Week 3

Hola a todos!

I´ve almost finished my third week of school. It´s going pretty well. I like my classmates a lot, and some of the classes too. My favorite is my Literature elective, because I understand almost everything. The class is small, and I like the teacher. She´s also my head teacher so I´m more used to her voice, hence better understanding. Math, Bio and Physics are baffling. I just got home from an extra help session in Math but sadly I missed out on the help part. I dunno if it´s the language barrier or that I´m just so used to IMP that I´m completely lost in another teaching style. Probably a combo of both. I knew IMP wasn´t helping me! :) The teaching style here is very different from that of FRCS. It´s very traditional: the teachers talk and we take notes. In my history elective we´re doing a research project on the Chilean topic of our choice. My partner and I are researching the Chilean Public Health System and whether or not it´s serving all Chileans. School is hard. Actually, speaking Spanish 24/7 is hard. I sometimes feel like I´m living in my own little Spanish cloud and I don´t really know what´s going on. I just go where people tell me and figure it out as I go. I think my Spanish has improved since I got here though. I´ve learned some new words at least. Yesterday we had mass at school and I heard the priest use two new words I´ve learned: ayunar y pecadores (to fast and sinners). I was psyched! We don´t have mass every week. This was just the begining of the year mass. People get really interested when they hear I´m Jewish. It´s funny. I guess there aren´t many Jews here. I´m trying to figure out what I´m going to do for Passover. I don´t even know when it is. I´m hoping to have a sedar with one of my exchange friends in Viña but I don´t know. Speaking of which, last weekend I went to Viña and Valparaiso! Okay, so last weekend my host dad´s parents showed up and spent the weekend with us. They were really nice. My host mom asked me about five times if I live in the city or the country. On Sunday we all went out to lunch and then my grandparents left and we went to see Valentin´s (my host brother) apartment. It´s right in the middle of the city. Viña seems pretty cool. It´s right on the ocean and it was really awesome to see the water. There are a ton of colleges in Viña. After going to Valentin´s we drove along the coast. Viña and Valpo are right next to each other. Literally, you drive out of Viña and you´re in Valpo. I´m not sure why there are two cities right next to each other but it it works, awesome! We went to this little open air antique market and my host mom got me this tiny little bouy that says Valparaiso Chile on it. It was fun getting to see another part of Chile. Oh, back to the restaraunt. So I was talking to my sister Javi and she was describing papas fritas to me, and what she was describing was potato chips. Names of foods differ by country so even though I´d learned that french fries were papas fritas, I thought it was probably just a Chilean thing. Then she described papas hilos and I thought she was describing french fries. So when we were at the restaurant I wanted to order french fries so I ordered papas hilos. Well, papas hilos are true to their name. They are literally fried strings of potato. Papas fritas apparently can mean either chips or french fries. Oops!
Speaking of Chilean words, here are some new words I´ve learned:
maceavo - someone who does whatever their girlfriend tells them to.
pa´ mas remate - and on top of it all...
rancio - nasty, disgusting
choro - cool
arto, caleta - a lot
cachai? - You know? This one I love.
I really like Chilean Spanish. It´s super hard and they talk FAST but I like it. I´ve been trying to imitate the accent but it´s not really been working. People thing it´s really funny when I use Chilean words though. I´ve started reading Angels and Demons in Spanish. So far so good. I´ve also started to love the Disney Channel. Weird, huh? It´s because I can understand what they´re saying more easily. Seriously, I´ve almost got Hannah Montana down. Almost. Let´s see...what else? Soccer starts in two weeks. I´m PSYCHED!!! I haven´t been getting hardly any excersize lately and I really need to run around.
Another strange thing...I´ve started to feel really affectionate towards anything from home. I was watching TV (here it´s good to watch TV because I´m learning Spanish, cachai?) and I saw an ad for the World Baseball Classic, with Derek Jeter. I was like, awwwww Derek Jeter. That would NEVER happen at home. I was also watching a TV show where they had a Boston phone number and I got a warm, fuzzy feeling seeing 617. Yeah, it´s weird.
Yikes, this email has been pretty rambly. Sorry if it´s not super coherent. I´ve been at school from 8am - 6pm. Tomorrow we´re having an AFS chapter meeting. I really like the exchangers in my district. They are:
Tanja - Austria (she´s in the grade below me at school)
Ham - Thailand
Iris - Seattle, USA
Sali and Michael - Germany
Olga - Finland
On Tuesday we all got to skip school and go to the town hall to get our carnets. They´re Chilean ID cards. Every Chilean has one, even the little kids. It was really nice to have a day off. We went into town afterwards and hung out with one of the volunteers and then went to the AFS Quillota president´s house and chilled and ate pizza. Yum. It was really nice to connect with other AFSers. Tomorrow I´m hoping to either go out with friends or see Jeevon. Last weekend I went to see Benjamin Button with some friends. I liked it! It was in English with subtitles. The screen was square, not rectangular. This weekend is my host mom´s bday so we´re going to have a barbaque and make her tiramisu tonight.
What else.....tomorrow is my math test and I´m going to fail. Oh well. My little host sister is standing next to me with my little host brother. They´re pretty cool. O, bacan as they say in Chile.
Anyways, that´s all for now!

Love,
Sela