Farewells and Fantasilandia

This week went by super fast because we only had three school days. You see, Chileans really like to celebrate anything they can find excuses to celebrate, so "holidays" like Halloween and Valentines Day are free! 

On Monday I had a completely normal day. I went to school, hung out with friends, came home, ran, showered, ate, practiced Ukulele, and went to sleep. I really thought the next two days would be similar and mellow, but boy was I wrong!

On Tuesday I arrived at school to find the rest of my classmates preparing for the war.  In Chile, the seniors get to leave school about a month before everyone else, and the day before their last day, they attack the juniors with a gigantic water war. My classmates told the water wars are always super intense, but I had no idea how seriously they meant that! When the bell sounded and we walked outside for lunch, we were bombed with hundreds of water balloons being thrown down on us from the roves of the school buildings! When we tried to run away, more seniors ran out from different directions with buckets full of water and mud! We spent a half out completely drenching eachother in our uniforms until the hallways of the school were flooded with about a centimeter of water! Because of the giant mess we made, school was let out after lunchtime and we all found rides back to our houses. I thought my parents might be mad that I was coming home dripping wet and four hours early, but when my host dad saw me he just started laughing really hard and told me to take a shower. It was definitely the best water fight I have ever been a part of! 

On Wednesday we had to say goodbye to the seniors. For the seniors it was a very emotional day because they had to say goodbye to all their friends and teachers. There is a tradition in my school where on the seniors last day of school, the entire school lines the grand hallway and waves goodbye to the seniors as they walk down the hallway one last time. They were all crying and hugging goodbye and it made me a little sad because I am going to miss seeing all of Fran's friends around every day. What really made me sad, though, was when I realized that next year I won't be here to participate in these traditions for my class and my friends. I have gotten so close with my class and my friends and I know we will only get closer and I just want to stay here for their entire senior year. I don't want to leave half way through! For this, I will make sure I thoroughly enjoy every second I get with them while I still have the chance. 

On Thursday, Javi Valenzuela and Diego came over to my house during the afternoon to make blackberry cobbler. I had never made it before, but it sounded yummy and I wanted to try! It ended up being delicious and my parents ended up eating all of it because they liked it so much hahahah. 

After making the cobbler, we went up to my room and I got an email from  my mom. I opened it with my friends and this picture popped up:

My friends and I laughed histarically for about 5 minutes straight. I explained to them that I have a very silly relationship with my mom and sister, and they told me that they wanted to meet my family really bad! We called Molly on FaceTime and she answered and made my friends laugh so much! My mom came home from work in the middle of the FaceTime so they got to meet my mom during the call too! 

They absolutely loved my family and can't wait to meet them in person. Seeing two different groups of people I love get along so well made me so happy! Later that night, all three of us went to a party at our other friend'a house and then Javi and I spent the night at Cami's house. 

The next morning, my parents picked me up and we went to Doñihue to visit the family. We ate lunch and hung out all afternoon and into the night.

The next morning my friend, Katy, and her family picked me up to go to Fantasilandia for the day! Fantasilandia is an amusement park in Santiago, and the day was very amusing! Since we went during the week of Halloween, there were people walking around with face paint that made them look very dead and disgusting. I thought it was cool, but it also freaked me out a bit. The people really scared Katie, and the problem was that since we are blonde and very Norht American looking, the people would go out of their way to scare us! We made some great memories and I am so glad she invited me to go and meet here family and have a great time!

This is a picture her dad took of us after one of the rides. We were laughing so hard!

This morning I got up and ran and then spent the morning relaxing. I am so tired from all my adventures of yesterday! We went out to lunch today and ate wayyyy too much food, and when we got back to the house I took a 3 hour long nap! I am going to try to go to bed early tonight, so bye!