Hooray to being not sick anymore!! I’m all healed up and should play catch up now on the blog I suppose.
Welp. Sunday, there was a new development. And the only reason I am relaying this information is because it becomes critical in the near future. The dryer broke. Yep. The ancient clothes dryer that would only work if you strategically placed an old broom handle just so on the door that it was held shut. Yep. That sucker broke. So Marisol made a family announcement that we would be air-drying clothes until they got a new one. And ‘soon’ she assured us. But we all know the time sensitivity of things here in Chile.
I guess I’ll jump around for a second. Well I spent pretty much a week and a half, a little more. Coughly and sickly and grossly lying in bed. Boring. Aka I didn’t do anything worth bloggage. I went to Domus Mater and got to meet the 5th grade class, which was fun because they were all kinds of excited about my being there and as such, they bombarded me with questions. One little boy, Pablo, grilled me about my soccer knowledge- which, to be honest, astonished him that I knew the difference between Barcelona and Man U. Let’s just say I’m Pablo’s new hero, and maybe I’ll even bring him one of the player cards mom sent me down with…anyways. The other kids quizzed me about my pop culture knowledge “Who is your favorite band?” (my response: haa what genre says the music buff) “Do you know Michael Jackson?” (personally? Yesh. No, I’m joking, MJ is dead. Sorry kids) “Do you like the Jonas Brothers?” Now, this last one was a critical question in establishing myself with the class. Do I like the Jonas Brothers? No, I can’t say that I do.
Cue uproarious applause and cheering from the 5th graders. I couldn’t understand why until they all went around and introduced themselves to me in English, telling me a special fact about themselves while they did. Example “Hi I’m Pablo and I play on a soccer team”. Great. Except approximately 90% percent of the introductions were as such: “Hi, I’m Patricia and I like Justin Beiber” “Hi, I’m Paola, and Justin Bieber is my favorite singer” or “Hi I’m Macarena and my favorite movie is ‘Never Say Never’” (Which sidenote, is the same thing as saying your favorite singer is J. Biebs) and the best one: “Hi I’m Juan, and I’m a ‘belieber’”. Well, at least I know where the loyalties lie of the 5th graders. Jonas Brothers is a dirty word, and non-beliebers are blasphemous. Well, I’m glad we got that settled 5th grade.
Moving on…So Cathy and the gang were all out of town in Pucon last weekend so I hit the town with my Chilean friend Luz, some of her friends and…brace yourselves…THE Katherine Haddock. Yep that’s right, Katherine agreed to go out dancing with us! I was excited to introduce her to the night life of Valdivia to say the least. So, how this actually went down was that one of Luz’s friends was singing in a Karaoke competition (Is that weird? Well it shouldn’t be because she was reallyyyy good). So we got free tickets and got to get into the casino for free to watch the show. I’ve never seen Karaoke done so well. There is like this closet Karaoke culture that must exist in Chile because this turned out to be a regional competition. Remarkable.
After that, we hit up a disco where us gringas were immediately scoped out by the eagle-eyed hawks that are Chilean college guys. With no class and no worries, its only natural that we are the new ‘project’. So with that being said, a pair of guys came up and asked us to dance, I wasn’t really feeling it (sorry, they weren’t number 16 on the Torreones…)so I glanced back at Luz with desperate eyes and said ‘no entiendo’ (I don’t understand) which in girl language means ‘get me out of this PLEASE’ but she just laughed and pushed us onward. I swear they must get a kick out of our awkward dancing and lack of rhythm…anyways so I danced with this rando guy for a solid 10 minutes or so and had fun because if I’m gonna be dancing with a rando guy, I might as well have fun with it. Anyways, in the process. And this is the point of this whole build up. Homeboy asks me if my boyfriend is good looking, to which I instinctually replied ‘oh I don’t have a boyfriend’ MISTAKE. Dang. I really need to learn to make up a fake macho boyfriend for instances like this. So of course my dancing partner says ‘oh no boyfriend? But you are so beautiful. I can take you out tomorrow night do you have a phone number?’ me: ‘no. no phone’ (lies, I do obvs have a phone) him: okay then what’s your name? I’ll find you on facebook. Me: ‘uhhh Jessica Smith’ (liar liar pants on fire). So I thought I was done with him. But little did I know that when he said he would find me on facebook, he would find me at all costs. And not, I repeat, NOT under my pseudonym of Jessica. Fracken ay. So, now that he is on the blocked list on facebook, I’m just hoping that I don’t run into him on campus or anything….potentially awkward moments.
