MADNESS

Twas mere minutes before I was in the center of that blue floor when this picture was taken.

Seeing all the younger children (my school goes from ages 4-18) dancing was so ADORABLE; they were so confused, running around in little circles. Some of them even fell down!

My favorite performance was Caporal, a traditional dance of northern Chile. My gosh, the men’s part looked FUN!!!! Skipping around, doing jump squats and fancy footwork—I had a friend teach me a part of it later.

For the Juniors, the dance was Cueca (inspired by the courtship of a rooster and a hen). In other words I had to learn a traditional Chilean dance in a matter of days—and perform it. 

Hint: I'm purple.

It went alright, I guess, though the flood of compliments I got would say otherwise (but people are just trying to be nice, I think).

For better or worse, that was far from the last time I dressed up in not-my-usual clothing.

La Alianzas

My life here was made about 10x more confusing with this 3-day school-wide running-around-like-a-chicken-with-it’s-head-cut-off chaos (there actually were tiny children dressed like chickens).

Here's my proof.

I was so SO lost.

And it was a blast.

I still don’t know if I understand enough to explain it, but I’m going to try.

La Alianzas are an annual school-wide event celebrating the anniversary of the school. The grades were split into two teams: “Verde” (“green”) and “Azul” (“blue”). Again, it lasted 3 days.

On the first day, the school gave us caramel cake and coca-cola for breakfast. People here have more school spirit than I’ve ever seen in my LIFE. In other words, I ended up in all blue clothes (and blue hair), shouting “A-ZUL A-ZUL A-ZUL” like a very LOUD broken record everywhere I went.

I'm sorry, this is the only picture I have of us getting ready for the day in the classroom.

The juniors (my class) were in charge of organizing the dances and decorations for the blue team. They planned all this DURING class, which was a bit of a shock. We technically only had 3 days off school, but with how much actual school we missed, it was more like two weeks off classes.

All three days, there were all sorts of activities in the gym including but not limited to: games like trivia, relays with bottle flips and cup stacking, and sports like soccer and hockey. At one point, there was even a cake decorating competition. 

PLUS there was a lot of freedom. When the noise got to be too much or my friends and I just got tired, we would simply walk to the courtyard and play ping pong or volleyball. It was perfect. 

I'm telling you, everyone went nuts.

DANCE BATTLEEEEEEE

Anyway, as part of the school-wide competition, there was a dance battle. There were two types of dances. “Doblajes” which had 2-6 (?) people and lasted about 20-30 seconds, and the “flash mob” which had idk, a LOT of people, and it lasted a minute or two. 

As an attempt to say “yes” to everything as Rotary advises, I was in 2 doblajes, with songs and dances that I most definitely would have never picked on my own, but it was all so EXCITING! Laughing with Sara (host-sister) in our respective ridiculous outfits, learning the dances after school every day, trying to dance in 6-inch heels (OMG I just CAN’T)...

And people cheered so hard for me when I walked into the center of the gym to do my first dance that I just HAD to give a lil wave ;)

Yes, there are videos out there, but if I could, I would burn them all with 10 gallons of gasoline. In other words, y’all ain’t seeing nada.

Then there was the RACING to the bathroom to change clothes after the first dance, literally CRASHING into people… it was just SO. FUN. 

Anyway, the dance competition (all the doblajes and flash mobs of the blue and green team) happened the first day. The next day was the battle of the bands. And the last and final day… was my nightmare. A.k.a. a lot of pink.

PINK MESS

The last day… my gosh, I still don’t know what was happening, but everyone was dressed up as characters, and I (against my will) ended up being Stephanie from LazyTown. I JUST WANTED TO BE A PIRATE.

For each of my outfits, I had a small army of people helping me find the perfect clothes, do the perfect makeup, have the perfect hair, but this one went really, really wrong; I wasn’t recognizable as neither me nor Stephanie. 

Yeaaaahhhhhh...

There was one thing that we could fix though—my wig. It needed to be far, far shorter. So, in the gym bathroom, I plopped myself on an upside down trash can, and let “my girls” go to work. All we had to work with was a blindingly neon pink plastic wig and a dull pair of children’s scissors. There was a lot of near-hysterical laughter in that bathroom.

An attempt to make something bad into something better. It didn't work.

Everyone else looked GORGEOUS in pretty feathers and pirate-esque blouses and beads, and I looked like THAT.

After a walk of shame around the school (not really but still), I ended up in a room with the rest of the team “azul”. I was with some dude dressed as the villain from LazyTown, and two random children. I watched with anxious dread as they sent each group out to the crowd. To the stage. Then it was my turn. 

All they said was “improvise”. 

Freaking fudging miserable pie with a cherry on top.

I ended up doing a cartwheel. 

After my time was done, I literally SPRINTED (I’m not kidding, I could feel the wind in my horrifying neon pink mop on my head) to the opposite side of the school to change into a hoodie and jeans.

I’m never even TOUCHING pink EVER again. EVERRRRRRR.

Later, I could've been found curled up under a pingpong table for emotional recovery.

So, with the most humiliating moment of my life over, the day continued. 

Partiessss

Later—after all the pink madness—was the last part of Alizanas. El Carrete. 

Everything they say about Chilean parties is true; they're FREAKING AMAZING. 

Parties—the before, during, and after—are irreplaceable bonding experiences here.

Did you know that there's a party before the party? It's called a Previo and it's to "warm up" for el Carrete (big party). Yeah, I didn't know that. At the Previo, there were 10 of my classmates (including me), music, snacks, games, and lots (LOTS) of dancing. We spent SIX HOURS there, and I LOVED IT. I didn’t even know that it wasn’t the actual party! 

Music and dancing really are the universal language. It was so LIBERATING to communicate and have fun without an ever-so-exhausting spoken language. 

My three favorite memories of the night: 

1. Balancing on Alonzo's shoulders, on-and-off screaming like I was going to die, and dancing without a care in the world. 
2. Racing through a meadow with the backdrop of a sun setting over mountains—I’m serious (what is my life?!?!).
3. Piling up like puppies on a couch with FIVE of my classmates (ONE couch!!!) for a group nap.

The view from the PREVIO.

I've never been much of a party girl, but… well… I've always been adaptable ;)

Then… then I got dressed up. 

After the Previo, I went to a friend’s house, and she bibbity-bobbity-booed me into a beauty. I ended up wearing a camo coat over a black crop top, ripped jeans, and a black belt. My cheeks glowed with white glitter, and the mascara, eyeliner, and lipgloss just brought it all together. I was so comfortable, confident, and POWERFUL. Like, dang!

We finally got to the ACTUAL party at 12:15 am—typical for Chileans.

If it hadn't been for the Previo, that would've been the best party I've ever been to, but everyone kept saying that it was "tan aburridaaaa" ("so boringggg"). Guess I’ll have more to tell y’all when I go to a “good” Carrete 😅 After about 30 minutes, I didn't have any more time to dance or flirt because my friend was drunk out of her mind. I spent the next hour and a half fetching water and taking care of her (honestly, thank gosh for movies—I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do otherwise). Geeeeez, girl.

At 2:30 am, several of us piled into a car to return to our homes and I ended up making & eating a hamburger at 3 am (it was deliciously delectable—or maybe I was just REALLY hungry) before finally FINALLY falling asleep, all my makeup still on.

El carrete~