Today we started grammar class. Our teacher Marcelo speaks quickly and really gives us a run for our money. I like him a lot he seems very smart. We talked a lot about poverty in Chile and the United States...we got into some touchy subjects and political debates...but it was all in good fun to learn. Chile has a presidential election in a week and it is an exciting time. One candidate is socialist and the other is just kinda socialist....very different from the United States.
After class I went out with my friends for lunch, and we went to a local park. American girls get a lot of attention and we had another example of that today. We were sitting in the grass and a man selling water came up to us. He opened a bottle and tried to give it to my friend Kristin. Since we aren't too familiar with the culture she said "no gracias" because we didn't know if he wanted money for it or anything. The girls pretended not to be able to speak spanish but the man kept trying to give the bottle away. He was drunk and he spilled some on the girls in the process. Finally he came over to me and gave it to me. I took it but didn't drink any of it. I sat it down on the grass next to me. I didn't want to get in an argument of payment or cost or anything so I didn't drink any.
That obviously upset the man because about five minutes later he stormed over, grabbed the bottle, and poured it out right next to me on the ground. I had to move out of the way. Then he threw the bottle at the ground and went back to his friends. I didn't say anything and kept to myself...he's lucky I'm scared of Chilean jail!
About 10 minutes later we got up to leave the park. The park is really beautiful and I wanted to keep it that way so I picked up the bottle and the cap and walked toward a trash can. The man yelled to me, I turned around, and he threw a biscuit type pastry at me. I smiled to myself, walked away and threw away the bottle. Maybe what we did was very rude in their culture...we obviously still have a lot to learn.
I watched a movie in Spanish in my room and I'm getting ready for bed now because we are all going out tomorrow at 8am to get our Chilean identification.
Hasta luego
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