chile is turning me in to a night person

It's after 2am and I am still awake. This is not like me! At least the United States version of me. But the Chilean version of me definitely stays awake past 10:30. It's just what everyone I know here does, including my cousin's 9 year old son. Even on school nights! And yes, I know that makes me sound lame. But hey, I used to enjoy going to bed early.

Here are some updates:

-I made flyers advertising that I will teach English to individuals or groups. Haven't gotten around to putting them up yet, but there are already a few people interested, just through word of mouth, so that's good!

-My aunt that I live with got really sick yesterday and ended up having to go to the hospital today. Turns out she had some kind of infection, we suspect that some moldy cheese she accidently ate on Friday just might be the culprit. Hopefully she will feel much better after a good nights rest.

- I now feel comfortable enough to go out in the town and do things on my own like go to the bank, buy a cell phone, buy bread. These things are a big deal to me.

-On Wednesday I get to go pick up my carnet (which is a Chilean id card), then I will feel more official as a Chilean.

-Often times when I am introduced to people who are a bit on the older side (meaning they were hanging around in Rengo over 30 years ago), these people know who my parents are and remember their story. Everyone says I have my mom's eyes and the same voice as her. Also, people like to reminisce about my dad's hair in 1978-79 (a large, curly afro).

-Next Saturday in Chile's independence day, the government has officially declared three days of holiday (18th, 19th, and 20th). That means most stores (apart from maybe a few independently owned ones) will be closed for those three days. I keep trying to imagine what would happen if like Wal-mart closed for three days in the states. I think some people would FREAK out.

just living

I've been here just over a week now, I'm feeling pretty well adjusted. Now I am looking for a job or something to do. It could be anything really, there are some possibilities, so we shall see.

For now I mostly spend my days hanging around, reading in spanish, hanging out with family, going for walks. I have the town pretty well figured out at this point, it's pretty small. But I like walking around and just looking. There's a lot to look at. Yesterday I took some more pictures. The colors are great for photographing. And gazing at the mountains in the distance still hasn't gotten old to me.

If nothing else, I can definitely tell my spanish is improving. Each day I feel more confident and I am learning a lot of new words. But oh my goodness, Chileans have a lot of sayings and slang words. Check out this website! I've been using it a little bit to try to learn some of the modismos, but there is no way I can learn all of it!

Things I see

Good things for my mom to read about

Now I wouldn't normally post twice in one day, I am not that obsessive with blogging, however, my parents expressed some concern after reading my last post. And I don't want anyone to worry about me. I was feeling a little bit down because learning a new language is full of ups and downs. But, my day wasn't at all bad. To prove it, here are a few highlights of the good parts:

- It was a good day for delicious food. Empanadas with some kind of soy meat made especially for me by my Tía and she made tortillas (different from Mexican tortillas). Both foods I love.

- I started working on my garden that I am going to plant and take care of. It felt so good to work hard pulling weeds and moving rocks, sticks, and other random things. Now I have bits of dirt stuck in my fingernails, and I really like that.

- It was a beautiful sunny day and I made sure to appreciate it.

So don't worry Mom! I'm doing just fine.

Tired

Today I am finding it more difficult to listen. Learning another language is truly exhausting. It requires intense concentration, and I'm really beginning to feel tired. While I can definitely tell I am learning (at least a little bit more each day) it's not easy listening all the time and not always being able to share what I'm thinking. And my family is full of talkers. So I have to do a lot of listening. My dad told me that he picked up good listening skills while learning Spanish, and I can understand how that happens. For the most part I am content with this, but at certain moments, it can be frustrating when I can't come up with the certain words to express a thought. And to be a good listener, you have to show that you are listening, replying with the proper emotion, whether that be laughter, an empathetic sigh, or whatever. But at this moment I feel like I am running out of energy to power these "good listening" skills. I just need to sort of turn my brain off sometimes for a few minutes. Because listening to four or five people speaking Spanish rapidly all at the same time gives me a headache.

riding the wave

Things are moving along quickly here. Faster than I can update on here. But what I can say is that I feel like I have dove right in and I'm following the current.

I don't think I can adequately describe how nice people are here. Chileans are, as one would say in Spanish, bien amoroso. Everyone is affectionate with one another, even the first time you meet someone, they kiss you on the cheek. I feel so comfortable even though I can't fully communicate yet, I feel like I can just relax and be myself. My family has been nothing short of incredible, everyone is so loving and so willing to bend over backwards to help me in any way possible.

I will try to update more later with more concrete descriptions, but now I am going to go see some performance of la cueca (Chile's national dance).

Day 1

I made it to Chile! After 12 hours of flight time, 5 hours waiting in the airport in Dallas and probably less than two hours of sleep, here I am. It's cold and I'm tired but I really can't complain. It's been great seeing my family. I've pretty much just been coasting through the day, and my head does feel a bit like I'm swimming through many words I don't understand and then some I do. It just takes a lot of concentration.

I'm on my way to Rengo tonight, where I'll be living. I will update more later.

One definite highlight so far: seeing the peaks of the Andes poking through clouds from the plane with a hint of pink and orange in the sky from the sunrise. Gorgeous.