She Lives!

As promised, here's my very delayed update after a week's worth of Chilean craziness!

On Saturday, I finally met my host sister Valeria. She and her husband Tomás came over for lunch and brought their puppy Malu (she's the third of Dali and Gala's litter). This was a real test for my Spanish skills... luckily I made it through! And only had to explain something in English once. Pretty excellent for Day 4. As our lunch ended, everyone decided to take a siesta but I decided to figure out my next move: where to go for the night.

I decided to go to the theater with my friend Hilary and her host parents. They picked me up in their car and bantered back and forth the whole way there. It was hilarious, especially when we realized that our directions were wrong and we started driving around in circles, up and down the same streets looking for the place. The whole time, her host mom would add her two cents and her host dad would ignore everything she was saying. After unsuccessfully driving around for an hour with our own entertainment in the car, Hilary and I saw the most amazing/ridiculous sight: A drunk man on a horse, riding on the road. HA! Only in Chile.... he was swaying back and forth and cars were swerving around him. Priceless.

After giving up on the show, her parents decided to treat us at one of their favorite restaurants... a pizza joint. Who knew that Chileans loved pizza so much?

Finally we made it back to Hilary's to get ready to go out and her host dad took out his really powerful (and illegal in the US :D) laser pointer and showed us the stars. Turns out that since we are in the southern hemisphere, we look at a different set of stars. I guess I knew that, but I was really cool to see different constellations. Here dad showed us the southern cross, making sure that we knew if we were ever lost, we could use it to find south. Survival skills.

Soon after, we were out - carrete! - but alas, Chileans don't begin to go out until.. ehh 1? So we stayed for a little while and more people showed up and soon the discoteque was at full blast. Around 3:30, we got tired (it had been a long week) and we decided that it was time to go home. We got in trouble with the Chileans we had met because according to them, you stay out til 5 and then go to an after party somewhere else. A little ambitious for us on Day 4.

So I made it home safely, but as a stepped in my room I realized that the dogs had been there too. My pen had been chewed and my journal was no where to be found...

So here I am, 4 am - creeping around my house and looking for the dogs, trying to see if they had taken my journal and eaten it. No success. I had some weird dreams that night. Can't remember exactly, but they definitely involved my journal...
In the morning, I woke up and decided to look behind my bed... Alas! All was right in the world and the dogs didn't eat it! It just fell behind the bed... catastrophe avoided. Phew.

That day, I went with Marco to have lunch with his kids (José Thomás - 21, Juan Pablo - 18, and Alejandra - 12). They were great and we spent the whole lunch comparing things from Chile to things from the US. Juan Pablo, who can speak English, helped translate along the way. We ranged from Alejandra's love of Twilight (she asked me if I had ever met Taylor Lautner... haha) and Juan Pablo's obsession with Final Fantasy and WWF (those were a little harder for me to talk about.. but I showed him my best John Cena move) to September 11th and how I felt about the day. Quite the lunch.

On Monday, we had to take care of more CIEE business. Took pictures for school ID's, talked about the upcoming week, and went to an orientation for exchange students at U. Chile. Nothing super interesting. On the other hand, Abby, Madeline, and I went exploring after class to find Abby's new favorite cafe (a la JJ's at Vandy). As we wondered through the parks to find it, we came across ridiculous amounts of PDA. Turns out people will do anything here in public, no shame. Sometimes it's kinda odd...definitely not the norm in the US. I guess that's something to get used to? After that, Mads and I rode to our metro stop and the switched to our separate buses. This was my first time riding this bus, but I figured it couldn't be too hard, right?

WRONG! I assumed that it stopped at every stop. This is not the case. In order to get off, you have to push a button. Yes, yes I know this makes sense, but I didn't realize at the time. So the bus flew by my stop, turned right, and went about a mile down the street before it stopped again. Great... I crossed the street, hopped on another bus going the opposite direction and then hastily pushed the button. Too soon. I didn't want to miss my stop again! At point, I just decided it was easier to walk...

When I got home, I found that my mom had bought an electric estufa (heater) for my room. YAY! Turns out that winter here isn't too bad in the day, but at night it's rough because the temperature drops and central heating is really expensive here. Therefore, my house feels like an icebox. I've been sleeping in sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and socks every night. Occasionally, I add leggings or a North Face.. or even a hat to the mix... Brrr. But the heater has done wonders - I think I am in love with it.. not really, but still.

The rest of the week has followed much of the same pattern. We had class in the morning - "Contemporary Chile" - where we learned about Chilean (the language of tchi-le), its history, and the poetes and artists here. That has been interesting, but the best part of each day is the field trip.

Tuesday we went to El Mercado Central and La Vega, two of the HUGE markets in the city. As a small pack of obvious "Estadounidenses", it wasn't surprising that around every corner, we heard so sort of cat call..6 girls (3 of them blonde, which isn't common here) and one teacher. Tough to avoid. Chileans are not shy about anything. The best one was when one called out "I can be your man!".. haha thank you for offering..


On Wednesday, we saw some historic structures and after a couple of us found a little restaurant in the "Wall Street" of Santiago. Let's just say there were only men in there and we got a bunch of odd stares. Who knows? Maybe it could become our new 'spot' and these men will have to get used to us...

Thursday was the best. We climbed to the top of Santa Lucia and we were able to see the whole city! It was the best day because it was post-rain, so the smog had lifted off of the Cordillera.

Today we visited one of Pablo Neruda's houses, hit up another cafe after, and then I saw Shrek 4 tonight (in Spanish of course!). Madeline, Abby, and I made some friends at the movie theater -and of course the first question was "where are you from?..." Haha I guess we're a dead giveaway since we talk much slower.

Like I said before, it's been a pretty crazy week. I'm pretty sure I saw the Chilean version of Justin Long on the metro. They played Madonna's "Celebration" - the techno version - on the train (Katie, that's for you!), I found more notes in the bags - "Can I hold him? But I would liiike to touch it", and Brett - I owe you about 5,000 punches. There are many VW's here and I've seen a couple dealerships.

Life is good. My spanish is definitely improving and I'm understanding more and more every day. We shall see what tomorrow brings!