Monday, August 27, 2007
I woke up early to go to campus before class so I could print off my papers and finish my education assignment. It was a hassle, but I got it all printed off. I went to my Social Doctrine class and instead of listening, I worked on my assignment. Then I went to mass, then to the dreaded Education. Luckily they didn’t collect the assignment, but we have a test on Wednesday so I actually need to learn all this stuff! They handed back the first assignment we turned in and I got a 5.1 out of 7, which was actually better then a lot of the Chileans in the class. For the pop quiz we had, one of the TA’s came and talked to me and told me that I could re-do it and turn it in on Wednesday. Part of me feels a little guilty like I’m milking the extranjera card, but the other part of me knows that I definitely have a disadvantage and should appreciate any slack they give me!
After class Christian fine combed my essay. Every once in a while he would just add a sentence or redo an entire sentence. I’d didn’t mind because since he is a history major he definitely knows what he is talking about. I printed it off with the glorious feeling of being DONE! We ate lunch, and then I ran to the metro to get to my next class in time.
In my Bible class, the professor/Jesuit talked about interpretation. I was able to follow along better then I ever have before. I even understood a joke!! (Summary: Jesus was with the woman who was going to be stoned for sleeping with a man. He said, “Whoever is without sin may cast the first stone”. All the sudden a stone came flying at the woman and Jesus looked up and said, “Mom, you don’t count.”
After class I met up with 3 other kids in the program that were all in my tutor group for our Chile Contemporeano class. We ate dinner and then went to a Contemporary Guitar concert at La Católica. Gabriel, our tutor from our Chile Contemporeano class, is a composer and they performed one of his guitar/flute dos. It was incredible and honestly my favorite duo of all they played. Gabriel was thrilled to see us and I think he was honored that we came. (Plus it doesn’t hurt that he is the one grading our essays, so I think I got some bonus points!)
I walked home from the concert and when I got there Miguel was watching TV. He jumped up and yelled, “Finally you got here!” I didn’t know why he was at the apartment but he explained to me that his parents had a meeting at his school and that his abuelita was watching him. We hung out and he helped me write an email in Spanish to Trevor. He told me some jokes to write and he definitely thought they were much funnier than I did. When his parents, Rino and Evan, finally got back around 11:15, we had once. Olga made pan queques, or crepes with honey and with manjar (like dulce de leche). They left around 11:45, with poor exhausted Miguel asking to stay longer. I told him we would see each other soon and that I want to go to one of his soccer games.
I set to work and was hoping to study for my Education test, but instead took care of odds and ends. I always seem to be working (and actually being productive), but never get anything done! However, the one success I had was to finally figure out a way for you all to see my pictures. I uploaded them onto Snapfish and you can click on the link to see them. You do have to sign in, but Trevor did it and told me it was super easy. The pictures are somewhat out of chronological order, but I’m working on that. Most of them have an explanation and a date to help you out a little. Let me know if you have any trouble with the link.
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=170168552/a=103158733_103158733/t_=103158733
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday August 26, 2007 Get 'er done
Sunday August 26, 2007
I went to church at St. Lazaro a few blocks from the house at noon. It was a beautiful mass and there was a special event for young girls. They all sat in the first few rows and the priest did a great job addressing them and gearing the homily to them. I’m starting to understand more and more of the readings and homilies in mass, which is wonderful. I still find myself drifting off, but I do that at English masses as well!
After mass I had almuerzo con Olga and her husband Mario. For dessert Olga and I had white wine with pineapple sherbet. Incredible! Olga told me its better with champagne and that for my going away party, she is going to buy champagne. I can tell that she is already dreading when I leave and it makes me feel so very loved!
At 3 o’clock, I plopped myself in my bed with my computer and set to work. I had to finish my essay for the 2 week Chile Contemporeano class that I took before the semester started. It was supposed to be 5-7 pages, the longest essay I’ve had to write in my entire college experience (remember, I take science courses). By around midnight, I had 7.5 pages and was quite pleased. I emailed the paper to Christian and he read through it for me, reassuring me that it seemed logical. I then started my two other assignments for my Education class and around 3 am I fell asleep, still not completely done.
