First Week at Quimahue

So as you guys read in my last blog, my first day at my new school was a little iffy. I, however, am delighted to report that as the week went on, things just got better and better. For one thing, my school hours are about half of what they were at Colegio Coya. The latest I get out is 1:55, and on Thursdays school starts at 9:30am! My schedule isn't the only thing I like at Quimahue, though. My classmates are very friendly people and I can't wait to get to know them all better. I might have sugarcoated my first day of school in my last blog post, because in reality, not very many people talked to me on my first day of school and I was devastated. But on my second day of school, people began to come up and make conversation with me, and on my third day, a few girls explained to me that they had really wanted to come talk to me on my first day but they were intimidated because they weren't accustomed to receiving exchange students. You might be wondering why I don't just walk up to people and start talking. The thing is, if I were in a country where I could speak English, I would! But when you start a conversation with someone, you are sort of responsible for where the conversation goes, and I am not THAT comfortable with my Spanish yet, or at least not when I am at school trying to make friends. The best I could do was try to look approachable, and I think that really ended up working out for me! I had a very fun week and the teachers at Quimahue are amazing. Also, I am beggining to understand some of the tests and I actually completed a few philosophy and Spanish class worksheets with some help from my classmates! This school is also cool because in PE, the teacher makes us work hard! She makes us run and do sit-ups and I like it hahahha. 

On Friday, some seniors invited me to a pool party thing after school. They were super sweet about it and even scheduled transportation for me so I wouldn't have to worry about anything. I had such a good time with my new friends! I still don't know all of their names, but I still had a great time talking and laughing with them. Apparently I had a ton of beginners luck with being new and everything, because they taught me two new card games and I won both of them! After that, some of the boys invited me to play fooze ball with them and I was shy about participating because I didn't think I would be very good at it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I ended up scoring like 7 goals which made them think I am cool! I felt so accepted and happy. We all took a bunch of pictures together after that hahahah. 

After that long week I was feeling super tired, but when I got home I was in for another surprise! Louis called me on Skype and I got to see all my beautiful exchange friends! They are all on the North Trip, and Louis let everyone pass his phone around so they could say hi to me. It was so sweet. I miss all the exchangers so much and I'm bummed I couldn't go to the Atacama with them, but it was nice to at least be able to say hi. They all told me they loved me and missed me and wished I was there with them. At least I will be able to see them one last time in the Easter Island trip! 

Saturday morning I really wanted to sleep in after a week of waking up early every day. Hahahha but then stupid Nicolo called me at 8am. He didn't just call me once, he called me four times until I finally answered. He called me to tell me that he was tired and that he didn't know why he was calling me, but we had a nice morning Skype anyways I guess. Later that day I went over to his house and got to meet his twin brother in Skype, which was cool! They look and sound exactly the same hahah. After that we went to the movies where we ate WAYYYY too much popcorn. We felt so sick afterwards. It was bad. Hahahha when we were walking out of the movies popcorn was literally falling out of his shorts and neither of us really understands how it got there. 

Saturday was also Dia de la Mujer, or Women's Day. I wrote my host mom a little card and hid it under a pillow on her bed where she found it while I was out with Nicolo. When I got home she told me that I had absolutely made her day, and then gave me a present of my own. She gave me a super soft little blanket which colors that she said reminded her of me. She said it was small enough to take home on he plane, and that it would help me remember her. (HAH, as if I could ever forget such a wonderful person anyways.)

Soooo that's about all the exciting things that happened this week! I mean, I probably forgot a lot of things but that's it for the most part. Oh wait, did I forget to mention that my host club dropped their young exchange program? Yeah. Apparently my old counselor isn't my counselor anymore and now every exchange student in my city (there are like 10 of us) now have the same counselor. Of nothing ever got done before, I don't know how anything is going to get done now. Hahahha oh well. I have honestly lost all hope for the Rotary in Rancagua, but I still love living here and am grateful they have given me the chance to come here. 

I can't wait to go to school tomorrow! Bye!