home life

I would say I have been settling in nicely into life with my new family. As I said before, and I feel like I can't stress it enough, they are so so so nice. All of them. They have really made an effort to make me feel welcome and comfortable, and I certainly do. And they've been taking me places and showing me around, which is nice, I haven't been just sitting around. I have walked around the town, seen my school, and the first day I was here they took me to see a spot of Rio Bueno, the main river that runs through here, where people swim when it is warm enough. It was very pretty. The landscape around here is gorgeous. So much green, so many trees. The air is so fresh and smells like pine trees. There a lot of animals around; cows, horses, chickens, dogs, cats, ducks, basically the standard farm animals. Today when I was walking around the town with the other volunteer, we saw a puppy, baby ducks, and then a kitten within about two minutes. So many baby animals, so much cuteness.

Yesterday my host family took me to Osorno, the closest city, or really big town by US standards. It was really nothing special, I'm personally glad I am here in this small town instead, because it's prettier here. I prefer either a small town or a big city, I'm usually not a fan of the in between sized cities. Usually they don't have much personality like a big city or the charm of a small town. But the ride there was nice, and I saw a rainbow. In fact, I have seen two rainbows since being here, I think that's something that happens a lot here since it will rain, then the sun comes out, then it might rain again, then you might get more sun...

We also went to la feria yesterday, another thing I love. I know I have written many times before about how much I love markets, and this was a good one. One of the best I've seen in Chile, at least during this trip (I went to many great ones throughout my childhood). People from the country come and sell things so you can pretty much find any sort of fruit or vegetable you'd want, or at least from what grows here in Chile, which really is a lot. I also saw a woman selling baby chickens and baby ducks. They were in these boxes, piled upon one another, wriggling about.

Tomorrow I have to go to a meeting with all the volunteers and their teachers from my region, I think there are 8 of us. The meeting will be in Valdivia, about an hour away. I am looking forward to visiting Valdivia, everyone here talks about how beautiful it is. People here in the south are very proud of their land, and with good reason. I know there are many parts of the world that look similar to this part of Chile, such as Scotland, or New Zealand, parts of France, or the Northwestern states in the US; but still, I appreciate it's beauty. A place doesn't have to be completely unique to be beautiful.