So on Saturday I went to another Deportes Valdivia game, I think I’m becoming a regular, and my real Chilean love interest #16 scored two equalizing goals from defense…DEFENSE. Yeah, for those of you who know me well enough, you know why my heart was melting and why I am now officially scheming on ways to get a press pass so I can get onto that field and interview him. I already have my questions lined up: ‘Hey ::glances at notepad:: Daniel, good game today. How bout them goals! So do you have a girlfriend?’ follow up question: ‘No, you don’t have a girlfriend…Okay, what are you doing tonight?’ Seriously, somebody hook me up with this kid. I wish he would awkwardly ask me to dance at a discoteca geez!! Hahaaa
So anyways, Monday was another day at Colegio followed by Tuesday where we went to a charity fashion show that benefitted single mothers (shout out to my momma!!). It was fun and Erin’s host mom was a model. We had good cake. And Erin won a raffle prize: a romantic dinner for two. SPECTACULAR. Now she can take her over indulgent fake Peruvian boyfriend to dinner. Perfection. Ha. Wednesday was a pretty sweet day too. I had my first PE class and after waiting for an HOUR (time sensitivity…mersch mersch…) for the coach to arrive, I was pretty much destroyed by fitness. Thus commenced my first ‘personal training’ session. On the real, I was the ONLY one in class and upon discovering that I was a little on the athletic side, my circuit training only got harder and harder, faster and faster, more and more as the time went on. By the end of the circuit, my muscles were shaking, I was out of breath, and I was sweating in the 50 degree weather that accompanies spring time in Valdivia. But, in consolation, my coach grabbed my by the cheek when we finished and said ‘you did so good today sweetie!’ well, at least that’s positive. But I only imagine that this will get harder. This borderline military type training isn’t exactly the zumba I’ve grown accustomed to here in Chile. As long as he doesn’t utter the words ‘Dena Fartlek’, I know I’ll be okay.
And so as I was leaving the gym to head to Ecology class, my PE coach suggested that I go meet ‘the blacks’ as he nodded to two guys playing basketball on the court who I hadn’t even given a second thought. I was a little taken aback by this because it’s just not something that we call people of color in the States. I always have to remind myself that Chile is not a diverse country at all, so it is something really unusual (hence the lack of racial sensitivity) when two tall black guys walk in and start shooting hoops at the gym. Anyways, so I walk over to the guys and introduce myself and they were…quite ecstatic to meet me. “GIRRRRLLL get OVER HERE. What is YOUR name?? come here give me a hug. That English is music to my ears. GIRL yousa a soccer player aintchoo? Where you from? Etc etc” The guys are professional basketball players from the States and they are here in Chile for some reason or another (Cody said its because of the NBA strike or something) I’m not sure. But they are here and they are more than eager to be bffs with me. They were relieved to meet someone who speaks English, let alone someone who knows the ropes a bit. They loaded me up with questions about food and cell phones and all kinds of things (still…I’m in a rush to get to class). They promised to cook an ‘American breakfast’ for me once they move into their apartment and they threw me around in a hug rotation before finally letting me go to class. I was assured that they would find me on facebook and that they would send me their game schedule. So that’s pretty cool I guess, just friends with the local pro-bballers no big deal.
And today, nothing too exciting. I’m pretty sore from my military grade workout, but at least I haven’t been this sore for a while so I don’t really have much to complain about considering I’ve successfully avoided another painful year of soccer in exchange for this amazing experience. Oh the sacrifices one must make…haha. Best decision I’ve ever made. Anyways, today I went to the centro and ran a bunch of errands only to realize that I forgot that today is ‘protest day!’ yippee! Well, it seems like Thursdays are just the quintessential day of protest here for the students because not only were there protests at the university, but there were protests at the Liceos (public schools) today as well. Let’s just say I was all up in some tear gas today. But at least now I always walk around prepared with my bandana stashed in my backpack. Other than that, I got a postcard to send to Mr. Turner (my high school geography teacher/soccer coach/ sit in father figure who collects postcards from around the world for his classroom display), I picked up some pantuflas for Claire at the artesania, I printed off my ‘Florida is my home’ project for colegio tomorrow, and I got my health insurance card laminated. All very critical things that definitely had to be done…aka it was a beautiful sunny day in Valdivia today and I wanted an excuse to walk around and soak it all in.
So remember at the beginning of this book...I mean blog entry (sorry yall I know they are long...) when I said to remember that the dryer broke. Welp. Kelly had to do laundry today. And so I hung my clothes up to air dry above the wood burning stove as specifically instructed. Sooner than I realize Marisol is dashing up the stairs as a smell of burning something or the other fills the house. oh dear. well, what had happened was that somebody had adjusted my clothes to add more to the hangers and my clothes pressed up against the chimney part of the stove...burning them. Yep. charred. but luckily, the house isn't! Marisol felt so bad, but I told her not to worry that they are only clothes!! And the only things that truly got burnt were my pajamas and my new Chilean hoodie (which I tried really hard not to be upset about, because its just a hoodie). I think I successfully concealed my discontent because in reality, a hole didn't even burn through it, its just looks like someone forgot to take the iron off of part of my jacket. haha. I told Marisol that they are battle wounds of living in this house and she told me that I am very silly and that she's so glad I have a sense of humor. Yep. I'm glad too. If only some of those clothes from the fashion show had been pressed up against the Lagos family chimney...on the real. It be good if someone burned some of those outfits. haha.
So, this weekend, I believe it has been decided that we are going to Frutillar, a small town on the shores of Lago Llanquihue (near Puerto Varas). Fingers crossed for a beautiful weekend of kayaking on the lake and eating good empanadas. Cathy and Kaya may join us so that should be fun. Another holiday on Monday will make for another long weekend. Sometimes, I just love that national holidays are Catholic holidays.Which is funny in comparison because Momma just had school off for Rosh Hashanah...gotta love Boca. I can name all the high holy days but I can't tell you what's going on on Monday. Ah well.
Currently, I’m putting off writing personal statements, internship applications, and next semester’s scheduling in favor of reading poetry by Violeta Parra, googling hostels for this weekend, and chatting with Marisol for hours after once about nothing in particular.
Loving Chile, Loving life.
Chao!
No comments:
Post a Comment