Katy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Okay, so the title may be sliiiiightly overdramatic but not by much. I guess it was bound to happen: my first grumpy day in Chile! I knew it pretty early in and, really, would have been better served to just go back to bed (everyone would've been better served, actually). But, alas, I am FAR too responsible a student to ditch class.... yet!

The first sign of trouble was when I got on the bus this morning and there were what I would conservatively estimate as 2 billion people on it. Needless to say, I spent the half hour standing and being touched by a minimum of four different people at any given time. I've gotten fairly used to this in my first two weeks here and would normally just smile about it, suck it up and try to make polite chatter with whoever happens to be standing 2" from my face. Today I just got annoyed. When we were already packed in like sardines (seriously, people were pressed up against the doors) and we got to the next stop and they were shoving (literally!) more people on, I almost screamed. Out loud. Things went downhill from there.

When I finally made it to class, covered in sweat (have I mentioned the buses are not air conditioned?), recovering from my post-claustrophobic trauma, and still terribly exhausted from the weekend, I walked in only to find that we were studying grammar. I hate grammar. A lot. Seriously, who knows what a participial adjective or a modal auxiliary verb is? Anyone? (Heidi, you don't count). And, more importantly, who cares? When she gave us a paper with a whole short story written out and we were instructed to identify the part of speech of EVERY single word, I almost broke down into tears. Seriously. I was just too tired to deal. And then we were assigned a 5-page research paper on.... ready?.... a grammar theme. Five pages on the passive voice. And I'm PAYING for this!

Then on the way home, I suddenly felt SO tired that I thought I was going to be physically sick. But of course it was packed and I had to stand. Finally, about half way home on my second bus, it cleared out a bit and I was able to sit down. Finally! Rest for the weary! And then, I kid you not, no more than 30 seconds later, the bus broke down. Oh, SO close to tears. But instead I sucked it up and walked to get another one. That was good times, fitting everyone from OUR bus onto another bus which was already full.

Finally.... home. Aaaaaaah. I went out to the back yard to read my homework for tomorrow and Edgar y Maria were sitting out there, too. So we all just sat together in the shade with the Andes Mountains in view, reading and chatting. It was lovely. Then dinner. Both Edgar y Maria had eaten already but they both came in to sit with me and talk while I ate my lentil soup. I told them about my bad day and what a 'mal humor' (bad mood) I had been in and they laughed and I laughed and then I felt better. Just like that.