Alianza Verde!

So basically I'm terrible at keeping this updated, but I've been so busy. Lots of going out with my friends, birthday parties, shopping and all that. I finally made pancakes for my family! Of course they're obsessed with them because their pancakes are more like how we think of crepes. They weren't great because I made them from scratch and I usually just use the box, but they were good enough considering how much I missed them. They also really like syrup because it's not common here, but we were able to find it in one of the supermarkets because Punta Arenas gets a lot of imports. About two weeks ago we also had Teacher Day, which was fun. In the morning we had an assembly kind of thing where some classes or groups sang songs, did dances, gave speeches, or did imitations of the teachers. Then in the afternoon we didn't have classes, so it was kind of like a holiday for the students too.

And now on to the alianzas, which have been my favorite part so far. Basically the alianzas are a big competition where each class is put onto one of three teams and given a color. I was on Alianza Verde (green alliance) and each team also needs a king, queen, prince, and princess, and I ended up being voted queen. The little kids mostly just voted for me because I'm "blonde" and have blue eyes and it's so uncommon here. Also they're adorable and now they all say hi to me at school. Every day last week two people from each team were allowed to skip classes to walk around town collecting money for a charity that helps kids with special needs. Each day the team with the most money got the most points and I thought it was nice that they incorporated raising money for charity into the competition. We also had to pick a mascot, so ours was Oscar the grouch. The yellow team did pac man and the red team did a red angry bird. Every day of the alianzas you have to have someone actually dress up as your mascot, and you also have to use the mascot when decorating the doors of the classrooms of each class on your team. It was crazy how elaborate and creative people were, but they're been doing this for years now so they get super into it. The actual games started last Wednesday afternoon and each team had to do a skit based on a tv talk show. Because I was queen I had to me in it but my friends were smart enough to only give me one line to say. Of course when it actually came time to say it I messed it up and everyone thought it was really funny. Thursday morning we had the pairs dances, the group dances and the imitations. For the pairs dances there were three different typical latin dances for each of the three categories, kindergarten-4th, 5th-7th, and 8th-seniors. Then with the group dances each team had to choreograph something using a bunch of different songs and students from each category. With this too people were really creative and used all sorts of costumes and makeup and all that. The younger kids in our dance did Thriller so of course they looked like zombies and we also had a human swing in the middle of it, which is really hard to explain but looked really cool. The imitations were definitely the funniest because there were lots of guys dressed up as girls and everyone was just over the top crazy. Thursday afternoon and into Friday morning we had Factor Darwin, which was singing, dancing and humor competitions. Friday was also costume day, so I dressed up as Sandy and Danny from Grease with the king of my team. They also gave points to the team with the most creative costumes. Then the rest of Friday morning was these random games like pulling all the tissues out of a box the fastest, stacking dice on the edge of a ruler while it's in your mouth, sticking as many sticks as possible in one person's hair in a minute, throwing sticks in the air and trying to catch them all in one hand, putting cookies on your forehead and only using your face muscles to get them into your mouth, and other ridiculous stuff. That was also really fun because everyone was all excited and cheering and stuff. The last way to get points was by putting together boxes of canned goods, but there was a specific list of stuff that had to be in the boxes. The yellow team didn't have many, but at this point they didn't have much of a chance. We had 16 and the red team had 22, but then they figured out that all but 6 of theirs were missing the rice. Then there was this whole discussion over whether or not they would still count them or not, but basically they were the deciding factor of who would win. So my team decided to rebel and join with the yellow team to make Alianza Azul. At this point the yellow team wanted us to win because there are two senior classes and one was on yellow and the other was on red, and they didn't want the other class winning. They went crazy with it though and Alianza Azul stood on one side of the gym, while Alianza Roja was on the other. Someone even made a flag by tying the green team's flag, the yellow team's flag and someone's blue costume skirt together on a pole. Finally they decided and announced that we had won! It was so crazy and everyone was jumping and cheering and stuff, I can't even begin to explain it. So then Friday night we had a school dance, kind of like homecoming in the US, and I got a crown and a sash because I was now the queen of the school since we won. Everything was really entertaining and I loved it because with the school system in the US the kids are too young to lead it in elementary school and my high school is too big to do it, so it wasn't something I'd ever done before. 

 Us after we won! (you can kind of see the flag)

Some of my friends dressed up as girls for the imitations. 

Me and my sister before the dance. 

Me and the king getting our crowns at the dance. 

Our group dance. (I'm wearing the red hat)

The green and part of the red sections watching the games.

