Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Yo soy una gringa

Gringa is the affectionate (or not so affectionate--we're not sure?) term that chileanos have given to Americans. How sweet of them.Today at school, we learned about the typical stereotype of Americans to Chileanos: Tall, blond, blue eyed, and sometimes obese. Basically me, and sometimes me if I were to gain some pounds. That being said...

Today we were at the beach, watching a game of paddle ball (think tennis, minus the net with wooden paddles and no rules--not at all like tennis) that was going on behind us, and I was pretty intently watching--this is something I haven't ever seen before!--when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I wanted to play..My immediate response was no. I lack hand-eye coordination to do things like that in public. Aften and Casey egged me on, saying this was the only time I would get to make a fool of myself in front of people that I will never see again. So I figured, what do I have to lose?, and decided to play.

I wasn't half bad, if I do say so myself, but it was REALLY hard, mostly because it's like playing tennis in the sand. I don't have pictures to post, but I might when I get them from Casey. I was too focused on the game and trying to make as least possible fool of myself, but instead, I heard someone yell, "The gringa is playing paddleball!" and instead of people carrying out their business as usual..they were staring. I'm not even kidding. They were staring at me playing their sport.

I am a gringa.

1 comment:

Katherine said...

Hey im from the dominican republic and i find your blog really interresting, well just wanted to tell u where the word GRINGO cam from.

When the intervention of the US in mexico they were militares so their clothes were green! se mexicans used to say GREEN GO! to tell them to leave, so thats the story gringa!