Homemade Ghost Stories

My host sister Karla came home this weekend! It was the best weekend ever, and now I have a lot to share!! Three days of amazing stories here in Chile.

Friday. My sister got to the house around eight, and we did a super speedy catch up while I got ready to go meet Manuel. Derek and I, from the UVM exchange program, met up with Manuel and his best friend at Cafe Journal. Probably the worst place to practice another language since it was so loud, but it was a great night! We talked a lot, and everyone was very patient. Manuel is studying law, and his friend is working in his first year as a doctor. We talked about all sorts of things, and I am excited to meet up again this week and learn more!!

Saturday. The family went out to lunch!! Just walking along the coast to the restaurant could have been the highlight of my day! It was absolutely gorgeous outside!! There was a cute little dog who sat next to our table that my host mom lovingly fed. After a delicious panini, my sister and I had gelato! YUM!! We went grocery shopping, which I always think is fun. My mom bought me tea!! Also, Karla and I had a super fun argument over oil. Haha. She picked up a bottle of baby oil, only instead of oil it said colognia or something. She asked me what the English translation was, so I told her that was baby oil. She was like NO, oil is for cars. I didn't know how to explain that there are oils for your skin, like baby oil and massage oil. She thought I was crazy, and I looked it up on the internet to show her later. Haha. It was fantastic! Karla had a TON of homework, so we spent the night working on it. She has three English presentations she has to memorize for Monday. One of the presentations is a made up story, and she wanted to write a ghost story. Entonces, we sat in my bed until the wee hours of the morning crafting the perfect ghost story! On a completely unrelated note, I had to sleep with a nightlight for some reason. Haha. Just kidding....kind of :)

Sunday. The end of the weekend finally came, and I had to say goodbye to Karla. It's ok, though, because it will only be a few weeks until I see her again!! Today's fantastic story takes place as I was trying to walk into mass this morning. These guys asked if I wanted to read the prayers of the faithful. WHAT?! I cannot read Spanish! I politely turned them down, even though they were a tad insistent. I know, I am such a chicken!! However, I was following along with the prayers as my replacement read them, and I couldn't even read them in my head as fast as he was reading them. If I had attempted to say the prayers, people would have fallen asleep waiting for me to finish! Oh well, maybe some other time.

I am now off to attempt and practice more Spanish!! I am listening to Spanish podcasts. I only understand about one in five or so words, but I feel like at least that is something!!