no soporte cuando...

I can't stand the environment that English-speaking exchange students create. I walk outside of Casa Central and I hear English. I walk inside Casa Central and I hear English. I get on the micro, English. You are in a Spanish-speaking country for a reason! They all talk about the same things, Chilean things that are annoying, food they can't find here, and alway always always where they are traveling. This annoys me for multiple reasons. First of all, you should explore the city you are living in/next to to begin with, and most have not done so, or only know the nightlife and not any other aspect of the culture. Two, don't tell me you are going to "do" Chiloé" or La Serena or any other place you cannot possibly get to truly know in terms of the culture and the people and the place in the short weekend you are there. Three, I don't want to hear you talking because it is always in English, and you wonder why your Spanish has not improved? Four, you are living here as a student, take some time to live here as a student. Be a commuter, live as a Chilean. You can still travel, but live this way too. Nearly all do not.

I talked to one gringa today that spoke to me exclusively in Spanish, the rest responded to my Spanish with English, to which I responded in Spanish and for which they replied in... you guessed it, English. You all bore me. Any extranjero that is not from the US usually is about a hundred times more willing to speak in Spanish. Some exchange students don't even have classes with Chileans. This is an idiotic idea. I want to cry for being in the gringa classes, not for the profe or the content, I like that part, but for the gringos, I can't take much more of it.

The most atrocious thing I have heard is that the gringas are bored. Bored. Why? They have to go to class and live in Valpo and Viña. Seriously? Go outside of your house. Meet some Chileans. Practice your Spanish, which is why you are here (or why you should be here) in the first place. Get out of your comfort zone. Talk to Chileans without making fun of how they talk. Ask what something means instead of looking it up in a dictionary. Before you do that, talk around whatever you don't know how to say by using what you already know, you will then learn from a native speaker how to say it properly, and look at that, the conversation was still entirely in spanish. Learn from context. Learn from conversation. Learn from mistakes. And don't talk to me. You can talk to gringas at home all the time in English, that is not why you are here. I often arrive at home in a bad mood, sometimes angry, from hearing stuff like this, especially before, during, and after my culture class, which is great except for this aspect. I understand it is easy to relate to people like you, people in the same situation as you, people with thinks in common; it is comfortable, it is easy. This is also not why you are here. And you have a lot in common with Chileans anyway.

I am currently on amoxicillin for my ear infections. When I bothered to look up the symptoms, the list included irritability, volatile mood swings, aggressiveness, disorientation, and easy fatigue. hmm, these 5 things match exactly how my body feels right now, physically and mentally... I might be reacting too strongly as I write this. I should be quarantined from gringa classes for this week so I don't accidently explode on someone. Lara, I have a better idea/sympathetic understanding of your 'roid rage effects now :)