A Whole Month!

So I've now officially been gone for over a month. It's crazy how fast it's going already. I can already see my spanish improving, though I can understand much more than I can say, so it still gets frustrating sometimes when I can't say what I want to. It's also tiring trying to process and think about spanish all day, but it is getting easier. My family has started to play this game where they randomly ask what the name of the street we're driving on. It's actually really helpful because it makes me feel like I'm getting to know the city of Punta Arenas better. Another thing that I really enjoy is that my family likes to take random hour-long drives through the city and the surrounding areas in the evenings so I can see everything. I love getting to see all the different neighborhoods and mountains and views of the Straight of Magellan. It's also a nice way to break up my time after school because I'm used to having hours of homework every night, but here I barely have anything to do. Hopefully that will change soon though because tomorrow I'm going to Sokal (another school in Punta Arenas) to talk to the soccer coach about playing for the girls team, since my school doesn't have one. They don't have as many opportunities to play sports here, especially for the girls, so I'm really happy that I'll be able to do something active like I'm used to back home.

I have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming weeks because Chilean independence day is September 18th. It's an even bigger deal here than in the US, and they think of September as a month of celebration. I get the whole week of the 17th off from school and there are all sorts of things downtown and at my school like traditional food (empanadas, anticuchos-"shish kabobs", and chorizo) and traditional Chilean dancing (the cueca). In addition, my family has decided to go on a trip to Calafate, Argentina from the 14th to the 17th. Calafate is a town that's not too far away, even though it's in Argentina, and is right by the famous mountains of Torres del Paine. We'll get to do a lot of hiking, so of course I'll get to take a ton of pictures. In October, my school celebrates its anniversary, which means that there will be a dance, kind of like homecoming for the US, and games during the day. I have no idea what that'll be like, since my school in the US doesn't really do anything like that, so I'm excited to see. Then in December I'm going on the tercero medio (junior year) class trip to Brazil. Every junior class gets to go, which is typical for many schools in Chile to do, so I got super lucky with my timing! Then around New Years my family is going to Viña del Mar, which is a beach town in northern Chile. I get to go so many places, so it's hard for me to not be so excited all the time. I got so lucky to be hosted by a family that loves to travel as much as I do. Now I'm going to go to bed because last night was daylight savings in Chile, so i lost an hour of sleep in addition to staying out much later than I'm used to with my friends. I'll try and keep this more updated!