Tuesday, Septiembre 15
I decided that it was high time I figured out how to get around in Chillan, so I walked to the Universidad from my house. It's a solid walk, about 40 minutes at a good pace, but it wasn't unbearable. I think I'm going to walk to and from school each day. The taxis here are not expensive (about 300 pesos a ride, which is less than a dollar) but doing that multiple times a day, five days a week adds up. I'd rather save my money for when I really need a ride; when I'm coming home at 5am, or taking the bus to another city.
I met Casi and Rhett at the Universidad, and we got lost on the way back home. We were actually only five or six blocks from Casi's house, but the neighborhood was so foreign looking that we didn't realize it. Rhett and I went to my house after seeing that Casi was safe at her house, and it was after dark by the time we got to my place. My family was a little concerned because it was after dark, but everything was okay.
That night the conversation around the dinner table was lively. Mi hermana Valentina is home from school for vacation, and my mom's friend Cecilia also joined us. They talk extremely fast, but I found myself following the majority of what was being said. It was an encouraging moment. Words that I recognize are starting to get cemented in my brain so that I simply hear and understand, and I don't have to try and decipher them. I've especially noticed this tendency with tenses; I very quickly recognize the "o", "es/as", "e/a","amos/imos/emos", "en/an" endings to verbs, and I've come to learn that a huge part of understanding a conversation is simply knowing the subject.
The end result of all this is that it allows my mind to puzzle over words I'm not familiar with so that I acquire a deeper understanding of the converstation. It also made me thankful that I'm in a family with several people living at home because I'm used to hearing Chileans talk at full tilt amongst themselves. Rhett lives with just his madre, so he didn't have that benefit. Several times throughout the evening I found myself in the position of translator, which was affirming for me.
After dinner I went to get coffee (how very Oregonian of me, I realize now) with Elisa, one of the Chilean students here. She speaks good English, so it's a nice mix because we can more fully understand each other but I can still ask her questions about Spanish. Most of the converstation was in English that night, but hopefully I can pull even with her and we can have a conversation in Spanish soon. We also went to a bar that reminded me of the Crow Bar in Corvallis, and I have a feeling I'll be hanging out there a lot.
Wednesday, Septiembre 16
Rhett, Casi, Ryan, Jimmy and I took the bus to Concepcion, near the Chilean coast. It's about an hour bus ride, and it only costs 3,500 pesos (8 dollars) for a rountrip ticket. Unfortunately we didn't plan our trip at all, so once we got to the city we didn't know what to do. We ended up seeing Independence Square, where the country of Chile first gained independence from Spain, and we went to a park where we discovered the local teens like to sneak off and drink. We ran accross a group of students that were drinking and having a good time, though one of the girls in the group was throwing up because she had drank too much. The kids loved us though, practiced their English on us, and wanted us to give them a high five and a pound. It's been a common experience.
Casi, in fact, got more attention in Concepcion than I've ever seen. People all over would honk and wave at her, and there was a hilarious moment when a group of construction workers on the third story of a building were whistling and blowing kisses to her. Casi takes it very gracefully and just smiles and waves.
I went to bed right when I got home that night. I was starting to get a sore throat, and my lips were still very chapped from snowboarding on the weekend.
Thursday, Septiembre 17
I woke up this morning and my throat was still sore, but it's the only symptom I have. I sat down with mi familia for a nice lunch.
The food here is so delicious! I personally haven't eaten anything that I would consider foreign, or that couldn't be found in the States. But everything here explodes with flavor because they use different spices. Lunch is their big meal, so today we had salad with hardboiled eggs, followed by another type of salad. Again, it's just salad, but the flavors are so different, it's wonderful. Then we had a kind of soup with a turkey leg and a big piece of both patatoes and carrots. A special dessert closed out the meal, which was good though I have no idea what it was. Some type of cobbler is the closest description I can think of.
My family is amazing. I have a father, Juan Carlos, a mother, Wihldy, and a grandmother (I don't know here name, come to think of it). I also have a brother, Francisco Jose, who lives at home. He's 18. My sister Valentina is home from school for the week, and she's 22. My other sister, Carolina, is 26, and I think she's coming home tonight. Carolina is getting married on Noviembre 14 (if I remember correctly), so I'll get to experience a wedding, which I am looking forward to.
Here's a picture of mi familia:
That's all for now. I wish I could make the football game this Saturday! Go Beavers!
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