Calafate & September 18th

Sorry I'm terrible at keeping this updated, but I'll try and explain what I remember. A couple of weekends ago I went to El Calafate, Argentina with my family and it was gorgeous. That Friday at school we had the cueca competition, where a pair from my class came in third, and then we went back to our classes and ate anticuchos, which are like shishkabobs. Also I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to work the small camera that my family gave me to use, so I don't actually have any pictures from that day. The kindergarteners dancing were my favorite cause they're like 2 feet tall. Yeah so after we came home and ate lunch we left and drove for about 3 hours until we got to Rio Gallegos, Argentina, where we stayed for the night. Then the next morning we got up and drove another 3 hours to get to Calafate. The drive there was super pretty and parts of it were like when I went with my family last summer to Costa Rica because we would drive on these curvy roads and it felt like a car was just going to come at you from around the corner, but the roads are better in Argentina so it wasn't as scary. Also I've never seen a llama in my life so it was so weird to look out my window and have them staring at me from the side of the road. So when we got there on Saturday we basically just walked around and ate lunch and dinner. It's this really cute little town on the side of a mountain with a lake right there and there's a bunch of shops with a lot of native american influence. On Sunday we drove about an hour and went to the Glacier Perrito Moreno. It's this giant thing of ice and it's gorgeous. It was cool because you would be looking at it and see a chunk falling off, then you would hear the sound of it breaking off, then you would see it fall in the water, and then there was a huge noise from it hitting the water. But the sound was so delayed. After that we went back to the cabin we were renting and just hung out for a while. Then later my parents decided that we should go drive around to see the town. It was really dark outside the cabins and when we went to go pull out onto the road the lights turned on and there was a wild horse in front of our car eating. Yeah so that kind of surprised me so I said "oh my god!" and my family thought it was funny that I had said it in English. So then we pulled up next to it and my mom wanted to see it better, so she pulled a flashlight out and shined it at it. That probably wasn't a good idea cause it freaked out and ran into our car and then ran away. Probably one of the funniest things thats happened. Of course I felt bad for the horse, but it was still funny to see the side of the car with a big smudge mark.

Monday we drove back to Punta Arenas, and then Tuesday was Independence Day. We all wore the typical Chilean outfits and went to my cousins' house for lunch where I met even more relatives. That was probably the most meat I've ever seen in my life. I've also decided that I'm destined to be a vegetarian because meat is not my thing, but I have liked trying it all here since it's a huge part of the culture. We also got to eat my favorite, empanadas. After lunch we went to the field across the street to fly kites, which it a big tradition here. Now it makes a lot more sense why so many people were selling kites on the side of the road. Later we didn't do too much but we did go to another school for a little where there was a festival type thing where little kids play games and win candy.

I still had the rest of the week off, so I went out with my friends a lot and I got to go to the discoteca, like a club, which was crazy but so much fun. I also really like the music here cause it's all super upbeat. The popular types are reggaton and cumbia. I also went for a run one day along the coast of the Straight of Magellan. It's so cool that I can just run along the water when I want. The next week we went back to school and on Tuesday I had soccer practice again. Thursday I had my first game, which was outside in a stadium. I play for a team called Sokol, which is based at the school, and Thursday was the school's 100 year anniversary so it was a really big deal and all the teams played and there were tv cameras and everything. We won 3-1 which was good because my team is used to playing futsal, which is indoor soccer with 5 people per team on the field, and actual futbol is a little different. I had another game on Friday, but it was a futsal game and I didn't end up playing cause our team is the size of a futbol team and they all have a lot of experience playing indoors. After that I went with my family to a party for all the families in my sister's class. There was lots of food and they even had a dj, so there was dancing and all that and it was pretty fun. On Saturday I had my chapter meeting with all the AFS students in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales, a smaller town about 3 hours away. There's 7 of us total and 2 girls have been here since January because they're doing the year program that started then. The students from Puerto Natales needed somewhere to stay overnight, so one girl Beatrice from Italy stayed at our house. We had lunch at our house and then went to meet up with the other students at the mall. Then we went to the chapter leader's house to eat and talk about how everything's going. It's so nice to talk to other exchange students because we have a lot of the same situations and some differences. After that we walked around downtown to show the Puerto Natales kids cause their town is pretty small. On Sunday we met up at the mall again to actually shop this time because they don't have many clothing stores there and definitely not a mall. Then they left around 5 and I went to the cemetery with my family like usual on Sundays. My mom's dad and my dad's mom are both there so we just go visit for about 15 minutes. I have a couple bigger projects and stuff to do for school, but it's crazy because we only have 2 months left! So tomorrow I'm making american pancakes for onces because their pancakes are more like crepes and they want to try them. Hopefully I won't mess it up because I usually just use the box and I have to make them from scratch. Well here's some pictures from Argentina.

Shops in Calafate.

It's giant.

More Calafate.