And What, Emily, Do You Have to Say About Your First Month Here?

Mamá asked me this about thirty minutes ago. My response: "Que Chile es el mejor pais en total el mundo? Obvio!"

Well, in about ten hours, I'll have a month here. It doesn't feel like that. I need to stop counting days, because my time passes way way too fast. If I've ever dreaded anything before, it's nothing compared to the feeling I have in anticipation of my departure. I don't want to dwell on the subject. Moving on!

Mi hermanita and I are watching Camp Rock, which secretly makes me want to cry but is very popular here so I can't say that. We just got cable in the house, so it's a pretty big deal that we can actually watch something other than the five basic channels here.

It's hard to think of things to say on my blog! I've become so ingratiated with my family and friends that nothing really strikes me as new any more. Not to say that nothing's exciting or fabulous, because I still love the ride to school at dawn watching the mountains and the fog... I still love walking around the city during out 1.5 hour lunch... I still love kisses on cheeks and playing guitar between classes. But it's not like it used to be, where I had lists of things to mention here.

I guess I can say a few things. Today, the whole family congregated at my house to eat gnocci (homemade by my Italian AFS cousin Pipi) and it was pretty much a blast and very delicious. My primita (cousin-ita) Kony is adorable... My buddy. We pinchamos (Chileans have a funny habit of calling you and hanging up before you can pick up - this is called a pincha and it's super common because it's cheap. I get pincha'd about 10 times a day...) in school when we're bored and call each other "mi amor."

I'm going to explain cellphones here. They're all prepaid, and you can buy from three different companies (Claro, Movistar, and EntelPCS which is Sprint). My family has Entel, which is the least common. Texting is cheaper than calling, and pinchando is cheaper than texting. Chileans never have enough dinero in their cellphones, so they pincha when they want to acknowledge a text or just make you think of them. Pinchas can indicate a crush, friendship, etc.

Lately... I've been helping out with the English Debate team at school a lot. We won "regionals" on Wednesday and we're going to nationals representing the whole 6th region of Chile in Santiago in October! I'm super pumped. My boyfriend, Pedro, is on the English debate team. I know how curious you all are about Pedro, because in every email/Facebook message there's mention of "the boyfriend" lately. Pedro... Very Chilean looking, speaks excellent English (on that: I speak Spanish to him and he English to me and we correct each other... Although often he speaks Spanish. His is very rapid and hard for me to understand, which can be frustrating, but it's good practice.), can't swim, loves Pink Floyd, and is easily the most intelligent person at the school. Like most Chileans, has the characteristic unibrow, but hey, you gotta get used to these things. He's adorable. Mom, you would love him. Very sweet and polite.

Hm, what else.

I've figured out the internet-at-school thing, so I have a lot more frequent access to Facebook/email now.

I really really miss Mexican food.

My back is seriously killing me at all times.

I love being the "Gringa Linda" here. Because of my blonde hair and green eyes, I have a lot of admirers. A lot... like the entire school. When I walk down the street people stare. I'm not looking forward to going home and being normal again!

My Spanish has improved a ton and my English devolved.

Ohhh I don't know what else. It's so tough deciding what's important and what's not.

As an exchange student, I get to opt out of two classes (I wanted to chose PE...). For me, quimica (chemistry) and filosofia (basically psychology) which I normally would really like but the teacher is a zombie and that's one of two classes where everyone's too scared to have fun. I have to emphasize the differences in education here... In math on Friday we started learning how to solve a basic equation with a > like 3x+4>x-1... The teacher stared when I finished the eleven problems like someone who... knows the material... But other than that kind of thing, I've realized that Chileans can find a million excuses not to work. Nothing ever ever ever gets done in class. Talk about awesome!

Did I meantion that I've been teaching curse words? Or namely, one in particular. Pigeon. I have half my class thinking pigeon is an equivalent to shit. Is this malicious? No, it's not. It's hilarious.

I watched Futurama today with Spanish voice-overs. That was weird. OH, The Simpsons. That's important. Chileans LOVE Los Simpsons. They watch it constantly! It's voiced over, like the majority of Chilean TV, and at first was annoying as heck for me, but now that I understand Spanish a little more, I enjoy the hours on end spent watching, talking about, and comparing people to the Simpsons. I, apparently, am like Lisa. I'm smart and have blonde hair. Naturally, the first similar person who comes to mind... Haha.

Internet cafés here are harder to find than I thought they would be. Because what I want is wireless internet, and it's easy to get a computer with internet but hard to get WiFi. So it's become more common for me to go to Rigoletti's after school with my laptop and a friend. Rigoletti's is the main restaurant in San Fernando. It has internet, helado (icecream), a cafe, a restaurant, a patio, clean bathrooms (with toilet paper!!!!!), and innumerable patrons. I like going after school because the internet's fairly fast... But I can't go alone because I get nagged constantly by the boys about how dangerous the city is. I believe this less and less with every day (Pipi goes everywhere alone and is fine) but I don't mind a bit taking Pedro along and Alex (other AFSer) isn't too bad either.

AH, in the middle of SF there are two plazas, one bigger than the other. Both have lots of grass and benches and are popular after school hang outs for the more punk-y crowd (I told the Miss Eva Maria I was going there after school Friday meaning I was going downtown and she looked shocked)... There are two secret things in the larger of the two which has a grand fountain (the other a statue). One is a marker that has to do with Greenwich Mean Time and the other is a valve that controls the fountain. I'm dying to turn this valve! But also very scared of getting in trouble. Some day, some day.

In Chile, when you refer to someone you say "la Maka" or "el Pedro" which is basically saying "the Maka o the Pedro..." It's going to be a pain getting rid of this habit when I go home because it's been sneaking into my English...

I don't know what else.

I love having a fireplace in the house: There's constantly a fire going and it's the center of activity. It's good for: recycling paper, warming your bottom, creating conversation ("How do you say chimney again?")

I've gotten used to the question mark being switched with the dash and Ñ being next to L and now on my laptop I have to search to use ñ and ?...

Pedro gave me a "Mi Primer Dicionario" and I've been reading it in my class Lenguaje... It makes me giggle. I can't understand half of it, although it's completely illustrated. He also gave me a childrens book about the talking writing implements that live on the author's desk... I need the third gift, a well-used pocket dictionary, to decipher the Spanish that takes me ten minutes to read a page...

I forget to mention the dogs, Bull and Max. They live outside. When we get out of the car, they attack us and Poncho says in a kid voice, "Hola Señor Maaaax, hola señor Buuuull." Bull's mouth likes my feet in the morning. It's really hard to walk out of a house to board a bus in the morning when your foot is stuck in the mouth of a hulking, drooling beast. I'm getting calf-muscle from wrestling with him.

Hmm...

I love mi mamá

I love mi papá

I love mi Makita

I love mi Ponchito

I love mi Pedro

I love mi Primita Kony

I love Bull and Max

I love CHILE

I don't want to go home!!