No Sleep 'Til Patagonia

Okay...sorry I haven't posted a blog in awhile. I've been so busy doing random things before my camping trip that starts on Thursday. So...last friday, I had my last class for the intensive spanish course. I won't get most of my grades until I'm back at school in March. However, I did get my poetry and grammar grade. I got a 6.6 out of 7. In Chile, they only grade from 0-7. An A is a 6.0 or higher. That night we wanted to celebrate by going out dancing, but every place we went was pretty lame. We just ended up calling it a night and went home. Saturday, I went to an incredible book fair. I bought Treasure Island in spanish, Bestiario by Julio Cortazar (my favorite spanish author), and an anthology of all of Pablo Neruda's poems. I also bought a modern poster of Don Quixote, and a few small pictures of the Beatles. Then, I had "once" which is between lunch and dinner at a friends house. The lasagna was incredible. Then we tried to watch a movie online, but it wouldn't work. We tried to watch the "Reader" and "Only in Your Dreams"....two really weird movies. Sunday, a 57 year old man from Washington state, named Bill, moved in my house. He's staying until May to study spanish. That morning, I went to the top of Cerro San Cristobal for mass. It was such a beautiful church. After church, I met up with Hanna to practice putting up the tent. I was surprised...we actually knew what we were doing. We were able to put it up, take it down, and put it back in the bag in less than 20 minutes. After that I played with Hanna's guest sister's daughter, Martina. She's only four years old, but she looks like she's eight. She is so funny and she loves Hannah Montana. They sell a four foot tall Hannah-tana doll in Chile and also Hannah-tana guitar hero. After getting ice cream, I was accused by the waiter of not paying enough. He didn't see the coin that was wedged inside the check folder...so fyi I'm not a criminal. Last night, I went to a Super Bowl party at the only United States bar in Santiago. There were so many people there speaking english. It was insane. I had such a great time. Today, I became Chilean. I picked up my Chilean ID card. Then, I went to Santa Lucia for a little shopping. After that, I went to my doctor's appt. to get my prescription filled. Now, I'm just preparing to go to the beach in Vina del Mar. I'm going with a guy I met here who studies at UAH. He actually studied at Loyola College in Maryland for a semester as a part of the same program I'm doing. He also plays on the club basketball team at UAH. Wednesday, I'll put up my itinerary for my camping trip.