My school here in Talca, Chile is called Colegio de la Salle and is about to celebrate its anniversary. It is one of the oldest schools in Chile so celebrating it is a big deal. 

We have a whole week to have parties and play games. This is called “Alianzas.” Each grade has to do something for their Alianza. There has to be games, foods, and entertainment. Since I am in cuarto medio (senior year) we have the most responsibilities. 

They had to choose a king and queen to put on dances and represent the class. When we were taking votes, for some crazy reason they wanted me to be the queen. At first, I said yes thinking that it would be a fun experience. Then, my friends rushed over to me reminding me I have to speak in front of the whole school and dance as well. {sidebar id=65}

Everyone knows I get embarrassed easily, so they wanted to warn me of what I was getting myself into. When they told me, I immediately turned down the opportunity knowing my face would be as bright as a tomato and I would stutter and get insanely nervous. Plus, I would never put the audience through the pain of watching me dance.

The theme this year is Disney. I cannot wait to dress up as a princess for three days straight. They don’t celebrate Halloween much here, which I was very disappointed about because I love to dress up and organize costumes. The Alianzas is in May and everyone is already in a frenzy over it deciding who will dance what dances and what jobs we all have to do.

The culture here just likes to have any reason to skip school or work and celebrate something no matter how silly it is.

As much as my Spanish is improving, my English is now terrible. I have constant grammatical and spelling errors and I often question my word choices. I am so embarrassed because the English teachers at my school always ask me grammar questions. I am always embarrassed to say that I was never taught grammar as well as I had hoped. My friends make fun of me for this, but when I ask them questions on grammar in Spanish, they don’t know either. Grammar for your native language should be more of a requirement all over the world.

I also find myself writing a sentences in English with the form they should be written in Spanish. It feels as if I am translating Spanish to English.

When I came to Chile, I was still packing my things up on the morning of my flight. I was too stressed out to think of bringing a mountain of books to read. I stumbled upon the book “The Devil Wears Prada” when my parents came to visit. It is about 400 pages and I am a relatively slow reader. It had been so long since I had read that I finished the book within two weekends. It had been 6 months since I had read a book and it felt so good.

My friend lent me a relatively easy book that is in Spanish and I am so excited to start reading it. It will be interesting to see how much I understand. I am certain it will improve my Spanish, which is my number one goal. My friends all tell me that my Spanish is nearly perfect, but I feel like I lack so much vocabulary. Vocabulary is what I will work on in the next three months.

Three months is all I have. My flight is June 12, 2013 at 9:30pm. Get ready Ventura! Here I come.