I went to church at St. Lazaro a few blocks from the house at noon. It was a beautiful mass and there was a special event for young girls. They all sat in the first few rows and the priest did a great job addressing them and gearing the homily to them. I’m starting to understand more and more of the readings and homilies in mass, which is wonderful. I still find myself drifting off, but I do that at English masses as well!
After mass I had almuerzo con Olga and her husband Mario. For dessert Olga and I had white wine with pineapple sherbet. Incredible! Olga told me its better with champagne and that for my going away party, she is going to buy champagne. I can tell that she is already dreading when I leave and it makes me feel so very loved!
At 3 o’clock, I plopped myself in my bed with my computer and set to work. I had to finish my essay for the 2 week Chile Contemporeano class that I took before the semester started. It was supposed to be 5-7 pages, the longest essay I’ve had to write in my entire college experience (remember, I take science courses). By around midnight, I had 7.5 pages and was quite pleased. I emailed the paper to Christian and he read through it for me, reassuring me that it seemed logical. I then started my two other assignments for my Education class and around 3 am I fell asleep, still not completely done.
Saturday August 25, 2007 I'm finally acting like a student
Saturday August 25, 2007 Shortest entry so far: I told you I came here to study!
Saturday was supposed to be my day of pure studying and I was hoping to get all my work done. By the time I woke up and got moving, I realized I was going to need a lot more than Saturday to finish. Everything is super slow: reading, writing, etc. So I finished about 1/3 of my work by Saturday evening.
To take a break, at 7:30 Calli, Christian and I went to the Chile Symphonic Orchestra. The concert was amazing and only cost $3 US$. After the concert I went home and worked more. Olga and I had an once and while we were talking she asked me if I was a crier. At first I didn’t really understand, and then I realized that she noticed that I hadn’t cried since I’ve been here and that she meant a crier in any occasion (like the Citranos!). I told her that I used to cry all the time but when I went to college I stopped and that they only time I cry is when I am at home. She immediately understood and began psychoanalyzing me. She told me it was a defense mechanism, that she knows I feel the emotions (i.e. the stress of this week), and that if I want to cry I should etc…. I was quite impressed because she hit the nail on the head! I reassured her that if I felt the urge to cry I would.
Overall, it was nice to have a relaxing night. (And it’s nice to have a day without much to write about.) Of course, I still didn’t go to bed till after 3 am. I’ve realized that my clock is just pushed back about 2 hours, so waking up at 10:30 isn’t really that bad!
Saturday was supposed to be my day of pure studying and I was hoping to get all my work done. By the time I woke up and got moving, I realized I was going to need a lot more than Saturday to finish. Everything is super slow: reading, writing, etc. So I finished about 1/3 of my work by Saturday evening.
To take a break, at 7:30 Calli, Christian and I went to the Chile Symphonic Orchestra. The concert was amazing and only cost $3 US$. After the concert I went home and worked more. Olga and I had an once and while we were talking she asked me if I was a crier. At first I didn’t really understand, and then I realized that she noticed that I hadn’t cried since I’ve been here and that she meant a crier in any occasion (like the Citranos!). I told her that I used to cry all the time but when I went to college I stopped and that they only time I cry is when I am at home. She immediately understood and began psychoanalyzing me. She told me it was a defense mechanism, that she knows I feel the emotions (i.e. the stress of this week), and that if I want to cry I should etc…. I was quite impressed because she hit the nail on the head! I reassured her that if I felt the urge to cry I would.
