Hi! So Its been a good 1 and a half weeks since I've been here. Longest days of my life. Not in a bad way, just in a ¨I just moved to and am living in a foreign country with a different language¨ kind of way. Last weekend was pretty exciting. I didn't really do much with anyone except for my host parents. On Saturday we went to Parque Mahuida to go for a little hike. I guess the trail goes on and on and on to south Chile. Cristian my host papa was saying that you can kinda go for as long as you want. It was a pretty beautiful hike. Everything was super green and at the top of our destination you could see a bunch of the Santiago craziness on a smaller scale. Of course we had to take pictures.. Of course we had to take jumping pictures and of course we had to do that about 30 times until all of us were in the air. I think we managed to get 3 where we were all in the air. They kept on saying "El ultimo!¨"which means the last..It was fun. The next day I and Gabi were sore, but was well worth it. After that we went to a small community called Comunidad Ecologia. It was a small community with many vendors who I think lived at their shops. It was so real and cool and just delightful. I purchased a little notepad so I can write down new Spanish words. It was cool because its not really a touristy area either. We then were going to get dinner and chose a very cute vegetarian place that only had 2 tables. We all ordered veggie chickpea burgers , tea and had vegan brownies. One thing I thought when coming here is that you eat everything with silverwear. Maybe that applies in smaller cities of Chile...but not here. I totally managed to eat a banana with a fork though on my second day in Chile though. The next day we went to La Vega which is a giant market where things are actually cheap. I was supposed to buy things for my lunches at school, but only managed to buy carrots...There was just too much to look at and I'm still not great at the peso thing. Then we went to the feria near by. There are basically a lot of vendors who lay their stuff on the ground, and sell it. I think if I had things I wanted to sell I could go there and just lay them out on a blanket or something. Maybe not. Totally reminded me of a giant garage sail with actually good things and for good prices, but not all of the stuff is used. Just kind of a big variety of cool things. There were also a bunch of people selling veggie burgers or other treats. There were even some 'special''muffins. I didnt buy anything ,but Cristian bought kettle corn and these one treats that are a combo of coconut, banana and oatmeal and those were pretty simple and delicious. Everyone has been asking about how Im doing with food. I'm doing fine ,but I have been less strict.Like I eat meat everyday. Haha just kidding. Im as strict as Im comfortable being is a good way to put it. Its nice though because my stomach hasnt been being a jerk except for the first few days. Probably because Im constantly drinking tea or maybe it just felt like being nice for once. The meals are pretty different here. Breakfast is big, Lunch is bigger, then theres unce...which I dont usually have and then a small dinner which is sometimes leftovers from lunch. Its interesting to be on such a meal schedule and rarely ever snack. I bring snacks to school...which is actually supossed to be my lunch, but other than that not a lot of snacking. The other day I started to miss hummus. Im sure its sold here, but I havent seen it. It would be very easy to make it though.
After the feria we went to an art museum, Bello Artes I think it was called?
So! My first week of school was pretty good. I never have more than 2 classes. My teacher rules and I usually can follow pretty well.
One day this last week my friend Matt needed to find a mall to purchase a prepaid phone so after class we asked the teacher , got directions( I think we mostly just understood the metro stop to get off at). So we got off the metro...Totally wandered for like 2 hours trying to find the mall. We lucked out by getting into an important looking building(had to show our IDs to use the elevator even. In the building was a large Andres Bello (my university here) business area...So we asked for directions and the woman pointed to the tallest building in sight which happened to be the mall. It was silly because earlier, we were totally pondering what that tall building was for, assuming it was all business offices. We arrived at the mall and took us probably another hour to find the right place to buy a phone. This mall was HUGE. 2nd largest mall Ive been to. FINALLY we found the right place. After that we found a cafe to have lunch where we both ordered soup. I had a veggie and pumpkin soup that was pureed. It was very yummy and perfect. Then we had to treat ourselves to sorbet/ice cream. So everything turned out okay. From there we went back to the University because later we had the latin dance class. We had some extra time so we passed a frisbee for a little bit. Appparently people dont really play frisbee here. Someone said how frisbees are for dogs.
The dance class ruled. We learned the merengue a little bit, which I learned before, but has been quite a while. There were a few chilean volunteers who danced with the girls. It was a lot of fun.
