Los dias de la Alianza

I've been in Chile for six weeks. I don't know how.

Wednesday was the Presentacion de Reyes. I didn’t have to go to school that day because we had a Mass and a partial day. (Non-Spanish speaking/Non-Catholic=No School!) Instead I went to el centro with Toto again and we picked up the costumes for the dance. It was a lot of speed walking around, which was a dumb thing to do in my vans because they’re already too small. So now I have blood blisters on the bottoms of my feet! (I wore slippers to school the next day because we didn’t have to wear our uniforms and I cannot even begin to measure the number of times I got looked up and down and pointed at and asked why I was wearing “pantuflas”. I tried to explain to them that in the US if you want to wear slippers or pajamas to school, go ahead. And the idea of Pajama Day was ridiculous to them. Lesson learned though: Don‘t wear slippers to school in Chile. Ever again.)

(Top: I'm in the middle with a blue spotted dress. Bottom: Second on the left.)

At 8pm, the Presentation of the King and Queen began and I felt sooo sick. I still didn’t know the dance and everyone was mad at me because I didn’t know it. So I was in a sucky mood. But I did it. I messed up at the part I knew I was going to mess up at. Afterwards we all went back to Cucu’s house to work on more Alianza stuff and I didn’t get home until about 2:30, which made the next day pretty long.
All Thursday was full of competitions and sports and dances and music. To be honest, I hated it. All of my friends were like the leaders for our Alianza, so they were busy the entire day. Meaning, no one talked to me. Which I know, may sound like I like to be the center of attention, but it’s such a gloomy day when you walk around and don’t talk and awkwardly tag along 2 steps behind everyone.
Friday was a little more fun because I tried to be more involved in getting stuff ready. I painted for about 2 hours and got yellow paint all over my clothes. And I walked in a parade but I was very unhappy during it because I wasn’t aware we were having a parade so I didn’t have a fancy dress or shoes to wear, which meant I had to borrow a dress that was 2 sizes to big and see-through and walk barefoot on my blistered feet…..I’m not complaining though….
I went home at lunch time and did nothing until later that day. It was very good. But at 6 I had to go to Cucu’s house and get my costume ready for the Fashion Show. I stapled candy/chip wrappers together and taped them to my cowboy boots and I had a cape made out of McDonald’s Chicken Nugget boxes. Whooo-hoo! That night was the best night of the Alianza. All of Alianza Roja's skits and stuff were sooo good and everyone was soooo excited and happy. Of course, a large majority of the time I was confined to the locker room because they didn't want me to rip my cape off. Plus, I had a stripe of purple paint across my eyes... The Fashion Show was really fun. When I went out, everyone kept yelling "GRINGA!" and all my friends were screaming. I didn't have to stuff my mouth with food, either! I just ate a little popcorn and threw it out around me. (If you have Facebook, you can watch the video) In the end, Alianza Blanca won, which was pretty lame. Actually, everyone thinks that it was a fake because they said we didn't win one single event, when we actually did...The judges change the scores so that Cuarto Medio (The Seniors) win every year. I think that's messed up. There was a party afterwards and Luis let me spend the night there so I didn't end up going to bed until about 6 in the morning. Overall, a good day...

Saturday, we took the bikes to the repair shop. They come back on Thursday, so I'm pretty excited... Then Luis told me that we were going to have the best food in the world, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. So, I sat down at the table, and lo and behold: sea food. I don't know why he though I would eat. He knows I won't eat it. But for some reason he thought it would be nice to put a giant slug/fish/shelled creature on top of my salad and offer me crackers with fish and then a fried fish. Ewwwww. After, I went to the centro with Matias (my brother) and Matthew (another exchange student). We went to buy shoes for me. I didn't find any. They both did. That was dumb.

Sunday, Sofia had a gymnastics competition. Soooo boring....

And today! I got up to go to school and when I got there, everyone asked me "WHY ARE YOU HERE? We have essays all day." So I got to go home and sleep until 1. I've had a productive day, obviously.