Overall, it was nice to have a relaxing night. (And it’s nice to have a day without much to write about.) Of course, I still didn’t go to bed till after 3 am. I’ve realized that my clock is just pushed back about 2 hours, so waking up at 10:30 isn’t really that bad!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Friday August 24, 2007
I slept in Friday, had breakfast, studied a little, had lunch, then walked to Proyecto Nuestra Casa (Project: Our Home). This is the volunteer job that I’m going to start. Nuestra Casa works with homeless men and women to help them get back on their feet. They have a house where the men can live for up to one year, another house that is open during the day for them to socialize, cook, shower, look for jobs etc. And on Thursday nights they have an outreach program where they go to the streets and bring the men coffee and bread and try to get to know them. They ultimate goal is not to only feed, clothe and shelter the men but to help them break out of their cycle of poverty, addiction and homelessness. It’s quite an impressive organization and I’m really excited to be a part of it. I had a meeting with the Volunteer Coordinator, Javiera and another woman who is also starting. She gave us a tour, explained what and how the organization works. I think what I’ll be doing is an English language workshop. Apparently the guys always like learning English. I am also hoping to do something with public health, but we’ll see.
After the meeting I walked home and home my first experience buying cosmetics from the pharmacy. In the pharmacies everything is behind the counter and you have to tell the employees what you want. Unfortunately I need female hygiene products and when it was my turn, I got the only male employee in the store. It wasn’t as awkward as I thought, but next time I’ll probably just ask Olga to get them for me!
I got home around 5, studied until about 7:30, and then went to hang out at Christian’s house. It was me, Christian, his brothers Emilio and Emanuel, Emilio’s girlfriend Maria Paz, and their friend Marcelo whom I had hung out with all day at the beach on Thursday! We had a great time chatting, eating completos (really good hotdogs with tomato), and playing karaoke, basically the Chilean version of Gin Rummy. Around 1 o’clock they decided that they want to speak English, so for the next hour or so I relaxed while they had to rack their brain every time they wanted to talk. It was amazing how much my entire continence changed when I started speaking in English. It was the first time I’ve switch from Spanish to English with native speakers and I realized how much harder it is to converse in Spanish. In English, my entire body relaxed, I took deep breaths and I laughed a lot more. I don’t even notice that I’m slightly more tense when everything is in Spanish, but there is a definite change. It was a good break but at the same time I learned a lot. Emilio and Christian drove me home around 2:30 am and I crashed.
I slept in Friday, had breakfast, studied a little, had lunch, then walked to Proyecto Nuestra Casa (Project: Our Home). This is the volunteer job that I’m going to start. Nuestra Casa works with homeless men and women to help them get back on their feet. They have a house where the men can live for up to one year, another house that is open during the day for them to socialize, cook, shower, look for jobs etc. And on Thursday nights they have an outreach program where they go to the streets and bring the men coffee and bread and try to get to know them. They ultimate goal is not to only feed, clothe and shelter the men but to help them break out of their cycle of poverty, addiction and homelessness. It’s quite an impressive organization and I’m really excited to be a part of it. I had a meeting with the Volunteer Coordinator, Javiera and another woman who is also starting. She gave us a tour, explained what and how the organization works. I think what I’ll be doing is an English language workshop. Apparently the guys always like learning English. I am also hoping to do something with public health, but we’ll see.
After the meeting I walked home and home my first experience buying cosmetics from the pharmacy. In the pharmacies everything is behind the counter and you have to tell the employees what you want. Unfortunately I need female hygiene products and when it was my turn, I got the only male employee in the store. It wasn’t as awkward as I thought, but next time I’ll probably just ask Olga to get them for me!
I got home around 5, studied until about 7:30, and then went to hang out at Christian’s house. It was me, Christian, his brothers Emilio and Emanuel, Emilio’s girlfriend Maria Paz, and their friend Marcelo whom I had hung out with all day at the beach on Thursday! We had a great time chatting, eating completos (really good hotdogs with tomato), and playing karaoke, basically the Chilean version of Gin Rummy. Around 1 o’clock they decided that they want to speak English, so for the next hour or so I relaxed while they had to rack their brain every time they wanted to talk. It was amazing how much my entire continence changed when I started speaking in English. It was the first time I’ve switch from Spanish to English with native speakers and I realized how much harder it is to converse in Spanish. In English, my entire body relaxed, I took deep breaths and I laughed a lot more. I don’t even notice that I’m slightly more tense when everything is in Spanish, but there is a definite change. It was a good break but at the same time I learned a lot. Emilio and Christian drove me home around 2:30 am and I crashed.
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