School?

Well....Another week in review (I promise, this entry won´t be as long as the last one!) Saturday, after a run, I was called by a man from Rotary and invited to meet his 25 year old daughter who is going to live in Toronto for six months in January. They picked me up,and I talked to the girl for a while. She was in a fashion show that night, so I was invited to go as well. I won a prize at the end...a gift card for the supermarket (like, clothes, electronics..everything market), but can´t find a value of the card..so have to go check that out. I got home around 1:30. Sunday afternoon, I went to Yasna´s house to visit Julia and we looked at pics of our respective trips....I´m excited for Brasil even more after her pics...and she really wishes she had been able to see the north.
Monday..I went to school. It was weird to be back in uniform and back at classes after 3 weeks of classes....I got tons of comments on my tan and tons of hugs. The debate group had their trophies and such as well, which was also very exciting.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same in terms of actual school....because we didn´t do anything in classes....played cards, slept, and practiced for the grad (more about that later)etc etc. My camera was the hit item in the class to look at the pics from Easter Island.
Wednesday, I didn´t have class in the afternoon because it was a bike thing, and since I don´t have a bike here...couldn´t do it. I was ok with it tho..cuz it wasn´t exactly a gorgeous day! I went over to julia´s in the afternoon and we went into town to do some random errands. We went to a delicious little cafe...that serves two main items (plus sells candy and pop...), chortipan and leche con platano. Chortipan is a type of meat on bread..but its delicious, and the other is milk with banana blended in. Then we walked around, bought another little treat and hung out in a park til we both started to get freezing cold. (It may be summer...but that doesn´t mean its really warm..)
Thursday, i slept in the afternoon (i am readjusting to my bed...so didn´t sleep well for a few nights) and then did situps at my house before going to a Rotary meeting. The district governor was at the meeting, so it was longer than usual. Julia and I got our picture taken with him and will appear in his montly newsletter (I didnt have my blazer tho..having forgotten it in Santiago, its sposed to be coming in the mail).
Friday, i really didn´t want to go to school, but went (leaving the house about 7 minutes after i woke up.....and i ate breakfast...) because I thought we were practicing for the grad, which never happened. In the afternoon, I left early to walk to my Rotary counselors office to pick up my monthly allowance. I ran into some friends in town(including one who had not gone to school....), and so hung out with them for an hour and a half or so before heading home. I helped Braulio and Johanna with the christmas lights before heading out to meet a different friend from the debate group (the one named the best male participant in the country!) to celebrate their success. We all brought something yummy to eat, me; christmas cookies(bought...sorry to admit..). There was also lemon meringue pie, other cookies with coconut (i developed an addiction), ice cream, pringle type chips, pizza, and crackers and cheese. We played twisters (some grand pics), uno (with penalties if you lost, i had to sing in spanish, and i didn´t know the words), and watched videos of the debate. (Ps...contardi had way better arguments, they should have won!). I got home at 4 , waking up at 10 the next morning to walk to school for more practicing of Kansas ¨Dust in the Wind¨. We changed some of the lyrics to spanish, so that the audience would understand. We had sound check....(2 other singers, 2 violinists, and a guitar) and i got home at 1 40 ish to eat lunch, get stuff together for that night, and get look impeccable in my uniform. I left the house at 3 40. We had our class end of year camp thing last night, and I left straight from the graduation (where I sang), so looked like quite a sight in my uniform, with a bulging backpack and a sleeping bag in hand. To make things even better, the collectivo I got into was full.....parents with 2 little boys in the back, plus me and all my stuff. One of the little boys gave me a flower..so cute.
A lot of the graduates were really surprised to see me, others knew I was showing up, but noone knew the real reason I was there. There were quick chats with a lot of ppl....some I´m not sure I´ll see again because our schedules dont overlap well..and they could be going to university in other parts of chile. We practiced one more time, and watched the ceremony from the entrance. You have to keep in mind, that I have sang with a microphone only twice before in my life, and not had a solo part since grade 7. It was a bit nerve wracking, especialy because my host mom had come to see me, and 3 of my friends had managed to get ´passes´for the event. It went well tho....and we got lots of comments afterwards. A lot of people were impressed that i sang in spanish..which i don´t completely understand...cuz I had the opportunity to practice it, and Idont practice in daily life when I talk.....Oh well...
Afterwards, we headed to the campout thing. Most of the class had left, only 5 of us who had been at the grad. One of the mom´s had gone to theg rad as well, and we showed up at their house about 20 minutes after it ended to ask for a ride (it was about 50 min away). We arrived, and to a cabin and house type setup with a gorgeous view, and chilled with the class. We had a campfire on the rock beach (a decent walk, down a huge hill!!). I didn´t know the words for about 99/100ths of the songs, but a friend of mine would whisper them in my ear so that i could sing along (alhto i didn´tknow the tune for some of them either...haha). I was exhausted from my several nights of little sleep, so fell asleep soon after we returned in a chair (around 1 am). I was woken around 4 by the parents, and put on an air mattress (apparently the angle of my neck looked uncomfortable). I couldn´t sleep after that.....partly because it was already fairly light out, so talked to the parents who were still awake until about 6 when I went to bed til 8 30. I taught the card game ¨"cheat" which we had some fun with. We hung out for the day, and arrived home around 7. It was relaxing, even tho we didn´t sleep much. The trip home was a little squishy...since there wasn´t a lot of vehicle space. There were 7 of us in apickup, and i couldn´t really feel the bottom half of my legs whenwe got out. I was happy to shower when we got home, because altho I had brought other clothes, never ended up changing. And now, i should finish this entry, tidy up my room, and consider heading to bed. I´m pretty sure that more than half of my class isn´t going to school tomoro.....and not sure if I will be yet...
Oh...another funny thing i forgot....one of my friends also taught me a bunch of little kid type songs..and some are the same in spanish and english. Itsy Bitsy Spider ,Farmer in the Dell, and the Elephants on the Spider web one.....