Pena, you are a pain-ya.

Anyways, that is my sentiments right now. But let me talk about my life now.

• Update on the past, I let stress control my life blog: Well the thing about Chile is professors are very, very ambigous about well, pretty much everything AND that ambiguity mixed with a miscommunication with my Missions Trip application for Messiah ( I wasn't sure what date was the correct due date) AND that mixed with ambigious plans to go camping with my host brother (ie: no access to internet to finish the application/keep up with school work) ALL led to a Shaina freak out on Thursday afternoon COMBINED with a massive headache AND one hour to finish everything before camping. So needless to say I was a wreck and decided that breaking off all of my plans and staying upset was the best solution. My host sister talked to me a bit about it and I started to feel better emotionally but nauseaus. It was horrible. But I got through it and then accomplished some things AND learned that the application was not due Friday like I originally freaked out about, it was due today (Monday) so I put that on the back burner for a bit.

• This freak out led to me making a decision to not let stress control my life. I've noticed here that the littlest things make me go crazy. So in short, I want to start slowly and calmly working through things AND spending less time freaking out. (this is ambigious I know, but I'll probably elaborate on it more another day).

• Friday: Hillary, Katrina, and I went to a "parade" in Valpo; though, I'm not sure I'd call it a parade. Now I mean parades in the US are big events usually, with like floats, music, and candy. But here was different. It was like a military procession FOLLOWED by a long pause, during which time we got really bored and uncomfortable with the people around us. Like the motorcycle man that kept talking to me and the old man that touched Hillary and the military men carrying around the loaded machine gun type things. So we left and went to the Feria.

• It was very interesting to note that here none of the big stores are open (ie grocery stores and Jumbo) during Independence Day like they sometimes are in the US. AND the metro runs slower--meaning when it comes you SPRINT to catch it, even if it means you will be charged twice because your card had an error with it the first time.
  

• Most people thought we were from Germany or Holland or Russia because of how we looked and how nice we were. However, most people respected that we wanted to talk in Spanish which was exciting and kind of unusual :)
  

• There were Chilean flags and red, white, and blue everywhere. And really cute kids dressed in traditional cueca type clothing :)

• Since nothing was opened, we ate a great lunch at the Fonda-basically a carnival/state fair type set up. Interesting to note: instead of food stands, there were little restaurants set up. All of the grills smelt super delicious!!!! We chose the best looking one AND ate Choripan (like italian sausage grilled in bread), cheese empanadas, and antichou (shoot I forgot the name again...its basically a meat kabob). It was delicious and our waiter was nice. While we were there we met a retired US marine; it was awesome. He was super excited to have someone to talk to and he shared a lot of cool places in Valpo/Vina that we should check out. He suggested that Ruby Tuesdays was worth going to--good, flavored food and the chance to see US Marines or Navy people.

• The fonda also had games-- for adults and children. Prizes ranged from stuffed animals to bottles of Pisco. Amusing to watch the 'drunk' Chileans play them. There was a knock over the world leaders game, etc. Interesting.

• The fonda had 'rides' too, including one where you could pay $6, get into a plastic ball and float around/hit other people on this water pool.

• At one point, I thought I was in the kite runner because kite competitions are very popular here. They have wars and everything.

• Saturday, I got up early and did my homework! Then ate empanadas/had a great time with friends. I had an Cheese w/ Manjar empanada--don't knock it until you try it. Then went to the Fonda, watched the guys play games, took fun pictures, and had fun! Fun faded with project time with Hillary--love her, hate the project (which got corrupted anyways and we had to redo all of our work...)
  

• On the walk to Katrina's after our project time, a gringa asked us for directions/suggestions for things to do in Vina and Valpo--woohoo we can help people :) it lasted like 30 minutes but it was fun.

• At Katrinas we made delicious pebre-basically, its pico de gallo. :) It took us two hours to cut up all of the garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, lemon, and peppers. Extremely flavorful, fresh, and SPICY. Katrina had to go down the street to buy another Sprite Zero--we killed the other one.

• I went home via micro and made my house smell like garlic.

• All week/all night it was loud outside of my house because the Sporting (place where the fonda was) is right down the road. Made for interesting times.

• Sunday was church! Window shopping with host dad's sister! And asado (BBQ): delicious--its like grilled beef, choripan, kabob heaven AND pico de gallo AND mote con huesillos!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
  

• I then did more reading and hanging out.

That's my life.
Frustrating parts include: today. It rained today. I got wet. Children's Literature was interesting. My literature espanola 4 Professor is frustrating--couldn't find her office OR get the vital outline revisions from her for our stupid take home test. That is just a brief summary because I'm really trying not to reflect on it.

There were other profound things that I wanted to say but I can't remember now. My brain has turned mushy. I have to go to class in about 40 minutes. I'll write again after my tests, etc. on Wednesday.

Until then :)
Chao!