Erika Can't Dance

Have you missed me? Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but fate has been trasnpiring against me. Last Wednesday, the internet was out because... it rained! People started chanting to be let out early and life basically came to a halt. I have to admit, I was a bit baffled by this, but apparently it only rains 3 or 4 times a year and there are no storm drains so it's kind of a big deal. Other than that, well, I've just been busy.

Monday my class had a bienvenida (welcome party) for me! It was fun and we had cake. Monday I also found out that my school has a hymn. That's right, we're just that cool. I thought the U.S. was supposed to be big on school pride, but from what I can tell, Chile wins this one. Other than the previously mentioned events, not much of note happened during the week, but my weekend was fairly eventful. Friday I met Tiare, Marjorie and Fabio after school and we hung out at the Jumbo (Chilean Carrefour. No that probably didn't help. Chilean supermarket.) We ate some kind of sandwich with beef, avacado and tomato. As far as I can tell, all Chilean fast food consists of sandwiches with avacadoes and tomatoes. On a somewhat related note, completos (hot dogs with, you guessed it, avacadoes and tomatoes) are actually not bad.

But anyways, back to my weekend. Daniella, the girl I sit next to in class had a birthday party Saturday! That's right, my first Chilean party! The invitation said it started at nine, so I showed up at 9:15 or so thinking I would be fashionably late. This was not the case. When I got there, one other person was there. Apparently in Chile, 9:00 actually means 10:30. The next hour or two people spent talking and smoking (yes, really), and around eleven or so, we sang happy birthday. Somebody pushed the birthday girl's head into the cake, but come to think of it, this happened at my bienvenida too (to someone else). Note to self: Ask if this is normal or if all of the people you know are just weird. After the cake, people started to dance to, you guessed it, reggaeton. It actually has a better beat for dancing than the music they play at parties in the U.S. The bad news, however, was that everybody here actually knows how to dance. This is really only bad news because I do not know how to dance (see title). I gave it my best shot anyways, but one of my goals for this year has become to learn how to dance. My other goal is to eat an obsecene amount bread and butter.