Travels, Rambles, and All Things Useless: Carrete, carrete, y carrete

I'm starting to see a lot of advantages in only hanging out with people that don't speak English. My Spanish is growing very quickly. I'm easily able to converse with the Mexicans, Chileans, and French students. It shocks me everyday how quickly I picked up the language. Sadly, I am starting to learn a lot more Chilean than Spanish. We use words that people from other countries don't understand. A few common examples are:

Weon/weona - bro, dude, can also be offensive when said with a different tone
Pololo/ Polola - Boyfriend and Girlfriend
Sipo, yapo, nopo, po - We add the word "po" to the end of everything. It doesn't really change anything

While I did come here to study Spanish, the best part about the other students is that they really, really know how to party. Not to brag, but I honestly believe my last 4 days could have killed Chuck Norris. I haven't made it home before 4am. These kids are crazy!!! We all usually meet up around 10 to have a "previa" (pregame) at one the Mexicans' houses. We stay there until about 12 or 1 depending on if we have to be at a club by a certain time. During previa, we all drink either pisco, rum, or beer. We play music from all over the world and just kind of hangout, but completely in Spanish. After previa, we are off to the next place. It varies from bars, clubs, discoteques in Viña or Valpo. I have been to at least 50 different clubs here. To get to the clubs in Valpo, we all jam onto one of the micros (bus) and take a 20 ride. The micros are insane because you are jammed in there like sardines and everyone is heading to clubs. We really need these in the United States. Once we arrive at the club, we usually stay until about 4am and just dance, dance, and dance. The students from the United States here do the exact same thing, but the students from Mexico, France, and Chile are just waaaaaaaay crazier. There is a difference in experience. They have been going to clubs before they came to Chile, while most of the gringos here are under 21. Here is a summary of my last 4 days:

Wednesday
Previa until about 2am, went to Cafe Journal to check out Gringo Night with some Chilean friends. Bounced around to a few bars and finished the night off with a trip to McDonalds around 4am. This was the calmest night since I had class at 9am the next day.
Thursday
We managed to get on the list at a club in Valpo called La Sala. It is a fantastic place to go dance. Due to a early previa, all of us were feeling very borrachos (drunk). While dancing like drunken fools, we found a random streamer around a pole. Instantly, we knew what must be done. We removed the streamer, broke it up to many pieces, and tied it around our heads similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We rocked them all night long while dancing until about 3:30 am. I woke up with it around my head and was very, very confused. We almost got in a fight that night to. Some drunk girl got in the face of my friend, Sven, and of course her pololo jumped in. I pulled Sven away, balled up my fist, and was ready to swing. We still have no idea what is was about, but it got very tense for no reason. There are a few pictures from that night at the end of this post.
Friday
Basically the same as Thursday except in Viña.

Three nights in a row of crazy partying. Today we all went to the beach and just played a little bit of soccer. I have been here for 2 months, and I think keep thinking at some point I'm going to lose that feeling of absolute awe but it has yet to happen. I can honestly say I have never been happier!! Tomorrow we are going Trekking, so you guys will get another blog post soon!