Howdy, howdy, howdy yall. I hope life has been good in New York and I apologize for neglecting my blog so much. I've still been pulling myself out of a bit of a homesickness spiral while also trying to build connections here in Chile so I appreciate your patience.
Let me catch you up on what has been happening.
Last week was really just another normal week of school. I went to classes, chatted with my friends, ate lunch, came home, repeat.
I did have the opportunity to talk a little bit more with the other foreign exchange student, Patrick, who is from Texas. He's a little shy at first but once you get him going he's super nice. We have history class together and compared notes on Chile a little bit. I'm glad I'm not the only one who only gets 7 minutes of hot water, the only difference is he has to deal with it for 3 months while I have to deal with it for 9 months, but oh well.
I've also been getting into more of a groove with extracurriculars lately and went to track last week, where I got invited to a track meet on Saturday. The coach wanted me to run the 800 meter race and because I can't say no to anything, even in Chile, I went along with it. For the record, the 800 meter race is two laps and it is my absolute WORST track event. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty slow no matter what in track. But an 800 meter is basically two laps of sprinting and I reallyyyyy don't like it.
We'll get to the actual track meet itself in a second, but I want to talk a little bit more about how I went to music club after school on Thursday.
For me, when I think of a school band, I think of a fairly formal set up with all of your traditional instruments and we rehearse and host concerts and that was my high school experience.
Here, "band" is literally a few kids with guitars and a drum set and a lead singer like we are a 2000s garage band. My friend Ornella invited me to go and once I got over my initial shock it was actually such a blast.
Obviously my clarinet did not fit into this dynamic very well, so the music teacher handed me a bongo drum and a tambourine and I just went to town. I've never played a percussion instrument in my life, but I am proud to say that I'm musical enough (huge thank you to Mr. Zach Eastman) to have produced some rhythms that didn't ruin their songs.
The band itself is called "Las Primeras" or "The Firsts" and it is intentionally only girls and they were all super excited about having an international addition, which just goes to show once again the kindness of Chilean people. Las Primeras actually had a performance on Saturday that they invited me to but sadly I had already committed to the track meet, so I had to politely decline.
They did tell me though that there is another opportunity to perform on November 15th, so keep checking back in to see how that goes for me.
Apart from those few things, my school week was pretty uneventful, so now let's move onto the weekend.
To be completely frank, I was dreading the track meet. Especially Saturday I had to wake up even earlier than I normally do for school, at 5:45 to be exact, because I needed to be at the school to get on the bus at 7am.
I'm going to tell you a secret. I'm still not a morning person in Chile.
Somehow though, I managed to drag myself out of bed and off we went.
The track meet was about 40 minutes away by bus, in a town called Viña del Mar (loosely translates to Vineyard by the Sea) and the host school was actually a German branch of private schools which was kind of neat.
I'm not gonna lie, I slept on the bus ride there and when we got there I was super nervous to run. I did warm-ups with some of the other girls who were kind enough to help me out and show me what to do, and then around 11am I lined up for the race.
I ran a 3:03 800 meter and came in second to last, but all things considered I'm pretty proud. For me, that time isn't terrible especially considering I didn't train much at all leading up to the race and also am just generally not a fast runner.
After my race it was so nice to just hang out and chat with the other kids on my team. I'd like to think I made some new friends with Pascal, Rosario, Clemente, Bastian, Magnus, Fran, Magda, Trini, Juaco, and many many more. Again, the people in Chile are just so welcoming and so curious which makes my job super easy as a foreign exchange student.
And get this, both our girls and boys track teams won this entire meet and we received two big ole' trophies which felt pretty epic even though I am a very new addition to the team. Everyone was so excited and we got celebratory McDonalds after and by the end I was so glad I went. Special shoutout to Clemente for helping me figure out the McDonalds kiosk and to our track coach who is actually just the coolest, kindest, guy.
Other than the track meet, my weekend was pretty uneventful and I just hung around the house on Sunday, but I needed that chance to relax. I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed by everything lately, but don't worry I'm really okay.
This week at school has been about the same as the last, and not that I'm counting or anything but Thursday marks my 7th week in Chile. How has it gone so fast?
But also, can I just come home already?
If you haven't checked out my post on homesickness, I dive more into all of those depressing feelings there. If you're not into that sort of thing don't check it out because it definitely is a little more personal, but I am trying really hard to share all of the aspects of exchange student life and homesickness is for sure part of that.
The only thing distinct that I feel the need to share with you about this week is that I am heading to the doctor because I have contracted some kind of skin rash. We're talking little bubbly, flaky, circles all up my right arm and a few on my stomach and chest. So yeah, I finally convinced Claudia that it wasn't a normal occurrence for me and we are gonna get it checked out. Wish me luck as I tackle that adventure.
Okay, maybe I didn't NEED to share that, but part of me also wants to formally write that somewhere so in case something drastic happens there is written proof. Just a precaution.
As always, I miss home like crazy and sending lots of love to all of the New Yorkers. Although I'm 5,200 miles away, please know I'm thinking of you.
Much love always,
Anna
P.S Stay tuned because I may be going on a Veterinary student horse trip this weekend if all goes well...
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