Goodbye Stephy!

Today everyone in tercero medio (junior year) and cuarto medio (senior year) had a gigantic math test all day long. Suuuuper fun, right? Well, because of this test I got to sleep in and didn't have to go to school! I sound enthusiastic about this, but in reality I was a little sad because I love going to school and talking to people and making memories. Nevertheless, it was nice to sleep in and later bond with my dad a little. 

After breakfast, my father took me with him to fix one of the headlights on my moms car. When that was done, we went to the bank and he taught me how to use the ATM in Spanish. After that, we went and had coffee at a little coffee shop. I love the restaurants in Chile because the employees don't try to rush you out of the restaurant the second you finish eating. My father and I drank our coffees and then sat there talking for about an hour and a half. If you are around my age and reading this, you may think this sounds boring. But I truly believe that when I grow up and look back on my exchange, one of the things I will appreciate the most are the long conversations I have had with my host parents, so i try to have a lot of them. They are always so happy to listen to my stories of the United States and have learned to look beyond my broken Spanish. After that we went grocery shopping at a supermarket and drove to another market to get seafood. My host dad absolutely loves fishing, and buying fish, and eating fish, and pretty much anything that has to do with fish, so when he says a sentence and I hear the word "fish" in it, I just act as enthusiastic as I possibly can. But when we went to this fish market, being enthusiastic was a little difficult because it sort of smelled like dissected cow eyeballs and death. Either way, if my host parents love something, I will do my best to get accustomed to it quickly so I can enjoy it with them. They deserve that, at least! 

Later in the day, my mom and I got into Stephy's parents car and accompanied them to the airport to say goodbye to Stephy before her year in Maine. At the airport, all of Stephy's friends showed up to support her and say goodbye. It was a little more rushed than Fran's goodbye, so there weren't as many tears, but it was still super heartwarming and devastating at the same time. Stephy has too little brothers, and one of them (the younger one) cried a lot while hugging Stephy goodbye. For me, it was easy to hug Stephy goodbye, because as an exchange student I know what her life will be like in a couple weeks, and I think the happiness in that surpasses the sorrows of farewell. 

On the way home from the airport, I talked to Stephy's brothers a lot and we pretty much laughed the entire way home. We gave each other words to say in Spanish and English and laughed at each others accents. I had a really nice time with these boys, hahaha. On the way home, their mom asked me if I would be interested in helping out by tutoring English, and like any decent exchange student, I said "YES" and so now I guess I'm an English tutor! 

I'm going to sleep now, but before I do, I wanted to tell you guys about a new thing I started doing today. If you know me well, you know that I am a little bit of a writer. I'm not very good at writing, but I'm a little bit obsessed with English and I love to play with words. Because of this, I have begun keeping an exchange poem journal for all the poems I write while in Chile. I record the dates they are written as well, and I think it will be interesting to look back on at the end of my year. Hopefully, by the end of my exchange, I will even be able to write some in Spanish! Okay. I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight! :)