Friday July 13th, 2007

Friday, July 13, 2007

11:30 pm

So much to write, so little time. This morning began as usual, with my American roommates, speaking English, followed by trying to understand some basic instructions in Spanish regarding our new cellular phones. Most students bought a prepago phone which we can use to keep in touch with our Chilean friends. It costs 1 peso per second, or about $1 US dollar every minute. Its pretty ridiculous. I can send texts for 50 pesos, so about 10 texts for a dollar. Any phone calls or texts I receive are free (that’s the only plus side). We then had lunch followed by our first session with our Chilean tutors for our class Chile Contemporeano. Its going to be a lot more intense than anyone expected. We are in groups of about 8 students per tutor and we have tons to read (articles, letters, etc.) and we have to write a vitícula everyday. Its basically a dairy/journal/yes I’m paying attention paper about what we talk about in class, our perspectives of Chile/Santiago and its culture, politics, economics, etc., events in the news, our host families, basically anything. Our teacher is named Gabriel and he seems pretty cool. He’s an older gentleman but he speaks clearly and definitely knows his stuff.

After our class, I had the wonderful, anxious, exciting, most terrifying moment of the trip so far: I met my host mom and brother. They picked me up in their cute old car and we drove to their apartment in downtown Santiago. My family is basically just Senora Olga. She is actually married to a sweet old man but he lives in their house in Independencia with their perrito and little store. She also has a 34 year old son named Renaldo, or Reno who has an adorable wife and even cuter 6 year old son named Miguel. They live about 30 minutes north of downtown. Reno is a PE teacher in an elementary school and his wife is “la duena de la casa” which translates as literally “the boss of the house”. She told me she takes care of her son and her other son a.k.a. Reno. They are an adorable family.

Olga is probably about 60 and incredibly sweet. I could tell she was about as nervous as I was when we first met. On the car ride to the apartment, conversation was a little slow and I think we were all trying to take in the situation. I managed to ask if she had had other students from CIEE and she told me I am here first one. She has a friend that has hosted students for a long time and recommended that she try it. Her friend lives quite close and is the host mom of my friend Natalie, so it works out perfectly!

Her apartment is really nice. It is on the third floor in the middle of a neighborhood surrounded by universities. Across the street (more of an alley turned into a makeshift parking lot) is a computer programming business. (I can pick up their wireless, but I don’t have the code. I’m going to see if I can figure out a way to get it!) The apartment has 2 bedrooms, a tiny kitchen, a living room/dining room and a back room for laundry. Its relatively roomy for the two of us. It has beautiful hardwood floors and great windows. Olga has flowers and plants everywhere and its very homey. Of course there is no central heating, but she gave me an electric blanket for my bed which seems to do the trick.

After we got the apartment and unloaded all my stuff, we walked to the supermercado and bought groceries. We all chatted along the way and I was beginning to feel more confident in my Spanish skills. Olga told me to pick out everything I like this time and next time she will know what I like. I told her I like Leche sin grasa (skim milk) and pan integral (whole wheat bread), to which Reno made funny faces and told me something along the lines of “you don’t want to be fat?”. His wife and Olga both seemed to understand that I want to try to eat healthy. I’m worried Olga will be concerned, but I’m sure it will be fine. The grocery store was scarily similar to US grocery stores, except that we walked there and back, groceries in hand. Along the way, I told Olga that I like to go to church and she was definitely pleased. She delivers communion to people on Sundays and told me I could go with her.

After the grocery store Reno drove Olga and I to the bus station to pick up Olga’s sister. Santiago traffic is insane and Reno is not afraid to drive anywhere at anytime. I was definitely praying. But in the car I warmed up a lot and understood a lot of what they both said. Olga and her sister hadn’t seen each other in two years and her sister came to visit to meet me and welcome me to Chile! She is a principal of an elementary school in “el campo en el sur de Chile”, in the country in the south of Chile. Olga and her sister are so cute to watch. I can understand her sister quite well because apparently people in el sur de Chile speak slower then in Santiago.

Back at the apartment, I played Disney Memory with Miguel and his mom. We ate “once” or the small evening meal around 8:30 which consisted of sopapias, or fried bread (not sweet like a dessert, more like fried dinner rolls), coffee or tea, and cookies. She put turkey and cheese and wheat bread out because I think she was worried that I hadn’t eaten. Olga told everyone that I am used to having a large breakfast and dinner and that lunch is very small in the states. That sparked some interesting conversation about what we eat and when. The everyone starting talking, telling stories, and laughing when I started to look completely lost. I did my best to keep up, but it was difficult. I was exhausted and had a hard time paying attention. Olga told me she was worried that I hadn’t eaten enough and Reno said I was going to go home really skinny. But I think its all the changes in the schedule and the nerves, so I haven’t been super hungry. I tried to explain this to Olga and she seemed to understand.

After dinner I gave them the gifts I brought. The didn’t know what to do with the BBQ sauce or the ball caps from KC, but they all seemed to like the pralines and quickly glanced at the photo book of New Orleans. Reno definitely got a kick out of it and I had fun time telling him about different things in New Orleans and the states. We had a great conversation about all kinds of things and I was pretty impressed with his patience and my language skills.

Overally, I can understand almost everything when they speak slowly. And when I get confused, Olga is great at breaking it down for me. I know a lot of it goes over my head, but its only been seven hours of immersion!

I can’t believe I’ve only been here 3 days. My Spanish has already improved immensely. So first night (or 8 hours of immersion) have been joyfully painful and incredibly wonderful. I know this weekend is going to be a blast hanging out with Olga and her sister while we get to know the city and I practice my Spanish.

Wow, I think that’s enough for now. A few quick other notes:

· Two times today Chilean women told me to “tranquila” (Brigeta y Olga)

· I learned the difference between picó (a bug bite) y pico (a penis)

· Veamos que pasa (We’ll see what happens) when things don’t go as planned

· I’ve learned (more like heard) more new words and phrases in the past 8 hours than in the past 4 years of my spanish education.