Pura Vida

Although I know I´m turning into a broken record, the progression of life continues to be that more and more, things feel more like routine life than new adventures. It's a bad thing though-- I like having things to do, I´m more comfortable with, well, everything. I posted my weekeday schedule last week, and I´ve been sticking to it, outside of a few blips here and there. As for last weekend, my host-parents went to the apartment in viña del mar, and left my host brother and I here with the nana (basically a maid). I went to a party friday night which was good times, but saturday through sunday I more or less did nothing. It was very relaxing, with intermittent stabs of boredom. I had plans to go out with friends Saturday night, but the kid who has a car had gone to Santiago, so we were out of luck. I did go for another little bike ride down the road and into the campo (countryside)on Saturday, and this time I remembered to bring my camera. Enjoy some highlights:

Yesterday in the morning and all day today, my class took a practice PSU (their equivalent of the SAT/ACT) so I´ve had a lot of freetime. I´ve mostly been passing time in the Library, reading and browsing the web, but I also spent some time helping out the younger English classes. The kids are really cute. One little girl whispered in my ear that she loved me, then wanted to hold my hand the rest of the time. I've been helping the sixth graders practice for a standardized English exam for an hour every Tuesday and Thursday. It basically consists of asking them questions about their family, their likes, and their favorites, but it's good because it takes me out of math class. Not that I have a problem with the math class, but 4 days a week in a class that I'm two years past would just be too much. Inequalities and basic geometry of triangles are already painful enough 3 days a week.

Last night (Tuesday), instead of going to classes in the gym, the exchangers had a meeting with our counselor. We basically just figured out plans for trips and events (a parade this friday, a day in Santiago in a couple of weeks), although the meeting was supposedly to discuss alcohol and alcoholism and rules and such. Afterwards, we went out for ice cream. I think we all get along quite well, which is nice. It´s good to know people who are in the same boat, and going through more-or-less the same things.

Changing topics, I´d like to share to comments I´ve overheard about the US:

¨The solution to all of Chile´s problems would be to declare war on the US. The only problem would be if we won.¨

(After someone used to US to justify the death penalty as being good)
¨And which country in the world is the most absolutely crazy, with people who are all totally nuts?¨

3 things that are different here

1. Milk is all ultra-pasteurized, and comes in boxes that aren't kept refrigerated. Well, the box says you should refrigerate it once it's open, but people don't heed the instructions very often.

2. Their equivalent of a senior trip is taken before senior year. It's also done through the school, and (just about) everyone goes together. My class is going to Cancún in December and unless something changes, it looks like I'll be going with them. I´m still a little disappointed because the original plan was to go to Camboriu (a beach town in Brazil), which is much more exotic/exciting/oustide-of-normal-gringo-vacations/interesting than Cancún (plus I've never been to Brazil), but the class decided on Cancún before I got here and it should still be a sweet trip so I´m not complaining.

3. A popular mode of transportation, and the one I've been using the most, is colectivos. They´re basically taxis that work like buses. They run a route, stop whenever someone flags them, and let you off when you tell them to. I've never had to wait more than a couple of minutes for a colectivo, and they only cost 350 pesos (less than 70 cents). The only inconvenience is that the closest a route comes to my house is at my school, a 25 minutes away walking down the shoulder of a major road. It´s not so bad now, but since summer´s coming and it's going to get hot, I'm trying to figure out the schedules of the micros (busses) that run past my house.