miscellany

Since I didn't post really at all last week, here are a few things to catch up on: 

I tagged along to my friend's host brother's birthday party.  When was the last time you were at a 13th birthday party? Do you remember how awkward those gatherings are? My friend Dan and I were enjoying ourselves just people-watching the youngins, and then we made the mistake of joining in on a soccer game in the yard.  One of my shots on goal clocked a fifth-grader square in the face.  He was ok though!  Just in the way.  Afterwards Dan's host dad told me, in all sincerity, that I play really well for a girl.  There are so many things I wanted to object to, but he meant it as a compliment and I didn't feel like trying to protest in Spanish.  Instead Dan and I dazzled (?) the crowd with our Gangnam style dance, a weekly event at that house.  Pretty sure all the 13-year-olds hated us.

Also I went to the hospital yesterday!  It's not as serious as it sounds.  There are no clinics here, so if you want medical attention but don't have an appointment at your own doctor's office (so if it's urgent, or the weekend), you just go to the ER.  I've had a cold hanging on for a few weeks, and on my birthday I was feeling a little funky, and then I woke up in the middle of the night freaking out because I thought they had turned the furnace on and transported me downstairs without waking me up (but really I was just in my own bed, and delirious). The next morning when I told my host parents that they immediately wanted to take me to the hospital, so we went.  Turns out it's just a virus, and I have meds now! But the doctor thought that it might be pneumonia and wanted to take xrays, and then let me keep them!  Look at my beautiful lungs! 

And then, today, I finally got my Chilean ID card!  One the one hand, I am very glad to have it because getting it was a long and tedious process, but on the other hand... it is by FAR the worst in my long history of horrible ID photos.  I mean, it's bad.  For some reason I thought you weren't allowed to smile at all.  Let's attribute it to the language barrier, shall we? I don't even want to show it, it's just embarrassing. 

But I will! (embarrassment has never held me back) 

Don't I look like I just murdered someone for making fun of my wonky eye?  On the plus side, no one will mess with me now.  I'd like to see them try!  Last week on our family trip there came a moment when we needed to reprimand someone who had cut us in line, and I offered to start yelling obscenities in English (to confuse him, you know, and maybe intimidate him a little with my foreign rage), and the guy in question may or may not have overheard my rehearsal, because our problem was solved! So now the host family always jokes that they'll just send me in cursing up a gringo storm when need be.  Glad to be of service!