn´t march very far. I have fotos but they´re on my host dad´s computer so I´ll send them later. Everyone was asking me if we marched in the US, and I had trouble imagining my class in the US lining up in uniforms and marching. I would love to see the 7th grade versions of Nicolas, Wes, Joey and James march. :)
This week has been a really good Spanish week. I feel like every now and then my Spanish improves and I can feel the improvement and am really excited and proud of my self. Then I get used to my new level and feel like I´m not improving again. But right now, my Spanish feels good, which is an excellent feeling. This week was actually a good week in general. On Friday night we had a school dance to celebrate the end of the Alianzas. Unfortunately Brazil lost...by 5 points!!! Our Alianza was clearly the best. On Friday, the last day of the Alianzas there was a bit of drama. In the boys basketball game, some of the “Italians” kept fouling our best player (a Lakers fan who keeps my updated on the playoffs) and he got mad and pushed a kid who fell and hit his head on a table. He was fine, but mad and there was almost a fight but then they canceled the game and cancelled the boys soccer game too until they promised to play nice and signed an agreement. I have to say, it was a little painful watching the basketball game. The Chilean boys here are great at soccer but they just don´t really do basketball. It´s called a bounce pass, and it works quite well. I really wanted to run over and tell them all to stick to marking their man and quit watching the ball but I don´t think that that would have gone over very well. So the school dance. VERY different from the FRCS ones. For one thing, people danced. The music was deafeningly loud and of the reggeton/kumbia sort. Not music I was used to dancing too. There were a lot of kids from outside the school who came, including a lot of "flaite". I can´t remember if I´ve defined the term "flaite" or not but it´s basically sort of trashy, I guess. It´s hard to explain and it´s not the nicest term but I´ve started to classify people like the Chileans do. I guess that means I´m adapting to the culture but it´s not the greatest adaption. I had a really good time at the dance though, because three of my exchange friends showed up and so we all hung out together all night. On Saturday I went to one of my best Chilean friend´s bday party and that was super fun. A lot of her boyfriend´s friends from college were there and my Finnish friend (who came with her boyfriend) Olga and I spent a lot of the night talking with new people, which was fun. I love, love, love my exchange friends. My Chilean friends are cool too but it´s different with exchange friends. We made shishkabobs and ate choripan (chorizo pan = sauceage in bread). YUM!! My Spanish felt really good and I talked all night with people. So that was really good. Then on Sunday I went back to the soup kitchen with Panchi and we helped out there and that was nice.
Next week, I think, is a normal week and we have a ton of tests. Math, History, Lenguaje and Quimica (I´ve sort of given up on Quimica though) plus a presentation in Bio and a collage in Art. Eeek! This afternoon I´m hoping to go into Viña to meet up with an exchange friend and buy a camera. What else to report...I´m learning the national anthem.
Also, this is mainly for Tess, but anyone else who likes reggeton, here´s some of the most popular songs here:
Que Tengo Hacer - Daddy Yankee
Somos de la Calle - Daddy Yankee
Y Volar - La Noche (they´re Chilean!)
Amame - Antonio Rios
Que Te Pica - Notch
Nada Va Pasar - Arcangel ft. Yaga y Mackie
Es el Amor - La Noche
Na de Na - Angel y Khriz
Dejame el Drama - Big Yamo
I accept zero responsability for any of the lyrics although a lot of them are sung super fast and are hard to understand.
So....that´s all for week 12. I´VE BEEN HERE FOR 12 WEEKS! I can´t decide if that´s a lot or a little. Oh by the way, the piggy flu came to Chile. I don´t understand why it´s called the human flu now. Aren´t all flus that we worry about human flus? In the newspaper there was a photo of a goverment official demonstrating how to sneeze properly. I´ve been doing it the right way.

Hope all is well!
Love,
Sela