Finally. Winter is over, and at last my Floridian self can
be at home again. At home, 5000 miles
away.
With the change in the weather have come a series of changes
in my daily life as well. I have moved
into the home of my second host family (my new host dad is also my counselor) a
bit early, and certainly unexpectedly. I
won't get into the details, but I can say that leaving the Mendez Ferrada house
was difficulty, as I had really begun to feel like a part of the family, and
they had provided me with so much.
That being said, I am truly happy in my new home. There are trees, a yard, a pool, and in
general it just feels more like what I’m used to, until you see the mountains
and vineyards going in every direction.
I love my new home in the countryside, or el campo as it’s
known in Chile, but I miss living in the middle of everything like at my old
house. Instead of being in walking
distance to the mall, movie theater, and grocery store, I’m now a
two-and-a-half mile walk to the bus stop.
But, I get my own bathroom.
Priorities.
On top of all that, I’ve been pretty busy.
When I was back from Easter Island, I was really sick;
sicker than I’ve been in a long, long time.
If I were back home, I would be so stressed about missing school, but
here I just caught up on Netflix. It was
nice.
Last Monday was Día de la Raza, which I think has something
to do with Columbus Day, so Jaqui and I took a trip to the beach. We ate traditional mariscos, a soup-like mix of seafood—but mostly clams. I even got to ride a horse!
Friday was also a day off at school, and all the inbounds in
the district went to Santiago, the capital.
There, we toured La Moneda, the presidential palace, and watched the
changing of the guard.
Afterwards, we went to Cerro Santa Lucia, a big hill in the
middle of the city with a great view.
Then, we went to an artisanal market where I bought an alpaca
sweater. It’s so soft that I may never
wear wool again.
After some convincing, we managed to get the Rotarians to
let us go to La Costanera, the biggest mall in South America. Though we didn’t have much time before catching
the bus, my Taco Bell and Starbucks made me so happy it didn’t even
matter.
Of course, we forgot that it was Friday rush hour in a city
bigger than LA, so navigating the metro back to the bus station was stressful,
to say the least. We were running late,
and had to sprint across the Alameda, the city’s busiest and widest street, to
get to the bus stop on time. Not the
best mix with Starbucks and Taco Bell.
Our bus was scheduled to leave at 6:20. We got there at 6:22. Thank God I’m not in Germany, we only made it
because Chilean transportation is never on time.
Fortunately, the fun didn’t stop there. This week was my
school’s anniversary celebration, and the festivities lasted the whole week
long.
Our school was divided into alianzas, or alliances: roja,
blanca, and azul. We competed against
the other alianzas in sports, art, music, dance, and more. Tristan, Jules, and I (the exchange students)
represented Alianza Azul in a rendition of YMCA. Everyone was so surprised that I already knew
the song’s famous choreography, and just laughed when I tried to convince them
that nearly all Americans know it.
The dance proved to be a crowd favorite. Who doesn’t like to see blonde foreigners
with accents shaking their butts to a classic song?
Though we were a crowd pleaser, there was no way that we
could compete with the other dances, almost half of which would never be
permitted in an American school. There
were Tarzan swings, tumbling, stunting, and even aerial silks, all without a
mat. Multiple cars were driven onstage,
at one point even a hippy van. Girls
competed for the best bikini body , complete with angel wings straight out of
the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and even guys dancing in nothing but their
bright red boxer briefs to prove they had the most hair or best legs.
All this with parents, teachers, and even the principal in the
audience.
All in all, I’m having a great time. Moving was hard, but I’m really settled in
with my new family. Every week I feel
closer to my classmates, and I’m super excited for summer break in a
month.
Hasta pronto,
Maswal
(That’s just one of the many misspellings of Maxwell. Gotta love it)
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