Last few days of being a teenager
So, I’m suppose to be reading a huge article right now for my Poverty and Development class that I have in about an hour, but I thought it would be more productive just to blog. (:
This last week has gone by really fast! I can’t believe that it is going to be April in just a few short days, and that I will be turning 20! Que Loco! I got my birthday package in the mail from my parents, the best surprise ever! It’s a little insane to think how far that little pink package has come just to get to me! Unfortunately I don’t have anything super duper exciting to tell you, haven’t gone hiking in Patagonia or surfing at one of the greatest beaches in the world.. but I have been just experiencing the chilean way of life! This past weekend I went to one of the other foreign exchange student’s birthday party! She is from Belgium and she has the coolest spanish accent because her native tongue is French.
I also went and saw one of the best movies ever! In English of course, the Hunger Games! Loved it! It’s definitely not as big of a deal here in South America, in fact no one really has heard of it except for us.
I’ve been giving my sister English lessons almost every night and in return my sister and my mom have been giving me spanish lessons! 🙂
It works out perfectly and is really good practice for both my spanish and hopefully future ESL teacher skills.
Last night while my family and I were drinking our cups of tea together and watching the news on TV we had a really good discussion about all of the hate crimes that have been occurring in Santiago. It’s so horrible and disheartening to see that there have been young homosexual boys, just around my age that have been beaten to death in their homes and even on the streets…
The society here is so different from that of the U.S because of the generation gap, that almost reminds me a little bit of the Middle East, how the older generation tends to be more conservative and the younger generation is very progressive and will fight for their rights. I think this is also because Chile is still a very young democracy, they just had a military Coup, as a dictator in the 70’s. I know that my host family here is very supportive of the gay rights movement and a lot more progressive and understanding than my older host family that was obviously homophobic.
It’s a really serious issue, but just one of the many issues that Chile has, being one of the most isolated countries in South America, with the ocean on one side and Andes on the other and Atacama in the north, it is not a very accessible or open place to the world!
This past Tuesday our professor was sick so we didn’t have any classes so a few friends and I just hopped on the Metro and explored the City a little bit! We went to one of the really hipster, artsy parts of Santiago and got delicious gelato (which I ended up spilling all over my white skirt, dark chocolate flavor doesn’t look like chocolate on a skirt) and we meandered around taking pictures! I also just had a really bad day with luck because I also ended up getting pooped on by a pigeon and sitting in some dog poop in the park- but that’s just typical Shirley.
I’ll be sure to update you with how my Chilean Birthday goes and my weekend! The Santiago marathon is on Sunday so I am hoping I can ride my bike downtown and go cheer on some runners! It’ll be really cool to be able to compare the Santiago marathon with other marathons I’ve been to in NYC, Chicago, Midwest. But I know it’ll probably be kind of sad too because the only marathons I go to watch I always go with my family and we cheer on my dad! So I’ll probably end up going but then catch myself looking in the crowd for my dad running.
On saturday- My Birthday! We are going on a little class field trip to one of the detention centers where they held the prisoners during the dictatorship, so I’m sure that will be really interesting too!
Besos y Abrezos !!
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” -E.B White