This morning I got up at 6am with that typical "back to school" feeling that is both nerve wrecking and terribly exciting. The difference was that I am in Chile so you can multiply that feeling by like 854 million and maybe come close to what my sentiments were this morning. I took a shower, put on my uniform, ate breakfast, and then got into the car with my host parents.
When we arrived at school, I felt very numb and shaky. I tried my best not to look nervous and smiled at everyone in the hallways. When the other high school students saw me, they rushed towards me and hugged me and kissed me and touched my hair a lot. I was overwhelmed for a large majority of the day, but the girls in my class are very sweet and tried really hard to have conversations with me. Throughout the day, I was invited to 3 parties, asked to lunch by 4 different groups of people, and invited to a sleepover being held "in my honor." I love how friendly Chileans are! They are so welcoming. At lunch, my host mom brought be a lunch and Fran, and I ate with Fran and her friends outside in the grass. During lunch I realized that I am beginning to understand more of the conversations Fran has with her friends. After lunch, everything went smoothly except for one short awkward Sally episode where I entered the wrong classroom and forgot how to speak.
I'm not going to lie, school today was really hard for me. I felt extremely lost and unsure for most of the day, and completely exhausted for the rest. But the difficulty of this experience gives me hope for the future, because I know that if I push through this, things WILL get better and this year WILL be amazing. I am excited to go to school tomorrow and get even just a few more words right. Progress is progress, after all.
All of the confusion today made me really want to run, so after school my dad took me to the track. I ran and ran and ran and the more I ran the less I thought and the less I thought the happier I was. When I have a lot to think about, I can run for a long time without being tired. Running helps.
Now I am going to write Fran some letters for when she is on the airplane. I had a very interesting day and I doubt tomorrow will be boring either!
I can totally picture the "Sally moment"...walking into the wrong classroom...we have all done that before...but doing it with a language barrier must have been so much harder! Argghhh!!! You will learn more and more each day, don't you worry!
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to hear those beautiful Chileans are so nice to you!!! Yay!!!