Alli in Chile!: September!

Hi everyone! As always I'm having so much fun and becoming more and more comfortable with my life here and all the cultural differences. I'm able to have longer conversations with my family and get to know them better, and I can tell my friends have noticed that I can understand more too because they explain more stuff to me rather than just being like "come on Alli let's go!"And yesterday I had my first soccer practice, which was fun. I finally had something to do after school since I don't really have homework. My teammates seem really nice and they're all really good, but that could be because most of them are 20-25. There's only one other girl that's 16 and the rest are older. I guess I expected that because I was in Chile that more people would play soccer, but because of the cold weather and the small size of most of the schools, there just aren't as many opportunities to make teams and to learn at a young age. Even if they don't play it they still love to watch it though. Yesterday there was a big game in which Chile played Colombia and we lost, but it was really entertaining. A bunch of my classmates got together in my friend's quincho (lots of people have these, they're like an extra little building next to the house where people can hang out, eat, and watch tv) to watch it, and we even got out of school early for the occasion. Even the people who don't play or really understand soccer like to watch and they all get really into it. Of course they taught me the Chile cheer that goes C-H-I chi! L-E le! Chi chi chi! Le le le! Viva Chile! Everyone knows it, it's awesome. They kept asking me what the US's cheer was and they thought it was strange that we don't have one. Also they think it's crazy that we don't have a national dance, cause they have the cueca which they learn when they're really little. I've been learning it in gym class, but I'm terrible! On Friday everyone will wear the typical Chilean outfits to school (I promise to take pictures) and there is a cueca competition between the three best pairs from each grade. In other words, we get to watch people dance instead of going to class. I'm excited. Then, when we get home from school we're leaving to go to El Calafate, Argentina for the weekend! Everyone I've told is jealous because it's so pretty there and I can't wait to go hiking. The following week will also be one big celebration because September 18th is Independence Day. My family keeps telling me all about it so I can't wait to see it all for myself. Apparently I'll get to eat the best food there is in Chile, but I love all the food here! Our dinnertime conversations are also very entertaining, especially with my dad who is currently learning English. He likes to try and practice with me so one time he was offering me butter and asked if I wanted some "butterfly" because he thought they were the same thing. Another time he was trying to tell my Grandma to look him in the eyes, but he said "look me in the ass." My mom, my sisters and I, who all understood what he said, were dying laughing and we keep making fun of him for it. And here's some differences I've noticed from the US.

-there are lots of things to do with school, like I mentioned before
-you never have to pump your own gas because there are people whose job it is to stand outside in the cold and do it for you
-they don't have parking meters because instead there are more people that stand outside with little handheld machines that tell them how much you owe for how long you were parked and then you pay them... either of those jobs would be sooo cold.
-they don't really have phone contracts, everyone just has some form of adding money to their phone when they need more minutes
-lunch is the biggest meal of the day, which is always home cooked and always eaten with most if not all of the family
-there are four meals: breakfast, lunch, onces (tea time), and dinner, but sometimes we only have onces and no dinner
-people don't usually follow the speed limits, even more than in the US
-usually only the driver and front passenger wear seat belts
-almost all of the cars are stick shift
-everyone knows everyone! even though the city of Punta Arenas has 150,000 people, my parents are constantly saying hi to people, and everyone at school knows everyones parents and where they live
-in general, they are much more friendly and polite
-they do errands as a family on weekday nights
-almost all of my teachers are the parents of kids that go to my school

There are a lot more, but I can't think of them at the moment. Here are some pictures: