Happenings and trailing off thoughts

As my parents pointed out to me this afternoon via skype, it's been a while since I last blogged and I figured I should do something about that! It hasn't been a particularly eventful past couple days, but it has been nice to start to fall into a routine and I've had the opportunity to get some stuff settled and hang out with friends.

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with the English teaching team at La Alianza Francesa School where I will be helping them teach English on Wednesdays for the semester. While it is not the ideal internship I was looking for since I will not have my own class with another internee and it;s certainly not to less fortunate children that otherwise would not have the opportunity to learn Emglish, it does seem like it will be a good experience nonetheless. None of the English Department team members are native English speakers, and while their English is very very good, I've been able to tell through emails that they aren't natives so I feel like I will be a good asset to them. I will be assisting in classes of all ages, from ages 8 to 17. We'll see how it goes! I plan on making the most of it and it will certainly look good on a resume at the least! It should be a good experience though! Plus they are feeding me lunch for free when I'm there and possibly reimbursing me for transportation (woo!).

On Wednesday evening some friends and I went on a weekly nice dinner outing we've come to refer to a "Date Night". This week, it was just me and 3 other friends and we went to a really delicious and cool pub called El Reloj and I got a quesadilla with filet mignon! YUMMY! It's nights that this one too that I enjoy the fact that I am of drinking age here, since I was able to enjoy a very good Chilean beer with my Mexican food while talking and having a good time with friends.

Following dinner, we took a rather sketch bus ride home in which we got to a bus stop where everyone else got off, the bus driver asked us where we were going, and then blasted the music, turned off the lights inside the bus, and sped down the street to let us off exactly where we had asked. Definitely a strange experience, but since there were 3 of us together it turned out to be nothing more than a laughing matter.

Thursday consisted pretty primarily of class and figuring out the whole photocopy situation a litle bit more. It turns out I was able to get photocopies of the 213 page book previously mention and thus I don't have to read ridiculous amounts since I can only keep it for 4 days! Woohoo! Slowly but surely, I will conquer this confusing, unorganized system. After class I headed over to the EAP office to pick up some mail (yay letters from Aunt Sue and Rachel!) and ask a few quick questions about my internship (which had originally given FAR too many hours).

So, now my schedule is pretty much set in stone with the exception of a possible yoga class on Monday evenings. It is as follows (and pretty sweet if I do say so):

Monday: possible Yoga at 6pm
Tuesday: Class 10-12:50, 5-7
Wednesday: Internship 9:20-4:10, Tandem Partner evening
Thursday: Class 10-12:50, 5-7
Friday: NADA

So, I have 4 day weekends, every weekend! Pretty ideal for traveling! The Tandem thing is a language practicing program through my school. I have been set up with a partner (Catalina) and we meet up for a minimum of 1 hour every week and speak English half the time (for her) and Spanish half the time (for me). Our first meeting is this Wednesday when we're meeting to walk around Bellas Artes and maybe get an ice cream. I'm really glad I'm doing this because I've sort of been feeling like I don't speak nearly enough Spanish down here. I feel like when I was really homesick I sort of reevaluated what I wanted to get out of this experience and put comfortability above things like language and culture and now I need to reevaluate that again. I feel comfortable now and will even soon be living with a good friend, so i need to delve back into really trying to learn the language a little more. As far as culture, you experience that regardless. It's impossible not to what with the splendid cultural norms of Chilean men, the fabulous Metro that sometimes is great and other times makes you sweat like you just ran 6 miles after being shoved in like sardines, and so much more. Just living here is experiencing the culture, plus I think my Tandem partner will help me with that too.

As far as classes are concerned, they seem like they won't be that bad (I hope I don't regret saying that). Political Geography has a lot of reading but it's also very manageable. It has 4 tests, but the professor said that out of the 2 questions, exchange students can either answer 1 in Spanish or 2 in English and we can have a dictionary out. I want to try and do every thing I can in Spanish as far as classes are concerned and feel confident I'll be able to, but it's still just nice to know we have a buffer. We also have to watch "V for Vendetta" for the first test which is April 8th which is pretty awesome! Population Geography really just seems pretty easy to be honest. We've just been talking about census's and birth/death/infant mortality rates, etc. Nothing big and a lot of conceptual stuff that just comes down to memorization. My 3rd class, which is on Chilean Culture, doesn't start until April 6th but should be interesting enough! I've heard it's actually kind of boring, but at least I'll learn some neat things and hopefully understand more of Chile after it.

Friday can be summed up as follows: no más Terremotos. Nevertheless, it was nice to go out and get to see some of the people from our program we don't see very often.

Yesterday, Gina and Lindsay and I went to Parque Arauco and ate some BOMB salads which is a HUGE accomplishment for Chile which has a pretty sad rendition of what a salad should be (some lettuce, separated from some tomatoes, with some lemon juice squeezed on top, covered with some salt). These salads had crutons, were mixed, had good lettuce, carrots, mozarella cheese squares, and vinegar and oil for dressing. YUM. There was also a really good live band playing while we ate which was really neat. Afterward, we went and saw "La Caja Mortal" or "The Box" in English, or "the worst movie I've ever seen". It was so bad that it was funny/dumb/I actually considered walking out. We should have seen "How to Train a Dragon" haha. Then, after another lovely bus ride home with 10ish drunk young Chilean men catcalling us from the back of the bus, we returned home for the night.

Today Gina and Lindsay and I went for a 90 minute run as our last (slash only 3rd) long run before the half marathon in 2 weeks. I've been running these long runs down here without intervals which is definitely harder, but is starting to feel pretty good. It was a hard run, but felt pretty good! After the run we went to a restaurant we had eyed out on a previous long run called Crepes & Waffles. It was delicious, but as it turned out eating a nutella, ice cream, whipped cream, banana waffle after running 9 miles isn't the greatest idea. We all sat still for a good while after finishing the food, but it was definitely worth it!

We are heading up to the slight north on Thursday which should be amazing for a long weekend to La Serena (beach town) and Valle de Elqui since we have Thursday and Friday off of school for Easter. It's going to be very strange for me not to be home on Easter since it's always a pretty large holiday in my family. It's the first time I will not go to church and hunt Easter eggs and baskets and be at a large family and friend celebration ever. It's probably a very good thing I'll be traveling with friends over the holiday since otherwise I'd probably get pretty homesick that day.

After moving this coming Thursday and the week following when things really get settled in our new temporary home I feel like a real routine will set in. Before I know it, it'll be a month from now and my Dad will be here! I'm so excited!

I feel like I need to focus a little more on being here and living here. Recently I've been incredible excited about next year and the summer and thinking of all the things I'm going to do immediately after I get home. While it's fine I am excited for these things, it's probably not help ward away homesickness (which has faded, but will likely always be here in some way). So, my goal is to try and really BE here. It's way easier said than done, but even if I succeed in the slightest slightest way, it'll be good. I'll start with the Tandem program and perhaps a pickup game of girls soccer that happens on weekends and just see where I go from there.

I love you all and miss you more than I could ever really say. I truly am learning so much down here, about so much more than Chile and Spanish but about life and friends and family.