On Thursday I ventured off onto Irarrazaval st. for awhile. Its a pretty cool street. Theres a large variety of shops that aren't too expensive. I went into a couple of shops. I've noticed how much I choke when people speak Spanish to me when I'm not expecting it. One person at a shop said" buenas tardes" which just kinda means good evening. I just kinda looked at them, mumbled half of a response and smiled. Which is frustrating. Then I went to another store that sold undergarment type items. I'm pretty sure I almost purchased kid tights. I was pretty sure I was going to buy the wrong size too...but I didn't!!!! I talked to the woman at the checkout for a little bit. It's frustrating to understand so much and say so little, but I try. It has gotten easier. One of the workers who I was talked to exclaimed how little spanish I speak to the woman I was talking to. They were very kind though.
It's weird to be used to not being understood or misunderstood so often. There are times where I try to say something to my host parents and they repeat what they understood...ends up being something completely different than what I meant haha. It makes getting to know people a little difficult because sometimes you misunderstand what they're saying. So at this point I'm somewhat skeptical with things I think I understand. Kinda keep in mind that "I THINK THIS IS WHAT WAS MEANT,BUT IT MAY HAVE MEANT SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT" . It's weird to be in the place of having such a different accent to where people can't understand. There have been times where I say a word, It isn't understood, try to find a way around it and then they'll say the word that I was pretty sure I said. Something that I do appreciate is that it's such a great way to turn away canvassers. I've been stopped 3 times this last week, and just say I don't speak much spanish. Maybe I should try talking to them though. I probably wouldn't get far enough to understand that they want me to donate money , or they wouldn't understand me by that point in the conversation.
So I haven't really "Gone Out" since I"ve been here except for the first night. So last night I was going to. I was going to meet a group at 9:30 who was going out. Definiately should've prepared for getting home a little bit more easily, but I'll get to that later. I got there on time, but there were 3 exits to the station we were meeting at, so maybe I missed the group. I was wandering around and ran into Matt who had missed the group too. Sorta luckily we knew the club that people were going to, but didn't know where it was. That seems to happen to Matt and I quite often. We texted one of the girls who was there to ask where it was. We received details like it's in the direction of the mountains(it was dark so we couldn't see that), it's purple, and on the main road(every road looked like the main road). We walked down a lot of them for probably 2 hours. Didn't find it. The metros stop running at 11 so we knew we would be taking a bus home(I knew the bus I was supposed to take home, but I was pretty certain all of the buses run all night. So, we couldn't go back without one drink. So we stopped at one bar, drank our drinks, wanted fries(but there was a reason that we couldn't have them). I think they were out of them. So we walked to another bar after that and had cervezas(beers) and papa fritas. It was annoying to not find the place we were looking for, but ultimately I had fun.
Today was pretty low key. I went to a movie with Gabriela and Cristian. It was pretty easy for me because it was in english with Spanish subtitles. I did try to pay attention to the subtitles though. It was Libranos del Mal and the english title is Deliver us from Evil. It was a really creepy movie. I had to close my eyes a few times. It made me feel a little nauseous at times. Here are some pictures!!!! I gave my family the cheese that I purchased yesterday, and I'm pretty sure it's like gone. haha. They use it in EVERYTHING. I'll put captions with the pictures tooo that I think will show up when you click on the photo. I love you all! Also, excuse my poor puntuation and incorrect captialization. I had my laptop as an U.S. international keyboard...which just made things more difficult.. and I didn't capitalize a lot of things that are normally capitalized because they're not capitalized in spanish(like that). So my English is not going as downhill as it might appear:). I love you all! Thanks for reading:)
After the feria we went to an art museum, Bello Artes I think it was called?
So! My first week of school was pretty good. I never have more than 2 classes. My teacher rules and I usually can follow pretty well.
One day this last week my friend Matt needed to find a mall to purchase a prepaid phone so after class we asked the teacher , got directions( I think we mostly just understood the metro stop to get off at). So we got off the metro...Totally wandered for like 2 hours trying to find the mall. We lucked out by getting into an important looking building(had to show our IDs to use the elevator even. In the building was a large Andres Bello (my university here) business area...So we asked for directions and the woman pointed to the tallest building in sight which happened to be the mall. It was silly because earlier, we were totally pondering what that tall building was for, assuming it was all business offices. We arrived at the mall and took us probably another hour to find the right place to buy a phone. This mall was HUGE. 2nd largest mall Ive been to. FINALLY we found the right place. After that we found a cafe to have lunch where we both ordered soup. I had a veggie and pumpkin soup that was pureed. It was very yummy and perfect. Then we had to treat ourselves to sorbet/ice cream. So everything turned out okay. From there we went back to the University because later we had the latin dance class. We had some extra time so we passed a frisbee for a little bit. Appparently people dont really play frisbee here. Someone said how frisbees are for dogs.
