El colegio!

On the way to school :)

I had my first day of school on Monday! I am going to a private Catholic school in the center of Salta called Colegio Privado San Marcos. We have a uniform, but it’s not so bad. We have two different outfits to wear with the collared shirt with the school logo, and we have certain days to wear each: one is with navy sweatpants, the other with a navy jumper and maroon belt. We can also wear navy sweaters or other jackets. We aren't allowed to wear makeup, but you can get away with a tiny bit hehehe.

Fer, Dana, me, Mili, this is the uniform

Here, they have five years of high school. I am in the fourth year. The school is very small, like 200 people, and goes from elementary up to high school. Everyone in the grade is in one class, and that class has one classroom. The teachers switch rooms to teach different subjects. At the beginning of class, when the teacher enters the room, everyone stands up until the teacher says they can sit. English is an obligatory class, but in the schools it is not very advanced, so if you want to learn English very well you have to go to another place.

I don’t remember if I already talked about this, but everyone here does kisses on the cheek as a greeting, so pretty much any time you are entering or leaving a place, you will kiss every person. I sort of thought it was like handshaking in the U.S., where you do it when you meet someone and mostly just adults do it, but it’s totally not like that. It is like how friends in the U.S. hug, pretty much. It’s very cute. Like, when a person comes into the classroom at the beginning of school, they will usually go around and kiss each person. :) que lindo

Monday is when I met Fer, amor de mi vida, who is sooo nice and helpful and honestly what would I do without her. She brought me an extra water bottle yesterday because I told her I hadn’t been drinking enough water. Soooo nice. She is leaving on Friday for Boston for a month and I am so sadddddd ;((( but I will be forced to talk to other people more which is good jejeje

Mira la ami <333:

y con la Dana(:

y con el dulce de durazno ayy q linda

In English class, the profe (this is what you call teachers) had me stand up and say something about Utah and my family and so on, and when I told the class how school works in the U.S., they asked if we have lockers (yes), and they were all very excited and said, “It’s just like the movies!” And when I said something very fast in English, they said it was like the interviews of American actors. Very funny.

Lunch is sooo long here! We have an hour and a half. All of the girls pitched for empanadas and we went to a place across the street, then went back to school to eat. We have lunch in the courtyard (???) where we also have break. After lunch, on Mondays and Wednesdays we have P.E., so yesterday this girl Pupo did a presentation about traditional games and then we tried to play one of them with rocks but it didn’t really work, then we tried to play volleyball but everyone was so bad at it so the teacher told us we could play Quemado, which is like dodgeball but not as scary jajaja.

In math I learned that here they write all of the trig identities differently, which is interesting (tan=tg, sin=sen, csc=cosec)

In geography I realized that Ecuador is called Ecuador because Ecuador is equator in Spanish! And Mediterranean is in the middle of the Earth! (medio - middle, Tierra - earth) Wow!

Then we had political science, but they were taking a test so I drew a picture and then wrote some things about the day, and by the end I realized that everyone was watching me write paaages and pages, and then they all wanted to read it so I just let them jajaja

Here is part of what I wrote:

“I had a conversation with Noah this morning which was very cute, and he told me (I think) not to be nervous for school and asked how to say ‘caballo’ in English. Also, when Seba (Seva?) left, he told me not to get a boyfriend too soon. Jajaja. I thought this was very silly, but good because it means everyone is getting used to me being around. Then we drove to school where I met with Marta the director, and she talked to me about the rules (learn things and be polite) and we walked around the school and she introduced me to the different secretaries and things. I also met the English teacher, who seems very nice and asked if I was Mormon. I said no jaja and he asked if I have any religion and I said no, and he said me too.”

“I was talking to Fer about maybe doing theatre classes here and someone said, ‘You have to go to a party! Not theatre!’ Very funny.”

Hoop earrings are very popular here. Yesterday Fer was wearing hoop earrings and we switched during Geografía Ambiental jeje, and today I wore the ones I brought. Me siento re de moda.

Yesterday we had history, but they were taking a test (they have so many tests! Today we also had a test in chemistry, which I took! in a group) so the people who had already taken it and I went to a different room where some people practiced for Model UN (they have that here!) and I just watched or talked to people. I read one of their speeches (I think it was a speech, I guess I don’t know), and I said ‘Twitter’ and ‘Trump’ in an American accent and everyone freakkkked out. It is very funny how simple things can be so entertaining. People also think it is very funny when I say phrases that are popular here, like ‘y ella’ and ‘ahre,’ which is very cute and funny. They also teach me bad words, and then tell me not to say them. They say, “you have to know them, but not say them,” even though they say them all the time jejeje. I already kind of have jokes and things with people, like people will throw me looks when a teacher does something weird or algo así, or I will just give people looks when I don't understand what's going on. I told the class that when I say 'y ella' it means I don't understand, so everyone is in on it. This all makes me feel very fuzzy and included. Yesterday morning, I literally pointed to a cookie that this guy Juanma was eating and he gave it to me. Who are these people??? So cute.

