It's been about a week since my last post. A lot has happened but also not that much! We have started our language class which is 5 days a week for 4 hours a day so that has kept me pretty busy. It seems like a lot of time (60 hours in 3 weeks!) but it passes by quickly because I really enjoy it! All of the people in my program are so nice and easy to get along with and the class is centered more on discussion and learning chilean culture which is much better than the same old grammar exercises and flashcard learning. Last week I got the pleasure of registering my visa and applying for a chilean ID card ( got to wake up at 6 in the morning to do so!) which was pretty much as fun as any DMV trip but also worse because everything is in spanish. I hope that my spanish is improving but it's hard when all my time is spent with my US friends and after about 3 minutes in Spanish we give up and revert back to english. Hopefully we can all improve together by cutting out more of our native tongue haha.
One of the days last week I went with my friend Rachel to explore our little neighborhood of Ñuñoa and there is so much to see outside my 8 minute walk to campus! We went to plaza Ñuñoa where there is basically the city hall for our neighborhood and we saw some awesome bench art:
So I'm sure you're all wondering what I did to celebrate the 4th of July... and if I'm being completely honest, nothing really! The intention was to go to this Cantina California because it's supposed to be the spot for americans and our celebrations of the 4th but our group split up and 6 of us ended up hanging out with our "cultural mentor" from the program and his chilean friends, which was a blast! We found ourselves at a salsoteca where I got to trip all over myself having absolutely no rhythm to try to dance. But I still had a blast! Saturday when I got up my host mom thought I was up "early for a Saturday" even though it was nearly 11, I guess I have some shoes to fill when it comes to coming home late and sleeping all day.
I think one of my new favorite activities is finding new coffee places and trying all sorts of coffee (plus there tends to be wifi at all these cafes). One was a bookstore that I definitely want to go back to check out some chilean books. Another was a type of cafe commonly known as "café con piernas" because the waitresses are known to dress in short skirts and be very pretty, this one was called Café Caribe and it was quite possibly the best cappuccino I've ever had. The most recent cafe was where my group was planning our presentation for class, and wowzas their caramel lattes are sweet!!
There are so many things to look forward to! This weekend I'll be heading to Isla Negra which is on the coast for the final project that we have for our spanish class and I also have my flight booked to go visit my friend Kevin (who was a student at my high school from Chile) in Antofagasta!
Although I have come down with a little bit of a cold, I'm taking it easy while trying to not miss out on too many adventures.
On the note of my name.... my host mom calls me Faith like 90% of the time( 50% of which follow her catching herself calling me Joyce) and I haven't seem to be able to find a solution to the whole debacle. Aaaaand last week when I was introduced to one of my cultural monitor's friends, he asked me my name and when I told him, his was response was "¿En serio?" which translates as you'd think to: Seriously? ...... awesome, now people just think I'm joking. oh well, I'll keep you updated on people's comical responses to my name.
Here you can see one of my bomb lunches my host mom has made and the makings we have for salad pretty much every day.. Lunch is the main meal so we eat wonderfully. (And always with a ton of avocado)
It's hard to believe I have been here for 2 weeks! I'm finally getting a hold of directions in my neighborhood, which micro(bus) to take, and where to get to the nearest metro. Also, we have had a little bit of warmer weather the last couple days! Which is nice only having to wear one layer of clothing (: I'm so excited for the next 5 and a half months and all the adventures it has in store!
ciao!
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