The dance class ruled. We learned the merengue a little bit, which I learned before, but has been quite a while. There were a few chilean volunteers who danced with the girls. It was a lot of fun.
On Thursday I ventured off onto Irarrazaval st. for awhile. Its a pretty cool street. Theres a large variety of shops that aren't too expensive. I went into a couple of shops. I've noticed how much I choke when people speak Spanish to me when I'm not expecting it. One person at a shop said" buenas tardes" which just kinda means good evening. I just kinda looked at them, mumbled half of a response and smiled. Which is frustrating. Then I went to another store that sold undergarment type items. I'm pretty sure I almost purchased kid tights. I was pretty sure I was going to buy the wrong size too...but I didn't!!!! I talked to the woman at the checkout for a little bit. It's frustrating to understand so much and say so little, but I try. It has gotten easier. One of the workers who I was talked to exclaimed how little spanish I speak to the woman I was talking to. They were very kind though.
It's weird to be used to not being understood or misunderstood so often. There are times where I try to say something to my host parents and they repeat what they understood...ends up being something completely different than what I meant haha. It makes getting to know people a little difficult because sometimes you misunderstand what they're saying. So at this point I'm somewhat skeptical with things I think I understand. Kinda keep in mind that "I THINK THIS IS WHAT WAS MEANT,BUT IT MAY HAVE MEANT SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT" . It's weird to be in the place of having such a different accent to where people can't understand. There have been times where I say a word, It isn't understood, try to find a way around it and then they'll say the word that I was pretty sure I said. Something that I do appreciate is that it's such a great way to turn away canvassers. I've been stopped 3 times this last week, and just say I don't speak much spanish. Maybe I should try talking to them though. I probably wouldn't get far enough to understand that they want me to donate money , or they wouldn't understand me by that point in the conversation.
So I haven't really "Gone Out" since I"ve been here except for the first night. So last night I was going to. I was going to meet a group at 9:30 who was going out. Definiately should've prepared for getting home a little bit more easily, but I'll get to that later. I got there on time, but there were 3 exits to the station we were meeting at, so maybe I missed the group. I was wandering around and ran into Matt who had missed the group too. Sorta luckily we knew the club that people were going to, but didn't know where it was. That seems to happen to Matt and I quite often. We texted one of the girls who was there to ask where it was. We received details like it's in the direction of the mountains(it was dark so we couldn't see that), it's purple, and on the main road(every road looked like the main road). We walked down a lot of them for probably 2 hours. Didn't find it. The metros stop running at 11 so we knew we would be taking a bus home(I knew the bus I was supposed to take home, but I was pretty certain all of the buses run all night. So, we couldn't go back without one drink. So we stopped at one bar, drank our drinks, wanted fries(but there was a reason that we couldn't have them). I think they were out of them. So we walked to another bar after that and had cervezas(beers) and papa fritas. It was annoying to not find the place we were looking for, but ultimately I had fun.
Today was pretty low key. I went to a movie with Gabriela and Cristian. It was pretty easy for me because it was in english with Spanish subtitles. I did try to pay attention to the subtitles though. It was Libranos del Mal and the english title is Deliver us from Evil. It was a really creepy movie. I had to close my eyes a few times. It made me feel a little nauseous at times. Here are some pictures!!!! I gave my family the cheese that I purchased yesterday, and I'm pretty sure it's like gone. haha. They use it in EVERYTHING. I'll put captions with the pictures tooo that I think will show up when you click on the photo. I love you all! Also, excuse my poor puntuation and incorrect captialization. I had my laptop as an U.S. international keyboard...which just made things more difficult.. and I didn't capitalize a lot of things that are normally capitalized because they're not capitalized in spanish(like that). So my English is not going as downhill as it might appear:). I love you all! Thanks for reading:)