Dana, Ivo, Chino, Julian, que lindos

Today was my third day of school, and it’s honestly so fun this far, I’m having such a good time. My classmates are all re lindo and lovely, and I am understanding wayyy more than I thought I would at this point. And like I said it’s kind of a joke when I don’t understand so it’s okay! When the teachers are talking I understand pretty much everything. I am still learning everyone’s names but I am getting there!! I know most people, but there are three Santiagos, two Francos, and two Augustins (and one Augustina), so everyone has nicknames and it’s confusing but I will get there. When I meet new people, most of the time they are shocked that I understand any Spanish, which is very funny. A lot of the time people will turn to Fer and ask her to ask me things, and then she will say, “Ask her! She will understand you!” and people just don’t believe that I will understand. Which is valid because a lot of the time I don’t jejeje

One of my favorite things is to hear people doing an impression of how I speak in Spanish. It sounds terrible!

Today we went to buy lunch and Cande had french fries which I tried and they’re better than the ones in the U.S.! Obviously, I guess, jajaja, every food is better here. So I just had french fries for lunch. Mi mamá thought this was verryyy funny. Also, the chimichurri sauce here is sooo good, I had it yesterday with chicken. After I bought french fries, we walked to this other place for people to buy salads, and Salta is so cute. I know I keep saying cute, but really everything is so cute here.

After school my parents were a little late to pick me up so Fer and I went to the apartment her family has in Salta and I tried this pudding cup thingy which was kind of like yogurt but better. The view from there is very veryyy pretty, I was going to take a picture but I forgot :/

Also lots of boys have asked me if I have a boyfriend, which is hillllarrrioussss honestly. Everyone here is way more open and communicative in the U.S. Like, if someone likes your eyes or thinks you are pretty, or they like your handwriting (everyone is really into my eyes and my handwriting), they will tell you. This is just how it is. And everyone is wayyy more cariñoso which I love. I have friends from ages 2 to 84.

Yesterday mi papá helped me with chemistry homework and then trigonometry. We sat outside and it was very nice. He pretty much did the hard parts for me and then explained them ahahah but I had a good time. I like doing math here because I don’t need to try to think in English or Spanish, I can just think in numbers.

Other updates and things I have learned:

The dogs have run away I think three times since I have gotten here. Mi papá is putting up a new fence or something like that so it won’t keep happening, but it’s been pretty wack.

I had asado on Sunday! My AFS contact person was there and he is re nice I really like him. I have been trying sooo many good foods here. Every single thing I have eaten has been amazing.

It is winter and today it was 87 degrees, which is insane. I am anciosa for summer ahre

Taxes here are 20% but food is ridiculously cheap by U.S. standards. My french fries today were 30 pesos which is like $1, and that is considered kind of expensive. There is really bad inflation though; when I got here five days ago, it was 30 pesos per dollar, now it is 35. In 2001 it was a 1:1 ratio. :(

These are just random candies but my host mom told me that here people don't give change, they will just give you a little candy or something. Por eso the majority of people pay with card so payment will be exact.

Another very important thing that happened is somebody—we’ll call them anónimo because I promised I wouldn’t reveal their identity—said, “En quien creen los Mormones? Will Smith?” which means, “Who do the Mormons believe in? Will Smith?” I practically died of laughter but I did not literally die. Sooo funny.

And this is to prove that I'm not the only person who eats lemons! I am not crazy! :)))

Things I have learned that they say here are:

Posta, which is like  “Really?”

Ahre, which is kind of to indicate that you’re being sarcastic

Pue, which is pues (well) but without the s

Che, bro, but everyone says it, not just people who would say bro

Y ella, ummm I don’t even know how to explain this, people just say it all the time

Eu, like ‘yo’

Acá, nobody says aquí

And then they call everyone boludo or boluda, which is technically a bad word but people use it as a name kind of

They also say “plis” for typing please, “sori” for sorry, and everyone says “fak” (fuck) a lot because it’s in English so nobody cares, very cute

Pretty much everyone uses nicknames for everyone else, people have randomly started calling me Sami which is the cuuuutest thing ever and the way they say it is so cute, so much here is cute, like the living version of a hug

Capaz, maybe

Re, really

Overall, everyone is so cute here, I love everyone, I'm having a good time and eating a lot of good stuff, that is all thank you